‘As Time Goes By’
Regarding Ron Knecht’s commentary on the movie “Casablanca,” it is certainly on my shortlist of the best movies ever made. I can add another interesting aspect of the movie, which is the song “As Time Goes By.”
The song was written in 1931, not too long after Einstein’s relativity theories were published and during the time when quantum mechanics was initially being developed. This was a period when the foundations of what people knew and believed about their physical existence were for the first time being challenged in a big way. The verses leading up to the chorus address these anxieties and explain the chorus:
This day and age we’re living in
Gives cause for apprehension
With speed and new invention
And things like fourth dimension
Yet we get a trifle weary
With Mr. Einstein’s theory
So we must get down to earth at times
Relax relieve the tension
And no matter what the progress
Or what may yet to be proved
The simple facts of life are such
They cannot be removed.
By the time of the movie only the chorus was being sung and it was generally thought it was all there was to the song. This movie and song even made it into theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lisa Randall’s book “Warped Passages.” Perhaps at the end of the movie Ingrid Bergman flew off into the fourth dimension.
Randy Grossmann
Carson City
