Frontier missionary and pioneer nurseryman John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman was born in Leominster, Massachusetts on this date. After collecting apple seeds from cider presses in western Pennsylvania he embarked on a long trek westward, walking barefoot, planting a series of apple nurseries from Pennsylvania to central Ohio and beyond.
It was more than two centuries, however, before The Beverly Hillbillies premiered on CBS-TV (on this day in 1962).
The lengthy lapse between these watershed events has never been explained.
September 26, 1955 –
The little remembered but very popular syndicated series, in it's time, The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Richard Greene, Archie Duncan, Alexander Gauge, and Bernadette O'Farrell, premiered on CBS-TV on this date.
Blacklisted in Hollywood, Ring Lardner Jr. and Ian McLellan Hunter, wrote almost the entire first season of this British-filmed series under a variety of pen-names. The show's British producers were fully aware of this deception, but Lardner and Hunter still changed pseudonyms every few episodes to keep the American syndication executives from asking to meet the series' writers.
September 26, 1962 -
The cult film Carnival of Souls, premiered on this date
Director/writer Herk Harvey thought up the idea of the film after driving past the Saltair Amusement Park while traveling through Salt Lake City.
September 26, 1964 -
S. S. Minnow started it's three hour tour (and lasted 98 shows) when Gilligan’s Island premiered on CBS-TV, on this date.
Alan Hale Jr. was on location in Utah filming a movie when he got a call to come back to Los Angeles to do a test for the series. He rode a horse to a nearby highway, hitchhiked to Las Vegas and flew to L.A. to test with Bob Denver.
September 26, 1968 -
(The real) Hawaii Five-O moved to it regular broadcast night on CBS TV on this date.
Jack Lord lived in Beverly Hills when he was asked at the last minute to read for the part of McGarrett. He read for it on Wednesday, flew to Hawaii on Friday, and was in front of the cameras the following Monday. He later became a permanent resident, and prominent figure in Hawaii, contributing to many local causes and charities, and often mentioned publicly in consideration for political office.
September 26, 1969 -
An unsuspecting American public is forced to deal with the vaguely incestuous family comedy series The Brady Bunch which premiered on ABC-TV on this date. Remember, the Bradys were so good, clean and wholesome that didn't even go to the bathroom (you never saw the toilet.)
During the series run, Florence Henderson lobbied the producers constantly to allow Carol Brady to get out into the workforce. Henderson thought this would be more in line with how she was in real life. The producers kept the character of Carol Brady unemployed, though she frequently did volunteer work and fundraising for charity.
September 26, 1969 -
The Beatles release the Abbey Road album in London, on this date.
It was their 13th album in the U.K. It was also their last album together as a group.
September 26, 1980 -
The concert film of Bette Mildler's 1979 tour, Divine Madness, was released on this date.
The 94 minute theatrical cut of this film was edited from around 185 hours of footage equating to about one million feet of exposed film.
September 26, 1986 -
The episode of Dallas that had Bobby Ewing returning from the dead, his death is attributed to his wife Pam's bad dream, aired on this date.
When Victoria Principal opens the shower door in the infamous Bobby shower scene, actor John Beck was the one in the shower. The shock to Pam was supposed to be that he had been killed. The shot of 'Patrick Duffy' was inserted later. Actually Pam would not have been shocked to see Mark (John Beck) in the shower considering that his character had been brought back during the "dream season" and she had married him earlier in the very same show.
September 26, 1982 –
Audiences first got to ride around with Kitt when Knight Rider, starring David Hasselhoff, Edward Mulhare, Patricia McPherson, and the voices of William Daniels, and Richard Basehart, premiered on NBC-TV on this date.
David Hasselhoff and William Daniels (the voice of K.I.T.T.) did not meet until the production's Christmas party, six months after filming season one. Until that point, Hasselhoff had not seen the face behind the voice of the car.
September 26, 1990 -
One of the stranger series in TV history, Cop Rock debuted on ABC-TV on this date.
In a May 2009 poll, this show was voted the fifth worst TV show in broadcast history. Ahead of it were The Gong Show, Friends, The Jerry Springer Show, and My Mother the Car.
September 26, 2006 -
Martin Scorsese's The Departed, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Mark Wahlberg, premieres in New York City, on this date.
Martin Scorsese really wanted Al Pacino for the role of Costello, because he had never worked with Pacino before, but he turned it down. Jack Nicholson was Scorsese's second choice. Pacino would later go on to appear in Scorsese's The Irishman.
Today's moment of Zen
Today in History:
September 26, 1580 -
Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, on this date, ending a three-and-a-half year journey around the world.
Drake was knighted and awarded a prize of 10 thousand pounds (which he probably invested in his delicious snack cake company.)
September 26, 1687 -
Troops laid siege to Athens led by Venetian general Francesco Morosini rained cannon fire down on the Acropolis and the Turkish soldiers garrisoned inside. One cannonball penetrated the Parthenon, which happened to serve as the Turks' gunpowder magazine.
The roof, walls, and 16 columns were blown off by the resulting explosion.
Oops, sh*t happens.
September 26, 1895 (he may have been born in 1901 - who knows) -
George Raft was an American film actor who was most closely identified with his portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s, was born on this date. George may have achieved an unenviable place in Hollywood folklore as the actor who turned down some of the best roles in screen history, most notably High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca and Double Indemnity.
Also, George Raft also gave more actresses and bit players 'the clap' than any other actor during the 30s.What a wonderful way to be remembered.
September 26, 1937 -
The Empress of the Blues, Bessie Smith, sustains grave injuries in a traffic accident on US Highway 61 on this date. She is taken to a colored hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi and her arm amputated. Smith died later that day from blood loss.
According to legend, Bessie had been refused treatment by a closer, whites-only hospital.
September 26, 1945 -
More than 10 years before the Vietnam War would officially begin, US Army Lt. Col. Peter Dewey was shot to death while leading a team sent to gather information and search for lost American pilots.
He was killed driving an unmarked Jeep near the Saigon golf course. He was ambushed by the Viet Minh who may have mistaken him for a French officer.
September 26, 1945 -
Secretly, I wanted to look like Jimi Hendrix, but I could never quite pull it off.
Bryan Ferry (the Lord of Louche) lead singer of the group Roxy Music and solo artist, was born on this date.
September 26, 1960 -
John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon faced off in the first televised presidential debate, on this date. Nixon had been recuperating from illness yet refused to wear makeup for the camera, looking haggard and gray.
Radio viewers gave positive opinions for Nixon's performance but so many people saw the debate televised that Kennedy gained the lead in the polls, ultimately winning the election.
Remember what I said about Checkers, his kids' dog.
September 26, 1983 -
The Soviet Union's early warning system wrongly signaled the launch of a US Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile. Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, in charge of the system, decided the alarm was false and did not launch a retaliatory strike. (Please remember Col. Petrov, who passed away at age 77 a few years ago, in your prayers tonight for saving the world.)
Because of military secrecy and international policy, Petrov's actions were kept secret until 1998. In 2004 the San-Francisco-based Association of World Citizens presented Petrov a World Citizen Award.
September 26, 2003 -
Robert Palmer, the famous blue eyed soul singer also known for his sharp suits, died in Paris of a heart attack on this date.
Palmer won two Grammy Awards - 1986 Best Male Rock Vocalist (Addicted To Love) & 1988 Best Male Rock Vocalist (Simply Irresistible) - He also won MTV's Best Male Video Award for 1986 (Addicted To Love) and was winner of the Rolling Stone Magazine's 1990 Readers Poll for the category "Best Dressed Rock Star".
Before you go - There are 90 days until Christmas (72 days until Hanukkah.)
(I'm sure many of you have failed the naughty/ nice test already. Maybe you still have time.)
And so it goes
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