The quality is poor; early 80s one suspects, recorded on VCR. But the contents are almost invaluable. Someone had been lucky enough to tape a rare episode of Fact From Myth, titled "Rapture: A Modern Day Atlantis?" The series aired late at night on whatever broadcasting networks would take it, and dealt with the sort of thing you'd expect from a program with that kind of name: Bigfoot sightings, alien abduction stories, so-called numbers stations, the 'Dyatlov Pass incident'... But every so often, it inadvertently mentioned something true, at least in passing. "A Modern Day Atlantis?" aired only once, and was never released on home video.
The episode opens with a shot of stormy water as a stone-voiced narrator intones, "'Somewhere, in the North Atlantic, far from any land, there lies a lighthouse. Some claim it's a ghost structure, built of ectoplasmic bricks and that glimmering light at its peak is fueled by the fires of Hell! They call this baleful black beacon the Phantom Lighthouse. Lord help the lost ship that wanders into these waters unaware - for suddenly, compasses spin awry and radios fill with static. Then the Phantom Lighthouse looms suddenly in the mist.'"
An artist's rendition of the Phantom Lighthouse fades in on screen. "'To set eyes upon it (so it's said) is to meet most certain death. The waters around the black tower are awash with the splinters of broken boats. the air around it echoes with the shrieks of dying sailors and the keening wails of unholy, misshapen creatures that feed on human flesh.'"
Thankfully the program doesn't go so far as to attempt to provide sound effects, and the screen goes black. "'It sounds like another old and lurid legend - but the tale is of recent vintage. Folklorists have found no trace of its telling before the end of World War II!'" There's a pause before the narrator continues speaking, somewhat less belaboredly. "These words from notorious pulp fiction author Carleton Rede's 1969 book Back to the Frozen Triangle, a sequel to his previous work quite simply titled The Frozen Triangle, allegedly overheard from a group of Icelandic sailors, paint a fantastic picture. But it's not nearly as fantastic as what these and other sources claim or hint lies beneath this 'Phantom Lighthouse': a city at the bottom of the ocean, where some of the best and brightest minds of the 20th century allegedly disappeared to in the chaos that followed Adolf Hitler and Japanese emperor Hirohito's defeat. Though hard evidence for the existence of this city is hard to come by, we consider it our duty to uncover as much as we can in Fact From Myth."
The titlecard appears from a blur of stars: plain white text over a cloudy background of teal and blue and green and red. "Fact From Myth," it reads. "Rapture: A Modern Day Atlantis? Narrated by Miles Bloom."
You have to fast-forward through the commercials yourself. No TiVo in the days the recording was made. As is often the case, you misjudge the end of the commercials and end up fast-forwarding through the introduction of the next segment. You press Play and then Rewind, with the portrait of an infamous man staring out at you from the television. You hit Play again, and the narrator begins. "Our story begins with Andrew Ryan. Born Andrei Rianofski in Czarist Russia, he fled the country two years after the revolution which brought the Communists into power, abdicating to America. For a while, he lived in peace, enjoying what he believed to be the fruits of his labor, his intellect and willpower. He founded, as well as owned, Ryan Oil; what was then the second biggest railroad in the country; and a large percentage of American coal mines as well. Then the New Deal arrived, and Andrew Ryan proved to be as little a fan of state-run social programs then as he had been in 1919. Rather than allow Congress to nationalize a forest he owned to turn it into a park, he burned it to the ground." A picture of a forest goes up in fake flames. The narrator continues. "By 1945, the industrial magnate had begun secluding himself from the public eye. The FBI launched an investigation into certain undisclosed business practices, but nothing ever came of it. Nothing official, at any rate. And in 1947..." The portrait of Ryan, which reappeared after the 'fire', disappears again. "Andrew Ryan vanished."
Newspaper headlines about the disappearance flash in, then stock pictures of businesses or business-related things like accountants slowly cycle in and out. "When the IRS received Ryan's business records, they were not surprised to discover that his accounts were almost empty. There was little to no paper trail regarding where the money had gone, and the popular consensus was that he'd gotten out while the getting was good and was 'sunning it up on a beach somewhere'."
The narrator sounds contemplative. "But with the benefit of hindsight, and a number of strange findings that have emerged throughout the years, some have begun to wonder if Mr Ryan had found a better use for his money. Someplace free of government interference... When Fact From Myth returns, we'll examine a trunk of mysterious memorabilia that washed up on the New England coast, including this haunting painting."
A pale young woman with black hair that reaches almost to her shoulders is captured in motion, dancing solemnly, almost wistfully, with a man nearly a full head taller than her. His back is to the artist and the viewer, but there's a quality in his posture that provides the impression that he's focusing entirely on her, ignoring the disturbing shapes that lurk in the background, as indeed he had been that Christmas night.