On Good Friday, parishioners (the old ladies who populate church in the middle of most days) follow the officiant and observe the Stations of the Cross.
March 29, 1959 -
Billy Wilder's film, Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, premiered on this date.
Jack Lemmon wrote that the first sneak preview had a bad reaction with many audience walkouts. Many studio personnel and agents offered advice to Billy Wilder on what scenes to reshoot, add and cut. Lemmon asked Wilder what he was going to do. Wilder responded: "Why, nothing. This is a very funny movie and I believe in it just as it is. Maybe this is the wrong neighborhood in which to have shown it. At any rate, I don't panic over one preview. It's a hell of a movie." Wilder held the next preview in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, and the audience stood up and cheered.
March 29, 1969 -
Blood, Sweat & Tears' second, eponymous album went to the No. 1 position on the Billboard Charts on this date.
Blood, Sweat & Tears was formed in 1967 by Al Kooper after leaving the group Blues Project. Four of their eight members played horns, which defined their sound. Their 1968 album Child Is Father to the Man managed just modest sales, and Kooper left soon after. He was replaced by David Clayton-Thomas, who brought the song Spinning Wheel to the group and became their lead vocalist. With Clayton-Thomas up front, Blood, Sweat & Tears became one of the biggest acts of the late '60s and early '70s, with Spinning Wheel their calling card.
March 29, 1974 -
The third adaptation of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby, directed by Jack Clayton (from a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola) and starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Sam Waterston, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, and Lois Chiles, premiered on this date.
Robert Towne refused a chance to write the screenplay, despite a $175,000 salary, saying: "I didn't want to be the unknown Hollywood screenwriter who fucked up a literary classic." Instead, he wrote Chinatown, which earned him an Academy Award and established him as one of the greatest screenwriters of the period.
March 29, 1975 -
Labelle's song Lady Marmalade (psst, it's about New Orleans prostitutes) hit no. #1 on this date. (Please clear a space around your desk, while watching this clip; you will immediately feel the need to shake your groove thing and might injury yourself otherwise.)
The chorus of "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir" is French for "Do you want to sleep with me tonight?" When Labelle performed this on television, broadcast standards of the day prohibited them from singing the chorus as written. It was changed to "Voulez-vous danser avec moi ce soir" (do you want to dance with me).
March 29, 1978 -
After 11 seasons, CBS aired the last episode of The Carol Burnett Show on this date. The show won 25 Emmy Awards during it's run.
The Carol Burnett Show was one of the longest-running variety shows in television history; its conclusion marked the closing of another chapter in television as Burnett was the last of the great comedic talents heading a variety show, and hers was the last offering live entertainment before an audience.
March 29, 1979 –
The group, Supertramp release their sixth album Breakfast in America on this date, which goes on to sell six million copies in the U.S. and win two Grammy Awards.
Like the Lennon/McCartney partnership, most of Supertramp's songs are credited to their lead singers Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, although in many cases one writer was entirely responsible for the song.
March 29, 1980 -
Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon album spent its 303rd week on the US album chart, beating the record set by Carole King's 1971 No.1 album Tapestry, on this date. The album remained in the US Billboard charts for 741 discontinuous weeks from 1973 to 1988, longer than any other album in chart history.
After moving to the Billboard Top Pop Catalog Chart, the album notched up a further 759 weeks, and had reached a total of over 1,500 weeks on the combined charts by May 2006.
March 29, 1985 -
Madonna barely beat out Ellen Barkin and Jennifer Jason Leigh, for the title role in Susan Seidelman's comedy, Desperately Seeking Susan, starring (besides Madonna,) Rosanna Arquette, John Turturro, Laurie Metcalf, Aidan Quinn and Steven Wright, which premiered on this date.
One of the iconic jackets that Madonna and Rosanna Arquette wore in the film was sold at a Hollywood auction in November, 2014 for approximately $225,000. One of the earrings worn by them fetched $34,000.
March 29, 2007 -
Rihanna released her hit, Umbrella, in the US, on this date.
Jay-Z, who runs Rihanna's record label Roc-A-Fella Records, performs a somewhat gratuitous rap at the beginning of the song emphasizing his wealth and business success. His presence on the song made it much more marketable even if it didn't advance the storyline.
Another unimportant moment in history
Today in History:
March 29, 1876 -
One of Lewis Carroll's last works, The Hunting of the Snark, was published on this date.
Carroll’s poem has been variously interpreted as an allegory for tuberculosis, a mockery of a notorious Victorian court case, a satire of the controversies between religion and science, the repression of Carroll’s sexuality, and an anti-vivisection tract. Wow, that's a lot to pack into one little nonsense poem.
March 29, 1891 -
Georges Seurat died on this date. Mr. Seurat was a dotty artist who painted the world as he saw it.
Sadly, his eye condition was never treated.
March 29, 1932 -
A vaudeville comedian made his radio debut as a guest on the Ed Sullivan Show, saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Jack Benny talking. There will be a slight pause while you say, 'Who cares?' "
March 29, 1943 -
You initially become funny as a kid because you're looking for attention and love. Psychologists think that's all to do with mother abandonment. I think John Cleese has his depressions, and Terry Gilliam's the same. All of us together make one completely insane person.
Eric Idle, comedian and composer, made his first public appearance at Harton Hospital, South Shields, England on this date.
March 29, 1951 -
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were both convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage on this date. While Julius probably pass along secrets to the Soviets, recently declassified documents show that none of them lead to the development of the Russian nuclear weapons.
Ethel, unfortunately, is another matter. The same declassified document show that the government never believed that Ethel had anything to do with the case and the prosecution led by the lovely Roy Cohn wanted to use her as a 'lever' to pressure Julius into giving up the names of others who were involved.
She was mainly convicted on the testimony of her brother David Greenglass, a co-defendant in their trial. Greenglass was spared execution in exchange for his testimony. In late 2001, Greenglass recanted all of his testimony against his sister and claimed that he had committed perjury when he testified about her involvement in the case. Greenglass said he chose to falsely testify against his sister in order to protect his wife, who in fact was spying for the Russian.
Isn't sibling love grand?
March 29, 1974 -
A group of farmers - Yang Zhifa, his five brothers, and his neighbor Wang Puzhi - in Lintong County, Shaanxi Province, were digging in the countryside when they struck upon the Mausoleum of the First Emperor: containing the famed Terracotta Army, on this date.
Totally unique in world culture, 8,000 painted figures, 170 chariots, and 520 horses guard the slumbering emperor for eternity, and the necropolis in which the emperor rests has never been opened.
March 29, 1977 -
Lee Harvey Oswald's best friend, and coincidentally a friend of both Jackie Kennedy and George HW Bush, Dallas socialite George de Mohrenschildt died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the mouth, on this date.
It is likely he was going to be called to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations.
March 29, 1979 -
A U.S. House of Representatives committee report finds that John F. Kennedy's assassination was the result of a conspiracy.
March 28, 1985 -
Jeanine Deckers, The Singing (and not the Flying,) Nun, committed suicide via sleeping pills at 52 as part of a suicide pact with a friend.
She cited financial troubles in her suicide note unaware that she would be awarded a $300,000 check for royalties on her hit single Dominique that same day.
Oops, talk about bad timing.
March 29, 1992 -
Arkansas Governor and Presidential candidate Bill Clinton told the New York Times on this date: "When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale, and never tried it again."
Strangely, the POTUS and Monica Lewinsky had an 'encounter' on this date in 1997. It would be their final 'liaison'.
But remember, he did not have sexual relations with that woman.
And so it goes.
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