Hey, it's not always the highest quality, but the price is right.
Today is also known as Cat Night. (Remember the dog days are over.) The term Cat Night harks back to a rather obscure old Irish legend concerning witches and the belief that a witch could turn herself into a cat eight times, but on the ninth time (August 17), she couldn’t regain her human form.
August 17, 1908 -
Fantasmagorie, considered by some film historians as the first fully animated film in history, was exhibited for the first time ever at the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris, on this date.
To make this film, the director, Émile Cohl placed each drawing on an illuminated glass plate and then traced the next drawing-with variations-on top of it until he had some 700 drawings.
August 17, 1934 -
MGM released its version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, starring Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper and Lionel Barrymore, on this date in NYC.
MGM boss Louis B. Mayer insisted on a happy ending, so there had to be a re-shoot. Wallace Beery so resented this that he sabotaged the extra work by blowing his lines, staying in his dressing room for hours or taking long breaks. As a result, what was scheduled as a one day shoot took four days.
August 17, 1959 -
Kind of Blue, Miles Davis' brilliant and influential jazz album, was released on this date by Columbia Records.
It has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz album of all time.
August 17, 1960 -
A great George Pal sci-fi classic, The Time Machine was released on this date.
The miniature version of the Time Machine was kept by producer-director George Pal. It was lost when Pal's home was destroyed by fire.
August 17, 1968 -
The Doors third studio album, Waiting for The Sun reached No. 1 on the Billboard Album Charts on this date.
Although the album was commercially success, some critics found it pretentious and over-arranged.
August 17, 1974 -
Eric Clapton's second studio album 461 Ocean Boulevard, started a four-week run at No.1 on the Billboard charts on this date.
The house featured on the album cover is 461 Ocean Boulevard in the town of Golden Beach, Florida near Miami where Clapton lived while making the album. He recorded the album at famed Criteria Studios between April and May 1974, where, in 1970, he had recorded Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs with Derek and the Dominos.
August 17, 1979 -
Handmade Films released the classic religious satire film, Monty Python's Life of Brian in the US on this date.
Originally financed by EMI, which backed out because it considered the script blasphemous. The Pythons sued EMI and settled out of court. George Harrison, a huge Monty Python fan, thought it was the last chance to have another Python movie. He created Handmade Films, and "pawned" (his words) his home in London and his office building to raise the £4 million needed. When asked why he said, "Because I want to go see it." Eric Idle joked that it was the highest price ever paid for a cinema ticket.
August 17, 1986 -
Pixar Animation Studios released its first film, Luxo Jr., directed by John Lasseter.
John Lasseter's aim was to have this computer animated short finished in time for SIGGRAPH, an annual computer technology exhibition attended by thousands of industry professionals. To do so warranted working around the clock, to the extent that Lasseter brought a sleeping bag into work and would sleep under his desk. They were able to finish the film in time for SIGGRAPH, where it received a standing ovation before the first screening had even finished.
August 17, 1990 -
Herbert Ross' crime comedy, (written by Nora Ephron,) My Blue Heaven, starring Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, and Joan Cusack opened in the US on this date.
The story was loosely based on the life of Henry Hill after he went into witness protection program. Hill was the same man whose story was the basis of Goodfellas. The films' respective writers, Nicholas Pileggi and Nora Ephron, were husband and wife at the time.
August 17, 1987 -
Tom Waits released his ninth studio album, Franks Wild Years, on this date.
Franks Wild Years is the final piece of what is loosely considered the Rain Dogs trilogy (1983’s Swordfishtrombones (which featured the song Frank’s Wild Years )and 1985’s Rain Dogs, marking his third collaboration with wife Kathleen Brennan.
Another job posting from The ACME Employment Agency
Today in History:
August 17, 1807 -
Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat began heading up New York's Hudson River on its successful round-trip to Albany. It was the first vessel to demonstrate the commercial use of a steam engine for river transportation.
For some unknown reason, a friend and biographer of Fulton incorrectly referred to the steamboat as 'The Clermont' and the wrong name has stuck ever since.
August 17, 1892 -
Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one of them home, I'm tired..
Brooklyn's own, Mae West, actress in burlesque, vaudeville, Broadway, and movies, was born on this date.
August 17, 1896 -
Bridget Driscoll, a 44-year-old mother of two, becomes the world's first automobile fatality when she steps in front of a car outside the Crystal Palace in London. At the coroner's inquest, Arthur Edsall stated he had been driving at only 4 mph.
August 17, 1907 -
Pike Place Market, the most popular tourist destination in Seattle, opened for business on this date.
Today, it’s the oldest continually operating farmer’s market in America
August 17, 1929 -
James Horace Alderman, convicted of murdering two Coast Guardsmen and a Secret Service agent in 1927, was hanged at 5:00 a.m. at Coast Guard Base 6 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on this date. It was reported in the media that Alderman's neck was broken and he died a painless death.
And I always thought seamen knew how to tie knots.
August 17, 1943 -
Robert De Niro, American actor, was born on this date.
He and Martin Scorsese were brought up blocks apart in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan, but never formally met when they were young. When introduced at a party in 1972, the two came to realize that they had seen each other many times but had never spoken.
August 17, 1945 -
Some of the animals remembered -- or thought they remembered -- that the Sixth Commandment decreed, 'No animal shall kill any other animal.' And though no one cared to mention it in the hearing of the pigs or the dogs, it was felt that the killings which had taken place did not square with this.
Animal Farm by George Orwell, the most famous satirical allegory of Soviet totalitarianism, was first published, on this date.
August 17, 1948 -
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was arrested for passing bad checks in San Luis Obispo, California, on this date. In court a fortnight later, Hubbard pays the $25 fine.
August 17, 1980 -
Dingos snatch baby Azaria from a campground near Ayers Rock, Australia, on this date. Her mother, Lindy Chamberlain (Meryl Streep - A dingo ate my baby), is later convicted of murder and spends three years in prison, but the conviction is ultimately overturned.
Apparently there have been a number of baby/dingo incidents over the years; dingos cannot differentiate animals from humans. Finally, Ms. Chamberlain was cleared of any wrong doing in regards to the death of her daughter.
August 17, 1987 -
Rudolf Hess was found hanged by an electrical cord at Spandau prison,aged 93. He had been incarcerated there for 40 years, 21 of those years as the solitary inmate.
In 1941 Hess flew to Scotland with ideas of peace in his head, making Hitler very very upset.
August 17, 1998 -
President Bill Clinton became the first sitting president in American history forced to testify in a criminal case investigation of which he was the focus (having sex with Monica), on this date. Other presidents before Clinton had testified before grand juries in the past, but they had always done so to give evidence against others.
Thomas Jefferson testified against former Vice President Aaron Burr. Gerald Ford testified in a trial of a man who had tried to assassinate him. Jimmy Carter testified in the bribery trial of a financier named Robert Vesco. But Clinton was the first sitting president ever to be served a subpoena to testify in his own indictment.
August 17, 2008 –
American swimmer Michael Phelps became the first person to win eight gold medals in one Olympic Games on this date.
Phelps win of the eight gold medals surpassed Mark Spitz for the most golds by an athlete at a single Games.
And so it goes.
Indeed,seamen knew how to tie knots
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