(Please note, the fun you have with you sock is solely between you and your maker - no judgments.)
May 9, 1955 -
Harpo Marx had only recently suffered a heart attack and was warned by doctors not to continue performing. But, luckily for us, Harpo refused, and went on to appear in an episode of I Love Lucy, Lucy and Harpo Marx, which aired on this date.
The Lucy-Harpo "mirror routine" became a rare scene of I Love Lucy that was filmed without a live audience. Because of the complicated set-ups for the shot, the studio audience was sent home. Lucy and Harpo did take after take and the best shots were later spliced together, as one long scene, by the film editor. (After filming was over, Harpo stayed and played his harp for the cast and crew while Vivian Vance sang.)
May 9, 1955 -
The Muppets are an ensemble cast of puppet characters, who were first created by puppeteer Jim Henson. The Muppets were first introduced on Sam and Friends, a television program that aired locally in Washington, D.C., on WRC-TV on weekdays from May 9, 1955, to December 15, 1961.
Jim Henson has said the name "muppet" came from combining the words "puppet" and "marionette," but he also said that he just liked the way the word sounded.
May 9, 1958 -
Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Vertigo starring James Stewart and Kim Novak premiered in San Francisco on this date.
When Kim Novak questioned Alfred Hitchcock about her motivation in a particular scene, Hitchcock is said to have answered, "Let's not probe too deeply into these matters, Kim. It's only a movie."
May 9, 1958 -
Richard Burton made his network television debut on this date, in the presentation of The DuPont Show of the Month - Wuthering Heights, on CBS-TV.
In 1999 actress Rosemary Harris met TV historian Jane Klain and asked if she could find a copy of the film. Harris was a last minute replacement and had only 4 days to learn her lines. During the live broadcast she had forgotten the lines before her death scene and had quickly re-read the script and then shoved the script under her pillow. Harris wanted to know if this had been captured in the broadcast. Klain spent 20 years trying to track down a version of the script and finally uncovered it in 2019 after searching for 20 years. She sent a copy to Harris who learned that her re-reading had not been broadcast.
May 9, 1964 -
The Beatles' I Wanna Hold Your Hand had been the number one album for over three and a half months straight.
Louis Armstrong's show tune Hello Dolly finally ended the record-breaking run on this day, knocking the Beatles out of first place in the music charts.
May 9, 1992 -
Bruce Springsteen performs on US TV for the first time when he finally accepts a longstanding offer to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, on this date.
He performed three songs, Living Proof, Lucky Town and 57 Channels, from Human Touch and Lucky Town, the albums he released simultaneously five weeks earlier.
May 9, 1992 -
The final episode of Golden Girls, One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest, aired on NBC-TV on this date.
That must have been some after party.
May 9, 1994 -
Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait set fire to the guest chair on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno, on this date. While the action may have shocked and outraged both Leno and NBC, did not prevent them from using this inflammatory vignette in their advertising.
His actions not only got him banned from NBC, (a ban that seems to be in place to this day,) for his destructive behavior, but he had to pay a $2,700 fine for the incident and had to pay nearly $700 for the cost of the chair. In addition to the monetary dues he had obtained he was also forced to make fire safety public service announcements.
Another ACME Safety Film
Today in History:
May 9, 1671 -
File this under - Balls, said the queen ...: Adventurer and criminal, Colonel Thomas Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London on this date.
He and his accomplices were captured and the jewels rescued. Far from being punished, Blood was pardoned by the King himself and awarded a pension of £500 a year.
May 9, 1882 -
William F. Ford was issued a patent (US patent #257,487) for for his binaural stethoscope design.
May 9, 1926 -
Explorers Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett made the first flight over the North Pole. Two teams of aviators competed to be the first to fly over the North Pole. American Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett claimed victory when they circled the North Pole.
On May 11, in spite of his disappointment, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen launched the dirigible Norge on its planned flight, not merely over the pole, but all the way across the Arctic to Alaska. Byrd and Bennett in the Josephine Ford briefly accompanied Norge in a gesture of goodwill. Amundsen reached Alaska on May 14, but even today experts suspect that faulty navigation caused Byrd to miss the North Pole.
May 9, 1949 -
William Martin Joel, Grammy Award-winning rock vocalist/singer was born on this date.
I can still remember when one used to eagerly await a new Billy Joel album as much as a Bruce Springsteen album.
May 9, 1950 -
L. Ron Hubbard published the first edition of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health on this date.
But you didn't hear this from me.
May 9, 1961 -
FCC Chairman Newton N Minow speaking at the NAB convention (the National Association of Broadcasters) gave one of the most quoted speeches of the 20th Century. Mr Minow just recently passed on at the age of 97.
His phrase "vast wasteland" has become an icon of American culture, memorialized in hundreds of editorial cartoons, listed in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, quoted in popular fiction, and featured as an answer to questions on TV game shows such as Jeopardy!, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Trivial Pursuit.
May 9, 1962 -
A pulse light laser beam sent by a team of scientists from MIT successfully bounced off the Moon, the first lunar laser ranging experiment, on this date.
Later similar experiments used a reflector left on the Moon’s surface by the Apollo 11 mission to increase accuracy.
May 9, 1978 -
The body of former Italian premier Aldo Moro was discovered in the back seat of a Renault on this date. He had been kidnapped 54 days prior by the Red Brigades, who demanded the release of their incarcerated comrades.
When Italian authorities refused to give in, Moro's captors killed him, but not before forcing the hostage to hold a newspaper announcing his own death.
May 9, 1980 -
35 people were killed in Tampa, Florida when the Liberian cargo ship Summit Venture smashed into a supporting pier of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge on this date.
Seven vehicles, including a Greyhound bus, topple into the water 150 feet below. So this is what comes from leaving the driving to racetrack dogs.
May 9, 1983 -
Pope John Paul II retracted the Catholic Church's condemnation of astronomer Galileo Galilei, issued in 1633 by Pope Urban VIII. The Church had convicted the scientist of heresy, sentenced him to house arrest, and forced him to recant central scientific truths.
In the end, this error only took 350 years to correct. A speedy correction by church standards.
May 9, 1989 -
Great moments in Vice Presidential history:
And so it goes.
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