Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Map of Duck Soup's Imaginary Fredonia Discovered

by Stephen J. Gertz

LAURIE, R[ichard] H[olmes]. Fredonia. Or the United States of North America;
including also Cabotia, or the Canadian Provinces; The Western Territory To
the Pacific Ocean' And the Northern Part of the Mexican States.

An 1848  map of Fredonia, the nation whose bitter conflict with Sylvania  was the subject of a celebrated 1933 Hollywood documentary, has surfaced and will be auctioned at PBA Galleries on November 18, 2010. It is estimated to sell for $4,000 - $6,000.

The nation was, until recently, thought to be, like the lost continent of Atlantis, strictly legend, the documentary a complete fake.

"Hail! Hail! Fredonia!"

At the time of the documentary's release, the  political and economic crisis that gripped Fredonia and Sylvania required appropriate commentary. Cynicism, buffoonery, anarchy, disrespect for political institutions and leadership ran high. The Laws of the Administration of Fredonia were a scandal. The absurdity of government, diplomacy, and war as an answer to anything came sharply into focus.


Duck Soup is one of the great political documentaries yet with a title nonsensical in the context of the events it limned. In contrast to  Duck Soup, The Sorrow and the Pity is a Loony Tunes cartoon. Things were certainly afoul in Fredonia, but more like a firkee of turkeys.  Duck Soup concerned itself with the failure of diplomacy, the growing escalation of belligerence between the great nations of Fredonia and Sylvania, and the effect that open hostilities would have upon their respective nations and the world stage.

Curiously, however, there has been doubt about whether Fredonia and Sylvannia actually existed or  were simply convenient constructs for the documentarians to provide context for the issues at stake.


Not too long ago, scholars discovered that Sylvania was, indeed a real place; it was located on a light bulb. Sylvania was known as The Land Where Ideas Begin, based upon the anatomical fact that all ideas originate in the brain's hypothalamus as a tiny bulb that lights up at that eureka moment when a notion evolves into the hint of an idea.

Another major find recently turned up at a garage sale, the national flag of Sylvania.

Flag of Sylvania.

The conflict with Sylvania began when Fredonia, known as the Land Where Ideas Start, claimed that it had more good ideas in an hour than Sylvania had in a month, and that all of Sylvania's ideas were bad, particularly the one about  tax cuts and health care only for the wealthy or well-connected, which Fredonia claimed its own but was stolen by agents of the Sylvanian intelligence service.

Chicolini and Pinkie, master spies.

The Chicolini Affair brought matters to a head. Chicolini and Pinkie, officers in Sylvania's  CIA, turned out to be double agents working for Fredonia's leader, the Hon. Rufus T. Firefly. Ambassador Trentino of Sylvania considered this casus belli and, in concert with a round of face slaps between Firefly and Trentino, led to the first shots fired, despite the intervention of Fredonia's matriarch, Mrs. Gloria Teasdale, The Mother of Her Country, and the object of Firefly and Trentino's romantic attention.

Rufus T. Firefly, Mrs. Gloria Teasdale, Ambassador Trentino,
and Vera Marcal, an Alaskan politico-provocateur-adventuress.



Fredonia.  Real or imaginary? What was this strange nation? Where was it located?

The shots heard 'round the world.

Now we know.
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LAURIE, R[ichard] H[olmes]. Fredonia. Or the United States of North America; including also Cabotia, or the Canadian Provinces; The Western Territory To the Pacific Ocean' And the Northern Part of the Mexican States, London: R.H. Laurie, 1848. Engraved map, hand-colored in outline. 64.5x97 cm. (25¼x38"). On 24 panels, mounted on linen, folding into 9x5" original(?) cloth case with gilt title.

"This map bears a legend explaining the origin of the word "Fredonia" to designate the United States of North America, 'hence Fredonian or Frede, a native of, and Fredish, of or belonging to the same territory'" (PBA catalog).
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Image of map courtesy of PBA Galleries.

Sylvania logo and bulb image courtesy of Sylvania, with our thanks.
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