"Before the Movie"

[bellytimber]

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

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

[MicroBob]

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

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

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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.

[M2d]

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

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

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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.

[bellytimber]

"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.

[tsearcher]

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

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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.

[M2d]

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

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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).

[Ed I]

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.

[Philuva]

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

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Not as mainstream, but the Bones Brigade movies, in particular The Search of Animal Chen exploded the skate scene where I lived. It was very positive resulting in lots of half pipes being built throughout the area, including 4 in my backyard.

[nyc999]

I have to think Karate Kid inspired tons of little kids to go to the local dojo.

[Full-Metall]

More foreign films imported after Amelie and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon?? I dono..