November 29, 1940 -
W.C. Fields at his peak - The Bank Dick, premiered on this date.
Universal's censors initially objected to W.C. Fields' script and demanded many changes. Director Edward F. Cline suggested that Fields should go ahead and film it their way, and that the front office wouldn't notice the difference. They didn't.
November 29, 1945 -
Remarkable for it frank portrayal of alcoholism (for it's day), The Lost Weekend, opened in Los Angeles on this date.
It was only in later years that Billy Wilder discovered that the title of Charles R. Jackson's novel is actually a typo. It was supposed to have been called The Last Weekend.
November 29, 1950 -
Jean Cocteau's beautifully magical, Orphee, opened in the US on this date.
Orphee's obsession with deciphering hidden messages contained in random radio noise is a direct nod to the coded messages that the BBC concealed in their wartime transmissions for the French Resistance.
Today in History:
November 29, 1777 -
José Joaquín Moraga proved that he knew the way to San Jose on this date,
November 29, 1864 -
The Sand Creek Massacre occurred, on this date, when Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington, in retaliation for an Indian attack on a party of immigrants near Denver, massacred at least 400 Cheyenne and Arapaho noncombatants (mostly children, women, physically- and mentally-challenged, and elders) inside Colorado Territory.
It also generated two Congressional investigations into the actions of Chivington and his men. The House Committee on the Conduct of the War concluded that Chivington had "deliberately planned and executed a foul and dastardly massacre which would have disgraced the varied and savage among those who were the victims of his cruelty."
The American Government has so much to be proud of with their dealings with the Native Americans.
November 29, 1929 -
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd (on a break from his experiments with frozen vegetables) radioed that he'd made the first airplane flight with pilot Floyd Bennett, over the South Pole: "My calculations indicate that we have reached vicinity of South Pole."
After briefly loitering around the Pole, Byrd and his crew headed back to their home base, Little America and more intense testing of frozen zucchini.
November 29, 1951 -
The United States set off the first underground nuclear explosion named "Uncle" at Frenchman Flats in Nevada on this date.
It was a great success, except for the giant spiders, ants, grasshoppers and other insects left in the aftermath.
November 29, 1961 -
The US sent the chimpanzee Enos into space, aboard the Mercury Atlas 5 capsule from Cape Canaveral on this date.
Enos returns to earth safely but died less than a year later before he could sign with the William Morris Agency.
November 29, 1972 -
Pong, the first commercially successful video game, was released on this date by Nolan Bushnell (who was also the co-founder of the video game company, Atari.)
Pong is similar to digital tennis or ping-pong, and its great success was a big part of the early beginnings of the video game industry.
November 29, 1986 -
I do not think Cary Grant was a homosexual or bisexual. He just got carried away at those orgies - US congressman Bob Dornan, spoken on the House floor (I love that quote.)
82 year old Archibald Leach, better known as Cary Grant, died on this date.
November 29, 2001 -
The Beatles will exist without us.
The "quiet" Beatle George Harrison was silenced by cancer on this date.
November 29, 2004 -
Godzilla received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on this date.
And on a personal note:
Oh yeah, millions of years ago (or at least more than half a century ago) the earth cooled and formed a hard crust, huge dinosaurs ruled the land and John was there to see it all. Happy Birthday John.
About a decade later, vast plains with wildflowers sprung up and Mary skipped along them all. Happy Birthday Mary.
And so it goes
This year's holiday extravaganza starts today and in involves bad carols.
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