Today we celebrate Myths and Legends Day, saluting all the fantastical cephalopods of movies, literature and legend.
It's World Egg Day, so yes, let's all celebrate the incredible edible egg
I'm still working on keeping egg prices low compared to the high prices earlier this decade, (You're welcome.) I did speak to the Egg Board about that situation.
October 11, 1944 -
The murder-romantic classic, Laura, starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb and Vincent Price, premiered in NYC on this date.
According to Gene Tierney, Otto Preminger was a harsh taskmaster. "I was on the set before the sun came up and tumbled home at eight or nine in the evening. He was simply tireless. When the rest of the cast seemed ready to drop from exhaustion, Otto would still muster as much vigor as when the day began."
October 11, 1958 -
Spencer Tracy was virtually the whole movie in The Old Man and the Sea, which opened in U.S. theaters on this date.
In 1952, Humphrey Bogart attempted to purchase the film rights to Ernest Hemingway's novel through his production company, Santana Productions. Bogart identified strongly with the character of the old man and wanted to play the fisherman in the film project, with Nicholas Ray as the director. Unfortunately, the actor was unsuccessful in securing the film rights, and the film wasn't made until the year following his death, with his close friend Spencer Tracy starring.
October 11, 1962 -
We all got to follow the wacky adventures of the crew of PT-73 when McHale's Navy set sail for the first time on this date on ABC-TV.
Captain Binghampton's job before the war was running a yacht club on Long Island Sound. In other episodes, his job was editor of a yachting magazine. In one episode, the Captain is seen wearing a sweatshirt that says "San Diego Yacht Club".
October 11, 1975 -
The long running (some say too long running) comedy variety show started at 11:30 PM, on this date, with George Carlin as its host. It was called NBC's Saturday Night, because ABC featured a program at the same time titled Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. After ABC canceled the Cosell program in 1976, the NBC program changed its name to Saturday Night Live on March 26, 1977.
Besides George Carlin being the guest host, the musical guests included Janis Ian, performing At Seventeen and In the Winter, and Billy Preston, performing Nothing from Nothing and Fancy Lady.
October 11, 1981 -
The surprise art-house hit, My Dinner With Andre, starring Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory (sitting around, eating and talking,) premiered on this date.
In the movie Wally and Andre specifically mention electric blankets as one of the negative examples of technology in the modern world. As it turned out, because of the overly cold set they had to work on, many of the cast and crew resorted to using them to stay warm.
October 11, 2006 -
One of the funniest shows about TV (other than Mary Tyler Moore) 30 Rock, starring Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, and Tracy Morgan, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.
Tina Fey had to leave Saturday Night Live in order to appear in the show as the schedules overlapped. Rachel Dratch also left the show at this time, as she was set to play Jenna DeCarlo. After appearing in the first version of the pilot, Dratch was replaced by Jane Krakowski and given bit parts during the first season.
Overheard at a local waterhole at 5 pm
Today in History:
October 11, 1884 -
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the niece of President Theodore Roosevelt and wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, was born in New York City on this date.
She was the first wife of a president to hold her own news conference at the White House, in 1933. She was a delegate to the UN General Assembly from 1945 until 1952. During her time at the United Nations, she chaired the committee that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
October 11, 1890 -
Founded in Washington D.C. on this date, the Daughters of the American Revolution has chapters around the world and in all 50 US states. They work to promote US patriotism and preserve history as well as raise money for educational scholarships.
All members have a traceable ancestry lineage to someone who actively worked to achieve US independence. Since the mid-1980s, the DAR has supported a project to identify the names of African Americans, Native Americans, and individuals of mixed race who were patriots of the American Revolution.
October 11, 1899 -
The Bores of South Africa declared war on Great Britain in the hopes of generating interest, on this date.
(The war should not be confused with the Boar War, which had been canceled on account of the loss of tusks.)
October 11, 1910 -
Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane on this date. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey at Kinloch Field (Lambert-St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri in a plane built by the Wright Brothers.
He was having such a good time, he became the first US President to be repeatedly clubbed like a baby seal to get him out of the plane.
Bully!
October 11, 1919 -
Britain's Handley Page Transport became the first airline to serve in-flight meals when it offered lunch boxes on its London-to-Paris flight on this date.
The meals, consisting of a sandwich, fruits and chocolate, were sold at 3 shillings each. (British Airways has some of those first meals still available for purchase.)
October 11, 1952 -
Referee Francis DeReus halted the college football match between Wesleyan and Dubuque because of the profanity spewing from Dubuque's coach, Kenneth "Moco" Mercer. DeReus tossed coach and team from the game, and called the game because of profanity. The final score was Iowa Wesleyan 1, Dubuque 0. History does not record which vulgarities were involved.
Bet it wasn't nearly as bad as anything the president has said this past weekend (or any weekend for that matter.)
October 11, 1961 -
Leonard 'Chico' Marx, the oldest of the Marx Brothers, died on this date. Chico was a compulsive womanizer and had a lifelong gambling habit. His addiction cost him millions of dollars by his own account. His brother, Gummo Marx, in an interview years after Chico's death, said, "Chico's favorite people were actors who gambled, producers who gambled, and women who screwed."
For a while in the 1930s and 1940s Chico led a big band. Singer Mel Torme began his professional career singing with the Chico Marx Orchestra (Desi Arnaz also toured with that band.)
Chico's lifelong gambling addiction compelled him to continue in show business long after his brothers had retired in comfort from their Hollywood income, and in the early 40s, he found himself playing in the same small, cheap halls he had begun his career in 30 years previously.
It was rumored that when Bugsy Siegal was shot, one of the items found on his person was a check from Chico, payment of a gambling debt from a poker game.
October 11, 1968 -
NASA launched Apollo 7, the first successful manned mission in the Apollo lunar-landing program on this date. The launch was performed with very little fanfare, as it was the first American space mission since three astronauts died in a fire aboard Apollo 1.
The mission, however, does mark the first live television transmission from a spacecraft in orbit.
October 11, 1975 -
William Jefferson (Blythe III) Clinton and Hillary Diane Rodham were married in Fayetteville, Arkansas 44 years ago, on this date.
The past is another country: they absolutely did things differently there.
October 11, 1976 -
After their re-education, eventually, so were they.
October 11, 1978 -
Former Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) stabbed girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb) to death in room 100 of New York's Chelsea Hotel on this date. Because Sid remembered nothing about the crime, theories include robbery and an abortive suicide pact. Vicious died of an ugly heroin overdose shortly before his trial.
Folks, there are no pretty heroin overdoses.
October 11, 1984 -
Kathryn D. Sullivan became the first American woman to walk in space on this date. During her three-hour extra-vehicular activity (EVA), Sullivan tested NASA's Orbital Refueling System (ORS) to determine the feasibility of fueling satellites in orbit.
Sullivan was joined aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger by Sally Ride, the first American woman to reach outer space. Mission STS-41-G was the first space flight with two women astronauts.
October 11, 2008 -
Luc Costermans, of Belgium, wanted to prove something on this date. So he borrowed a Lamborghini Gallardo that was outfitted with some special equipment. (I don't have any friends that would loan me their Lamborghinis.)
Oh, I forgot to mention that Costermans is blind and apparently Roman is crazy.
And so it goes
(Psst - there are 75 more days until Christmas.)
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