Huzzah!, it's Pig in a Blanket Day again, encouraging the consumption of ‘pigs in blankets’ – small pork sausages wrapped in bacon or pastry, and cooked until crispy (for those of you porcine adverse, choose your own ground meat filling.)
Please celebrate sensibly.
April 24, 1939 -
The Warner Bros. bio-pix on the life of Benito Juarez, Juarez, starring Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Brian Aherne, Claude Rains, and John Garfield, premiered in the US on this date.
Orry-Kelly designed costumes for Bette Davis which changed in tone as the film progressed: from white at the beginning, changing to gray in mid-film, and then to black at the end when she goes insane.
April 24, 1941 -
George Stevens' tearjerker classic, Penny Serenade, starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi, and Edgar Buchanan, premiered in the US on this date.
In a flagrant disregard of the then Production Code, it would appear that Irene Dunne and Cary Grant share a marital bed instead of separate ones. Also, there's an implication that the two have sex on a train, something unheard of in the morally hidebound 1940s.
April 24, 1961 -
Del Shannon started a four week run at No.1 on the Billboard singles chart with Runaway, on this date.
Shannon and his keyboard player, Max Crook, came up with this while they were playing a club in their hometown of Battle Creek, Michigan. Crook played a keyboard called a "Musitron" on the song.
April 24, 1972 -
John Lennon's controversial single, Woman Is the N*gger of the World was released in the US, on this date. The song peaked at No.57, despite virtually every radio station in the country refusing to play it.
Yoko Ono said the phrase during a magazine interview in 1967 and Lennon later explained that he was making a point that women deserved higher status in society.
April 24, 1974 -
David Bowie released his iconic album, Diamond Dogs, on this date.
This song introduces us to Bowie's post-Ziggy Stardust persona, Halloween Jack: "The Halloween Jack is a real cool cat and he lives on top of Manhattan Chase." It has also been suggested this song was influenced by Dhalgren, a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany.
April 24, 1976 -
With rumors of a Beatles reunion swirling, Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels goes on camera to offer the guys $3,000 (union scale) to reunite on the show, on this date.
Paul and Linda McCartney were spending the evening with John Lennon at his New York Dakota apartment and watched Saturday Night Live on TV. Lennon and McCartney thought about taking a cab to the studio, but decided they were too tired. This was the last time Lennon and McCartney were together.
April 24, 2000 -
In support of their first studio album after twenty years, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen appeared on an episode of The VH-1 series Storytellers, and spend an hour on the show, playing their songs, take requests from the audience, and in their typically cryptic fashion divulge some of the concepts behind their music.
The usually reclusive duo made a number of appearances in 2000, including a PBS In the Spotlight special, an outdoor street concert on Today and an appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman, Becker and Fagen discovered they actually enjoyed touring, erasing their early ’70s nightmares of the fledgling arena rock industry. Their ecstatic reception also eased Fagen’s stage fright and insecurities as a live performer.
April 24, 2000 -
The TV biopic The Three Stooges, starring Michael Chiklis, Paul Ben-Victor, John Kassir, Jim Lemley, and Evan Handler, premiered on ABC TV, on this date.
The movie made use of a Sydney landmark in an innovative way. New York's Coney Island amusement park used to have an attraction within its grounds called Luna Park. Sydney's amusement park, Luna Park, is of similar vintage. It has a still-functioning attraction inside its grounds named Coney Island. Even though the neon-lit facades of each park's rides are quite different, a temporary staging area was placed in front of Luna Park Sydney's main "face" entrance for night-time filming - and the movie's main characters appear that they are inside New York's amusement park, performing in front of an elaborate Luna Park attraction.
Word of the Day
Today in History:
April 24, 1184 BC (this is an approximated date.)
... burnt the topless towers of Ilium...
It is traditionally held that city of Troy fell on this date after a ten year siege by the armies of Greece.
April 24, 1800 -
The Library of Congress, the oldest cultural institution in the nation's capital, was established by an act of Congress on this date.
Initially it was housed in the new Capitol in Washington, D.C., but British troops burned the Capitol building and stole the library materials. Retired president Thomas Jefferson then offered his personal library to the Congress.
April 24, 1895 -
Joshua Slocum set sail in The Spray from Boston, Massachusetts, on this date, and would return three years later as the first man to solo-sail the globe’s circumference.
His book, Sailing Alone Around the World, became an international best-seller, and a cornerstone of travel literature.
April 24, 1913 -
The Cathedral of Commerce built one nickel at a time, the Woolworth building opened on this date.
The Five and Dimes are long gone but the skyscraper remains.
April 24, 1915 -
The Ottoman Turkish Empire began the brutal mass deportation of Armenians on this date. Turkey said Armenians had sided with Russia and issued deportation orders for the mass deportation of Armenians. Armenian organizations in Istanbul were closed and 235 members were arrested for treason. Turkish police arrested some 800 of the most prominent Armenians in Constantinople, took them into the hinterlands and shot them
It is generally agreed upon (except by the Turkish Government) that this was the beginning of the Armenian Genocide. And here I go, losing another whole demographic.
April 24, 1916 -
... We know their dream; enough
To know they dreamed and are dead;
And what if excess of love
Bewildered them till they died? - W. B. Yeats
Some 1,600 Irish nationalist, the Irish Volunteers, launched the Easter Rising by seizing several key sites in Dublin, including the General Post Office. Eemon de Valera was one of the commandants in the uprising. It was provoked by impatience with the lack of home rule and was put down by British forces several days later. Michael Collins, a member of Sinn Fein, led the guerrilla warfare.
April 24, 1942 -
To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people's views. It is to be open, not closed. So, yes, my ego is big, but it's also very small in some areas. My ego is responsible for my doing what I do - bad or good.
Barbara Joan Streisand, singer, actress and director, was born on this date
April 24, 1953 -
Winston Churchill, the British leader who guided Great Britain and the Allies through the crisis of World War II, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on this date.
Later, this same year he also won the Nobel peace prize for literature.
April 24, 1970 -
The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, was launched aboard a Long March rocket on this date. Upon reaching orbit, the satellite transmits the popular Communist Chinese song, The East is Red.
With the launch, China became the fifth country with a satellite in space.
April 24, 1986 -
'Her Royal Highness' The Duchess of Windsor, Bessie Warfield Spencer Simpson Windsor former maitresse en titre (official mistress), plain-faced, twice-divorced American, possible transvestite and Nazi sympathizer died on this date.
And the House of Windsor breathed a sigh of relief -
until Princess Diana.
April 24th, 1990 -
The Space Shuttle Discovery launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. It is hoped that the Telescope will be able to see up to the edge of the known universe. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was one of the largest space telescopes ever used, at the time, and has contributed to many astrological discoveries, notably in the area of supernovas and dark energy.
Hubble has sent back a series of stunning photographs of deep space, and revolutionized thinking about the universe. Unlike many other spacecraft, the HST is open for public use — anyone regardless of education level or nationality can apply for time to use it.
And so it goes
Monday, April 24, 2023
Sunday, April 23, 2023
In case you were wondering
(Thanks to some very nice people at Linkedin, I was able to get back my account.)
Another reason to be cheerful -
Summer begins in 59 days!
April 23, 1896 -
Thomas Edison presented the first publically-projected Vitascope motion picture (with hand-tinting) in the US to a paying American audience on a screen, at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City (at 34th Street and Broadway), with his latest invention - the projecting kinetoscope or Vitascope.
Customers watched the Edison Company's Vitascope project a ballet sequence in an amusement arcade during a vaudeville act.
April 23, 1931 -
William A. Wellman pre-code crime drama masterpiece, The Public Enemy, starring James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Mae Clarke, Edward Woods, Donald Cook, and Joan Blondell premiered in the NYC on this date.
Because of the famous grapefruit scene, for years afterward when dining in restaurants, fellow patrons would send grapefruit to James Cagney, which--almost invariably--Cagney would happily eat.
April 23, 1947 -
Carol Reed's IRA drama Odd Man Out starring James Mason, Robert Newton, and Cyril Cusack premiered in the US on this date.
James Mason called this his best performance of his career, and his favorite Carol Reed film.
April 23, 1953 -
George Stevens iconic western, Shane, starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde, and Jack Palance, premiered in New York City on this date.
The film was completed in 1951 but George Stevens' editing process was so rigorous that it wasn't released until 1953. This drove up the costs of what should have been a simple, straightforward Western; in fact, they spiraled so much that Paramount approached Howard Hughes about taking on the property, but he declined.
April 23, 1958 -
Orson Welles' noir thriller Touch of Evil, starring Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh, was released on this date.
Orson Welles initially despised the title Touch of Evil, having had nothing to do with its conception. Over the years, however, he grew to like it, and eventually considered it the best title out of all his films.
April 23, 1971 -
The Rolling Stones, released their 9th British (and 11th American) studio album, Sticky Fingers on their brand new label, Rolling Stones Records, on this date.
The album cover was designed by Andy Warhol. It was a close-up photo of a man wearing tight jeans, and contained a real zipper. (It was rumored that the man wearing the tight jeans was Mick Jagger. It actual was Joe Dallesandro, one of Warhol's Superstars.) This caused considerable problems in shipping, but was the kind of added value that made the album much more desirable (you don't get this kind of stuff with CDs or downloads). Sticky Fingers also marked the first appearance of the famous tongue and lips logo, which was printed on the inner sleeve. The logo was designed by John Pasche, who was fresh out of art school (the Royal College of Art in London).
The Stones liked this date so much that Black and Blue, their 13th British and 15th American studio album was released on this date, in 1976.
Hot Stuff was the working title for the album until they decided on Black And Blue.
April 23, 1976 -
Sire Records released The Ramones eponymous debut album, which arguably ushered in the punk rock era, on this date.
The album took seven days to make and cost $6,400, while its iconic front cover – depicting the band standing against a brick wall – was taken by renowned punk photographer Roberta Bayley and cost the record company just $125.
April 23, 1977 -
Please get ready to shake your groove thang - Thelma Houston's remake of the song, Don’t Leave Me This Way reached no.1 on the Billboard charts on this date.
This song was originally recorded by Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes with a soulful lead vocal by Teddy Pendergrass. Released on their 1975 album Wake Up Everybody, it wasn't issued as a single in America.
April 23, 1988 -
... There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark....
Pink Floyd's album Dark Side Of The Moon, after spending the record total of 741 consecutive weeks (over 14 years) on the Billboard 200, left the charts for its first time ever.
How did they ever make ends meet?
April 23, 2001 -
Fatboy Slim releases single Weapon of Choice, music video directed by Spike Jonze starring Christopher Walken dancing.
The video was shot over two days in the lobby of a Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles shortly before Christmas in 2000. The video won six MTV Video Music awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography.
Another book from the back shelves of The ACME Library
Today in History:
April 23, 303 -
St George, the future patron saint of England, literally lost his head when he annoyed the Emperor Diocletian so much that the emperor had him separated from his head.
According to legend, George, saved a Libyan king's daughter (Cleodolinda) from a fiery dragon.
You'd think people would be more patient with a local dragon slayer.
William Shakespeare was born on this date in 1564 and wrote a lot of plays then died in the end—on April 23, 1616.
His accomplishments are all the more remarkable when you consider that he died on the same day he’d been born.
April 23, 1616 -
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra died the very same day as Shakespeare. Mr. Cervantes was a brilliant Spanish humorist, best known for his novel Don Quixote, in which an old man suffering from acute mental illness rides around the Spanish countryside hallucinating, then dies.
Sometimes that's all there is.
April 23, 1867 -
The Zoetrope was patented (#64,117) by William E. Lincoln of Providence, Rhode Island on this date. The device was the first animated picture machine.
It provided an animation sequence of pictures lining the inside wall of a shallow cylinder, with vertical slits between the images. By spinning the cylinder and looking through the slits, a repeating loop of a moving image could be viewed .
April 23, 1899 -
Happy is the novelist who manages to preserve an actual love letter that he received when he was young within a work of fiction, embedded in it like a clean bullet in flabby flesh and quite secure there, among spurious lives.
(This is some kind of trifecta for writers.) Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, writer and avid butterfly collector, was born in Saint Petersburg on this date. His work included Lolita, Pnin and Pale Fire.
April 23, 1936 -
I started using sunglasses in Alabama. I was going to do a show with Patsy Cline and Bobby Vee, and I left my clear glasses on the plane. I only had the sunshades, and I was quite embarrassed to go onstage with them, but I did it..
Roy Orbison, the coolest singer in sunglasses,was born on this date. (Luxuriate in the voluptuousness of despair.)
April 23, 1940 -
A fire broke out in the Rhythm Night Club in Natchez, Mississippi on this date. More than 200 people died, making it one of the worst fires in US history at the time.
News of the tragedy reverberated throughout the country, especially among the African American community, and blues performers have recorded memorial songs such as The Natchez Burning and The Mighty Fire ever since.
April 23, 1967 -
The USSR launched Soyuz One on this date.
The next day, forced to return to earth, cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the first casualty of space flight when his capsule's parachute opened improperly.
Oops.
April 23, 1968 -
Students at Columbia University in New York City begin a week long occupation of several campus buildings protesting the Universities affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a weapons research think-tank affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense, on this date.
Students had been demonstrating earlier in March but the Columbia Administration had placed on probation six anti-war Columbia student activists for violating the ban on indoor demonstrations, which in turn caused the students to become more hard line in their protests.
April 23, 1975 -
At a speech at Tulane University, President Gerald Ford says the Vietnam War is finished as far as America is concerned, on this date. “Today, Americans can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by re-fighting a war.”
This was devastating news to the South Vietnamese, who were desperately pleading for U.S. support as the North Vietnamese surrounded Saigon for the final assault on the capital city. I don't think this worked out well, all around.
April 23, 1985 -
Coca-Cola changed its classic formula and released New Coke on this date.
The response was overwhelmingly negative, and the real thing was back on the market in less than three months. If only the public had the same response when they removed the cocaine from the formula!
April 23, 2005 -
The first video uploaded to YouTube, entitled Me at the zoo, made its online debut on this date. The 19-second video was shot by Yakov Lapitsky and shows YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo.
It racked up 19 million views in its first ten years online. It currently has over 90 million views.
And so it goes.
Another reason to be cheerful -
Summer begins in 59 days!
April 23, 1896 -
Thomas Edison presented the first publically-projected Vitascope motion picture (with hand-tinting) in the US to a paying American audience on a screen, at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City (at 34th Street and Broadway), with his latest invention - the projecting kinetoscope or Vitascope.
Customers watched the Edison Company's Vitascope project a ballet sequence in an amusement arcade during a vaudeville act.
April 23, 1931 -
William A. Wellman pre-code crime drama masterpiece, The Public Enemy, starring James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Mae Clarke, Edward Woods, Donald Cook, and Joan Blondell premiered in the NYC on this date.
Because of the famous grapefruit scene, for years afterward when dining in restaurants, fellow patrons would send grapefruit to James Cagney, which--almost invariably--Cagney would happily eat.
April 23, 1947 -
Carol Reed's IRA drama Odd Man Out starring James Mason, Robert Newton, and Cyril Cusack premiered in the US on this date.
James Mason called this his best performance of his career, and his favorite Carol Reed film.
April 23, 1953 -
George Stevens iconic western, Shane, starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Heflin, Brandon De Wilde, and Jack Palance, premiered in New York City on this date.
The film was completed in 1951 but George Stevens' editing process was so rigorous that it wasn't released until 1953. This drove up the costs of what should have been a simple, straightforward Western; in fact, they spiraled so much that Paramount approached Howard Hughes about taking on the property, but he declined.
April 23, 1958 -
Orson Welles' noir thriller Touch of Evil, starring Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh, was released on this date.
Orson Welles initially despised the title Touch of Evil, having had nothing to do with its conception. Over the years, however, he grew to like it, and eventually considered it the best title out of all his films.
April 23, 1971 -
The Rolling Stones, released their 9th British (and 11th American) studio album, Sticky Fingers on their brand new label, Rolling Stones Records, on this date.
The album cover was designed by Andy Warhol. It was a close-up photo of a man wearing tight jeans, and contained a real zipper. (It was rumored that the man wearing the tight jeans was Mick Jagger. It actual was Joe Dallesandro, one of Warhol's Superstars.) This caused considerable problems in shipping, but was the kind of added value that made the album much more desirable (you don't get this kind of stuff with CDs or downloads). Sticky Fingers also marked the first appearance of the famous tongue and lips logo, which was printed on the inner sleeve. The logo was designed by John Pasche, who was fresh out of art school (the Royal College of Art in London).
The Stones liked this date so much that Black and Blue, their 13th British and 15th American studio album was released on this date, in 1976.
Hot Stuff was the working title for the album until they decided on Black And Blue.
April 23, 1976 -
Sire Records released The Ramones eponymous debut album, which arguably ushered in the punk rock era, on this date.
The album took seven days to make and cost $6,400, while its iconic front cover – depicting the band standing against a brick wall – was taken by renowned punk photographer Roberta Bayley and cost the record company just $125.
April 23, 1977 -
Please get ready to shake your groove thang - Thelma Houston's remake of the song, Don’t Leave Me This Way reached no.1 on the Billboard charts on this date.
This song was originally recorded by Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes with a soulful lead vocal by Teddy Pendergrass. Released on their 1975 album Wake Up Everybody, it wasn't issued as a single in America.
April 23, 1988 -
... There is no dark side in the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark....
Pink Floyd's album Dark Side Of The Moon, after spending the record total of 741 consecutive weeks (over 14 years) on the Billboard 200, left the charts for its first time ever.
How did they ever make ends meet?
April 23, 2001 -
Fatboy Slim releases single Weapon of Choice, music video directed by Spike Jonze starring Christopher Walken dancing.
The video was shot over two days in the lobby of a Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles shortly before Christmas in 2000. The video won six MTV Video Music awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography.
Another book from the back shelves of The ACME Library
Today in History:
April 23, 303 -
St George, the future patron saint of England, literally lost his head when he annoyed the Emperor Diocletian so much that the emperor had him separated from his head.
According to legend, George, saved a Libyan king's daughter (Cleodolinda) from a fiery dragon.
You'd think people would be more patient with a local dragon slayer.
William Shakespeare was born on this date in 1564 and wrote a lot of plays then died in the end—on April 23, 1616.
His accomplishments are all the more remarkable when you consider that he died on the same day he’d been born.
April 23, 1616 -
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra died the very same day as Shakespeare. Mr. Cervantes was a brilliant Spanish humorist, best known for his novel Don Quixote, in which an old man suffering from acute mental illness rides around the Spanish countryside hallucinating, then dies.
Sometimes that's all there is.
April 23, 1867 -
The Zoetrope was patented (#64,117) by William E. Lincoln of Providence, Rhode Island on this date. The device was the first animated picture machine.
It provided an animation sequence of pictures lining the inside wall of a shallow cylinder, with vertical slits between the images. By spinning the cylinder and looking through the slits, a repeating loop of a moving image could be viewed .
April 23, 1899 -
Happy is the novelist who manages to preserve an actual love letter that he received when he was young within a work of fiction, embedded in it like a clean bullet in flabby flesh and quite secure there, among spurious lives.
(This is some kind of trifecta for writers.) Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, writer and avid butterfly collector, was born in Saint Petersburg on this date. His work included Lolita, Pnin and Pale Fire.
April 23, 1936 -
I started using sunglasses in Alabama. I was going to do a show with Patsy Cline and Bobby Vee, and I left my clear glasses on the plane. I only had the sunshades, and I was quite embarrassed to go onstage with them, but I did it..
Roy Orbison, the coolest singer in sunglasses,was born on this date. (Luxuriate in the voluptuousness of despair.)
April 23, 1940 -
A fire broke out in the Rhythm Night Club in Natchez, Mississippi on this date. More than 200 people died, making it one of the worst fires in US history at the time.
News of the tragedy reverberated throughout the country, especially among the African American community, and blues performers have recorded memorial songs such as The Natchez Burning and The Mighty Fire ever since.
April 23, 1967 -
The USSR launched Soyuz One on this date.
The next day, forced to return to earth, cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov became the first casualty of space flight when his capsule's parachute opened improperly.
Oops.
April 23, 1968 -
Students at Columbia University in New York City begin a week long occupation of several campus buildings protesting the Universities affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), a weapons research think-tank affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense, on this date.
Students had been demonstrating earlier in March but the Columbia Administration had placed on probation six anti-war Columbia student activists for violating the ban on indoor demonstrations, which in turn caused the students to become more hard line in their protests.
April 23, 1975 -
At a speech at Tulane University, President Gerald Ford says the Vietnam War is finished as far as America is concerned, on this date. “Today, Americans can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by re-fighting a war.”
This was devastating news to the South Vietnamese, who were desperately pleading for U.S. support as the North Vietnamese surrounded Saigon for the final assault on the capital city. I don't think this worked out well, all around.
April 23, 1985 -
Coca-Cola changed its classic formula and released New Coke on this date.
The response was overwhelmingly negative, and the real thing was back on the market in less than three months. If only the public had the same response when they removed the cocaine from the formula!
April 23, 2005 -
The first video uploaded to YouTube, entitled Me at the zoo, made its online debut on this date. The 19-second video was shot by Yakov Lapitsky and shows YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo.
It racked up 19 million views in its first ten years online. It currently has over 90 million views.
And so it goes.
Saturday, April 22, 2023
An actual message from hq
(To all my friends that I am connected to on Linkedin - please disregard and messages or requests you may receive from my account - it has been hacked and as of now, I can not get back into it. Sorry for any confusion this may cause you.)
Anyway -
Since 2007 (give or take a year), record stores on six continents are set to celebrate Record Store Day,
an annual event, held one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, in order to 'celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store'.
Click here to see which albums are being released exclusively for Record Store Day.
On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies.
Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment.
Happy Earth Day!
Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.
So perhaps you're ready to brave to great outdoors, with or withour your mask and hug a tree.
If you don't want to be this familiar with nature, give a deep bow to your house plants.
April 22, 1939 -
Warner Bros. released the film, Dark Victory, starring Bette Davis (in one of her favorite roles) and George Brent (her favorite actor with whom she had an affair) on this date.
During the filming of the emotionally-charged scene when Bette Davis's character needs to find her way upstairs to her room after the brain tumor has caused her blindness, the cast and crew and several visitors were watching as Davis grasped the banister and began to feel her way up the steps, one by one. Halfway to the top of the staircase Davis paused, stopped the scene, briskly walked back downstairs and addressed director Edmund Goulding. "Ed," Davis said, "is Max Steiner going to be composing the music score to this picture?" Goulding, surprised by the question, replied that he didn't know, and asked Davis why the matter was important enough to stop the filming of the scene. "Well, either I'm going to climb those stairs or Max Steiner is going to climb those stairs," Davis responded, "but I'll be God-DAMNED if Max Steiner and I are going to climb those stairs together!"
April 22, 1942 -
One of Hitchcock's brilliant World War II efforts (and with his first all-American cast), Saboteur, premiered in Washington D.C. on this date.
When the French liner, the S.S. Normandie burned and partially sank in New York City harbor, Alfred Hitchcock quickly dispatched a Universal newsreel crew to the scene to get footage that he incorporated into this movie, intercut with studio shots of the saboteur smiling from the back seat of a taxi as he looks out on the supposedly sabotaged ship.
April 22, 1953 -
Twentieth Century Fox releases the surrealistic science fiction film Invaders from Mars, directed by William Cameron Menzies on this date.
The genesis of this film was when the wife of writer John Tucker Battle woke him up one morning to recount a vivid and disturbing dream she had of Martians invading Earth. He had her tell him as much as she could recall, and he developed the rest of the story from there.
April 22, 1966 -
The Troggs' (who were originally called The Troglodytes) song, Wild Thing was released in the U.S. on this date.
The song went on to reach No.1. Fronted by Reg Presley, Wild Thing became a major influence on garage rock and punk rock.
April 22, 1974 -
Maude and Walter finally leave Tuckahoe, New York and moves to Washington D.C. when she was elected as a congresswoman during the last episode of Maude, Maude's Big Move, aired on CBS TV on this date.
The producers of Maude liked the idea of a show centered around a new Congressional representative (even though they had watched a D.C.-politics show called All's Fair from their studio barely make it through the 1976-77 season) and remade this show three times. The first was the pilot for Onward and Upward, starring John Amos as the Congressman. Amos, who had quit Good Times after its third season, quit this series before any new shows could be made. The next try was called Mr. Dugan (after a couple of name changes) and scheduled for a limited run in 1979 with Cleavon Little in the title role. For third try the producers moved the whole show to a college campus, Hanging In, added a fifth character named Rita (Darrian Matthias) as a wide-eyed student assistant. They also picked up Bill Macy in the lead role and filmed four shows. They aired on CBS-TV in August 1979 and sank into obscurity.
April 22, 1978 -
The Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) make their debut on Saturday Night Live, on this date, later becoming the first characters from the show to get their own movie.
Steve Martin performs King Tut on the same Saturday Night Live episode, popularizing goofy Egyptian dancing.
The song, which portrays the pharaoh as his "favorite honky," goes on to sell over 500,000 copies.
Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today
Today in History:
April 22, 1451 -
Isabella I, Queen of Castille, was born on this date. She also became the Queen of Aragon in 1479.
She was Christopher Columbus' patron, and must therefore share some of the responsibility for the many thousands of casinos across America.
April 22, 1500 -
Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral, on a voyage to India, sails far to the southwest and discovers Brazil, claiming it for Portugal. The indigenous people of the area may have had something to say about it but as historian Eddie Izzard has observed, "...they didn't have a flag."
The land was first visited earlier in the year by a Spaniard, Vicente Yanes Pinzon, but in his rush to get two-for-one Caipirinhas, he left his flag on-board ship and failed to claim it for Spain.
April 22, 1870 -
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born on this date He later became Lenin, invented the Communist Party in Russia and made himself first Head Bastard of the Soviet Union.
It's interesting to note that Alexander Kerensky, the leader of Russia's provisional revolutionary government in 1917 until overthrown by Lenin, was born on the same day as Lenin, only eleven years later.
Well, it's interesting to some people.
April 22, 1886 -
Ohio passes a statute that makes seduction unlawful, on this date. Covering all men over the age of 18 who worked as teachers or instructors of women, this law even prohibited men from having consensual sex with women (of any age) whom they were instructing.
The penalty for disobeying this law ranged from two to 10 years in prison. So watch it, Bub!
April 22, 1904 -
Robert Oppenheimer was born on this date. Mr. Oppenheimer is known as the Father of the Atomic Bomb.
The bomb's mother has never been identified to anyone's satisfaction, which only underscores the lax security at Los Alamos.
April 22, 1923 -
It makes me feel wonderful that people still care for me... that I have so many fans among young people, who write to me and tell me I have been an inspiration..
Bettie Mae Page was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on this date.
April 22, 1946 -
Life is a rotten lottery. I've had a pretty amazing life, a good life, and God knows I'm thankful, but I do believe that after 30, stop whining! Everybody's dealt a hand, and it's not fair what you get. But you've got to deal with it..
John Waters, film director, actor, raconteur, and the owner of the world's greatest pencil-thin mustache was born on this date.
April 22, 1950 -
Peter Frampton, musician, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, was born on this date.
If you were a teenager in the mid 70s, you were issued your standard copy of Frampton Comes Alive to face your 'awkward' years. (Mr. Frampton appears doing well these days and has continued his farewell tour.)
April 22, 1952 -
About 200 reporters from across the country gathered on a mound of volcanic rock on the edge of Yucca Lake in Nevada, on this date, to witness the detonation of a nuclear bomb, Operation Big Shot, once again, on United States soil.
Such tests had been in operation for more than a year, but for the first time, the press had been invited to record and broadcast the nuclear explosion.
April 22, 1964 -
President Johnson opened the New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, New York, on this date.
The Fair also is remembered as the vehicle Walt Disney utilized to design and perfect the system of "audio-animatronics," in which a combination of sound and computers control the movement of life-like robots to act out scenes. In the It's a Small World attraction at the Pepsi pavilion, animated dolls and animals frolicked in a spirit of racially-insensitive unity on a boat-ride around the world.
Once the fair was over, Walt feverishly pushed his Imagineers to build him an 'actual' President. Historians argue that this was the beginning of Ronald Reagan campaign for the Presidency.
April 22, 1994 -
Richard M. Nixon suffered a fatal stroke on this date. His body was laid to rest in the unhallowed grounds of his Presidential Library.
His head was severed from his body and wooden stakes were driven through his heart to make sure he was dead.
And so it goes.
Anyway -
Since 2007 (give or take a year), record stores on six continents are set to celebrate Record Store Day,
Click here to see which albums are being released exclusively for Record Store Day.
On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies.
Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment.
Happy Earth Day!
Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.
So perhaps you're ready to brave to great outdoors, with or withour your mask and hug a tree.
If you don't want to be this familiar with nature, give a deep bow to your house plants.
April 22, 1939 -
Warner Bros. released the film, Dark Victory, starring Bette Davis (in one of her favorite roles) and George Brent (her favorite actor with whom she had an affair) on this date.
During the filming of the emotionally-charged scene when Bette Davis's character needs to find her way upstairs to her room after the brain tumor has caused her blindness, the cast and crew and several visitors were watching as Davis grasped the banister and began to feel her way up the steps, one by one. Halfway to the top of the staircase Davis paused, stopped the scene, briskly walked back downstairs and addressed director Edmund Goulding. "Ed," Davis said, "is Max Steiner going to be composing the music score to this picture?" Goulding, surprised by the question, replied that he didn't know, and asked Davis why the matter was important enough to stop the filming of the scene. "Well, either I'm going to climb those stairs or Max Steiner is going to climb those stairs," Davis responded, "but I'll be God-DAMNED if Max Steiner and I are going to climb those stairs together!"
April 22, 1942 -
One of Hitchcock's brilliant World War II efforts (and with his first all-American cast), Saboteur, premiered in Washington D.C. on this date.
When the French liner, the S.S. Normandie burned and partially sank in New York City harbor, Alfred Hitchcock quickly dispatched a Universal newsreel crew to the scene to get footage that he incorporated into this movie, intercut with studio shots of the saboteur smiling from the back seat of a taxi as he looks out on the supposedly sabotaged ship.
April 22, 1953 -
Twentieth Century Fox releases the surrealistic science fiction film Invaders from Mars, directed by William Cameron Menzies on this date.
The genesis of this film was when the wife of writer John Tucker Battle woke him up one morning to recount a vivid and disturbing dream she had of Martians invading Earth. He had her tell him as much as she could recall, and he developed the rest of the story from there.
April 22, 1966 -
The Troggs' (who were originally called The Troglodytes) song, Wild Thing was released in the U.S. on this date.
The song went on to reach No.1. Fronted by Reg Presley, Wild Thing became a major influence on garage rock and punk rock.
April 22, 1974 -
Maude and Walter finally leave Tuckahoe, New York and moves to Washington D.C. when she was elected as a congresswoman during the last episode of Maude, Maude's Big Move, aired on CBS TV on this date.
The producers of Maude liked the idea of a show centered around a new Congressional representative (even though they had watched a D.C.-politics show called All's Fair from their studio barely make it through the 1976-77 season) and remade this show three times. The first was the pilot for Onward and Upward, starring John Amos as the Congressman. Amos, who had quit Good Times after its third season, quit this series before any new shows could be made. The next try was called Mr. Dugan (after a couple of name changes) and scheduled for a limited run in 1979 with Cleavon Little in the title role. For third try the producers moved the whole show to a college campus, Hanging In, added a fifth character named Rita (Darrian Matthias) as a wide-eyed student assistant. They also picked up Bill Macy in the lead role and filmed four shows. They aired on CBS-TV in August 1979 and sank into obscurity.
April 22, 1978 -
The Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) make their debut on Saturday Night Live, on this date, later becoming the first characters from the show to get their own movie.
Steve Martin performs King Tut on the same Saturday Night Live episode, popularizing goofy Egyptian dancing.
The song, which portrays the pharaoh as his "favorite honky," goes on to sell over 500,000 copies.
Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today
Today in History:
April 22, 1451 -
Isabella I, Queen of Castille, was born on this date. She also became the Queen of Aragon in 1479.
She was Christopher Columbus' patron, and must therefore share some of the responsibility for the many thousands of casinos across America.
April 22, 1500 -
Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral, on a voyage to India, sails far to the southwest and discovers Brazil, claiming it for Portugal. The indigenous people of the area may have had something to say about it but as historian Eddie Izzard has observed, "...they didn't have a flag."
The land was first visited earlier in the year by a Spaniard, Vicente Yanes Pinzon, but in his rush to get two-for-one Caipirinhas, he left his flag on-board ship and failed to claim it for Spain.
April 22, 1870 -
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov was born on this date He later became Lenin, invented the Communist Party in Russia and made himself first Head Bastard of the Soviet Union.
It's interesting to note that Alexander Kerensky, the leader of Russia's provisional revolutionary government in 1917 until overthrown by Lenin, was born on the same day as Lenin, only eleven years later.
Well, it's interesting to some people.
April 22, 1886 -
Ohio passes a statute that makes seduction unlawful, on this date. Covering all men over the age of 18 who worked as teachers or instructors of women, this law even prohibited men from having consensual sex with women (of any age) whom they were instructing.
The penalty for disobeying this law ranged from two to 10 years in prison. So watch it, Bub!
April 22, 1904 -
Robert Oppenheimer was born on this date. Mr. Oppenheimer is known as the Father of the Atomic Bomb.
The bomb's mother has never been identified to anyone's satisfaction, which only underscores the lax security at Los Alamos.
April 22, 1923 -
It makes me feel wonderful that people still care for me... that I have so many fans among young people, who write to me and tell me I have been an inspiration..
Bettie Mae Page was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on this date.
April 22, 1946 -
Life is a rotten lottery. I've had a pretty amazing life, a good life, and God knows I'm thankful, but I do believe that after 30, stop whining! Everybody's dealt a hand, and it's not fair what you get. But you've got to deal with it..
John Waters, film director, actor, raconteur, and the owner of the world's greatest pencil-thin mustache was born on this date.
April 22, 1950 -
Peter Frampton, musician, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, was born on this date.
If you were a teenager in the mid 70s, you were issued your standard copy of Frampton Comes Alive to face your 'awkward' years. (Mr. Frampton appears doing well these days and has continued his farewell tour.)
April 22, 1952 -
About 200 reporters from across the country gathered on a mound of volcanic rock on the edge of Yucca Lake in Nevada, on this date, to witness the detonation of a nuclear bomb, Operation Big Shot, once again, on United States soil.
Such tests had been in operation for more than a year, but for the first time, the press had been invited to record and broadcast the nuclear explosion.
April 22, 1964 -
President Johnson opened the New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadow, Corona Park, New York, on this date.
The Fair also is remembered as the vehicle Walt Disney utilized to design and perfect the system of "audio-animatronics," in which a combination of sound and computers control the movement of life-like robots to act out scenes. In the It's a Small World attraction at the Pepsi pavilion, animated dolls and animals frolicked in a spirit of racially-insensitive unity on a boat-ride around the world.
Once the fair was over, Walt feverishly pushed his Imagineers to build him an 'actual' President. Historians argue that this was the beginning of Ronald Reagan campaign for the Presidency.
April 22, 1994 -
Richard M. Nixon suffered a fatal stroke on this date. His body was laid to rest in the unhallowed grounds of his Presidential Library.
His head was severed from his body and wooden stakes were driven through his heart to make sure he was dead.
And so it goes.
Friday, April 21, 2023
Eid Mubarak
Muslims around the world will be looking to the skies tonight, in search of the crescent moon that will signal the end of Ramadan, (which lasts between 29 and 30 days,) and the arrival of Shawwal, the 10th month of the Islamic calendar, which begins with Eid al-Fitr.
The celebrations begin with prayers at dawn, which usually take place at a mosque. Eid has its own special prayer, which is designed to be performed in a congregation. It is traditional for Muslims to gather together in a park to celebrate, with large-scale events and festival food (particularly sweet treats), prayer and stalls.
April 21, 1930 -
Lewis Milestone's adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, starring Louis Wolheim, and Lew Ayres, premiered in Los Angeles on this date.
With the loss of limbs and gory deaths shown rather explicitly, this is undoubtedly the most violent American film of its time. This is because the Production Code was not strictly enforced until 1934, and also because Universal Pictures deemed the subject matter important enough to allow the violence to be seen.
April 21, 1951 -
Les Paul and Mary Ford topped the charts with their hit of the classic How High the Moon on this date.
Although it was written by lyricist Nancy Hamilton and composer Morgan Lewis for the 1940 musical Two For The Show, the definitive version of How High The Moon was recorded by the husband and wife team of Les Paul and Mary Ford. This recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1979.
April 21, 1974 -
Julie and Dick In Covent Garden, a music and comedy special starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, with Carl Reiner, premieres on ABC-TV on this date.
The program was directed by Blake Edwards, (Julie Andrews' husband). Edwards also directed Andrews in The Tamarind Seed that year.
April 21, 1975 -
Teenages everywhere have themselves a good cry when Eric Carmen's song, (a mash-up of his own song, Let's Pretend and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18,) All By Myself entered the charts on this date.
When he wrote this, Carmen thought the Rachmaninoff music was in the public domain, meaning he could use it free of charge. After this song came out, he found out it wasn't and agreed to a settlement with the Rachmaninoff estate.
April 21, 1979 -
Amii Stewart cover of Eddie Floyd's song Knock on Wood went no. #1 on the Billboard chart on this date.
It was the only hit for Stewart, who was also a dancer and actress - she starred in the Broadway musical Bubbling Brown Sugar.
April 21, 1981 -
Weird Al Yankovic made his first national television appearance on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder.
He never receives royalties from the single's initial release because the record company has gone bankrupt.
April 21, 1982 -
The DJs at WKRP spun their last platter when the final episode of the original WKRP in Cincinnati series, Up and Down the Dial aired on CBS TV on this date.
The show was famous for playing music of up-and-coming bands. Many artists have said that their music being on the show helped their popularity, including Blondie, U2, The Cars, TOTO, The Knack, and Devo. Blondie was so grateful for the show making their song, Heart of Glass, a hit that they gave their Gold Record to the producers. It's hanging in the WKRP bullpen in seasons 2 to 4.
April 21, 1986 –
Geraldo Rivera hosted a live, highly promoted two-hour syndicated special from the Lexington Hotel in Chicago, The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vault, on this date.
Internal Revenue Service agents and a medical examiner stood at the ready should any cash or corpse lay inside. When demolition crews finally made their way inside the only contents were a dirt pile and a bottle of bathtub gin. The hype generated a record rating of 57 with an estimated audience of 30,000,000. The term "Al Capone's Vault" has come to mean any over-hyped event that leads to nothing.
April 21, 1989 -
The film grown men openly wept watching - Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, and Burt Lancaster, premiered on this date.
Ray Liotta had no baseball experience, and batted right-handed, although "Shoeless" Joe Jackson was a lefty. Phil Alden Robinson allowed Liotta to bat with his right, but still put him through several weeks of extensive training with University of Southern California baseball coach, and former Brooklyn Dodger, Rod Dedeaux, in order to be convincing as one of the sport's greatest hitters. Liotta eventually developed a good swing. The scene where he hits a line-drive straight back at Kevin Costner actually happened. Costner's fall on the mound was real, and although it was a surprise, he stayed in character.
April 21, 1990 -
The day after all your 420 celebrations, the largest anti-drug PSA effort in history: the Saturday morning simulcast of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue broadcast on the ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox networks respectively.
This monumental anti-drug (and, to a lesser extent, anti-alcohol) collaboration came at the apex of Nancy Reagan's "just say no!" era.
April 21, 1990 -
Sinead O'Connor's cover of Prince's Nothing Compares 2U, went to No 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.
The attention from the song hitting no. 1 had some deleterious effects on the singer. Sinead O'Connor claimed she hated the fame the song brought her, and she struggled with the commercialization of her music. Nothing Compares 2 U earned her a Grammy for Best Alternative Performance (it was also nominated for Record Of The Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Short Form Music Video) but she rejected the award along with all others offered to her, and refused to appear at the ceremony in protest of materialism in the music industry. O'Connor believed she was being honored for putting up impressive sales figures, not for her art. She wanted no part of it.
Prince wrote and recorded this song in 1984, but didn't release it. He did release a live version with Rosie Gaines on his 1993 album The Hits/The B-Sides, but his original solo recording didn't appear until 2018, when his estate released it from the vault. His version is guitar-based, with more of a rock feel. (Unfortunately, Prince was found dead at his home in Minnesota at the age of 57, on this date in 2016.)
Did you make it through Jimmy Scott's version without crying? Stronger people than you couldn't.
April 21, 1995 -
Buena Vista released the rom-com, While You Were Sleeping, starring Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle, Glynis Johns, and Jack Warden on this date.
The original screenplay was about a woman in a coma and a man pretending to be her fiancé. Many studio executives thought this to be too predatory, but one suggested reversing the roles. Once the script was rewritten, the movie was picked up by Hollywood Pictures.
April 21, 2005 -
Paul Haggis' film Crash starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Thandie Newton, and Ryan Phillippe premiered at the Newport Beach International Film Festival on this date.
Although originally released in 2004, the film did not qualify for the following year's Academy Awards as it did not play at least one week in Los Angeles (as Academy Awards rules require for eligibility). When it was finally released in L.A. the following year, the film qualified for Oscar consideration for 2005, and it went on to win the Best Picture Oscar for that year.
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
April 21, 753 BC -
Today is the traditional date of the foundation of Rome by Romulus and his brother, Remus, as a refuge for runaway slaves and murderers who captured the neighboring Sabine women for wives (they are hoping to finish building it any day now.)
But since the Gregorian Calendar was just a gleam in Pope Gregory eye - who knows. But by all means, please bring enough lubricant with you to the commemorative orgy tonight.
April 21, 1526 -
Mongol Emperor Zahir-ud-din Babur annihilated Indian Army of Ibrahim Lodi at the Battle of Panipat.
Babur, King of Kabul, established in this year the Mughal dynasty at Delhi. Also, Babur's guns proved decisive in battle, firstly because Ibrahim lacked any field artillery, as well as, the sound of the cannon frightened Ibrahim's elephants, causing them to trample his own men.
But what the hell do you care, you don't own elephants.
April 21,1792 -
Jose da Silva Xavier, Tiradentes, considered by many to be Brazil's George Washington, was having an extremely bad day. The Portuguese rulers of Brazil were not happy with his seditious talk of independence. Tiradentes was hung in Rio de Janeiro on this date. His body was broken into pieces.
With his blood, a document was written declaring his memory infamous. His head was exposed in Vila Rica. Pieces of his body were exposed in the cities between Vila Rica and Rio, in an attempt to scare the people who had listened to the independence ideas of Tiradentes.
He began to be considered a national hero by the republicans in the late 19th century, and after the republic was proclaimed in Brazil in 1889 the anniversary of his death (April 21) became a national holiday.
April 21, 1836 -
With the battle cry, 'Remember the Alamo!' Texan forces under Sam Houston defeated the army of Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, assuring Texas independence .
According to legend, Santa Anna was astride a mulatto, or "yellow" prostitute, Emily Morgan, who came to be celebrated in song as The Yellow Rose of Texas.
Now you know.
April 21, 1910 -
Halley's comet reappeared on this date. It had been last seen in 1835, the year Samuel Clemens was born.
The Earth passes safely through the comet's tail with no perceptible effect, of course, not counting the death of Mark Twain on this date. Twain wrote on his deathbed in Memorandum, "Death the only immortal who treats us all alike whose pity and whose peace and whose refuse are for all-the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved."
This time, the reports were not exaggerated.
April 21, 1918 -
German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as The Red Baron, was shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France on this date.
There is no truth to the rumor that Snoopy fired the fatal shot.
The following people were born on this day:
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor (1926),
James Newell Osterberg (1947),
Patti Ann LuPone (1949),
Anthony Salvatore Iadanza (1951),
and Robert Smith (1959)
Make of this coincidence what you will
April 21, 1932 -
You know, when I was very young, I thought it didn't matter what happened to me when I died, so long as my work was immortal. As I age, I think, Well, perhaps if I had to trade dying right now and being immortal with just living on, I would choose living on. I never thought I would say that. I feel it's so unethical and wrong..
Elaine May, one of the funniest human being who ever lived, was born on this date.
April 21, 1962 -
President John F. Kennedy took time out of his busy schedule, of engaging in sexual congress with starlets and interns, two, three at a time, to push a button in Palm Beach, Florida and officially open the Top of the Needle (the first revolving restaurant in the United States,) atop the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington on this date.
The President was so high on pain killers that he did not realize that he wasn't in Seattle at the time.
April 21, 1997 -
The ashes of Timothy Leary and Gene Roddenberry were launched into orbit (this marked the beginning of the space funeral industry,) on this date.
I guess this is the highest Dr. Leary will ever get.
April 21, 2003 -
Nina Simone, dubbed the high priestess of soul, died in France on this date.
Kids go out and buy one of her CD's, your life will be better for it.
And so it goes.
The celebrations begin with prayers at dawn, which usually take place at a mosque. Eid has its own special prayer, which is designed to be performed in a congregation. It is traditional for Muslims to gather together in a park to celebrate, with large-scale events and festival food (particularly sweet treats), prayer and stalls.
April 21, 1930 -
Lewis Milestone's adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, starring Louis Wolheim, and Lew Ayres, premiered in Los Angeles on this date.
With the loss of limbs and gory deaths shown rather explicitly, this is undoubtedly the most violent American film of its time. This is because the Production Code was not strictly enforced until 1934, and also because Universal Pictures deemed the subject matter important enough to allow the violence to be seen.
April 21, 1951 -
Les Paul and Mary Ford topped the charts with their hit of the classic How High the Moon on this date.
Although it was written by lyricist Nancy Hamilton and composer Morgan Lewis for the 1940 musical Two For The Show, the definitive version of How High The Moon was recorded by the husband and wife team of Les Paul and Mary Ford. This recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1979.
April 21, 1974 -
Julie and Dick In Covent Garden, a music and comedy special starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, with Carl Reiner, premieres on ABC-TV on this date.
The program was directed by Blake Edwards, (Julie Andrews' husband). Edwards also directed Andrews in The Tamarind Seed that year.
April 21, 1975 -
Teenages everywhere have themselves a good cry when Eric Carmen's song, (a mash-up of his own song, Let's Pretend and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Opus 18,) All By Myself entered the charts on this date.
When he wrote this, Carmen thought the Rachmaninoff music was in the public domain, meaning he could use it free of charge. After this song came out, he found out it wasn't and agreed to a settlement with the Rachmaninoff estate.
April 21, 1979 -
Amii Stewart cover of Eddie Floyd's song Knock on Wood went no. #1 on the Billboard chart on this date.
It was the only hit for Stewart, who was also a dancer and actress - she starred in the Broadway musical Bubbling Brown Sugar.
April 21, 1981 -
Weird Al Yankovic made his first national television appearance on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder.
He never receives royalties from the single's initial release because the record company has gone bankrupt.
April 21, 1982 -
The DJs at WKRP spun their last platter when the final episode of the original WKRP in Cincinnati series, Up and Down the Dial aired on CBS TV on this date.
The show was famous for playing music of up-and-coming bands. Many artists have said that their music being on the show helped their popularity, including Blondie, U2, The Cars, TOTO, The Knack, and Devo. Blondie was so grateful for the show making their song, Heart of Glass, a hit that they gave their Gold Record to the producers. It's hanging in the WKRP bullpen in seasons 2 to 4.
April 21, 1986 –
Geraldo Rivera hosted a live, highly promoted two-hour syndicated special from the Lexington Hotel in Chicago, The Mystery of Al Capone’s Vault, on this date.
Internal Revenue Service agents and a medical examiner stood at the ready should any cash or corpse lay inside. When demolition crews finally made their way inside the only contents were a dirt pile and a bottle of bathtub gin. The hype generated a record rating of 57 with an estimated audience of 30,000,000. The term "Al Capone's Vault" has come to mean any over-hyped event that leads to nothing.
April 21, 1989 -
The film grown men openly wept watching - Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, and Burt Lancaster, premiered on this date.
Ray Liotta had no baseball experience, and batted right-handed, although "Shoeless" Joe Jackson was a lefty. Phil Alden Robinson allowed Liotta to bat with his right, but still put him through several weeks of extensive training with University of Southern California baseball coach, and former Brooklyn Dodger, Rod Dedeaux, in order to be convincing as one of the sport's greatest hitters. Liotta eventually developed a good swing. The scene where he hits a line-drive straight back at Kevin Costner actually happened. Costner's fall on the mound was real, and although it was a surprise, he stayed in character.
April 21, 1990 -
The day after all your 420 celebrations, the largest anti-drug PSA effort in history: the Saturday morning simulcast of Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue broadcast on the ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox networks respectively.
This monumental anti-drug (and, to a lesser extent, anti-alcohol) collaboration came at the apex of Nancy Reagan's "just say no!" era.
April 21, 1990 -
Sinead O'Connor's cover of Prince's Nothing Compares 2U, went to No 1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date.
The attention from the song hitting no. 1 had some deleterious effects on the singer. Sinead O'Connor claimed she hated the fame the song brought her, and she struggled with the commercialization of her music. Nothing Compares 2 U earned her a Grammy for Best Alternative Performance (it was also nominated for Record Of The Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Short Form Music Video) but she rejected the award along with all others offered to her, and refused to appear at the ceremony in protest of materialism in the music industry. O'Connor believed she was being honored for putting up impressive sales figures, not for her art. She wanted no part of it.
Prince wrote and recorded this song in 1984, but didn't release it. He did release a live version with Rosie Gaines on his 1993 album The Hits/The B-Sides, but his original solo recording didn't appear until 2018, when his estate released it from the vault. His version is guitar-based, with more of a rock feel. (Unfortunately, Prince was found dead at his home in Minnesota at the age of 57, on this date in 2016.)
Did you make it through Jimmy Scott's version without crying? Stronger people than you couldn't.
April 21, 1995 -
Buena Vista released the rom-com, While You Were Sleeping, starring Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle, Glynis Johns, and Jack Warden on this date.
The original screenplay was about a woman in a coma and a man pretending to be her fiancé. Many studio executives thought this to be too predatory, but one suggested reversing the roles. Once the script was rewritten, the movie was picked up by Hollywood Pictures.
April 21, 2005 -
Paul Haggis' film Crash starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, William Fichtner, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Thandie Newton, and Ryan Phillippe premiered at the Newport Beach International Film Festival on this date.
Although originally released in 2004, the film did not qualify for the following year's Academy Awards as it did not play at least one week in Los Angeles (as Academy Awards rules require for eligibility). When it was finally released in L.A. the following year, the film qualified for Oscar consideration for 2005, and it went on to win the Best Picture Oscar for that year.
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
April 21, 753 BC -
Today is the traditional date of the foundation of Rome by Romulus and his brother, Remus, as a refuge for runaway slaves and murderers who captured the neighboring Sabine women for wives (they are hoping to finish building it any day now.)
But since the Gregorian Calendar was just a gleam in Pope Gregory eye - who knows. But by all means, please bring enough lubricant with you to the commemorative orgy tonight.
April 21, 1526 -
Mongol Emperor Zahir-ud-din Babur annihilated Indian Army of Ibrahim Lodi at the Battle of Panipat.
Babur, King of Kabul, established in this year the Mughal dynasty at Delhi. Also, Babur's guns proved decisive in battle, firstly because Ibrahim lacked any field artillery, as well as, the sound of the cannon frightened Ibrahim's elephants, causing them to trample his own men.
But what the hell do you care, you don't own elephants.
April 21,1792 -
Jose da Silva Xavier, Tiradentes, considered by many to be Brazil's George Washington, was having an extremely bad day. The Portuguese rulers of Brazil were not happy with his seditious talk of independence. Tiradentes was hung in Rio de Janeiro on this date. His body was broken into pieces.
He began to be considered a national hero by the republicans in the late 19th century, and after the republic was proclaimed in Brazil in 1889 the anniversary of his death (April 21) became a national holiday.
April 21, 1836 -
With the battle cry, 'Remember the Alamo!' Texan forces under Sam Houston defeated the army of Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, assuring Texas independence .
According to legend, Santa Anna was astride a mulatto, or "yellow" prostitute, Emily Morgan, who came to be celebrated in song as The Yellow Rose of Texas.
April 21, 1910 -
Halley's comet reappeared on this date. It had been last seen in 1835, the year Samuel Clemens was born.
The Earth passes safely through the comet's tail with no perceptible effect, of course, not counting the death of Mark Twain on this date. Twain wrote on his deathbed in Memorandum, "Death the only immortal who treats us all alike whose pity and whose peace and whose refuse are for all-the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved."
This time, the reports were not exaggerated.
April 21, 1918 -
German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, known as The Red Baron, was shot down and killed over Vaux sur Somme in France on this date.
There is no truth to the rumor that Snoopy fired the fatal shot.
The following people were born on this day:
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor (1926),
James Newell Osterberg (1947),
Patti Ann LuPone (1949),
Anthony Salvatore Iadanza (1951),
and Robert Smith (1959)
Make of this coincidence what you will
April 21, 1932 -
You know, when I was very young, I thought it didn't matter what happened to me when I died, so long as my work was immortal. As I age, I think, Well, perhaps if I had to trade dying right now and being immortal with just living on, I would choose living on. I never thought I would say that. I feel it's so unethical and wrong..
Elaine May, one of the funniest human being who ever lived, was born on this date.
April 21, 1962 -
President John F. Kennedy took time out of his busy schedule, of engaging in sexual congress with starlets and interns, two, three at a time, to push a button in Palm Beach, Florida and officially open the Top of the Needle (the first revolving restaurant in the United States,) atop the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington on this date.
The President was so high on pain killers that he did not realize that he wasn't in Seattle at the time.
April 21, 1997 -
The ashes of Timothy Leary and Gene Roddenberry were launched into orbit (this marked the beginning of the space funeral industry,) on this date.
I guess this is the highest Dr. Leary will ever get.
April 21, 2003 -
Nina Simone, dubbed the high priestess of soul, died in France on this date.
Kids go out and buy one of her CD's, your life will be better for it.
And so it goes.
Thursday, April 20, 2023
There's probably sales at you local CBD store today
Bunkies, if you or your kid cut school or work today, once again, lock up the snacks. They may come home with a case of the munchies.
Be thankful though, they're not out celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Klara Hitler's bouncing baby little evil bastard named Adolf on this date in 1889, (smack them hard across the back of the head if they were thinking about it though.)
Or that you should be concerned if they were celebrating the 24th anniversary of the Columbine attack.
Perhaps you'll probably spent the better part of the day,if you're over 65 or have a compromised immune system, thinking about the FDA's recommendation to get another booster shot for COVID and contemplating the life of St. Agnes of Montepulciano on her feast day.
But what ever you do, celebrate responsible.
April 20, 1939 -
During the 1939 World's Fair, David Sarnoff, president of RCA, unveiled the first commercial publicly accessible television broadcast, on this date. In Flushing NY, Sarnoff proclaimed "Now we add sight to sound" and during the opening ceremonies of the fair on April 30th, FDR became the first president to ever be televised.
The speech is broadcast by RCA subsidiary NBC to two hundred televisions across the state of New York. It might have had a larger audience had more TV sets been available - at this time, there were only a few hundreds TV set in America. By the end of the year, a thousand receivers woull be sold in the U.S. Screens are initially only about five inches across.
April 20, 1976 -
George Harrison, who is good friends with Eric Idle, joined Monty Python on stage at the comedy troupe's show at New York's City Center, on this date. Dressed as a Canadian Mountie, Harrison joins the chorus for The Lumberjack Song. No mention is made of Harrison's appearance, and few in the audience recognize him.
The next night, Harry Nilsson shows up to perform the same feat, but with disastrous results, as he fell into the audience and broke his arm.
April 20, 1977 -
Annie Hall, at 93 minutes, the shortest color film to ever win the Best Picture Oscar, premiered on this date (Marty, in glorious B & W was 91 minutes.)
The house under the rollercoaster where Alvy grew up is actually the Kensington Hotel in Coney Island, Brooklyn which was located underneath the Thunderbolt rollercoaster. Allen discovered it while searching locations during filming. The hotel and rollercoaster were demolished in 2000.
April 20, 1981 -
ABC unceremoniously aired the final episode of Soap, leaving many of the plotlines unresolved.
Susan Harris, the creator of the series, went on to create The Golden Girls and Empty Nest, using many of the same actors who first appeared on Soap.
April 20, 1992 -
The life and music of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, who died five months earlier following complications from AIDS, was celebrated in a star-studded concert, A Concert For Life, at London’s Wembley Stadium, on this date.
Organized by Mercury’s bandmates, the event not only featured an array of luminaries (including Elton John, David Bowie, Phil Collins, George Michael, and Metallica) but also raised funds for AIDS research, launching the Mercury Phoenix Trust.
April 20, 1993 -
Aerosmith releases their 11th studio album Get a Grip, on this date.
Get a Grip went on to sell more than seven million copies in the U.S. and 20 million copies worldwide, ensuring the album's place as Aerosmith's most successful studio album in terms of global sales.
April 20, 2002 -
An English dubbed version of the Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi,) premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival, on this date.
It was the first anime film to be nominated for (and win) an Academy Award. At 125 minutes, it also has the longest runtime of any other film nominated or winning in that category.
Another ACME Safety Film
(I have a bunch of things to do today so today will be an abbreviated posting. None of them have to do with the fact that I may (or may not) be celebrating 420 day today.)
Today in History:
April 20, 1233 -
Pope Gregory IX placed the Inquisition, in existence since 1227, under the aegis of the Dominican Order on this date.
Torture is apparently sometimes necessary to save souls, and the office continues to exist today as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
And the congregation was once headed by ex-Pope (and ex- Nazi Youth), Prefect Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
April 20, 1841 -
Edgar Allen Poe’s story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, first appears in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine, on this date. The tale is generally considered to be the first detective story.
The story describes the extraordinary “analytical power” used by Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin to solve a series of murders in Paris. Like the later Sherlock Holmes stories, the tale is narrated by the detective’s roommate.
April 20, 1916 -
The Chicago Cubs played their first game at their new home at Weeghman Park (renamed Wrigley Field in 1926 after William Wrigley bought controlling interest in the Cubs), between themselves and the Cincinnati Reds, on this date.
The Cubs besting the Reds 7–6 in eleven innings. This proved to be the highlight of an otherwise unremarkable season. (And you are saying to yourself, "What's new about that!"
April 20, 1940 -
Vladimir Zworykin, better known as a co-inventor of television, demonstrates the first electron microscope for RCA on this date.
The company was among the first to develop the electron microscope, which remains widely used in many forms of scientific research today.
April 20, 1964 -
The first transcontinental picturephone call is made between the Bell System exhibit at the World’s Fair in New York City and Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The device consists of a telephone handset and a small monitor. The system allows users to see each other as a fuzzy video image as they talk.
A three-minute call between the special booths AT&T set up in Chicago, New York, and Washington cost between $16 and $27. The system will be offered commercially in Chicago, but it will never become popular.
April 20, 1979 -
President Jimmy Carter was attacked by a Killer Swamp Rabbit, while on vacation in Plains GA on this date. The rabbit swam menacingly towards him, and he had to repel the ferocious creature with a paddle. There were no injuries.
Press Secretary Jody Powell leaked the story to the press, and the White House had a lot of explaining to do.
April 20, 1992 -
Alone in his apartment watching TV, British comedic legend Benny Hill suffered a fatal heart attack on this date.
His bloated toupee-less body with his underwear around his ankles was found days later.
Sorry but I guess there's nothing funny about that.
April 20, 2010 -
While drilling at the Macondo Prospect, there was an explosion on the rig, Deepwater Horizon, caused by a blowout which killed 11 crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from 35 miles away. The resulting fire could not be extinguished, and, on this date, Deepwater Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing at the sea floor and causing the largest offshore oil spill in United States history.
BP announced on April 18, 2012 that it has reached a class-action settlement with attorneys representing thousands of businesses and individuals who made claims after the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As late as January of 2014, BP was still attempting not to pay claims made against them in the suit. The court has rejected BP attempts.
BP originally projected that its settlement costs would be $7.8 billion. A federal judge approved a $20 billion settlement to end years of litigation. The settlement will be paid over 16 years.
April 20, 2008 -
26-year-old Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Montegi in Montegi, Japan, making her the first female winner in IndyCar racing history.
She finished the 200-lap race 5.8594 seconds ahead of Helio Castroneves, then a two-time Indy 500 champ. At the 2009 Indy 500, Patrick came in third behind winner Castroneves and second-place finisher Dan Wheldon. Patrick retired from IndyCar after the 2011 season and fully retired from racing in 2018.
And so it goes.
Be thankful though, they're not out celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Klara Hitler's bouncing baby little evil bastard named Adolf on this date in 1889, (smack them hard across the back of the head if they were thinking about it though.)
Or that you should be concerned if they were celebrating the 24th anniversary of the Columbine attack.
Perhaps you'll probably spent the better part of the day,if you're over 65 or have a compromised immune system, thinking about the FDA's recommendation to get another booster shot for COVID and contemplating the life of St. Agnes of Montepulciano on her feast day.
April 20, 1939 -
During the 1939 World's Fair, David Sarnoff, president of RCA, unveiled the first commercial publicly accessible television broadcast, on this date. In Flushing NY, Sarnoff proclaimed "Now we add sight to sound" and during the opening ceremonies of the fair on April 30th, FDR became the first president to ever be televised.
The speech is broadcast by RCA subsidiary NBC to two hundred televisions across the state of New York. It might have had a larger audience had more TV sets been available - at this time, there were only a few hundreds TV set in America. By the end of the year, a thousand receivers woull be sold in the U.S. Screens are initially only about five inches across.
April 20, 1976 -
George Harrison, who is good friends with Eric Idle, joined Monty Python on stage at the comedy troupe's show at New York's City Center, on this date. Dressed as a Canadian Mountie, Harrison joins the chorus for The Lumberjack Song. No mention is made of Harrison's appearance, and few in the audience recognize him.
The next night, Harry Nilsson shows up to perform the same feat, but with disastrous results, as he fell into the audience and broke his arm.
April 20, 1977 -
Annie Hall, at 93 minutes, the shortest color film to ever win the Best Picture Oscar, premiered on this date (Marty, in glorious B & W was 91 minutes.)
The house under the rollercoaster where Alvy grew up is actually the Kensington Hotel in Coney Island, Brooklyn which was located underneath the Thunderbolt rollercoaster. Allen discovered it while searching locations during filming. The hotel and rollercoaster were demolished in 2000.
April 20, 1981 -
ABC unceremoniously aired the final episode of Soap, leaving many of the plotlines unresolved.
Susan Harris, the creator of the series, went on to create The Golden Girls and Empty Nest, using many of the same actors who first appeared on Soap.
April 20, 1992 -
The life and music of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, who died five months earlier following complications from AIDS, was celebrated in a star-studded concert, A Concert For Life, at London’s Wembley Stadium, on this date.
Organized by Mercury’s bandmates, the event not only featured an array of luminaries (including Elton John, David Bowie, Phil Collins, George Michael, and Metallica) but also raised funds for AIDS research, launching the Mercury Phoenix Trust.
April 20, 1993 -
Aerosmith releases their 11th studio album Get a Grip, on this date.
Get a Grip went on to sell more than seven million copies in the U.S. and 20 million copies worldwide, ensuring the album's place as Aerosmith's most successful studio album in terms of global sales.
April 20, 2002 -
An English dubbed version of the Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi,) premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival, on this date.
It was the first anime film to be nominated for (and win) an Academy Award. At 125 minutes, it also has the longest runtime of any other film nominated or winning in that category.
Another ACME Safety Film
(I have a bunch of things to do today so today will be an abbreviated posting. None of them have to do with the fact that I may (or may not) be celebrating 420 day today.)
Today in History:
April 20, 1233 -
Pope Gregory IX placed the Inquisition, in existence since 1227, under the aegis of the Dominican Order on this date.
Torture is apparently sometimes necessary to save souls, and the office continues to exist today as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
And the congregation was once headed by ex-Pope (and ex- Nazi Youth), Prefect Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
April 20, 1841 -
Edgar Allen Poe’s story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, first appears in Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine, on this date. The tale is generally considered to be the first detective story.
The story describes the extraordinary “analytical power” used by Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin to solve a series of murders in Paris. Like the later Sherlock Holmes stories, the tale is narrated by the detective’s roommate.
April 20, 1916 -
The Chicago Cubs played their first game at their new home at Weeghman Park (renamed Wrigley Field in 1926 after William Wrigley bought controlling interest in the Cubs), between themselves and the Cincinnati Reds, on this date.
The Cubs besting the Reds 7–6 in eleven innings. This proved to be the highlight of an otherwise unremarkable season. (And you are saying to yourself, "What's new about that!"
April 20, 1940 -
Vladimir Zworykin, better known as a co-inventor of television, demonstrates the first electron microscope for RCA on this date.
April 20, 1964 -
The first transcontinental picturephone call is made between the Bell System exhibit at the World’s Fair in New York City and Disneyland in Anaheim, California. The device consists of a telephone handset and a small monitor. The system allows users to see each other as a fuzzy video image as they talk.
A three-minute call between the special booths AT&T set up in Chicago, New York, and Washington cost between $16 and $27. The system will be offered commercially in Chicago, but it will never become popular.
April 20, 1979 -
President Jimmy Carter was attacked by a Killer Swamp Rabbit, while on vacation in Plains GA on this date. The rabbit swam menacingly towards him, and he had to repel the ferocious creature with a paddle. There were no injuries.
Press Secretary Jody Powell leaked the story to the press, and the White House had a lot of explaining to do.
April 20, 1992 -
Alone in his apartment watching TV, British comedic legend Benny Hill suffered a fatal heart attack on this date.
His bloated toupee-less body with his underwear around his ankles was found days later.
Sorry but I guess there's nothing funny about that.
April 20, 2010 -
While drilling at the Macondo Prospect, there was an explosion on the rig, Deepwater Horizon, caused by a blowout which killed 11 crewmen and ignited a fireball visible from 35 miles away. The resulting fire could not be extinguished, and, on this date, Deepwater Horizon sank, leaving the well gushing at the sea floor and causing the largest offshore oil spill in United States history.
BP announced on April 18, 2012 that it has reached a class-action settlement with attorneys representing thousands of businesses and individuals who made claims after the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As late as January of 2014, BP was still attempting not to pay claims made against them in the suit. The court has rejected BP attempts.
BP originally projected that its settlement costs would be $7.8 billion. A federal judge approved a $20 billion settlement to end years of litigation. The settlement will be paid over 16 years.
April 20, 2008 -
26-year-old Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Montegi in Montegi, Japan, making her the first female winner in IndyCar racing history.
She finished the 200-lap race 5.8594 seconds ahead of Helio Castroneves, then a two-time Indy 500 champ. At the 2009 Indy 500, Patrick came in third behind winner Castroneves and second-place finisher Dan Wheldon. Patrick retired from IndyCar after the 2011 season and fully retired from racing in 2018.
And so it goes.
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Happy Bicycle Day
Today commemorates the first recorded 'on purpose' LSD trip taken by Albert Hofmann, on this date in 1943, (Hoffman 'accidentially' dosed himself three days previously.)
If you are going to celebrate the holiday, remember to titrate your trip correctly.
April 19, 1927 -
Cecil B. Demille's silent-film version of The King of Kings premiered on this date.
It is rumored that the film featured author Ayn Rand as one of the hundreds of people in a crowd. At a time when Rand was a struggling immigrant, Cecil B. DeMille gave her the job to help get her on her feet.
April 19, 1935 -
James Whale's brilliant sequel to Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Elsa Lanchester, Ernest Thesiger, and Oliver Peters Heggie, premiered in the U.S. on this date.
Boris Karloff protested against the decision to make The Monster speak, but was overruled. Since he was required to speak in this film, Karloff was not able to remove his partial bridgework as he had done to help give the Monster his sunken cheek appearance in the first Frankenstein. That's why The Monster appears fuller of face in the sequel.
April 19, 1946 -
Raymond Chandler's film-noir classic The Blue Dahlia premiered on this date.
One of the reasons that Veronica Lake was selected to star opposite Alan Ladd was because of her height. Ladd was a notably short leading man (5' 6"), and Lake's similarly diminutive stature (4' 11") meant that the filmmakers did not have to make Ladd appear taller by comparison. At the same time, Ladd resented Doris Dowling, who played his wife in the film, because she was half a foot taller than him, and tried to have her replaced. The producers placated Ladd by having Dowling sitting or lying down during all her scenes with him.
April 19, 1961 -
Frederico Fellini's iconic, La Dolce Vita, premiered in the United States on this date.
When shooting the famous Fontana di Trevi scene, director Federico Fellini complained that the water in the fountain looked dirty. A representative of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) present at the shooting was able to supply the film team with some of the airline's green sea dye marker (for use in case of an emergency landing at sea). This was used to color the water, and the director was satisfied.
April 19, 1978 -
The Patti Smith Group released the song Because the Night on this date.
Bruce Springsteen wrote this song. He gave it to Patti Smith in 1976 because he thought it would suit her voice. He was also in a legal battle with his manager, Mike Appel, that kept him from recording for almost three years.
April 19, 1980 -
Blondie song Call Me, featured in the Richard Gere movie American Gigolo went to No.1 on the US singles chart on this date.
Disco producer Giorgio Moroder wrote this with Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry, who thus became the first woman in British chart history to write three #1 hits. However she wasn't Moroder's first choice. The Italian disco king had originally wanted Stevie Nicks to provide vocals on the track but the Fleetwood Mac vocalist declined the offer.
April 19, 1986
Prince's single Kiss hits #1 on the US Billboard Charts, on this date. The #2 song is Manic Monday by the Bangles, which was written by Prince.
The band Mazarati, which was formed by Prince's bass player Brown Mark and signed to his Paisley Park record label, asked Prince for a song for their debut album, so he took a break from his Parade sessions and dashed off a minute-long bluesy acoustic demo for them on a mini tape recorder. Mazarati and producer David Z re-worked the song, giving it an irresistible funk groove. When he heard it, Prince was smart enough to take the song right back. He replaced their lead vocal, added the guitar break in the chorus and included it as a last-minute addition to his Parade album.
April 19, 1987 -
The Simpsons make their television debut in the short Good Night - a segment for The Tracey Ullman Show.
(I had to hang around the murky world of the internet underground to get this blurry copy of the clip. I'd like to show you a better version of the clip but the goons, I mean lawyers from Fox would break my legs and I've just about gotten used to walking.)
I wonder whatever happened to The Simpsons.
April 19, 1987 -
The short-lived but critically acclaimed series, Duet, starring Mary Page Keller, Matthew Laurance, Allison La Placa, and Chris Lemmon, premiered on the Fox Network, on this date. The series was part of the original Sunday prime time line up for the network that launched in April 1987.
Alison La Placa was only hired to appear in two episodes, but the crew liked her and decided to keep her around. She gradually became the show's breakout character and landed her own spinoff when this series was canceled.
April 19, 1990 -
Folks got to start flying Sandpiper Air, out of Tom Nevers Field airport in Nantucket, Massachusetts, when Wings, starring Tim Daly, Steven Weber, Crystal Bernard, David Schramm, Rebecca Schull, and Thomas Haden Church, premiered on NBC TV, on this date.
Tim Daly (Joseph Hackett), Steven Weber (Brian Hackett), Crystal Bernard (Helen Chappel Hackett) and David Schramm (Roy Biggins) are the only actors to appear in all 172 episodes of the series
April 19, 1990 -
On the BBC, the television program, French and Saunders Show, airs a Pythonque courthouse sketch featured the guitarists David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Gary Moore and Lemmy.
The sketch ended with a jam by the musicians. Please watch the clip; you may thank me later.
April 19, 2002 -
The Nia Vardalos written rom-com (some of my friends watch it as a docudrama) My Big Fat Greek Wedding, starring Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Andrea Martin, and Joey Fatone, premiered in the US on this date.
According to Nia Vardalos, paying for catering during the film proved not to be a problem. Wherever the film was being shot, whenever local Greek restaurants learned about it, they sent over lots of free food.
Another job posting from The ACME Employment Agency
Today in History:
April 19, 1775 -
Alerted by Paul Revere, the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington Common with the Battle of Lexington-Concord on this date. Eight Minutemen were killed and 10 wounded in an exchange of musket fire with British Redcoats.
In New York, Lexington seems to have won as there is no Concord Avenue.
April 19, 1824 -
Notorious drug user, buggerer, sister sleeping, club footed man about Europe, oh yeah, and poet, Lord George Gordon Byron, died from malaria fever in Greece on this date.
His body was set back to England for burial (his heart, literally remains in his beloved Greece, buried under a tree in Messolonghi) but he was so infamous that neither the deans of Westminster and St Paul's would accept his body for proper burial. His family at last buried him in a small family vault in Northern England.)
April 19, 1897 -
The first Boston Marathon was run in Boston, Massachusetts. John J. McDermott of New York ran the 24.5-mile course of the all-male event in a winning time of 2:55:10. It was the first of its type in the U.S.
The course was lengthened to 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km) to conform to the standard set by the 1908 Summer Olympics and codified by the IAAF in 1921.
April 19, 1906 -
It was a rainy day in Paris. One of those days that song writers write about. Nobel-winning chemist Pierre Curie was preoccupied and in a hurry. He tried to run across the street and did not look both ways. He slipped and then was hit and run over by a horse drawn vehicle. His skull was badly fractured.
Kids' once again - Your mother is always right. Just because you're a Nobel winning - look both ways before crossing.
April 19, 1927 -
Mae West, suspected transvestite, was jailed, on this date, for her performance in Sex, the Broadway play she wrote, directed, and starred in. She was sentenced to ten days in prison. While incarcerated on Roosevelt Island, she was allowed to wear her silk panties instead of the scratchy prison issue and the warden reportedly took her to dinner every night.
She served eight days with two days off for good behavior. Media attention to the case enhanced her career - it didn't make her change her act, but it did bring her national notoriety and helped make her one of Hollywood's most memorable, and quotable, stars.
She said: "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it."
April 19, 1946 -
He proudly carries the Charles Atlas seal of approval!
Tim Curry, actor and singer was born on this date. Fling toast around the room and do the Time Warp in his honor today!
April 19, 1993 -
More than 80 Branch Davidians died in Waco, Texas as the FBI stages a disastrous final assault on their compound on this date. This brought a sudden end to the 51-day siege.
As you about to see, this helped us a great deal.
April 19, 1995 -
At 9:02 am, 28 years ago today, a large car bomb exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, and injuring 500 including many children in the building's day care center.
Authorities charged Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, with the crime.
Both were convicted. McVeigh was executed in 2001 and Nichols is currently serving a life sentence.
And so it goes.
If you are going to celebrate the holiday, remember to titrate your trip correctly.
April 19, 1927 -
Cecil B. Demille's silent-film version of The King of Kings premiered on this date.
It is rumored that the film featured author Ayn Rand as one of the hundreds of people in a crowd. At a time when Rand was a struggling immigrant, Cecil B. DeMille gave her the job to help get her on her feet.
April 19, 1935 -
James Whale's brilliant sequel to Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Elsa Lanchester, Ernest Thesiger, and Oliver Peters Heggie, premiered in the U.S. on this date.
Boris Karloff protested against the decision to make The Monster speak, but was overruled. Since he was required to speak in this film, Karloff was not able to remove his partial bridgework as he had done to help give the Monster his sunken cheek appearance in the first Frankenstein. That's why The Monster appears fuller of face in the sequel.
April 19, 1946 -
Raymond Chandler's film-noir classic The Blue Dahlia premiered on this date.
One of the reasons that Veronica Lake was selected to star opposite Alan Ladd was because of her height. Ladd was a notably short leading man (5' 6"), and Lake's similarly diminutive stature (4' 11") meant that the filmmakers did not have to make Ladd appear taller by comparison. At the same time, Ladd resented Doris Dowling, who played his wife in the film, because she was half a foot taller than him, and tried to have her replaced. The producers placated Ladd by having Dowling sitting or lying down during all her scenes with him.
April 19, 1961 -
Frederico Fellini's iconic, La Dolce Vita, premiered in the United States on this date.
When shooting the famous Fontana di Trevi scene, director Federico Fellini complained that the water in the fountain looked dirty. A representative of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) present at the shooting was able to supply the film team with some of the airline's green sea dye marker (for use in case of an emergency landing at sea). This was used to color the water, and the director was satisfied.
April 19, 1978 -
The Patti Smith Group released the song Because the Night on this date.
Bruce Springsteen wrote this song. He gave it to Patti Smith in 1976 because he thought it would suit her voice. He was also in a legal battle with his manager, Mike Appel, that kept him from recording for almost three years.
April 19, 1980 -
Blondie song Call Me, featured in the Richard Gere movie American Gigolo went to No.1 on the US singles chart on this date.
Disco producer Giorgio Moroder wrote this with Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry, who thus became the first woman in British chart history to write three #1 hits. However she wasn't Moroder's first choice. The Italian disco king had originally wanted Stevie Nicks to provide vocals on the track but the Fleetwood Mac vocalist declined the offer.
April 19, 1986
Prince's single Kiss hits #1 on the US Billboard Charts, on this date. The #2 song is Manic Monday by the Bangles, which was written by Prince.
The band Mazarati, which was formed by Prince's bass player Brown Mark and signed to his Paisley Park record label, asked Prince for a song for their debut album, so he took a break from his Parade sessions and dashed off a minute-long bluesy acoustic demo for them on a mini tape recorder. Mazarati and producer David Z re-worked the song, giving it an irresistible funk groove. When he heard it, Prince was smart enough to take the song right back. He replaced their lead vocal, added the guitar break in the chorus and included it as a last-minute addition to his Parade album.
April 19, 1987 -
The Simpsons make their television debut in the short Good Night - a segment for The Tracey Ullman Show.
(I had to hang around the murky world of the internet underground to get this blurry copy of the clip. I'd like to show you a better version of the clip but the goons, I mean lawyers from Fox would break my legs and I've just about gotten used to walking.)
I wonder whatever happened to The Simpsons.
April 19, 1987 -
The short-lived but critically acclaimed series, Duet, starring Mary Page Keller, Matthew Laurance, Allison La Placa, and Chris Lemmon, premiered on the Fox Network, on this date. The series was part of the original Sunday prime time line up for the network that launched in April 1987.
Alison La Placa was only hired to appear in two episodes, but the crew liked her and decided to keep her around. She gradually became the show's breakout character and landed her own spinoff when this series was canceled.
April 19, 1990 -
Folks got to start flying Sandpiper Air, out of Tom Nevers Field airport in Nantucket, Massachusetts, when Wings, starring Tim Daly, Steven Weber, Crystal Bernard, David Schramm, Rebecca Schull, and Thomas Haden Church, premiered on NBC TV, on this date.
Tim Daly (Joseph Hackett), Steven Weber (Brian Hackett), Crystal Bernard (Helen Chappel Hackett) and David Schramm (Roy Biggins) are the only actors to appear in all 172 episodes of the series
April 19, 1990 -
On the BBC, the television program, French and Saunders Show, airs a Pythonque courthouse sketch featured the guitarists David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Gary Moore and Lemmy.
The sketch ended with a jam by the musicians. Please watch the clip; you may thank me later.
April 19, 2002 -
The Nia Vardalos written rom-com (some of my friends watch it as a docudrama) My Big Fat Greek Wedding, starring Nia Vardalos, John Corbett, Lainie Kazan, Michael Constantine, Andrea Martin, and Joey Fatone, premiered in the US on this date.
According to Nia Vardalos, paying for catering during the film proved not to be a problem. Wherever the film was being shot, whenever local Greek restaurants learned about it, they sent over lots of free food.
Today in History:
April 19, 1775 -
Alerted by Paul Revere, the American Revolutionary War began at Lexington Common with the Battle of Lexington-Concord on this date. Eight Minutemen were killed and 10 wounded in an exchange of musket fire with British Redcoats.
In New York, Lexington seems to have won as there is no Concord Avenue.
April 19, 1824 -
Notorious drug user, buggerer, sister sleeping, club footed man about Europe, oh yeah, and poet, Lord George Gordon Byron, died from malaria fever in Greece on this date.
His body was set back to England for burial (his heart, literally remains in his beloved Greece, buried under a tree in Messolonghi) but he was so infamous that neither the deans of Westminster and St Paul's would accept his body for proper burial. His family at last buried him in a small family vault in Northern England.)
April 19, 1897 -
The first Boston Marathon was run in Boston, Massachusetts. John J. McDermott of New York ran the 24.5-mile course of the all-male event in a winning time of 2:55:10. It was the first of its type in the U.S.
The course was lengthened to 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km) to conform to the standard set by the 1908 Summer Olympics and codified by the IAAF in 1921.
April 19, 1906 -
It was a rainy day in Paris. One of those days that song writers write about. Nobel-winning chemist Pierre Curie was preoccupied and in a hurry. He tried to run across the street and did not look both ways. He slipped and then was hit and run over by a horse drawn vehicle. His skull was badly fractured.
April 19, 1927 -
Mae West, suspected transvestite, was jailed, on this date, for her performance in Sex, the Broadway play she wrote, directed, and starred in. She was sentenced to ten days in prison. While incarcerated on Roosevelt Island, she was allowed to wear her silk panties instead of the scratchy prison issue and the warden reportedly took her to dinner every night.
She said: "I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it."
April 19, 1946 -
He proudly carries the Charles Atlas seal of approval!
Tim Curry, actor and singer was born on this date. Fling toast around the room and do the Time Warp in his honor today!
April 19, 1993 -
More than 80 Branch Davidians died in Waco, Texas as the FBI stages a disastrous final assault on their compound on this date. This brought a sudden end to the 51-day siege.
As you about to see, this helped us a great deal.
April 19, 1995 -
At 9:02 am, 28 years ago today, a large car bomb exploded at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, and injuring 500 including many children in the building's day care center.
Authorities charged Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, with the crime.
Both were convicted. McVeigh was executed in 2001 and Nichols is currently serving a life sentence.
And so it goes.
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