All of this is well and good but you may ask, why bring it up? It's much less controversial than mentioning that it's International Eat an Animal for PETA Day - really, look it up.
March 15, 1941 -
The first of three appearances of Cecil Turtle, Tortoise Beats Hare, premiered on this date.
This is the first time Bugs Bunny loses in the end, proving that Bugs isn't completely indestructible; Cecil is one of the very few characters who was actually able to beat Bugs Bunny not once but three times in a row and at the rabbit's own game.
March 15, 1946 -
Columbia Pictures released Charles Vidor's film-noir classic, Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth and Glen Ford on this date.
The script was not yet finished when filming began. According to choreographer Jack Cole, "The script pages would arrive practically the morning that we were going to shoot, they were making the picture up as we went along. If you really look, you can tell that was the way the picture was done because it doesn't really make any sense if you try to follow the story."
March 15, 1956 -
The landmark science-fiction film, Forbidden Planet (think The Tempest in Outer Space), premiered on this date.
This film marked one of the first times a science-fiction project had received a large budget. The genre had rarely been taken seriously by studio executives, and sci-fi films generally received the most meager of budgets. The critical success of this film convinced many in the film industry that well-funded science-fiction projects could be successful.
March 15, 1972 -
George Roy Hill's adaptation of the 1969 novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughter House-Five, starring Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman, and Valerie Perrine opened in the US on this date.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was a prisoner of war in World War II. He was captured during the Battle of the Bulge while a battalion scout with the 106 Infantry Division on December 22, 1944, and used these experiences in his novel when Billy Pilgrim is captured by the Germans and sent to a POW camp. Vonnegut also lived through the bombing of Dresden and used that experience in the book.
March 15, 1972 -
The greatest film ever about cooking for a large group and risk aversion management, The Godfather, premiered in New York City on this date.
James Caan improvised the part where he throws the FBI photographer's camera to the ground. The actor's frightened reaction is genuine. Caan also came up with the idea of throwing money at the man to make up for breaking his camera. As he put it, "Where I came from, you broke something, you replaced it or repaid the owner."
March 15, 1975 -
Electric Light Orchestra's single Can't Get It Out of My Head, became their first top ten single in the U.S., (with peaked at no. nine on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart,) on this date.
Jeff Lynne recalled in an edition of VH1's Storytellers, that he found inspiration for the song in the unfulfilled reveries of an everyday bloke. "It's about a guy in a dream who sees this vision of loveliness and wakes up and finds that he's actually a clerk working in a bank," he said. "And he hasn't got any chance of getting her or doing all these wonderful things that he thought he was going to do."
March 15, 1975 -
The Doobie Brothers song Black Water hit the No. 1 position on the Billboard charts, on this date.
Black Water wasn't seen as having hit potential, so it was relegated to the B-side of Another Park, Another Sunday.
March 15, 1977 -
Everybody was first welcomed to The Regal Beagle when Three's Company, starring John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, and Suzanne Somers, premiered on this date.
John Ritter is the only cast member to appear in every episode.
March 15, 1977 -
One of the first TV "dramedies", Eight Is Enough began airing on ABC-TV on this date.
Mark Hamill and Kimberly Beck only appeared in the pilot. Mark was later replaced with Grant Goodeve and Kimberly left to do the series Rich Man, Poor Man and was replaced by Dianne Kay.
March 15, 1985 -
The 1948 film Sitting Pretty, starring Clifton Webb, was adapted in the TV sitcom, Mr. Belvedere, starring, Christopher Hewett, Bob Uecker, and Ilene Graff, premiered on ABC TV, on this date.
The series was the fourth attempt to adapt the 1947 novel Belvedere by Gwen Davenport and subsequent film series for television. In 1956, a pilot was produced but was rejected by the networks. In 1959, a second pilot starring Hans Conried was also rejected. In 1965, a third pilot starring Victor Buono also failed to sell.
March 15, 1986 -
During the Saturday Night Live sketch Mr. Monopoly, cast member Damon Wayans ad-libbed his police officer character role as a gay stereotype, which would later result in his firing, on this day.
In the season finale however, executive producer Lorne Michaels invited Wayans back to perform stand up on the show, even though he had been fired by Michaels from the show two months prior.
March 15, 1988 -
Talking Heads release their eighth and final album, Naked, on this date.
The album was co-produced with the band by Steve Lillywhite, an Englishman known for his work with Peter Gabriel and U2. He was married to the singer Kirsty MacColl, who contributed backing vocals of the song, (Nothing But) Flowers.
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
March 15, 44 BC -
Julius Caesar, already warned to be wary on this the Ides of March by the astrologer Spurinna, was assassinated with pointy knives by a group of Senators, including Brutus and Cassius, at the Pompey theater.
They were angry at him because he had crossed the Rubicon. Later Marc Antony borrowed everyone's ears and told them that Brutus was an honorable man, which upset them so much they had a Civil War.
Sixteen centuries later, more or less, William Shakespeare immortalized the story and eventually Marlon Brando got to play Marc Antony, so everyone was happy in the end.
Caesar is also celebrated because he wrote a famous book called The Garlic Wars, which begins with the famous line, All garlic is divided into three cloves. It also includes the line - veni, vidi, vinci, the exact meaning of which is still a matter of debate but, if my own Latin studies are worth anything, probably involves Druids and hollandaise sauce.
March 15, 1812 -
Luddites attack Frank Vickerman's wool processing factory at Taylor Hill in West Yorkshire, on this date, resulting in general destruction and attempted arson.
So now you know more about Luddites than you thought you ever would (remember, smash the fitbits.)
Today's episode of Oh, that Wacky Russian Revolution:
At two o'clock in the morning on March 15, 1917 the Tsar sent word to Petrograd that he was awfully sorry about the war and starvation and everything, but that he had some really good ideas about what they could do now, was looking forward to working with them, believed that healthy debate was a symptom of good government, and so on.
And so at three o'clock in the afternoon, Nicholas abdicated in favor of his son (who had measles).
At 11:15 pm, Nicholas signed a proclamation that both he and his son (who had measles) would abdicate in favor of his brother, the Grand Duke Mikhail.
The next day, the new government told Nicholas, Alexei (who had measles), and the Grand Duke Mikhail to blow it out their asses.
(It seems that they were anally fixated.)
March 15, 1950 -
New York City suffering through a persistent drought, hired for $100 a day - a very large sum in those times, particularly for a scientist - Dr. Wallace E. Howell, a meteorologist to make rain, on this date. Dr. Howell, who had participated in early scientific research into cloud seeding, set up shop at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, using a police airplane to sprinkle silver iodide crystals into clouds over the Catskill watershed.
March 15, 1964 -
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, finally legitimized their scandalous affair and were married on this date.
Both were already married – he was married at the time to former actress Sybil Williams, she to her fourth husband Eddie Fisher, whom she had famously ‘stolen’ from Debbie Reynolds.
March 15, 2006 -
A stockpile of provisions that were made for the survival of residents if New York City had been hit by a nuclear attack has been found inside the masonry foundations of Brooklyn Bridge, on this date.
City workers had been conducting a regular structural inspection of the bridge when they came across the cold-war-era hoard of water drums, medical supplies, survivor blankets, drugs and food in the 350,000 Civil Defense All Purpose Survival Crackers. These are said to been put there in the 1950s. And if you hurry, some of those crackers are still on sale at Lots Less.
And so it goes.
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