Saturday, March 19, 2011

Remember to look up tonight

It's not just a full moon -



It's a SUPER full moon!


March 19, 1921 -
The German silent film classic, Das Kabinett Des Docktor Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - wait a minute, I know that title from somewhere), starring Werner Kraus and Conrad Veidt premiered in the US on this date.



Widely considered to be the first true horror film ever made, when this film first opened in Germany in 1920 it was rated for 'Adults Only.'


March 19, 1947 -
Another Bob Hope film (at the peak of his career), My Favorite Brunette, opened in Los Angeles on this date.



Bing Crosby's cameo in the film was the record for the most paid an actor per minute in a Hollywood film for years.


March 19, 1958 -
The film based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, South Pacific, was released on this date.



Joshua Logan considered virtually every top actress of the day for the role of Nellie Forbush, including Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Doris Day, Audrey Hepburn and even Ginger Rogers.


March 19, 1962 -
Luis Buñuels sacrilegious masterpiece, Viridiana, opened in the US on this date. Initially banned in Spain and completely denounced by the Vatican - a ringing endorsement if there ever was one.


Today in History -
It's a virtual gastronomic cornucopia of religious holidays

Purim starts tonight. Purim is the festival that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people of the ancient Persian Empire from Haman's plot to annihilate them, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther (Megillat Esther).



Save some poppy seed Hamantaschen for me!


It's also the Feast of St. Joseph, stepdad to Jesus.

Remember to go out and have the very delicious Sicilian pastry that bears his name. It's so good, it brings you that much closer to God.

Also, if you live in Capistrano,


remember the swallows are coming back today, eat you pastries indoors.


March 19, 1943 -
Francesco Raffaele Nitto, better known as, Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti, one of the top henchmen of Alphonse "Big Al" "Scarface" Capone and later the front man for the mob Capone created, the Chicago Outfit, was having a very bad day. Many top members of the Chicago Outfit were indicted for extortion. The Outfit was accused of trying to strong arm some of the largest Hollywood movie studios. The studios had cooperated with The Outfit to avoid union trouble stirred up by the mob.

The day before his scheduled grand jury appearance, Nitti shared breakfast with his wife in their Riverside, Illinois home at 712 Selborne Road. As his wife was leaving for church, Nitti told her he planned to take a walk. After his wife left, Nitti began to drink heavily. He then loaded a .32 caliber revolver, put it in his coat pocket, and walked five blocks to a local railroad yard. Two railroad workers (William F. Sebauer and Lowell M. Barnett) spotted Nitti walking on the track of an oncoming train and shouted a warning. They thought the train hit him, but Nitti had managed to jump out of the way in time. Then two shots rang out.

The trainmen first thought Nitti was shooting at them, but then realized he was trying to shoot himself in the head. The two bullets went through his hat. Nitti finally sat on the ground against a fence and, with the railroad workers watching from a distance, shot himself in the head. Frank Nitti died on an Illinois Central railroad siding in North Riverside, Illinois on this date.

March 19, 1945 -
The Third Reich's World Tour is drawing to an abrupt close. And the band members are understandably depressed. The ever wacky and truly evil bastard Adolf Hitler orders all military and industrial facilities within the Third Reich destroyed.



Albert Speer, gave himself a birthday present today (avoiding the noose at the Nuremberg trials) and does everything he can to stop this from happening, in direct defiance of Hitler. Speer knew he had some precedent, Hitler also had decreed that Paris should be left a smoking ruin the previous summer, but Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuhrer's order.


March 19, 1957 -
Elvis Presley tours and has a vision. Before he immediately act upon it, St. Elvis wolfs down seven fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches and agrees to purchase the 14 acre Graceland estate from Ruth Moore for $100,000.



It is now his cemetery. Or is it?


March 19, 1982 -
The guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, dies during the Diary of a Madman tour after the plane he is flying in buzzes the band's tour bus and clips the wing of the plane, crashing into a nearby farmhouse.



Kids, once again, repeat after me, drugs are bad.


March 19, 1987 -
Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns his PTL ministry after it is revealed he was delivering a little too much spiritual healing to former church secretary and future Playboy playmate Jessica Hahn.

Some $265,000 in ministry funds had been used to keep Hahn quiet about a one-time sexual encounter in 1980.


March 19, 2005 - John Zachary DeLorean former American engineer and executive in the U.S. automobile industry, and drug dealer died on this date.

He quit GM in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern Ireland. Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets. 8,900 cars were built.



And so it goes.

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