The things you don't know

The people of Oslo, Norway donate the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree every year in gratitude to the people of London for their assistance during WWII



This historic tradition has happened every year since 1947.


December 10, 1948 -
Another Preston Sturges Champagne cocktail laced with strychnine, Unfaithfully Yours, opened in the US on this date.



The orchestral conductor, Sir Alfred de Carter, is based loosely on the real life British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. Beecham was the son of pharmacist Sir Joseph Beecham, the inventor of the laxative Beecham's Pills.


December 10, 1967 -
Julie Andrews!!!

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their first starring comedy, Bedazzled, opened in the US on this date.



After Stanley signs away his soul, Spigot files the form away under "M"; the other names he reads out from the files while finding Moon's place are Niccolò Machiavelli, Senator Joseph McCarthy, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Miller (presumably a reference to their Beyond the Fringe colleague Jonathan Miller) and Moses ("Irving Moses, the fruiterer").


December 10, 1974 -
Pull the string! Pull The String!!!



Ed Wood Jr., either the world's greatest visionary director or the worst filmmaker of all time, suffered a fatal heart attack on this date. At the time of his death, the industry newspaper, Variety, failed to run his obituary.


December 10, 1974 –
The classic disaster movie, Towering Inferno, opened in NYC on this date.



During filming an actual fire broke out on one of the sets and Steve McQueen found himself briefly helping real firemen put it out. One of the firemen, not recognizing McQueen, said to the actor, "My wife is not going to believe this." To this McQueen replied, "Neither is mine."


December 10, 1982 -
A paean to B movies, It Came from Hollywood, opened in the US on this date.



Sadly this was never released on DVD. Paramount had planned to release the film on DVD in 2002. Due to copyright issues with several of the clips featured in the film, the release was ultimately canceled.

(I am so happy that this is still online;  find some time today to watch the whole film if you haven't seen it.)


December 10, 1984 –
On a very cold night in NYC 30 years ago, Francis Ford Coppola's Cotton Club opened in NYC. I can remember waiting on line to see the film on the opening day.



Laurence Fishburne's character, Bumpy Rhodes, was based on real-life Harlem gangster Bumpy Johnson. Fishburne played Bumpy Johnson thirteen years later in Hoodlum.


It been 30 years since Do They Know It's Christmas, the charity single by the all-star group Band Aid, was released.





As of the last check, The Band Aid/ Live Aid initiatives have raised over $200 million dollars. Not bad for basically a very crappy tune. (Please don't antagonize Boko Haram or Procul Harum or whomever in Sub Saharian Africa by constantly playing it.)


Today's Holiday special: Home with the family


Today in History:
December 10, 1520 -
The heretic Martin Luther burnt the papal bull (Exsurge Domine), on this date, issued by Leo X, demanding an end to his heresies. Luther had published 95 points against the practice of granting indulgences, and the Catholic Church only had 94 points in favor of them.



Although technically he was the winner, Luther was subsequently excommunicated.

Luther went away mad and started his own religion.


December 10, 1848 -
Napoleon III, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte), was elected president of France. By 1852, he dismantled the Republic and replaced it with the Second Empire of France, with himself as emperor.



This is what comes from being a Napoleon - give them an inch and they're declaring themselves emperor.


December 10, 1936 -
Edward VIII, abdicated the English throne to marry the twice divorced, horsey faced (and possibly transvestite)  - the woman he loved on this date.



Many in the government are secretly relieved, fearing they may have bet against Mrs. Simpson when she ran at the Royal Ascot.


December 10, 1958 -
Krishna Venta (born Francis Herman Pencovic) died in Chatsworth, California in a suicide bombing when two disgruntled former followers (Peter Duma Kamenoff and Ralph Muller) who, although never offering any documentary evidence to support their claims, charged that Venta had both mishandled cult funds and been intimate with their wives.

Venta's remains are only ever identified through dental records.

This is what comes from the laying on of hands with cult members' wives.


December 10, 1967 -
Soul singer Otis Redding plus four members of the Bar-Kays were killed when his airplane crashes into Lake Monona near Madison, Wisconsin on this date.



So, poor Otis was laid out all over the dock of the bay.


December 10, 1993 -
Adolf Hitler was baptized by proxy into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in their London temple on this date. Mormons also continued to vicariously baptism victims of the Holocaust over the strenuous objections of various Jewish groups such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center (even Simon Wiesenthal has had a baptism performed for himself after his death.)

There's nothing worse than finding out you've become a Mormon by proxy (especially if you're already dead and in heaven.)



And so it goes.


There are 6 days until the start of Hanukkah.
There are 15 days until Christmas.