It the anniversary of Cornelius Swarthout (of Troy, New York) receiving the first U.S. patent for a stovetop Waffle Iron (U.S. patent No. 94,043).
August 24, 1937 -
William Wyler's crime-drama film, Dead End, premiered in NYC on this date.
William Wyler originally wanted to film on location on the streets of New York, but producer Samuel Goldwyn insisted that the movie be made in the studio. Art director Richard Day was assigned to design the sets and made one of the most convincing and elaborate sets in film history.
August 24, 1966 -
One of the quintessential films of the 60s, Alfie, opened in the US on this date.
Several well-known actors (including Richard Harris, Laurence Harvey, James Booth, and Anthony Newley) turned down the title role, due to the then taboo subject matter of abortion. Despite having played Alfie on Broadway, Terence Stamp categorically declined to reprise the role on film, thus giving his good friend, and then roommate Michael Caine, the breakthrough role of his career.
August 24, 1966 -
The (still surprising good) sci-fi film, Fantastic Voyage, premiered on this date.
Medical schools, at least as late as the 1980s, showed clips from this movie to illustrate various concepts in human anatomy, physiology, and especially immunology.
August 24, 1967 –
Encouraged by Pattie Harrison, The Beatles and their partners - minus Ringo and Maureen Starkey, whose second child, Jason, had been born just five days earlier -attended a lecture by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, London, on this date.
This was a highly creative period for The Beatles. They wrote many songs, most of which were later included on their self-titled 1968 album, commonly known as the White Album. Ultimately, their association with the Maharishi ended abruptly after rumors surfaced of his inappropriate behavior with female devotees. John Lennon later expressed disappointment, stating that they had been mistaken about the Maharishi’s integrity.
August 24, 1968 -
The Rascals' song People Got to Be Free topped the charts on this date.
Felix Cavaliere claimed that he had to fight for this song, since Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records was worried that a message song would hurt the Rascals' career. Cavaliere prevailed and the song became the group's biggest hit.
August 24, 1977 –
The third in a series of films based on the Peanuts comic strip, Race For You Life, Charlie Brown, directed by Bill Melendez and Phil Roman, and voiced by Duncan Watson, Stuart Brotman, Gail Davis, Liam Martin, and Melanie Kohn, opened on this date.
This is the only theatrical Peanuts film to have villains (being the bullies). In every other film, the conflict comes from the characters themselves.
August 24, 1979 -
NBC-TV introduced the girls of Eastland School, an all-girls boarding school in Peekskill, New York, to audiences when The Facts of Life premiered on this date.
The pilot Rough Housing may have been the very first children's program on network television to discuss gender confusion and sexual identity crises among youth; as well as anti-gay bullying among teenagers.
August 24, 1981 -
Rolling Stones Records released the 16th British and 18th American studio album by The Rolling Stones, Tattoo You, on this date.
The Rolling Stones were getting ready for a contractual world tour and the band was barely speaking to one another by late 1980. To promote their worldwide American Tour 1981/European Tour 1982, the band's production team combed through unused recordings from prior sessions, some dating back almost a decade, to come up with songs for the album.
August 24, 1985 –
Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers' single, Real Love went to No. 1 on the Billboard country singles chart on this date.
The song, the title track from Parton’s latest album, was Parton and Rogers’ second country chart-topper as a duet act.
August 24, 1988 -
The Joan Micklin Silver romantic comedy, Crossing Delancey, starring Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, and Sylvia Miles, premiered on this date.
The pickle store as referred to in the film was Guss' Pickles, located at 35 Essex Street, below Delancey Street. It was a New York tradition, since 1920, closed their location on Essex Street in 2020. Currently, The Pickle Guys, located at the corner of Essex and Grand Streets, continues that tradition.
August 24, 1994 -
Singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley's sole album Grace was released on this date.
The song Grace was the album's first single, and it was also released as a video. Buckley performed the song for a long time before he recorded it, and an early demo appears on an album he made with Gary Lucas that was released posthumously called Songs to No One 1991-1992. Lucas and Buckley were part of a project called Gods & Monsters when they wrote this song; they also collaborated on the Grace track Mojo Pin.
August 24, 2013 -
Lorde's debut single Royals goes to #1 on the Alternative chart, making her the first female solo artist to top the charts since Tracy Bonham did it in 1996 (five months before Lorde was born) with her single Mother Mother.
Ella Yelich-O'Connor is a New Zealand singer-songwriter. Inspired by her love for such royals as Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI of France, and the last Tsar, Nicholas II of Russia, she adopted the moniker of Lorde (The 'e' is pronounced silently). Yelich-O'Connor was discovered when her now manager, Scott Maclachlan, saw a video of her performing at a Belmont Intermediate School talent show when she was 12.
Today in History:
August 24, 79 –
Pliny the Elder, who was not as old as his father, Pliny the Dead, witnessed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum being fired by Mount Vesuvius on this date. Vesuvius, ever the vengeful volcano god buried those happening Roman vacation spots, apparently to punish the debauchery that made the towns famous. Tens of thousands of people perished only to have plaster casts made centuries later of the hollows their bodies once occupied.
Once again, People, this is what happens when a city goes on the cheap and starts sacrificing any old whore rather than a proper virgin. One ever so faithful reader suggests that you skip visiting Pompeii and visit Ercolano (Herculaneum) instead. It is not so crowded and there are some cool little bars near the ruins where you can enjoy views of the bay of Naples and Vesuvius.
August 24, 1572 -
Troops loyal to the French crown alongside Catholic civilians massacre the Protestant Huguenots of Paris, estimates range between 20,000 and 100,000 deaths. At news of this carnage of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, a gleeful Pope Gregory XIII ordered celebrations and a medal to be struck.
Sometimes, you just have to be embarrassed to be a Catholic.
August 24, 1680 -
Colonel Thomas Blood, Irish adventurer who stole the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in 1671, died on this date.
Captured after the theft, he insisted on seeing King Charles II, who had a reputation for liking bold scoundrels. Charles not only pardoned him, but granted Blood Irish lands worth £500 a year!
August 24, 1814 -
The White House and other public buildings in the District of Columbia were torched by the invading British army on this date.
The President's wife, Dolley Madison and Paul Jennings, her husband's enslaved manservant, are torn away from Mrs. Madison's ice cream and candy making duties to save a couple of chairs,
and an unfinished portrait of some dead Virginian Slave holder, Masonite and dope smoker.
August 24, 1853 -
It is believed that the original potato chip recipe was created by chef George Crum, at Moon's Lake House near Saratoga Springs, New York, on this date.
He was fed up with a customer (the popular myth wrongly identifies him as Cornelius Vanderbilt) who continued to send his fried potatoes back, claiming that they were too thick and soggy. Crum decided to slice the potatoes so thin that they couldn't be eaten with a fork, nor fried normally in a pan, so he decided to stir-fry the potato slices. Against Crum's expectation, the guest was ecstatic about the new chips. They became a regular item on the lodge's menu under the name Saratoga Chips. They soon became popular throughout New York and New England.
You don't want to know how Crum got the vinegar flavor for that damn chip.
August 24, 1932 -
Amelia Earhart flew from Los Angeles to Newark, becoming the first woman to complete a non-stop, transcontinental flight on this date.
August 24, 1958 -
Red China commenced the shelling of the islands of Quemoy and Matsu, which hold one-third of Chiang Kai Shek's troops, on this date. The United States threatens nuclear retaliation for this, but the American people do not support the stance.
A very strange compromise is worked out, permitting China to shell the islands on odd dates and Chiang Kai Shek's troops to resupply the islands on even dates.
August 24, 1959 -
Three days after Hawaiian statehood,
Hiram L. Fong was sworn in as the first Chinese-American U.S. senator while Daniel K. Inouye was sworn in as the first Japanese-American U.S. representative.
August 24, 1968 –
France exploded its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
The Germans break out in an ever slight sweat. (The 1998 film Godzilla uses this particular test as the basis for the monster Godzilla, an infant green iguana mutated by the fallout from the blast.)
Another reason to hate the French.
August 24, 1989 -
Pete Rose was suspended from baseball for life for gambling on this date.
Unfortunately, Pete may never get into the Hall of Fame but the Cincinnati Reds did put up a statue of him outside the stadium a couple of years ago.
August 24, 2006 -
The planet Pluto was reclassified as a "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on this date. Pluto's status was changed due to the IAU's new rules for an object qualifying as a planet.
The other planets have been picking on Pluto ever since.
(Damn you, Neil deGrasse Tyson!)
And so it goes.
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