Yes, Raymond Burr's Nipple Rouge would like to wish you all a very happy and healthy Joe Franklin Day. (And even though Shabbat Across America/ Canada was cancelled last Friday night because of Covid concerns, hopefully you didn't forget to bring Streit's Matzos to your family's Shabbat dinner. Streit's Matzos, the unleaved experience of a lifetime.)
March 9, 1948 -
The first of John Ford's famed 'Cavalry Trilogy', Fort Apache (a thinly veiled retelling of Custer's Last Stand), premiered on this date. This film was followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande, though it was not originally intended as a trilogy.
Shirley Temple and John Agar were married at the time the movie was made, but went through a highly publicized divorce complete with allegations of spousal abuse, infidelity and alcoholism a couple of years later.
March 9, 1954 -
... The actions of the Junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies.
Edward R. Murrow, cigarette smoking, gin guzzling reporter took on the cigarette smoking, whiskey drinking junior senator and demagogue from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare hysteria on his program, See It Now, on this date.
March 9, 1954 -
The first local color television commercial was aired on WNBT television, now WNBC television, in New York on this date, for Castro Decorators of New York City. Castro were the folks who made the Castro convertible sofa beds.
The television commercial featured Bernadette Castro opening a big couch into a bed (only the B & W kinescope exists.)
March 9, 1959 -
The Barbie doll went on display at the American Toy Fair in New York City for the first time. Barbie was the first mass-produced toy doll in the United States with adult features.
With its sponsorship of the Mickey Mouse Club TV program in 1959, Mattel became the first toy company to broadcast commercials to children. They used this medium to promote their new toy, and by 1961, the enormous consumer demand for the doll led Mattel to release a boyfriend for Barbie. Ruth Handler named him Ken, after her son. Barbie's best friend, Midge, came out in 1963; her little sister, Skipper, debuted the following year.
March 9, 1966 -
The Beach Boys began recording God Only Knows on this date. (Paul McCartney once called God Only Knows, "The greatest song ever written.")
Brian Wilson planned to sing the lead vocal himself, but decided that his brother Carl was better suited for the track. "I was looking for a tenderness and a sweetness which I knew Carl had in himself as well as in his voice," said Brian.
March 9, 1969 -
Wiggen sisters Dorothy, Helen, Betty, and Rachel, recording under the name The Shaggs, released the album Philosophy of the World, on this date.
Numerous music critics and historians consider it the worst album ever recorded, but years later both Frank Zappa and Kurt Cobain call it one of their favorites ever made. (You be the judge.)
March 9, 1979 -
ABC-TV aired the documentary Heroes of Rock & Roll, on this date.
This was one of the first comprehensive documentaries to be made about rock music.
March 9, 1984 -
The Ron Howard romantic comedy film, Splash, starring Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, and John Candy, premiered on this date.
Daryl Hannah had been swimming "mermaid" style with her legs bound together since she was a child due to her fascination with Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid story. Daryl Hannah swam with the mermaid tail so fast that her safety team could not keep pace with her.
March 9, 1985 -
REO Speedwagon's single Can't Fight This Feeling started a three week run at No.1 on the Billboard on this date
Two videos were made for this song: one that shows them goofing around in a rehearsal space before performing it, and another far more elaborate video directed by Kevin Dole that shows a baby going through different life stages from birth to death. Heavy on compositing and special effects, it was cutting edge for 1984.
March 9, 1987 -
Island Records release U2's fifth studio album, The Joshua Tree (the original working title of which was The Two Americas,) on this date.
The song With Or Without You was U2's breakout hit in America, where they had only modest success until The Joshua Tree album. They had long been stars in their native Ireland, and with their previous album, The Unforgettable Fire, they broke through in the UK, but until With Or Without You their biggest US hit was Pride (In The Name Of Love) at #33. When they did conquer America, they did so swiftly and thoroughly; With Or Without You went to #1, and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For followed to the top spot.
March 9, 1990 -
The cult classic, House Party, starring Kid 'n Play, Robin Harris, Martin Lawrence, Tisha Campbell, and John Witherspoon premiered in the US on this date.
House Party was originally written for DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith. This happened because New Line Cinema won a lawsuit against them due to their song A Nightmare on My Street and one of the conditions were that they had to appear in a New Line film. Director Reginald Hudlin refused to cast them in the movie based on those terms.
Today's moment of Zen
Today in History:
March 9, 1170 -
In Essex, a UFO is spotted over St. Ostwyth, manifesting itself as a "wonderfully large dragon ... borne up from the Earth through the air". The craft kindled the air and destroyed a house.
March 9, 1454 -
Amerigo Vespucci was born on this date. He was an Italian explorer who made many voyages to the new world at about the same time as Columbus.
The two continents of the new world were therefore named for him, and it wasn't until the seventeenth century (Greenwich time) that North and South Vespucci were renamed the Americas.
March 9, 1556 -
David Rizzio, the secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was stabbed 56 times by a gaggle of Scottish nobles on this date.
Isn't love among the royalty grand?
March 9, 1562 -
March 9, 1858 -
Philadelphia iron products manufacturer Albert Potts patented his design for a lamppost mounted collection mailbox (US Patent #19,578).
March 9, 1961 -
Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9, was launched with a dog named Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also onboard the spacecraft was a cosmonaut dummy (whom Russian officials nicknamed "Ivan Ivanovich"), mice and a Guinea pig.
The dummy was ejected out of the capsule during re-entry and made a soft landing using a parachute. The animals were recovered unharmed inside the capsule. Chernushka went on to a successful career as the provincial governor of the Kazakhian region. The Cosmonaut dummy could not be used again as 'Blackie' had spent the entire flight having a 'brief but intense' relationship with the leg of 'Ivan Ivanovich'.
March 9, 1967 -
Josef Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, walks into the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi and asks to defect (some reports have it that she defected on March 6th - does it really matter - you don't give a damn.)
Her defection was one of a series of high-profile defections throughout the Cold War.
March 9, 1981 -
Dan Rather succeeded Walter Cronkite as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News.
Rather was the third person to occupy that seat since the program's 1948 launch. His last broadcast was March 9, 2005.
March 9, 1996 -
Nathan Birnbaum, the comedian Gracie Allen carried around for years, forgot to have his daily martini and died on this date.
Kids, let this be a lesson to us all - not only does alcohol taste good, it's good for you - even if you are 100 years old.
March 9, 1997 -
Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) was killed in a drive-by outside the Soul Train Music Awards in Los Angeles on this date. The murder has never been officially solved, though an ongoing feud with Death Row Records may have had something to do with it.
Be thankful that most of us aren't hip hop stars.
March 9, 1999 -
During a campaign interview conducted by Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s Late Edition program, V.P. Al Gore was asked to describe what distinguished him from his challenger for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bill Bradley, Gore replied (in part): “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.”
In context, Gore’s response (which employed the word “created,” not “invented”) was clear in meaning: the vice president was not claiming that he “invented” the Internet in the sense of having thought up, designed, or implemented it, but rather asserting that he was one of the visionaries responsible for helping to bring it into being by fostering its development in an economic and legislative sense. But so are urban legends born, thus on this date, Al Gore 'claimed' that he invented the internet.
And so it goes.
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