Today is National Tequila Day.

Tequila originated from Mexico in the 1800s and is now one of the most popular alcohols worldwide, especially in America.



While I am not a tequila man myself, I would not turn a Frozen Margarita down on a hot and humid day.


July 24, 1939 -
Paramount Pictures' William Wellman's action adventure film, Beau Geste, starring Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, and Susan Hayward premiered in the US on this date.



At the film's world premiere, the first reel of the 1926 silent version of Beau Geste was shown just before the entire 1939 sound version, in an effort to demonstrate how far films had advanced in thirteen years. This almost backfired because the 1939 film, apparently, followed the 1926 one extremely closely, and some of the first-night critics were annoyed, rather than pleased at this, feeling that the 1939 version should have been more imaginative. However, this did not keep the 1939 version from becoming a smash hit and a film classic.


July 24, 1946 -
Paramount Studios released the film-noir classic, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott and Kirk Douglas (his film debut,) on this date.



Kirk Douglas earned this, his debut role, with the help of his old drama school friend, Lauren Bacall. Bacall knew that producer Hal B. Wallis was looking for fresh talent and she suggested Douglas to him. She encouraged Wallis to watch a play featuring Douglas. When he did, Wallis was so impressed by the performance that he cast Douglas in this film.


July 24, 1948 -
... Crumbly Crunchies are the best
Look delicious on your vest
Serve them to unwanted guests
Stuff the mattress with the rest....



A great Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Chuck Jones, Haredevil Hare, was released on this date. (It was the first appearance of Marvin the Martian, though he wasn't named until decades later.)



Look for a photo of then freshman California Congressman Richard M. Nixon who appears in the faux newspaper The Daily Snooze under the headline "Heroic Rabbit Volunteers As First Passenger."


July 24, 1952 -
Fred Zinnemann's classic western, High Noon, starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, and Thomas Mitchell, premiered in New York City, on this date.



Producer Stanley Kramer first offered the leading role of Will Kane to Gregory Peck, who turned it down because he felt it was too similar to The Gunfighter. Other actors who turned down the role included Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando, Kirk Douglas, Montgomery Clift, and Burt Lancaster.


July 24, 1971 -
The Raiders' (formerly Paul Revere and the Raiders) song, Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian) reached No. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



The song was written by John D. Loudermilk, a singer/songwriter who recorded as "Johnny Dee". Loudermilk cut 10 of his own albums between the years 1961-1979; he hit the charts with 10 of his own singles between the years 1957-1967, and had tremendous success writing songs for other artists. Working from Nashville, Tennessee, he also wrote hit songs for the Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, Stonewall Jackson, and Sue Thompson. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1976.


July 24, 1974 -
The controversial film Death Wish, based on the novel by Brian Garfield, directed by Michael Winner and starring Charles Bronson was released in the US on this date.



After finishing The Stone Killer, Charles Bronson and Michael Winner wanted to make another film together, and were discussing further projects. "What do we do next?" asked Bronson. "The best script I've got is 'Death Wish'. It's about a man whose wife and daughter are mugged and he goes out and shoots muggers," said Winner. "I'd like to do that," Bronson said. "The film?" asked Winner. Bronson replied, "No . . . shoot muggers."


July 24, 1976 -
Elton John's duet with Kiki Dee, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, reached No. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



This was the second-biggest-selling record of 1976 in both the UK and US (In the UK, Save Your Kisses for Me was #1; in the US it was Silly Love Songs by Wings.


July 24, 1976 -
The Manhattans' song Kiss And Say Goodbye hits #1 in the US on this date.



The song was written by Manhattans member Winfred "Blue" Lovett. He said in an interview that he envisaged Glen Campbell singing his tune. Said Lovett: "Back then I was into listening a lot to country things. Lionel Richie jumped the gun on me, but I had been listening for three or four years. I liked a lot of things Glen Campbell was doing... and Charley Pride."


July 24, 1978 -
The truly execrable Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band starring the Brothers Gibbs was released upon an unsuspecting public on this date.



Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr both attended the premiere, and subsequently shunned the film. John Lennon and George Harrison refused to see it.


July 24, 1977 -
Donna Summer's single I Feel Love, with producer Giorgio Moroder reached No. #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



The song was inspired by the jazzy little tune performed by four fish-headed aliens in the Star Wars Cantina scene. When Giorgio Moroder saw the movie, he was taken by how un-futuristic the Cantina band sounded. That served as the initial spark for I Feel Love. He said: "I didn't think it sounded like the music of the future - it looked like it, but didn't sound like it. So I thought the only way to do it is to do it with computers - only computers."


July 24, 1998 -
The unflinchingly gritty Steven Spielberg war flick, Saving Private Ryan premiered on this date.



The Omaha Beach scene cost $11 million to shoot, and involved up to 1,000 extras, some of whom were members of the Irish Army Reserve. Of those extras, 20-30 of them were amputees, issued with prosthetic limbs, to play soldiers who had their limbs blown off.


Another book from the back shelves of The ACME Library


Today in History:
July 24, 1567 -
Mary of Guise, the French wife of Scotland's King James V, gave birth to a daughter named Mary in 1542. A week later King James died and the very young Mary became the Queen of Scotland.

Prince Edward of England proposed marriage to the Queen immediately and his proposal is therefore known as the Rough Wooing. While the pedophile Prince waited for the Queen to acquire enough verbal skills to reply, the Scottish parliament annulled the engagement.

Edward's father, the English King Henry VIII, considered this an insult and declared war. Following an especially nasty Scottish defeat in 1547, Mary was sent to France. It was hoped she would learn to read and write there, and perhaps reach puberty.

She was raised in the court of Henry II, which ought to have taught her some manners, but instead inspired her to marry a dolphin. Eventually the dolphin became king and died, leaving Mary the dowager queen of France. She was 18. Her mother had meanwhile died in Scotland, which caused the Protestants to rebel. They imported the Reformation and banned the Pope. Mary, being Catholic, returned to Scotland to work out a compromise: the country could be Protestant as long as she was allowed to be Catholic.

Four years later she married her cousin, Lord Darnley, a Two-Door Steward (as oppose to a 2-door coupe). Unfortunately he turned out to be disgusting, and even the birth of a son could not induce Lord Darnley to behave. He was therefore struck by an explosion the following year and subsequently died of strangulation. She was then kidnapped by one of the men suspected of strangling Lord Darnley, a certain Earl of Bothwell, whom she therefore made a Duke and married.

This angered the Protestants, who rose up against her. All of this was a very long way of saying that on this very day in 1567, she was forced to abdicate in favor of her son, who was immediately crowned as James VI.



She then escaped, raised an army, and was promptly defeated. She became a guest (or, in English, "prisoner") of Queen Elizabeth, until she was caught writing letters asking friends to support (or, in Scottish, "kill") the English Queen.



She was therefore beheaded, and remains dead to this day.

(This will be on the test.)


341 years ago today, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded a trading post at Fort Ponchartrain for France on the future site of the city of Detroit, Michigan, in an attempt to halt the advance of the English into the western Great Lakes region.

Mr Cadillac himself thereby came to be known as "the Rolls Royce of settlers." M. Cadillac would be happy to see the improvements going on in Detroit today.


July 24, 1883 -
Captain Matthew Webb wasn't having a great day today. Webb, the first person to swim the English Channel in 1875, was attempting to swim across the Niagara River just below the falls.

The Captain was looking to collect a £12,000.00 fortune, when he jumped from his small boat into the raging torrent. He hit his head on jagged rocks and drowned while trying to swim across the Niagara River. His last words were (apparently,) "If I die, they will do something for my wife?"


July 24, 1908 -
Sometimes, it's good to be the king ... you get to decide the length of the Olympic marathon.

When the modern Olympics began in Athens in 1896, a race of 40 kilometers, or 24.85 miles, was held to commemorate the legend of Pheidippides. He is the guy who ran from Marathon to Athens, cried, 'Nike!', realized that he forgot to sign the endorsement contract, then promptly died. For the London 1908 Olympics race, on this date, the marathon was extended to 26 miles so that The Princess of Wales (the future Queen Mary, grandmother of Queen Elizabeth) and her childrn (King Edward VII's grandchildren) could watch the start of the marathon and Queen Alexandria could see the finish from the royal box. The organizers decided on a course of 26 miles and 385 yards from the start at Windsor Castle to the royal entrance to the White City Stadium, followed by a lap of the track, finishing in front of the Royal Box.



The race had a thrilling conclusion - entering the stadium first was Italian Dorando Pietri. But he was exhausted, delirious. He turned the wrong way on the track, reversed course and stumbled, according to news accounts, five times in the final quarter-mile. By assisting Pietri to his feet, race officials assisted Pietri to his feet, jeopardizing his gold medal. But as the official Olympic report said, “It was impossible to leave him there, for it looked as if he might die in the very presence of the Queen.”



Pietri reached the tape first, collapsed and was placed on a stretcher. Arriving second was John Hayes of the United States. The Americans protested the aid given to Pietri, and Hayes was declared the winner. Though he was disqualified, Pietri became a hero. Queen Alexandra presented him with a silver cup. He spurred an international marathon craze. Irving Berlin wrote a song about him. And finally in 1921, the official marathon distance became 26 miles 385 yards.

So now you know


July 24, 1915 -
Almost 850 Western Electric employees and their family members perish when the chartered steamer SS Eastland rolled over in Chicago harbor on this date. History blames the top-heaviness of the ship, exacerbated (ironically) by the recent addition of lifeboats.



Moral: Avoid company picnics.


July 24, 1959 -
While visiting a model kitchen in a U.S. exhibition in Moscow, Vice President Richard M. Nixon debated with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev at a U.S. exhibition in the famous 'Kitchen' debate, on the merits of capitalism and communism



Nixon correctly said that the $100-a-month mortgage for the model ranch house was well within the reach of a typical American steelworker.

(Stop dreaming about a $100-a-month mortgage.)


Before you go - not to bum you out but, Autumn, will begin in 61 days.



Soon enough the days will grow shorter and we may still be under a COVID watch.



And so it goes.