Calumet

How'd You Like Some Ice-cream, Doc?

“ The Poster that came out 

in Europe, at least in 

England, I believe, 

before The Movie was released in Europe said, 

"The Wave of Terror 

that swept across America." 

And Kubrick controlled 

The Posters very carefully. 

Now, it made you do a double take. 

I remember seeing it in Europe. 

I was the Rome Bureau Chief at the time for ABC News. 

And I remember looking at it. 

It said, 

"The Wave of Terror that 

swept across America." 

What's he talking about? 

And you'd sort of think that 

he was talking about 

the impact of The Book, 

The Shining. Maybe. 

The impact of The Movie 

that had just opened 

over there? Maybe. 

It didn't quite fit. 

The Wave of Terror 

that swept across America 

from Portland, Maine, 

to Portland, Oregon, 

was the genocidal armies and 

The White Men with Their Axe 

clearing it all and bringing in extractive industries, 

among many other 

good things as well. 

But that was The Wave of Terror that swept across America, 

terrifying, of course, 

The American Indians. 

I went in to see this movie in Leicester Square Movie Theatre, right near Leicester Square 

in London. 

And I remember it 

quite clearly from... 

I can even remember 

the seats we were sitting in. 

If I went back to that theater, 

I could point them to you, sort of near the back and over to the left. 

From the moment of 

the opening astonishing 

helicopter shot, 

I was terrified. 

I had no idea what 

was coming. 

I remember sort of sitting 

on the front edge of my theater seat there 

to keep from falling off. 

And I remember gripping my belt buckle with my left hand, I think it was... 

yes, my left hand, sort of to keep from falling off the edge of the seat 

and to try to Control My Terror 

as I watched this movie. 

I had no idea 

what was coming. 

I hadn't read The Book. 

I had barely seen any of the posters. 

And I remember that I was stunned when the movie was over. 

We left the theater, went in... 

down into our underground car park 

to get into the car to leave. 

And as we were driving up 

out of the car park, 

I was sitting in the back left seat. 

I was thinking, 

“What was that?”

“What was that?”

“What was it?”

“What was it?”

“What was it?”

And I think 

my visual imagination looked at that 

Calumet baking powder can, 

the one right behind Hallorann's head 

when he was talking to Danny. 

I knew what "calumet" meant. 

It meant "peace pipe." 

And I thought to myself, 

“Peace pipe, Indians —

Oh, my goodness, 

they're all over the place 

in that movie.”

‘The Loser has to 

keep America clean.’

And I suddenly said to my friends, 

"That movie was about the genocide 

of the American Indians." 

And they said, 

"What are you talking about?" 

And I started explaining it, because I'd noticed the Calumet baking soda can. 

In the first... the first time 

we seen one, it's 

a single baking powder can 

straight on. 

And you can see the whole word, "Calumet," so there's no duplicity, like the little girls represent later. 

This is an honest truth, an honest peace pipe between them. 

The other time we see the Calumet baking powder cans is when they're very carefully placed behind Jack Nicholson's head when he's talking to Grady. 

‘No need to rub it in, Mr. Grady. 

I'll deal with that situation as soon as I get out of here.’

 There's about six or seven of them stacked up, and they're all turned different ways, 

and you can't read any one 

of them completely. 

It's... I've always 

interpreted those 

as being broken, dishonest 

peace pipe treaties. 

They're not... 

These Two Guys, 

Grady and Jack, 

are not being honest 

with each other. 

Grady is trying to get Jack 

to go Kill His Family 

and commit Genocide, 

in the larger sense of the movie. 

You know, I mean, 

Kubrick often, 

in many of his movies, 

he will end them with a puzzle so that he forces you to go out of the theater saying, 

"What was that about?" 

And he would put things in the scenes that he knows will be, 

among other things, like confirmers when people start to try to figure out what the movie is about. 

And we know he took 

this kind of care. 

There's a photograph in one of the books that actually shows 

Kubrick carefully arranging objects on the shelves 

in that dry goods room. 

I thought afterwards, 

"How come I saw this 

and a lot of other people didn't?" 

And I've thought about it. 

It's a combination of factors. 

First, I grew up in Chicago 

and, therefore, 

just north of 

The Calumet Harbor 

and spent summers up 

in the sand dunes of Michigan, 

around on the other side 

of Lake Michigan. 

My Father took me and my sister out to collect little bits of Indian pottery. 

I'd already... I'd already covered, at that point in 1980, five years of the Lebanese civil war. 

I was, at that point, 

covering John Paul II. 

I was the Rome Bureau Chief. 

And listening to what 

he was saying about... 

Because he had experienced 

The Holocaust at its epicenter 

and also other horrors. 

And so all of those factors were very much alive in my mind 

when we went to see The Shining, 

which I just thought was going to be 

some kind of horror movie 

by this great moviemaker. 

And all of those coming together along with the little key, 

the Calumet baking soda can, 

is why I just happened to tune to it as we were driving up out of that underground parking garage just off Leicester Square.”

“I first saw the movie in 1980 

when it first came out and saw it probably two times. 

I can say that I remembered 

the skier poster. 

That is one thing that really stuck with me. 

And The Window. 

The Window in The Office, 

that's another thing 

that really stuck with me. 

I remember, you know, in the newspapers afterwards, 

people being disappointed. 

And I remember people that I knew, 

yes, in dialogue afterwards, 

being disappointed that 

it was not more 

a horror film. 

Well, no Kubrick film's really 

just a regular movie. 

I understood that from, well, when I was 10 years old and I first saw 2001. I walked away. I thought, "This is a film that's supposed to make me think." 

I had my first 

religious experience 

seeing the film 

2001: A Space Odyssey 

in 1968.