to celebrate the economic and social contributions of workers. Keep in mind, the first minimum wage was established in the USA in 1938 –
for all of 25 cents per hour (adjusted for inflation, that would be worth $4.19 today.)
And please, don't make John Waters unhappy - starting tomorrow, don't wear white
Today is National Beheading Day, one of the long list of make believe holidays that litter the internet. I'm sorry to say that the board of directors of ACME have rejected the suggestion to become the main corporate sponsor.
So remember to wish your friends and neighbors Happy National Beheading Day. Enjoy the odd look they give you.
September 2, 1937 -
Selznick International Pictures' romantic adventure film, The Prisoner of Zenda, directed by John Cromwell (and an uncredited W. S. Van Dyke,) and starring Ronald Colman, Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., C. Aubrey Smith, Raymond Massey, Mary Astor, and David Niven premiered in the US on this date.
Director John Cromwell was not happy with his cast. In memos to David O. Selznick he said that Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and David Niven were "overindulged and lazy." Ronald Colman "never knows his lines. I don't know which one of them annoys me most. Also, both Colman and Carroll insist they have a 'bad side' to be avoided by the camera, but it's the same 'bad side.' Shooting them face-to-face is all but impossible."
September 2, 1949 -
Carol Reed's adaptation of Graham Greene's post war thriller, The Third Man, starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, and Orson Welles, premiered in London of this date.
The Vienna Police Dept. has a special unit that is assigned solely to patrol the city's intricate sewer system, as its network of interlocking tunnels make great hiding places for criminals on the run from the law, stolen property, drugs, etc. The "actors" playing police officers in the film were actually off-duty members of that unit.
September 2, 1950 -
If your eagle's hands are dirty, we'll wash them clean....
Here is one of my favorite non Bug Bunny Looney Tunes; the classic Daffy/ Porky outing, The Ducksters, was released on this date.
On the game show Porky Pig wins:
1. The Rocky Mountains
2. A 17 - Jewel half Nelson
3. The La Brea Tar Pits
4. The Rock of Gibraltar
5. 600 gallons of genuine Niagara Falls
6. $26,000,000.03
The identification of the Ajax Broadcasting Company was an unusual name for Warner Bros.; Ajax was a name more commonly used by rival studio Disney, whereas Warner Bros. would more commonly use Acme Corporation in its later productions.
September 2, 1965 -
The Rolling Stones appeared on the British TV show Ready Steady Go! on this date.
The boys all joined in a parody of Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe.
Oh those scalawags!
September 2, 1994 -
Hootie & the Blowfish made their first television appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, on this date.
This song got a lot of airplay and helped make the Cracked Rear View album (named for a line in the 1987 John Hiatt song Learning How To Love You) the best seller of 1995 in the US.
September 2, 2005 –
If you ever need the definition of 'deer in the headlights' moment, just watch Mike Meyers in this clip.
On NBC’s Concert for Hurricane Relief, Kanye West stated that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”. The comment went out live on the US east coast, but was cut from a taped version seen on the west coast.
September 2, 2006 -
Stephen Frears brilliant portrayal of the royal family's reaction to the death of Princess Diana, The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, and James Cromwell premiered at the Venice Film Festival on this date.
Scenes within the Royal household were shot on 35mm film, so they would look lush and cinematic. Scenes within Blair's world were shot on 16mm, so they would look more like television, in order to give visual contrast between commoners and royalty.
Word of the Day
Today in History -
Pheidippides of Athens sets out on his famous run that inspired the Marathon on this date in 490 BC
September 2, 31BC (you know the drill - drunken orgy going calendar makers, drinking from lead cups lead to inaccurate dates.) -
The Naval Battle of Actium in the Ionian Sea, between Roman leader Octavian and the alliance of Roman Mark Antony and Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, occurred on this date. Octavian soundly defeated Antony's fleet which was burned and 5000 of his men were killed. The rivals battled for control of the Roman Empire at Actium, where Cleopatra, seeing Antony's navy being outmaneuvered by Octavian's, ordered her 60 ships to turn about and flee to safety.
Antony's reaction has baffled historians for ages. When he saw Cleopatra leaving, Antony immediately left his command ship and followed her with 40 of his own ships following. Some have attributed Antony's rash departure to being caught off guard when his lover decided to leave him. Others have argued that Antony and Cleopatra had always secretly planned for him to steal away with her once her ships had the opportunity to break free.
September 2, 1666 -
Thomas Farrinor forgot to put out his oven at the end of his shift, on this date.
Unfortunately, the resulting fire cost him his job as official baker to King Charles II of England and started the Great Fire of London. (Quite surprisingly, only six people 'officially' were declared dead because of the fire. To remember the fire, the city of London erected a monument. Six people have committed suicide by jumping off of it, and two have fallen accidentally to their deaths. You might hear this fun fact repeated on tours or forums: more people have died from falling off the monument than died in the fire.
But it's not true - more like several hundred and quite possibly several thousand; very poor people likely died in the fire, burnt so beyond recognition (and not on the 'official radar') that their remains were not counted.
On the plus side, it burned out of control and destroyed four-fifths of London, thereby ending the Black Plague.
Lydia Kamekeha Liliuokalani was born on this date in 1838.
She reminded them that Hawaii was not part of the United States. This was more than unconstitutional: it was cheeky.
She was immediately deposed, then wrote wrote Aloha Oe and retired; spending the rest of her life, unsuccessfully suing the United States for illegally ceasing her island nation.
(And you wonder why the former president may have hesitated showing his birth certificate.)
September 2, 1901 -
Twelve days before the assassination of President William McKinley, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair on this date.
Roosevelt described his style of foreign policy as "the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis."
USS Shenandoah was the first of four United States Navy rigid airships. She was built from 1922 to 1923 at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, and first flew in September, 1923. She developed the Navy's experience with rigid airships, even making the first crossing of the North American continent by airship.
On September 2, 1925, Shenandoah departed Lakehurst on a promotional flight to the Midwest which would include flyovers of 40 cities and visits to state fairs. Testing of a new mooring mast at Dearborn, Michigan was included in the schedule.
While passing through an area of thunderstorms and turbulence over Ohio early in the morning of the 3rd, the airship was torn apart and crashed in several pieces near Caldwell, Ohio. Shenandoah's commanding officer, Commander Zachary Lansdowne and 13 other officers and men were killed.
September 2, 1930 -
Capt. Dieudonne Costes and Lt. Maurice Bellonte arrived in Valley Stream, N.Y. from Paris (3,852 miles) in 37 hours and 18 minutes, aboard the Question Mark - the first non-stop westbound fixed wing aircraft flight between Europe and America.
The flight was a commemorative return visit of Lindberg's historical flight to Paris in 1927.
Russ Columbo, was an American singer, violinist and actor, most famous for his signature tune, Prisoner of Love and the legend surrounding his early death.
On September 2, 1934, Columbo was shot under peculiar circumstances by his longtime friend, photographer Lansing Brown. Columbo was visiting him at the studio one day. In lighting a cigarette, Brown lit the match by striking it against the wooden stock of an antique French dueling pistol. The flame set off a long-forgotten charge in the gun, and a lead pistol ball was fired. The pistol ball ricocheted off a nearby table and hit Columbo in the left eye, killing him almost instantly.
Columbo's death was ruled an accident, and Brown exonerated from blame. His funeral mass was attended by numerous Hollywood luminaries, including Bing Crosby and Columbo's fiancée Carole Lombard.
Literally, with friends like this, who needs enemies.
September 2, 1945 -
In front of an assembled group of Allied sailors and officers, General Douglas MacArthur signed documents during the surrender ceremony aboard the USS Missouri on this date.
The unconditional surrender of the Japanese to the Allies officially ended the Second World War six years and a day since it began in Poland back in 1939. (Remember, those original Hitler World Tour T-Shirts are still quite valuable.)
September 2, 1969 -
Six weeks after landing men on the Moon, America's first automatic teller machine (ATM), at the time called the Docuteller, made its public debut on this date, dispensing cash to customers at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York.
And so it goes
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