Just because you can, doesn't mean you should

Peanut butter can be converted into diamonds (because of it's high carbon content,) by subjecting it to extremely high temperature and pressure.



Be warned - the quality of diamond produced by the peanut butter won't be something to write home about. The resulting diamonds are typically very small and tend to be muddy in color.


December 15, 1939 -

The motion picture Gone With The Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, had its world premiere in Atlanta on this date.



It was the first movie premiere ceremony to be televised. The governor of Georgia proclaimed the day a state holiday in commemoration of the event and the holiday celebrations continued for three days.



Segregation wouldn't end in the U.S. until 1954, which meant that, depending on the theater, many African American actors who starred in the film, including Hattie McDaniel (Mammy), Butterfly McQueen (Prissy), Oscar Polk (Pork) and Eddie Anderson (Uncle Peter), were barred from attending public premiers — for the theaters that weren't segregated, the producers discouraged black cast members from attending premiers, on the grounds that it was "unsafe."


December 15, 1954 -
As part of the new Disneyland TV show, Davy Crockett, Indian Fighter, starring Fess Parker premiered on ABC-TV on this date. It is often considered the first miniseries.



This and the following episodes were filmed in color at a ranch in California and a Native American reservation in North Carolina. Though originally broadcast in black-and-white, the color reels were restored a few years later and broadcast again after color TV was introduced.


December 15, 1961 -
An underrated Billy Wilder film, One, Two Three, opened in the US on this date.



Pamela Tiffin was reportedly having trouble acting with such experienced performers. Legend has it that James Cagney helped her by giving her the famous advice about acting: "Walk into a room. Plant yourself. Look the other fella in the eye and tell the truth."


December 15, 1967 -
The wonderfully trashy film Valley of the Dolls premiered in NYC on this date.



The novel and by extension this film adaptation are loosely based on novelist Jacqueline Susann's experience as an actress from the late 1930s to the late 1950s. When her acting career never took off, she settled for her second career of choice which was writing novels.


December 15, 1974 -
Mel Brooks' send up of the Universal horror films, Young Frankenstein, opened on this date.



Gene Wilder would only make the film if Mel Brooks promised not to appear in it. Brooks usually appeared in his own films, but Wilder felt that Brooks' appearance would ruin the illusion. Brooks made off-camera appearances as the howling wolf, Frederick's grandfather, and the shrieking cat.


December 15, 1978 -
Warner Bros. released the DC Comics super hero Superman The Movie, directed by Richard Donner and starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando and Margot Kidder in a limited release in the U.S. on this date.



Initially, Gene Hackman refused to cut off his mustache to play Lex Luthor. In early one-sheets of the movie, his face is featured with a mustache. Before Richard Donner and Hackman met face-to-face, Donner proposed to Hackman that if he would cut his mustache, Donner would cut his too, and Hackman agreed. It turned out later that Donner did not have a mustache at all. He wore a false moustache that he peeled off at the last moment.


December 15, 1993 -
Steven Spielberg's Academy Award winning Holocaust film, Schindler's List, starring Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley opened in the US on this date.



Steven Spielberg was able to get permission to film inside Auschwitz, but chose not to, out of respect for the victims, so the scenes of the death camp were filmed outside the gates on a set constructed in a mirror image of the real location on the other side.


December 15, 2006 -
Paramount Pictures long-planned adaptation of the Broadway musical, Dreamgirls, written and directed by Bill Condon and starring Jamie Foxx, Beyoncé Knowles, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, and Danny Glover, premiered in NYC and Los Angeles on this date.



Jamie Foxx initially declined to play Curtis Taylor, Jr. because the salary offered was insufficient. Denzel Washington was offered the part after Foxx, but declined because he can't sing. Once Beyoncé and Eddie Murphy were attached to the production, Foxx rethought his decision and accepted the role.


Another suggestion from the back shelves of the ACME Catalogue


And everyone should get a Uke for Christmas


Today in History:
December 15, 1944 -
En route to Paris, "swing" big band leader and whore monger Glenn Miller vanishes over the English Channel. Miller, listed as Missing In Action, was serving as a Major in the Army Air Force Band when his plane went down.

Miller's disappearance has led to many conspiracy theories over the years. Some allege that Miller was killed by friendly fire. Another theory holds that he landed safely, but died of a heart attack in a bordello in Paris. A third theory has also gained some recent credibility based on observations from his younger brother Herb Miller.



Glenn had been a chain-smoker for much of his life and by late 1944 was suffering from severe weight loss and shortness of breath, leading to speculation that he was terminally ill, probably with lung cancer. This theory also holds that he landed safely, but died of his illnesses on December 16th. Both of these latter theories overlook the fact that Miller wasn't alone on the flight; there were two other officers aboard the aircraft when it disappeared. They also have never been found.

To paraphrase my favorite quote once again, perhaps they too got carried away at that orgy in Paris.


December 15, 1961 -
Nazi Adolf Eichmann, former Reichssicherheitshauptamt (that's a real word) bureaucrat, was sentenced to death by a Jerusalem court on this date.



Eichmann had been arrested in Argentina and smuggled to Israel the previous year.


December 15, 1966 -
Walt Disney, alleged neo-nazi, commie hater, union-buster and child pornography lover died on this day.

And he's not a giant frozen popicle in Cinderella's Castle nor buried beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride!

Let us compare of two of the modern era's finest and most influential artists: Georges Seurat (December 2, 1859) and Walt Disney (December 5, 1901), both born in December.

Young Seurat studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and was strongly influenced by the work of Rembrandt and Goya. He studied optical science and aesthetic theory, and painted with a unique technique that he called "divisionism," but which others came to call "pointillism."

Young Disney arrived in Hollywood in 1923 with $40 in his pocket, a suitcase, and a sketchbook. He had not studied at any fancy French schools. He drew cute little pictures of funny little animals, called "cartoons."

Seurat served a year of military service at Brest, then returned to Paris and had his drawing Aman-Jean at the official Salon in 1883. The following year, the Salon rejected the panels from his painting Bathing at Asnieres, so he stormed off with some friends and formed the Societe des Artistes Independentes (Guys Who Got Rejected by the Salon.)

Disney and his brother, Roy, sold a cartoon series called the Alice Comedies, and landed a distribution deal. Over the next four years, they continued to produce Alice Comedies and more than two dozen episodes of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.



In 1886, after two years of labor, Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte was the centerpiece of the Societe's exhibition. It was hailed by critics, and he was recognized as the successor to the Impressionists.



In 1928, Disney conceived of a funny little mouse while on a train ride, and Steamboat Willie became the first sound Mickey Mouse cartoon on November 28, 1928, at the Colony Theater in New York. Mickey was an instant hit, and by 1930 he was already earning Disney significant merchandise deals.



Seurat and his followers were dubbed the "neo-impressionists." Only at the time of his premature death in 1891 did his friends and family learn that he had been living with and had even fathered a child with his mistress.

Disney built an entertainment and recreation empire from Mickey Mouse, but was not frozen in liquid nitrogen after his death in 1966. His followers are called the "imagineers."



(Seurat was not frozen, either. I believe he may have briefly dated Bernadette Peters.)


December 15, 1968 –
Philadelphia Eagles fans, and for that matter, all Philadelphia sports fans, have a long reputation for being exceptionally hostile, with plenty of individual instances to show for it. Philadelphia Eagles fans pelted Santa Claus with snowballs on this date.



The “real” Santa Claus who was supposed to appear was stuck in a snowstorm in nearby New Jersey. Frankie Olivo was a fan who dresses as Santa for the game, was asked to play the role of Santa on the field. The skinny 19-year old, in his home-made costume, was not well received by the 54,000 Eagles fans at Franklin Field. The shame lives on.

And so it goes