I'll see you in Hell first!

July 15 1956 -
Although not in the same league as Plan 9 from Outer Space, It Conquered the World was released upon an unsuspecting public on this date.



Paul Blaisdell, who designed, built and portrayed the alien in the movie, affectionately dubbed his creation "Beluah". It is easily the most popular monster of Blaisdell's oeuvre among his fans as well.  American International released the film on a double bill with The She-Creature.


July 15, 1983 -
Woody Allen's technically inventive and very funny mocumentary, Zelig starring Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, premiered on this date.



Silent screen legend, Lillian Gish, was filmed for a scene in Zelig. She scolded director of photography, Gordon Willis, on his lighting set-up and, while the crew watched aghast, gave Willis step by step instructions on how to re-light the scene. Willis complied. The scene did not make it into the final version of the film. Willis has said of this film: "There was a point when I thought we were never going to finish, a point when I thought I was going to go nuts. I have never worked so hard at making something difficult look so simple".


July 15, 1988 -
The film that made Bruce Willis a star, Die Hard, co-starring Alan Rickman, and Bonnie Bedelia opened in limited release in the US on this date.



Bruce Willis received a then-unheard of five million dollars, a fee that was approved by Fox President Rupert Murdoch. 


July 15, 1998 -
The Farrelly Brothers career saving romantic comedy, There's Something About Mary premiered on this date.



Dropping Ted on the stretcher wasn't scripted. When it happened, they cut to make sure Ben Stiller was okay and then thought it was so funny they left it in.


July 15, 2005 -
The Tim Burton remake of Roald Dahl's classic children's story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, starring Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, Helena Bonham Carter, James Fox, Deep Roy, and Christopher Lee, went into general release in the US on this date.



To his surprise, Deep Roy played every Oompa-Loompa himself, repeating the same movements several hundred times. While these were then put together digitally, each Oompa-Loompa represents a separate performance by Roy. In recognition of this, Roy's salary was raised to one million dollars.


Another Book I've never read


Today in History:
July 15, 1606 -
Rembrandt van Rijn was born in Leiden, Holland, on this date.

His father was a miller and his mother was a stay-at-home mom.



He is best known for his mastery of chiaroscuro and impasto, but his calamari was nothing to sneeze at.


July 15, 1799 -
The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing. The stone is a Ptolemaic era stele with carved text. The text is made up of three translations of a single passage, written in two Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and Demotic), and in classical Greek.



It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the Napoleonic expeditionary forces in 1799 at Rashid (a harbor on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt which the French referred to Rosetta) and contributed greatly to the decipherment of the principles of hieroglyphic writing in 1822 by the British polymath Thomas Young and the French scholar Jean-François Champollion.

Feel free to impress your friends with this bit of knowledge.


July 15, 1857 -
During an uprising, the group of British women and children being held by rebels in Chawnpore, India were cut to pieces with knives and hatchets. Then their remains are tossed into a well.



When British forces finally retook Chawnpore, the captured rebels are taken back to the house where the slaughter took place. Then they are forced to lick the floors clean, after which they are hanged.

I hate to think what the penalty was for early withdrawal from your IRA.


July 15 1864 -
A train containing hundreds of Confederate prisoners passing through Shohola, PA crashed head on with a coal train on this date.

The trains were off schedule because of an escape attempt. 74 people, mostly prisoners, died.


July 15, 1869 -
During war with Prussia, French ruler Napoleon III commissions Hippolye Mege Mouries to find a butter substitute. A patent for margarine was issued on this date, it being based on beef fat instead of milk fat.

He called it Margarine (but you can call it Oleo) because the French word for pearl was margarite and he apparently had difficulty distinguishing butter from pearls -



a handicap that goes a long way toward explaining his many divorces.



But even with the tactically superior spread, the war was still lost.


July 15, 1904 -
A small town Russian alcoholic doctor quietly succumbed to consumption, while in another room, his relatives sat around the house and wistfully bemoaned the lost opportunities of their lives. An old family retainer served tea to the unknowing mourners. Off in the distance, the guitar string of a peasant guitar broke, all on this date.



Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, died on this date but not as described above. As he lay dying of tuberculosis, in a German Spa, Chekhov called out for his doctor. The doctor examined him and prescribed him a glass of champagne. Chekhov finished his glass, commented on the taste, lay back down and died.

All in all, not a bad way to go.


July 15, 1946 -
You don't forget you have Parkinson's disease, believe me, especially in the shower. If you are not paying attention, you fall down.







Linda Maria Ronstadt, singer and actress was born in Tucson, Arizona on this date. (Hopefully Linda is feeling well these days. Send her your good thoughts)


July 15, 1979 -
President Jimmy Carter addressed the energy crisis and subsequent recession by discussing what he felt was the greatest threat to the United States in a speech later called the 'malaise' speech, on this date.



He believed that a lack of "moral and spiritual confidence" prevented the American people from recovering from the economic hardships and said, "this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation" were the basis for the negative economic climate.


On July 15, 2007 -

The Philadelphia Phillies lost their 10,000th Major League Baseball game.



As of last night, (and this is a crude estimate) the team still holds the record for the most games lost by any professional American sports team in history with 10,877.



And so it goes


Before you go - I nearly forgot:
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month. He also declared that the third Sunday in July would be National Ice Cream Day.



You may begin screaming for your ice cream now but heed this story - my late father-in-law threatened to shoot the local Mr. Softie man if he continued to drive his truck past the house during dinnertime.



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