Our hearts were ringin'

In the key that our souls were singin'



As we danced in the night, remember ...


Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on September 21st. The General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.



Given all that is going on in the world today, it's a nice idea to have a day dedicated to celebrating peace.


September 21, 1957 -
Our favorite nipple rouge wearing actor, Raymond Burr, had another go at episodic TV when Perry Mason premiered on CBS-TV on this date.



During the series' original run, Raymond Burr was accosted in public by a woman who demanded to know: "How come you never lose?" To which Burr dead-panned: "Madam, you only see the cases that I try on Saturdays."


September 21, 1968 -
Jimi Hendrix Experience released their version of the Bob Dylan song All Along the Watchtower, on this date. Dave Mason from Traffic and Rolling Stone Brian Jones both played on the recording.



This was Hendrix' only Top 40 hit in the US, where his influence far outpaced his popularity. He charted a few times in the UK, where he rose to fame before making a name for himself in America.


September 21, 1968 -
The police drama ADAM 12, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.



In keeping with the reputation of Jack Webb's series being scrupulously accurate about police procedures, selected episodes of this series were used in police academies as instructional films.


September 21, 1974 -
Barry White's single Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Baby hot the top of the Billboard Charts on this date.



Similar to Isaac Hayes' songs appearing in South Park, Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe was used in a few episodes of rival TV cartoon The Simpsons.
 

September 21, 1975 -
Sidney Lumet's amazing film, Dog Day Afternoon, starring Al Pacino and John Cazale, premiered on this date.



During production, Al Pacino reportedly only slept a couple hours a night, ate sparingly, and would sometimes take cold showers; this was in order to emphasize Sonny's disheveled, exhausted and yet wired appearance.


September 21 1985 -
The Dire Straits single, Money for Nothing, from the album Brothers in Arms, hits No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



The innovative video was one of the first to feature computer generated animation, which was done using an early program called Paintbox. The characters were supposed to have more detail, like buttons on their shirts, but they used up the budget and had to leave it as is. It won Best Video at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.


September 21, 1992 –
Parlophone Records released Radiohead’s debut single, Creep, on this date.



Thom Yorke based this on a song called The Air That I Breathe, which was written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood in 1972. After Creep was released, Radiohead agreed to share the songwriting royalties, so this is credited to Yorke, Hammond and Hazlewood.


September 21, 1993 -
The police drama NYPD Blue, premiered on ABC-TV on this date.



Prior to the show's premiere, and immediately afterward, there was enormous controversy over what was perceived to be high levels of offensive language and nudity. Many affiliates refused to air the show and several advertisers boycotted it. Steven Bochco negotiated intensely with the network for a certain amount of language and nudity to be allowed. He has said that because of the pressure on the network from this criticism, the show would likely not have survived, had it not been an instant hit.


September 21, 1993 –
Nirvana released In Utero, their third and final studio album while Kurt Cobain was still alive, on this date.



There is a plastic-fetus collage on the back cover of In Utero that was designed by Kurt Cobain. This contributed to the album almost getting banned at K-Mart and Wal-Mart. The stronger reason that Wal-Mart wanted to ban the album was that it included a song entitled Rape Me.  However, Wal-Mart in the end did NOT ban the song, because Kurt Cobain conceded by providing them with a version that was slightly altered on the exterior, with the song Rape Me listed as Waif Me, and with the image on the back being a zoom-in of one small part of the original back cover, so that it was difficult to tell that the image was of plastic fetuses. Bassist Krist Novoselic has commented that he told Kurt it wasn't worth it to pander to Wal-Mart like that, and recalls that Kurt responded by saying that Wal-Mart was the only store he could go to when he was a kid and that he didn't want any young fans to be unable to buy their album because of this


September 21 1996
The Fugees scored their second No.1 single in the UK with Ready Or Not, on this date.



The chorus in the song is based on Ready or Not Here I Come (Can't Hide from Love) by The Delfonics. The underlying groove is a sample of the 1987 Enya song Song of Boadicea. The Fugees did this without her permission, and Enya came after them hard, earning substantial royalties from the song.


September 21, 2001 -
A benefit concert organized by the four major U.S. television networks in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, America: A Tribute to Heroes, aired on this date. The program was shown on 35 separate broadcast and cable networks simultaneously.





Done in the style of a telethon, it featured a number of national and international entertainers performing to raise money for the victims and their families, particularly but not limited to the New York City firefighters. The telethon raised $150 million in pledges.


Another job posting for The ACME Employment Agency


Today in History:
September 21, 1327 -
Former King Edward II came to a particularly painful end on this date.

Edward had been overthrown by his wife, Isabella and her lover, Roger Mortimer. Edward had pissed off Isabella royally for among other things, sleeping with men. Isabella and Mortimer had Edward II imprisoned, after his abdication in favor of his son, Edward III.



It was rumored that Edward had been killed by the insertion of a piece of copper into his rectum (later a red-hot iron rod, as in the supposed murder of Edmund Ironside - King Edmund II was murdered in a lavatory; stabbed in the bowels when he sat down to relieve himself). Murder in this manner would have appeared a natural death, as a metal tube would have been inserted into the anus first, thus allowing the iron rod to penetrate the entrails without leaving a burn on the buttocks.

As I have said in the past, sometimes it is NOT good to be the king.


September 21, 1897 -
The New York Sun ran its famous editorial that answered a question from 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon: "Is there a Santa Claus?"on this date.



Obviously, times were different back then given that The New York Sun was printing an editorial about Christmas in September. (Christmas is in 95 days.)


Two giants of animation sharing the same birthday date:
September 21, 1912 -

Chuck Jones, animator and director of Warner Brothers cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, was born on this date.



He has directed three films have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Duck Amuck, One Froggy Evening, and What's Opera, Doc?.

September 20, 1920 -

Jay Ward, cartoonist (Rocky and his Friends, Bullwinkle), was born on this date.



Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Bullwinkle Moose, and Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties were in fact conceived, designed, and created by Jay Ward's boyhood friend and sometimes business partner, advertising artist Alex Anderson.


September 21, 1915 -
With a winning bid of £6,600, Mr. Cecil Chubb purchased Stonehenge and 30 acres of land at auction. He donates the monument to the British state three years later.



He donated the monument because he could not figure out how to reset Stonehenge correctly.


September 21, 1937 -
George Allen and Unwin, Ltd. of London published the first edition of J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit on this date. It was illustrated with many black-and-white drawings by Tolkien himself.



The original printing was only a 1,500 run and sold out by December due to enthusiastic reviews.


September 21, 1950 -
I always want to say to people who want to be rich and famous: 'try being rich first'. See if that doesn't cover most of it. There's not much downside to being rich, other than paying taxes and having your relatives ask you for money. But when you become famous, you end up with a 24-hour job.





William James Murray, one of the funniest sentient human beings was born on this date.


September 21, 1981 -
On August 19 1981, President Reagan, who had pledged during the 1980 presidential campaign to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court, nominated Sandra Day O'Connor as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, replacing the retiring Potter Stewart. Ms. O'Connor was confirmed by the Senate 99-0 on this date and took her seat September 25.



In her first year on the Court, O'Connor received over sixty thousand letters from the public, more than any other justice in history.


September 21, 1983 -
In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on this date, Interior Secretary James G. Watt jokingly described a special advisory panel as consisting of 'a black ... a woman, two Jews and a cripple.'

Although Watt apologized, he later resigned .

Oops!



And so it goes