Written in the 1850s by James Lord Pierpont (1822-1893) for a Savannah, Georgia, Unitarian Sunday school Thanksgiving concert. Despite being the son of a Unitarian minister, Pierpont did not follow its abolitionist stand and remained in the South when his family returned North. He joined the Confederate Army as a clerk when Georgia seceded and wrote martial songs.
December 18, 1957 -
David Lean's epic glimpse into the insanity of war, The Bridge on the River Kwai, premiered in the US on this date.
After filming was completed on the exploding bridge sequence, which cost an enormous amount of money and time, rumor has it that the footage disappeared somewhere between Ceylon and London. It was finally discovered two weeks later, sitting in the intense heat out on the runway at the airport in Cairo, Egypt. Miraculously, it was undamaged.
December 18, 1966 -
Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas aired for the first time on CBS on this date.
Thurl Ravenscroft, who sang the song, is best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger in numerous Frosted Flakes' TV commercials. Thurl was picked to sing these songs, because his voice was like an extremely deep bass or baritone voice.
December 18, 1966 -
The Pink Panther cartoon series premiered with the episode titled The Pink Blueprint on this date
The Pink Panther character, created for the animated opening credits of The Pink Panther movie, was so popular that this short was produced as a starring vehicle for the character. The short marks the only time a studio has won an Oscar with its first cartoon release.
December 18, 1969 -
The sixth film in the James Bond film series, On Her Majestyís Secret Service, starring George Lazenby, Telly Savalis, and Diana Riggs, premiered in the US on this date.
George Lazenby wanted to do most of his own stunts but the studio wouldn't allow him. During the shooting of one of the stunt scenes, Lazenby actually broke his arm, thereby delaying the filming of many of his later scenes. When Bond is taken to Blofeld's lab at Piz Gloria, Lazenby's broken arm in its cast is hidden by his coat which was draped over his arm. Blofeld's guard removes it from him as Lazenby was unable to do so. The guard removing the jacket was played by Yuri Borienko who ironically had had his nose broken by Lazenby in the screen test fight scene that the actor had done to land the part.
December 18, 1970 -
The cult classic western, El Topo (The Mole), directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, and Mara Lorenzio premiered in the US on this date.
The film was released as an underground film, it was thanks to John Lennon that the film acquired a worldwide distribution. He was so impressed by this movie that he urged a close friend of his to buy the rights and take charge of distribution.
December 18, 1987 -
The sleeper hit romantic comedy, Moonstruck, directed by Norman Jewison, written by John Patrick Shanley, and starring Danny Aiello, Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis and, oh yea, Cher, premiered in the US on this date.
According to casting director Howard Feuer, both Anne Bancroft and Maureen Stapleton had been considered for the role of Cher's mother, but their fees were too expensive for the production budget. Feuer remembered Olympia Dukakis, a character actress known for years to most in casting, she read for director Norman Jewison and he hired her instantly.
December 18, 1989 -
An I Love Lucy Christmas episode, nicknamed "The Lost Episode" because it was not included in the syndication package, was shown for first time in over 30 years on this date.
The Christmas episode was not included in the usual syndication package because of its holiday theme and because it mostly consists of flashbacks to previous episodes.
December 18, 1998 -
Warner Brothers releases the romantic film You've Got Mail (A remake of the 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner,) directed by Nora Ephron and starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, on this date.
The children's bookstore scenes in the film were actually filmed at Maya Shaper's Cheese and Antique Shop on 103 West 69th Street. The film makers wanted to use the antique shop because it had the quaint, homey feel they were going for. They sent the owner of the antique shop on vacation for a few weeks and while she was gone they turned the store into a children's bookstore. After filming was finished, they put everything back the way they had left it, and it became an antique store once again.
December 18, 2009 -
Twentieth Century Fox began printing money when James Cameron's Avatar, starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, was released on this date.
To help the actors prepare for their roles, director James Cameron took the cast and crew to Hawaii, where they spent their days trekking through the forests and jungles and living like tribes (building campfires, eating fish, etc), in order to get a better sense of what it would be like to live and move around in the jungle on Pandora, since there would not be any actual jungle sets to aid and guide the actors and crew. Zoe Saldana even dressed up as a warrior during these journeys, complete with an alien tail symbolic of the one her character has in the movie. These hikes were only done during the daytime, however, as the cast and crew spent their nights at a Four Seasons hotel.
Genes, do not a family make (part 1)
Today in History:
December 18, 1626 -
Christina (Kristina), Queen of Sweden, later known as Maria Christina Alexandra, Minerva of the North, Protectress of the Jews at Rome and sometimes Count Dohna, was born on this date. Like most royalty and some presidents, Christina did not have to carry money, a passport or consistently spell her name the same way.
Queen Kristina, or the Girl King as she liked to be known, (as opposed to King Ludwig of Bavaria the Boy Queen, but that's another story) chose the rather shockingly ungodly motto (probably sarcastically) that "Wisdom is the Prop of the Realm." She abdicated in 1654 converted to Catholicism and dashed around Europe on a white horse, wearing men's clothing and studying philosophy and sleeping with men and women. She is one of the only few women buried within St. Peter's Basilica.
In the 1930s, she was portrayed by Greta Garbo in the film Queen Christina. Garbo basically modeled her later life on this character except for the converting thing.
Liberty and Prosperity
The official state bird of New Jersey is the American Goldfinch.
The state tree is the red oak (Quercus borealis maxima). The state flower is the common meadow violet (Viola sororia). The state shell is the knobbed whelk, also known as the conch shell (Busycon carica gmelin). The state fish is the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), the state animal is the horse (Equus caballus),
New Jersey has a population of 8.48 million on 7,417 square miles of land. It's the fifth smallest state in the country. With 1,134 people per square mile, it's the densest state in the nation. The relative density of New Jersey should come as no surprise to anyone who's ever driven behind a car with Jersey plates.
December 18, 1839 -
In New York City, John Draper makes a daguerreotype of the Moon,
December 18, 1892 -
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite publicly premiered in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the Maryinsky Theater on this date.
The first performance of The Nutcracker was not deemed a success. The reaction to the dancers themselves was ambivalent. Reception was better for Tchaikovsky's score.
December 18, 1965 -
Gemini VII splashes down in the western Atlantic Ocean with command pilot Frank Borman and pilot Jim Lovell Jr. on board.
The mission was launched on December 4 for the purpose of physiological testing and spacecraft performance evaluations.
Quick pop quiz -
On December 18, 1940, Adolf Hitler issued his plans for:
a. The Volkswagen
b. An extremely white Christmas
c. The bombing of Britain
d. The invasion of Russia
e. The conquest of Cyprus
f. Recovery of the lost Ark of the Covenant
And so it goes
7 day until Christmas
Before you go - I can never figure out when to play this song or what category to put it under. But then a little research showed that today was unfortunately as good a day as any -
It's unfortunately, the anniversary of tragedy death of the singer Kirsty MacColl.
767
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