Today is the 16th Annual Dance Parade in NYC, which steps off at 21st Street and Broadway with Grand Marshals Eduardo Vilaro, Heidi Latsky and Rich Medina and it gavottes way down to Tompkin Square Park (it looks like it will be quite hot today. Find a shady spot and watch it pass you by. Shake your groove thing if you feel so moved.)
May 21, 1969 -
MGM released the science fiction B-movie The Green Slime to U.S. theaters on this date.
This was the first film ever to be featured on the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000. An edited version of the film appeared on the show's never-aired pilot episode.
May 21, 1971 -
Regarded as one of the landmark recordings in pop music history, and one of the greatest albums of the 20th century, Marvin Gaye's eleventh studio album What's Going On, was released on this date.
The What's Going On album takes on many issues, including the environment (Mercy Mercy Me) and poverty (Inner City Blues). It was the first album Gaye released that sold a lot of copies. Until then, like most Motown artists, he had lots of hit singles but album sales were secondary.
May 21, 1980 -
George Lucas didn't have enough money (the first time). He produces a sequel to his highly successful Star Wars, which somehow is Part V (don't ask or someone will go to great lengths to explain it all to you.)
The Empire Strikes Back premiered on this date.
The film contains, arguably the most shocking revelation - right next to what Rosebud was or Who actually is Keyser Söze?
May 21, 1983 -
David Bowie, with guitar work courtesy of Stevie Ray Vaughan reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart with Let’s Dance, which stayed on top for one week.
On the surface, this song is about dancing with a lover, but according to Nile Rodgers, there's a deeper meaning. He told Mojo: "When David wrote those lyrics, he was talking about the dance that people do in life; the conceptual dance of not being honest. He sings, 'put on your red shoes and dance the blues.' Like you're pretending to be happy but you're sad."
May 21, 1987 -
The series, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, starred Blair Brown premiered on NBC-TV on this date.
The series takes place in New York City. But for the first two seasons, except for some exterior scenes, it was filmed in Los Angeles. Most of the cast and writers, including Blair Brown, actually lived in New York City. When the show moved to Lifetime from NBC, production was moved to New York City.
May 21, 1990 -
The last episode of Newhart aired on CBS-TV on this date.
After the 7th season, Bob Newhart decided the 8th season would be the final season for the show. When he told his wife Ginny Newhart of his decision, she suggested that for the final episode, his character should wake up in bed next to Suzanne Pleshette, and that the series should be a dream.
May 21, 1992 -
Bette Midler, the last scheduled guest, sang a touching impromptu duet with Johnny Carson, on the Tonight Show, on this date. (This was the apex of TV. It hasn't gotten any better than this.)
This penultimate show was immediately recognized as a television classic, and Midler would win an Emmy Award for her role in it.
May 21, 2011 -
Adele went to No.1 on the US singles chart with Rolling In The Deep, on this date, taken from her second studio album, 21.
While she was touring North America in support of 19, Adele was introduced by her bus driver to a Wanda Jackson greatest hits album. As she traveled round the Southern states, she found herself drawn to American country music, including Alison Krauss, Rascal Flatts and Lady Antebellum. Once she began prepping her sophomore release back in England, Adele began incorporating those new influences into songs, like this one where her voice incorporates in part Jackson's dirty-blues growl. "I wanted the songs not to have anything glittery or glamorous about them, like an organic tapestry rather than like a Gaga album," the singer told Rolling Stone. "I mean, I love Gaga, but I didn't want to get wrapped up in all that European dance music."
Don't forget to tune in to The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour today
Today in History:
May 21, 427BC (Obviously is date is merely a best guess; the classical Greeks, at the time, were too busy improving the art of sodomy to bother with perfecting the calendar.)
The Greek philosopher Plato was born on this date.
It was on this date in 1471 that King Henry VI of England was murdered in the Tower of London, concluding Part III of his reign.
Edward IV assumed the throne as the world eagerly awaited Richard III and the dramatic conclusion of the War of the Roses.
May 21, 1805 -
A pharmacist’s apprentice, Friedrich Sertürner, discovered the valuable properties contained in opium. He named its active ingredient “morphium” after the Greek god of dreams, and later renamed it morphine.
This lifelong pharmacist in Paderborn, Germany was the first person to isolate an alkaloid as an active ingredient from a medicinal plant. When other chemists did not believe the initial report of Sertürner’s discovery of morphine he resorted to public experimentation on himself and three friends to prove that the substance he had isolated was indeed the one which was responsible for the actions of opium. By 1820 chemists had isolated other medically important substances such as quinine, strychnine and caffeine.
May 21, 1881 -
Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons found the American National Red Cross, on this date, to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters as part of the International Federation of Red Cross Societies.
Barton remained with the Red Cross until 1904, attending national and international meetings, aiding with disasters, helping the homeless and poor, and writing about her life and the Red Cross.
May 21, 1904 -
Grab your pig's feet, bread, and gin, there's plenty in the kitchen. ...
Thomas Wright (Fats) Waller, jazz pianist, organist, composer and entertainer, was born on this date.
May 21, 1917 -
One of the World's Greatest Actors, Raymond Burr was born on this date.
In celebration, may I suggest purchasing a small container of the fabulous nipple rouge bearing this man's name. This year, 'Ripe Figs'.
May 21, 1924 -
Two Chicago teenagers interrupted their daily sodomy practice and attempted to commit the perfect crime just for the thrill of it.
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped 14-year-old Bobby Franks, bludgeoned him to death in a rented car, and then dumped Franks' body in a distant drainage ditch.
They didn't get away with it.
May 21,1927 -
Charles Lindbergh, American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, racist, Neo-Nazi, Isolationist and serial philanderer became the first man to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean, on this date.
Exactly five years later Amelia Earhart became the first woman to do it, on this day as well.
This was an impressive step for feminism, and she did it without a bathroom break.
May 21, 1952 -
Mr. T was born in the ghetto, on this date.
And his mama cried.
May 21, 1972 -
A deranged Australian geologist took a hammer on this date, to Michelangelo's Pieta, shouting "I am Jesus Christ -- risen from the dead!"
Laszlo Toth was never charged with any crime, instead receiving a free trip to an Italian insane asylum. Toth's name is later adopted by comedian and former SNL regular Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci) for a long series of pranks by mail.
Everybody's a critic.
May 21, 2011 –
Radio broadcaster/preacher Harold Camping predicted that the world would end on this day. As far as we can tell, it didn’t.
Ever since then, today has been known as Rapture Day, (so you may want to party like it's 1999.)
And so it goes.
Indeed, never give a sword to a man who can't dance
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