A History of every little thing - Treatment for television interstitial

A series of seven minute humorous and informative interstitials providing a History of every little thing.

Subjects included the necktie, kissing, jam and the relationship between the horse’s arse and the space shuttle.
It is intended to be a combination of file footage and animation with a mellifluous voiceover.

Given that there are a lot of little things with interesting little histories, I reasoned that this could provide me with a regular writing gig for years to come… if it were picked up by a producer.

The Necktie

Wide or skinny, plaid or plain, synthetic or silk, it is a staple that over 4 million dads are getting on Father’s Day. It is a fashion accessory that has survived nearly 400 years of social change and fickle fashion trends.

It is the tie.

There is a long history of neckwear worn by soldiers (Chinese and Roman), whether as part of a uniform or as a symbol of belonging to a particular group. Some form of neckwear other than the outdoor scarf can be traced intermittently through many centuries. 

The modern necktie traces back to the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) when Croatian mercenaries in French service, wearing their traditional small, knotted neckerchiefs, aroused the interest of the fashion conscious Parisians. 

Two centuries later, the Industrial Revolution helped spread the style to the masses, as millions of workers migrated from farmlands to factories and the business class was born. In 1924 an American tailor named Jesse Langsdorf created (and patented) the tie's modern look, with its bias cut and three-piece construction. By the 1950s, it was said that a man wasn't fully dressed until he had put on his tie. But as the high age of the Organisation Man faded, the tie came to symbolise individuality as much as conformity. Ralph Lauren launched the ill-advised 4 inch wide (10 cm) trend in the 1970s, and the following decade saw the accessory appropriated by everyone from punks with skinny ties to Wall Street moguls sporting what became known as the power tie.

Tie sales hit a peak of $1.3 billion in 1995 but have declined, probably as a consequence of the dotcom boom which has threatened to obliterate neckwear entirely as the casual look has taken hold in the workplace. 

Anti-necktie sentiment is found in Iran, whose theocratic rulers have denounced this supremely useless male fashion accessory as a decadent symbol of European oppression.  Neckties are viewed by some as being a symbol of submission and slavery, that is to say: having a symbolic chain around one's neck that’s held (in a metaphoric sense) by the corrupt elite of society, a wage slave, if you will.
Among those who have expressed this sentiment include the Virgin King, Richard Branson.

By the way, in 1660, that aforementioned crack regiment from Croatia were presented as glorious heroes to Louis 14th, a monarch well known for his eye toward personal adornment and sartorial elegance.  It so happened that the officers of this regiment were wearing brightly coloured handkerchiefs fashioned of silk around their necks. These neck cloths struck the fancy of the king, and he soon made them an insignia of royalty as he created a regiment of Royal Cravattes. The word cravat is derived from the à la croate, basically meaning in the style of the Croats.

DEPILATION
Call it hair removal – if you like

This is something that is rarely spoken. This is very strange considering most of the humans on the planet do it on a daily basis and from widely varying parts of their bodies.

Depilation is not new. Techniques have only been honed a little with technology.
An anthropologist may argue that removal of hair from the head and face of men was originally not for vanity, but survival. It is known that prehistoric humans were into it and later, the ancient Egyptians. There have been speculations that for safety, scraping off the beard and hair on the head would take away the advantage of an adversary having anything to grab onto. For cavemen it was possibly known that those with less hair had fewer mites, hence scraping the hair from the face.
The ancient Egyptians had better razors made of flint or bronze. They also used a method of depilatory called sugaring. A sticky paste (bees wax was sometimes used) would be applied to the skin, kind of like waxing. Then a strip of cloth was pressed onto the paste and yanked off, removing the hair.
There’s a stupid idea that women have only been removing hair from their legs for the last hundred years or so; possibly only European women. In ancient Egypt, Greece, and Middle Eastern countries, removing body hair was important. In fact these women removed most of their body hair, except for their eyebrows. Egyptian women removed their head hair. Having pubes was considered uncivilized; for either gender.  It was also considered uncivilized for men to have hair on their face. Having stubble or even a full blown beard meant you were a slave or servant, definitely of lower class. 

Is there a reason why corporate types and politicians are often clean shaven? Do we associate a clean shaven face with someone powerful? In the ancient Roman Empire, hair removal was often seen as an identifier of class. The wealthy women would remove their body hair with pumice stones, razors, tweezers and depilatory creams.
There was also another technique used called threading. The women would take some string or yarn and lace it through the fingers of both hands, then vigorously rub it on the area therefore tugging, ripping, and pulling the unwanted hair away. We do know European women did not engage in body hair removal during the middle ages. In fact it wasn’t until Elizabethan times that Euro women began the practice of hair removal…except they didn’t remove leg, armpit or pubic hair…they removed their eyebrows and the hair from their foreheads to give themselves a longer brow. This look was so fashionable that it is said, mothers would often rub walnut oil on their children’s foreheads to prevent hair growth. Sometimes bandages covered with vinegar and cat faeces were used to suppress hair growth

The Perret or “cut throat” razor was invented in the 1760’s by French barber, Jean Jacques Perret. It is an L-shaped wooden guard that holds the razor and is supposed to reduce the damage done to skin.

Here’s a name for you.
His father was a sometime patent agent and inveterate tinkerer. His mother was an innovator of sorts too: her years of experiments led to a cookbook (1887) that remained in print for 100 years. Possibly destined to become a great innovator King Camp Gillette, not a King or particularly camp, founded what would become a corporate giant, based on a simple yet essential invention: the safety razor with disposable blades.