For those of you who haven’t spent your whole day surfing the internet, let me catch you up. Today — October 21, 2015 — is Back to the Future Day, the exact day Doc Brown and Marty McFly travel to in the movie Back to the Future II.
So how big of a deal is Back to the Future Day? Big enough that the most powerful man in the world felt the need to acknowledge its importance:
Happy Back to the Future Day, @RealMikeFox! Ever think about the fact that we live in the future we dreamed of then? That's heavy, man.
— President Obama (@POTUS44) October 21, 2015
That is heavy, man.
Earlier today, Mile High Sports took a look at what the Denver sports landscape will be like 30 years from now, but did you know that the Denver Broncos actually made an appearance in the original movie?
You can catch the Broncos clock about a 1:40 into the opening sequence
Wait … so is Marty McFly a Broncos fan?
Well, thanks to former Denver Post columnist Benjamin Hochman, we know the answer to be … no.
Back in 2014, just a week before the Broncos’ Super Bowl matchup against the Seahawks, Hochman went searching for an answer to this extremely important question, and after talking to Stephen Clark (@backtothefuture), he found an explanation — kind of.
“I ran your query by Back to the Future’s Co-Creator / Co-Writer / Co-Producer Bob Gale regarding the Broncos clock to see what he recalled. Here’s what he told me:
The Broncos clock has no special significance. I don’t recall anyone in the cast or crew being a rabid Denver fan either. The only specific clock that was called for in any script was the Felix the Cat clock with the moving eyes (because I had one in my room when I was little). Most or all of the clocks were procured by the art department — variously Hal Gausman, Set Decorator; John Zemansky, Property Master; Todd Hallowell, Art Director; and Larry Paull, Production Designer. I expect many came from Universal’s own prop or set dressing departments. When we saw the Harold Lloyd clock, we knew we had to feature it front and center.
Hal (who passed away in 1989) undoubtedly had something to with it, as he was also the guy who put the RQ magazine in Marty’s bedroom that sparked such interest from reference librarians throughout America!
On the other hand, we may have been subconsciously predicting the future — we’ll know that for sure a week from Sunday: if Denver wins, we were absolutely making a prediction, and if they lose, it was just happenstance the clock was there!”
So there you go! Happenstance!
Still, all I know is that I didn’t see any other team clock on those shelves. I’ll take that as a win.
