When the Mummy, starring Boris Karloff, was released by Universal studios in 1932 it was inspired by a real event, and drew upon a mix of ideas, some new, and some very old. So what is the truth behind the legend of the mummy returned from the dead? The mummy came somewhere between the myth, the monster, and history.
The appeal of one strange object, which achieved dizzying popularity in my lifetime, and today lives on mostly for nostalgia, is not so difficult to explain. All you need to do is turn one on and wait.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.