Ernst Lubitsch World War II comedy, To Be or Not to Be, starring Jack Benny, Carole Lombard and Robert Stack premiered on this date.
After the shooting of this film was finished, Carole Lombard told many people that this film was the happiest experience of her career from start to finish.
March 6, 1970 -
The Beatles released Let it Be in the UK on this date. Paul McCartney wrote this song supposedly after he had a dream about his mother who died when he was 14.
Since Let It Be was The Beatles last album, it made an appropriate statement about leaving problems behind and moving on in life. John Lennon hated the song because of it's apparent Christian overtones. He made the comment before recording it, "And now we'd like to do Hark The Angels Come."
The Beatles were so busy arguing with each other that Aretha Franklin was able to release a cover version of the song
on her album This Girl's In Love With You (as well as Eleanor Rigby), before The Beatles version came out.
March 6, 1970 -
David Bowie released the single The Prettiest Star in the UK on this date, as a follow-up single to Space Oddity. The track featured Marc Bolan on guitar, with whom Bowie would spend the next few years as a rival for the crown of the king of glam rock.
Despite receiving good reviews, the single reportedly sold fewer than 800 copies, a major disappointment on the back of the success of Space Oddity.
March 6, 1973 -
Closing Time, one of Tom Waits’ most melodic albums, (and a fascinating snapshot into his early days as a bar-room balladeer,) was released on this date
A number of artists covered songs from the album, starting a trend that would continue throughout Waits’ career. Martha was recorded by Tim Buckley and frequently performed by Bette Midler, while the Eagles recorded a version of Ol’ ‘55 for the band’s 1974 album On The Border.
March 5, 1995 -
Annie Lennox second solo album, Medusa, a collection of covers, was released on this date.
The first single No More I Love You's, was originally recorded by the English group The Lover Speaks.
March 6, 1998 -
The Coen Bros. off-kilter take on a Raymond Chandler detective story, The Big Lebowski, opened on this date.
Before filming a scene, Jeff Bridges would frequently ask the Coen brothers "Did the Dude burn one on the way over?" If they said he had, he would rub his knuckles in his eyes before doing a take to make his eyes appear bloodshot.
March 6, 2009 -
Zack Snyder's version of the seemingly unfilmable graphic novel, Watchmen, starring Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson, premiered on this date.
When Patrick Wilson was offered the role of Dan Dreiberg, he called one of his best friends who is a huge comic book fan, and asked him what he knew about the Watchmen comic. He told Patrick that if he was ever to do a superhero movie that this was the one to do. Having gotten the part, Patrick invited his friend to visit the set when filming the prison escape scene.
Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Soap Radio Hour today
Today in History:
Michelangelo Buonaroti was born on this date in 1475. He painted and sculpted so much that it began to become embarrassing for other people, so they finally decided it was time to stop procrastinating and start the Renaissance.
So they did.
On March 6, 1619, Cyrano de Bergerac was born. Mr. de Bergerac was a brilliant French satirist and playwright, a rapier wit, and, from all contemporary accounts, an accomplished musician, an enthralling conversationalist, and a charming ladies' man.
He was unfortunately best known for his nose.
Dr. John Greenwood, George Washington's personal dentist, constructed the first 'dental foot engine' on this date in 1790.
March 6, 1836 -
... Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.
The Alamo was seized by General Santa Ana - 3,000 versus 147, it wasn't much of a fair fight. The holdouts suffered unnecessary deaths, disobeying direct orders by remaining, and losing their arms and cannon to the Mexicans. Davy - Pioneer, Patriot, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, State Legislator, Congressman was one of the last holdouts to die on this day.
(The Mexican army managed to lose over 600 men.)
Remember the Alamo.
March 6, 1857 -
After years in litigation, the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Roger Taney, ruled that Dred Scott did not gain his freedom by living in a free territory. Taney wrote that African Americans could not have rights of their own and inferior to white people.
The essence of the decision was that as a slave, Dred Scott was not a citizen and therefore could not sue in a federal court. The opinion also stated that Congress could not exclude slavery in the territories and that blacks could not become citizens. In 2017 Charles Taney IV apologized to the family of Dred Scott for the words of his great-great-grand-uncle.
March 6, 1869 -
Dmitri Mendeleev presented the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society on this date in a presentation entitled "The Dependence between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elements." He left gaps in his charts and predicted the addition of three more elements in the near future.
Mendeleev's predictions were right, and he is credited with writing the first periodic table.
March 6, 1899 -
Friedrich Bayer and Co. patented their eponymous painkiller, Bayer aspirin in Berlin on this day. The main ingredient of aspirin, acetylsalicylic acid, had been used since ancient times, though Bayer's company was the first to offer it in a convenient and stable pill form.
It quickly gained popularity, and at one time was the most used painkiller in the world.
March 6, 1912 -
National Biscuit Company's (Nabisco) Oreo cookies went on sale for the first time on this date.
The brand's competitor, Sunshine's Hydrox, had debuted in 1908. (Hydrox has up until recently, completely disappeared as a brand but secretly exists as 'cookie crumbs' for yogurt flavorings and an ingredient in piecrust.)
March 6, 1918 -
In January 1918, US naval collier (a ship that transports,) Cyclops was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and sailed to Brazilian waters to fuel British ships in the South Atlantic.
It put to sea from Rio de Janeiro on February 16, 1918, and after touching at Barbados on March 3 and 4, was never heard from again. The loss of the ship without a trace is one of the sea's unsolved mysteries.
March 6, 1950 -
Silly Putty was introduced as a toy by Peter Hodgson, a marketing consultant, who packaged one-ounce portions of the rubber-like material in plastic eggs, on this date. It could be stretched, rolled into a bouncing ball, or used to transfer colored ink from newsprint.
The original discovery was made in 1943 by James Wright who combined silicone oil and boric acid in the laboratories of General Electric. He was researching methods of making synthetic rubber, but at the time no significant application existed for the material. However, it was passed around as a curiosity.
Hodgson saw a sample and realized its potential simply for entertainment and coined its name for marketing it as a toy. Its popularity made him a millionaire. (Hey, that's Peter Hodgson as the salty sea dog pulling the putty.)
March 6, 1965 -
I'm not a stooge, I'm a straight lady - the best in Hollywood. There is an art to playing the straight role. You must build up your man but never top him, never steal the laughs.
Groucho was often cruel to her on-screen but when the cameras stopped rolling, he had nothing but nice things to say about Margaret Dumont, calling her a "wonderful woman."
March 6, 1970 -
In Greenwich Village, a townhouse at 18 West 11th St. exploded on this date. SDS Weathermen members Diana Oughton, Ted Gold and Terry Robbins were killed at the site where a bomb was being manufactured.
March 6, 1981 -
After 19 years presenting the CBS Evening News, Uncle Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, signs off for the last time.
With all that we've been through, once again we must ask, who will carry that weight now?
And so it goes.
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