Let's all move on.
April 4, 1914 -
The first episode of the silent film serial The Perils of Pauline premieres in New York. The cliffhanger serials shown in weekly installments feature Pearl White, a perpetual damsel in distress, as the title character.
The term "cliffhanger" originated with the series, owing to a number of episodes filmed on or around the New Jersey Palisades.
April 4, 1931 -
United Artists released the first version of the Hecht and MacArthur newspaper comedy, The Front Page, on this date.
The journalists are all based on actual reporters who were Chicago colleagues of authors Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, with most working alongside them at the courthouse. The real names were only slightly changed: Hildy Johnson was based on the real-life reporter Hildebrand Johnson, Walter Burns was based on the editor Walter Howey, and Mac McCue was based on reporter Buddy McHugh.
April 4, 1941 -
A charming but little remembered Sam Wood directed comedy The Devil and Miss Jones, starring Jean Arthur, Robert Cummings, and Charles Coburn premiered on this date.
Careful inspection of the interior set of Merrick's mansion reveals it to be the Xanadu set of the recently shot RKO picture Citizen Kane. The fireplace behind the Merrick's desk with its unique herring-bone brick pattern is the tip-off.
April 4, 1951 -
Another technicolor masterpiece from the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger - the film version of The Tales of Hoffmann starring, Robert Rounseville, Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Léonide Massine, opened in NYC on this date.
A 4K digital restoration has been made by Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation. This includes some scenes that were missing from recent prints and an unseen section introducing the actors and singers.
April 4, 1953 -
While not quite in the same league as Plan 9 from Outer Space, and shot in just four days, the Ed Wood Jr. 'classic', Glen or Glenda, premiered on this date (or maybe it didn't, but does it really matter.)
While the film had no sequel, Edward D. Wood Jr. used the character Glen/Glenda again in two of his novels. In the novel, Killer in Drag, Glen/Glenda has become a serial killer. In its sequel Death of a Transvestite, Glen/Glenda is executed.
April 4, 1964 -
The Beatles set an all-time record on the Top 100 chart of Billboard magazine this day, holding an unprecedented twelve positions on Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on this date.
The Beatles accounted for 60 percent of the entire singles record business during the first three months of 1964. Those singles by The Beatles this day were:
Can't Buy Me Love
Twist and Shout
She Loves You
I Want to Hold Your Hand
Please Please Me
I Saw Her Standing There
You Can't Do That
All My Loving
Roll Over Beethoven
From Me To You
Do You Want To Know A Secret
Thank You Girl
Not too shabby
April 4, 1971 -
CBS aired the final episode of Hogan’s Heroes, Rockets Or Romance, on this date.
CBS chairman Fred Silverman had the show canceled, even though it was still popular in the Nielsen ratings, as part of what came to be known as The Rural Purge when he canceled all shows he felt only appealed to older audiences or to audiences that lived in rural areas. Advertisers preferred younger and more urban audiences as they were more likely to buy their products.
April 4, 1975
A television pilot, Black Bart, based on Andrew Bergman's original story for Blazing Saddles, starring Lou Gossett, Jr. as Bart and Steve Landesberg as his drunkard sidekick, premiered on CBS TV on this date.
Many more episodes were filmed after this pilot, apparently four seasons worth, but never aired because, while the studio was contractually obligated to make them in order to keep the rights to Blazing Saddles, due to a contractual loophole, they never actually had to show them.
April 4, 1985 -
The original TV movie Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future, (which was the basis of the series) originally aired on Channel 4 in the UK (and later on Cinemax in the US), on this date.
Remade almost scene-for-scene as the first episode of Max Headroom TV series, created two years later. Only Matt Frewer, Amanda Pays and Morgan Sheppard appeared in both versions. The obese TV viewer's death by "blipverts", and Carter's reaction to it, as well as the live TV doctor's topic on colon health were discarded.
Another ACME Safety Film
Today in History:
April 4, 1561 -
Over Nuremberg, Germany, a battle in the sky transpires between black and blood-red balls, disks, and crosses on this date.
April 4, 1721 –
Sir Robert Walpole enters office as the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom under King George I on this date.
Robert Walpole came into office on the tail end of the South Sea Bubble collapse and was credited with leading the country out of financial disaster, cementing the importance of the Prime Minister position in British government.
April 4, 1841 -
He sought to rest in the White House, but could not find a quiet room, as he was deluged with people seeking his favor in the hope that he would appoint them to the numerous offices the president then had at his disposal. In addition, his position and new arrival in Washington obligated Harrison to keep an extremely busy social schedule, making any rest time scarce.
His doctors tried everything to cure him, applying opium enemas, castor oil, Virginia snakeweed, and even actual snakes (don't ask what they did with the snakes.) But the treatments only made Harrison worse and he went into delirium. He died a month later, at 12:30 a.m., on April 4, 1841, of right lower lobe pneumonia, jaundice, and overwhelming septicemia, becoming the first American president to die in office. His last words were "Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." Harrison served the shortest term of any American president: only 30 days, 11 hours and 30 minutes.
A curious fact, Harrison's name backward is No Sirrah. When Harrison took office in 1841 at the age of 68, he was the oldest man to become President; a record that stood for 180 years, until Uncle Joe became President in 2021 at the age of 78.
Remember, as I've stated before, your mother is always right.
April 4, 1883 -
American inventor and founder of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Peter Cooper died on this date.
April 4, 1933 -
USS Akron (ZRS-4) the accident-prone helium-filled rigid airship of the United States Navy was lost in a weather-related accident off the New Jersey coast, killing 73 of the 76 crew and passengers on board on this date.
The Akron's loss spelled the beginning of the end for the rigid airship in the US Navy, especially since one of its leading proponents, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, was killed with 72 other men.
April 4, 1949 -
The (NATO) North Atlantic Treaty Organization pact was signed by the US, Great Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada on this date.
It provided for mutual defense against aggression and for close military cooperation.
April 4, 1958 -
Lana Turner's 14 year old daughter Cheryl Crane, apparently stabs her mother's abusive mobster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato (it has always been alleged that Lana was the actual killer and that Cheryl, who faced minimal judicial punishment under the circumstances, took the rap for her). A coroner's jury finds she committed justifiable homicide.
Allegedly, while filming the movie, Another Time, Another Place, Lana Turner was rumored to have been having an affair with her costar, actor Sean Connery. Stompanato stormed onto the set, and during a verbal altercation with Connery, Stompanato waved a gun in Connery's face. Connery reacted by taking the gun away from him, physically beating Stompanato and sending him off the film set. After Stompanato's death, there were rumors that organized crime mobsters believed Connery had helped bring on the eventual demise of Stompanato, and Connery is alleged to have laid low for a time. There is no evidence that Connery and Turner were having an affair; this sort of behavior was apparently normal for Stompanato.
April 4, 1968 -
56 years ago today, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a rifleman (possibly James Earl Ray) while standing on the second-story balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He had come to Tennessee to support a strike by the city's sanitation workers.
The night before he died, he gave a speech at the Memphis Temple Church in which he said, "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land."
April 4, 1972 -
(This will blow your mind - or maybe it won't. My degree is not in Psychology or Metaphysics.)
Neil Armstrong walked on the moon before the creation of wheeled luggage.
So now you know
April 4, 1973 -
The World Trade Center in New York was officially dedicated on this date.
In order to create the 16-acre World Trade Center site, five streets were closed off and 164 buildings were demolished. Construction required the excavation of more than 1.2 million cubic yards of earth, which was used to create 23.5 acres of land along the Hudson River, now part of Battery Park City in lower Manhattan. During peak construction periods, 3,500 people worked at the site. A total of 10,000 people worked on the towers; 60 died during its construction.
April 4, 1983 -
NASA launches the Space Shuttle Challenger on its maiden voyage into space from the Kennedy Space Center on this date.
The shuttle is named for the British Naval research vessel HMS Challenger, which sailed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during the 1870s.
April 4th, 1984 -
To the past, or to the future. To an age when thought is free. From the Age of Big Brother, from the Age of the Thought Police, from a dead man... greetings.
If you're around Westport CT tomorrow night, and want to catch the band The Spin Doctors,
Why not check out VersoFest - I'll be there, (working).
And so it goes.
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