By happy coincidence, it's also the first day of Fall.
Many people in the northern hemisphere are disturbed by the changes they see around them at about this time each year. It gets darker earlier, temperatures drop, leaves change color and die and the Red Sox tend to drop out of playoff contention.
There have been myths about the changing of the seasons as long as there have been children to lie to. Some primitive peoples believed that leaves changed color because Nature was pining for her abducted daughter; others blamed it on the seasonal absence of sunlight-fed chlorophyll, allowing xanthophyll, carotene, and antocyanin to determine leaf color. We may never know the truth.
The first day of Autumn is sometimes also referred to as the Autumnal Equinox (the autumnal equinox is when the Sun appears to cross the celestial equator from north to south.) The autumnal equinox brings the fall season to the Northern Hemisphere. Don't be alarmed by the title. It's just Fall.
With courage and some heavy drinking, we can get through this thing.
September 23, 1944 -
Frank Capra's screwball comedy, Arsenic and Old Lace finally gets it US general release on this date. The film was based on a hit play and had to wait to be released until after it Broadway run had ended.
Frank Capra pushed his actors to the broadest comedy takes, a fact that did not sit well with Cary Grant. As a result, his (and Jack Carson's) performances were singled out by reviewers for going dangerously over the top, while Raymond Massey and the stage performers managed to look rather restrained by comparison. Grant hated working this way, although in his more generous moments he credited Capra with helping him to get the comic effect he was unable to do on his own (it may have been his subtle way of blaming the director).
September 23, 1962 -
The Jetsons debuted on ABC-TV's Sunday night's prime time lineup on this date. It was the network's first program ever to be broadcast in color.
One of the last shows to portray a future that was funny, optimistic, and progressive before 1973's oil crisis and the fight for the environment that, in the 1970s, changed the vision of the future.
September 23, 1967 -
The Letter by Box Tops topped the charts on this date.
When the group recorded this they still did not have a name. One band member suggested, "Let's have a contest and everybody can send in 50 cents and a box top." Producer Dan Penn then dubbed them The Box Tops.
September 23, 1968 -
Lucille Ball's third TV series, Here's Lucy premiered on this date.
The show came about because of a business transaction. In 1968, The Lucy Show had been running for six seasons, and the ratings remained solid. Lucille Ball sold the Desilu studio that year. So, in order to retain ownership of her series, she ceased production on The Lucy Show, and created this show. The new series had a slightly different plot, and new character names (plus roles for Lucy's kids), but continued with the same cast and timeslot.
September 23, 1969 -
Marcus Welby MD, starring the not terribly sober Robert Young, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.
The exterior of Dr. Welby's office was the same building used as the Cleaver family home on Leave It to Beaver with only Welby's shingle as the new addition to the set.
September 23, 1970 -
The only American film Akira Kurosawa almost directed, Tora! Tora! Tora!, was released on this date. Akira Kurosawa agreed to direct the Japanese part of the film only because he was told that David Lean was to direct the American part. This was a lie, David Lean was never part of the project. When Kurosawa found out about this, he tried to get himself fired from the production - and succeeded.
The film was considered a flop when it was released in the U.S., but was a huge success in Japan. The film's failure in North America was partly blamed on opposition to the Vietnam War. Young moviegoers weren't interested in a movie about World War II, and couldn't understand what was controversial about attacking a naval base.
September 23, 1977 -
ABC Records breathed a huge sigh of relief when they were finally able to release the much delayed sixth studio album of the ultra-perfectionists Steely Dan's Aja on this date.
Unlike most songwriting duos, Fagen and Becker worked together on the music and lyrics at the same time. Steely Dan released nine studio (non compilation) albums from 1972-2003. Over 100 session musicians contributed to their songs. Other than Donald Fagan and Walter Becker, the duo that is Steely Dan, the only musician who played on all nine albums was the late Victor Feldman. Feldman was a British Jazz legend who actually played with the Glenn Miller Orchestra when he was 13 years old.
September 23, 1990 -
Ken Burns' powerful 11 hour miniseries The Civil War premiered on PBS on this date.
Shelby Foote became a sudden celebrity after the success of this series. Foote's phone number was listed in his local phone book and he received frequent calls from fans. He never removed his number from the phone book and received calls whenever the series aired for the rest of his life.
September 23, 1992 -
NBC first introduced us to Paul and Jamie Buchman (and Murray) when Mad About You first premiered on this date. (Look for a reboot of the series this fall.)
While Paul Reiser had the same actors playing his parents for the entire run of the series, Helen Hunt's Jamie had three pairs of actors playing Theresa and Gus Stemple; Nancy Dussault and Paul Dooley; Penny Fuller and John Karlen; and finally Carol Burnett and Carroll O' Connor.
September 23, 2009 -
ABC-TV first introduced us to Jay Pritchett, his children and their families when the mockumentary Modern Family first premiered on this date.
The original show description explained why the show was shot in a "mockumentary" style. It stated a Swedish movie director, who formerly was a foreign exchange student in Phil's home, was shooting a documentary on the American family.
Word of the Day
Today in History:
September 23, 480 BC -
It's the birthday of the Greek poet Euripides, born near Athens on this date.
September 23, 63 BC -
Gaius Octavius Thurinus (Augustus Caesar) was born on this day. The first real Roman Emperor, Caesar introduced the famous Pax Romana. This was a political policy which stated that any country which did not object to being conquered by Rome would be conquered by Rome.
Countries not wishing to be conquered by Rome stood in violation of this policy, and were therefore invaded until they agreed to be conquered. This ensured peace throughout the world.
September 23, 1779 -
During the Revolutionary War, while on break from Led Zeppelin, the American navy under Scotsman John Paul Jones (Robert Stack), commanding from Bonhomme Richard, defeated and captured the British man-of-war Serapis on this date. Jones, chose to name the ship after Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard’s Almanac.
Fierce fighting ensued, and when Richard began to sink, Serapis commander Richard Pearson called over to ask if Richard would surrender and Jones responded, "I have not yet begun to fight!"--a response that would become a slogan of the U.S. Navy. Pearson surrendered and Jones took control of Serapis. Imagine the amount of rum consumed (it was an American Ship - I'm sure there was no sodomy!)
September 23, 1939 -
Sigmund Freud was not having a good day. He had been suffering from the late stages of cancer of the jaw when he decided to commit suicide with the help of his personal physician, Max Schur on this date.
The good doctor administered 21 mg of morphine -- a lethal dose, in three large doses in the space of several hours. Sometimes 21 mg of morphine is just 21 mg of death.
September 23, 1949 -
Happy Birthday Bruce!
If you are of a certain age, at one point, Bruce meant everything to you.
September 23, 1950 -
Congress passes the McCarran Act, also known as The Internal Security Act of 1950, overriding Harry Truman's veto. The act provides for severe restrictions on civil liberties, suspension of free speech, and placing of undesirable Americans in concentration camps.
So watch it, bub.
Today we commemorate some of the greatest political pooches our country has ever known. On September 23, 1952, responding to accusations that he diverted $18,000 in contributions into his pocket, Senator Richard M. Nixon rescues his candidacy for Vice President by insisting that he had never accepted any money.
Although Nixon does admit he accepted a cocker spaniel named Checkers for his daughter Tricia. The televised monologue rescues his political career.
September 23, 1969 -
An article in the Northern Illinois University student newspaper propagated the rumor that Paul is dead.
And so it goes
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