Remember, we must still sure the entire world gets access to the COVID-19 vaccine, in order to get passed it into a better tomorrow.
April 7, 1933 -
Today is also National Beer Day. While it is not actual a national holiday, in March of 1933, President Roosevelt signed the Cullen–Harrison Act allowing the sale of beer once again with the proviso, the beer remain no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight, the first legal alcohol allowed since Prohibition began in 1919.
On this date, the act became law, and beer production began – thus marking the imminent end of Prohibition. April 7th does NOT signify the end of National Prohibition. National Prohibition ended on December 5, 1933. New Beer's Eve (which was celebrated last night) occurred during National Alcohol Awareness Month.
Celebrate either as you see fit.
April 7, 1915 -
Eleanora Fagan, considered by many to be the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, was born on this day. Though her career was relatively short and often erratic, she left behind a body of work as great as any vocalist before or since.
Eleanora's (or as she was professionally known, Billie Holiday) vocal style — strongly inspired by instrumentalists — pioneered a new way of manipulating wording and tempo, and also popularized a more personal and intimate approach to singing.
April 7, 1933 -
Arguably his most influential film, French filmmaker Jean Vigo's feature, Zero de Conduite (Zero for Conduct) was released on this date.
The film was banned by the French censor until after 1946. The film has been ranked as one of the "100 Movies That Shook the World".
April 7, 1970 -
John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy won the Oscar for Best Picture on this date. It remains the only X-rated film to win an Academy Award.
The film was rated "X" (no one under 17 admitted) upon its original release in 1969, but the unrestricted use of that rating by pornographic filmmakers caused the rating to quickly become associated with hardcore sex films. Because of the stigma that developed around the "X" rating in the ratings system's early years, many theaters refused to run X-rated films, and many newspapers would not run ads for them. The film was given a new R-rating (children under 17 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian) rating in 1971, without having anything changed or removed. It remains the only X-rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, be shown on network television (although the "R" reclassification had taken place by then), or be screened by a sitting U.S. President, Richard Nixon.
April 7, 1978 -
The Police release Roxanne in the UK on this date.
This was the first major-label release by The Police, who were struggling at the time. A year earlier, they released the single Fall Out on an independent label owned by Stewart Copeland's brother (and the band's manager), Miles. It was a flop, and the group felt a lot of pressure to produce something that would keep them from becoming unemployed.
April 7, 1979 -
The one and only Grammy winner for Best Disco song, I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor topped the charts on this date.
The song beat out Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, Bad Girls, Boogie Wonderland and Da Ya Think I'm Sexy? for the 1979 Grammy for Best Disco Recording. It was the first and last time the Grammy was offered in this category, but not the last win for Gaynor, who won Best Roots Gospel Album 40 years later in 2019 for Testimony.
Another moment of edifying culture
(I'm on the road for the the next several days - posting may be abbreviated at best)
Today in History:
April 7, 1805 -
Beethoven conducted the premiere of his Eroica Symphony No. 3 in E flat major on this date. Beethoven used the symphony to convey popular notions about heroism and revolution, which were prevalent throughout Europe at the time.
He was full of enthusiasm and respect for the French Revolution's ideals, and especially (at first) Napoleon Bonaparte. Beethoven, like a teenage groupie, scrawled Napoleon's name all over the dedication page of the symphony.
But then Napoleon went on a world tour and started conquering random European countries. When he became a truly evil bastard, finally declared himself Emperor of the French in 1804, Beethoven flew into a rage.
April 7, 1927 -
An audience in New York saw an image of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television. Hoover’s image and voice were transmitted across telephone lines. Edna Mae Horner, an operator at the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company, assisted the transmission and became the first woman on television.
April 7, 1939 -
That little old Italian wine maker, Francis Ford Coppola, (who is also a magazine publisher and hotelier) was born on this date.
Like Martin Scorsese, Coppola was a sickly youth, a case of polio which allowed him time to indulge in puppet theater and home movies.
April 7, 1954 -
President Dwight D. Eisenhower coined one of the most famous Cold War phrases when he suggests the fall of French Indochina to the communists could create a "domino" effect in Southeast Asia on this date.
The so-called "domino theory" dominated U.S. thinking about Vietnam for the next decade.
Who know that the President was so afraid of the Pizza boy?
April 7, 1956 -
Capitol Tower, the headquarters of Capitol Records in Hollywood, California, was dedicated on this date.
The building, designed to resemble a stack of records, was the first circular office tower in the U.S.
April 7, 1989 -
Soviet nuclear submarine K-278 Komsomolets sank in the Norwegian sea, with two nuclear reactors and two nuclear torpedoes aboard on this date.
April 7, 1990 -
A display of Robert Mapplethorpe photographs opened at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, the same day the center and its director, Dennis Barrie were indicted on obscenity charges on this date.
Both were later acquitted.
April 7, 1998 -
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou was arrested by an undercover police officer after pleasuring himself in front of him in a public toilet.
If George only realized how many of his fans would have happily donned uniforms and stood provocatively before him in any restroom of his choice.
And so it goes.
afraid of the Pizza boy, indeed
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