page_title: Albert A. Michelson
section_title: Michelson in popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Albert A. Michelson / Michelson in popular culture
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Strzelno, tablica pamiątkowa Alberta Abrahama Michelsona, laureata Nagrody Nobla w dziedzinie fizyki. Tekst na tablicy: „W TYM MIEŚCIE / URODZIŁ SIĘ / 19 GRUDNIA 1852 ROKU / ALBERT ABRAHAM / MICHELSON / PROFESOR UNIWERSYTETU / W CHICAGO / LAUREAT NAGRODY NOBLA / SWOIMI SŁYNNYMI / DOŚWIADCZENIAMI / NAD PRĘDKOŚCIĄ ŚWIATŁA / ZAPOCZĄTKOWAŁ NOWĄ / ERĘ W ROZWOJU FIZYKI / TABLICĘ TĘ DLA UCZCZENIA / WIELKIEGO FIZYKA / UFUDNOWAŁO / POLSKIE TOWARZYSTWO FIZYCZNE”. Polski: Strzelno, Poland, commemorative plaque of Albert A. Michelson. The text says: "I this town on 19 December, 1852, Albert Abraham Michelson was born; professor of University of Chicago, laureate of Nobel Prize. By his famous experiments on speed of light he started a new era in Physics. The plaque, for the commemoration of the great physicist was founded by Polish Physical Society.
context_page_description: Albert Abraham Michelson FFRS HFRSE was an American physicist known for his work on measuring the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment. In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, becoming the first American to win the Nobel Prize in a science. He was the founder and the first head of the physics department of the University of Chicago.
context_section_description: In an episode of the television series Bonanza ("Look to the Stars", broadcast March 18, 1962), Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) helps the 16-year-old Michelson (portrayed by 25-year-old Douglas Lambert (1936–1986)) obtain an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, despite the opposition of the bigoted town schoolteacher (played by William Schallert).  Bonanza was set in and around Virginia City, Nevada, where Michelson lived with his parents prior to leaving for the Naval Academy.  In a voice-over at the end of the episode, Greene mentions Michelson's 1907 Nobel Prize.
  The home in which Michelson lived as a child in Murphys Camp, California was in the store of his father, first on Main Street, Murphys, CA across from the Sperry & Perry Hotel and after the 1859 fire, in a store next to the hotel. His aunt Bertha Meyers owned a house on Main Street toward the east end of town and Michelson probably visited her family there frequently. 
  New Beast Theater Works in collaboration with High Concept Laboratories produced a 'semi-opera' about Michelson, his obsessive working style and its effect on his family life. The production ran from February 11 to February 26, 2011 in Chicago at The Building Stage. Michelson was portrayed by Jon Stutzman. The play was directed by David Maral with music composed by Joshua Dumas.
  Norman Fitzroy Maclean wrote an essay "Billiards is a Good Game"; published in The Norman Maclean Reader (ed. O. Alan Weltzien, 2008), it is an appreciation of Michelson from Maclean's vantage point as a graduate student regularly watching him play billiards.
caption: Commemorative plaque in Strzelno, Poland, were Michelson was born, founded by Polish Physical Society.
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