Modern History

David · February 8, 2003, 7:03pm

This might be old news to some of you since I have no idea when the show was made (seems quite new, at least after 99), but I was channel surfing last night and flicked onto the Discovery Channel with one of their ‘Modern History’ documentaries playing.

Lo’ and behold, right there on the screen was the familiar faces of Charlie Francis, Ben Johnson, Angela Issajenko, Waldermar, Astaphan, etc.

Great show, they showed footage of just about all of Ben’s significant races up to the '92 semi when he tripped.
Since most of Ben Johnson’s career was before my time, this was the first time I had seen a lot of those races, very exciting - it was Speed Trap coming to life.

Fantastic.

prophet · February 8, 2003, 7:09pm

What was the title of this episode?

David · February 9, 2003, 12:21am

Sorry, no idea. I don’t think they even mentioned the episode name? I didn’t watch it from the start.

I bet Charlie knows (he featured in a lot of interviews, although I don’t know if it was exclusive to that show).

dangermouse · February 9, 2003, 12:33am

David - you beat me to this post! I was channel surfing too and just about destroyed my video collection trying to find an empty tape to record it! I especially liked Ben’s description of what going fast felt like. Two questions after watching Ben’s races -

His knee only seems to come to just over 45 degrees at the front - optical llusion, idiosyncrasy or desirable? (link to previous discussion?)
The most noticable difference between Ben early on and Ben at 9.79 is what is happening around his core. Anyone else notice this?

David · February 9, 2003, 12:35am

Originally posted by dangermouse
I especially liked Ben’s description of what going fast felt like.

That quote struck me too. It got me thinking and I just made a post about that in the arm action thread.

dcw23 · February 9, 2003, 2:35am

Got the whole thing! So many races on there. Plenty of footage to use. Stay tooned.

prophet · February 9, 2003, 12:05pm

I sthere anyway you could send me a copy dcw?

Druze · February 10, 2003, 2:36am

like wise, i’d love a copy of that!

D.

Sprrinter984 · February 10, 2003, 10:44pm

dang, once again i missed another opportunity to record some track. the last time
i had a chance to record a race was summer2002.

prophet · February 11, 2003, 4:14pm

Dcw, was Ben’s 86 Zurich race on this show?

dcw23 · February 11, 2003, 5:35pm

Stay tuned.
The tape is in good hands.

BTW, I must give a thanks to Dazed for the tip off.

tgeoghegan · February 12, 2003, 3:01pm

May I please have a copy too!! That would be the greatest!!!

Balance · March 6, 2003, 2:46pm

David,

Did you get the name of the documentery? I called the Viewer’s Relations Dept. (Discovery Channel 859.342.8439) in Maryland and they said I needed to give them the exact name of the Documentery to look for it in their database. I wanted to buy a copy but the lady that was helping me said that only 3% of their shows are available for sale so there is a good chance that it won’t be avail. for sale:( -Balance

dcw23 · March 6, 2003, 4:57pm

It wasn’t actually called Modern History. It’s a BBC documentary on Ben. It only appeared as “Modern History” because this was the name that Disco channel was using for a series of modern history documentaries. This program was not advertised in the guides, what was advertised was something about stone or some other rivetting subject.

I believe the only reason they squeezed this documentary in was to “cash in” on other events regarding a widely misrepresented genius coach and a well known female athlete that came to a climax that week.

mortac8 · August 2, 2005, 11:51am

Does anyone still have a copy of this program? I’d love to see it.