Trump Predicted in 1958 - you can't make this stuff up

[macwriter]

The 1958 TV Western Trackdown, entitled The End of the World {Season 1, Episode 30, First Aired: Friday May 9, 1958), featured a conman named TRUMP who rides into town and warns the people that the world is coming to an end and only he can save them by building a WALL to protect them. Seriously. Series star Robert Culp tries to tell the people that Trump is a liar and fraud and whipping them up into a dangerous frenzy, but they won’t listen. In fact, Trump turns the crowd against Culp to attack him. The people start a riot and break into the bank to pay for Trump’s protection.

Check out the clip. It is uncanny -- right down to the Ryan-esque sheriff who goes along with TRUMP to keep the peace in town and for his own personal profit. And a McConnell-esque judge who claims he can't stop TRUMP.

Here is a link for clips from the episode. The whole episode just aired on ME-TV this weekend.

link:

if that link doesn't work, just search YouTube for Trackdown Trump

It's eerie and chilling and a glimpse of things to come, I fear.

[anarch]

1. "careful son, I can sue you..."

uncanny!

[Achilleaze]

2. Wow - "funny how a pack of lies can turn people into little children..."

Uncanny. Unfunny.

[macwriter]

3. Sent it off to Rachel

She'd have a field day with this. Hopes she uses it.

[malaise]

14. Send it to Lawrence O'Donnell

He's even better suited for this one

[mopinko]

4. whoa.

gonna have to track down the full episode. i wanna know how it ends.

[ymetca]

5. "... from the cases and files of the Texas Rangers ..."

That's the weirdest part of all. A long lost relative, perhaps?

[lucca18]

6. Wow!

I have to Tweet this!

[yuiyoshida]

7. 0.O"

uncanny init?

[Jake Stern]

8. That's spooky as hell

It appears that back in the day they were hip to Shitgibbons. The script writer's generation grew up learning civics and critical thinking/Reasoning in school, something that is sorely lacking in today's public education system.

[Liberal In Texas]

9. That's it...I must have somehow crossed into a parallel universe.

The universe I came from wouldn't have a charlatan as the POTUS.

It's like living in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

[Generator]

19. I said this this morning before I even saw this!

I agree. But now we know how it ends-he's "arrested" (impeached) for stealing! Break out the champagne. Yeah I know-too soon-too way fucking soon-first the plundering and the devastation.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. Trump, The High Priest of Fraud. A fitting title.

"I am the only one. Trust me!"

Sounds awfully familiar.

[Afromania]

11. Book law don't live here anymore

and gun law is insane. God help us.

[hedda_foil]

12. I'm pretty sure the uncanny bits are dubbed over.

It's just a word here and there. There's just too much correspondence to today, starting with the name.

On edit: I was wrong. slopes confirms the whole story. This really has legs. It's at the top of snopes' home page. Here's the the story:

http://www.snopes.com/trackdown-trump-character-wall/

[tandem5]

13. I want to believe, but the full episode is hard to... well... track down

without having to go on to some questionable websites. Even DVD offerings are sketchy. Anybody got a link to a full episode stream?

[macwriter]

17. Full episode...

was shown on Saturday on ME-TV. Maybe they have it archived on their web site? ME-TV shows two Trackdown episodes every Saturday morning.

[tandem5]

18. Oh wow just last Saturday. Yeah I saw the upcoming Me-TV schedule, but

no online archive. We do get Me-TV here OTA so I set an email reminder for that episode on their site -- maybe it'll pop up again soon.

[Rt3rd]

15. Amazing how much the actor resembles Fred Trump

Has anyone else noticed how much the actor playing Trump resembles Fred Trump, Donald Trump's father. Is it possible this episode of Trackdown - The End of the World is taking aim at Fred Trump and his post war power as a major landlord enforcing the invisible wall...the color line surrounding his white enclaves in New York's outer boroughs?

We've seen Fred Trump included in the works of Woody Guthrie, who lived as his tenant for several years. Woody showed great bitterness for "Old Man Trump", his racism and control and included him in his unpublished works. Is it possible this episode did something similar. Fred Trump erected an invisible wall around his properties...a wall that kept the white inside...away from people of color. There is enough there to at least consider the choice of the name, Trump was not accidental.

[tandem5]

16. My mother and I were considering the same thing.

[Liberal In Texas]

20. From Snopes:

Narrator: Hoby had checked the town. The people were ready to believe. Like sheep they ran to the slaughterhouse. And waiting for them was the high priest of fraud.

Trump: I am the only one. Trust me. I can build a wall around your homes that nothing can penetrate.

Townperson: What do we do? How can we save ourselves?

Trump: You ask how do you build that wall. You ask, and I'm here to tell you.

The Walter Trump character was arrested for "stealing" at the end of the episode.

[macwriter]

21. ending

I actually watched the whole episode on Saturday. It ends with the crooked sheriff shooting Trump and being arrested by Hoby for partnering with Trump == but not before the sheriff confessed to the town about the fraud so they'd take down their little parasols

[Jacob Boehme]

22. Strange Days Indeed.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
(Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5)

[PCIntern]

23. Yeah but the hair on the guy in the show

Is much more appealing than u no hoo

[JHB]

25. But see #15. Is it Kremlin Don's hair, or...

...Klansman Fred's:

[Rt3rd]

26. Walter Trump

Thanks for posting Fred Trump's picture.

Here are a few of the imagery parallels I've noticed between the episode and the Klan.

Both Walter Trump and members of the Klan wore white robes with symbols...shirt and tie showing at the collar

The episode: High Priest of Fraud
The Klan: Grand Wizard and Imperial Wizard

Both the episode and the Klan make use of the imagery of a white man in a white robe speaking in the darkness to a crowd...surrounded by flaming torches.

The KKK experienced it's third wave in the 1950's after WWII. School desegregation and housing integration served as a catalyst for re-growth in membership after the decline of the Klan in the late 1920's.

I found the following quote to be especially poignant...

The End of the World (1958)

Judge Clement: When we were kids, we were afraid of the dark. And when we grew up we weren't afraid anymore, but it's funny how a big lie can make us all kids again.

[UTUSN]

24. Kr

[coco22]

27. Kicked.

[tandem5]

28. Full episode posted to youtube: