June 7, 1941 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt, directed by Friz Freleng, starring Bugs Bunny, debuted on this date.
Due to pressure from Warner Bros., this cartoon was one of 11 pulled from rotation by the Cartoon Network for its 2001 "June Bugs" marathon, which was to show the complete chronology of Bugs Bunny cartoons. This is in addition to the "Censored 11" that have been withheld from distribution since 1968. The reason given was its purportedly offensive depiction of Native Americans.
June 7, 1946 -
The final installment in the Sherlock Holmes series, Dressed to Kill, directed by Roy William Neill and starring Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce and Patricia Morrison, opened on this date.
Irene Adler, mentioned by Dr. Watson, was a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A former opera singer and actress, she was featured in the short story A Scandal in Bohemia to which Watson referred. But she was never incorporated into any of the plots of the films in the series.
June 7, 1952 -
The Looney Tunes short, The Hasty Hare, directed by Chuck Jones, starring Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian, debuted on this date.
The science professor's note of resignation reads: SHALOMAR OBSERVATORY I resign! When I begin to see things like this, it's time to take up turkey farming. I. Frisby DIRECTOR.
June 7, 1958 -
The Everly Brothers song All I Have to Do Is Dream topped the charts on this date.
Chet Atkins played tremolo-style guitar chords on the song, providing an interesting musical backing to the Everly Brothers' unique vocal harmonies.
June 7, 1969 -
Tommy James and the Shondells released Crystal Blue Persuasion on this date.
The lyrics, "It's a new vibration," are about James becoming Christian, but many listeners had their own interpretation. He explained: "Of course, everybody thinks if they don't understand what you're talking about it must be about drugs. But it wasn't. We were going through a real interesting time back then, and a very wonderful time. Everybody in the band, by the way, became Christian. And we're very proud of it. And 'Crystal Blue Persuasion' was sort of our way of saying that in a kind of pop record way."
June 7, 1969 -
The Johnny Cash Show, a summer replacement for ABC's Hollywood Palace variety program, premiered on this date, with performances by Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.
Dylan, who met Cash at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, was making his first public performance since the Woody Guthrie benefit in January 1968. He performed I Threw It All Away and Living the Blues. Cash and Dylan also played Girl From the North Country, which they’d recently recorded for Dylan’s country-flavored LP Nashville Skyline. The show also featured Cash singing Folsom Prison Blues, and Dylan’s It Ain’t Me Babe as a duet with wife June Carter Cash. Joni Mitchell sang her hit Both Sides Now.
Talk about cosmic convergence -
it's Dean Martin's,
Tom Jones'
and Prince's birthday today.
Think of the number of children conceived listening to their music.
June 7, 1974 –
The Kinks were hosts on The Midnight Special on this date.
Bunkies this was music on TV before MTV.
June 7, 1975 –
Sony releases Betamax videocassette recorder, the first home video format, in Japan, on this date. The recorder goes on sale to the public for $995.00.
Almost a year to the day later, JVC will introduce a competing format called the Video Home System (VHS). VHS will ultimately surpass the Betamax format in terms of popularity, partly due to its longer recording length and partly due to maneuvering on the part of Sony to corner the home video market.
June 7, 1975 -
Elton John's ninth studio album Captain Fantastic And The Brown Dirt Cowboys, went to No. 1 on the US album chart, on this date. It's the first album ever to enter the US chart at No. 1. (where it stayed for seven weeks).
Captain Fantastic' is a concept album that gives an autobiographical glimpse at the struggles John (Captain Fantastic) and Taupin (the Brown Dirt Cowboy) had in the early years of their musical careers in London.
June 7, 1985 -
The movie Perfect, starring John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis, premiered in the US, on this date.
Even though the film was a major box-office failure and temporarily derailed John Travolta's A-list career, he claims he doesn't regret doing it, mostly due to his friendships with the cast and the chance to work again with James Bridges. .
June 7, 1991 -
Spike Lee's controversial film (at the time), Jungle Fever, starring Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Spike Lee, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, Queen Latifah, John Turturro, and Anthony Quinn went into general release in the US on this date.
Samuel L. Jackson had just undergone treatment for drug addiction, and had only two weeks from his discharge from rehab to the start of filming. Jackson has gone on record as saying that Gator's ravaged look was not make-up, but actually the result of Jackson's own detoxification.
June 7, 1991 –
The Castle Rock film which revived the career of Jack Palance, City Slickers, directed by Ron Underwood and also starring Billy Crystal, Danial Stern and Bruno Kirby premiered on this date.
The story that Billy Crystal tells about his "best day" of going to a Yankee game with his father is a true story from his childhood. He notes at one point that, "I still have the program." Not only does he really still have it, but he got Mickey Mantle to autograph it twice: once at the game that day and once again some 20 years later on a talk show they were both guests on.
Another album from the discount bin at The ACME Record Shoppe
Today in History (sometimes it doesn't pay to get out of bed): June 7, 1494 -
Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas (which divides the New World between the two countries. Hence, the Brazilians speak Portuguese rather than Spanish). In the volatile, war-torn world in which we live, many historical documents have become required reading. Not this one. You will never be standing at a cocktail party where someone says, "It's all because of that damn Treaty of Tordesillas."
No one will ever blame the failures of the Middle East Peace Process or the brinkmanship in South Asia on the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Tordesillas. You'll never see your favorite pundit toss off the "Treaty of Tordesillas" in an ironic and off-handed way. You won't hear Noam Chomsky cite it as a cause or effect of American imperialism. It will never attract the directorial eye of Michael Moore or Oliver Stone.
You already know more about that treaty than most people alive today. You may now forget it ever existed. It has no relevance to your life.
June 7, 1502 -
Ugo Buoncompagni was born on this date. He became Pope Gregory XIII in 1572 and remained the Pope until 1585. He is best known for reforming the Julian calendar, which is why it's now Gregorian instead of Julian.
Had he reformed the calendar before becoming Pope, it would be the Ugian Calendar. That would have been a calendar worth having.
(For some reason that I can't quite figure out - I think I've mentioned Pope Gregory XIII in these pages more than any human being, except perhaps Mata Hari, whom I keep getting the date of her execution wrong.)
June 7, 1692 -
At 11:43 am, a catastrophic earthquake struck Port Royal, Jamaica, then known as "the richest and wickedest city in the world." Buildings are shaken apart and ships in harbor hurled onto busy streets.
In just three minutes, the temblor takes out 70% of the population, killing 1,600 and seriously injuring 3,000 others.
It was a beautiful weekend back in 1786, it's nice to know that the first day ice cream was sold in the US, on this date.
The Smithsonian Museum purports to have an inappropriate woodcutting of a very young Bernie Sanders making a rude gesture to either Martha Washington or Dolley Madison concerning how Alexander Hamilton cut ahead of him on line and how he'd fix those damn banks some day in the future.
June 7, 1892 -
Homer Plessy, a shoemaker of mixed race from Louisiana, was arrested for refusing to move from a designated "white" seat on a train, on this date.
His arrest and subsequent trial (Plessy v. Ferguson) led to the landmark "separate but equal" decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896, which permitted segregation.
June 7, 1893 -
Co-incidentally or not, when traveling by train across South Africa, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was asked to leave the first-class compartment - for which he had a ticket - because another passenger complained of having to ride with a colored person.
He refused to move and authorities were called to force him and his luggage to disembark in Maritzburg. This was Gandhi's first act of disobedience.
June 7, 1937 -
While filming Saratoga, Jean Harlow was hospitalized with uremic poisoning and kidney failure, a result of the scarlet fever she had suffered during childhood.
In the days before dialysis and kidney transplants, nothing could be done and Harlow died on this date. She was 26.
(Most of you probably have not idea who the hell Jean Harlow was?)
June 7, 1954 -
Despondent over court-ordered estrogen treatments to cure his homosexuality, Alan Turing committed suicide by consuming an apple laced with cyanide. (His inspiration - Snow White, his favorite movie.)
Turing is considered the founder of modern computing, a pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and a crucial member of the team that cracked Germany's Enigma cipher in World War II.
So, apparently an apple a day does keep the doctor away - permanently.
June 7, 1965 -
I suppose that if I could have quit, I would have, because in those days I never wanted to be an actress, the acting was something to do while I waited for a chance to study writing and directing. But I guess I was just meant to be an actress. Because, here I am..
The anything but dumb blonde, Judy Holliday (born Judith Tuvim, who reportedly had an IQ of over 170) died from the breast cancer that had plagued her for over five years, on this date. She was 43.
June 7, 1967 -
There's a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.
Her 'troubles' did not end with her death as her executrix, Lillian Hellman, bitterly but unsuccessfully contested the final bequest of her estate to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. foundation and her ashes remained unclaimed in various places, including her attorney Paul O'Dwyer's filing cabinet, for approximately 17 years.
June 7, 1982 -
In an effort to defray its $500,000 annual upkeep costs, Priscilla Presley opened Graceland to the public only five years after Elvis died in an upstairs bathroom. The bathroom is kept off-limits to tourists.
Think of how much they could take in at the gate if you could sit on the King's final throne? (Hope all the kerfuffle over the estate will be resolved soon.)
And so it goes.
