RUNNY BABBIT

July 22nd is Spooner's Day, honoring Reverend William Archibald Spooner, a 19th Century British clergyman, who was born on this date in 1844. Spoonerisms are usually a two-word phrase in which the first letters (and occasionally the initial vowels) of the words are reversed.



Reverend Spooner was adept at the art of the oopsy linguae, or misspeak. As a result, certain verbal miscues have been tagged Spoonerisms.


July 22, 1959 -
Either considered the worst or greatest film ever made, Ed Wood Jr's sci-fi classic, Plan 9 from Outer Space, starring Bela Lugosi, Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, Vampira and narrated by Criswell, opened in the US on this date.



The film played for years in relative obscurity (to some) on late-night television until 1980, when critic Michael Medved dubbed it the worst film ever made. Almost instantly, a cult classic was created.


July 22, 1964 -
One of Hitchcock's most underrated (and sexually twisted) films, Marnie premiered on this date.



Alfred Hitchcock, following his usual practice, bid for the movie rights to Winston Graham's novel anonymously, so as to keep the price down. However, in this instance, the scheme backfired; the anonymity of the purchaser made Graham suspicious, although he regarded the amount of money on offer as extremely generous. He instructed his agent to ask for twice as much. Hitchcock agreed, on condition that the deal be closed immediately. When Graham discovered who it was who had bought the rights, he said he would have given them away free for the honor of having one of his stories filmed by Alfred Hitchcock.


July 22, 1967 -
The Toho Studio released King Kong Escapes (Kingu Kongu no gyakushû,) directed by Ishiro Honda in Japan on this date. (Despite the master villain being named Dr. Who, this film has no connection to Doctor Who.)



As a children's film, Toho pressured the filmmakers to show more gore in the monster fights. Children's media in Japan at the time was showing increasing amounts of violence, especially when compared to the rest of the world. Films from rival studios would should monsters frequently bleeding while popular superhero TV shows had the heroes routinely slice, decapitate, and overall mutilate their monsters opponents. However, effects director Tsuburaya felt that such violence was inappropriate to show on the big screen and when the studio wanted Gorosaurus to bleed profusely after Kong broke his jaw, Tsuburaya snapped back. "These movies are for kids," he said, "Why do you enjoy showing them blood?" The compromise was for Gorosaurus to foam at the mouth instead.


July 22, 1983 –
20th Century Fox jumped on the strange new bandwagon of Dad's taking care of their kids when the film, Mr. Mom, starring Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Martin Mull, Ann Jillian, and Christopher Lloyd went into a limited release on this date.



Michael Keaton turned down Splash to do this movie. Ron Howard was asked to direct, but he turned it down in order to make Splash.


Another potential career in case your stimulus checks have ended


Today in History:
July 22, 1587 -
Roanoke, the colony founded by Sir Walter Raleigh, might have gone missing on this date.



Recent development point to the fact that the inhabitants of Roanoke didn't go missing, they appear to have originated the joke that after certain people left, everyone else moved and didn't leave a forwarding address.


July 22, 1933 -
Wiley Post (who possessed his flying license signed by Orville Wright) took off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York City and traveled 15,596 miles over a period of 7 days, 18 hours and 45 minutes and became the first person to fly solo around the world on this date.



Post landed back at Floyd Bennett Field in New York, completing the first round-the-world solo flight. His return was greeted by some 50,000 people.


July 22, 1934 -
John Dillinger was shot dead outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre, on this date in history. And one of the most bizarre urban legends was born.



According to the rumor, J Edgar Hoover, pug ugly head of the FBI and notorious transvestite, rushes to Chicago to see the corpse, Dillinger, Public Enemy No. 1, himself. Dillinger was a ladies man and was reported to be very specially endowed.

Hoover, after viewing the nude lifeless body of Dillinger in the morgue, orders Dillinger's member to be removed and preserved as a 'specimen' for his private files.

Rumors of Hoover's trophy dogged him for the rest of his life. He even went to the extraordinary step of stating sometime in the late 60s that he "did not now nor even have Dillinger's privates in a jar". His comments were not taken seriously as he was wearing a size 28 Dior outfit with matching handbag (and Raymond Burr Nipple Rouge) at the time.

The Smithsonian museum is still flooded with requests annually to view this 'special exhibition'.


July 22, 1951 -
It's the first episode of Dogs In Space -

Two Russian dogs, Dezik and Tsygan, were the first canines to make a sub-orbital flight in history on this date.



The Russian space program used dogs quite often to determine whether a particular space mission would be safe for humans. Little know fact: the real reason Nikita Khrushchev slammed his shoe on the desk in the UN - Khrushchev had just been passed a note about a ten year investigation of Tsygan's over-familiarity with his shoe.


At the time of his death on this date in 1982, King Sobhuza II was the longest-reigning monarch in the world. His death also established him as the most recently-deceased monarch in the world. Today he is on a long list of continuously dead rulers.

Sobhuza began his career as Paramount Chief of the Swazi in 1921, but was not recognized as king by Great Britain, which ran the nation as a protectorate, until 1967. (The forgetful Brits have a long history of failing to recognize kings, perhaps owing to the difficulty of seeing clearly in the London fog.)



The Brits wrote a Constitution before they left, but Sobhuza did not discover it until 1973, at which point he discarded it on the grounds of its being British. Five years later he implemented a better Constitution that, surprisingly enough, left all political power in his own hands.

He died in 1982. The Constitution declared that he should be succeeded by one of his children, which seemed simple at first but was complicated by the revelation of his having had over 600 children.



(Apparently he had time on his hands for more than political power.) It took four years to find the right son, and King Mswati III has reigned ever since.


July 22, 1975 -
Stanley Forman took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo Fire Escape Collapse on this date.

The photograph, which is part of a series, shows 19-year-old Diana Bryant and her 2-year-old goddaughter Tiare Jones falling from the collapsed fire escape of a burning apartment building on Marlborough Street in Boston. It spurred action to improve the safety of fire escapes across the United States.


July 22, 1982 -
It's a happy 39th anniversary for over 2000 couples who were married by Rev. Moon in Madison Square Garden on this date in NYC.

As far as I can find out, nearly 75% of the couples are still married (although, perhaps not to each other.)



And so it goes.