Weeds are nature's graffiti

It's International Plant Appreciation Day.



Cut flowers fade away, while a potted plant, especially a flowering one, brings long-lasting pleasure. But after the clip you may want to see some plants cut down.

So now you know.


April 13, 1940 -
The Merrie Melodies short The Bear's Tale, directed by Tex Avery, debuted on this date.



A funny and just this side of the censorship envelope mashup of The Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood


April 13, 1940 -
The Looney Tunes short Slap Happy Pappy, directed by Bob Clampett, starring Porky Pig, debuted on this date.



Eddie Cackler is a parody of Eddie Cantor. The "boy wanted" sign and the five hatching eggs were references to all five of his children being girls, which was a running joke on his radio show. Then along comes a chicken resembling Bing Crosby, whose (then) four children were all boys. (Crosby later had a daughter and two more sons from his second marriage, long after this cartoon was made.)


April 13, 1957 -
The Merrie Melodies short Bedevilled Rabbit, directed by Robert McKimson, starring Bugs Bunny and Tasmanian Devil, debuted on this date.



Tasmanian Devils are carnivorous marsupials that once were found all over Australia but now live on the island of Tasmania. They have a strong bite and a fierce sounding howl and, like Taz, often sport a white underbelly. But unlike Taz, they are largely nocturnal creatures.


April 13, 1964 -
Sidney Poitier became the first African-American male to win the Best Actor Academy Award for the 1963 film Lilies of the Field, on this date.



However, whatever satisfaction Poitier felt winning this award was undercut by his concern that he won not because Hollywood had shown enlightened thinking, but rather he was being treated as Hollywood's token African-American. Furthermore, Poitier was concerned that he would not be able to ask for special consideration given his success since he would be accused of being ungrateful for being so honored along with similar racist condescensions, and indeed Poitier did not work for some time after winning the award.


April 13, 1967 -
A very silly film, loosely Loosely based on the first James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, Casino Royale, directed by John Huston, Ken Hughes, Robert Parrish, Joe McGrath and Val Guest and starring (among others) Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Woody Allen, Joanna Pettet, Orson Welles, Daliah Lavi, Deborah Kerr, William Holden, Charles Boyer, Jean-Paul Belmondo, George Raft, and John Huston, premiered in London, on this date.



Producer Charles K. Feldman originally intended to make the film as a co-production with official Bond series producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli, with Sean Connery as James Bond and Shirley MacLaine as Vesper Lynd. Saltzman and Broccoli had just co-produced Thunderball  with Kevin McClory, and didn't want to do it again. United Artists supposedly offered Feldman $500,000 for the rights to Casino Royale in 1965, but the offer was rejected. Forced to produce the film on his own, Feldman approached Connery to star as Bond. Unwilling to meet Connery's $1-million salary demand, Feldman decided to turn the film into a spoof, and cast David Niven as Bond. After the film went through numerous production problems and an exploding budget, Feldman met Connery at a Hollywood party and reportedly told Connery it would've been cheaper to pay him the $1 million.


April 13, 1973 -
The Wailers, led by Bob Marley, release their fifth studio album, Catch a Fire on this date.



The first album on their new label, Island Records, it makes Marley and the Wailers international recording stars and brings reggae music to the forefront.


April 13, 1980 –
Gary Numan released The Touring Principle, a 45-minute concert video, on this date. It was the first commercially available long-form rock video in the UK, solidifying Numan's status as a pioneer in electronic music.



It documented his 1979 tour for The Pleasure Principle, featuring concerts from the Hammersmith Odeon, with synth-heavy performances, futuristic staging, and special video effects.


April 13, 1984 -
Jonathan Demme's look at the homefront during WW II, Swing Shift, starring, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Christine Lahti, Fred Ward and Ed Harris, premiered in the US on this date.



The film reportedly went through a major bout of re-shoots and editing; some say this was due to the tensions between Goldie Hawn and Jonathan Demme. Some industry insiders reported many of Christine Lahti's scenes were re-shot or cut entirely, due to Hawn's belief that she was stealing scenes, though Lahti and Hawn apparently got along well during filming . Demme was so upset by all of this he wanted an Alan Smithee credit, but was talked out it, and then refused the customary "A Film By" credit before the title, before being talked into keeping it.


April 13, 1994 -
Another black comedy from John Waters, Serial Mom, starring, Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake, Matthew Lillard, Patty Hearst, Suzanne Somers, Joan Rivers, Traci Lords, and Brigid Berlin premiered in the US on this date.



The original choice for the lead role was Susan Sarandon, but her asking price was too high for such a low budget film.


April 13, 1996 -
Seconds before their first Saturday Night Live performance, Rage Against the Machine's roadies place upside-down American flags on their amplifiers in a band-sanctioned protest of the American political system - billionaire candidate Steve Forbes is hosting the show.



The SNL crew quickly tears them down, and the band is booted from building without a second song. Regarding the message of the upside-down flags, lead singer Zack de la Rocha said: "American democracy is inverted when your only choice is between wealthy representatives of the privileged classes."


April 13, 2001 -
The film version of Helen Fielding's rom cam bestseller, Bridget Jones's Diary, starring Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, and Colin Firth, premiered in the US on this date.



In order to make her English accent seem more natural, Renée Zellweger retained it on set even while not shooting. Hugh Grant once noted that he did not hear her speak in an American accent until the wrap party, after this movie was completed, where he heard her speak "in a very strange voice" that he soon found out was her own natural tone.


April 13, 2018 -
The 20th Century Fox Animation stop-motion film Isle of Dogs directed by Wes Anderson, narrated by Courtney B. Vance and starring Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Ken Watanabe, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, F. Murray Abraham, Yoko Ono, Harvey Keitel and Frank Wood went into general released on this date.



Writer and director Wes Anderson hosted a competition for someone to be a member of the voice cast for this film. The only requirement was that they donated ten dollars or more to the Film Foundation, a non-profit founded by Martin Scorsese, which specializes in the preservation and restoration of film around the world.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
April 13, 1598 -
King Henry IV of France signed the Edict of Nantes, which granted political rights to French Huguenots.



The edict was revoked in 1685 by King Louis XIV, who declared France entirely Catholic again.

Oops.


April 13, 1796 -
Captain Jacob Crowninshield, (member of one of Salem’s elite families, and future member of Congress who would go on to serve as Secretary of the Navy,) arrived with the first (or possible second) elephant in America on this date. The elephant, named Old Bet, was brought back from India to America by a sea captain who hoped to sell her.

Old Bet was eventually bought by Hackaliah Bailey, one of the founders of Barnum and Bailey, and stayed with the circus until she was shot and killed by a boy who had heard that her hide was bulletproof, and wanted to see if it was true.


April 13, 1883 —
Alferd Packer, one of the few people in U.S. history ever to be jailed for cannibalism - having allegedly killed and eaten five of his traveling companions while trapped in the Rocky Mountains during severe winter weather - was sentenced to death in Colorado. During the trial, the judge supposedly said:

"Damn you, Alferd Packer! There were seven Dimmycrats in Hinsdale County, and you ate five of them!"

An alternate version of the judge's outburst is:

"Packer, you depraved Republican son of a bitch! There were only five Democrats in Hinsdale County, and you ate them all!"

The actual sentencing statement, of course, was a little more in character for an educated state judge:

"Close your ears to the blandishments of hope. Listen not to the flattering promises of life, but prepare for the dread certainty of death."





Packer is a legend in popular culture. He has been quoted as having said, in jest, "The breasts of man...are the sweetest meat I ever tasted." In 1968, students at the University of Colorado Boulder named their new cafeteria grill the Alferd G. Packer Memorial Grill, with the slogan "Have a friend for lunch!" Even today, students can enjoy the meat-filled "El Canibal" underneath a giant wall map outlining his travels through Colorado.



Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park and a graduate of the University of Colorado, made a student film - Cannibal! The Musical - based loosely on Packer's life.


April 13, 1909 –
The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation.



Eudora Welty, American author, was born on this date.


April 13, 1919 -
The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, also known as the Amritsar Massacre, was named after the Jallianwala Bagh (Garden) in the northern Indian city of Amritsar, where, British Indian Army soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed gathering of men, women and children on this date.



The firing lasted about 10 minutes and 1,600 rounds were fired. Official sources place the casualties at 379. According to private sources, the number was over 1,000, with more than 2,000 wounded, and Civil Surgeon Dr Smith indicated that they were over 1,800.

And the British wonder why they lost an empire.


April 13, 1943 -
On the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial on this date.



The memorial was designed by John Russell Pope. The statue of Jefferson housed inside was designed by Rudolph Evans. At the dedication in 1943, the statue was made of plaster. The bronze version had to wait until wartime restrictions on the use of metals ended.


April 13, 1943 -
Given the current situation in Ukraine - this is an important historical reminder:
Katyn Forest is a wooded area near Gneizdovo village, a short distance from Smolensk in Russia where, in 1940 on Stalin's orders, the Soviet secret police shot and buried over 4000 Polish service personnel that had been taken prisoner when the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939 at the start of WWII in support of the Nazis.



On April 13, 1943 the Nazis having overtaken the area, exhumed the Polish dead and blamed the Soviets in an effort to sour the West's relationship with the Kremlin. In 1944, having retaken the Katyn area from the Nazis, the Soviets exhumed the Polish dead again and blamed the Nazis. The rest of the world took its usual sides in such arguments.



In 1989, with the collapse of Soviet Power, Premier Gorbachev finally admitted that the Soviets had executed the Poles, and confirmed two other burial sites similar to the site at Katyn. Stalin's order of March 1940 to execute by shooting some 25,700 Poles, including those found at the three sites, was also disclosed with the collapse of Soviet Power.

Oops


April 13, 1970 -
56 hours and 205,000 miles from planet Earth, the crew aboard Apollo 13 heard "a pretty loud bang" when oxygen tank number two spontaneously exploded. Astronaut Jack Swigert informs Mission Control in Houston: "Hey, we've had a problem here."



Miraculously, the crew manages to return home in their crippled spacecraft.


April 13,1973 -
Henry Darger, janitor and "outsider artist", died in Chicago on this date.

He had spent as many as 40 years working on a 15,000 page novel titled The Story of the Vivian Girls, (in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion).



He illustrated the work with some 300 watercolors that were lifted and recomposed from popular sources.


April 13, 1992 -
Chicago's downtown business center was crippled by massive flooding, when the damaged wall of a utility tunnel beneath the Chicago River opened into a breach which flooded basements and underground facilities throughout the Chicago Loop with an estimated 250 million gallons of water on this date.



Workers attempted to plug the hole, with 65 truckloads of rocks and cement as well as old mattresses. In an attempt to slow the leak, the level of the Chicago River was lowered by closing the locks at Lake Michigan and opening them downstream of Chicago,and the freight tunnels were drained into the Chicago Deep Tunnel system.


April 13, 1994 -
The United Nations Human Rights Committee declared Sodomy to be a basic human right on this date. The committee determined that laws against buggery (particularly in Tasmania) breach articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.



So now you know what they do all day at the UN.


Before you go -
April 13, 2029 -
Mark this date in your calendars. A meteor will pass by the Earth, we hope, breaking the record for the closest passing by of any other previous meteor. Unless it goes wildly off course and crashes into Earth.



Have a good day.



And so it goes

Do-do-do, do-do, do-do-do

Happy Walk On The Wild Side Day. Created by Thomas and Ruth Roy on their website Wellcat.com. It was created to recognize that "what others would think" is the dumbest reason not to do something, and rather denotes a lack of courage.



This song provided Lou Reed his biggest hit, and it was his only Top 40 in the US. (The day is always sadder without Lou with us.)


April 12, 1936 -
Another romantic comedy from Frank Capra, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur, went into general release in the US on this date.



Jean Arthur was so overcome with stage fright that she often vomited before scenes and would run back to her dressing room after each take to have a good cry. Yet she was totally cool on camera. Gary Cooper was one of the few actors who could make her feel comfortable on the set.


April 12, 1936 -
The Ernst Lubitsch produced confection, Desire, starring Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper (teamed together again after Morocco) premiered on this date.



In the film, Gary Cooper's character mentions he makes $125 a week - which is equal to an annual salary of: $6,500. In 2019, that would be an equivalent, due to inflation, to around $2,300 a week or $120,000 a year.


April 12, 1941 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Toy Trouble directed by Chuck Jones and starring Sniffles and The Bookworm debuted on this date.



Porky Pig makes a cameo appearance as numerous dolls at the toy store.


April 12, 1944 -
Another Noel Coward wartime drama, directed by David Lean (his first color film), This Happy Breed, starring, Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, Stanley Holloway, and John Mills, premiered in the US on this date.



The comment early in the movie about the cat and buttering its paws comes from a technique used when a cat moves house. According to this, if the cat has butter on its paws it will stop and lick it off. As cats are very clean creatures, the butter on its paws and the bits of dirt/dust/debris that will inevitably stick to it will annoy the cat. The cat will sit down to clean itself and, in doing so, will take in its new surroundings creating a mental map of where its new home is and helping it to make the adjustment to its new surroundings.


April 12, 1947 -
The Looney Tunes short Birth of a Notion, directed by Bob Clampett and Robert McKimson and starring Daffy Duck, debuted on this date.



This short was originally planned to be directed by Robert Clampett, but after his departure from Warner Bros. Animation, the short was ultimately given to Bob McKimson to direct and finish.


April 12, 1958 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Whoa, Be-Gone!, directed by Chuck Jones and starring Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, debuted on this date. This was the twelfth Road Runner cartoon in the series.



This was the last film produced by Edward Selzer, the main producer of the company Warner Bros. Cartoons from 1944 to 1958. He retired in 1958, at the age of 65. His replacement was John W. Burton.


April 12, 1973 -
The film, That'll Be The Day, very loosely-based on John Lennon's early years, featuring David Essex, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Billy Fury and Dave Edmunds, premiered in London, on this date.



There are two big Beatles connections that bookend this film. Firstly, right at the start of the film where Jim goes into the cafe a guitar instrumental called Raunchy is playing. This is the song that George Harrison played to John Lennon on the top of a Liverpool corporation bus as his audition to join The Quarrymen. The second is the Buddy Holly & The Crickets song That'll be the Day was the first song ever recorded by The Quarrymen, featuring Lennon, McCartney and Harrison.


April 12, 1974 –
Elton John song Bennie and the Jets (Penny on the desk) hit No. #1 in the US on this date.



Elton wrote the music to this song as an homage to glam rock. This style was defined by outrageous costumes. It was popular in the early '70s, especially in the UK. Artists like David Bowie and Gary Glitter got into the act. For Elton, it was an extension of his personality. He really was gay and liked to wear feminine clothes on stage. He became known for his wild appearance and collection of gaudy sunglasses.

One year later, April 12, 1975 –
Elton John hit No. #1 again with hit song, Philadelphia Freedom, on this date.



Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to most of Elton John's songs, but Elton would occasionally suggest titles. Elton requested a song with the title Philadelphia Freedom in honor of his friend, the tennis player Billie Jean King. At the time, there was a professional tennis league in America called World Team Tennis, and in 1974 King coached a team called the Philadelphia Freedoms, becoming one of the first women ever to coach men. Taupin had no obligation to write lyrics about King, and he didn't - the song was inspired by the Philadelphia Soul sound of groups like The O'Jays and Melvin & The Blue Notes, and also the American bicentennial; in 1976 the US celebrated 200 years of independence.


April 12, 1984 -
The short-lived MTM Enterprises series, The Duck Factory, starring Jim Carrey, Julie Payne, Nancy Lane, Jay Tarses, Don Messick, Teresa Ganzel, and Jack Gilford, premiered on NBC TV, on this date. The series only lasted 13 episodes.



Jim Carrey did his first appearance on David Letterman's Late Night right after the show was canceled. After Carrey's wild act of impressions, from Sammy Davis Jr. to Clint Eastwood, Letterman mentioned the show, and Carrey pretended to start crying, then said, "I miss Jack Gilford's stories."


April 12, 1987 -
The fact based WWII drama Escape from Sobibor, starring Alan Arkin, Joanna Pacula, Rutger Hauer, Hartmut Becker, Jack Shepherd, and Simon Gregor, aired on CBS TV on this date.



On October 14, 1943, members of the Sobibor camp's underground resistance killed 11 German SS-Totenkopfverbände officers and a number of Sonderdienst Ukrainian and Volksdeutsche guards. Of the 600 inmates in the camp, roughly 300 escaped, although all but 50 to 70 were later re-captured and killed. After the escape, the SS Chief, Heinrich Himmler, ordered the death camp closed. It was dismantled, bulldozed under the earth and planted over with trees to cover it up.


April 12, 1989 -
The 20th Century Fox Television police series 21 Jump Street starring Johnny Depp, Holly Robinson, Peter DeLuise, Dustin Nguyen, Richard Grieco, Michael DeLuise, and Frederic Forrest premiered on Fox TV on this date.



Johnny Depp did not want to work on a television series, but agreed to a six-year contract, only because he did not believe the show would last more than one season. He also found it difficult to turn down the money and the chance to work with Frederic Forrest. But the show became a huge success mostly due to Depp's presence. By the third season, Depp was chafing at having to stay with the show instead of accepting various film offers. He began to complain about the scripts and often gave listless performances. With the help of his lawyers, Depp was released from his contract, and left the show after the fourth season.


April 12, 1996 -
Henry Selick take on the Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach starring Paul Terry, Joanna Lumley, Miriam Margolyes, Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Jane Leeves, and David Thewlis, premiered in the US on this date.



This film took twelve years to reach the screen. Roald Dahl himself was convinced that the property would never make a viable film.


Another album from the discount bin from The ACME Record Shoppe.


Today in History:
April 12, 65 -
Seneca the Younger (not to be confused with his father, Seneca the Elder, or his grandfather, Seneca the Dead), Roman philosopher and humorist, was accused of being involved in the Pisonian conspiracy—a plot to kill Nero (your classic, old-school Evil Bastard). Nero survived the assassination attempt, and Seneca went home to commit ritual suicide. By this point, ritualistic suicide at work had become unfashionable—and very messy. His wife, Pompeia Paulina, intended to join him in death, but Nero forbade it. She attempted suicide by cutting her wrists, but her wounds were bandaged, and she didn’t try again.

Seneca, who also chose the wrist-cutting route, ran into an unexpected issue: his diet. It had made his blood sluggish, so instead of a swift death, he got prolonged pain. Next, he took poison from a friend—but that didn’t work either. He dictated to a scribe and then jumped into a hot bath. Not to drown, but seemingly in hopes the heat would speed the bleeding.

Ultimately, Seneca died not from the bleeding, or the poison, but from suffocation by the steam rising from the pool.

This was not the easy way out.


April 12, 1857 -
Like the veil held to her hat by a ribbon, her will flutters in every breeze; she is always drawn by some desire, restrained by some rule of conduct.

... She had bought herself a blotter, a writing case, a pen and some envelopes, although she had no one to write to; she would dust off her whatnot, look at herself in the mirror, pick up a book, then begin to daydream between the lines and let it fall to her lap. She longed to travel, or to go back and live in the convent. She wanted both to die and to live in Paris.



Gustave Flaubert's first novel, Madame Bovary was published in book form, on this date.


April 12, 1861 -
The first shots of the American Civil War (aka the War of Northern Aggression) rang out in an attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on this date. Abner Doubleday (of baseball fame—or not) aimed the cannon that fired the first return shot in response to the Confederate bombardment. No one died in the actual battle, but one Union soldier was killed and another mortally wounded while firing a cannon during the surrender ceremony.



Accounts, such as the famous diary of Mary Chesnut, describe Charleston residents along what is now known as The Battery sitting on balconies, sipping drinks, and toasting the start of hostilities. Four years, two days, and 618,000 deaths later, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by southerner John Wilkes Booth while watching Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre. He died the following day.

Moral: avoid attending the theatre.


April 12, 1867 -
In the history of bizarre accidents, William Bullock’s story is always cited as an example. Bullock was an American inventor whose 1863 invention of the rotary printing press helped revolutionize the printing industry due to its efficiency and ability to print 10,000 units per hour.

In April 1867, while he was trying to install a new printer in one of his presses, in a frustrated attempt to make adjustments to the machine, he kicked a driving belt onto a pulley.

What followed next tops scenes from even the most gruesome movies like Hostel or Saw. His foot got caught in the merciless contraption, was crushed beyond repair and developed a severe gangrene infection within four days. Bullock died during an operation to amputate his foot.

Bizarre Indeed.


April 12, 1934 -
... Already he felt her absence from these skies: on the beach he could only remember the sun-torn flesh of her shoulder; at Tarmes he crushed out her footprints as he crossed the garden; and now the orchestra launching into the Nice Carnival Song, an echo of last year's vanished gaieties, started the little dance that went on all about her. In a hundred hours she had come to possess all the world's dark magic; the blinding belladonna, the caffein converting physical into nervous energy, the mandragora that imposes harmony....

Charles Scribner and Sons published 's the fourth and final completed novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night, on this date. The novel is basically a cheery story about insanity, alcoholism and glamorous lives which metamorphosed into wretched ones, it was influenced by the descent into madness of the author's wife Zelda and the strain on their marriage. The book was completed in the fall of 1933 and serialized in four installments in Scribner's Magazine before its publication.



Over the next several years, Fitzgerald would struggle to finish what would be his fifth and last novel (The Last Tycoon.) He died from a massive heart attack six years later in 1940, almost completely forgotten and he considered himself a failure. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Tender Is the Night 28th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th Century.

But what the hell do you care, you don't read anyway.


April 12, 1945 -
Franklin D. Roosevelt, the only president ever elected to four terms of office, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, GA, on this date, after meeting with his long time mistress and his wife's social secretary, Lucy Page Mercer Rutherfurd. (That really pissed Eleanor off.)



The following day, Vice President Harry S. Truman assumes the post and is told for the first time about the Manhattan Project.

Roosevelt really liked his little secrets.


April 12, 1947 -
It's David Letterman's birthday.



In 1995, 30 years ago, Drew Barrymore celebrated his birthday by climbing atop the Late Night desk and flashes her bosomy protuberances at the man.



(Dave, really please shave the freakin' beard off already.)


April 12, 1954 -
The very fat and sweaty Bill Haley and His Comets recorded Rock Around the Clock in New York City on this date.



Initially it was not a big hit on American Bandstand, but the recording would go on to help launch the rock and roll revolution a year later.


April 12, 1961 -
Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1), on this date. During his flight, Gagarin famously whistled the tune The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows The first two lines of the song are: "The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows/Where her son flies in the sky". This patriotic song was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1951 (opus 86), with words by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky. It was obviously not a big hit on American Bandstand at the time - although it did have a good beat, you could hardly dance to it.



There were speculations in the media that from orbit Gagarin made the comment, "I don't see any God up here." There are, however, no such words in the full verbatim record of Gagarin's conversations with the Earth during the spaceflight. In a 2006 interview a close friend of Gagarin, colonel Valentin Petrov, stated that Gagarin never said such words, and that the phrase he uttered was, "I don't see any Goddamn toilet up here and I have to go."


April 12, 1966 -
While on his way to a business meeting, Jan Berry, one half of the rock and roll duo Jan and Dean, crashed his Corvette into a parked truck on Whittier Drive, near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard, in Beverly Hills, receiving severe head injuries and falling into a month long coma.



Strangely, the automobile accident was just a short distance from Dead Man's Curve in Los Angeles, California, two years after the song had become a hit.


April 12, 1975 -
I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad.



U.S. born, Josephine Baker, French revue artist, spy, Croix de guerre recipient and Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, died in Paris, France on this date.


April 12, 1981 -
The first space shuttle, The Columbia was launched on this date. The Columbia was the first reusable manned spacecraft.



It was a major step forward for NASA and was eventually used to help build the International Space Station.


April 12, 1988 -
U.S. patent 4,736,866 was granted to Harvard University for a genetically-modified mouse on this date, engineered to be particularly susceptible to carcinogens.

The cancer-prone Harvard Oncomouse is the world's first patented creature, and perhaps also the most screwed.


April 12, 1989 -
1960s counterculture icon Abbie Hoffman swallowed 150 Phenobarbital barbiturate pills on this date.

What an overachiever - 100 pills would have been quite sufficient.


April 12, 1992 -
EuroDisney opens to the public, attracting a meager 50,000 visitors. Expectations had been about ten times as many. This underwhelming response by the European public will continue for more than a year.



Finally, after 18 months of retooling, the resort is ultimately rechristened Disneyland Paris.


April 12, 2022 -
Bunkies remember to ask you folks if you can watch this -
I have always felt comedy and tragedy are roommates. If you look up comedy and tragedy, you will find a very old picture of two masks. One mask is tragedy. It looks like it's crying. The other mask is comedy. It looks like it's laughing. Nowadays, we would say, 'How tasteless and insensitive. A comedy mask is laughing at a tragedy mask.'





Comedian and Actor, Gilbert Gottfried died on this date.



And so it goes.

Sorry but it wasn't yellow

April 11, 1942 -
Happy National Submarine Day!

National Submarine Day is celebrated annually on April 11th to commemorate the U.S. Navy's acquisition of its first modern commissioned submarine, the USS Holland (SS-1), on this day in 1900.



The USS Holland was designed by Irish-American inventor John Phillip Holland. The Holland VI prototype was purchased for $150,000 on this date It was the first to successfully utilize dual propulsion (gasoline for surface, electric for submerged) and modern weaponry.

Feel better knowing this


April 11, 1942 -
The Looney Tunes short, Saps in Chaps, directed by Friz Freleng, debuted on this date.



This is the last black-and-white Looney Tunes cartoon that Friz Freleng directed.


April 11, 1942 -
Bob Clampett was the first to tackle an adaption of a Dr. Seuss book when Merrie Melodies released Horton Hatches the Egg, on this date.



Peter Lorre was a favorite characterization for the famed Warner Bros. cartoonists, as he tangled several times with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.


April 11, 1947 -
Charlie Chaplin's very dark comedy, Monsieur Verdoux, premiered on this date in NYC.



The film was a colossal box-office flop on its 1947 release, despite being ardently championed by writer-critic James Agee, who considered Charles Chaplin's acting performance the greatest male performance he had ever seen in films.


April 11, 1955 -
The Paddy Chayefsky drama, Marty, starring Ernest Borgnine (the man who taught Ethel Merman the lessons of love) and Betsy Blair and directed by Delbert Mann, premiered in New York City on this date.



Film historians have credited this film for demonstrating the viability of low budget films in the United States. It also showed the potential for independently-produced films. This led to the proliferation of such films. Studio executives knew low budget, independent, and realistic films had been successful in Europe for many years. However, most studios remained skeptical about the possibility of such successes in the United States..


April 11, 1973 -
In one of the show's most memorable moments, Stevie Wonder plays a funky, live version of Superstition on Sesame Street, on this date.



The song was originally intended for Jeff Beck, who was brought in to play some guitar parts on the album in exchange for a song. At one of the sessions, Stevie came up with the riff and wrote some lyrics, and they recorded a rough version of the song that day for Beck. It took Beck a while to record the song, and by the time he released it, Wonder's version had been out for a month and was a huge hit.


April 11, 1980 -
ABC's attempt at live late-night sketch comedy, Fridays, premiered on this date.



Michael Richards, Larry David, Bruce Mahler, Maryedith Burrell and Melanie Chartoff would all work on Seinfeld in various capacities.


April 11, 1981 –
One of the songs that aired on MTV's first day of broadcast - Daryl Hall and John Oates' Kiss on My List, reached no. #1 on the Billboard charts on this date.



This is a very misinterpreted song, as many people hear the lyric as "kiss on my lips." According to Daryl Hall, it is what he calls "an anti-love song," and the lyric, "Your kiss is on my list of the best things in life" means that the kiss is simply another item on the guy's list - and certainly not the best thing. Said Hall: "Everyone thinks it's 'I love you and without you I would die.' It's exactly the opposite of that."


April 11, 1983 -
R.E.M. release their debut album, Murmur, on this date.



Radio Free Europe was R.E.M.'s first single, released in 1981 before they signed to a major label. A better-produced version was included on Murmur, the band's first full-length album, in 1983.


April 11, 1997 -
Buena Vista Pictures' surprise hit, Grosse Pointe Blank, starring John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd, and Joan Cusack, premiered in the US on this date.



The director originally planned to shoot the high school scenes at Grosse Pointe South High, but was unable to get permission from the school board. They felt that it would be inappropriate to show someone graduating from Grosse Pointe's school system to become a hit man.


April 11, 2009 –
Lady Gaga second hit off her debut album The Fame, Poker Face, hit no. #1 on the Billboard charts, on this date.



When this song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Lady Gaga became the first artist to top the chart with his or her first two entries since 1999-2000, when Christina Aguilera achieved the same feat with Genie in a Bottle and What a Girl Wants.

Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today


Today in History:
April 11, 1034 -
An ancient corollary—lost to the ages—of the phrase "Don't go to bed mad," may very well have been "Don't take a bath mad." After cutting his wife's allowance in an attempt to balance the Byzantine Empire’s budget, Emperor Romanos III Argyros was drowned in his bath on this date — allegedly by the eunuch (and probable lover) of Empress Zoe, a man named Michael.

Zoe was so impressed with Michael’s efficiency, she had him installed as Emperor—Michael IV. Ironically, one of Michael’s first acts as emperor was to slash Zoe’s allowance. True love, indeed.


April 11, 1713 -
Psst... in case it ever comes up in conversation: Spain ceded Gibraltar in perpetuity to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht on this date.

That should impress the person in the next cubicle—or at least win you a few points at trivia night.


April 11, 1814 -
Able was I ere I saw Elba.

Unable to come up with an anagram preventing it, Napoleon tried a forced retirement, for the first time, as Emperor of France, on this date.



He was allowed to retain his title of Emperor and was granted sovereignty over the small Mediterranean island of Elba, along with a modest pension and a personal guard of 400 volunteers. Island life, however, didn’t quite suit the little general. Less than a year later, he returned for his famous Hundred Days campaign (see: March 20), as retirement simply didn’t agree with him.


April 11, 1865 -
President Abraham Lincoln delivered what would be his final public speech on this date. Speaking from a window at the White House, he advocated for limited voting rights for African Americans.



Among the crowd was actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. Enraged by Lincoln’s words, Booth reportedly turned to a companion and said, “That means n**** citizenship. That is the last speech he will ever give.” Booth, who had previously plotted to kidnap the president, now resolved to assassinate him.


April 11, 1890 -
Joseph "John" Merrick, better known as The Elephant Man, died at the Royal London Hospital on this date at the age of 27.



Although long believed to have suffered from Elephantiasis, modern experts suggest that Merrick likely had Proteus Syndrome or possibly neurofibromatosis type I (formerly called von Recklinghausen’s disease). Either condition would account for the severe deformities that plagued his short but remarkable life


April 11, 1905 -
Albert Einstein, then a lowly patent clerk in Switzerland, published a groundbreaking paper that would revolutionize physics: the Special Theory of Relativity. Among its propositions was the now-iconic equation: E = mc².



The world was astonished, as previously, “E” had always just been the fifth letter of the alphabet.


April 11, 1935 -
Richard Berry, the composer of Louie Louie, was born on this date.



The song has been recorded more times than any other rock song in history.


April 11, 1947 - Jackie Robinson took to the field on this date, for the Brooklyn Dodgers in an exhibition match between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees becoming the first black player to play in Major league baseball.

Just four days later, on April 15, Robinson would break the color barrier officially on Opening Day, when the Dodgers beat the Boston Braves 5-3.


April 11, 1951 -
The Stone of Scone, the legendary coronation stone of Scottish monarchs, was discovered at the altar of the ruined Arbroath Abbey on this date. Scottish nationalist students had stolen it from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1950, as a symbolic act of defiance.



It had been at Westminster since 1296, taken by Edward I as spoils of war, and kept in spite of the Treaty of Northampton in 1328, in which England agreed to return it to Scotland. In 1996, it was transported to Edinburgh Castle, arriving on St. Andrew’s Day, and is now in the Crown Room alongside the crown jewels of Scotland. It will be briefly returned for future coronation ceremonies to Westminster Abbey.


April 11, 1951 -
President Harry S. Truman roused himself from the fourth boiler maker of the day and relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his command on this date. Though MacArthur was a major force in the army in both World War II and Korea, he repeatedly ignored or stretched Truman's orders, suggesting the nuclear option on the peninsula.



Despite his fame from WWII and the Korean War, MacArthur had repeatedly challenged Truman’s authority and advocated for the use of nuclear weapons in Korea. Truman reminded MacArthur—and the nation—that military leaders serve under civilian authority. The general’s dismissal was controversial, but a key moment in preserving the principle of civilian control of the military.


April 11, 1954 -
According to a team of Cambridge University scientists, this date in history was the most boring day during the entire 20th Century.

It appears to have been so boring that it had to be named National Cheese Fondue Day  (and 8-track Tape Day) just so those people living through it didn't kill themselves.



Everything goes better with fondue,



And nothing organizes your music collection quite like a K-tel Tape Selector.


April 11, 1979 -
Kampala, the capital of Uganda, fell to Tanzanian forces on this date, officially toppling dictator Idi Amin.



Amin, a brutal and erratic ruler responsible for the deaths of an estimated 300,000 people (and an occasional cannibal, just to keep things interesting), fled to Libya and eventually found asylum in Saudi Arabia. His fatal mistake? Invading Tanzania — a move that, historically, hasn’t worked out well for megalomaniacs with dietary quirks.



And so it goes.