Day 21 (D-40) Mount Rushmore / Hitchcock

From Native Americans to American Presidents.
I'll let Wikipedia do the job for me again in Simple English.
Mount Rushmore is a famous mountain and memorial near Keystone, South Dakota. It has the heads of four of America's presidents carved on it. Do you know which presidents?  That's your job. And can you find out why these four presidents were chosen?

Before the memorial was carved, the native Lakota Indian Tribes called the mountain "Six Grandfathers".  Later, the mountain was named after Charles E. Rushmore, the New York lawyer who traveled to the Black Hills in 1884 to inspect mining claims in the region. The memorial was carved to help tourism in the Black Hills, where the mountain was.  Doane Robinson first got the idea in 1923.  Robinson convinced many influential people in the United States government to build the memorial.  Congress soon allowed construction to begin.  After getting Congress's approval, Gutzon Borglum, a famous American sculptor, was hired to begin the project.  It was completed in 1941, by the son of Borglum as his father had died earlier during that year. 

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, known as "The Shrine of Democracy", has become one of the most iconic images of America and an international tourist attraction.

Two links, one for information and one for fun!
1) For information: http://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/mount-rushmore
2) For entertainment and suspense:  3 minutes and 42 seconds  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zr_zL_T3g8 

That last video clip is frustrating!  To see the end of the film, you'll need to go here -->
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-omCpUtIOT0

Because Mount Rushmore is the "Shrine of Democracy",
Alfred Hitchcock was not allowed to film the violent scenes there.  Consequently, he had to have a Mount Rushmore constructed for the film! Both the cafeteria and the climatic chase across the historic monument were filmed back at the MGM studio.

Due to the objection of the government, we weren't allowed to have any of the figures on the faces, even in the interior studio shots ... We were told very definitely that we could only have the figures slide down between the heads of the presidents. They said that after all, this is the shrine to democracy. 

— Alfred Hitchcock

I would even suggest that you buy the DVD and watch the movie.  A great film, made in 1959. For the travelers, you'll think about the film when you are there!

My best,
Jane