... That's a fine letter, Jamison, that's an epic. That's dandy. Now, I want you to make two carbon copies of that letter and throw the original away. And when you get through with that, throw the carbon copies away. Just send a stamp, airmail, that's all. You may go, Jamison. I may go too. ...
The film parodies several contemporary plays, most notably when Groucho Marx's character Captain Spaulding has an interior dialogue concerning his marriage proposals to two different women. The scene was meant to lampoon Eugene O'Neill's play "Strange Interlude." Indeed, besides directly referencing Eugene O'Neill, Groucho at one point breaks the fourth wall and tells the audience, "Pardon me while I have a strange interlude."
August 28, 1946 -
Universal's film-noir classic version of Ernest Hemingway's story, The Killers, premiered in NYC on this date.
Burt Lancaster was the third choice for the part of The Swede, and was signed only after actors Wayne Morris and Sonny Tufts proved unavailable. Lancaster was an ex-circus acrobat from Union City, NJ. When producer Mark Hellinger saw the first rushes of Lancaster's performance in a private screening room, he was so pleased that he yelled "So help me, may all my actors be acrobats!"
August 28, 1951 -
Paramount's second film version based on Theodore Dreiser's novel, An American Tragedy, A Place in the Sun, opened in NYC on this date.
The box-office failure of An American Tragedy prompted the filmmakers to seek an alternative title. One such title was The Prize. There was a one hundred dollar reward for whoever came up with the best new title, and producer and director George Stevens' associate Ivan Moffat successfully pitched for A Place in the Sun. He never received his one hundred dollar reward.
August 28, 1978 -
Released by Warner Bros. and produced by Brian Eno, Devo's debut album , Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo was released, on this date.
The album was met with mixed reviews at the time, but today is viewed as one of the most significant albums of the Post-Punk and New Wave genres. In fact, a number of musical luminaries were interested in producing the band's debut, including Iggy Pop and even David Bowie (who at the time described them as "the band of the future").
August 28, 1998 -
Pearl Jam's video for the song Do The Evolution, premiered on MTV on this date.
The video, which is animated by Todd McFarlane, was the first video Pearl Jam released since their Jeremy clip in 1992. The band felt that videos detracted from the music, but also hated the process of making them. Since they didn't appear in this video, it was much easier for them
August 28, 1998 -
The Warner Bros. Frankie Lymon biopic Why Do Fools Fall In Love starring Larenz Tate, Halle Berry and Vivica A. Fox premiered on this date in US theatres.
When Tina Andrews wrote the original script, the part of Frankie Lymon was first offered to Michael Jackson.
August 28, 2001 -
Weezer released Island in the Sun, the second single from Weezer (aka The Green Album) on this date.
This is the most-licensed track in the Weezer catalog. Frontman Rivers Cuomo told Billboard magazine: "The funny thing is, the song wasn't a real radio hit. I can only speculate that it's because the song has a cleaner guitar sound, which makes it easier for a more mainstream audience."
Word of the Day
Today in History:
August 28, 476 A.D. -
Today is believed to be the date when the Western Roman Empire, which had lasted for almost 500 years, came to an end as Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by a barbarian. (Well, his father, Orestes, the real power behind the throne, was executed on this date - he, Augustulus, relinquished the throne on September 4, 476 and disappeared into obscurity.)
But whatever the cause, the fall of Rome actually wasn't the catastrophic event most people think it was. So-called barbarian rulers kept most of the basic laws in place, Latin remained the official language of government, everyone remained Christian and orgies continued but in private.
August 28, 1837 -
Pharmacists John Lea and William Perrins began commercially manufacturing Worcestershire Sauce on this date, based on an Indian recipe brought to them by Lord Marcus Sandys -- an ex-governor of Bengal.
If they told you the recipe (it contains anchovies), they'd have to kill you.
August 28, 1845 -
Scientific American, founded by Rufus M. Porter, was published for the first time as a four-page weekly newspaper, on this date.
It is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States.
August 28, 1883 -
The first controlled flight in a "Gull" glider was made by John J. Montgomery at Wheeler Hill, California.
The craft weight 38 pounds and sailed a distance of 603 feet at an altitude of about fifteen feet at Otay Mesa near San Diego, Ca.
August 28, 1898 -
Pharmacist Caleb Davis Bradham created a beverage, he believed would aid in digestion and boost energy, calling it "Brad's Drink," on this date.
He later renamed it Pepsi-Cola, after "pepsin" and the kola nut used to flavor the drink.
And still, made with no cocaine.
August 28, 1907 -
Two teenagers, Jim Casey and Claude Ryan decide to start the American Messenger Company in Seattle, on this date. The company's name was later changed to the United Parcel Service.
And finally they are going to put air conditioning in their trucks.
August 28, 1922 -
The first radio commercial aired on WEAF in New York City (WEAF stood for Water, Earth, Air and Fire.)
It was a 10-minute advertisement for the Queensboro Realty Co., which had paid $100. Programming must have really stunk if people listened to a 10 minute commercial.
August 28, 1938 -
Charlie McCarthy (Edgar Bergen’s wooden partner ) received the first degree given to a ventriloquist’s dummy on this date.
The honorary degree, “Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback,” was presented on radio by Ralph Dennis, the dean of the School of Speech at Northwestern University. I wrote my dissertation on, "The illusionary construct of time - it really is 5pm somewhere in the world." And I earned my degree without someone's hand up my ass.
August 28, 1955 –
A 14-year-old black teenager from Chicago, Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi, for ‘flirting’ with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant. Eyewitnesses linked Carolyn’s husband Roy Bryant and half-brother J.W. Milam to the murder. Bryant and Milam were indicted soon thereafter. Both were acquitted by an all-white jury. Bryant and Milan later confessed to the killing in a magazine interview.
Before her death in 2017, Carolyn Bryant admitted she lied when she testified in 1955 that Emmett Till touched her.
August 28, 1963 -
During a 200,000-person civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "I have a dream" speech," 57 years ago today.
The speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.
Marian Anderson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul & Mary and other performer lent their voices to the proceeding that day as well.
August 28, 1964 -
The Beatles met Bob Dylan for the first time at The Delmonico Hotel, following their show at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium, on this date.
After being introduced by a mutual friend, writer Al Aronowitz, the band offered their guests drinks, but Dylan and Aronowitz expressed interest in smoking weed instead. This marked the Fab Four’s first taste of marijuana – an experience that would prove to be transformative in their career.
August 28, 1982 -
Two young people got married on this date.
Some of the people who were at that wedding are still alive.
More and more of them are unfortunately not.
Some of them have gotten married (even to each other.)
Others are not.
Some of them had children.
Some do not.
All these years later, those two crazy kids are still alive, married, have two children in college and are trying to make their way through 2023.
Happy Anniversary Mary.
August 28, 1996 -
Unfortunately for others, the fairy tale has a very unhappy ending,
The former Prince of Wales Charles, now King, and Diana, Princess of Wales, were divorced on this date.
One year later, almost to the day, Diana would have a very nasty accident in a Paris underpass.
And so it goes
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