Operation Christmas was a campaign launched by the Colombian military during the Christmas season of 2010 to encourage FARC guerrillas to demobilize. The trees lit up when the guerrillas (terrorists) walked by and banners appeared asking them to surrender their arms. One, strung along a known insurgent travel route, read: "If Christmas can come to the jungle, you too can come home. Demobilize. At Christmas, everything is possible." The campaign convinced 331 guerillas to re-enter society and also won an award for strategic marketing excellence.
December 22, 1932 -
Universal Pictures released the horror film The Mummy, directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff on this date.
Throughout the film's production, there was great tension between Zita Johann and director Karl Freund, who disliked each other immensely. According to Johann, on the first day of filming Freund attempted to portray her to the producers as a temperamental actress who was very hard to work with. When Zita Johann declined to have her option picked up by Universal because of the unpleasantness during filming, her billing was demoted from co-star to the top of the supporting players.
December 22, 1944 -
The Mummy's Curse, the follow-up film to The Mummy's Ghost was released by Universal Pictures on this date.
The famous sequence in which Princess Ananka (Virginia Christine) rises from the dead in the swamp is slightly undercranked - a process that speeds up the action - which gives an eerie, unreal quality to her movements. The trick is given away by the overly fast movements of the branches around her.
December 22, 1948 -
The film version of Maxwell Anderson's play (Joan of Lorraine,) Joan of Arc, starring Ingrid Bergman opened in Los Angeles on this date.
According to some biographies of Ingrid Bergman, Howard Hughes saved her from possible injury during a visit to the set when she fell off her horse. He caught her, but rather awkwardly, with one hand firmly on her crotch.
Shades of Donald Trump...
December 22, 1959 -
Joseph L. Mankiewicz' film version of Tennesse Williams' strange one act play (about rape, incest, homosexuality, and cannibalism - I know that was probably a huge selling point,) Suddenly, Last Summer, premiered on this date.
Because of years of alcoholism and prescription drug abuse, Montgomery Clift was considered uninsurable due to chronic ill health. Ordinarily, that would have meant he would have been fired and replaced, but his good friend Elizabeth Taylor saved his job by insisting she would not do this movie without him.
December 22, 1965 -
David Lean's Russian epic, Dr Zhivago, premiered in the US, on this date.
This movie was shot in Spain during the regime of General Francisco Franco. One day, while filming the scene with the crowd chanting the Marxist theme (at 3:00 a.m.), police showed up on set thinking a real revolution was taking place, and insisted on staying until the scene was finished. Apparently, people who lived nearby had awoken to the sound of revolutionary singing, and mistakenly believed that Franco had been overthrown. The secret police surveyed the crowd as the extras sang the Internationale for a protest scene, so many extras pretended they didn't know the words.
December 22, 1975 -
A beautiful study of love and madness (and the razor's edge between them), L'histoire d'Adele H, opened in the US on this date.
In 1988, Isabelle Adjani played the title role in Camille Claudel, playing another historical character who suffered from schizophrenia. A major scene in that movie depicts the announcement of the death of Victor Hugo, Adele Hugo's father.
Today's holiday special - I know you are but what am I?
Today in History:
December 22, 1879 -
It's Stalin's birthday (again)! Hey, when you're a dictator, you get to celebrate your birthday on more than one day. Unfortunately, the proper way to celebrate - oppress, torture and murder millions of your fellow country men - is frowned upon.
So smack someone upside the head for no reason.
December 22, 1937 -
The center tube of the Lincoln Tunnel was opened to traffic today, charging 50¢ per passenger car.
December 22, 1940 -
Strange death of the day - Author Nathanael West and his wife, Eileen McKenney, died in an auto accident on this date.
December 22, 1955 -
The corpse of Evita Peron was stolen by anti-Peronistas on this date. For 26 years, her corpse makes a world-wind turn before it's returned for burial in Buenos Aires.
Make of the coincidence what you will.
December 22, 1984 -
Bernhard Goetz shot four teenage boys on the NYC subway after one of them asks him for money.
Again, this practice is frowned upon, so instead, smack someone upside the head.
December 22, 2001 -
Richard Reid attempted to blow up an American Airlines transatlantic flight by igniting a plastic explosive concealed in his shoe. Other passengers beat the living daylights out of him.
They knew - they smacked him upside the head.
And so it goes
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