The first true sound picture, Lights of New York, (Jolson's 1927 The Jazz Singer was basically part-silent film part-sound film) previewed in New York on this date.
Originally approved for production as a 2-reeler. Albert Warner approved expanding it to a 57-minute feature despite an untested director. Its $75,000 cost returned $2 million to the studio.
July 6, 1933 -
MGM's Pre-Code musical comedy short, Nertsery Rhymes, featuring Ted Healy and His Stooges premiered this date. This was one of five short films the comedy team made for the studio and the first film appearance of The Three Stooges.
This is the first short featuring Curley as the third Stooge since Shemp left due to Ted Healy's abrasiveness, bad temper and heavy drinking
July 6, 1945 -
The Abbott and Costello film, The Naughty Nineties (featuring longest recorded version of their "Who's on First" routine,) directed by Jean Yarbrough was released on this date.
The laughter that can be heard faintly in the background during the "Who's on First" routine belongs to the film crew and director Jean Yarbrough. After numerous re-takes trying to eliminate it, Yarbrough just couldn't get the crew - or himself - to stop laughing during the routine, no matter how many times they heard it. So he just gave up and left the giggling in.
July 6, 1964 -
The Beatles' film Hard Day's Night premieres in London, on this date.
During the opening sequence of the group running, George stumbles and falls, with Ringo falling over him in turn. This wasn't intended and George ripped the suit he was wearing, but he quickly recovered, laughed, and continued running, it was decided to retain the shot in the movie.
July 6, 1967 -
Pink Floyd made their first appearance on the BBC music show Top Of The Pops to promote their new single See Emily Play, on this date. Like many television programs from the '60s, the videotape master was erased for re-use and the performance was assumed to be lost.
A badly damaged home video recording recovered by the British Film Institute of this show was given a public screening in London in January 2010.
July 6, 1972 -
Some cat was layin' down some rock 'n' roll lotta soul ...
David Bowie scandalized British home viewers on this date, while performing Starman on the TV show, Top Of The Pops, by singing with his arm draped around the shoulder of guitarist Mick Ronson – this was the moment Bowie became a star.
This was the last song written for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, supposedly because nobody had heard a potential single on the album. It became Bowie's first UK hit in three years. His only previous chart entry had been Space Oddity in 1969.
July 6, 1979 -
The B-52s, a New Wave band based in Athens, Georgia, released Planet Claire on this date.
The song samples the Peter Gunn Theme, which Henry Mancini wrote for the 1958 TV series. Mancini has a writer credit on Planet Claire along with every member of The B-52s.
July 6, 1988 -
MTV refused to play Neil Young's video for This Note's For You, citing a policy against videos that mention products, on this date.
The video is a parody of various ad campaigns, with lyrics mentioning Coke, Pepsi, Miller and Bud. Forced to admit they were refusing to air an excellent video to protect their sponsors, MTV went into damage control mode and agreed to air the video.
They made it into an event, debuting the video on August 21 as part of a 30-minute special about the controversy. Then they awarded it Video of the Year at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. Young showed up to accept it.
Another job posting from The ACME Employment Agency
Today in History:
July 6, 1415 -
Jan Hus was burned at the stake for various heresies by the Council of Constance.
Among other things, Hus had incited the citizens of Prague to protest against Antipope John XXIII and his policy of granting indulgences.
Those Antipopes are so moody.
July 6, 1535 -
Thomas More, the patron saint of politicians, was beheaded in England for treason, on this date. He got a little off the top for refusing to renounce the Catholic church in favor of King Henry VIII's Church of England.
More's sentence to death by hanging was commuted to beheading (what a lucky duck.) He was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1935.
July 6, 1919 -
The British airship R.34 landed in New York at Roosevelt Field on this date. (There's no word what was on sale at the Mall.)
It completed the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship. It had left Firth of Forth, Scotland, 108 hours earlier and there was no beverage cart service throughout the entire flight!
July 6, 1921 -
Several members of the Chicago White Sox went on trial for throwing the 1919 World Series, on this date. The White Sox players despised their owner Charles Comiskey. He was notoriously stingy. He would offer bonuses for performance and then take them back at the last minute. Gamblers knew that the players were frustrated and angry and offered several of them money to throw the World Series. The night before the series began, a Sox pitcher found $10,000 under the pillow in his hotel bedroom. The next day his first pitch landed between the batter's shoulder blades. The Sox lost the series to the Cincinnati Reds 5 to 3.
Many journalists knew right away that the series had been fixed. One of the accused players, one of the most tragic figures, was Shoeless Joe Jackson, who admitted to taking money, but during the series he didn't make a single error. He also hit the only home run of the series. All of the White Sox players were acquitted for lack of evidence, but the commissioner of baseball banned them from the game for the rest of their lives.
None of the gamblers was ever punished.
July 6 1944 -
Fire broke out at a matinee performance of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Baily Circus, in Hartford, Connecticut, burning 168 people to death, and injuring an additional 250. The main tent had been waterproofed with wax thinned by gasoline. Said one of the Flying Wallendas, "I can never look down at a crowd again without smelling the flames and the burning flesh."
I believe with thoughts like this, even I would give up showbiz.
Among notable survivors, beside the Flying Wallendas, were Eunice Groark, first female lieutenant governor of Connecticut and Charles Nelson Reilly.
July 6, 1944 -
Lieutenant Jackie Robinson (yes that Jackie) while riding a civilian bus from Camp Hood, Texas, refused to give up his seat to a white man.
Lt. Robinson was court marshaled for refusing the order of a civilian bus driver to move to the back of the bus. He was acquitted of the charges.
July 6, 1945 -
The Joint Chiefs of Staff approve Operation OVERCAST, intended to "exploit ... chosen rare minds whose continuing intellectual productivity we wish to use," on this date. The directive authorizes the immigration of up to 350 German and Austrian specialists, primarily experts in rocketry.
Operation OVERCAST is later renamed Operation PAPERCLIP. This is how we got the 'Good Germans' to work on our space program.
July 6, 1957 -
It was 65 years ago today ... it was on this date that the 16 year old John Lennon met the 15 year old Paul McCartney for the first time.
In the afternoon, John Lennon's band the Quarrymen were playing at the garden fete of St Peter's Church, Woolton, Liverpool and Paul McCartney heard them. McCartney impressed Lennon when he showed John and Eric Griffiths how to tune their guitars, something they'd been paying someone else to do for them.
Louis Armstrong, an essential influence on jazz, and pot and Swiss Kriss (herbal laxative) enthusiast,
died on this date, in 1971.
And so it goes.
what a lucky duck, indeed
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