Silent film coincidences

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

I traveled to London in the summer of 2010 to attend the showing of a 1920 silent film that was thought to have been lost forever until I tracked down a copy in Montreal. The morning after the film was shown, I was searching the Internet to check some facts for a thank you email to the organizer of the screening when I came across an archive reference to a 1917 letter by the author of the book the film was based on. I ordered a copy from the archive and was astonished to find that it was about the author's latest book -- the one the film was based on. The author's letters are extremely rare and I had only been able to find two others after extensive research. Another strange coincidence linked to the film: I discovered the 1917 letter while staying in a B&B just around the corner from Knightsbridge tube station (an area of London I had never stayed in before). I later discovered that one of the actors in the film had died in the same station in 1933 at the age of 51 after having a heart attack and falling down the steps.
Total votes: 146
Date submitted:Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:55:42 +0000Coincidence ID:5440