Saying the secret word

October 5, 1947 -
The first televised White House address was given by President Harry S. Truman on this date.



He spoke about food conservation to aid post-war Europe, which was still recovering from World War II and suffering from famine. In particular, he recommended that Americans cut back on their use of grain in order to help starving Europeans.


October 5, 1950 -
You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx with his announcer George Fenneman, premiered on NBC-TV on this date. Its' run lasted 11 years.



George Fenneman, Groucho Marx's announcer on the show, was once asked if Groucho ever embarrassed him on the air. "Each and every show," Fenneman replied.


October 5, 1956 -
The huge, hulking, biblical spectacular, The Ten Commandments (the last film directed by the master showman, Cecil B Demille) opened on this date.



Producer and director Cecil B. DeMille suffered a heart attack during the production, after climbing 130 feet to check a faulty camera perched on one of the giant gates used during the exodus sequence. He took two days off, then returned to work, against his doctor's orders, to complete this movie.


October 5, 1961 -
Blake Edwards' adaptation of Truman Capote's novel, Breakfast at Tiffany's, premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on this date.



Holly Golightly wears the same dresses all the way through the movie, simply changing the accessories to give each outfit a different look. Her black shift dress features through the movie at least four times.


October 5, 1962 -
Parlophone Records released the Beatles first single, Love Me Do, in England on this date. (The B side was, P.S., I Love You.)



Despite their UK success, the group had a lot of trouble getting attention in America. Parlophone's US counterpart, Capitol Records, wouldn't release Love Me Do, figuring it would flop. It ended up getting American distribution on the smaller Tollie label, but not until April 27, 1964 during the height of Beatlemania. It rose to #1 on May 30, giving the group their fourth US #1 hit.


October 5, 1969 -

The British Empire had been on a long slow decline for many years. The last flourish of that dying world power happened on this date - Monty Python's Flying Circus made its debut on BBC-TV.



The Pythons did almost all of their own stunts, including Graham Chapman (a qualified mountaineer) reading a sketch while hanging upside-down on a rope, and Michael Palin plummetting fifteen feet into a canal in "The Fish-Slapping Dance" after John Cleese smacked him in the head with a trout.


October 5, 1973 -
The seventh studio album by Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, (a double LP,) was release on this date.



Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to this and most of Elton's other songs. He often seems to write about Elton, but this one appears to be about himself. The lyrics are about giving up a life of opulence for one of simplicity in a rural setting. Elton has enjoyed a very extravagant lifestyle, while Taupin prefers to keep it low key.


October 5, 1990 -
Henry and June, the first NC-17-rated film was released in the US on this date.



When Anaïs Nin (Maria de Medeiros) flips through the stack of erotic postcards in the beginning of the film, one of them is of a woman propped up in a chair with a hat on and is shown hiking up her skirt with one hand. The image is the same one used on the first edition cover of Anais Nin's short story collection titled, Delta of Venus. This movie precipitated the creation of the NC-17 MPAA rating, which it earned in place of an "X". The two to three second shot of Anaïs Nin looking at an explicit illustrated postcard involving a Japanese woman and a squid, less than three minutes into the opening credits of the film, was the cause of the NC-17 rating.


October 5, 1991 –
Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch's (featuring Loleatta Holloway) single, Good Vibrations, went to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date.



This samples Love Sensation, a 1980 song by the disco singer Loleatta Holloway, who sings on this with Marky Mark. Dan Hartman received royalties from Good Vibrations because he wrote Love Sensation. Hartman had a hit in 1984 with I Can Dream About You. He died of a brain tumor in 1994. Love Sensation was also sampled in 1991 by Black Box for their song Ride On Time.


October 5, 2000 -
America was introduced to the inhabitants of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, when the WB premiered the Gilmore Girls on this date.



Scott Patterson, who plays Luke, was not originally hired to be a series regular. He was only signed on for the pilot episode, but it was only after the discovery of the undeniable chemistry between he and Lauren Graham that he was contracted for more episodes, and quickly became a series regular.


Another ACME Safety Film


Today in History:
October 5, 1877 -
... I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking-glass is dead. Too-hul-hul-suit is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men, now, who say ’yes’ or ’no’[that is, vote in council]. He who led on the young men [Joseph’s brother, Ollicut] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people--some of them--have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are---perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find;maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever! ....



Chief Joseph, exhausted and disheartened, surrendered in the Bears Paw Mountains of Montana, forty miles south of Canada ending the Nez Percé war. Thunder Rolling Down the Mountain was born in 1840 in the Wallowa Valley of what is now northeastern Oregon. He took the name of his father, (Old) Chief Joseph or Joseph the Elder. When his father died in 1871, Joseph or Joseph the Younger, was elected his father's successor. He continued his father's efforts to secure the Nez Percé claim to their land while remaining peaceful towards the whites.


October 5, 1880 -
Alonzo T. Cross was issued was issued U.S. Patent No. 232804 for the first ball-point pen, the Stylographic Pen.

Among it's innovations included a screw-plug to prevent users from filling ink into an air tube included in the pen’s housing and used the motion of air bubbles moving from the air tube into the ink chamber to force ink through to the point of the pen.


October 5, 1902 -
Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) was born on this date.



Mr Kroc invented McDonalds, which caused the collapse of the Soviet Union and made us all fat, allowing us to buy sub prime mortgage properties, which ultimate will bring down the United States as a dominant world power.


October 5, 1930 -
The largest British dirigible, R101 crashed on a hill in Beauvais, France on this date. The ensuing fire killed all 48 of the passengers and crew.



The wreck of the R101 lay where it had fallen until well into 1931, becoming a sightseeing spot for air accident investigators and day trippers who wanted to see the near perfect skeleton of the largest airship in the world.


October 5, 1931 -
Clyde ‘Upside-Down' Pangborn, a daredevil stunt pilot, and Hugh Herndon, Jr., a New York socialite, belly landed Miss Veedol, a Bellanca CH-200 monoplane, in Wenatchee, Wa., to complete the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Japan, on this date.



For their accomplishment, Pangborn and Herndon were awarded the the White Medal of Merit of the Imperial Aeronautical Society by Consul General Kensuke Horinouchi of Japan. They also won a $25,000 prize from the Japanese Ashi Shimbun newspaper.


October 5, 1970 -
PBS became a network on this date.



Unlike the model of America's commercial television networks, in which affiliates give up portions of their local advertising airtime in exchange for network programming, PBS member stations pay substantial fees for the shows acquired and distributed by the national organization.


October 5, 1974 -
David Kunst left Waseca, Minnesota on June 20, 1970 and completed the first journey around the world on foot, returning to Waseca, Minnesota, on this date, four years, three months and sixteen days later.



He crossed four continents, walked 14,450 miles and went through 21 pairs of shoes. On October 21, 1972, he and his brother were shot during their portion of the trek through Afghanistan (his brother, John, was unfortunately killed in the incident.) After four months of recuperation, Dave continued on his walk with his other brother Pete.


October 5, 1989 -
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for nonviolent efforts to free his homeland from China.

The Committee’s citation read, “The Committee wants to emphasize the fact that the Dalai Lama in his struggle for the liberation of Tibet consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people.”

Oh great, I keep blowing my chance of being read in China.


October 5, 2001 –
Barry Bonds hit Home Runs #71 & 72, beating Mark McGuire’s prior record. He went on the hit 73 for the season and is still the current record.



Mr Bonds' (as well as Mr McGuire's) record is tarnished because it is believed that they were on the juice, as opposed to just booze as whore mongerer Babe Ruth was. Aaron Judge, who is not on the juice, hit his 62nd home run on October 4th, cinching the American League’s single-season home run record.



And so it goes