September 17, 1956 -
Vincente Minnelli's brilliant bio-pix, Lust for Life, opened in NYC on this date.
Irving Stone's novel was first published in 1946 and MGM purchased the film rights in that year. However, there was a rider to the purchase - the film would have to be made within ten years or else the rights would revert to the author. MGM took a very long time to decide on whether or not to make the film (producer John Houseman believed that it was the big box-office success of Moulin Rouge, with Jose Ferrer as Toulouse-Lautrec that finally spurred them on) and the film had to be made against the clock, as it were. However, the completed movie was in cinemas before the end of 1956.
September 17, 1961 -
William Faulkner's favorite TV show, Car 54 Where are You?, premiered on NBC-TV, on this date.
NBC wanted to buy part ownership of the show in exchange for it being renewed for a third season. Creator Nat Hiken refused and the show's sponsor, Proctor and Gamble, tried to take the show to CBS, but the network had no room on its schedule. Hiken had become burnt out on the show due to its single camera set-up, which required more time. He also had constant problems with Joe E. Ross, who had trouble remembering his lines. Hiken gladly ended the show and never worked on another series again.
September 17, 1963 -
David Janssen started running when ABC-TV premiered The Fugitive, on this date.
According to Barry Morse after completing the first show he was walking up the road with David Janssen and he said, "Do you think we will get more than a couple of weeks work out of this?"
September 17, 1964 -
United Artists released the third James Bond thriller (in the UK,) Goldfinger, starring Sean Connery, on this date.
The re-creation of the Fort Knox repository at Pinewood Studios was incredibly accurate, considering no one involved in this movie had been allowed inside the real location for security reasons. The set looked so real that a 24-hour guard was placed on the Fort Knox set at Pinewood Studios so that pilferers would not steal the gold bar props. A letter to the production from the Fort Knox controller congratulated Ken Adam and his team on the re-creation. Auric Goldfinger's 3-D model map used for his "Operation Grand Slam" is now housed as a permanent exhibition at the real Fort Knox.
September 17, 1964 -
Dick York started out as Durwood, I mean, Darrin as Bewitched premieres on ABC-TV on this date.
The only members of Samantha's family to consistently call Darrin by his proper name were Aunt Clara and Uncle Arthur.
September 17, 1965 -
CBS-TV premiered Hogan's Heroes, the first and perhaps only sitcom based in a German prisoner-of-war camp on this date.
Werner Klemperer, Howard Caine, Leon Askin and John Banner, who portrayed the chief Germans Klink, Hochstetter, Burkhalter and Schultz, were all Jewish. All of them also served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. Klemperer was born in Cologne, Germany and Banner and Askin were both born in Vienna, Austria, and the three of them immigrated to the United States after fleeing the Nazi regime. Klemperer was half Jewish.
September 17, 1965 -
Robert Conrad has stated that the very tight pants he wore on the show often split open during action scenes. This is especially obvious in several wide angle shots of fight scenes in which Conrad's period incorrect Jockey shorts are clearly visible.
September 17, 1967 -
The first mission from the IMF team from Mission Impossible premiered on CBS-TV on this date.
For several years, the series first season was not shown in syndication, due to the fact that many people had grown so accustomed to Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) being the leader of the team that many viewers were shocked when they saw the first season reruns with Dan Briggs (Steven Hill) as the leader of the I.M.F.
September 17, 1967 -
The Doors appear on The Ed Sullivan Show on this date and things did not go as smoothly as the producers may have hoped.
The band had been asked by producer Bob Precht of The Ed Sullivan Show, to alter the lyrics of the song, Light My Fire, so as to eliminate the phrase “we couldn’t get much higher.” The band agreed to change the lyrics but come show time, Jim Morrison sang the lyrics as originally written. As a result, The Doors were banned from ever again appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show.
September 17, 1972 -
M*A*S*H, premiered on CBS TV on this date.
Gary Burghoff's (Radar's) left hand is slightly deformed, and he took great pains to hide or de-emphasize it during filming. He did this by always holding something (like a clipboard), or keeping that hand in his pocket. Poland syndrome, named after British surgeon Alfred Poland, is a rare birth defect characterized by underdevelopment or absence of the chest muscle on one side of the body, and usually also webbing of the fingers of the hand on the same side.
September 17, 1991 -
ABC-TV introduced us the the Taylor family and the cast and crew of Tool Time when Home Improvement premiered on this date.
Originally, Frances Fisher was cast as Jill Taylor. During the filming of the pilot, audiences reacted poorly, saying that she made the character of Jill whiney and desperate. She was replaced with Patricia Richardson four days before the pilot episode was taped.
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
September 17, 1778 -
The United States signed its first treaty with a Native American tribe, the Delaware Nation.
On July 4, 1776, the American colonies told Britain to kiss their hairy American asses. This occurred during the Revolutionary War, during which the Redcoats were coming, a shot was heard 'round the world' and Paul Revere could see the whites of their eyes and knew that their taxes were too high.
The complexities of war demanded organization between the states, so they established Articles of Confederation, which in turn created a Continental Congress. This Congress was adequate to see them through the war, but by the late 1780s it became clear that both the Continental Congress and the Articles of Confederation sucked.
Even way back then Americans didn't want anything to do with anything that sucked (unless it meant a substantial discount, which in this case it did not).
The Continental Congress tried to fix the Articles of Confederation in 1786. The Congress still sucked, of course, and so they failed.
In the spring of 1787 the states sent new delegates to a new convention designed to produce a government that wouldn't be so awful.
On September 17, 1787, the Constitutional Convention voted its approval of a new Constitution, which they immediately ran out to have printed.
The Continental Congress acted with its usual efficiency, and by July 2 of the following year, the Constitution had become the law of the land. The last act of the Continental Congress was to schedule federal elections for their replacements.
Today is Constitution Day in the U.S. Celebrate by refusing to allow soldiers to be billeted in your home.
September 17, 1859 -
The successor to Emperor Norton I has still yet to be anointed. I am still consulting attorneys about this matter, as we speak.
September 17, 1908 -
Thomas E. Selfridge becomes the world's first airplane fatality when the Wright Flyer, a craft he's co-piloting with Orville Wright for the U.S. Army, crashed near Fort Meyer, Virginia on this date.
September 17, 1935 -
Len Koenecke was an outfielder with the Brooklyn Dodgers for most of 1935, but near the end of the season he was released for “behavior and erratic play.” The Dodger left St. Louis by passenger plane, but was ordered off in Detroit because of intoxication. Len chartered a three-seater plane for Buffalo that included both the pilot and the co-pilot.
September 17, 1939 -
The Soviet Union invaded Poland, to fulfill its end of the secret protocols contained in the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. They partition the country along pre-decided lines.
As you well know the last laugh will be on the Russian, when Hitler turns on them.
September 17, 1978 -
The Camp David Peace Accords, a set of agreements between Egypt and Israel was signed on this date. The agreements were the culmination of years of negotiations for peace in the Middle East. Acting as a peace broker, President Jimmy Carter convinced Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to reach a compromise in their disputes.
Mr. Carter is still alive and kicking.
And so it goes
they had hairy asses? indeed
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