Sunday, August 5, 2012

You go girl

Serena Williams won the Olympic Gold in tennis singles yesterday and enjoyed herself.



Apparently, no one f*cks with Serena


August 5, 1922 -
The silent-film classic, Blood and Sand, starring Rudolph Valentino and Lila Lee, was released on this date.



According to author James Kirkwood, Jr., whose mother Lila Lee played Carmen in Blood and Sand, Rudolph Valentino liked to eat traditional Italian foods, heavily spiced with garlic. Therefore Lee asked that her love scenes with Valentino be shot in the morning so she wouldn't have to deal with his garlic breath after lunch.


August 5, 1953 -
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr got busy in the surf and someone may have gotten a horse head telegram delivered to their bedroom - From Here to Eternity premiered in NYC on this date.



The scene in which Maggio meets Prew and Lorene in the bar after he walks off guard duty, was actually Frank Sinatra's screen test for the part of Maggio. To impress director Fred Zinnemann, he did an ad-lib using olives as dice and pretending to shoot craps. The entire sequence was kept as is and used in the picture.


On August 4, 1955, Carmen Miranda suffered a heart attack during a segment of the live TV show The Jimmy Durante Show, although she did not realize it. After completing a dance number, she fell to her knees, and Durante instinctively told the band to "stop da music!".



He helped Miranda up to her feet as she laughed "I'm all out of breath!". "Dat's OK, honey, I'll take yer lines", Durante replied. Miranda laughed again and quickly pulled herself together, finishing the show. At the end of the broadcast, she smiled and waved, then exited the stage. She died later that night, on August 5, 1955, after suffering a second heart attack at her home in Beverly Hills.

As with all great performers - the show had to go on.


August 5, 1953 -
Alfred Hitchcock's surprisingly light comedic touch is on full display in, To Catch A Thief, starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, opened in NYC on this date.



Cary Grant had announced his retirement from acting in February 1953 (so he could devote himself fully to the orgies he got carried away in), stating that since the rise of Method actors like Marlon Brando, most people were no longer interested in seeing him. He was also angry at the way Charles Chaplin had been treated by the HUAAC. He was lured out of his retirement to make this film, and thereafter continued acting for a further 11 years.


August 5, 1966 -
This was a big day in Beatles history:
The Beatles released their Revolver album in UK on this date.



and they also released Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby as a double A single in UK.





A lot of kids weekly allowance must have flown out the door on this date.


Today in History:
August 5, 1861 -
Tea baggers, please note: The US government established the first income tax on US citizens on this date (Abraham Lincoln was president at the time.)  The Revenue Act of 1861 established a tax of 3 percent on incomes of more than $800 US Dollars.


The tax, which was used for financial aid during the Civil War, was rescinded in 1872.


August 5, 1884
The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.


Children and horses were kept indoors on that day for fear of offending their delicate nature.


August 5, 1926 -
Harry Houdini stayed in a coffin, submerged in the swimming pool of New York's Hotel Shelton for one hour and a half, on this date.


Note: He currently has exceeded his own record substantially.


August 5, 1957
American Bandstand, a local Philadelphia show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, hosted by Dick Clark,debuted nationally on the ABC television network on this date.



Please be careful, I actually believe Mr. Clark is setting himself up to be the lead zombie in the the upcoming apocalypse (he doesn't realize that he's dead.)



August 5, 1962 -
50 years ago today, a very unhappy Marilyn Monroe (Norma J. Mortenson) died of natural causes, aggravated by sleeping pills, in her Brentwood home.



Unless she was murdered.



Before I let you go - here's a video of two middle aged men in a sports car



I guess there could be a worse way of wasting 11 minutes.


And so it goes.

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