Blue text on pink and white striped background.

The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978) is a mockumentary that mimics The Beatles career. This British band started as fictional, but due to their popularity, they became a real band. The Rutles belonged to the “Rutland Weekend Television” show. “I think it was the trousers” can be credited to the 1978 film. The phrase was a joke on how tight British trousers were to the American people or audience. The main members of the band include John Halsey, Ken Thornton, Phil Jackson and David Catlin-Birch. 

Photograph of The Rutles band with orange text.

In the midst of the Beatles craze in the 1970's, comedian Eric Idle (best known for his writing and acting in Monty Python) aired a clip of The Rutles on both BBC-2’s series Rutland Weekend Television and American NBC’s Saturday Night Live. The clip shown on Saturday Night Live on October 2, 1976, was such a hit with viewers that Idle was approached to create a longer film, which Saturday Night Live producer, Lorne Michaels, would also produce. Idle wrote the whole of All You Need Is Cash besides the music, which was written by Neil Innes, whom Idle had previously worked with on the Rutland series. The parodies in the satirical film, All You Need is Cash, are considered by many to be extremely similar in essence to the Beatles’ originals, both in music and video.

The Beatles had varying reactions to the film and the portrayal of themselves by musicians and comedians. George Harrison had been involved in the project for its duration. John Lennon loved it, but mentioned that one of the songs was too close to their original. Ringo Starr enjoyed the more upbeat scenes. Paul McCartney wasn’t thrilled with the film, but was said to have changed his mind after his wife found it funny.

The cover art and promotional pieces mimic the photographs used on the American sleeve for Beatles' songs, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and, “I Saw Her Standing There.” The positioning of The Rutles matches that of The Beatles, and the attire is strikingly similar. The main differences between the two is that The Rutles’ image was colorized and meant for comedic purposes.

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The Rutles began as part of a made-for TV movie called, All You Need Is Cash, which aired originally in the U.S. on the NBC televison network on March 22, 1978. This spoof documentary about a legendary band of the 60's was created by two veterans of comedy and music, Eric Idle and Neil Innes. Eric Idle was one of the founding members of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Neil Innes was one of the founding members of cult comedy-rock group, "The Bonzo Dog Band", which was picked by The Beatles to appear in their 1967 film, Magical Mystery Tour. Neil Innes went on to become the "seventh Python", providing and performing comedic music for the troupe, and appearing with them live on stage. Together, they created the mythical Rutles as device to parody the Beatles story. Neil Innes wrote, recorded and produced all the music, and Eric Idle wrote and co-directed the spoof documentary film which lampooned the Beatles legend. Eric Idle and Neil Innes also acted in the show. Neil played Ron Nasty (the John Lennon character) and Eric played Dirk McQuickly (the Paul McCartney role). Two musician friends were recruited to play the other two Rutles. Rikki Fataar (a top session musician who played with the Beach Boys in the 70's) played Stig O'Hara (the George Harrison character) and British drummer John Halsey became Barry Wom, the Rutles version of Ringo Starr. Among cameo appearances by stars such as Mick and Bianca Jagger, and Ron Wood, real-ex-Beatle George Harrison did a guest shot in the movie as an interviewer. All You Need Is Cash was produced by Lorne Michaels, known for producing Saturday Night Live on NBC. Through various releases to VHS, DVD, and cable broadcasts, several small but noticeable differences can be seen in the versions of the movie.

All of The Rutles music seen in the film and heard on the soundtrack album was sung and played by the three musicians - Neil Innes, Rikki Fataar and John Halsey, with the addition of Ollie Halsall, who also played guitar and did most of the "Paul" type vocals. Ollie can be seen in the film briefly as "Leppo". Eric Idle did not sing or play on the album, and just lip-synced Ollie Halsall's tracks in the film. 14 of the 20 songs from the show were originally released on album by Warner Bros (#HS 3151) in March 1978. This album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Comedy Recording. All of the original Rutles music is now available on CD from Rhino Records, RHINO R2 75760, which was released on July 7th, 1990. The CD has six bonus tracks that the Warner Brothers LP didn't have. A soundtrack album in 1978 was followed in 1996 by Archaeology, which spoofed the then recent Beatles Anthology series. A second film, The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch – modelled on the 2000 TV special The Beatles Revolution – was made in 2002 and released in the US on DVD in 2003.

Blue and black text on white drum image with black text and illustration on yellow background.

Drums, set up in the way that Ringo Starr’s iconic drum kit was placed, set the tone for the promotion of The Rutles, a parody of The Beatles movies. In the midst of the Beatles craze in the 1970's, comedian Eric Idle (best known for his writing and acting in Monty Python) aired a clip of The Rutles on both BBC-2’s series Rutland Weekend Television and American NBC’s Saturday Night Live. The clip shown on Saturday Night Live on October 2, 1976, was such a hit with viewers that Idle was approached to create a longer film, which Saturday Night Live producer, Lorne Michaels, would also produce. Idle wrote the whole of All You Need Is Cash besides the music, which was written by Neil Innes, whom Idle had previously worked with on the Rutland series. The parodies in the satirical film, All You Need is Cash, are considered by many to be extremely similar in essence to the Beatles’ originals, both in music and video.

The Beatles had varying reactions to the film and the portrayal of themselves by musicians and comedians. George Harrison had been involved in the project for its duration. John Lennon loved it, but mentioned that one of the songs was too close to their original. Ringo Starr enjoyed the more upbeat scenes. Paul McCartney wasn’t thrilled with the film, but was said to have changed his mind after his wife found it funny.

Blue text on white bar in center with white text on blue background. Image of 0 in 2012 is red, white, and blue logo for Obama.

During the 2012 presidential election, Barack Obama and his campaign team introduced America to their newest campaign tool, Dashboard. Dashboard was accessible through Obama's campaign website and was designed to empower local volunteers to organize from home, becoming “neighborhood team members”. Modeled after social media platforms, Dashboard connected neighborhood team members together via a messaging system. Dashboard also provided the resources to allow volunteers to make calls from home, as well as materials for canvassing. Dashboard represented a new model of campaigning emerging in the era of the internet. Besides its social networking capabilities, Dashboard also allowed volunteers to directly report their canvassing data to the campaign's website. This created an unprecedented amount of real-time data for Obama's re-election team. Since the 2012 election, many other campaign teams have used similar models to that of Dashboards. A video announcing the launch of Dashboard from 2012 by Jeremy Bird, the campaign’s national field director, explains Dashboards purpose and can be seen via this link.

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The Alemandares Alacranes, or Scorpions, were a Cuban baseball club formed in 1878. They were the third baseball club established in Cuba after the Habana and Matanzas clubs who, in the same year, formed the professional Cuban League. In 1886, 6,000 fans came out to watch the championship game between Alemandares and Habana. Many major league teams in the United States including the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox traveled to Cuba to play baseball throughout the early 20th century. This ended in 1959 when travel restrictions limited access to the country. In 1999, the Baltimore Orioles played against Habana–the first American team to play against a Cuban team in 40 years.

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Interlocking red, white, and blue circles is the 1990s era logo for Cuban sporting goods manufacturer Batos, the Cuban sport industry brand. Established in 1965, Batos produces baseball gear, boxing equipment, and games, such as chess, checkers, and dominoes. The company also makes sporting equipment for children and supplies all uniforms for the island's baseball teams. Sports are very popular in Cuba; Baseball is considered a national pastime. INDER, the National Institute of Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation, coordinate all sports programs. They promote fitness and recruit promising young athletes into sports-oriented secondary schools. There are 27 schools, each specializing in a different sport. Over the decades, many Olympians have come from the INDER schools of Cuba.

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Farmer Smith’s Rainbow Club was founded in 1915 by Farmer Smith, a newspaper editor at the Public Ledger in Philadelphia, PA. The club started around Thanksgiving in 1915 and within 4 months, boasted over 45,000 children within the club. Anyone with the heart of a child could join. All one needed to do, whether they were nine or ninety, was to sign a slip which was printed in every edition of the Evening Ledger which read, “I agree to do a little kindness each and every day—spread a little sunshine along the way.” After submitting this form, the new club members then received a button with a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow which was pinned to a card written in red ink and bearing the phrase, “a kiss from me, to-day,” which made them a full member. Farmer Smith shared the message that, “there is only one side to the rainbow, that is the bright side,” and others believed his optimism would be a reason for the club’s expansion and success.

The Rainbow Club was a huge success not only in the number of participants, but also in that in brought in the Ledger thousands more subscriptions. From a marketing standpoint, this was a very successful advertising campaign. The column was featured in other newspapers, including, “The News” newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio that was put out on Sundays. The News was put on by Ben Field who had a Farmer Smith Rainbow Club column. This column invited children to write their ideas on the topic that changed each week.

Photograph of Our Gang Jackie surrounded by white text on blue background.

Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals, was a comedy series about a group of young kids getting into humorous situations of everyday life. Jackie Cooper starred in this show from 1929-1931. Every few years, the show would change a few of its characters as stars began to get older. Cooper was liked for his engaging personality and portrayal of a wide array of emotions. Cooper's gang was well-liked by critics and fans.