November 5, 1932-
Hollywood's love of Oriental Exoticism reaches it full flower when MGM released the film The Mask Of Fu Manchu, starring Boris Karloff and Lewis Stone premiered on this date.
As originally scripted, during the torture sequence, it was planned to have Von Berg (Jean Hersholt) suspended over the crocodile pit and Neyland Smith (Lewis Stone) about to be impaled by the walls of spikes. This was reversed when, for reasons unknown, it was thought that a fat captive would make more sense being impaled than a thin one.
November 5, 1938 -
A very funny (but very un PC) B & W Looney Tunes, Porky in Egypt, premiered on this date.
The camel steals the cartoon.
November 5, 1964 -
An unsung minor masterpiece, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, premiered in the US on this date.
Bryan Forbes looked for that house with the turret as a film location; when he went to the owner for permission, she asked who was in the film. When told that an American actress named Kim Stanley, the woman blanched, stepped back, and said that Stanley was one of her oldest friends whom she had not seen in 17 years.
November 5, 1966 -
The Monkees' Last Train To Clarksville topped the pop-singles charts on this date.
This was The Monkees' first single. It was released shortly after their TV show started on NBC and got a lot of publicity as a result. The Monkees followed this up with another hit, "I'm A Believer," and had several more hits before their show was canceled in 1968. Eventually, the group wrote their own songs and played their own instruments.
November 5, 1974 -
The Eagles hit, Best of My Love, was released on this date. It did not reach #1 spot until March 1, 1975.
Silly rabbits, although this song is often played at weddings and proms, it's really a break-up song.
November 5, 1993 -
James Ivory's masterful adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, The Remains Of The Day, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, premiered on this date.
At one point, Anjelica Huston and Meryl Streep were being considered for the part of the housekeeper. Jeremy Irons had also been considered for a part in the film.
Today in History -
November 5, 1605 -
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, or the Powder Treason, as it was known at the time, was a failed attempt by Guy Fawkes and a group of provincial English Catholics to kill King James I of England, his family, and most of the Protestant aristocracy in a single attack by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening on this date.
The conspirators had also planned to abduct the royal children, (who were surprisingly Protestant, as well) not present in Parliament, and incite a revolt in the Midlands. the conspirators were captured before the plot could take place. They were all drawn and quartered.
On November 5th each year, people in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries and regions celebrate the failure of the plot on what is known as Guy Fawkes Night, Bonfire Night, Fireworks Night, Cracker Night or Plot Night by getting drunk and setting things on fire.
On November 5, 1492, Christopher Columbus wrote in his journal that, in the interior of Cuba, there was a great deal of land "sowed with a sort of beans and a sort of grain they call Mahiz, which was well tasted, baked, dried, and made into flour."
Given how things worked out for them, the Indians should have kept maize to themselves.
November 5, 1895 -
George B. Selden was a lawyer and inventor who was granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile, which he invented in 1877.
The idea of a horseless carriage was in the air during George's youth, but its practicality was uncertain. In 1859, his father, Judge Henry R. Selden, a prominent Republican attorney, moved to Rochester, New York, where George briefly attended the University of Rochester before dropping out to enlist in the Sixth U.S. Cavalry, Union Army. This was not to the liking of his father who after pulling some strings and having some earnest discussions with his son managed to have him released from duty and enrolled in Yale. George did not do well at Yale in his law studies, preferring the technical studies offered by the Sheffield Scientific School, but did manage to finish his course of study and pass the New York bar 1871 and joined his father's practice. He married shortly thereafter to Clara Drake Woodruff, by whom he had 4 children. He continued his hobby of inventing in a workshop in his father's basement, inventing a typewriter and a hoop making machine.
Selden's father, Henry Selden, was chosen by Abraham Lincoln to be Vice President, but he turned it down (and in light of Lincoln's assassination, Henry Selden would have otherwise been the next American President).
He defended Susan B. Anthony in her 1873 trial for unlawfully voting as a woman (had she only voted as a badger, there would have been no problem.)Who knew?
November 5, 1895 -
On that same day, The Prince of Wales, shortly to become King Edward VII and master of almost one-fifth of the land area of the planet, was roused from a nap after a long afternoon of whore mongering and a heavy lunch, remarks in a speech, 'We are all socialists nowadays'.
As anticipated, his mother Queen Victoria was not amused.November 5, 1956 -
The Nat King Cole Show debuted on NBC-TV on this date. The Cole program was the first of its kind hosted by an African-American.
In the 1956 season, the show had a 15-minute running time. It was expanded to a 30-minute segment in 1957. The show originally aired without a sponsor, but NBC agreed to pay for initial production costs; it was assumed that once the show actually aired and advertisers were able to see its sophistication, a national sponsor would emerge.Unfortunately, none did. Cole famously said of the doomed series, "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark."
Daylight saving time finally ends on Sunday at 2 a.m. -- remember to set your clocks (and every thing else) back one hour when you go to bed Saturday night. Also if you're running the marathon tomorrow - begin carbo-loading (more about that tomorrow.)
And so it goes
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