The idiom “mad as a hatter” was around long before Carroll started writing. Colloquially used to describe an eccentric person, “mad as a hatter” is based on a problem that arose in the 1800s when hat companies used lead in the hat-making process. The lead got into their systems and they went insane, hence the term “mad as a hatter”.
October 6, 1927 -
Good, bad or indifferent to it, The Jazz Singer (the first feature-length movie with audible synchronized dialogue), premiered in NYC on this date.
Though the film is widely considered to be the first talking film, there was originally planned to be no spoken dialogue, only singing. Al Jolson improvised all of the dialogue in the talking scenes on spot, and Harry Warner made the call to leave these scenes in the film.
In the late 40s through the 50s, the CIA led a top secret campaign, called Militant Liberty that encouraged studios to insert the theme of freedom into Hollywood movies. Alfred P. Sloan (think about the name and it will come to you) the recently retired head of of General Motors from 1923 to 1946, was recruited to head the cause. Sloan hired George Stewart Benson, president of Harding College to produce a series of cartoons to promote anti-Communist, pro-free enterprise themes.
Make Mine Freedom (1948) was one of the first. At least three Warner Bros. cartoons during the period, Heir Conditioned, By Word of Mouse, and Yankee Dood It were probably produced under this program. And the famous Duck and Cover as well as Disney's Our Friend the Atom have the fingerprints of the program all over them. (We don't even have time to discuss the CIA's involvement with the live action studios during the time.)
October 6, 1960 -
Stanley Kubrick's gladiator spectactular, Spartacus, starring Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Peter Ustinov, John Gavin, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, and Tony Curtis, premiered in New York City on this date.
Despite this movie being a huge box-office success, gaining four Oscars and being considered to rank among the very best of historical epics, Stanley Kubrick disowned the movie and did not include it as part of his canon. Although his personal mark is a distinct part of the final movie, his contract did not give him complete control over the filming, and he frequently clashed with the studio and star/producer Kirk Douglas, making this the only occasion on which he did not exercise such control over one of his movies.
October 6, 1963 -
The wonderful adaption of the classic 18th Century novel, Tom Jones premiered in NYC on this date. (Bizarre piece of trivia: this was the last film that John F. Kennedy saw before his assassination.)
Hugh Griffith was reportedly drunk through much of the production; the scene in which his horse falls on him was not planned, and many believed he was saved by virtue of his inebriated condition. The film incorporated every frame of footage before rescuers entered the frame to save him.
October 6, 1965 -
The Supremes single I Hear a Symphony went to No. 1 on this date.
This was written by the songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, who wrote five consecutive #1 hits for The Supremes, starting with Where Did Our Love Go. Their next single was Nothing But Heartaches, which brought the streak to an end when it peaked at #11, but they went right back to the top with the next one, I Hear A Symphony.
October 6, 1969 -
The Beatles release a double A-side single Something and Come Together on this date. It was the only song written by George Harrison released as a single by The Beatles.
The song Something seemed to be inspired by Harrison's wife, Pattie. When asked in 1969 by BBC presenter David Wigg if she inspired the song, Harrison stammered, saying, "Maybe Pattie, probably." Pattie did inspire Layla when Eric Clapton realized he loved her a few years later. She and Clapton were married from 1979-1988 (he also wrote Wonderful Tonight for her).
This has one of the most commonly misheard lyrics in the history of popular music: "Hold you in his -armchair- you can feel his disease." It's actually "Hold you in his arms, yeah, you can feel his disease." All published sheet music had the "armchair" lyric, including the inner sleeve of the 1967-1970 compilation, which contained lots of other errors too, notably on Strawberry Fields Forever. After John heard that his lyric was incorrect in the sheet music and other folios, he decided he liked "armchair" better and kept it.
0ctober 6, 1966 -
The Star Trek episode The Enemy Within, first ared on this date.
The episode marks the first use of the line, “He’s dead, Jim.”
October 6, 1973 –
Cher's single, Half-Breed, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date. (Sorry for the earworm.)
Snuff Garrett produced the song despite his intention to quit working with Sonny and Cher. He had been battling Sonny, the singer's then-husband, over what type of material she should be singing. Lyricist Mary Dean wasn't aware of the conflict when she brought Half-Breed to Garrett, a song she wrote with Al Capps specifically for Cher. By the time this hit #1, Sonny & Cher's recording career as a duo had hit the skids with their last single, Mama Was A Rock and Roll Singer, petering out at #77. Their marriage wasn't performing much better; they divorced in 1975.
October 6, 1976 -
The song, Disco Duck by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots received a gold record on this date. The song was featured in the movie Saturday Night Fever but was not included on its soundtrack album.
The voice of this song sounds a lot like the Disney character Donald Duck, prompting speculation that Clarence Nash, who voices Donald Duck, sang on this. The Walt Disney Company has emphatically denied this rumor; however, in 1979, toward the tail end of the disco era, Disney put out an album called Mickey Mouse Disco featuring adaptations of various disco songs, including one by Nash as Donald Duck.
October 6, 1978 -
Alan Parker's harrowing drama, Midnight Express starring Brad Davis, Randy Quaid and John Hurt, premiered in the US on this date.
Producer David Puttnam has mixed feelings about this movie. He was happy with the finished cut, but when he saw this movie with a paying audience at a late night showing in New York City, he was deeply disturbed by the audience's reaction to some scenes. They were cheering and clapping, instead of the desired effect of being repulsed by the characters' actions.
October 6, 1992 -
29 years ago, R.E.M. released their eighth studio album, Automatic for the People, on this date.
The album title was inspired by Weaver D's soul food diner in Athens, Georgia. When you ordered food there, they answered by saying "automatic." They had a sign that said "Delicious Fine Foods - Automatic For The People."
Another failed ACME Product
Today in History:
Today is Armed Forces Day in Egypt (we'll get back to Armed Forces Day in a moment but it's not in celebration of the Elvis Costello album) and Ivy Day in Ireland. (Ivy Day is not a horticultural celebration. The date marks the anniversary of the 1891 death of Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell;
Irish favoring home rule traditionally pin a bit of ivy to their lapels in his honor.
Aeschylus was the first Greek playwright to produce tragedies as we would know them today, but that's not important to our story today.
According to legend, Aeschylus died when an eagle, mistaking his bald head for a stone, dropped a tortoise on it, killing him instantly on this date in 456 BC (that was tragedy for Aeschylus but it's comedy to us.)
October 6, 1014 -
Czar Samuil of Bulgaria died of a heart attach after an army of 15,000 of his men returned, blinded by his enemy Emperor Basil of the Byzantine Empire. One out of every hundred of his men was permitted to keep one eye, such that they were able to return home.
I guess we shouldn't complain.
October 6 is the anniversary of one of the greatest moments in the history of literary criticism. It was on that date in 1536 that William Tyndale was recognized for his important contribution to world literature, the first translation of the New Testament into English - by being tied to the stake, strangled, and his dead body then burnt.
Ah, when men were men, women were women, and critics were murderous, torch-wielding fanatics!
October 6, 1966 -
LSD was declared illegal in the US on this date.
Hopefully you timed your intake accordingly.
October 6, 1973 -
In a surprise attack on the Jewish highest holiday of Yom Kippur - Syrian and Egyptian armies invaded Israel on this date, starting, what became known as, the Yom Kippur War. The US came to Israel's aid, but as Israel began winning the war, Israel wouldn't back down from the siege brought on by the Egyptian troops to the south.
The Soviet Union threatened to intervene on Egypt's behalf, causing high tensions between the US and Soviet Union that caused lasting damage to the relationship between two. Eventually, all parties came to a peace agreement.
October 6, 1976 -
During a televised debate on this date, President and candidate Gerald Ford asserts that there was 'no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe'.
Ford lost the election. (I believe the previous White House was trying to use the corollary, 'there was no Russian collusion in the election', from his playbook.)
October 6, 1981 -
During Armed Forces Day (commemorating Egypt's participation in the Arab-Israeli War,) armed gunmen leapt from a truck and began shooting into the reviewing stand at Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
The assassination had been approved by Omar Abdel-Rahman, a cleric later convicted in the US for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
October 6, 2007 -
Jason Lewis completed the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe. Using a pedal boat, roller blades, bicycles, kayak, and his feet, the adventurer and sustainability campaigner finished the harrowing journey in a little over 13 years.
in the process of completing his ‘Expedition 360’, Lewis also became the first person to cross North America on inline skates, and the first to cross the Pacific Ocean by pedal power. Together with Stevie Smith, Lewis completed the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from mainland Europe to North America by human power. He successfully ended his 4,833-day expedition, having travelled 46,505 miles (74,842 km)
And so it goes
celebrated only by drips indeed
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