MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
OVERLOOK LITERATURE – SKIP TO A PAGE
BURDA MODEN ⎔ GLAMOUR ⎔ HAMLET ⎔ HOTEL & MOTEL RED BOOK ⎔ JEEVES ⎔ THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH ⎔ PETER PAN ⎔ PHONEBOOKS ⎔ PLAYGIRL ⎔ SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ⎔ TRAVEL ⎔ TRAVEL HOLIDAY MAGAZINE ⎔ WHITE MAN’S BURDEN ⎔ WINNIE-THE-POOH
APPEARANCE
22:22-22:28
Seen beneath the other magazine on the table outside Suite 3.
IDENTITY
Another one nailed down by fan of the site, and 3D renderer of his own Overlook Hotel (which he’s shared with all of us on YouTube), Deltabuilder.
There’s not much to say about the history of the magazine, except that it used to be two magazines (Travel and Holiday) that merged the year The Shining was published and went into production, 1977. There’s also a second Travel Holiday magazine in the film, which we’ve yet to identify.
SYMBOLIC SIGNIFICANCE
The locations featured in this issue are Tunisia, Santo Domingo, Albuquerque, Manila and Memphis (Egypt? Or America?). The cover photo is by Arthur Sirdofsky, and shows a Berber family.
As you can imagine, that’s a lot to go over.
TUNISIA
Historically, Tunisia is known for nomads living nomadically, which makes a nice symbol for both the Torrances and the staff of the hotel, who all have to find other lives from the start of November to the start of May each year, thanks to the Overlook’s sleep schedule. As Ullman passes the magazine he says, “This is the staff wing of the hotel. None of the other bedrooms are heated during the winter.”
Perhaps this is over-reaching, but I can’t help noting how Star Wars and Jesus of Nazareth were filmed in Tunisia, not long before The Shining went into production. Almost a hundred other productions occurred there before those films, but none anywhere near as well-known. Why I even mention it is thanks to many of Kubrick’s actors appearing in A New Hope and Nazareth, thanks in the first instance to having been filmed at Elstree Studios, no doubt. In fact, if memory serves, I think the snow from the Overlook hedge maze was re-used in Empire Strikes Back. So let me make a little list of all the shared “staff” between these films and the Stanleyverse.
- Peter Cushing – Star Wars 4: Grand Moff Tarkin – Lolita: Victor Frankenstein (seen at a movie thatre)
- David Prowse – Star Wars 4: Darth Vader – A Clockwork Orange: Julian
- James Earl Jones – Star Wars 4: Darth Vader – Dr. Strangelove: Lothar Zogg
- Angus MacInnes – Star Wars 4: Gold Leader – Eyes Wide Shut: Gateman #1
- Shane Rimmer – Star Wars 4: InCom Engineer – Dr. Strangelove: Capt. ‘Ace’ Owens
- Bill Weston – Star Wars 4: – 2001: A Space Odyssey: Astronaut
- Alan Harris – Star Wars 4: Leia’s Rebel Escort – The Shining: Ballroom Dancer – A Clockwork Orange: Prison Guard
- Bruce Boa – Star Wars 5: Rebel Force General Rieekan – Full Metal Jacket: Poge General
- Chris Parsons – Star Wars 5: 4-LOM, K-3PO – The Shining: Dinner Ghost
- Eiji Kusuhara – Star Wars 6: Lieutenant Telsij – Grey Squadron – Eyes Wide Shut: Second Japanese Man
- Guy Standeven – Star Wars 6: Rebel Council Member – The Shining: Dinner Ghost – A Clockwork Orange: Man with Flowers in Hospital – Lolita: Stagehand
- Laurence Olivier – Jesus of Nazareth: Nicodemus – Spartacus: Crassus
- James Mason – Jesus of Nazareth: Joseph of Arimathea – Lolita: Humbert
- Stacey Keach – Jesus of Nazareth: Judas – The Shining: Narrator of One By One
- Peter Ustinov – Jesus of Nazareth: Herod the Great – Spartacus: Batiatus
We might also consider John Wayne, as his voice was used in Episode 4 (Garindan), and he’s a major symbol of Full Metal Jacket; similarly, Sheb Wooley’s infamous Wilhelm Scream was used in the films, and the film that scream is named after, The Charge at Feather River, is parodied in FMJ.
So, you know, maybe just a coincidence, but maybe that’s a little nod to Kubrick’s other “staff”.
MEMPHIS
I suspect this would be second in importance, since the Egyptian Memphis is where one finds the Great Pyramids of Giza – a major subtext of A Clockwork Orange, and other of his films, as you’ll recall from my documentary Mass Mirror. The pyramid subtext of this film is significant, but more seems to concern a complex in Mesoamerica. That said, that complex and the Giza complex feature the same spatial layout style, so it might be by default that they’d be synonymous.
As for the American Memphis: I somehow doubt this would be the one in question, since we already have Albuquerque there, representing America. But that one, while famous for so many things, I think would bring to mind, for most people even now, Graceland. The home of Elvis, the King of Rock and Roll. A picture of Elvis appears in Eyes Wide Shut.
ALBUQUERQUE
Ullman, in his scene before this one, described the hotel’s design as being based on “Navajo and Apache motifs”. Both peoples native to New Mexico. Some Bearspaw children hang next to him as he passes this magazine.
MANILA
I know the Philippines aren’t Papua New Guinea, but when Wendy is running around a stairwell just like this one, toward the end, there’s a painting called The Johnson House, Hanover, which might be invoking an obscure thing from Guinean history.
The name Manila comes from a local phrase “where indigo is found”, indigo being a deep blue colour. Manilla paper, like the kind Jack uses in his typewriter, derives from this term, as the paper was made of abacá leaves, giving them their familiar yellow tone. Yellow and blue are the dominant colours of the staff wing, and that staircase at the end.
SANTO DOMINGO
The capital of the Dominican Republic, named for St. Dominic, the patron saint of astronomers. Not the only saint referenced in the film, and probably the least significant. Although, in the coming tour of the exterior of the hotel Ullman will seem to be struck by a Chevy Vega, the main star in the constellation Lyra. And, again, when Wendy starts running up the stars that look like these stairs at the end, a portrait of a Bearspaw girl named Starlight is the first thing she passes. There’s also a brand of bread called Star Bread, seen twice throughout the film, but I’ve yet to make my analysis on that visible.
THE MARLBORO MYSTERY?
APPEARANCES
22:22-22:28; 1:31:41-1:31:45; 1:32:10-1:32:23; 1:32:33-1:32:35; 2:02:35
I still haven’t ID’d the topmost mag here, which also might tell us something. It’s occurred to me many times that the man on the cover looks like Jack Nicholson in a white cowboy hat. Could this be another Golf Life the Greats/Jack Nicklaus-style moment?
At the moment I’m leaning away from this being a Nicholson doppelgänger, however well that would go with this moment generally. My big clues for this one have long been the large C or O that starts a string of white letters along the top of the image, and the small y or g that ends the title/phrase. Recently, while pouring through every magazine on eBay released in 1970-1979, I discovered a few Marlboro cigarette ads that have “Come to Marlboro Country” written along the top. And always the Marlboro Man appears along with that in his trademark white cowboy hat, and deadly serious stare. Jack is seen to smoke Marlboros in a few scenes (Wendy smokes Virginia Slims), best scene during the scene of him having his nightmare about killing Wendy and Danny. The only thing giving me serious doubt about this notion is how impossible it’s proven to locate a single ad that perfectly resembles this one. I’ve since poured through every example of a Marlboro ad from between 1968 and 1979 and I can only find approximations. But if it should prove to be the Marlboro Man, that title belonged to Darrell Winfield, who appeared in ads from 1968 to the time of filming. A poster of a basketball star appears in the lobby (while Wendy is smoking), which might be Julius Winfield Erving, aka Dr. J. If this magazine isn’t showing the Marlboro Man, the resemblance to his advertisements may still be worth our noticing.
A final curiosity is how this magazine appears in the shorter “European” edit of The Shining, at 14:39, while this one vanishes from the screen at 1438 seconds (22:28), 1439 marking the transition into Suite 3. That number, 1439, has a special relationship to the moment Jack escapes the pantry at the behest of Delbert Grady. And since cigarettes cause cancer, we should probably note the significance the constellation of Cancer has to the Gemini-like Grady twins.
Next literary reference: Hansel and Gretel
MAIN PAGE ⎔ SECTION PAGE ⎔ SITE MAP ⎔ GLOSSARY
OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS
THE MIRRORFORM ⎔ THE BEATLES ⎔ THE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ART ⎔ OVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHS ⎔ GOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDS ⎔ PATTERNS ⎔ VIOLENCE AND INDIGENA ⎔ ABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOM ⎔ ANIMAL SYMBOLS ⎔ THE ANNOTATED SHINING
EYE SCREAM 