He then announced that he wanted to award Admiral Byrd a medal for his work on frozen food and then was heading to the commissary to have lunch with Gale Storm. Aides just turned a weary eye to one another.
March 6, 1942 -
Ernst Lubitsch World War II comedy, To Be or Not to Be, starring Jack Benny, Carole Lombard and Robert Stack premiered on this date.
The biggest problem early in the shoot was Jack Benny's insecurity about acting the central role in such an important production by a major filmmaker. He seemed dumbfounded that Ernst Lubitsch had not only cast him but was building the film around him. Finally Lubitsch set him straight: "You think you are a comedian. You are not even a clown. You are fooling the public for 30 years. You are fooling even yourself. A clown - he is a performer what is doing funny things. A comedian - he is a performer what is saying funny things. But you, Jack, you are an actor, you are an actor playing the part of a comedian and this you are doing very well. But do not worry, I keep your secret to myself."
March 6, 1970 -
The Beatles released Let it Be in the UK on this date. Paul McCartney wrote this song supposedly after he had a dream about his mother who died when he was 14.
Since Let It Be was The Beatles last album, it made an appropriate statement about leaving problems behind and moving on in life. John Lennon hated the song because of it's apparent Christian overtones. He made the comment before recording it, "And now we'd like to do Hark The Angels Come."
The Beatles were so busy arguing with each other that Aretha Franklin was able to release a cover version of the song
on her album This Girl's In Love With You (as well as Eleanor Rigby), before The Beatles version came out.
March 6, 1970 -
David Bowie released the single The Prettiest Star in the UK on this date, as a follow-up single to Space Oddity. The track featured Marc Bolan on guitar, with whom Bowie would spend the next few years as a rival for the crown of the king of glam rock.
This was released as a single in 1970, but it flopped, selling just 800 copies. In 1973, a glammed up version was recorded and released on Aladdin Sane, with Mick Ronson recreating Bolan's original guitar part.
March 6, 1973 -
Closing Time, one of Tom Waits’ most melodic albums, (and a fascinating snapshot into his early days as a bar-room balladeer,) was released on this date.
A number of artists covered songs from the album, starting a trend that would continue throughout Waits’ career. Martha was recorded by Tim Buckley and frequently performed by Bette Midler, while the Eagles recorded a version of Ol’ ‘55 for the band’s 1974 album On The Border.
March 6, 1977 -
Diana Ross became the first solo female performer to host a 90-minute TV special when An Evening With Diana Ross aired on NBC-TV on this date.
An Evening With Diana Ross became a double album on the Motown label that led to a one-woman show on Broadway for which she was awarded a special Tony Award.
March 6, 1897 -
Richard Donner's buddy cop flix, Lethal Weapon, starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, and Mitchell Ryan, opened on this date.
Casting director Marion Dougherty first suggested teaming Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. She arranged for Gibson to fly in from his home in Sydney, while Glover was flown in from Chicago, where he was appearing in a play, to read through the script.
March 6, 1995 -
Annie Lennox second solo album, Medusa, a collection of covers, was released on this date.
The first single No More I Love You's, was originally recorded by the English group The Lover Speaks.
March 6, 1998 -
The Coen Bros. off-kilter take on a Raymond Chandler detective story, The Big Lebowski, opened on this date.
Before filming a scene, Jeff Bridges would frequently ask the Coen brothers "Did the Dude burn one on the way over?" If they said he had, he would rub his knuckles in his eyes before doing a take to make his eyes appear bloodshot.
March 6, 2009 -
Zack Snyder's version of the seemingly unfilmable graphic novel, Watchmen, starring Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson, premiered on this date.
When Patrick Wilson was offered the role of Dan Dreiberg, he called one of his best friends who is a huge comic book fan, and asked him what he knew about the Watchmen comic. He told Patrick that if he was ever to do a superhero movie that this was the one to do. Having gotten the part, Patrick invited his friend to visit the set when filming the prison escape scene.
Today in History:
Michelangelo Buonaroti was born on this date in 1475. He painted and sculpted so much that it began to become embarrassing for other people, so they finally decided it was time to stop procrastinating and start the Renaissance.
So they did.
On March 6, 1619, Cyrano de Bergerac was born. Mr. de Bergerac was a brilliant French satirist and playwright, a rapier wit, and, from all contemporary accounts, an accomplished musician, an enthralling conversationalist, and a charming ladies' man.
He was unfortunately best known for his nose.
Dr. John Greenwood, George Washington's personal dentist, constructed the first 'dental foot engine' on this date in 1790.
March 6, 1836 -
... Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.
The Alamo was seized by General Santa Ana - 3,000 versus 147, it wasn't much of a fair fight. The holdouts suffered unnecessary deaths, disobeying direct orders by remaining, and losing their arms and cannon to the Mexicans. Davy - Pioneer, Patriot, Soldier, Trapper, Explorer, State Legislator, Congressman was one of the last holdouts to die on this day.
(The Mexican army managed to lose over 600 men.)
Remember the Alamo.
March 6, 1857 -
After years in litigation, the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Roger Taney, ruled that Dred Scott did not gain his freedom by living in a free territory. Taney wrote that African Americans could not have rights of their own and inferior to white people.
The essence of the decision was that as a slave, Dred Scott was not a citizen and therefore could not sue in a federal court. The opinion also stated that Congress could not exclude slavery in the territories and that blacks could not become citizens. In 2017 Charles Taney IV apologized to the family of Dred Scott for the words of his great-great-grand-uncle.
March 6, 1869 -
Mendeleev's predictions were right, and he is credited with writing the first periodic table.
March 6, 1899 -
Friedrich Bayer and Co. patented their eponymous painkiller, Bayer aspirin in Berlin on this day. The compound salicylic acid, which occurs naturally in willow bark was already known to provide pain relief. Unfortunately it is bitter tasting and can cause vomiting. By mixing acetylating salicylic acid with acetic acid, German Bayer AG chemist Felix Hoffman concocted a less acidic formula to ease his father’s arthritis two years previously.
It quickly gained popularity, and at one time was the most used painkiller in the world.
March 6, 1912 -
National Biscuit Company's (Nabisco) Oreo cookies went on sale for the first time on this date.
The brand's competitor, Sunshine's Hydrox, had debuted in 1908. (Hydrox has up until recently, completely disappeared as a brand but secretly exists as 'cookie crumbs' for yogurt flavorings and an ingredient in piecrust.)
March 6, 1918 -
In January 1918, US naval collier (a ship that transports,) Cyclops was assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and sailed to Brazilian waters to fuel British ships in the South Atlantic.
It put to sea from Rio de Janeiro on February 16, 1918, and after touching at Barbados on March 3 and 4, was never heard from again. The loss of the ship without a trace is one of the sea's unsolved mysteries.
March 6, 1950 -
The original discovery was made in 1943 by James Wright who combined silicone oil and boric acid in the laboratories of General Electric. He was researching methods of making synthetic rubber, but at the time no significant application existed for the material. However, it was passed around as a curiosity.
Hodgson saw a sample and realized its potential simply for entertainment and coined its name for marketing it as a toy. Its popularity made him a millionaire. (Hey, that's Peter Hodgson as the salty sea dog pulling the putty.)
March 6, 1965 -
I'm not a stooge, I'm a straight lady - the best in Hollywood. There is an art to playing the straight role. You must build up your man but never top him, never steal the laughs.
Groucho was often cruel to her on-screen but when the cameras stopped rolling, he had nothing but nice things to say about Margaret Dumont, calling her a "wonderful woman."
March 6, 1970 -
In Greenwich Village, a townhouse at 18 West 11th St. exploded on this date. SDS Weathermen members Diana Oughton, Ted Gold and Terry Robbins were killed at the site where a bomb was being manufactured.
March 6, 1981 -
After 19 years presenting the CBS Evening News, Uncle Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, signs off for the last time.
With all that we've been through, once again we must ask, who will carry that weight now?
And so it goes.
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