It is kisstomary to cuss the bride

Today is Spooner's Day, honoring Reverend William Archibald Spooner, a 19th Century British clergyman, who was born on this date in 1844. Spoonerisms are usually a two-word phrase in which the first letters (and occasionally the initial vowels) of the words are reversed.



Reverend Spooner was adept at the art of the oopsy linguae, or misspeak. As a result, certain verbal miscues have been tagged Spoonerisms.


July 20, 1944 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Hare Force, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Bugs Bunny was released on this date.



Both Bugs and Sylvester the Dog hum/sing snippets of As Time Goes By which featured prominently in the 1944 Best Picture Oscar-winning Casablanca.


July 21, 1950 -
The Looney Tunes short, t's Hummer Time, directed by Robert McKimson, and starring Foghorn Leghorn, was released on this date.



The sign "DON'T BE HALF SAFE" refers to Arrid deodorant. During the 1940s and 1950s, its famous slogan was "Don't be half-safe-use Arrid to be sure", which gave rise to "Half-Safe," the name of the amphibious vehicle which Ben Carlin used to circumnavigate the world.


July 22, 1959 -
Either considered the worst or greatest film ever made, Ed Wood Jr's sci-fi classic, Plan 9 from Outer Space, starring Bela Lugosi, Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, Vampira and narrated by Criswell, opened in the US on this date.



Bela Lugosi appears in footage shot just before his death, but with no script in mind. Edward D. Wood Jr. wrote the script to accommodate all the footage shot in a cemetery and outside Tor Johnson's house in the new production. Lugosi was doubled by Tom Mason, Wood's wife's chiropractor, who was significantly taller than Lugosi, and played the part with a cape covering his face.


July 22, 1963 -
The Beach Boys released the single Surfer Girl, (the b-side is Little Deuce Coupe,) 0n this date. The single was the first Beach Boys record to have Brian Wilson officially credited as the producer.



Brian Wilson's girlfriend when he wrote this song was Judy Bowles, who was with him before he formed the band. It's not clear if she directly inspired this song (Wilson has given conflicting answers), but he did write another song about her around this time called Judy, which was not released until it was issued on a collection of outtakes in 1991.


July 22, 1964 -
One of Hitchcock's most underrated (and sexually twisted) films, Marnie premiered on this date.



To film real horses riding without having to work outdoors, Alfred Hitchcock came up with the idea of running the horses on a gigantic treadmill. Crew members objected to the idea, because it was considered highly unsafe, and because they simply didn't think it would work. Still, Hitchcock wanted to at least try it, and when they did, it worked without a problem. Originally, a harness was attached to Tippi Hedren during these shots for safety reasons, but it was removed when it was found to impede shooting.


July 22, 1967 -
The Toho Studio released King Kong Escapes (Kingu Kongu no gyakushû,) directed by Ishiro Honda in Japan on this date. (Despite the master villain being named Dr. Who, this film has no connection to Doctor Who.)



Two costumes of King Kong were made. The arms of the first costume were very long, so Haruo Nakajima's hands did not reach those of the costume. He had to grasp onto sticks that were attached to the hands of the costume. He wore a second costume with shorter arms whenever they were shooting footage of King Kong battling other monsters. Like with Toho's previous Kong costume, Nakajima was sewn shut inside the suit.


July 22, 1977 -
Stiff Records released Elvis Costello's debut studio album, My Aim Is True, produced by Nick Lowe, on this date in the UK.



Elvis Costello quit his day job at Elizabeth Arden on July 5, 1977. I guess he'd made a living since then.


July 22, 1983 –
20th Century Fox jumped on the strange new bandwagon of Dad's taking care of their kids when the film, Mr. Mom, starring Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Martin Mull, Ann Jillian, and Christopher Lloyd went into a limited release on this date.



Michael Keaton turned down Splash to do this movie. Ron Howard was asked to direct, but he turned it down in order to make Splash.


Another episode of ACME's Little Known Animal Facts


Today in History:
July 22, 1587 -
Roanoke, the colony founded by Sir Walter Raleigh, might have gone missing on this date.



Recent development point to the fact that the inhabitants of Roanoke didn't go missing, they appear to have originated the joke that after certain people left, everyone else moved and didn't leave a forwarding address.


July 22, 1893-
Katharine Lee Bates wrote the poem America the Beautiful after admiring the view from the top of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, Colorado, on this date. While the lyrics were written by Bates, its music was composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey. The two never met. The poem was first published in the Fourth of July 1895 edition of the church periodical, The Congregationalist. At that time, the poem was first entitled America.



Samuel A. Ward had initially composed the song's melody in 1882 to accompany lyrics to Materna, basis of the hymn, O Mother dear, Jerusalem, though the hymn was not first published until 1892. The combination of Ward's melody and Bates's poem was finally known as America the Beautiful in 1910.


July 22, 1916 -
In San Francisco, on this date, some 50,000 people marched in a Preparedness Day parade (the largest parade ever held in the city), supporting the US intervention in World War I. The event was sponsored by business leaders and opposed by labor. A bomb went off on Market St. during the parade and 10 people were killed and 40 injured. The bomb was presumed to be set by a professed anarchist.



Labor leader Tom Mooney and his assistant, Warren K. Billings were arrested, convicted of the bombing, and sentenced to death. In 1918 Mooney's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, the same as Billings' when a commission established by President Wilson found no clear evidence connecting the two to the crime. By 1939, evidence of perjury and false testimony at the trial had become overwhelming. California Governor Culbert Olson pardoned both men. The identity of the bomber will probably never be known.


July 22, 1933 -
Wiley Post (who possessed his flying license signed by Orville Wright) took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York City and traveled 15,596 miles over a period of 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes and became the first person to fly solo around the world on this date.



Post landed back at Floyd Bennett Field in New York, completing the first round-the-world solo flight. His return was greeted by some 50,000 people.


July 22, 1934 -
John Dillinger was shot dead outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, on this date in history. And one of the most bizarre urban legends was born.



According to the rumor, J. Edgar Hoover — pug-ugly head of the FBI and notorious transvestite — rushed to Chicago to see the corpse of Dillinger, Public Enemy No. 1, for himself. Dillinger was a ladies’ man and was reported to be very specially endowed.

Hoover, after viewing the nude lifeless body of Dillinger in the morgue, orders Dillinger's member to be removed and preserved as a 'specimen' for his private files.

Rumors of Hoover's trophy dogged him for the rest of his life. He even took the extraordinary step, sometime in the late ’60s, of declaring that he "did not now nor ever have Dillinger's privates in a jar." His comments were not taken seriously, as he was reportedly wearing a size 28 Dior outfit with matching handbag (and Raymond Burr Nipple Rouge) at the time.

The Smithsonian Institution is still flooded with requests annually to view this special exhibition.


July 22, 1951 -
It's the first episode of Dogs In Space -

Two Russian dogs, Dezik and Tsygan, were the first canines to make a sub-orbital flight in history on this date.



The Russian space program used dogs quite often to determine whether a particular space mission would be safe for humans. Little know fact: the real reason Nikita Khrushchev slammed his shoe on the desk in the UN - Khrushchev had just been passed a note about a ten year investigation of Tsygan's over-familiarity with his shoe.


July 22, 1962 -
The NASA Mariner 1 spacecraft, which had been intended to become the first U.S. probe to explore the planet Venus, began flying erratically roughly four minutes after launch, goes off course, and is destroyed to prevent it from impacting a populated area, on this date.



Later investigations will reveal that the guidance instructions transmitted from the ground failed to reach the rocket due to an antenna malfunction, leaving the onboard computer in control.


July 22, 1973 –
One of the main destructive forces within our family has been these runaway egos. I think if you look at any show business family, that struggle exists.







Rufus Wainwright, American-Canadian singer-songwriter, son of Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, was born on this date.


July 22, 1975 -
Stanley Forman took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo Fire Escape Collapse on this date.

The photograph, which is part of a series, shows 19-year-old Diana Bryant and her 2-year-old goddaughter Tiare Jones falling from the collapsed fire escape of a burning apartment building on Marlborough Street in Boston. It spurred action to improve the safety of fire escapes across the United States.


At the time of his death on this date in 1982, King Sobhuza II was the longest-reigning monarch in the world. His death also established him as the most recently-deceased monarch in the world. Today he is on a long list of continuously dead rulers.

Sobhuza began his career as Paramount Chief of the Swazi in 1921, but was not recognized as king by Great Britain, which ran the nation as a protectorate, until 1967. (The forgetful Brits have a long history of failing to recognize kings, perhaps owing to the difficulty of seeing clearly in the London fog.)



The Brits wrote a Constitution before they left, but Sobhuza did not discover it until 1973, at which point he discarded it on the grounds of its being British. Five years later he implemented a better Constitution that, surprisingly enough, left all political power in his own hands.

He died in 1982. The Constitution declared that he should be succeeded by one of his children, which seemed simple at first but was complicated by the revelation of his having had over 600 children.



(Apparently he had time on his hands for more than political power.) It took four years to find the right son, and King Mswati III has reigned ever since.


July 22, 1982 -
It's a happy 44th anniversary for over 2000 couples who were married by Rev. Moon in Madison Square Garden on this date in NYC.

As far as I can find out, nearly 75% of the couples are still married (although, perhaps not to each other.)


July 22, 2013 -
Talk about having a bad hair day - Beyonce soldiered through a concert in Montreal, Canada after her hair got tangled in the blades of a fan. She was performing Halo from an audience pit when the incident happened.



She continued to sing her encore while security guards tried to extract her from the fan, which was mounted on the edge of the stage.


July 22, 1992 –
What you have inside is much more beautiful than what's on the outside!





Selena Gomez, American singer and actress, was born on this date. My daughters love her



And so it goes.

Count the memories, not the calories.

It's National Junk Food Day. (What did I say yesterday about lollipops being involved in a huge conspiracy!)



It doesn't really matter what you eat - at some point, you'll be dead.


July 21, 1943 -
Twentieth Century Fox's musical spectacular, Stormy Weather, starring Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway, Katherine Dunham, Fats Waller, Fayard Nicholas, Harold Nicholas, Ada Brown, and Dooley Wilson, premiered in the US on this date.



Two musical numbers were deleted from the release print: Good-for-Nothin' Joe (music by Rube Bloom, lyrics by Ted Koehler), sung by Lena Horne, who already was identified with this torch song via her 1941 Victor recording as the vocalist with Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra; and Alfred the Moocher, a parody by Cab Calloway of his trademark Minnie the Moocher (music and lyrics by Calloway, Irving Mills and Clarence Gaskill). The Alfred being spoofed likely is renowned film composer and music director Alfred Newman.


July 21, 1956 -
The Looney Tunes short, Barbary-Coast Bunny, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Bugs Bunny, was released on this date.



This is one of a few cartoons where Bugs Bunny does not munch a carrot.


July 21, 1962 -
The Looney Tunes short, The Slick Chick, directed by Robert McKimson, and starring Foghorn Leghorn, was released on this date.



Mr. Cackle mentions Dennis the Menace when comparing the destructive Junior with that character in one scene, referencing the comic strip character of the same name by Hank Ketcham and the 1959 live-action television series it inspired.


July 21, 1965 -
The Warner Bros. horrow film, I Saw What You Did, directed by William Castle, and starring Joan Crawford, John Ireland, and Leif Erickson, was released on this date.



Joan Crawford was approached for this film one month after she left Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, due to an "ailment" that prevented her from working (which is believed to have actually been sick of working with her arch enemy Bette Davis). Therefore, William Castle requested that Crawford's doctors sign a statement attesting that she was completely well before giving her the role.


July 21, 1971 -
Carole King's single from the Tapestry album, It's Too Late, hits #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



In the You're So Vain vein, this song was rumored to be about James Taylor, who was good friends with King and played on the Tapestry album. In early 1971, Taylor and King toured together with King the opening act. Many people tended to think that this song was about a short romance between the two. King never confirmed these rumors, and Taylor later dated and married Carly Simon.


July 21, 1977 -
Despite protests, The Sex Pistols made their first appearance on the UK music show Top Of The Pops where they lip-synched to their third single, Pretty Vacant (which was released three weeks prior); The performance helped push the song up the charts to No.7.



The Sex Pistols would probably not have been invited if the BBC had realized the title is to be interpreted as "pretty va-cunt." The Pistols had already seen their debut single, God Save The Queen, banned by the BBC as well as by independent UK radio. Their debut album was also banned, and in December 1976, they caused a furor by swearing overtly on an independent television news program, egged on by interviewer Bill Grundy.


July 21, 1979 –
Robert Palmer released a cover version of the Moon Martin song, Bad Case Of Loving You, on this date.



Known by most as "Doctor, Doctor," this is one of many songs in the blues/rock tradition that compares the singers' love to a medical condition. Apparently, Palmer got hooked on whatever the doctor prescribed, as by 1985 he was Addicted To Love.


July 21, 1989 -
Orion Pictures' comedy UHF, (written by and) starring Weird Al Yankovic, David Bowe, Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Gedde Watanabe, Kevin McCarthy, Anthony Geary, Emo Philips and Trinidad Silva premiered in US theatres on this date. The soundtrack features many of Yankovic's signature song parodies, as well as a few of his original songs.



Real fish were attached to the "Wheel of Fish." They were bought at a local fish market early one morning. The set designer began attaching them to the wheel around 6 am, making sure the wheel spun smoothly. Filming started at 4:30 pm, on a hot summer day, in a building that wasn't air-conditioned, filled with hot studio lights and over 100 extras.


July 21, 1990 -
Roger Waters staged an over-sized version of Pink Floyd's The Wall near the Berlin Wall, on this date, to celebrate the actual wall's fall several months earlier.



Shot on Potsdamer Platz, the no man's land between East and West Germany, the producers didn't know if the area would be filled with mines - no one did. Before setting up, they did a sweep of the area and found a slew of munitions and a previously unknown Nazi S.S. bunker, the very same as Hitler had lived his last days in as seen in the movie Downfall.


July 21, 2014 -
Marvel Studios and Disney Studios megahit, Guardians of the Galaxy (now known as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1,) starring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper and a boatload of other people, premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



Chris Pratt apparently stole his Star-Lord costume from the set, for the sole purpose of having it available so he could show up in costume to visit sick children in the hospital, who might want to meet Star-Lord.


Today's moment of Zen


Today in History:
July 21, 365 -
It was not a good day in Ole Alexandria:



It was not a good day in Ole Alexandria


July 21, 1730 -
Holland established the death penalty for acts of sodomy on this date.

I've often said, this is what comes from trolls and the lack of proper lubricant.


July 21, 1897-
On the former site of the Millbank Penitentiary, London's Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) was officially opened in London by the future Edward VII, then Prince of Wales on this date.



The art gallery was partially paid for by Henry Tate’s sugar fortune, to house the art collection he donated to the National Gallery several years earlier.


July 21, 1899 -
Ernest Hemingway was born on this date. He was young at the time of his birth. It was fine to be young.

He drove an ambulance in World War I. It wasn’t called World War I then. It was just called the war. It was one of those times when people shot at each other. When people were shooting at each other, they didn’t have time to worry about what to call it. It was only afterward that they needed to call it something.

"What should we call that time when we were shooting at each other?"

"Let's call it the Great War."

"Good."

It was a good ambulance. It was long with a red and white sign. It had flashing lights and a siren that went "wee-ooo, wee-ooo." He liked that.



After the war he lived in Paris. A lot of Americans lived in Paris after the war, but only a few of them had ever driven an ambulance. In the 30s he went to Spain. He was a journalist. They were having a war.

They called it the Spanish Civil War. It was started by an Evil Stooge named General Franco on July 18, 1936. It was a test drive to see whether or not they should have World War II. They had fascists and socialists and anarchists. They even drank sangria. People shot at each other.



(General Franco finally gave up power on July 19, 1974, because he was sick. Maybe he had always been sick. It’s sometimes hard to understand sickness. Maybe we’re not meant to understand it.)

Later Hemingway lived in Cuba. He liked to fish. He liked to drink. He thought all men should fish. He wrote stories about fishing. Finally he blew his brains out at his home in Idaho. It was July 2, 1961.

He had written a lot of books, but now he was dead.


July 21, 1918 -
The German submarine, U-156, attacked Orleans, Massachusetts, hitting the Perth Amboy, a 120-foot steel tugboat and four barges and striking the beach with shells. The five vessels carried a total of 32 people, including four women and five children.



Miraculously, although several people were injured, no one was killed, This was the only time the continental United States was shelled during World War I.


July 21, 1919 -
The Wingfoot Air Express (owned by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company) caught fire and crashed into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, 13 people were killed. This was the worst Airship disaster in the USA until the Zeppelin Airship, Hindenburg crashed in 1937.



Of the 13 who died: one was a crew member, two were passengers whilst the remaining 10 were bank employees in the building below.


July 21, 1924 -
Mainly, I thought of Barney as a kid. You can always look into the faces of kids and see what they're thinking, if they're happy or sad. That's what I tried to do with Barney..



Jesse Donald Knotts, actor, comedian and master Mick Jagger impersonator was born on this date.


July 21, 1925 -
The so-called "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton, Tenn., with John T. Scopes convicted of violating state law for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.



Scopes was found guilty and was fined $100. The conviction was later overturned on the technicality that the judge had set the fine rather than the jury.


July 21, 1951 -
I used to think that the worst thing in life was to end up alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel alone.



Robin McLaurim Williams, actor and comedian, was born on this date (or was it 1952.)


July 21, 1969 -
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin blast off from the Moon after twenty-one and a half hours on the surface and return to the command module piloted by Michael Collins on this date.



The lunar module’s lower section, left behind, has a plaque mounted upon it, reading, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”



While all of the world is celebrating the success of the Apollo 11 mission; a little remembered incident also occurred 54 years ago this week, the Soviets nearly landed an unmanned vehicle on the Moon first, Luna 15.

The five-ton Soviet station (Luna 15 was launched on Sunday, July 13) approached the Moon on July 17 - three days before the now-airborne Apollo 11 - and entered near-lunar orbit. But then, the unforeseen happened. For some reason, the spacecraft became stuck in orbit, allowing Apollo 11 to sneak past.



As the first men on the Moon prepared to launch from the lunar surface, astronomers at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Manchester heard commands being sent up to Luna 15 from Moscow. The Soviet spacecraft was beginning its 52nd orbit and preparing to descend towards the surface … it wasn’t until this moment the English astronomers realized the craft was designed to land. They tracked the spacecraft in real time as it sped towards the surface, listened as it gained speed and finally crashed right into Mare Crisium, the Sea of Crises, about two hours before Armstrong and Aldrin we set to leave the lunar surface.



“I say, this has really been drama of the highest order,” remarked one Jodrell Bank astronomer when it was all over.“I say, this has really been drama of the highest order,” remarked one Jodrell Bank astronomer when it was all over.


July 21, 1972 -
In Milwaukee, George Carlin was arrested for obscenity and disorderly conduct for performing his "Seven Dirty Words" routine on a Summerfest stage in Milwaukee. (Tits is still the funniest.)



He was released after posting $150 bail.


July 21, 2011 –
NASA’s Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on this date.



After 135 flights in 30 years, the space shuttles were now history. NASA estimated with the landing of the Atlantis' flight over, the five shuttle orbiters would together have traveled 537,114,016 miles in orbit. Three hundred and thirty-five astronauts have flown on them; 14 died when the shuttles Columbia and Challenger were lost.


July 21, 2023 -
To me, life is a gift, and it's a blessing to just be alive. And each person should learn what a gift it is to be alive no matter how tough things get.







Anthony Dominick Benedetto, the last great saloon singer died on this date



And so it goes.

Let your worries melt away.

You didn't hear this from me but today's holiday is a huge conspiracy perpetrated by the Big Sugar Syndication. (I wonder if the Trump organization bought into Domino Sugar.)





It's National Lollipop Day; but don’t go too overboard on the sugary treats. (Last time I checked; it's about 251 licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop.)


July 20, 1935 -
The Looney Tunes short, Buddy Steps Out, directed by Jack King, and starring Buddy, was released on this date.



This is the only short that credits Chuck Jones as the animator as "Chas. Jones" instead of "Charles Jones" or "Charles M. Jones"


July 20, 1940 -
The Merrie Melodies short, The Egg Collector, directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Sniffles was released on this date.



Egg collecting was very popular during the Victoria era, particularly among the upper class of Britain and Europe.


July 15, 1946 -
The Looney Tunes short, The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, directed by Bob Clampett, and starring Daffy Duck, was released on this date.



When Duck Twacy takes a street car to the gangsters' hideout, the conductor is a thinly-disguised Porky Pig dressed in a driver's uniform and a handlebar mustache.


July 20, 1950 -
Fred Zimmermann's film about wounded WWII veterans, The Men, starring Marlon Brando (in his first feature film), Teresa Wright and Everett Sloane, premiered on this date.



According to Marlon Brando, this film role classified him as 1-A to the Army and he reported for induction during the Korean War. He was, however, denied on grounds of having problems with authority and his bizarre answers to a questionnaire by the psychiatrist, thus making him unsuitable for service.


July 15, 1957 -
The Looney Tunes short, Tabasco Road, directed by Bob McKimson, and starring Speedy Gonzales, was released on this date.



The title Tabasco Road is a pun on Tobacco Road, a 1932 novel by Erskine Caldwell.


July 20, 1963 -
Jan and Dean's single Surf City, co-written by Brian Wilson (who doesn't know how to surf,) hits #1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



Brian Wilson was working with a few different artists at the time, including the girl group The Honeys. He was extremely productive during this period, emulating Phil Spector as he focused on production and songwriting. Surf City was his first #1 hit, coming a year before The Beach Boys would top the charts with I Get Around.


July 20, 1965 -
Bob Dylan releases the classic Like A Rolling Stone on this date.



This was the only song on the album produced by Tom Wilson, who produced Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Wilson had been a jazz producer and was brought in to replace John Hammond. Wilson invited keyboard player Al Kooper to the session, and Al produced the famous organ riff that drove the song. This was the last song Wilson worked on with Dylan, as Bob Johnston took over production duties.


July 20, 1965 -
The Lovin' Spoonful released their hit Do You Believe In Magic? on this date.



The Lovin' Spoonful played regularly at a famous club called The Night Owl Cafe. John Sebastian was quoted as saying: "We were playing pretty steadily for the local people from Greenwich Village who were part of the jazz scene or part of the kind of downtown 'in crowd.' They were 'finger poppers,' guys who played chess, 'beatniks.' But there was this one particular night as we were playing, I looked out in the audience and saw this beautiful 16-year-old girl just dancing the night away. And I remember Zal and I just elbowed each other the entire night because to us that young girl symbolized the fact that our audience was changing, that maybe they had finally found us. I wrote 'Do You Believe In Magic' the next day."


July 20, 1970 -
Richard and Karen Carpenters appear on The Dating Game, where they perform (They Long To Be) Close To You and each select from three suitors (and not each other,) on this date.



Karen Carpenter appeared on segment 1 and she was the girl interviewing the three bachelors. Richard on segment 2 as one of the three bachelors. Richard won the date in his game. They never actually go on their dates


July 20, 1984 -
20th Century Fox releases the comedy film Revenge of the Nerds, starring Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards on this date.



Lambda Lambda Lambda - the fraternity depicted in the film, would end up becoming the name of a fraternity in real life. It was founded at the University of Connecticut in 2006


July 20, 1986 -
The Alex Cox biography Sid and Nancy, starring Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, premiered in London, on this date.



Gary Oldman lived on a diet of steamed fish and melon to lose enough weight to play the emaciated, heroin-addicted Sid, and was hospitalized when he went too far and became malnourished.


July 20, 1990 -
In one of the late (good) performances of Marlon Brando, the TriStar Pictures' The Freshman, directed by Andrew Bergman and co-starring Matthew Broderick, Bruno Kirby, Penelope Ann Miller, and Frank Whaley, premiered on this date.



Matthew Broderick had no idea that Marlon Brando was going to use the walnuts as a prop in the scene where they discuss his job. While waiting for the scene to be shot, Brando cracked the walnuts just enough so they would be easy to break, and then used them in the scene to help generate a more genuine response from Broderick.


July 20, 2001 -
Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki was released in Japan on this date. (The film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003, making it the first (and, to date, only) hand-drawn and non-English-language animated film to win that award.)



In order to animate the scene where Chihiro force feeds Haku the medicine in his dragon form, Hayao Miyazaki had his animators study a dog's mouth as they fed it treats while a veterinarian held its lower jaw.


July 20, 2007 -
The musical version of John Waters 1988 cult classic film (and the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name,) Hairspray, directed by Adam Shankman and starring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, and Nikki Blonsky premiered on this date.



The film brought together John Travolta who starred in Grease, and Michelle Pfeiffer who starred in Grease 2. One day, while the cast was waiting between takes, Travolta began singing Summer Nights. Co-stars Amanda Bynes and Zac Efron were so excited that they immediately began sending text messages to their friends about what was happening.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
July 20, 911 -
Rollo, the leader of the marauding Vikings, sweeping through Europe, laid siege of to the city of Chartres, on this date. This would be totally of no importance except the king of France, Charles the Senseless, (who was not so senseless in this instance,) negotiated a peace treaty with them. He granted them an area of France that would become Normandy.



Rollo is the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror. Through William, he is an ancestor of the present-day British royal family, as well as an ancestor of all current European monarchs and a great many pretenders to abolished European thrones. So who knew that a chocolate covered caramel would play such an important part of European history.


July 20, 1402 -
At the Battle of Angora, Tamerlane led his huge army of Taters against the Ottomans (or Ottomen). Tamerlane captured the Sultan (Head Ottoman), and this is why we call some sweaters Angoras to this day.

Angora, however, is now called Ankara.

(Co-incidentally in 1991, on this date President Bush, visiting Turkey, was cheered by thousands of people in Ankara.)


July 20, 1801 -
According to legend, a 1,235 pound cheese ball was pressed at the farm of Elisha Brown Jr. and taken to Washington D.C. by a horse-driven wagon.

He presented it as a gift to President Thomas Jefferson at the White House on this date.



(Or it could have been given to him on January 1st, 1802; I don't know, I wasn't there.)


July 20, 1903 -
The Ford Motor Company took its first order for a two-cylinder Model A car on July 15th 1903 and shipped the car on this date.

In early July of 1903, Ford’s cash balance was just $223.65 and it was doubtful if payroll could be fulfilled long enough to complete the existing works-in-progress. A Chicago dentist named Ernst Pfenning bought the car for $850. His purchase and two other orders that week, kept the Ford Motor Company in business.


July 20, 1938 -
I get tetchy with myself when I forget. I also get tetchy when directors ask you for take after take after take after take for no apparent reason. I've heard Maggie Smith gets tetchy for the same reason..



English actress Diana Rigg, was born on this date, in Doncaster, England.



English actress Diana Rigg, was born on this date, in Doncaster, England.



as was, Natalie Zacharenko (Natalie Wood), on this date, except in San Francisco.


July 20, 1944 -
In an attempt on Hitler's life, a time bomb explodes in the situation room of the Wolf's Lair, killing four Nazi officers but only wounding the Fuhrer. After his close call, Hitler becomes even more paranoid. A massive purge is to follow, resulting in the execution of thousands of officers.



Hollywood's favorite 'frequently married little person (not Mickey Rooney)' starred in a film version of the event.


July 20, 1951 -
In Jerusalem at the al-Aqsa Mosque, King Abdullah of Jordan was shot three times in the head and chest by Mustapha Shukri Usho, a Palestinian opposed to peace with Israel.



Abdullah died on the spot.


July 20, 1968 -
The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held on this date, a joint venture between the Kennedy Foundation and the Chicago Park District.



The first games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago, and more than 150 countries worldwide sent more than 1,000 athletes competed.


July 20, 1969 -
57years ago today, in a live transmission from the Moon, viewed by 720 million people around the world, Neil Armstrong stepped foot onto the Moon. It was a brave thing to do (and unfortunately caused Buzz Aldrin to have his post-Apollo 11 period of alcoholism and depression.)



It was also the first mission to bring back samples from a foreign planetary body — the samples dated back 3.7 billion years.



And whatever you do, don't ask Buzz if it was faked.


July 20, 1973 -
In Hong Kong, martial artist Bruce Lee fell into a coma and died of cerebral edema on this date. He had been experiencing brain problems beginning in May, which included sporadic loss of consciousness (I've always hated when that happens.)



Lee's death happened shortly before the release of Enter the Dragon, his most successful film.


July 20, 1976 -
Hank Aaron, considered one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history, hit his last home run (#755) off the California Angels' Dick Drago at Milwaukee County Stadium, on this date.

He is perhaps most famous for breaking the record for career home runs, which he held until Barry Bonds topped him on September 23, 2006. (Aaron did it without being on the juice, that's all I'm saying.)


July 20, 1976 -
The US spacecraft Viking 1 was the first craft ever to land on Mars on this date. It holds the record for having the second longest mission on Mars' surface: 6 years and 116 days.



NASA terminated communications with the craft on August 17, 1980. So technically, it's still there (unless the martians have stripped the craft and have it up on blocks.)


July 20, 1994 -
O.J. Simpson offered a $500,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the Real Killers on this date. To this day progress remains elusive, although Simpson now has to limit his search within the boundaries of hell.



And so it goes.