\"Before the Movie\"
 

Obviously, on this website, the phrase "before the movie" indicates poker pre and post Rounders. Other passtime's/hobby's/activity's popularity were affected by "the movie" in some cases and "the (insert event)" in other cases.

a few examples:
Rounders for poker: before the movie, poker very much resembled the rock garden games that Roy West has written about in cardplayer. lots of LL grinders trying to enhance their pensions, lots sharpies looking to build a roll to take on vegas. few of eithe group actually accomplishing their goals.
After the movie, i noticed a drastic change in the cardrooms in the bay area. lots more HE games to the detriment of stud, O8, and lowball. lots more dead money in the games (that the movie coincided with the beginning of the dot com craze helped a lot in that regard around here). lots of guys stepping into the cardroom for the first time ever and looking for the big NL game and settling for the 15-30 since, back then, there were no NL games spread (except, of course, for the legendary game at AJ's).

A River Runs Through It for fly fishing:
this was where, I think, "before the movie" was coined. pre the redfordization of the sport, fly fishermen were a lot more easy going as a group, a lot more friendly on the water and a lot more willing to lend a hand to a newbie. we were kind of like a club of people who had a secret, but knew that the secret wasn't that valuable, so we were more than willing to share it with anyone who expressed an interest. After the movie, there seemed to be a shift in attitude to a more elitest one. for a while, anyone who didn't know the scientific names of the insects that were in a stream were considered a cut below. forget about bait or conventional fishermen...they were not even worthy of being on the same water as a real fly fisherman. Your gear had to be from one of the top angling houses and keeping a fish was verboten. Interestingly, the pendulum has swung a bit back to the old days, as we put some time between today and the movie. the technicians are still around, but they have much less fly-nazi in them and much more "very interested to the point of mania" fisherman in them.

this has gone on long enough, but before i end it, here's two more examples of this and a question:

Pool and The Hustler (and again with The Color of Money)
and, for a non-movie example:
Golf and Tiger.

do other activities have these seminal events that drive participation and popularity to insane heights? was there a global numismatic epiphany that sent hoards of pop culture addicts into the realm of indian head pennies? Am I crotchety old bastid for getting annoyed at the band wagon jumpers who raise my pots, muddy up my streams and run the table when i'm just trying to drink a beer and get some bets down with the bookie who's always hanging around at the pool hall (for the record, i was hanging around pool halls before color, but way after hustler; i'm not that old).

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Yes, I'm tired of people thinking that I am now "cool" and no longer a dork, just because of the popularity of the movie, "The 40 Year Old Virgin." Freaking bandwagoners.

Seriously though, sign-ups for the Navy jumped huge after "Top Gun." That's the only other example I could think of.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

M,

Signing up for the armed forces, FBI, etc. after 9/11 jumps to mind.

Seems like people people dressed a lot sweeter in the 80s once Miami Vice showed them how it's done. That's prob not a legit example, but I bet we could come up with some good clothing/style/cultural type things driven by TV/movies.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Hopefully "An Inconvenient Truth" will spawn some sort of action against global warming.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Great [censored] thread.

The only one that really comes to mind for me is drug dealing/drugs in general. Before the coke boom it was mainly mob-types or hippy-types, that dealt or were part of teh culture, coke really put a lot fo stuff into teh mainstream

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Comic book interest before the Spider-Man movie and after it. This goes for pretty much anything related to comic books - the actual books themselves, movies, or video games.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Everyone became a wine expert after seeing Sideways.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Jaws

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Top Gun

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Cycling after Lance Armstrong.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Shadow, CDS:

I am not deleting those two posts because I feel like there's a small chance I'm missing some sort of brilliance in the responses. But most likely my first instinct was right and they are just idiotic responses to the thread. In that case, please try harder so I don't have to go on a deleting rampage.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
Everyone became a wine expert after seeing Sideways.

[/ QUOTE ]

weird because that character was so pathetic

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

El:

I shall expound upon my answer of "Top Gun".

Before, this classic Bruckheime/Tom Cruise/Val Kilmer movie was released there were relatively few people who had a passion for the air force.

The producers wanted the assistance of the United States Navy in order to access Navy personnel, installations and equipment. The Navy was willing to aid the film on certain conditions; the film had to benefit the service; the script had to be authentic; and it had to be in good taste.

The film opened in the United States in 1,028 theatres on May 16, 1986. On its first weekend it came in at number one with a $8,193,052 gross, and went on to a total domestic figure of $176,786,701. Internationally it was embraced, taking in $177,030,000 for a worldwide box office total of $353,816,701.

Top Gun's home video success was again reflected by strong DVD sales, which were furthered by a special-edition release in 2004. Sales of Ray Ban 'Aviator' sunglasses jumped 40%, due to their ongoing appearance in the film, predominantly by Maverick and Iceman. The movie also boosted Air Force and Navy recruitment. This was evident in the fact that the Navy used its success by having recruitment booths in some
theaters to lure enthusiastic patrons.

Edit: I didn't see someone else already mentioned "Top Gun", sorry.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[censored] Tony Hawk video games. When the first one came out every little bastard in America was on a skateboard.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

I thought of a good one that I'm certain none of you would know.

8 Mile:

This movie totally messed up TONS of rap battles when it came out and the effects are still felt today. I'm very into this and have been since before the movie came out, so I've witnessed the crap first hand.

The underdog battler in 8 Mile, B Rabbit, completely destroys everybody he goes against. Line after line, excellent punchline, absolutely no filler, no [censored] ups. This movie was the introduction to emcee battles for MANY people and they totally believe that battlers of B Rabbit's calibre are totally normal and expected.. so when they go to a battle and expect 8 Mile and don't get what they think is a "good" battler, they boo and ruin battles. As soon as someone falls off for 2 seconds or doesn't have an amazing punch, they boo. This messes up the emcees and totally ruins the atmosphere.

Seriously [censored] up and most battles today are filled with moronic 17 year old rich kids who don't know [censored] about anything. Even more annoying than booing for the slightest [censored] up is staying completely silent at a truly great line. A completely unoriginal and stale gay joke gets more love than something unique and funny. Any jackass with no flow/style can beat someone by telling a yo mama joke. :-(

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

The Shins before that movie.

Momofuku and Shake Shack before the New York restaurant press and the Foodie blog universe discovered them.

A friend of mine also has a theory that Carlito's Way almost singlehandedly brought back retro 70s in in 1993, which lasted for about 9 years after.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Great thread idea. I'm struggling to think of a movie but I can certainly think of a book example of this. After "Under the Tuscan Sun" came out, Americans and English descended on Tuscany on masse and purchased every property in sight. I have a friend who has been living there for a long time and she said that it was absolutely astounding.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

I bet there was a spike in church attendance after the Exorcist came out.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Gleaming the Cube for suburban Skaters. Probably increased 10 fold in my neighborhood.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Everyone became a wine expert after seeing Sideways.

[/ QUOTE ]

weird because that character was so pathetic

[/ QUOTE ]

When I first watched the movie, I was surprised at how popular it was because the two main characters were so horribly sucky at life. It was very hard to get emotionally invested or root for anyone in that movie.

That said, I wonder if it actually had an effect on Merlot sales.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
Gleaming the Cube for suburban Skaters. Probably increased 10 fold in my neighborhood.

[/ QUOTE ]

has Lords of Dogtown resulted in a similar surge of interest in skating? these movies notwithstanding, I'd think that the Xgames was what really brought skating/inline/moto/etc to middle america.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

The Food Network has resulted in a ton of gourmands who enjoy making elaborate meals at home. Before the Food Network, it was basically Julia Child and Yan Can Cook.

"Friends" really jump started the lame twentysomethings sit in an apartment and live uninteresting lives sitcom format.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

The obvious follow up is "was the "movie" (or event) good for your activity? in fly fishing, now that the craze has simmered down a bit, the general fishing populace has a deeper understanding of streamside entemology, fish life cycles, food chains and other subtle factors that affect fishing. the popularity of the activity has resulted in a lot more attention to streams and watersheds that were in trouble from pollution, overuse and general apathy. ever since getting wet and waggling your stick became acceptable, people are more aware of natural resources in general, and more apt to do something about the threats rather than sit back and let the inevitable happen. You still have the orvis wearing tools and pretentious [censored] heads, but, now that the sexy has worn off, the greater fly fishing population seems to care more about the fish, the stream and the environment. a pretty good trade off.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

This probably doesn't count, but still along the same idea - as soon as we finished watching Wordplay, my girlfriend and I picked up the paper and forced our way through the crossword puzzle.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

wow haha, way to remind me of yan can cook

http://www.c-c-c.org/images/99figures/yancancook.jpg

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Wall Street and Boiler Room for young aspiring stock brokers.

It made the "profession" more glamorous.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Not a movie, but CSI has triggered a significant increase in the number of people studying to become forensic investigators.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

"Before the Movie" ...haha, I thought for sure this was going to be a thread on first date ideas or the half-life of rohypnol.

Hm, I think American Graffiti and Saturday Night Fever and Desperately Seeking Susan all had a pretty big effect on fashion/culture. Before the movie Flashdance women went to aerobics with unwarmed legs. Before the movie Beat Street I had never owned a cardboard box for fresh handglides.

Before the movie The Bridges of Madison County there was no real industry for covered bridge tours. Also, love did not exist.

Before the movie The Great Train Robbery there were no movies.

Before the movie Hotel Rwanda I don't think many people cared about that. There are many such examples of movies increasing awareness/acceptance.

good question, I need to think about it some more. I think before the movie The China Syndrome people were more open-minded about nuclear power. I think before the movie Thelma and Louise life was simpler.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
The obvious follow up is "was the "movie" (or event) good for your activity?

[/ QUOTE ]

Lance Armstrong was good and bad for me personally. When I first started cycling seriously, mountain bikes weren't around yet. There were a decent amount of bike shops in the Chicago area and they all catered to road bikes.

But once the mountain bike fad hit, everyone needed one. Never mind that there are no mountains in Chicago, but there are lots of roads. Any way, once that happened all the shops catered almost exclusively to mountain biking. It became hard to get parts and service for road bikes. This was before the WWW. Fortunately, mountain bikers generally weren't real hard core, so the good routes and paths were still pretty wide open and cycling was still a lot of fun in and around the city.

Once Lance Armstrong became famous, road bikes were back in vogue. This was good since now it was easy to get parts again and there was a nice selection of new bikes to choose from.

The bad, is that the roads and paths became full of Lance wannabes. The congestion is bad enough. But a lot of these folks have no common sense or bike etiquitte. They don't signal. They don't maintain a straight path. They do maintenance in the middle of the path. Just really spoiled riding for us old timers.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
Not a movie, but CSI has triggered a significant increase in the number of people studying to become forensic investigators.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've also heard that it has made jurors expect to see forensic evidence and to be skeptical when there is none.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

The Fischer-Spassky world championship match in 1972 made chess huge in the USA. On a smaller scale, the Short-Kasparov PCA championship did the same for British chess in the early 90s. Both matches were heavily covered on TV.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
But a lot of these folks have no common sense or bike etiquitte.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is the main drawback for most activities affected by a singular event that catapults its popularity. in my fly fishing example, the orvis outfitted freaks had no idea that you shouldn't immediately rush to the same hole that a guy was currently fishing just because said guy had caught a fish out of it. I can see this kind of thing playing out in all fields where the newbies rush into an activity without learning or even wanting to learn the tacit rules that apply. fortunately for me and probably for most other activities, a few years down the road and the newbies who are still there have learned the ropes while the ones who weren't all that committed in the first place have moved on to the next great new thing (I'm sure some of those guys crowding you on the bike paths have a couple of sage 5 wt rods and abel reels in the back of their closets, just behind their meucci cues).

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
The Fischer-Spassky world championship match in 1972 made chess huge in the USA.

[/ QUOTE ]

and the movie Searching For Bobby Fischer probably caused another spike in popular interest twenty years later.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Not a movie, but CSI has triggered a significant increase in the number of people studying to become forensic investigators.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've also heard that it has made jurors expect to see forensic evidence and to be skeptical when there is none.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've heard this works both ways. an aquaintance who's an actual CSI told me that her work is accepted in the courts more now (it's not seen as "voodoo" anymore), but some jurors expect a full dna profile and every shred of evidence they see on thursday nights.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
The Food Network has resulted in a ton of gourmands who enjoy making elaborate meals at home. Before the Food Network, it was basically Julia Child and Yan Can Cook.



[/ QUOTE ]

I remember trying to watch Yan because he was an alumnus of my school (UC Davis), and just thinking that he was total cheeseball. Julia was cool, but I couldn't help but think of the drunk aunt who everybody has (although her food rocks). the one I used to watch was the frugal gourmet, although I'm not sure what that says about me.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Everyone became a wine expert after seeing Sideways.

[/ QUOTE ]

weird because that character was so pathetic

[/ QUOTE ]

When I first watched the movie, I was surprised at how popular it was because the two main characters were so horribly sucky at life. It was very hard to get emotionally invested or root for anyone in that movie.

That said, I wonder if it actually had an effect on Merlot sales.

[/ QUOTE ]

It did, but more importantly the movie was a huge boon to makers of Pinot Noir.

From the IHT:

[ QUOTE ]
Tourism has boomed, particularly in the Santa Ynez Valley, where most of the action takes place, about 40 miles, or about 64 kilometers, north of Santa Barbara.

The county has distributed almost 40,000 copies of a "Sideways" map, detailing the wineries, restaurants, motels and other sites that appear in the film. It has printed a pamphlet which arranges tours, particularly in Napa and Sonoma...

[/ QUOTE ]

Offhand I can't find the figures, but I know I read about a boom in the sale of Pinot Noir.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

The Fab Five and baggy shorts in basketball.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

After A river Runs Through was released there was a big increase in the number of fisherman. Not good for a grumpy selfish guy like me though it did create more advocates for cold water fisheries. I did notice that new did not share the same river etiquette as I did. Elitist attitude, I don't know, I'm still more comfortable in a sporting goods store than a fly shop.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The Fischer-Spassky world championship match in 1972 made chess huge in the USA.

[/ QUOTE ]

and the movie Searching For Bobby Fischer probably caused another spike in popular interest twenty years later.

[/ QUOTE ]


I don't think this is a fair comparison.
Maybe a really modest spike after the movie. But it's not like it was a huge box-office sensation or anything.

The Fischer-Spassky match was a BIG freaking deal.
Fischer was on the cover of Time magazine and it was a U.S. vs. the USSR type thing.

My Dad already knew how to play chess but I consider myself to be a product of the Fischer-wave because he taught me to play in 1976 when I was 5.


This isn't a movie (but neither was the Fischer/Spassky match): but the biggest wave of all that I can think of is Pele's influence on soccer in America.
Before he came over the N.Y. Cosmos were practically a semi-pro team getting 1k fans or fewer for some games.
They were selling out Giants Stadium to 70k+ just a few yrs later after getting Pele.

Great documentary titled, "The Time of Our Lives" about the NY Cosmos and the NASL in the 70's was on ESPN a few months ago.

It could be argued that a lot of Americans who currently play soccer (including me) may very well never have learned to play at all if it weren't for Pele's influence.

Re: \"Before the Movie\"
 

Another one might be Minor-League baseball's popularity following the movie Bull Durham.

It wasn't just the movie. there were better stadiums being built with better management in prime locations too.
But there was a surge in attendance at minor-league games in various cities for a few seasons following the movie after a rather lengthy dead period.