Thursday, January 19, 2023

Here's to the tighty whitey

January 19, 1935 -
During a Chicago snow storm, Marshall Field's State Street store featured a display window with a brief-wearing mannequin. Surprizingly enough, Coopers Inc. sold the world's first jockey briefs, on this date.



Designed by an apparel engineer named Arthur Kneibler, the briefs dispensed with leg sections. The company dubbed the design the Jockey, since it offered a degree of support that had previously only been available from the jockstrap. The day of its debut, Marshall Field sold out its stock of 600 packages by noon and sold 12,000 more in the following weeks


January 19, 1940 -
Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle.

The Three Stooges short You Nazty Spy! about the Nazis released on this date.



Filmed in 1939, not released until 1940, the film was the first Hollywood film to spoof Adolf Hitler, released nine months before Charles Chaplin's more famous The Great Dictator.

January 19, 1942 -
The first of nine films to feature Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Woman of the Year premiered on this date.



Knowing of Spencer Tracy's reputation as a heavy drinker, Katharine Hepburn served him strong tea between scenes. She also got him to paint, as she did, as an escape from the pressures of Hollywood life.


January 19, 1952 -
In the first match-up between Wile E. Coyote and Bugs Bunny, Operation: Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones, premiered on this date.



This was the second cartoon to feature Wile E. Coyote (following 1949’s Fast and Furry-ous), and the first in which he is identified by his full name. It is also the first in which the Coyote speaks.


January 19, 1953 -
68% of all television sets in the United States were tuned in to I Love Lucy on this date to watch Lucy give birth to a baby boy - the same day Lucille Ball gave birth to her son, Desi Arnaz Junior.



All the while they couldn't say pregnant on TV or be seen sleeping in the same bed - it appears to be the second virgin birth. The audience for the program was larger than that watching the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower the following day.


January 19, 1955 -
Michael Anthony began doling out the life changing checks from John Beresford Tipton when The Millionaire premiered on CBS-TV on this date. (The million dollare check would now be worth about $10 million dollars.)



The mysterious philanthropist John Beresford Tipton was named for Tipton, Missouri, the birthplace of producer Don Fedderson's wife, Tido Fedderson.


January 19, 1955 -
President Eisenhower decided not to play golf today and allowed a filmed news conference to be used on television (and in movie newsreels) for the first time on this date.



The press conference given by President Eisenhower was filmed in the Indian Treaty Room at the East Wing of the White House.


January 19, 1957 -
Ernie Kovacs burst into the public consciousness with the comedy special, The Silent Show, premiering on this date.



It was filmed for broadcast first, in color, on the NBC network in 1957. A second version of the show was created on videotape and broadcast November 10, 1961, on the ABC network.



Though both were broadcast in color, only B&W kinescopes of these shows survive, although an excerpt of the color show was aired as part of the NBC 50th Anniversary Special in 1976.


January 19, 2012 -
Malik Bendjelloul amazing documentary about the strange but true career of musician Sixto Rodríguez, Searching for Sugar Man premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, on this date.



Director Malik Bendjelloul traced all the illustrations on oven paper as a mock up for the 3D animations he never could afford to have made. Thus the oven paper illustrations made it to the final cut.


Another ACME Safety Film


Today in History:
January 19, 1809 -
Edgar Allan Poe, writer who contributed to the creation of both the detective and science fiction genre, was born in Boston on this date.



His best known stories include: Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-Tale Heart. His most famous poems are The Raven and Annabel Lee.


On this day in 1825, the US patent (#X004009) for food storage in cans to “preserve animal substances in tin” was issued to Ezra Daggett and his nephew Thomas Kensett of New York City. I wonder if they knew that the tin can had been patented in 1810 by Peter Durand.

Oh, Never mind.



As always, celebrate responsibly.


January 19, 1915 -
George Claude, an engineer, chemist and inventor was the first person to create a lamp by applying an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon. He was issued U.S. Patent No. 1,125,476 for a “System of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes,” on this date.



This patent was the basis for the neon sign.


January 19, 1937
Bisexual Billionaire, future germaphobe and aviator Howard Hughes designed and flew the plane Silver Bullet, setting a landplane speed record and a transcontinental record of 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds,



flying from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey on this date.


January 19, 1949 -
I believe that my music is just about feelings, and the style is just a side effect.







Robert Palmer, blue-eyed soul singer, was born on this date.


January 19, 1977
Snow fell in Miami and The Bahamas on this date.



It was the only time in recorded history that it happened.


January 19, 2006 -
NASA launched the New Horizons space probe aboard an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral on this date. It's mission was to perform the first fly by of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, and Hydra.



It left Earth at an Earth-relative velocity of about 36,373 mi/h (10.10 mi/s), making it the fastest speed ever recorded for a human-made object. It arrived at Pluto on July 14, 2015.

(This will be on the test.)



And so it goes

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