... I expect you to die.

September 17, 1949 -
Little Rural Riding Hood, the last of Tex Avery's variations on Little Rural Riding Hood, premiered on this date.

 

Because of budget restraints, animation of this cartoon is reused from Swing Shift Cinderella.  The singing voice of Imogene Lynn is included with the reused section of Swing Shift Cinderella.


September 17, 1956 -
Vincente Minnelli's brilliant bio-pix, Lust for Life, opened in NYC on this date.



Parts of the film were shot in Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent van Gogh lived and died. Kirk Douglas had his hair cut specially in the style of the artist and had it dyed to a similar reddish tint. This was enough to make some of the older inhabitants of the town believe that Van Gogh had returned.


September 17, 1961 -
William Faulkner's favorite TV show, Car 54 Where are You?, premiered on NBC-TV, on this date.



For the black-and-white location shots, the patrol cars were painted red so as not to confuse people on the street.


September 17, 1963 -
David Janssen started running when ABC-TV premiered The Fugitive, on this date.



Robert Lansing, James Franciscus and Anthony Franciosa were all considered for the role of Richard Kimble.


September 17, 1964 -
United Artists released the third James Bond thriller (in the UK,) Goldfinger, starring Sean Connery, on this date.



The producers wanted Orson Welles to play Auric Goldfinger, but Welles was too expensive. Then Gert Fröbe began arguing over his salary (he wanted 10% from the movie's earnings), prompting the producers to wonder whether Welles would have been cheaper after all.


September 17, 1964 -
Dick York started out as Durwood, I mean, Darrin as Bewitched premieres on ABC-TV on this date.



Special furniture was used on the set for Dick York due to his back problems. Other cast and crew members also helped him get around on the set. He had to leave the show in 1969 when he suddenly collapsed to the floor on-set. In interviews years later York had always said he felt horrible because he never finished the show.


September 17, 1965 -
CBS-TV premiered Hogan's Heroes, the first and perhaps only sitcom based in a German prisoner-of-war camp on this date.



Early in production planning it was decided to make it always be winter with snow on the ground and frost on the windows. This was to prevent problems with continuity and to allow the episodes to be shown in any order. Since much of the filming was done in the summer the actors had to wear coats and act cold even when the temperature was over 90 degrees F.


September 17, 1967 -
The first mission from the IMF team from Mission Impossible premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



The main reason for Briggs, and later Phelps, looking through the photos to select the various members of the team for each mission was that many of the early episodes would feature guest stars as members of the team. However, once it became apparent that the same members were chosen every time, the practice was eventually abandoned.


September 17, 1972 -
M*A*S*H, premiered on NBC TV on this date.



Jamie Farr and Alan Alda were the only two cast members to have actually served in the US Army in Korea. Both of them did their tours of duty after the 1953 cease fire.


Today in History:
September 17, 1778 -
The United States signed its first treaty with a Native American tribe, the Delaware Nation.

Within a year the Delaware Indians were expressing grievances about the treaty. A delegation of Delawares visited Philadelphia in 1779 to explain their dissatisfaction to the Continental Congress, but nothing changed and peace between the United States and the Delaware Indians collapsed.  (The day should be called Lies the White Man told us day.)


On July 4, 1776, the American colonies told Britain to kiss their hairy American asses. This began the Revolutionary War, during which the Redcoats were coming, a shot was heard 'round the world' and Paul Revere could see the whites of their eyes and knew that their taxes were too high.



The complexities of war demanded organization between the states, so they established Articles of Confederation, which in turn created a Continental Congress. This Congress was adequate to see them through the war, but by the late 1780s it became clear that both the Continental Congress and the Articles of Confederation sucked.



Even way back then Americans didn't want anything to do with anything that sucked (unless it meant a substantial discount, which in this case it did not).

The Continental Congress tried to fix the Articles of Confederation in 1786. The Congress still sucked, of course, and so they failed.

In the spring of 1787 the states sent new delegates to a new convention designed to produce a government that wouldn't be so awful.



On September 17, 1787, the Constitutional Convention voted its approval of a new Constitution, which they immediately ran out to have printed.

The Continental Congress acted with its usual efficiency, and by July 2 of the following year, the Constitution had become the law of the land. The last act of the Continental Congress was to schedule federal elections for their replacements.



Today is Constitution Day in the U.S. Celebrate by refusing to allow soldiers to be billeted in your home.


September 17, 1859 -
The San Francisco Call Bulletin published a notice on an inside page announcing that our old pal Joshua Norton, formerly a prominent businessman, had proclaimed himself Norton I, “Emperor of these United States and Protector of Mexico.” He annexed the whole of the US and suspended the Constitution. His Majesty remained on the job until his death in 1880.

The successor to Emperor Norton I has yet to be anointed. I am still consulting attorneys about this matter, as we speak.


September 17, 1908 -
Thomas E. Selfridge becomes the world's first airplane fatality when the Wright Flyer, a craft he's co-piloting with Orville Wright for the U.S. Army, crashed near Fort Meyer, Virginia on this date.

An untested propeller ripped apart the plane's structure, causing it to nosedive from an altitude of 75 feet.

Orville walks away unscathed and Wilber never quite trusted his brother again, as he was supposed to fly in the plane with his brother. And yet despite the tragic mishap, the War Department awarded the contract for the first military aircraft to Wright.


September 17, 1935 -
Len Koenecke was an outfielder with the Brooklyn Dodgers for most of 1935, but near the end of the season he was released for “behavior and erratic play.” The Dodger left St. Louis by passenger plane, but was ordered off in Detroit because of intoxication. Len chartered a three-seater plane for Buffalo that included both the pilot and the co-pilot.

The ballplayer began to play with the airplane controls, and would not stop when ordered. Koenecke and the pilot’s pal were soon fighting on the floor. Knowing that it was either him or us, the pilot grabbed a fire extinguisher and while still flying the plane he continued to whack on the offender’s head hard enough to knock him out. When the pilot finally landed near Toronto, Koenecke was dead at the age of 31.

So kids, please remain in you seat until the plane comes to a complete stop or the pilot may have to kill you.


September 17, 1939 -
The Soviet Union invaded Poland, to fulfill its end of the secret protocols contained in the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. They partition the country along pre-decided lines.



As you well know the last laugh will be on the Russian, when Hitler turns on them.


September 17, 1978 -
The Camp David Peace Accords, a set of agreements between Egypt and Israel was signed on this date. The agreements were the culmination of years of negotiations for peace in the Middle East. Acting as a peace broker, President Jimmy Carter convinced Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to reach a compromise in their disputes.



Let's hope that current events in the region do not lead to the Accords being broken.



And so it goes