Friday November 6
Local Filmmaker¡¯s Showcase
Mr. Tompkins Inside Himself
Directed by Stan Brakhage, with Don Weygandi, Robert Benson, Aldine Weygandi, Elfriede Reger (1960). In 1937 George Gamow decided to create a fictional character, a bank clerk, who was completely ignorant of science but loved to attend popular science lectures. After the lecture he would go home and have wild dreams. In his dreams, Tompkins finds himself interviewing the famous scientists who he heard about in the lectures. Gamow, always playful even in his serious scientific papers, gave Mr. Tompkins three initials c. G. h., the three most famous universal constants in physics ("c" is the speed of light, "G" is the universal gravity constant and "h" is Planks constant¨Dthe basis of quantum mechanics). He submitted his first story to half a dozen magazines including Harper¡¯s Magazine and The Atlantic Monthly, who all rejected him. He then, rather uncharacteristically, decided to abandon the Tompkins project. The following year, 1938, he was in Warsaw, Poland for an astronomy conference and met the grandson of Charles Darwin, Sir Charles Darwin, the also well-known British physicist. During dinner at the conference Gamow told Sir Charles Darwin the Tompkins story. He liked it very much and suggested he send a copy to C. P. Snow. Snow had written some detective stories himself and, more importantly, he was editing a magazine called Discovery, published by Cambridge University Press. Snow loved the story and asked for more stories and soon after Cambridge asked Gamow to expand his stories to book length, which he did and they published them. The series was a magnificent success. In 1960 Stan Brakhage became enthusiastic about filming one of Gamow's Tompkins books. Roles in this film are played by several local people as well as son Igor Gamow¡¯s then fianc¨¦e Elfriede Reger. In Gamow¡¯s story Mr. Tompkins is not feeling well so he visits his physician, Dr. Streets, who injects both Mr. Tompkins and himself into Mr. Tompkins's blood stream for a quick look-see. Photographed by John Newell with special sequences by Marshall Faber and Stan Phillips. Technical advisor Igor Gamow. Based on Mr. Thompkins Learns the Facts of Life by George Gamow. A panel discussion follows the screening with Gamow¡¯s son Igor Gamow, Oakleigh Thorne, Joel Haertling and others. (50 min.)