Everybody's got their poison, and mine is sugar.

Shhh, I believe today's holiday is a huge conspiracy perpetrated by a large Big Sugar Syndication.





It's National Lollipop Day; but don’t go too overboard on the sugary treats. (Last time I checked; it's about 251 licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop.)


July 20, 1950 -
Fred Zimmermann's film about wounded WWII veterans, The Men, starring Marlon Brando (in his first feature film), Teresa Wright and Everett Sloane, premiered on this date.



While shooting The Men, Brando stayed in the one bedroom apartment of actor Richard Erdman. Brando slept on the couch and was a voracious eater. According to biographer Peter Manso, Brando, who was being paid $40,000 for his role, never offered to help with expenses or restock the refrigerator for Erdman, who was being paid only $5000.


July 20, 1965 -
Bob Dylan releases the classic Like A Rolling Stone on this date.



The title is not a reference to The Rolling Stones. It is taken from the proverb a rolling stone gathers no moss. Dylan got the idea from the 1949 Hank Williams song Lost Highway, which contains the line, I'm a rolling stone, all alone and lost.


July 20, 1965 -
The Lovin' Spoonful released their hit Do You Believe In Magic? on this date.



The Lovin' Spoonful played regularly at a famous club called The Night Owl Cafe. John Sebastian was quoted as saying: "We were playing pretty steadily for the local people from Greenwich Village who were part of the jazz scene or part of the kind of downtown 'in crowd.' They were 'finger poppers,' guys who played chess, 'beatniks.' But there was this one particular night as we were playing, I looked out in the audience and saw this beautiful 16-year-old girl just dancing the night away. And I remember Zal and I just elbowed each other the entire night because to us that young girl symbolized the fact that our audience was changing, that maybe they had finally found us. I wrote 'Do You Believe In Magic' the next day."


July 20, 1984 -
20th Century Fox releases the comedy film Revenge of the Nerds, starring Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards on this date.



Robert Carradine says that when he read the script, Lewis' laugh was described as a "goose honk" he was not sure how to do it. However, by chance the first scenes shot were of his father dropping Lewis and Gilbert off at college. When James Cromwell did the laugh, Carradine mimicked it. James Cromwell has said that when he came up with the nerd laugh, after Robert Carradine imitated it, he later realized - while driving home from the studio on the first day of production - it was his ex-wife's laugh.


July 20, 1986 -
The Alex Cox biography Sid and Nancy, starring Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, premiered in London, on this date.



Sid Vicious' mother Anne Beverly initially tried to prevent the movie from being made, but after meeting with Alex Cox, she decided to help the production. Gary Oldman visited her while researching the role, and described her as "very warm and open and helpful."


July 20, 1990 -
In one of the late (good) performances of Marlon Brando, the TriStar Pictures' The Freshman, directed by Andrew Bergman and co-starring Matthew Broderick, Bruno Kirby, Penelope Ann Miller, and Frank Whaley, premiered on this date.



According to director Andrew Bergman, he was having a problem shooting a scene with Brando and as a nervous habit, he began chewing Bazooka bubblegum. Brando asked him for a piece to which Bergman replied, "I'll tell you what, you do this scene in one take and I'll give you a piece." They shot the scene in one take and Brando immediately went behind the camera with his hand out. Good to his word, Bergman gave Brando a piece of Bazooka bubblegum.


July 20, 2001 -
Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki was released in Japan on this date. (The film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003, making it the first (and, to date, only) hand-drawn and non-English-language animated film to win that award.)



To do the voice of Chihiro's mother talking while eating, actress Yasuko Sawaguchi actually spoke the dialog (in the original Japanese-language version) while eating a piece of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Actress Lauren Holly did the same thing in the English version with an apple.


July 20, 2007 -
The musical version of John Waters 1988 cult classic film (and the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name,) Hairspray, directed by Adam Shankman and starring John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, and Nikki Blonsky premiered on this date.



Most of the cast jokingly called You Can't Stop the Beat "you can't stop to breathe" because of its pace and fast-moving lyrics. Queen Latifah said she had no trouble singing a lot of words very quickly because of her background as a rapper.


Another job posting from The ACME Employment Agency


Today in History:
July 20, 911 -
Rollo, the leader of the marauding Vikings, sweeping through Europe, laid siege of to the city of Chartres, on this date. This would be totally of no importance except the king of France, Charles the Senseless, (who was not so senseless in this instance,) negiotated a peace treaty with them. He granted them an area of France that would become Normandy.



Rollo is the great-great-great-grandfather of William the Conqueror. Through William, he is an ancestor of the present-day British royal family, as well as an ancestor of all current European monarchs and a great many pretenders to abolished European thrones. So who knew that a chocolate covered caramel would play such an important part of European history.


July 20, 1402 -
At the Battle of Angora, Tamerlane led his huge army of Taters against the Ottomans (or Ottomen). Tamerlane captured the Sultan (Head Ottoman), and this is why we call some sweaters Angoras to this day.

Angora, however, is now called Ankara.

(Co-incidentally in 1991, on this date President Bush, visiting Turkey, was cheered by thousands of people in Ankara.)


July 20, 1801 -
According to legend, a 1,235 pound cheese ball was pressed at the farm of Elisha Brown Jr. and taken to Washington D.C. by a horse-driven wagon.

He presented it as a gift to President Thomas Jefferson at the White House on this date.

(Or it could have been given to him on January 1st, 1802; I don't know, I wasn't there.)


July 20, 1903 -
The Ford Motor Company took its first order for a two-cylinder Model A car on July 15th 1903 and shipped the car on this date.

In early July of 1903, Ford’s cash balance was just $223.65 and it was doubtful if payroll could be fulfilled long enough to complete the existing works-in-progress. A Chicago dentist named Ernst Pfenning bought the car for $850. His purchase and two other orders that week, kept the Ford Motor Company in business.


July 20, 1938 -
The older you get, I have to say, the funnier you find life. That's the only way to go.



English actress Diana Rigg, was born on this date, in Doncaster, England.



as was, Natalie Zacharenko (Natalie Wood), on this date, except in San Francisco.


July 20, 1944 -
In an attempt on Hitler's life, a time bomb explodes in the situation room of the Wolf's Lair, killing four Nazi officers but only wounding the Fuhrer. After his close call, Hitler becomes even more paranoid. A massive purge is to follow, resulting in the execution of thousands of officers.



Hollywood's favorite 'frequently married little person (not Mickey Rooney)' starred in a film version of the event.


July 20, 1951 -
In Jerusalem at the al-Aqsa Mosque, King Abdullah of Jordan was shot three times in the head and chest by Mustapha Shukri Usho, a Palestinian opposed to peace with Israel.



Abdullah died on the spot.


July 20, 1968 -
The first International Special Olympics Summer Games were held on this date, a joint venture between the Kennedy Foundation and the Chicago Park District.



The first games were held at Soldier Field in Chicago, and more than 150 countries worldwide sent more than 1,000 athletes competed.


July 20, 1969 -
53 years ago today, in a live transmission from the Moon, viewed by 720 million people around the world, Neil Armstrong stepped foot onto the Moon. It was a brave thing to do (and unfortunately caused Buzz Aldrin to have his post-Apollo 11 period of alcoholism and depression.)



It was also the first mission to bring back samples from a foreign planetary body — the samples dated back 3.7 billion years.



And whatever you do, don't ask Buzz if it was faked.


July 20, 1973 -
In Hong Kong, martial artist Bruce Lee fell into a coma and died of cerebral edema on this date. He had been experiencing brain problems beginning in May, which included sporadic loss of consciousness (I've always hated when that happens.)



Lee's death happened shortly before the release of Enter the Dragon, his most successful film.


July 20, 1976 -
Hank Aaron, considered one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history, hit his last home run (#755) off the California Angels' Dick Drago at Milwaukee County Stadium, on this date.

He is perhaps most famous for breaking the record for career home runs, which he held until Barry Bonds topped him on September 23, 2006. (Aaron did it without being on the juice, that's all I'm saying.)


July 20, 1976 -
The US spacecraft Viking 1 was the first craft ever to land on Mars on this date. It holds the record for having the second longest mission on Mars' surface: 6 years and 116 days.



NASA terminated communications with the craft on August 17, 1980. So technically, it's still there (unless the martians have stripped the craft and have it up on blocks.)


July 20, 1994 -
O.J. Simpson offered a $500,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the Real Killers on this date.

To this day progress remains elusive, although Simpson continues his search throughout the gated community that he calls home.



And so it goes.