ON PREVIOUS DAYS:
- YESTERDAY:
The Godfather of Graffiti - DAY BEFORE:
One Direction: The Movie - DAY BEFORE THAT:
The CIA's Iranian Coup - DAY BEFORE BEFORE THAT:
The Man Who Invented Seat Belts
ON THIS DAY
The Man Who Lived in the Airport
The inspiration for Steven Spielberg movie ‘The Terminal’, Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, began his incredible 18-year stint inside Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport on 26th August 1988.
With hopes of flying to Britain, he had found himself trapped in a bureaucratic no-man’s-land after travelling without documents.
Answering to ‘Sir Alfred’, he began to carve out a new personality for himself, living on a red bench surrounded by luggage, airport shops and the relentless rhythms of international travel. He washed in the terminal toilets, ate regularly at McDonald’s using vouchers given to him by airline staff, wore donated clothes and spent hours writing. He became perhaps the world’s most famous homeless man.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Nasseri eventually came to leave – and then return – to his airport home; uncover how his Hollywood money prevented him from accessing support services; and reveal the story of a Turkish citizen who, incredibly, appears to have beaten Sir Alfred’s record for airport residency…
Further Reading:
• ‘’The Terminal Man’ lived in a Paris airport for 18 years. I’ll never forget the weeks I spent with him | France’ (The Guardian, 2022): ‘https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/23/terminal-man-lived-in-paris-airport-18-years-ill-never-forget-weeks-with-him• ‘Mehran Karimi Nasseri, Who Inspired ‘The Terminal,’ Dies in Paris Airport’ (The New York Times, 2022): https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/world/europe/mehran-karimi-nasseri-dead.html
• ‘He was arguably the world’s best-known homeless person’ (FRANCE 24 English, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbOBZ9JVR4Q
#France #Strange #Person #Iran
ON THIS DAY
The Man Who Lived in the Airport
The inspiration for Steven Spielberg movie ‘The Terminal’, Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, began his incredible 18-year stint inside Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport on 26th August 1988.
With hopes of flying to Britain, he had found himself trapped in a bureaucratic no-man’s-land after travelling without documents.
Answering to ‘Sir Alfred’, he began to carve out a new personality for himself, living on a red bench surrounded by luggage, airport shops and the relentless rhythms of international travel. He washed in the terminal toilets, ate regularly at McDonald’s using vouchers given to him by airline staff, wore donated clothes and spent hours writing. He became perhaps the world’s most famous homeless man.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how Nasseri eventually came to leave – and then return – to his airport home; uncover how his Hollywood money prevented him from accessing support services; and reveal the story of a Turkish citizen who, incredibly, appears to have beaten Sir Alfred’s record for airport residency…
Further Reading:
• ‘’The Terminal Man’ lived in a Paris airport for 18 years. I’ll never forget the weeks I spent with him | France’ (The Guardian, 2022): ‘https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/23/terminal-man-lived-in-paris-airport-18-years-ill-never-forget-weeks-with-him• ‘Mehran Karimi Nasseri, Who Inspired ‘The Terminal,’ Dies in Paris Airport’ (The New York Times, 2022): https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/13/world/europe/mehran-karimi-nasseri-dead.html
• ‘He was arguably the world’s best-known homeless person’ (FRANCE 24 English, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbOBZ9JVR4Q
#France #Strange #Person #Iran
ON PREVIOUS DAYS:
- YESTERDAY:
The Godfather of Graffiti - DAY BEFORE:
One Direction: The Movie - DAY BEFORE THAT:
The CIA's Iranian Coup - DAY BEFORE BEFORE THAT:
The Man Who Invented Seat Belts
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OLLY MANN
Olly Mann made his name with another trivia-wielding podcast, Answer Me This! with Helen Zaltzman – and now presents The Modern Mann, The Week Unwrapped, and Four Thought for BBC Radio Four. He also has an A-Level in History, so Dan Snow beware.
REBECCA MESSINA
Rebecca got a passion for podcasting working at The Week magazine and a passion for trivia appearing on University Challenge in 2011, making The Retrospectors her natural home.
ARION MCNICOLL
Arion started out in satirical news in Australia, then moved to the UK to work for ostensibly serious publications including The Times, CNN, and The Week… before realising that since around 2016 the news has all been satire really.
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