Saturday, February 16, 2013

In Every Dream Home a Heartache

This could be the creepiest commercial you'll ever see -



I want to know what their motto is - Now that you're ready to try the real thing (please note: most of our clients are not vulcanized.)


The seventh day of Chinese New Year is The Human Day.   According to Chinese genesis story, the chicken was created on the first day of the first lunar month, dogs on the second day, sheep on the third day, pigs on the fourth day, cows on the fifth day, horses on the sixth and humans on this day.



Humans were made using mud, mixing yellow soil and water. Also, human learned about marriage; so human can reproduce themselves. Therefore, the seventh lunar day of the year becomes everyone's birthday.


February 16, 1940 -
A truncated version of A Chump at Oxford (the second to last Laurel and Hardy feature) was released on this date



The short version of the film was originally in four reels, a "streamliner" designed to compete with theaters' new double feature concept. Roach produced only a few of these hybrids, and added the dinner party sequence later to bring it up to it's feature length.


February 16, 1956 -
The film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Carousel, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, premiered on this date.



According to most biographers, Frank Sinatra was originally cast to play Billy Bigelow. But when he arrived on the set, Sinatra discovered that he had to shoot the scenes two times: one for regular Cinemascope and the other for CinemaScope 55. Sinatra, who never liked to do two takes of a scene, walked away from the set and said: "You’re not getting two Sinatras for the price of one". Ironically, shortly thereafter, it was discovered that both prints could be made from the one negative, and so it was filmed in 55mm CinemaScope only.


February 16, 1964 -
The Beatles appeared for the second time on the Ed Sullivan Show on this date.



The Beatles performed six songs: She Loves You, This Boy, All My Loving, I Saw Her Standing There, From Me To You and I Want To Hold Your Hand. The Beatles received $25,000 for their appearance; half of what Elvis got for his.


February 16, 1975 -
The music variety series Cher premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



How did this get on the air?


Today in History:
February 16, 1899 -
Félix François Faure, President of France and the owner of the most audacious mustache in the late 19th century, died suddenly from a massive heart attack in his private offices while in the act of some sort of sexual congress with the notable courtesan, Marguerite Steinheil on this date.

Apparently when Faure reached his petit mort, he had his grand mort. A probably apocryphal story, listed as fact by many sources, is that M. Le President died with his hands gripping Miss Steinheil's head and an anxious government official nearly 'brained' her trying to remove the hysterical lady from the vise-like grip of his 'cold dead hands.'

Viva La France


February 16, 1918 -
Lithuania declared its independence from Russia on this date. Independence lasted until World War II.

It was such a successful declaration that they declared their independence again in 1990.


February 16, 1921 -
Vera-Ellen, actress and anorexia nervosa sufferer (there is a raging debate on the internet about whether or not she was,) was born on this date.



Vera went to the same Cincinnati ballroom dance studio as a child as Doris Day. Their parents used to carpool together to the dance studio.


February 16, 1923 -
Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter opened King Tut's tomb, revealing one of the most well-preserved treasures from the ancient world on this date.



While it has been frequently reported that a curse killed 13 of the 20 people present at the opening of the tomb, there was no curse and no unusual death patterns occurred.


February 16, 1959 -
Failed baseball player Fidel Castro was sworn in as President For Life of Cuba after having led the revolution that removed Fulgenico Batista. At the time, Cuba was a nation plagued by poverty, racked by corruption, and held in thrall by the military force of its leader.

During his first year of rule, 500 are put to the firing squad, an RBI record any dictator would be proud of.


February 16, 1990 -
Keith Haring, artist/cartoonist, died of AIDS-related complications at 31 on this date.





And so it goes


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