La Forza del Destino

In 1911, Bobby Leach became the second person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a large steel barrel.



Despite his incredible feat of bravery/stupidity, his death years later was from something rather mundane: The former daredevil slipped on an orange peel.


April 10, 1937 -
Lloyd Bacon's crime melodrama from Warner Bros., Marked Woman, starring Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart, premiered on this date.



Warner Bros. had purchased the film rights to a series in Liberty magazine about Charles "Lucky" Luciano. The studio had to change the profession of the woman from prostitutes to nightclub hostesses to satisfy the Production Code.


April 10, 1946 -
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's (directorial debut) period melodrama, Dragonwyck, starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Vincent Price, Harry Morgan, and Jessica Tandy, premiered in NYC on this date.



Gregory Peck was the first choice to play Nicholas Van Ryn, but he bowed out when he learned Ernst Lubitsch was dropping out as director. When second choice Laird Cregar died, Vincent Price was assigned.


April 10, 1953 -
Warner Bros.' first 3-D movie, House of Wax, starring Vincent Price, premiered on this date.



Vincent Price liked to attend screenings of the film incognito. As the actor once told biographer Joel Eisner, he'd regularly go out and see House of Wax during its run. Happily for Price, the requisite 3D glasses could usually conceal his identity in the back of a dimly lit theater. But one night, he decided to make his presence known. At a showing in New York City, Price quietly took a seat behind two teenagers. Right after a particularly frightening scene, he leaned forward and asked "Did you like it?" In Price's words, "They went right into orbit!"


April 10, 1957 -
Ricky Nelson sang for first time on TV's Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.



He performed the song, I'm Walking.


April 10, 1957 -
Sidney Lumet courtroom drama, 12 Angry Men, starring Henry Fonda, Martin Balsam, E. G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, Ed Begley, and Lee J. Cobb, premiered in Los Angeles on this date.



This film is commonly used in business schools and workshops to illustrate team dynamics and conflict resolution techniques.


April 10, 1970 -
Elton John released his self-titled second studio album which included the breakthrough single Your Song, on this date.



Grammy nominated for Album of the Year and certified 2x Platinum, it was Elton’s debut LP in the U.S. and established the singer–songwriter’s career.


April 10, 1992 -
One of Robert Altman's most successful films, the biting comedy about Hollywood, The Player, starring Tim Robbins, Greta Scacch, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, and Cynthia Stevenson (and just about every actor who happened to be in Hollywood that week), opened in NYC on this date.



The celebrity cameos were not written in the script. Robert Altman added them all in. No scripted dialogue was given to any celebrity with a cameo. According to an article in the New York Times, Robert Altman convinced the celebrities who provided cameos for the film to donate their union-scale salary for one day of work to the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital for retired filmmakers.

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


Today in History:
April 10, 1848 -
250 people died in a bridge collapse in Yarmouth, England. They had gathered on the suspension bridge to watch a clown boat be pulled by a flock of geese.

Nothing good comes from clowns.


April 10, 1849 -
Prolific inventor Walter Hunt patented the modern safety pin on this date.

Hunt sold the rights for less than $500 to pay a debt he owed of $15. He also invented the sewing machine in 1833 (which he patented in 1854) but that's another story.


April 10, 1866 -
Henry Bergh founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) in New York City, on this date.

Interesting enough, Bergh goes on, with a group of other like minded social reformers, to help found the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1874.


April 10, 1872 -
The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska City, on this date, and about one million trees were planted.



The holiday was actually founded by an editor and agriculturalist from Nebraska City, J. Sterling Morton, who also served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. (This year, Arbor Day is celebrated on April 30th.)


April 10, 1912 -
... I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that ... - Edward J. Smith (1907), the future captain of the RMS Titanic.

The RMS Titanic left port in Southampton, England for her first and last voyage on this date.


April 10, 1917 -
133 people were killed in an explosion at the Eddystone ammunition factory in Chester, PA on this date. Satan was immediately implicated, with one official declaring the blast to be "the result of a diabolical plot conceived in the degenerate brain of a demon in human guise." It later turns out to have been caused by poorly-maintained powder loading machinery.

Lucifer wrote a strongly worded Op-Ed piece for the Times complaining about his perceived negative image in the media.


April 10, 1919 -
Mexican Revolution leader Emiliano Zapata was ambushed and shot dead by government forces in Morelos, Mexico on this date.



Zapata and his bodyguards were lured to a meeting by army colonel Jesus Guajardo. For his deception, Guajardo collects a reward of 52,000 pesos and is promoted to the rank of general. Dubya's grandpappy did not attempt to steal his skull.


April 10, 1925 -
...So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past...

F. Scott Fitzgerald third book, The Great Gatsby, was published on this date. Among various titles considered were Among Ashheaps and Millionaires, Gold-Hatted Gatsby, The High-Bouncing Lover, On the Road to West Egg and Fitzgerald's favorite Trimalchio's Banquet based on a character Trimalchio in the Satyricon. At the last moment, Fitzgerald agreed with his editor Max Perkins on the title, The Great Gatsby and it was published on this date.



The novel was not popular upon initial printing and sold fewer than 25,000 copies during the remaining fifteen years of Fitzgerald's life. Fitzgerald was very disappointed about this happening.



Much alcohol consumption and dissipation ensued.

(Once again I must recommend if you are in St. Paul, Minnesota, please have a drink at the Commodore Bar and Restaurant in his honor. He briefly lived at the hotel, formerly located here; it's currently a condominium. He hung out at the hotel's bar, which is now the restaurant.)


April 10, 1956 -
Performing to an all-white audience at a segregated show in Birmingham, Alabama on this date, Nat King Cole was attacked by members of the Ku Klux Klan who rush the stage to assault him.

Cole suffers a back injury and was treated at the hospital, but returns that night to play his second show, this time to an all-black audience. The attackers receive the maximum sentence of 180 days in jail.


April 10, 1963 -
In the course of deep-diving tests, the USS Thresher nuclear-powered submarine failed to surface 220 miles east of Boston, Mass, on this date. The disaster claimed all 129 men aboard under 8,400 feet (2,560 meters) of water.



According to U.S. military reviews of the accident, the most likely explanation is that a piping joint in a sea water system in the engine room gave way. The resulting spray shorted out electronics and forced an automatic shutdown of the nuclear reactor.


April 10, 1964 -
The Polo Grounds was demolished on this date and a public housing project was erected on the site. Demolition of the Polo Grounds began with the same wrecking ball that had been used four years earlier on Ebbets Field.

The wrecking crew wore Giants jerseys and tipped their hard hats to the historic stadium as they began the dismantling. It took a crew of 60 workers more than four months to level the structure.


April 10, 1970 -
Answering questions concerning his upcoming debut solo album, Paul McCartney 'accidentally' announced on this date, that the Beatles were breaking up. Many were devastated when the legendary band announced that members were going their separate ways after more than 20 years of working together.



The breakup itself took over three years to become official because of numerous legal snafus.


April 10, 1971 -
In an effort to build better relations between the U.S. and China, a US table tennis team begins a week long visit to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at the invitation of China's communist government.



The visit was a major step forwards in relations between the two countries, and gave rise to the term "table-tennis diplomacy."


April 10, 1972 -
Charlie Chaplin returned to America, after a more than a 20 year self-imposed exile (having been accused of being a Communist) — to receive a lifetime achievement Oscar on this date.



It was his second academy award; the first he got in 1929 for The Circus.


Before you go - I haven't posted anything from Puddles Pity Party in awhile. Here's a cover of Britney Spears song Toxic, as only Puddles can:



Bunkies, I think Puddles has an issue with sugar.



And so it goes.