Boardwalk Empire Fountain Pen Sightings

[twincityskyline]

Anyone notice all of the fountain pens featured prominently in HBO's Boardwalk Empire? I have been Tivo'ing the episodes lately and just watched the episode called "Nights in Ballygran". They had close-ups of the pens during writing sequences including the FBI agent using what appeared to be a staid, black Esterbrook (much like his personality in the show), and a silver pearl Parker Vacumatic 2-bander being used by Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson.

 

Methinks either Marty Scorcese is a pen fan, or the prop folks figured it would help set the period. Either way, fun to see.

[Halden]

Very nice. As a Wetshaver and Vintage Gillette Razor collector I also appreciatiate whenever I see the giant Gillette Billboard.

[Strang]

I caught the Esterbrook but missed the Parker completely.

[hawkgnat]

Aren't both of those pens too late for the period? Seems like a pointless way to diverge from the setting, although I suppose they might figure nobody will notice.

[Speed419]

What a great show!.. I haven't been paying attention to the pens, guess I have something else to look forward too!

Speed...

[mstone]

Aren't both of those pens too late for the period? Seems like a pointless way to diverge from the setting, although I suppose they might figure nobody will notice.

It's hollywood, they get a gold star for not having the characters use pilot g2's or ipads.

[calhoun tubbs]

I think Nucky uses a Parker Vacumatic in episode four, but I'm not sure.

[Dave S]

Nucky also has current production Waterman ink bottles on his desk. Tisk, tisk.

 

I think I'll keep watching anyway.  

 

 

[silverstar]

The sad thing is that even when Hollywood hires consultants so they can get the correct information, they often end up scrapping the authentic stuff and going with something else. If you've ever seen a car drive/chase shot in a city that you're familiar with, you'll know what I mean - even though it's physically impossible to start at location A, pass location B, and end at location C in that order, they do it because they like the scenery. It's like the equivalent of seeing someone driving in Times Square (New York), across the Golden Gate bridge (San Francisco), and ending on Lake Shore Drive (Chicago) in the space of five minutes. Although that example is greatly exaggerated, when you see those driving scenes in your own city, that's what it feels like.

 

An old co-worker's friend's dad was hired as a military consultant for Top Gun and although he told them the way things would really happen, there were some things that they chose to change for whatever reason. On the plus side, he still got paid

 

I would guess that the Boardwalk Empire people figure that as long as they have fountain pens and ink bottles, that's close enough for most people. This totally reminds me of a scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Buffy: Oh, give me a break! This is all wrong. See, first you would get the big guy, with a flying kick. Then you would take out all the little ones, bam, ba- see, now with the flying kick. From a dead stop! What's powering it, raw enthusiasm?

 

Riley: Hey Buff, maybe you oughta leave the work behind sometimes. You're not always on slayer duty, you know?

 

Buffy: It would drive you crazy if we were watching an army movie and they were all saluting backwards and ... invading all willy-nilly. And anyway, I mean, you know, you can't blame me for being critical. Willow's the same way when we watch a, a movie about witches, right, Xander?

 

Xander: What? Oh yeah, she's all like, "What's that, a cauldron? Who uses a cauldron any more?"

Edited November 28, 2010 by silverstar

[ecksdog]

One a related note, if you go to nj.com on Monday mornings after 8:15 EST under the entertainment section they have a complete, highly detailed report on what happened on the previous night's show. What's interesting is that they also give historically true facts on what happened in that episode. Like the premature babies in the windows on the boardwalk (true) and the Lysol soap and accompanying book used for the "morning after".