The will is what man has as his unique possession

It's the Feast of St. Joseph, stepdad to Jesus and patron saint of real estate closers (that's why the pastries are for him - he's a closer.)

Remember to go out and have the very delicious Sicilian pastry that bears his name (but get the ones with canolli filling, not the custard.) It's so good, it brings you that much closer to God.

Also, if you live in Capistrano,



Remember the swallows are coming back today, eat you pastries indoors.


March 19, 1947 -
Another Bob Hope film (at the peak of his career), My Favorite Brunette, opened in Los Angeles on this date.



This was the second of three comedies Bob Hope made for Paramount that featured "My Favorite..." in their titles. The first was My Favorite Blonde, and the third was My Favorite Spy. All three paired Hope with sexy females, had fast-paced plots, and were peppered with cameos by major stars. All three were also among Hope's biggest box-office hits.


March 19, 1958 -
The film based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical, South Pacific, was released on this date. (Please feel free to sing along with Rossano Brazzi)



Dating back to the development of the stage musical, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were pressured to eliminate the song You've Got To Be Carefully Taught, but they resisted. The movie was greeted with objections and even boycotts in certain parts of the country specifically because of the song.


March 19, 1962 -
Luis Buñuel's sacrilegious masterpiece, Viridiana, opened in the US on this date.



The script was initially approved by the Spanish authorities with a few minor changes. They had no opportunity to view the finished film until it played at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the Palme d'Or. Nevertheless, they were horrified enough by what they saw to ban the film.


March 19, 1975 -
Columbia Pictures releases Ken Russell's unique version of Tommy, starring The Who, Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, Elton John, and Jack Nicholson, on this date.



Elton John initially turned down the part of the Pinball Wizard. One of those seriously considered for the role was David Essex, who had played Tommy in the 1973 stage production and recorded a version of the Pinball Wizard at his home studio. However, producer Robert Stigwood held out to get Elton John, who finally agreed to play the role, on the condition that he could keep the oversized Doc Martin boots from his costume.


March 19, 1977 -
It was the end of the road at WJM-TV when the final episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Last Show, aired on CBS TV on this date.



In an interview years later Mary Tyler Moore said that the scene where they embraced and then huddled to the tissues was not in the script, because of the emotion of the final episode the embrace was real and so were the tears. Moore also said when she did the famous 'light off before leaving' scene, they could only do it once as studio lights took forever to come back on.


March 19, 1984 -
CBS TV premiered the midseason replacement show Kate & Allie starring Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin on this date.



Jane Curtin and Susan Saint James previously starred together in the movie How To Beat The High Cost Of Living.

Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today


Today in History:
March 19, 1931 -
Though unregulated gambling had taken place in mining towns all over Nevada, gambling was outlawed in the early 20th century as part of a nationwide campaign against corruption.



The state re-legalized it on this day in 1931, and became the state's primary source of revenue.


March 19, 1943 -
Francesco Raffaele Nitto, better known as, Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti, one of the top henchmen of Alphonse "Big Al" "Scarface" Capone and later the front man for the mob Capone created, the Chicago Outfit, was having a very bad day. Many top members of the Chicago Outfit were indicted for extortion. The Outfit was accused of trying to strong arm some of the largest Hollywood movie studios. The studios had cooperated with The Outfit to avoid union trouble stirred up by the mob.

The day before his scheduled grand jury appearance, Nitti shared breakfast with his wife in their Riverside, Illinois home at 712 Selborne Road. As his wife was leaving for church, Nitti told her he planned to take a walk. After his wife left, Nitti began to drink heavily. He then loaded a .32 caliber revolver, put it in his coat pocket, and walked five blocks to a local railroad yard. Two railroad workers (William F. Sebauer and Lowell M. Barnett) spotted Nitti walking on the track of an oncoming train and shouted a warning. They thought the train hit him, but Nitti had managed to jump out of the way in time. Then two shots rang out.

The trainmen first thought Nitti was shooting at them, but then realized he was trying to shoot himself in the head. The two bullets went through his hat. Nitti finally sat on the ground against a fence and, with the railroad workers watching from a distance, shot himself in the head on this date.


March 19, 1941 -
The Tuskegee Airmen, an elite African-American Army unit —the first to welcome black pilots - was activated on this date.



After two years of training, the Tuskegee Airmen “Red-Tail Angels” were sent to Europe and proved themselves as accomplished battle pilots.


March 19, 1945 -
The Third Reich's World Tour was drawing to an abrupt close. And the band members were understandably depressed. The ever wacky and truly evil bastard Adolf Hitler issued his so-called "Nero Decree" on this date, ordering the destruction of German facilities that could fall into Allied hands.



Albert Speer, gave himself a birthday present today (avoiding the noose at the Nuremberg trials) and does everything he can to stop this from happening, in direct defiance of Hitler. Speer knew he had some precedent, Hitler also had decreed that Paris should be left a smoking ruin the previous summer, but Dietrich von Choltitz thought better of his Fuhrer's order.


March 19, 1953 -
NBC TV aired The Academy Awards on television for the first time on this date. Though the winners had been announced several months earlier, the program still garnered a lot of attention.



The show was hosted by Bob Hope and Conrad Nagel.


March 19, 1957 -
Elvis Presley was touring and has a vision. Before he immediately act upon it, St. Elvis wolfed down seven fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches and agreed to purchase the 14 acre Graceland estate from Ruth Moore for $100,000 on this date.



The place is now his cemetery. Or is it?


March 19, 1982 -
The guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, Randy Rhoads, died during the Diary of a Madman tour after the plane he is flying in buzzed the band's tour bus and clipped the wing of the plane, crashing into a nearby farmhouse.



Kids, once again, repeat after me, Drugs are bad.


March 19, 1987 -
Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns his PTL ministry after it is revealed he was delivering a little too much spiritual healing to former church secretary and future Playboy playmate Jessica Hahn.



Some $265,000 in ministry funds had been used to keep Hahn quiet about a one-time sexual encounter in 1980. (Given that some unnamed executive paid $130,000 to kept his 'supposed' nine month affair a secret; that was one very expensive tryst.)


March 19, 2003 -
President George W. Bush announced on this date, the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a military mission to rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein. The American led coalition began with the launch of U.S. cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs aimed at Saddam Hussein near Baghdad.



The war was internationally unpopular from the start, and lost a lot of popularity in America after Bush's claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction were found to be unsubstantiated.


March 19, 2005 -
John Zachary DeLorean former American engineer and executive in the U.S. automobile industry, and drug dealer died on this date.



He quit GM in 1973 to launch the DeLorean Motor Car Co. in Northern Ireland. Eight years later, the DeLorean DMC-12 hit the streets.

8,900 cars were built.


Before you go - Spring starts tomorrow in Northern Hemisphere at 11:33 A.M. EDT,



with partially cloudy, forecast highs in the upper 50s. We'll discuss it all tomorrow.



And so it goes.