You could spend all day perusing, studying, scanning, looking through, scuritying for fun.
Well some people could.
January 18, 1973 -
The third season finale of Monty Python, The British Showbiz Awards (aka Grandstand,), aired on the BBC on this date
Eric Idle portrays "Dickie Attenborough," a clear reference to Richard Attenborough, who also sometimes went by Dickie. His brother, David Attenborough, worked at the BBC and actually gave this series the green light.
January 18, 1974 -
The sci-fi series, The Six Million Dollar Man, starring Lee Majors, premiered on the ABC-TV on this date.
The characters of Oscar Goldman (Richard Anderson) and Rudy Wells (Martin E. Brooks) appeared on this series and its spin-off, The Bionic Woman. When the spin-off moved to another network, this practice continued. This was the first time the same continuing characters appeared on two different television series broadcast on two different networks at the same time.
January 18, 1975 -
We all moved on up to the Eastside when The Jeffersons, a spin-off of All In The Family premiered on CBS-TV on this date.
When the show first started, George constantly referred to Tom as a honky. After a few seasons, Sherman Hemsley asked the writers to stop having George call him that, as he felt that the characters were friends, and that George would not use a racist term on a friend. When the writers refused to stop, Hemsley simply mumbled the the word every time he said it, forcing re-shoots. Eventually the writers stopped using the word.
January 18, 1977 -
The last wet dream of the Nietzchian Uberman came to fruition when Arnold Schwarzenegger was introduced to America, when George Butler’s bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron hit the theaters on this date.
Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted that he had made up several stories in the movie for attention because the producers told him that without drama it would be boring. One of the stories made up was the fact that he did not attend his father's funeral because of a body building competition that was going to happen in a couple of months. Arnold did actually attend his father's funeral and spoke to him shortly before he passed.
January 18, 1978 -
Warren Zevon third studio album, Excitable Boy, was released on this date. The album brought Zevon to commercial attention and remains the best-selling album of his career.
Co-produced by Jackson Browne, the album is laced with such horror-tinged songs like Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner, Werewolves Of London and the title track, Excitable Boy.
January 18, 1980 -
Pink Floyd’s album, The Wall hit #1 on the Billboard Charts, on this day. It remained there for an astounding 15 weeks straight.
Despite Roger Waters' clear ambivalence towards his audience, new and old fans alike found the album appealing: The Wall sold 11 million copies stateside and 20 million copies worldwide.
January 18, 1984 -
The Coen Brothers made their directorial debut (as well as the first major cinematography work by Barry Sonnenfeld) with the release of Blood Simple, starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, and M. Emmet Walsh, on this date.
On the advice of Sam Raimi, the Coens went door-to-door showing potential investors a two minute 'trailer' of the film they planned to make. They ultimately raised $750,000 in a little over a year, enough to begin production of the movie.
Today in History:
January 18, 1836 -
Knife aficionado Jim Bowie arrived at the Alamo to assist its Texas defenders on this date.
On January 18, 1871, while Prussian guns blasted all hell out of Paris, William I was proclaimed Emperor of a united Germany in nearby Versailles.
January 18, 1882 -
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
Alan Alexander Milne was born on this date.
January 18, 1892 -
That's another fine mess you've gotten me into.
Oliver Hardy, American comedian, actor and the other half the the world's greatest comedy duo, was born on this date.
January 18, 1903 -
President Theodore Roosevelt sent a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.
January 18, 1904 -
My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.
Archibald Leach, noted actor, acrobat and over the top orgy participant, was born on this date.
January 18, 1911 -
The first landing of an aircraft onto a ship took place on this date. Pilot Eugene Ely was the first person to land a plane onto a ship, the USS Pennsylvania, in San Francisco Bay (less than ten years after the airplane was invented.)
Two months previously Ely had made the first successful take off from a warship. The technique would later become commonplace as aircraft carriers became major wartime assets.
January 18, 1912 -
Explorer Robert F. Scott reached the South Pole - only to discover that Roald Amundsen had beaten him there by almost a month.
The Norwegian Amundsen's expedition beat that of the British Scott's by a little more than a month, which Scott discovered upon reading a letter that Amundsen had left at the site.
As my girls would say (and I'm paraphrasing - it must have sucked to be him.)
January 18, 1913 (or 1911) -
When I stopped making films, they were getting on to the more realistic films and the explicit films and all. They were depicting life as it is, and some of it was unpleasant. I gradually moved away from that.
David Daniel Kaminsky, UNICEF ambassador, comedian, actor, was born in Brooklyn on this date.
January 16, 1955 -
Kevin Costner was born in Lynwood, California on this date. He is the youngest of three boys (the middle of whom died at birth) of Bill and Sharon Costner.
Before hitting it big in the acting business Kevin Costner worked as a skipper on the ride, the Jungle Cruise, at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. His first film role was in the 1981 low-budget softcore film Sizzle Beach.
January 18, 1958 -
Afro-Canadian Willie O'Ree was the very first black player in the NHL Signed by Boston Bruins he made his NHL debut with the Bruins on this date, against the Montreal Canadiens.
O'Ree appeared in two games that year playing as a winger, and came back in 1961 to play 43 games, scoring 4 goals and 10 assists. O'Ree is referred to as the "Jackie Robinson of ice hockey" due to breaking the black color barrier in the sport.
January 18, 1968 -
At a White House luncheon to discuss the rise in urban crime, Eartha Kitt gets into a notorious spat with First Lady Claudia Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson, declaring, "Vietnam is the main reason we are having trouble with the youth of America. It is a war without explanation or reason."
Although accounts of the entire argument differ, Kitt is subsequently blacklisted in America.
January 18, 1990 -
Rusty Hamer, the actor who played Danny Thomas' son on Make Room For Daddy, shot himself in the head with a .357 Magnum in DeRidder, Louisiana on this date. Rusty was 42 years old.
January 18, 1990 -
Washington DC mayor Marion Barry was arrested on cocaine possession charges at the Vista International Hotel, as he tokes on a glass crack pipe while being videotaped with his mistress Rasheeda on this date.
Kids remember, say NO to drugs, especially while being videotaped.
Before you go: It always comes as a surprise to me when David Elrich posts his film mash-up compilation. His 2024 version posted about a week ago
I always enjoy his videos and look forward to them each year.
And so it goes
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