Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Happy Birthday Richard

June 29, 1947 -
Richard Lewis, comedian, actor and all around neurotic, was born on this date.



Billy Joel has said Lewis is the "old friend who bought a ticket to the West Coast and gives them a stand-up routine in L.A." in his song My Life. Richard Lewis and Larry David have known each other since they met at summer camp in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York when they were thirteen.


June 29, 1956 -
The very lush version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I, premiered on this date.



Darryl F. Zanuck first cast Maureen O'Hara as Anna because she was not only gorgeous but had a fine soprano voice and would not have to be dubbed. When Zanuck told her the news, she immediately sent sample recordings of her voice. Richard Rodgers agreed that O'Hara had a great voice but reportedly said, "No pirate queen is going to play my Anna!"


June 29, 1984 -
One of the original gross out comedies of the 80's, Bachelor Party, opened on this date.




Today in History:
June 29, 1613 -
The Globe Theater, William Shakespeare's original theatrical venue, burns to the ground. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man who put out his burning breeches with a bottle of ale.

It must have not been a very good bottle of ale.


June 29, 1967 -
Actress Jayne Mansfield may or may not have been decapitated in a car crash, when her convertible collides with a parked tractor-trailer.



To downplay the gruesome death, sources spread the falsehood that only her wig flew off in the accident.


June 29, 1971 -
When Soyuz 11 disengages from the Salyut space station, cosmonauts Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev are killed by a faulty pressurization valve.



All the oxygen leaks out of the Soyuz cabin before Patsayev can close the valve by hand, and the crew is asphyxiated.

I hate when that happens.


June 29, 1978 -
The body of Bob Crane is discovered in bed with an electric cord wrapped around his neck and his head smashed in.



When Scottsdale police search the apartment belonging to the former star of television's Hogan's Heroes, they discover a video camera and a large library of amateur porn starring Crane and a parade of random women (isn't that a great name for a band - Parade of Random Women)

June 29, 1992 -
Mohammed Boudiaf is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards less than six months after becoming President of Algeria. A former hero in the war of independence, Boudiaf had been chosen by the Islamic Salvation Front to serve as figurehead for their regime. More than 100,000 Algerians will later die in political bloodshed in the following decade.

(Please note - this is not a good way to promote one's services as a bodyguard - we will not kill you within the first six months.)



And so it goes.

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