Sunday, April 22, 2012

Remember, it's our little blue marble

It's Earth Day today, be nice to this planet - it's the only one you're ever going to have.



So go outside and hug a tree. If you don't want to be this familiar with nature, give a warm but firm shake hands to your house plants.



Here's a little poem you can remember to help on this Earth Day -

If it's yellow, let it mellow,
If it's brown, flush it down,
And if it's blue - seek medical attention.


April 22, 1935 -
Universal Studios released the sequel to the original Frankenstein movie, Bride of Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive and Elsa Lanchester on this date.



Director James Whale originally did not want to do a sequel to Frankenstein. However, after many years of badgering by Universal, Whale agreed to do the film. One of James Whale's conditions for directing the film was that he would have complete artistic freedom. This was easily achieved, as Universal's studio head Carl Laemmle Jr. was vacationing in Europe at the time.


April 22, 1939 -
Warner Bros. released the film, Dark Victory, starring Bette Davis (in one of her favorite roles) on this date.



This film was the second of Bette Davis collaborations with director Edmund Goulding. They had previously worked together on That Certain Woman and would do so again on The Old Maid and The Great Lie.


April 22, 1942 -
One of Hitchcock's brilliant World War II efforts, Saboteur, premiered in Washington DC on this date.



The shot of the ship on its side toward the end of the film was an actual shot of the ocean liner SS Normandie, which had caught fire on February 9, 1942 and capsized at its pier in New York. The fire was an accident, not sabotage, though there were rumors of sabotage at the time.


April 22, 1950 -
Peter Frampton, musician, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, was born on this date.



If you were a teenager in the mid 70's, you were issued your standard copy of Frampton Comes Alive to face your 'awkward' years.


Today in History:
April 22, 1451 -
Isabella I, Queen of Castille, was born on this date. She also became Queen of Aragon in 1479.



She was Christopher Columbus' patron, and must therefore share some of the responsibility for the many thousands of casinos across America.


April 22, 1870 -
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born on this date He later became Lenin, invented the Communist Party in Russia and made himself first Head Bastard of the Soviet Union.



It's interesting to note that Alexander Kerensky, the leader of Russia's provisional revolutionary government in 1917 until overthrown by Lenin, was born on the same day as Lenin, only eleven years later.

Well, it's interesting to some people.


April 22, 1904 -
Robert Oppenheimer was born on this date. Mr. Oppenheimer is known as the father of the atomic bomb.



The bomb's mother has never been identified to anyone's satisfaction, which only underscores the lax security at Los Alamos.


April 22, 1923 -
I was just myself. I didn't know any other way to be, or any other way to live.



Bettie Mae Page was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on this date.


April 22, 1946 -
If you go home with somebody, and they don't have books, don't f*ck 'em!



John Waters, film director, actor and raconteur, was born on this date.


April 22, 1964 -
President Johnson opened the New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, New York, on this date.  (I've just read that Johnson was also banging everything that moved.  No wonder Kennedy named him as his VP.)



The Fair also is remembered as the vehicle Walt Disney utilized to design and perfect the system of "audio-animatronics," in which a combination of sound and computers control the movement of life-like robots to act out scenes. In the It's a Small World attraction at the Pepsi pavilion, animated dolls and animals frolicked in a spirit of international unity on a boat-ride around the world.



Once the fair was over, Walt feverishly pushed his Imagineers to build him an 'actual' President. Historians argue that this was the beginning of Ronald Reagan campaign for the Presidency.


April 22, 1994 -
Richard M. Nixon suffered a fatal stroke on this date. His body is laid to rest in the unhallowed grounds of his Presidential Library.

His head was severed from his body and wooden stakes were driven through his heart to make sure he was dead.



And so it goes

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