Movie Spreads False Upstate New York 'Hula Hoop' Fact

As is the case during most evenings after the radio show, I was mindlessly scrolling through social media on Friday evening. While I was deep down the rabbit hole on Tik Tok, I came across a video clip from the movie The Age of Adaline, which featured the characters seated around a dining room table, playing Trivial Pursuit.

I had no idea why this video popped up on my screen, but I hadn't seen the movie before, so I decided to watch for a bit.

Then, out of happenstance, the character William, played by Harrison Ford, asks a question to the titular character Adaline, played by Blake Lively. The answer to the question appeared to be an extremely well-known fact about a city in the Capital Region, one which I had never heard before.

After a bit of research, however, I discovered that the entire answer was a complete lie. If you've seen the movie, did you spot this, too?

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Revealing the False Upstate New York Answer in 'The Age of Adaline'

Without any further ado, here is the clip of the movie I was referencing above. Just past the 1:00 mark of the YouTube video, William asks Adaline this question:

"A World's Fair in Schenectady?! No way!"

If that was your reaction, you'd be technically correct, as the event that was mentioned did not happen. There was a World's Fair held in 1956, but it was held in Beit Dagan, Israel, and not Schenectady.

Nearly ten years later, however, there was a World's Fair held in New York, but it took place in New York City. It happened between 1964 and 1965. That was the first World's Fair in the United States since 1953, when it was held in St. Louis, Missouri.

24th June 1935: Three members of a dance school rehearse for an upcoming performance on the beach at Worthing. / Getty Images

So, what about the hula hoop? Was it invented in Schenectady? Did it first hit American shelves in 1956? Is any of this real?

The answer, to all of the above, is no.

The very idea of a hula hoop dates back as far as 500 BC. In America, meanwhile, it was in 1958 company Wham-O introduced the Hula Hoop to children in southern California, and the popularity of the toy grew exponentially from there. Unfortunately, residents of the Capital Region and Upstate New York will be disappointed to know that the film went o-fer in this made-up fact about hula hoops.

There were a number of other inventions that came from this area, however, which you can see below.