Media Timeline: Interwar Period
This timeline documents all real world entities attested in the Scream Roleplay Universe, spanning the period between the world wars.
By its very definition, this is an index of information you do not really need, but may be fun to know regardless. Like the other timelines in this category, you will find extensive footnotes describing how these people, objects, and creative works factor into the ongoing story.
One note, beginning in this section of the Media Timeline, real world people are attested who, while deceased in our time, are still alive in the SRU, where the “present” is November 2016. Because of this, the timeline will treat these individuals as still alive, documenting their births, but not their deaths, and footnotes explaining their connection to the SRU will be appended to those birth entries.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Nonprofit civil rights organization founded by Jeannette Rankin, Roger Nash Baldwin, Crystal Eastman, and others.1
Hercule Poirot
First appearance of Hercule Poirot, eccentric detective, in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Detective novel, writ. Agatha Christie (30).2
White Castle
Fast food restaurant chain founded by Walter A. Anderson and Billy Ingram, in Wichita, Kansas.4
Stouffer’s
Frozen prepared food brand founded by Abraham Stouffer and Lena Mahala Bigelow in Cleveland, Ohio.6
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Short story, writ. F. Scott Fitzgerald, printed in Collier’s Magazine.7
Jimmy Carter is born
Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, is born James Earl Carter Jr., in Plains, Georgia.14 15
The New Yorker
Magazine prioritizing journalism, short fiction, and culture reporting; pub. Harold Ross and Jane Grant.16
Dick Van Dyke is born
Dick Van Dyke, actor and comedian, is born Richard Wayne Van Dyke, in West Plains, Missouri.20
Mercedes-Benz
Automobile manufacturer founded by Carl Benz, Wilhelm Kissel, and Emil Georg von Stauß in Stuttgart, Germany.21
The Hardy Boys
Boy detectives Frank and Joe Hardy are introduced in The Tower Treasure. Children’s mystery novel writ. Leslie McFarlane, pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon, for the Stratemeyer Syndicate.27
Dr. Ruth is born
“Dr. Ruth” Westheimer, sex-therapist, talk show host, and author, is born Karola Ruth Siegel, in Bavaria, Germany.29
Mickey Mouse
First appearance of the “funny animal” cartoon character, in the animated short Steamboat Willie. Created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks.30
The Academy Awards
Awards for technical and artistic merit in the film industry, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; inaugurated in Los Angeles, California.32
Nancy Drew
The girl detective is introduced in The Secret of the Old Clock. Children’s mystery novel writ. Mildred Wirt Benson, pseudonym Carolyn Keene, for the Stratemeyer Syndicate.36 37
The Hidden Staircase
Children’s mystery novel writ. Mildred Wirt Benson, pseudonym Carolyn Keene, for the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Second Nancy Drew mystery.38
Fisher-Price
Educational toy manufacturer founded by Herman Fisher, and Irving and Margaret Evans Price in East Aurora, New York.39
“The Star-Spangled Banner”
National anthem of the United States; adopted from the poem of the same name, writ. Francis Scott Key (1814); set to music comp. John Stafford Smith (1773).43
Thomas Edison dies
Thomas Edison, inventor and businessman, dies from diabetes complications, aged 84, in West Orange, New Jersey.44
Sylvia Plath is born
Sylvia Plath, poet, novelist, and short story writer, is born in Boston, Massachusetts.
Lord Edgware Dies
Detective novel, writ. Agatha Christie (43); published in the United States as Thirteen at Dinner. Part of Christie’s series of Hercule Poirot mysteries.45
Hank Aaron is born
Hank Aaron, professional baseball player, is born Henry Louis Aaron in Mobile, Alabama.46
It Happened One Night
Romantic comedy film, dir. Frank Capra; adapted from “Night Bus”, short story writ. Samuel Hopkins Adams (1933).47
Bonnie and Clyde are killed
Bonnie (23) and Clyde (25) are killed in a shoot-out with police in Gibsland, Louisiana. From 1931 on, Bonnie and Clyde had been responsible for the murders of at least nine police officers and four civilians.48 49 50
Sonny Bono is born
Sonny Bono, singer-songwriter, actor, and politician, is born Salvatore Phillip Bono in Detroit, Michigan.
Don Cornelius is born
Don Cornelius, television host and producer, is born Donald Cortez Cornelius in Chicago, Illinois.
Los Angeles Rams
Professional football team, founded as the Cleveland Rams, by Homer Marshman and Damon Wetzel.56
Daffy Duck
First appearance of Daffy Duck in Porky’s Duck Hunt, animated short dir. Tex Avery. “Funny animal” cartoon character known for featured roles in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts produced by Warner Brothers. Created by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett.57
Amelia Earhart disappears
Amelia Earhart, aviator, disappears over the Pacific, aged 39, while attempting to become the first woman pilot to circumnavigate the world.58
Death on the Nile
Detective novel, writ. Agatha Christie (47). Part of Christie’s series of Hercule Poirot mysteries.60
Bernie Madoff is born
Bernie Madoff, financier and financial criminal, is born Bernard Lawrence Madoff, in New York City.
Joyce Carol Oates is born
Joyce Carol Oates, novelist, playwright, poet, and literary critic, is born in Lockport, New York.62
“Swingin’ the Alphabet”
Novelty song, rec. The Three Stooges, featured in the short film Violent is the Word for Curly. Cover of “Spelling Bee”, by Septimus Winner (1875).63 64
Konstantin Stanislavski dies
Konstantin Stanislavski, theatre practitioner, dies aged 75, in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.65
The Wizard of Oz
Musical fantasy film, dir. by Victor Fleming. Adapted from the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, writ. L. Frank Baum (1900).73 74 75 Includes the ensemble musical number “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”.76
- Vol. I- Chapter 6: Eliza was offered, and declined, an internship with the ACLU. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: Quinn badgers Lorraine in the wake of Paula’s murder, hoping she’s “working the little grey cells,” invoking Poirot’s catchphrase. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 7: Zach tells his father he’s going out for a study date. Sam disbelievingly quotes “Things fall apart, the center cannot hold”. ↩︎
- The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3: Kieran discovers a box of microwavable White Castle sliders in Clark’s fridge. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1: Fitz wryly suggests investing in boot cut jeans from Dickies for himself and Quinn to compete with Lipinski’s rugged working man aesthetic. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 3: Zach informs Brooke he’s made lasagna and she wonders how her life got to the point of “waiting vigil by her catatonic boyfriend while his traumatized best friend earns his keep and preserves his sanity with Stouffer’s dinners.” ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 6: Aghast at learning of Nina’s sordid extracurricular activities, Kieran facetiously wonders if she was really a 44-year-old afflicted with the same peculiar reverse aging syndrome as this story’s titular character. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 4: When Noah asks Riley if she wants to hang out, he speaks “so quickly it sounds like an incantation to summon Azathoth.” ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: Ted offers Audrey an awkwardly painful “random” summary of what she’s missed, saying it would make a great comic and “someone get Stan Lee on the phone”. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 5: Quinn is unthreatened by Bridget’s pearl-handled pistol, wondering if it’s “Fisher-Price or Hasbro”. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 3: Fitz declares “Nike’s fruits have never smelled so sweet”. Quinn misses the Classical mythology reference, saying he thought Adidas was sponsoring the mayoral debate. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 5: Noah stanches a bloody nose with Kleenex tissues. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: An emotional Brooke fetches a Kleenex from the “women’s mysteries” category of her purse after Jake and Zach are attacked. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 7: Theodora tells Zach GW High last received Middle States accreditation during Carter’s administration. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 6: Eli classes Roger Lipinski as an age contemporary of Carter’s. He’s off by about 35 years. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 7: Eliza, unimpressed by Noah’s quip about corrupt politicians, calls it “Real New Yorker material, kid.” ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 1/Season 1 AU: This novel is part of Branson’s lesson plan at the time of the killings. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 2/Season 1 AU: Theodora remarks to Branson that Gatsby is the only school assigned book she ever read more than once. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 2/Season 1 AU: Jake erroneously calls the novel “Good Gatsby”. Tyler corrects him. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 4: Furious over his vandalized truck, Jake calls Audrey “Van Dyke”. Noah helpfully points out this is meant to be a pun on her sexuality, using the famous entertainer’s surname. ↩︎
- The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 5: Nina drives a Benz. ↩︎
- The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 3: Clark has left a distinct butt-print in his La-Z-Boy recliner. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 6: Quinn tells Clark he hasn’t climbed up to Gemma’s water tower hideout for the simple reason that he’s wearing Ferragamo shoes. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 2: Deb compliments Brooke’s handbag. Brooke identifies it as a Ferragamo. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 4: Stavo suggests Zach may still be “squish-brained from the Schedule 1 drug [Terrance] put in the Kool-Aid” at Bridget’s party. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 4: Brooke tells Seth he could tell her he’s “discovered Jesus Christ working at a 7-Eleven outside Alamogordo” and she wouldn’t care to hear it from him. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 9: Brooke finds Noah reading a Hardy Boys mystery in the school library. Embarrassed, he clumsily claims he was reading porn instead. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 9: While searching for Audrey’s photo negatives, Amanda and Emma discover an original edition of this novel in the Murrays’ Tabernacle safe. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: Brooke stops herself from analyzing Ted’s personality, reminding herself she’s no Dr. Ruth. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 9: Mickey Diamond tells Clark that he has ears everywhere, using his hands to make ‘mouse ears’, invoking the mouse that shares his name. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 6: Tina uses a Slim Jim to muss her hair up so she looks suitably harried on meeting Lipinski. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1: Noah is convinced The Revenant will be the film that ends Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscar drought. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 6: Piper describes Clint and Adeline Belmont as “real American Gothic”. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 9: Quinn tells Brooke her antics are giving him gas. Brooke dryly advises Tums. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1: Noah offers Jamie a Red Hot and clarifies he means the candy. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 7: Emma impresses Eli by deducing why she thinks his mother is in danger. He admits she’s right, calling her “Nancy Drew” in admiration. ↩︎
- Vol. III- Chapter 1: Brooke privately wonders why Noah is still so intent on his “Podcaster Nancy Drew” shtick five months after Kieran’s arrest. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 8: Brooke and Emma observe that the “hidden staircase” connecting the chapel of St. Mary’s Home for Wayward Girls to the catacombs could have been lifted right from a Nancy Drew mystery. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 5: Quinn is unthreatened by Bridget’s pearl-handled pistol, wondering if it’s “Fisher-Price or Hasbro”. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 2: Pamela Murray drives a Porsche. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 7: In a pinch, Eliza bandages a head wound with Tampax. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: Brooke calls the part of her purse where she keeps Tampax and Kleenex the “women’s mysteries category”. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 7: Bridget performs the Anthem before the quarter final basketball game. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: Brooke misattributes the invention of the telephone to Edison. ↩︎
- Vol. III- Chapter 2: Noah recalls the U.S. title of this novel after realizing there are 13 people gathered at Lejeune Park. He tells Audrey about the superstition that inspired the novel: that the first to rise from a seated group of 13 will be the first to die. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 5: Lipinski invokes Aaron during a pep talk to Ted, reminding him that “Hank Aaron hit 714 homers with nothing but a little dirt to help his grip”. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 8: Rachel had an It Happened One Night film poster in her room. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 5: Micah bitterly informs Jamie and Noah that “Bonnie and Clyde (Tracy and Terrance) have left the building”. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 8: Micah congratulates Bridget on successfully outmaneuvering the cops in a car chase: “Nice moves, Bonnie.” ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 10: Bridget tells Terrance she has no interest in being the Bonnie to his Clyde. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 6: After tracing Emma and Will’s sex tape to the Lakewood Eyes email domain, Noah confidently announces they’ll be able to send Ghostface “Directly to Jail”. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: Ted professes to prefer Marvel over DC. Noah takes the opposite tack. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 7: Pulling up to Lipinski’s press conference, Eli declares he and Emma “came just in time for the Triumph of the Will reenactment.” ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: Audrey eats dry Chex for breakfast. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 6: Lipinski uses a Winchester 70 to patrol his property. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 4: Zach uses the rivalry between Rams (in 2015, still the St. Louis Rams) and the Saints as a hypothetical “A-story”, when explaining the concept of the “A-story” and “B-story” in Branson’s class. ↩︎
- Vol. III- Chapter 4: Tina falls asleep on top of a Daffy Duck coaster, which stays stuck to her face when Eli wakes her up. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 7: A panicking Eliza impresses on Lorraine that “she was just here”. Lorraine clarifies she means Gemma’s body and Liz sarcastically retorts she was talking about Amelia Earhart. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 8: Ryan and Zach follow a road that “goes ever on and on”, harkening to Bilbo’s walking song. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 8: Micah skeptically notes Bridget was planning to go on the run with nothing but “a purse full of jewelry and a gun from a stage adaptation of Death on the Nile.” ↩︎
- Vol. III- Chapter 2: Noah says it’s interesting that Ghostface left Ryan behind after “Lois Lane’ing” (abducting) Zach. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 9: Quinn reminds Teague and Theodora that the town council funds the school’s Arts and Culture drive. Theodora dryly thanks him, sarcastically declaring she expects Joyce Carol Oates to visit GW High any day now. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: Brooke coyly refers to her “study sessions” with Branson as “swingin’ the alphabet”. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 5: Ryan intimidates a stammering Aaron, threatening to do him bodily harm if he keeps “swinging the alphabet”. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: Micah works to disguise his hurt feelings from Stavo, silently crediting the Stanislavski method for helping. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 5: Sam Henderson drives a Lincoln Continental. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 5: Joanne realizes Ted has a crush and her face “lights up like Rockefeller Center”. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 2/Season 1 AU: Rachel observes that Amanda has emerged “Batman-like from the shadows” of the garage. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 8: When Quinn suspends Clark from the force, he has him surrender his service weapon “before one of your delinquent kids decides to play Batman again”. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: During a light-hearted discussion about vigilante justice, Bridget claims the role of Batman, sparking a friendly debate assigning various roles of the superhero’s ensemble cast to the rest of the in-crowd. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 1/Season 2 AU: One of Richard’s prosthetic eyes sports a Batman logo. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 9: Fitz isn’t convinced of Terrance’s belief he can take down the Tupelo cartel, and wonders if his son’s new hobby is “playing Batman”. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 2/Season 1 AU: Theodora internally describes Teague’s procession of the students involved in Amanda and Nina’s cafeteria brawl as “the cast of a new Wizard of Oz/Breakfast Club mashup”. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 6: An emotional Brooke tells Stavo that she’s “spiraling down a twisty yellow brick road to self-destruction”. ↩︎
- Vol. II- Chapter 7: One of several films Tina tells Seth she’s never seen. “Midgets”, she claims, freak her out. ↩︎
- Vol. I- Chapter 3: Brooke, not yet knowing of Nina’s murder, takes heart at her suspension, telling Riley and Zach that “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”, joining arms with them “like a Gen Z Dorothy Gale” as they troop down the hallway. ↩︎