The third 'Road' movie, the Road to Morocco, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, and Anthony Quinn, premiered in NYC on this date.
Bob Hope and Bing Crosby kidded heavy-set director David Butler relentlessly about his weight. For a scene in which enemy horses chased them through the streets, Butler advised them not to jump out of the street until he gave them the signal, allowing them plenty of time to get out of the way. However, as they ran the horses kept getting closer and closer with no signal to the pair from Butler. Finally, the stars panicked and jumped. When they complained about their bruises, Butler laughed at them and told them they'd ruined the shot by jumping too soon. Some crew members thought he was getting back at them, and Hope nicknamed him "The Murderer."
November 10, 1953 -
Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom was an educational Adventures in Music animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions, and originally released to theaters by Buena Vista Distribution on this date.
This was a "sequel" of sorts to 1953's Adventures in Music: Melody. This was originally meant to be an ongoing series (note the "Adventures In Music" in the opening titles of this short), but no others were produced.
November 10, 1956 -
Billie Holiday returned to the stage at Carnegie Hall after a three-year absence on this date.
The concert was called, by some, a high point in jazz history.
November 10, 1963 -
At a Beatles command performance (present: Queen Elizabeth; the Queen Mother; Princess Margaret), John Lennon utters the remark: "Will the people in the cheaper seats clap their hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry."
If you look very closely behind the Queen Mother, I believe Princess Margaret flipped John off.
November 10, 1967 -
The Star Trek episode Metamorphosis premiered on this date. In it, Kirk finds Zefram Cochrane, inventor of the warp drive, who has been missing for 150 years and his mysterious alien companion.
A few scenes featuring Elinor Donahue had to be re-shot, because the original film negatives were damaged and couldn't be used. Portions of the planet set had to be rebuilt, since other episodes were shot there by that time, using different sets. Meanwhile, Donahue got pneumonia and lost ten pounds. To hide this, they put Hedford's scarf around her neck and upper body. However, her weight loss is still visible on her face.
November 10, 1967 -
The Moody Blues released their hit, Nights in White Satin, on this date. This was written by Justin Hayward, who joined the band the previous year. He got the idea for the song after someone gave him a set of white satin sheets - yes, sometimes, it's just that inane.
The Moody Blues recorded the album with The London Festival Orchestra, which never actually existed - it was the name given to the musicians put together to make the Days of Future Passed album. The orchestral parts were performed separately and edited between and around the Moody Blues parts, so the orchestra did not actually accompany the group.
November 10, 1969 -
Come and play. Even at 53, everything's still A-OK (even on HBO.)
Sesame Street premiered on PBS-TV on this date.
November 10, 1969 -
Just four months after the Apollo 11 moon landing, Columbia Pictures released the thriller Marooned, directed by John Sturges and starring Gregory Peck and Gene Hackman, in U.S. theaters on this date.
Frank Capra began work on the film. Inspired by his work on the Martin-Marietta Corp.-commissioned faux documentary, Rendezvous in Space for the 1964 World's Fair in New York, Capra (a chemical engineer by education) worked to make the picture for Columbia, but finally abandoned the project in preproduction in May 1966 when he couldn't bring the budget down to the $3-million required by Columbia worldwide production chief M.J. Frankovich. The eventual budget for the finished film (directed by John Sturges) was $8 million. Capra never made another film.
November 10, 1973 -
Elton John hit No.1 on the Billboard album chart for the third time with his seventh LP, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, on this date. The double disk set became his best selling studio album with worldwide sales of over 15 million copies, certified 8× platinum.
Elton and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin went to Jamaica to record the album, but the studio wasn't up to standard, so the project was abandoned there with only a rough version of Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting) actually being recorded. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and the rest of the album were recorded in France at Strawberry Studios (The Chateau d'Hierouville).
November 10, 1974 -
Bob Fosse's devastating bio-pix about Lenny Bruce, Lenny, starring Dustin Hoffman and Valerie Perrine premiered in NYC on this date.
The scene in which Lenny does his act in a raincoat, near the end of the film, came from a real-life show that a student tape-recorded and sent to Dustin Hoffman. Lenny's lines are directly from the tape.
November 10, 1975 -
Arista Records released Patti Smith's debut album, Horses, on this date.
The origin of the Horses album lies in the inception of a poem Patti Smith wrote called Oath when she was around 20. It began, "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine." She explained to Mojo magazine: "It was my statement of independence from being fettered by any particular religious institution, not any statement against Jesus Christ. That's the start of my evolution as a young person that got me to Horses."
November 10, 1990 -
John Hughes' classic holiday film, directed by Chris Columbus, Home Alone, starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, and Daniel Stern, premiered in Chicago on this date.
Although John Hughes was fiercely defensive of his screenplay and insisted that everyone deliver his lines as written, he allowed his friend John Candy to improvise all of his lines. This was actually a trademark of writer and producer Hughes, who also had the five students in The Breakfast Club improvise when they told one another why they were in detention.
Another ACME Safety Film
Today in History:
November 10, 4004 BC -
Are you having that , "Gee, I'm feeling rather shamed about my engorged genitals today", here's the reason why:
For some reason, the first Gideon Bibles were put in hotel rooms at the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana on this date in 1908.
November 10, 1871 -
New York Newspaperman Henry M. Stanley finally found Scottish explorer Dr. Livingstone at Ujiji near Lake Tanganyika (helpfully identified by some sources as being "near Unyanyembe"), and remarked, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?", on this date.
This was extremely witty and therefore historical.
November 10, 1903 -
U.S. patent no. 743,801 was issued to Mary Anderson, a resident of Birmingham, Alabama. She tried to sell her invention to a manufacturing firm in Canada, but the offer was rejected as having no practical value.
Others belittled her creation as well, insisting it would distract drivers and result in accidents. In the end, her patent expired before she was able to profit from her invention.
November 10, 1911 -
The following entry was made by George Levick, a surgeon and the medical officer on Scott's famous 1910-1913 expedition to the South Pole: This afternoon I saw a most extraordinary site - A Penguin was actually engaged in sodomy upon the body of a dead white throated bird of its own species.
(Bunkies, there is a theme for the rest of today's posting. Your task is to figure it out - submit your guess:)
November 10, 1925 -
Richard Burton was born on this date.
No, not the Victorian international man of mystery, self-circumcisor and male brothel frequenter but Welsh actor with the greatest voice of the 20th Century.
November 10, 1928 -
Playing against Army at Yankee Stadium, Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne gave what is considered the greatest locker room speeches of all time by saying "Win one for the Gipper."
There is a clear through line to the theme in all of this.
November 10, 1928 -
Michinomiya Hirohito was crowned the 124th Emperor of Japan, Emperor Showa on this date.
November 10, 1938 -
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, one of the most extraordinary men of the 20th Century, statesman and first President of Modern Turkey, died of cirrhosis of the liver on this date.
Will Durant had said, "men devoted to war, politics, and public life wear out fast, and all three had been the passion of Atatürk."
November 10, 1940 -
Walt Disney begins serving as a secret informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI, to report back information on Hollywood subversives. He was made a "Full Special Agent in Charge Contact" in 1954.
The theme shows up clearly here as well.
November 10, 1954 -
The Iwo Jima Memorial, also known as the US Marine Corps (USMC) War Memorial, was dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Arlington National Cemetery on this date.
The Marine Corps War Memorial is dedicated to all Marines who have served and given their lives in the defense of the United States since a resolution of the Second Continental Congress, on this date in 1775, ordered their formation.
November 10, 1958 -
Jeweler Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond, the "most famous diamond in the world", to the Smithsonian Institution on this date. The jewel is believed to have originated in India, where the original (larger) stone was purchased in 1666 by French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier as the Tavernier Blue.
The diamond was sent to the Smithsonian through U.S. Mail in a box wrapped in brown paper as simple registered mail with $2.44 postage.
November 10, 1975 -
The 729-foot-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew on board
and unfortunately is the subject of Gordon Lightfoot's annoying hit song, The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald.
On July 4, 1995, the ship's bell will be recovered from the wreck, and a replica, engraved with the names of the crew members who perished in this tragedy, will be left in its place. The original bell is on display at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point in Michigan.
Before you go - In a truly British fashion the sports wear company Barbour has once again somehow tied Paddington Bear, re-waxing of a coat (apparently the key to the entry into British aristocracy) and Christmas into a 90 second commercial -
It's cute and all, and I'm sure all our English cousins are dying to tuck into their marmalade sandwiches after watching this.
Rockefeller Center is getting ready to get into the Christmas spirit when the 82 feet tall, 50 feet wide and 14 tons, the approximately 90-year-old Norway Spruce will be cut down this morning. The tree has been donated by the Lebowitz family of Glens Falls, New York; the tree itself is coming from was found in Queensbury, New York.
The tree will make the over 200-mile journey by flatbed truck to Manhattan and arrive on Saturday, November 12 where it will be erected at Rockefeller Center. Crews will start decorating the tree and wrapping more than 50,000 multi-colored, energy-efficient LED lights. Then it will be topped with a Swarovski crystal star. This year’s official lighting ceremony will take take place on Wednesday, November 30 and will be broadcast nationally as part of NBC’s Christmas at Rockefeller Center. As always, we here at ACME warn you to avoid the area at all cost.
And so it goes
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