The tree will make the over 135-mile journey by flatbed truck to Manhattan and arrive on Saturday, November 9 where it will be erected at Rockefeller Center. Crews will start decorating the tree and wrapping more than 50,000 multi-colored, energy-efficient LED lights. Then it will be topped with a Swarovski 9-foot, 900-pound star covered in 3 million crystals.. This year’s official lighting ceremony will take take place on Wednesday, December 4th and will be broadcast nationally as part of NBC’s Christmas at Rockefeller Center, hosted again by Kelly Clarkson. As always, we here at ACME warn you to avoid the area at all cost.
Today is a celebration of Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds
November 7, 1932 -
The Buck Rogers in the 25th Century radio show, notable as the first science-fiction program on radio, first hit the airwaves as a 15-minute broadcast on CBS Radio on this date.
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The show related the story of Anthony Buck Rogers finding himself in waking up in the 25th century, after having been held in suspended animation for almost 500 years.
November 7, 1951 -
The under-rated British film-noir (based on a Graham Greene novel and screenplay written by Graham Greene,) directed by John Boulting, Brighton Rock, starring Richard Attenborough, Hermione Baddeley, and William Hartnell opened in the US on this date.
Graham Greene wrote Richard Attenborough a letter after seeing the movie, praising his performance as Pinkie. Attenborough kept the letter for the rest of his life.
November 7, 1955 -
The neo-realist film classic, Umberto D., was released in the US on this date.
Non-actress Maria Pia Casilio, who plays the role of the house maid in the film, got the part when she accompanied a friend to see the real actresses competing for the film's audition. Director Vittorio De Sica spotted her in the balcony and knew she was exactly what he was looking for in the role. Maria went on to work with De Sica in three other films. She continued to work in films until the late 1990s.
November 7, 1956 -
An early masterpiece from Fellini, I Vitelloni, was released in the US on this date.
The part for Sergio Natali was originally offered to the great Italian director, Vittorio de Sica. He politely declined as he was concerned that the character's homosexuality might mark the director himself as a homosexual.
November 7, 1963 -
The comedy that features one of the largest collections of American comedians ever brought together, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, premiered on this date. (Family lore has it that my father laughed so hard while watching this movie in the theatre that he fell out of his seat.)
Jack Benny's cameo role was originally offered to Stan Laurel, but Laurel turned it down. When his best friend and partner Oliver Hardy died in 1957, he pledged never to perform again. He kept that promise for the rest of his life. By the time this happened, a long shot of the character had already been filmed with a stand-in wearing Laurel's trademark bowler hat. This is why Benny is seen wearing a bowler hat despite his never having worn one as part of his regular work.
November 7, 1969 -
The opening track from Led Zeppelin II, Whole Lotta Love, was released as a single on this date. It was the first single the band released. The B-side of the single was, Living Loving Maid. It became their highest chart topper, reaching No. 4 on the Billboard Charts.
One of the more intriguing sections of this song comes at the 4-minute mark, where the distant voice of Robert Plant sings each line ("Way down inside... woman... you need... love") before his full-throated vocal comes in. This is known as "backward echo," and one of the first uses of the technique, but it happened by accident: A different take of Plant's vocal bled over to his master vocal track, so when Page and engineer Eddie Kramer mixed the song, they couldn't get rid of it. They did what most creative professionals do with a mistake: they accentuated it to make it sound intentional, adding reverb to it so Plant sounded like he was foreshadowing his lines from afar.
November 7, 1975 –
The pilot for the series Wonder Woman, The New Original Wonder Woman TV movie starring Lynda Carter premiered on ABC-TV, on this date.
Lynda Carter received a standing ovation from the cast and crew the very first time she walked onto the set wearing the Wonder Woman costume.
November 7, 1979 -
Loosely based on the life of Janis Joplin, the film, The Rose, starring Bette Midler, was released on this date.
The movie was originally titled Pearl, which was a biographical movie based on Janis Joplin's life. When approached with the script for Pearl, Bette Midler believed it was too soon after Joplin's death to portray her life in a movie. Re-writes were then made, with Midler's guidance, that deleted some portions of the original script, and embellished other parts of the story. Then the re-written script was named The Rose, and Midler agreed to the lead role.
November 7, 1997 -
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment released the comedy Bean, directed by Mel Smith and starring Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol, Pamela Reed, Harris Yulin, Sandra Oh and Burt Reynolds, on this date.
The producers were initially looking for an unknown actor to play General Newton. But being a fan of the series, Mr. Bean, Burt Reynolds asked for a role, and was then cast to appear as Newton.
Another ACME Safety Film.
Today in History:
Maria Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, on November 7, 1867. Poland was controlled by Russia at the time, so Maria was referred to as Manya, causing her mother to die. This left Manya and her four older siblings in care of their father, who was caught teaching Polish and therefore prohibited from earning money.
Marie Curie's research would eventually culminate in the development of the atomic bomb, but unfortunately she died before having the opportunity to see the full flowering of her hard work.
November 7, 1872 -
The cargo ship Mary Celeste sailing from New York, never reached Genoa. Four weeks later it is found completely abandoned, whereabouts of the ten man crew unknown.
The ship's cargo was alcohol, so you decide.
November 7, 1874 -
The famous political cartoonist Thomas Nast (a staunch Republican) first used an elephant to symbol for the Republican Party on this date.
November 7, 1885 -
Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the first transcontinental railroad across Canada, was completed with the driving of the "last spike" by CPR railroad financier Donald Smith in Craigellachie, British Columbia on this date.
Despite rising costs, a political scandal that toppled Sir John A. Macdonald’s government and the death of at least 600 Chinese railway workers, the CPR — linking Eastern and Western Canada - was completed 5 years ahead of schedule.
November 7, 1916 -
Jeanette Rankin became the first woman to hold a high government office in the United States when on this date she was elected to the United States House of Representatives from the state of Montana.
A lifelong pacifist, she was the only legislator to vote against American involvement in both World War I and World War II.
November 7, 1940 -
The newly completed Tacoma Narrows Bridge, opened barely four months before, swayed and collapsed in a 42 mile-per-hour wind on this date.
There were no casualties except a dog trapped in a car stranded on the bridge. A rescue was attempted (by the man with the pipe), but the frightened animal would not leave the car.
November 7, 1943 -
Roberta Joan Joni Mitchell, Canadian singer-songwriter and painter, one of the most influential female musicians of the late 20th century, was born on this date.
Her many hit songs include Both Sides Now, Chelsea Morning, Big Yellow Taxi, River, Help Me, and Free Man in Paris were all recorded before she was 32.
November 7, 1962 -
Richard M. Nixon, 49, who had been in politics for 16 years, failed in a bid to become governor of California, held what he called his last press conference, telling reporters, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore," on this date.
Nixon was able to come back from his defeat and be elected president of the United States just six years.
November 7, 1965 -
The Pillsbury Doughboy made its first appearance on this date.
You may refer to the creature as IT; marketing may call it a Doughboy but there is no evidence of genitalia.
November 7, 1983 -
An anonymous phone called notified the White House authorities that a bomb had been placed close to the Senate chamber by the "Armed Resistance Unit" and was set to explode. The Senate chamber was empty at the time, and nobody was injured.
The bomb did, however, cause about $250,000 in damage. Six Resistance Conspiracy members were arrested for the bombing five years later.
November 7, 2000 -
Hillary Clinton ran and won the election to become the junior senator from New York (although she had never lived in the state previously,) on this date, becoming the first First Lady in US history to seek and win a political office.
She was re-elected to the Senate in 2006. And oh yeah, she ran for president a couple of times.
November 7, 2000 -
The US Presidential election of the "hanging chad" occurred. The controversial Presidential election decision between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush ended up being addressed by the US Supreme Court in December in the Bush v. Gore case.
The issue surrounded voting irregularities in Florida and how the 25 electoral votes from that state would be decided. One of the more memorable issues had to do either with voter errors or machine errors that left the paper ballots with "hanging chads" that weren't punched through, making it difficult to ascertain the voter's true intention. Bush won the election, which was the closest race since the election of 1876 between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden. This election also made Bush the fourth president in US history to win the electorate vote without winning the popular vote.
Before you go - First up this year, the English clothing store chain, Marks and Spencer released their annual holiday food advert, (it always seems to be early to me, but I always say that.)
This year Dawn French gets to meet her animated counterpart. I'm getting myself ready for the holiday races. Bunkies, get yourself ready too.
And so it goes
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