The winter solstice is the "shortest" day of the year and marks the start of the winter period. This is because the tilt of the Earth’s axis is least aligned with the Sun, providing us with the least daylight of the year. After December 21, the nights will begin to get shorter as our planet rotates towards the Sun.
December 20, 1939 -
The Paramount Pictures animated version of Gulliver's Travels directed by Dave Fleischer, premiered in NYC on this date.
Even though the film was a box-office success, it never managed to recover its enormous cost, which went nearly $500,000 over budget due to the relocation of the Fleischer studios, transportation of film for processing and the cost of training new artists.
December 20, 1946 -
The Frank Capra film It's A Wonderful Life had a preview showing for charity at New York City's Globe Theatre, a day before its official premiere.
Due to a clerical error at NTA's copyright office, the copyright wasn't renewed when it expired in 1974. The film became public domain, meaning anyone who could obtain a print could broadcast it without paying royalties. Local stations aired it dozens of times between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. In the 1990's, after a series of court battles, NTA's successor, Republic Pictures, re-acquired the rights to the film because they owned the source material (The Greatest Gift) and the film's score, which were still copyrighted.
Next time you get a chance to watch the film, notice what a truly strange little film it really is.
December 20, 1950 -
Henry Koster's adaptation of Mary Chase's Broadway play, Harvey, starring Jimmy Stewart premiered in NYC on this date.
Though Jimmy Stewart's character, Elwood P. Dowd, may certainly be referred to as an alcoholic, only at one time in the entire picture is he seen taking a drink. This is because the Hollywood Production Code at the time would not allow him to be shown getting drunk on film.
December 20, 1961 -
Columbia Pictures releases the science fiction film Mysterious Island, directed by Cy Endfield and featuring the stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen, on this date.
A real Brown crab was disemboweled, dismembered, cleaned and fitted with an internal armature for Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animation of the giant crab. Additional live crabs were used for some of the "facial" close-ups, then later cooked for a crew dinner.
December 20, 1963 -
Jean-Luc Godard's first big bugdet film, Contempt, starring Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang, and Giorgia Moll, opened in Paris on this date.
Filming was frequently interrupted by chasing off members of the paparazzi who were desperate to take photos of Brigitte Bardot, then one of the biggest stars in the world. Producer Joseph E. Levine insisted on the Brigitte Bardot nude scene that opens the film, realizing that it was the only way he could sell a film that he hated.
December 20, 1967 -
Mike Nichols' seminal 60s film, The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, premiered on this date.
During rehearsals of Dustin Hoffman's and Anne Bancroft's first encounter in the hotel room, Bancroft did not know that Hoffman was going to grab her breast. Hoffman decided to do it because it reminded him of schoolboys trying to nonchalantly grab girls' breasts in the hall by pretending to put their jackets on. When Hoffman did it, Director Mike Nichols began laughing loudly. Hoffman began to laugh as well, so rather than stop the scene, he turned away and walked to the wall. Hoffman banged his head on the wall, trying to stop laughing, and Nichols thought it was so funny, it stayed in the finished film.
December 20, 1969 -
Peter, Paul & Mary's cover of the John Denver song, Leaving on a Jet Plane, reached #1 on the Billboard Charts, on this date. The song turned out to be Peter, Paul and Mary's biggest (and final) hit.
This was written by a very young John Denver, who was then a member of the Chad Mitchell Trio before beginning his solo career in the 1970s. Denver wrote this in 1967 during a layover at Washington airport, "Not so much from feeling that way for someone, but from the longing of having someone to love."
December 20, 1971 -
Hal Ashby's very dark comedy, Harold and Maude, starring Ruth Gordon and Burt Cort, premiered on this date. The film was not a commercial success when it opened but is now seen as one of the most influential films of the 1970s.
When Maude and Harold steal the police officer's motorcycle, Bud Cort accidentally hit himself in the head with the shovel, but just kept going for the sake of the shot.
December 20, 1974 -
Arguably the greatest sequal ever made, Godfather II, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and Robert De Niro, premiered in the US on this date.
Robert De Niro spent four months learning to speak the Sicilian dialect of Italian in order to play Vito Corleone. Nearly all of the dialogue that his character speaks in the film was in Sicilian.
December 20, 1979 -
Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical film All that Jazz, starring Roy Scheider, Ann Reinking, Jessica Lange and Ben Vereen, opened in the US on this date.
Bob Fosse considered playing the lead role himself. Producer David H. Melnick pointed out that Fosse, who had a history of heart problems, wouldn't survive the shoot.
December 20, 1986 –
The Bangles' hit Walk Like An Egyptian went to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts on this date.
The songwriter Liam Sternberg wrote this. He got the idea when he was on a ferry boat and saw people struggling to keep their balance. The way they held out their arms and jerked around made it look like they were doing Egyptian movements, and if the boat moved suddenly, they would all topple over.
December 20, 2002 -
Martin Scorsese take on the notorious Five Points district of Lower Manhattan during the mid 19th century, Gangs of New York, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis and Cameron Diaz, was released on this date.
Daniel Day-Lewis became so uncomfortable with the greasy hairstyle he wore as Bill the Butcher that he shaved his head immediately after filming completed.
Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people.
Today in History
December 20, 1803 -
France finalized the Louisiana Purchase and transferred authority over the region to the United States, as a Christmas gift for Thomas Jefferson on this date.
The wisdom of this purchase was not fully appreciated at first but after Mardi Gras, it was warmly embraced.
(It was not for nothing that Thomas Jefferson collected beads.)
December 20, 1879 -
Thomas Edison privately demonstrated light bulb to a rapt audience on this date at Menlo Park, N.J. (He apparently showed off his light bulb so frequently that there is no general concensus on when he actually first show it to unsuspecting folks.)
Unfortunately, it took 27 of his assistants to lift the entire shed and turn it around to screw in the bulb and many believe the light would never take off.
December 20, 1892 -
According to Jules Verne, on October 2nd, Phileas Fogg stepped out of the Explorers Club in London, England and decides to take a little trip.
Due to the incompetence and laziness of most of the transit workers around the world, he finally completed his trip on this date.
Adolf Hitler was released from prison on December 20, 1924, after serving less than a year against a five-year treason sentence. Hitler became a prolific author while in prison, where he penned the infamous political autobiography Mein Kampf. (How I Intend to Enslave or Kill Millions of People Immediately Upon My Release.)
The Little Engine That Was Betrayed by Jewish Usurers,
Where the Wild Things Are and How to Eliminate Them,
Every Little Aryan Child’s Bedtime Book of Insidious Evil and Global Domination.
December 20, 1938 -
Vladimir Zworykin receives a patent for the Iconoscope (U.S. patent No. 2,141,059), an early television camera tube, 15 years after filing his application.
December 20, 1941 -
The Flying Tigers, American pilots in China, entered combat against the Japanese over Kunming on this date.
The group, formed 12 days after Pearl Harbor, was a great morale booster, as it posted numerous tactical victories when the news in the U.S. was filled with little more than stories of defeat at the hands of the Japanese forces.
December 20, 1957 -
A trigger warning - you are about to see Elvis in his skivvies.
December 20, 1997 -
Sotheby's auctioned off the loincloth worn by Kirk Douglas in the 1960 film Spartacus for $2,990 on this date.
December 20, 2007 -
Elizabeth II turned 81 years and 243 days old on this date and surpassed Queen Victoria as the oldest UK monarch.
And so it goes
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