October 21, 1937 -
The great screwball comedy, The Awful Truth, starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, premiered on this date.
When Leo McCarey received his Best Director Oscar for the film, he reportedly said that he got it for the wrong film, a clear reference to his fondness for Make Way for Tomorrow, which he made the same year.
October 21, 1942 -
The first of three movie musicals in which Judy Garland and Gene Kelly starred in, For Me and My Gal, premiered in New York City on this date.
After initial previews, much of the film's ending was re-shot in order to make Gene Kelly's draft-dodging character Harry Palmer more sympathetic to wartime audiences. The scenes in which Palmer becomes a hero in combat were among those added.
October 21, 1954 -
The episode of Climax!, an anthology series - broadcast live, on this evening was the first time James Bond (Barry Nelson) appeared on-screen in Casino Royale, and more than half a century later Bond is still making movies.
Ian Fleming received three offers for the movie rights to his Casino Royale novel during 1954. The producer and director Gregory Ratoff bought the rights to the novel in May 1954 for six hundred dollars. It was a six month option, and Ratoff took this to CBS who produced and broadcast this one hour episode for Climax!. CBS purchased the rights to the Ian Fleming novel for one thousand dollars. John Shepridge negotiated the sale of the movie and television rights in 1954. Before the sale, the Casino Royale novel had not been successful, and was even re-titled and Americanized for its paperback issue. Fleming also needed money. Twelve months later, and after the television screening, Ratoff bought Casino Royale outright in perpetuity for an additional six thousand dollars. Both sales, including the option and the buy-out, are considered to have been sold too cheaply, and were two sales that Ian Fleming regretted.
October 21, 1964 -
Possibly the most fully realized movie musical, My Fair Lady premiered at the Criterion Theater in New York, on this date.
Audrey Hepburn apparently believed that Julie Andrews should have played Eliza Doolittle in this movie but was told by producer Jack L. Warner that she wouldn't be cast even if Hepburn turned down the role. Andrews said that she "threw a few tantrums" when she learned that she wouldn't be playing Eliza in this movie, and yet she got along very well with Hepburn without holding a grudge against her - she knew was an innocent party in the whole thing. Andrews would instead appear in Walt Disney's Mary Poppins for which she won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as the titular character.
October 21, 1972 -
Chuck Berry lands his only #1 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 with the single My Ding-a-Ling, on this date.
While many rock critics dismiss this song as a senseless novelty ditty, Berry is quite proud of the song. He told Rolling Stone in 2010 that he wanted to be a comedian at one point, and enjoys getting a laugh. He added that the song was originally about a ring sliding onto a finger (as a metaphor for sex), but he toned it down and recorded it as Little Girl Sing Ting-A-Ling in 1968. In 1972 he turned it into Ding-a-Ling, earning him a #1 hit and a check for $200,000.
October 21, 1977 -
Meat Loaf released the landmark album Bat Out Of Hell, on this date.
The album, written by Jim Steinman and produced by Todd Rundgren, became one of the most popular albums of the '70s, eventually selling over 14 million copies in America.
Another unimportant moment of history
Today in History:
October 21, 1805 -
The Battle of Trafalgar was a historic sea battle fought on this date, between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy - the battle, it self, was the most decisive British victory of the Napoleonic Wars and was a pivotal naval battle of the 19th century.
Admiral Lord Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle, becoming and remaining Britain's greatest naval war hero.
Nelson's body was placed in cask of brandy, mixed with camphor and myrrh, and returned to England for a spectacular funeral. An enduring rumor has evolved that the sailors aboard ship kept taking a sip from Nelson's liquory tomb hence the phrase 'Nelson's blood' came into use for rum.
October 21, 1837 -
It's another banner day for the relations between the United States and the Native American tribes. During the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), under a flag of truce during peace talks, U.S. troops under Gen. Thomas S. Jesup violated a truce and captured Indian Seminole Chief Osceola in Florida and sent him and several other leaders to prison, where the chief later died of malaria.
Makes you proud to be an American.
October 21, 1869 -
The first shipment of fresh oysters came West overland from Baltimore via refrigerated train cars on this date.
October 21, 1879 -
Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Alva Edison demonstrated the incandescent electric lamp on this date (or some other date, as previously mentioned.)
That invention was the fruit of study, hard work (of people other that Edison,) and years of persistent experimentation (of people other than Edison,) rendering it entirely inappropriate for discussion here.
More worthy of our attention is Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Prize, born on this date in 1833.
Dynamite proved so lucrative for Mr Nobel that he was able to spend most of the rest of his life blowing things up in the interests of world peace. World peace was not achieved in his lifetime, however, so he endowed a foundation with millions of dollars to give prizes to the men and women of future generations who helped bring the world closer to peace by blowing things up.
In 1943, Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, the maître d' of the Victory Club in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, prepared the first plate of crunchy, spicy nachos for Texas women who were on a shopping trip.
To honor his ingenious creation, we celebrate by eating his delicious gut busting cheesy dish on this date.
I've seen pictures of myself with makeup on, and I look like those women who look like they're wearing makeup so they can look young, and I don't think that's good. They have all these products now called - wait, what's it called, it's my favorite - youth suppressant, or age go away; they don't work..
October 21, 1959 -
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City on this date.
The structure faced harsh criticism when it opened in 1959. One critic dismissed it as "a war between architecture and painting, in which both come out badly maimed." Another called it "an indigestible hot cross bun." NYC Parks Commissioner Robert Moses snapped that it looked like "an inverted oatmeal dish."
October 21, 1973 -
John Paul Getty III's ear was cut off by his kidnappers and sent to a newspaper in Rome; It doesn't arrive until November 8.
October 21, 1992 -
A day after her Erotica album was released, Madonna's erotic-book Sex went on sale in the nation's bookstores on this date.
Shirley Booth, 94, Emmy, Oscar and Tony award winning actress accidentally flipped through the book and promptly dropped dead on this date as well.
October 21, 2015 -
Today is the day that Dr Emmett Brown takes Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer to the future to prevent their kids from "ruining their lives", back to the future
This used to be exciting but let's all calm down. (Wow, I'm so old.)
And so it goes
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