It's Winter in New York

(sorry for the delay in posting)

With an 1 to 3 inches of the slushy stuff predicted,

remember your rubbers (whichever ones are appropriate for your day.)


It been 29 years since Do They Know It's Christmas, the charity single by the all-star group Band Aid, was released.



No, they still don't have a clue (they're not Christians.) As of the last check, The Band Aid/ Live Aid initiatives have raised over $200 million dollars. Not bad for basically a very crappy tune.

Today's Holiday special: Home with the family


December 10, 1948 -
Another Preston Sturges Champagne cocktail laced with strychnine, Unfaithfully Yours, opened in the US on this date.



Carole Landis, who was dating Harrison at the time, was originally to play Daphne. But personal problems between them caused her to be replaced by Linda Darnell.


December 10, 1967 -
Julie Andrews!!!

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in their first starring comedy, Bedazzled, opened in the US on this date.



An article about Peter Cook that appeared in the New Yorker stated that the filmmakers didn't have a title for the film when it was being made. Cook suggested calling the film Raquel Welch. The producers didn't understand why Cook would want to name the movie after an actress that only appears for a few minutes in it. Cook explained that movie marquees put the lead actors names over the movie title. Thus the letters on the marquee would say "Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in Raquel Welch". The producers ended going for the more ordinary title.


December 10, 1974 -
The gravitational pull of Planet Angora remains quite strong



Ed Wood Jr., either the world's greatest visionary director or the worst filmmaker of all time, suffered a fatal heart attack on this date. At the time of his death, the industry newspaper, Variety, failed to run his obituary.


December 10, 1974 –
The classic disaster movie, Towering Inferno, opened in NYC on this date.



At Steve McQueen's insistence, he and co-star Paul Newman had to have exactly the same number of lines of dialogue in the script


December 10, 1982 -
A paean to B movies, It Came from Hollywood, opened in the US on this date.



Sadly this was never released on DVD. Paramount had planned to release the film on DVD in 2002. Due to copyright issues with several of the clips featured in the film, the release was ultimately canceled.

(I can't believe that I've found it online;  find some time today to watch the whole film if you haven't seen it.)


December 10, 1984 –
On a very cold night in NYC 29 years ago, Francis Ford Coppola's Cotton Club opened in NYC. I can remember waiting on line to see the film on the opening day.



The character Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere) is likely based on real life actor George Raft. Raft grew up dirt poor in New York's Hell's Kitchen. As a young man he worked as a driver / gopher for gangster Owney Madden (also depicted in this film). After his stint working for Madden he went to California and tried his hand at acting, eventually achieving considerable success playing tough guy rolls in various gangster movies; performances he based largely on Owney Madden and Benjamin Bugsy Siegel with whom he was also know to associate.


Today in History:
December 10, 1520 -
The heretic Martin Luther burnt the papal bull (Exsurge Domine), on this date, issued by Leo X, demanding an end to his heresies. Luther had published 95 points against the practice of granting indulgences, and the Catholic Church only had 94 points in favor of them.



Although technically he was the winner, Luther was subsequently excommunicated.

Luther went away mad and started his own religion.


December 10, 1848 -
Napoleon III, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte), was elected president of France. By 1852, he dismantled the Republic and replaced it with the Second Empire of France, with himself as emperor.



This is what comes from being a Napoleon - give them an inch and they're declaring themselves emperor.


December 10, 1936 -
Edward VIII, abdicated the English throne to marry the twice divorced, horsey faced (and possibly transvestite)  - the woman he loved on this date.



Many in the government are secretly relieved, fearing they may have bet against Mrs. Simpson when she ran at the Royal Ascot.


December 10, 1958 -
Krishna Venta (born Francis Herman Pencovic) died in Chatsworth, California in a suicide bombing when two disgruntled former followers (Peter Duma Kamenoff and Ralph Muller) who, although never offering any documentary evidence to support their claims, charged that Venta had both mishandled cult funds and been intimate with their wives.

Venta's remains are only ever identified through dental records.

This is what comes from the laying on of hands with cult members' wives.


December 10, 1967 -
Soul singer Otis Redding plus four members of the Bar-Kays were killed when his airplane crashes into Lake Monona near Madison, Wisconsin on this date.



So, poor Otis was laid out all over the dock of the bay.


December 10, 1993 -
Adolf Hitler was baptized by proxy into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in their London temple on this date. Mormons also continued to vicariously baptism victims of the Holocaust over the strenuous objections of various Jewish groups such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center (even Simon Wiesenthal has had a baptism performed for himself after his death.)

There's nothing worse than finding out you've become a Mormon by proxy (especially if you're already dead and in heaven.)



And so it goes.