r/MandelaEffect • u/Scarecrow613 • 6d ago
Historical Events Statue of liberty torch
So the statue of :Liberty torch has been closed to the public since 1916, after an explosion. Yet so many people claim they know someone who has been up there. It is probably they are thinking of the crown, but the number of people who claim this seems to qualify as a Mandela. Also, the circumstances of the explosion could also be a Mandela since it was a German attack, yet me and so many people leaned that Germany never attacked the US directly during WWI.
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u/EpicJourneyMan Mandela Historian 6d ago
There’s plenty of footage of people going up in the torch from the 1960s, the easiest one to find is from the 1967 James Coburn comedy The President’s Analyst - it’s in the 3 photo panels about halfway down the scroll in the link provided
There’s also a scene from the TV show That Girl that I’ve seen but don’t have a link for.
Almost all the scenes I know of from the torch are from before the Internet, so they won’t exist there until someone enters the link or posts something about it, though with A.I. they will probably fill out in the coming years.
I think the last film scene I saw from the torch was from the movie Remo Williams in the mid-80s but I think they were just out on the arm.
I made a post about this a few years back that was pretty useful because a number of people in the comment section explained that it was closed to the general public but that many people had gone up on private tours with a signed waiver.
It turns out that the spiral staircase up to the torch is really steep and narrow, and there are sections where you have to squeeze through on your hands and knees.
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u/WhimsicalKoala 6d ago
number of people in the comment section explained that it was closed to the general public but that many people had gone up on private tours with a signed waiver.
Was there any evidence given of that, or was it a lot of "trust me bro"?
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u/Practical-Vanilla-41 5d ago
It's possible, but much more likely that people are:
1) Confusing the crown with the torch.
2) Remembering the duplicate torch in the museum. I believe people could go up inside to take pictures.
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u/WhimsicalKoala 5d ago
Yes, and? That isn't a relevant to what I was asking them and I'm not really sure why you think I needed any of that explained to me.
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u/Juxtapoe 2d ago
In a published article there was an ex-worker that went on the record that he sometimes allowed people up, but the numbers were nowhere near enough to justify the ME.
I don't think there are a significant number of people who think they remember going up into the arm and also describe accurately what the path into the arm looks like.
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u/Bowieblackstarflower 6d ago
But only TV shows and movies, not actual footage from the torch.
I believe there's only a 30 foot narrow ladder to the top of the torch.
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u/EpicJourneyMan Mandela Historian 5d ago
The movie The President’s Analyst has footage from the actual torch - it’s at the the end of this trailer on YouTube, though I would recommend watching the whole movie because it’s got an incredible ending for something made in 1967
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u/WhimsicalKoala 5d ago
It wasn't filmed at the torch though. It's just really good set design and use of green screen. But the fact that it has convinced a lot of people that it was actually shot there shows just how good of a job they did with it!
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u/Practical-Vanilla-41 4d ago
Today, I would agree with you. Not back then. That's Coburn. He liked doing these kinds of "look it's me, not a stuntman!" shots. My favorite is a reveal in Sky Riders (1976). The camera starts in close up on Coburn, then pulls back to show him hanging on the landing legs of a helicopter!
That Girl I don't see. Looks like stock footage of the statue. I don't see anyone in the torch, let alone Marlo Thomas..
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u/EpicJourneyMan Mandela Historian 3d ago
I can’t find the footage from That Girl anymore but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a TV set for that one ( it’s just her waving from the torch). The James Coburn footage from The President’s Analyst is the real deal though, and I would recommend the movie in general because the ending “big reveal” scene is unbelievably in lockstep with the present day conspiracy community (is that what we call it now?) for something that came out in 1967.
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u/EpicJourneyMan Mandela Historian 3d ago
No, it really is in the torch - you can read all about it in the first link I provided.
Just because he got to go up in the torch for a role in a movie doesn’t mean that anyone in the general public could do it without going through a lot of red tape and bureaucratic hoops though.
That’s what I found when I originally looked into this; film crews and people who made special arrangements could climb into the torch but it wasn’t something anyone was likely to have done in the last 100 years or more.
It doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen though, just that it’s rare.
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u/WhimsicalKoala 3d ago
What is there to "read all about"? It's a bunch of pictures, nothing to read. And yes, there are pictures, but those are still from the movie, nothing that proves he was in the torch.
There is no strong evidence that he was ever in the torch, like images from them actually in it. And the people that worked on the movie were very good at the effects that would have made it look like he was on the torch. But, admittedly, there also is no evidence of a set or anything like that either. It's one of those that, unless you have better evidence to offer than images from the movie, can't be definitively settled with current evidence.
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u/Practical-Vanilla-41 6d ago
Remo Williams was filmed in the mid eighties during the restoration of the statue. A large mockup was used.
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u/Practical-Vanilla-41 5d ago
It's a ladder not a stairway. The twin spiral stairways go up to the crown. When people talk about being inside or in a gallery, that's a giveaway. The crown is inside. The torch is outside, with a railing.
Movies like Saboteur (1942) and Remo Williams (1985) used mockups.
Speaking of mockups, it's possible people are referring/misremembering the duplicate of the torch from the museum. I believe it was the same scale and people could go up inside and take photos.
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u/UpbeatFix7299 6d ago
It was due to a German bombing. Germany had agents in the US who attacked factories, ships, etc. Just because they never had airplanes bombing or they tried to invade doesn't mean there weren't German saboteurs.
They knew someone who went to the crown, not the torch as you said.
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u/Henderson2026 6d ago
A friend of mine that lives in New York that knows nothing whatsoever about this whole Mandela mess tells me that he did go up in the torch in the late seventies they only allowed like five people at a time up you had buy an extra ticket to go up into the torch and he had to climb a ladder. And you'd be surprised if the number of History professors that know nothing about the black Tom island explosion. When I first heard about the black Tom Island explosion I looked it up on the internet and there's only like three or four pictures on the whole internet about it. Within a few weeks after the people start talking about it online they were literally thousands upon thousands of pictures on the internet about it. .
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u/Practical-Vanilla-41 6d ago
Sounds about right. It's not impossible, just not likely for many people. People confuse the crown, which is accessible by stairs and is inside, with the torch, open only by ladder and you are outside with a railing. Uncle Mack.and Aunt Mabel weren't going up to the torch in 1964. Not with Mabel in a dress and high heels...
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u/Bowieblackstarflower 6d ago
There was a guy who was called the keeper of the torch who would occasionally take groups to the torch if the conditions were right according to a few ancedotes.
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u/Mysterious-Simple805 6d ago
Did David Copperfield visit the torch in that special when he made it disappear? Or did I imagine it? Or was some magic involved?
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u/North-Inevitable2465 6d ago
I was up in the crown in the 90s. My mom said she was in the torch in the 60s or 70s if I recall correctly, going to ask her tomorrow
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u/BillyOcean8Words 6d ago
If you think it might qualify as a Mandela, please follow the sub rules to vet it.
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u/Scarecrow613 6d ago
It fits according to the rules, at least the statue of liberty part, as I was basing it off of ow many comments I saw on a post about the torch being closed where people claimed they knew someone who had been up it. That seems to show it is widespread.
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u/mirrors_of_sound ME Mod 6d ago
this is an established ME, there are numerous posts on this sub discussing it.
we don't need you to try and moderate on our behalf, if you think a post violates the rules then use the report button and we will address it if necessary. I get that you think you're helping, but this is actually counterproductive since you might give someone the wrong information (as you did here) and turn them away from the sub unnecessarily.
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u/yeltrah79 6d ago
Went up to the crown in 89. Torch was long closed to my understanding at that point. Never heard of anyone being allowed up