Morning, Bunkies!

Hope you all had a fine time yesterday, I'm starting my third 16 hour work shift.

Thanks to all of you who DM'd yesterday with birthday wishes.


If you missed seeing Manhattanhenge last night, you get one more chance this evening.

Those Illuminati are generous, aren't they?


July 13, 1959 -
Dedicated to the One I Love, by The Shirelles, was released on this date.



This was originally recorded by The 5 Royales in 1958. The Shirelles' version first peaked at #83 in 1959, but when it was re-released in 1961 it went to #3.  Normally, Shirley Owens Alston was the Shirelles' lead singer. However, on this song, Doris Coley Kenner sang lead.


July 13, 1960 -
20th Century Fox released the sci-fi adventure film The Lost World (based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle), directed by Irwin Allen and starring Michael Rennie, Jill St. John, Claude Rains and Fernando Lamas (who looked marvelous), to U.S. theaters on this date.



Director Irwin Allen wanted to use stop-motion dinosaurs for this film, but due to budget reasons he had to use lizards - mainly monitor lizards - as dinosaurs. Plastic horns and spikes were attached to them to make them look more like dinosaurs.  The technique will later be dubbed Slurpasaur by fans.


July 13, 1949 -
Paramount Picture's releases second film adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic, The Great Gatsby, starring Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Macdonald Carey, Ruth Hussey, and Barry Sullivan, Shelley Winters, and Howard Da Silva, premiered in the US on this date.



The original director was John Farrow. However, he was replaced with Elliott Nugent as he and the producer Richard Maibaum could not agree on the casting of Daisy Buchanan: Farrow wanted to cast Gene Tierney whereas Maibaum's choice for the role was Betty Field. Farrow's daughter Mia Farrow played Daisy in The Great Gatsby 25 years later.


July 13, 1985 -
34 years ago, I had only recently patented the long birthday weekend....



(It's almost impossible to believe that George was only 22 years old at this time.)



(still the greatest recorded live rock & roll performance of all time.)



We brought the 'big TV' out into my father-in-law's backyard and joined the other 1.5 billion people who tuned into Live Aid on this date.

Don't forget to tune into The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today.


Today in History
July 13, 1793 (Décade III, Quintidi de Messidor de l'Année 213 de la Révolution) -



French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, on this date, as she gives him a list of names to be guillotined. The assassination inspired the famous painting by Jacques Louis David; Corday was executed four days after slaying Marat.



After the heavy blade fell, an executioner's assistant named Francois le Gros (Fat Frank) picked up the severed head by the hair and brimming with Revolutionary fervor slapped Corday's cheek. Several eyewitnesses saw her face flush red with anger, not just one cheek but both cheeks. Some though they perceived disgust curl her lips.


July 13, 1846 -
Horace Greeley advises his readers to 'Go west young man'  on this date.

Cynics note that he owns stock in a company that manufactures compasses.



I'm not sure but I don't think this is what Mr. Greeley had in mind.


July 13, 1946 -
Smoke 'em if you got 'em.



It's Richard Anthony Marin's birthday today.


July 13, 1955 -
Ruth Ellis was last English woman executed by hanging on this date.



Ten days before she had shot her lover, race car driver David Blakely, Ellis suffered a miscarriage after Blakely, the baby's father, punched her in the stomach.

She was having a bad day.


July 13, 1977 -
Starting at about 9 PM on this date, four lightning struck high-voltage transmission lines within the course of about half-an-hour, knocking out electricity and plunging millions of residents of New York City into a 25 hour black-out .



The 1977 blackout, unlike the 1965 and 2003 blackouts, resulted in city-wide looting and other disorder, including arson. About 4,500 people were arrested during the riots, which resulted in damage estimated at $61 million.


July 13, 1985 -
President Ronald Reagan has a polyp removed from his colon on this date.

The polyp, named Larry, lived comfortable at the Reagan ranch, keeping Nancy company until the end. George H.W. Bush got his first taste of the Presidency for a day and got hooked.


July 13, 1994 -
Jeff Gillooly (and his fabulous 70s porn 'stache,) Tonya Harding's ex-husband, was sentenced to two years in prison for his role in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan.

He served six months.


On July 13, 1994, Germany's Constitutional Court ended the ban on German troops fighting outside the country.

(On July 14, 1994, France's Constitutional Court ended their ban on running like hell.)



And so it goes.


558


Happy Birthday Debbie Finn, where ever you are