Today is Be Bald and Free day!
October 14, 1888 -
French inventor Louis Le Prince shot a brief film which lasted for about two seconds, in Leeds, England, he called Roundhay Garden Scene, on this date.
The footage is thought to be the oldest surviving film footage in world history.
October 14, 1953 -
Possibly the ultimate film noir, Fritz Lang's The Big Heat opens in NYC on this date.
Columbia wanted to borrow Marilyn Monroe from 20th Century-Fox to play the role of Debby Marsh, but Fox's asking price was too high. Gloria Grahame was cast instead.
October 14, 1954 -
Michael Curtiz’s holiday musical White Christmas starring Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen, and Danny Kaye premiered in New York City on this date.
Rosemary Clooney once quipped that this could have been a near-perfect movie if only they could have "dubbed" her dancing.
October 14, 1972 -
Last Tango in Paris, starring Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and that infamous stick of butter premiered in New York City, on this date.
According to his autobiography Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me, the reason why Marlon Brando refused to do a full frontal nude scene was because his "penis shrank to the size of a peanut on set."
October 14, 1972 -
The TV-series Kung Fu, starring David Carridine, debuted on ABC-TV on this date.
David Carradine had no formal martial arts training of any sort. He had received some training as a dancer when he was younger. This was a particularly aggravating fact for Bruce Lee after he was turned down for the part of Caine.
October 14, 1978 -
The gang finally got off the damn island (sort of) when the first TV movie from a TV series, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, premiered on CBS-TV with all of the original cast except Tina Louise (who wanted too much money,) on this date.
The Rescue from Gilligans Island TV movie was one of the most viewed shows of all time. The made for TV movie scored 52% (30.2) in the Nielson ratings which remains one of the highest ratings of all time for a TV movie.
October 14, 1979 -
NBC premiere of U.S. TV adaptation of Helen Keller's life story The Miracle Worker, starring Melissa Gilbert, Patty Duke, Charles Siebert, Stanley Wells, and Diana Muldaur, on this date.
Melissa Gilbert originally wanted to offer the part of Annie Sullivan to Meredith Baxter, but the adults working on the project suggested offering the part to Patty Duke, who had played Helen Keller in the film version of The Miracle Worker. Patty Duke won an Oscar as young Helen Keller in the 1962 version, played Anne Sullivan in this TV version and won an Emmy for it.
October 14, 1983 -
Cyndi Lauper, formerly a member of the group Blue Angel, issues her first solo album, She's So Unusual. With the MTV hits Girls Just Want To Have Fun and Time After Time, the album becomes an '80s touchstone.
The song, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, became an anthem for female attitude and set fashion trends as the video showed Lauper wearing bright, outrageous clothes that looked like they came from a thrift store (they often did). It set the stage for artists like Madonna: independent women wearing cheap, yet fashionable clothes with a taste for garish accessories.
October 14, 1994 -
Quentin Tarantino's brilliant crime drama, Pulp Fiction, starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Ving Rhames, and Uma Thurman, opened in the US on this date.
The movie cost only $8 million to make. The initial budget was reportedly even lower until Bruce Willis was added to the cast (he had a recent string of domestic flops but was still a box-office draw overseas). $5 million went to pay the actors' and actresses' salaries. The film was already profitable when its worldwide rights were sold for $11 million (again, mainly on the strength of Willis' presence). It went on to gross over $200 million at the box office.
Another moment of edifying culture
Today in History:
October 14, 430 BC -
October 14, 1066 -
As bad as King Harold's day yesterday; today was worse, much worse. The King and his army were locked in a massive battle and faced Duke William, William the Conqueror, and his mounted knights near the town of Hastings.
Duke William planned a three point attack plan that included a) heavy archery b) attack by foot soldiers c) attack by mounted knights at any weak point of defense. The Normans routed the Saxons and won out after Harold was killed by a stray arrow. This placed William on the throne of England. There is nothing worse than losing the throne of England to a stray arrow which appears to have happened far more frequently than thought.
October 14, 1651 -
Massachusetts passed laws prohibiting the poor from dressing excessively, on this date.
October 14, 1893 -
You can get through life with bad manners, but it's easier with good manners.
Lillian Diana Gish, was born on this date. Although she was the archetypal silent film heroine, she was a star of movies, television, radio, and the stage for nearly all of the 20th century. She closed her career in the 1987 film The Whales of August.
October 14, 1912 -
Former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for a return to office, was shot in Milwaukee by a saloon keeper named John Schrank on this date.
Schrank was captured and uttered the now famous words "any man looking for a third term ought to be shot."
Teddy Roosevelt, one of America's First Superheroes.
October 14, 1944 -
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (James Mason) of Germany was visited by two of Hitler's personal staff on this date in history.
They informed him that he was suspected of involvement in the July 20th plot to assassinate the Fuhrer and that he would therefore be required either to: (a) stand trial and die, or (b) just die. They brought some poison along to facilitate his decision.
Hitler always liked him.
October 14, 1947 -
American pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in a rocket-powered airplane, on this date. Yeager insisted it was already broken and consequently refused to repair it despite repeated admonitions by his mother.
It remains broken to this day. (The sound barrier should not be confused with the Long Island Sound barrier, sometimes referred to as the Throg's Neck Bridge.)
October 14, 1959 -
Omni-sexual actor and Nazi sympathizer Errol Flynn, dubbed "the most despicable human being yet born" (and that was by a friend), died of a heart attack in Vancouver on this date. Flynn reported didn't have a sexual preference, he merely slept with anything with an orifice (and possibly a pulse) including (but not limited to) Truman Capote, Howard Hughes, as well as countless Hollywood starlets.
Presumably, not at the same time.
October 14, 1962 -
The US collected photographic evidence that the Soviet Union had positioned missiles about 90 miles off the US coast, in Cuba. The missiles were capable of transporting nuclear warheads.
The tense situation that arose in the next two weeks would bring the US and Soviet Union the closest the two countries had ever been to nuclear war.
October 14, 1968 -
Captain Walter Schirra, Jr., Major Donn Eisele and Major Walt Cunningham, gave the American public a tour of the spacecraft and showed the view through their craft’s windows on this date.
The crew on NASA's Apollo 7 mission, the first successful manned mission to the Moon, broadcast the first live transmission from their spacecraft.
October 14, 1968 -
Sprinter Jim Hines became the first human to run a 100-meter race in under 10 seconds (9.95). What was once thought to be impossible suddenly became possible - and soon it became routine - because the psychological barrier of unattainability was dissolved.
Jim held the 100-meter world record for 15 years after breaking the 10-second milestone at the US national championships, and later won two gold medals in the ’68 Olympics. In later years Hines worked with inner-city youth in Houston.
And so it goes
it was already broken indeed
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