De-Plane! De-Plane!

From our Current Affairs Editor, Lemuel Stuart III

Are you familiar with the 1980's TV sit-com "Fantasy Island"?  There was a running gag each week in the opening of the show when a United Airlines' plane would fly over the island, and actor Hervé Villechaize, who played the character Tattoo, would shout, "De-Plane! De-Plane."
The quip was a reference to a poem by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request)  

It turns out that Villechaize had attended the Emmett Lee Dickinson School for Boys in Paris, France -- that is where he fell in love with the poetry of America's greatest poet.  

Then, when he was filming the pilot of "Fantasy Island," he had a discussion about Dickinson's poetry with Aaron Spelling, the show's producer and a Dickinson aficionado.  He was trying to recall the opening line of his favorite poem by Dickinson, "The doctor sat upon the plane," but he couldn't remember it.  Instead, he could remember only the theme of the poem, so he kept repeating "De-plane!  De-plane!"

Aaron Spelling  did, in fact, know the poem, and he had a good laugh with Villechaize.  It was at that time Spelling thought of the idea for the weekly opener of "Fantasy Island."  ​ 

​Below left:  Actor Hervé Villechaize as Tattoo.  Below right: The Emmett Lee Dickinson School for Boys in Paris, France.
​

Now, following a recent incident of de-planing a passenger from a United Airline flight in Chicago, interest in Dickinson's poem has once again grown.  As a matter of fact, Google reported that following the event, Dickinson's poem, "The doctor sat upon the plane" (below on the left) was the most-searched phrase in North America, and Twitter said that hashtags "#DePlane" and "ELDickinson" were trending around the world.  Dickinson's poem also inspired his third cousin to pen her poem "The mountain sat upon the plain" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
The Doctor sat upon the Plane
In his confining Chair –
When observations did unfold
As he’s dragged, everywhere –
 
The Lawmen’s raid around the craft
Indifferent to his scream –
Viral news of the Day is He
Come Dawn, a Lawyer’s dream –
​

By Emily Dickinson:
 
The Mountain sat upon the Plain
In his tremendous Chair –
His observation omnifold,
His inquest, everywhere –

The Seasons played around his knees
Like Children round a sire –
Grandfather of the Days is He
Of Dawn, the Ancestor –
​