Bunkies, I'll think of all the summer days ahead and dream of all of you. But don't get creeped out, it won't be that kind of dream.
Today is the anniversary of the Cleveland, Ohio’s Cuyahoga River catching fire in 1969.
If that is too disturbing a holiday to commemorate, it's also National Chocolate Eclair Day.
June 22, 1940 -
The Merrie Melodies short, Circus Today, directed by Tex Avery, was released on this date.
After circling the globe, the Human Cannonball has stickers from England, China, France, Italy, Hawaii, Asia, the Alps, and it appears there are two stamps from Bali.
June 22, 1946 -
The Merrie Melodies short Hollywood Daffy, starring Daffy Duck, was released on this date.
This is the first directorial work of Hawley Pratt for the series. Since Friz Freleng refused to work with it, Pratt probably served as the solo director of the cartoon. .
June 22, 1955 -
Disney's first film about dog breeding, The Lady and the Tramp, was released on this date.
Walt Disney originally didn't want to include the 'Bella Notte' spaghetti-eating scene, now one of the most iconic moments in the whole Disney canon.
June 07, 1957 -
The Looney Tunes short, Boston Quackie, directed by Bob Clamplett and starring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck, was released on this date.
At the opening, the announcer says, "Friend to those who need no friends; enemy to those who have no enemies." This is a spoof of a line from the opening sequence of the TV series Boston Blackie: "Enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friends."
June 22, 1961 -
A great old-fashion thriller, The Guns of Navarone, directed by J. Lee Thompson, and starring Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, Anthony Quayle, Irene Papas, Gia Scala, Richard Harris and James Darren, was released on this date.
During shooting, Gregory Peck and David Niven became close friends, bonding initially over Peck's ability to consume vast quantities of brandy, which the actors used to "stay warm" while filming in a cold studio tank, without muffing a line. Their families visited each other frequently in later years, and Peck would deliver the eulogy at Niven's funeral.
June 22, 1965 -
The first screenplay of Woody Allen that was produced, What's New Pussycat?, starring Peter O'Toole, Peter Sellers (and co-starring Woody Allen) premiered in the US on this date.
Groucho Marx was to have played Dr. Fassbender when Warren Beatty was attached to the project.
June 22, 1966 -
Mike Nichol's first film, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, and Sandy Dennis, opened on this date.
This became the first movie in Academy Awards and cinema history to be nominated for every Academy Award category in which it was eligible, including Best Adapted Screenplay (Ernest Lehman ), Director (Mike Nichols ), all of the acting categories (Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal and Sandy Dennis ) and Picture of the Year (Ernest Lehman), since Cimarron in 1931.
June 22, 1971 -
Reprise Records released the fourth studio album by singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, Blue, on this date.
The album is considered Mitchell's most personal album, considering her situation and lifestyle choices at the time. She's always been an artist who allows her audience to live her life vicariously through her music, and in no case is that more evident than on this album.
June 22, 1968 -
This Guy's in Love with You by Herb Alpert topped the charts on this date.
Alpert sang this to his first wife in a 1968 TV special called The Beat of the Brass. The sequence was taped on the beach in Malibu. The song was not intended to be released, but after it was used in the TV special, thousands of telephone calls to CBS asking about it convinced label owner Alpert to release it as a single two days after the show aired.
June 22, 1984 -
Another underdog story directed by John G. Avildsen, The Karate Kid, starring Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita, and Elisabeth Shue, was released by Columbia Pictures on this date.
The yellow classic automobile that Daniel polishes in the famous "wax-on/wax-off" training scene, then later offered by Mr. Miyagi as Daniel's birthday gift, was actually given to Ralph Macchio by the producer, and he still owns it. The car is a 1948 Ford Super De Luxe.
June 22, 1984 -
The atmospheric black-comedy, The Pope of Greenwich Village, starring Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Daryl Hannah, and Geraldine Page, premiered on this date.
Michael Cimino was asked to direct this film, but didn't think it was a good fit for him. As a favor to the producers, who were on a deadline, he went to New York and did all the pre-production. When they were set to begin shooting, the producers again asked Cimino to direct, but considering the budget, he thought that they needed someone who could work faster than he was used to working. They hired Stuart Rosenberg.
June 22, 1993 -
Liz Phair released her debut album, Exile In Guyville, on this date. The indie rocker approached the project as a track-by-track response to The Rolling Stones' 1972 album, Exile On Main St.
Her candid perspective on sex and relationships earns her favor with critics and a growing fanbase and Guyville is hailed as one of the best albums of the decade.
Word of the Day
Today in History:
June 22, 1342 -
Bilbo Baggins returns to his home at Bag End, Shire Reckoning, after his 13 month absence, on this date.
After his return to his home he never spoke of [the ring] again to anyone, save Gandalf and Frodo; and no one else in the Shire knew of its existence, or so he believed.
June 22, 1633 -
The Holy Office in Rome strong-armed Galileo Galilei into recanting his scientific view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.
This was the second time he was forced to recant Earth orbits Sun by the Pope. Almost immediately, on October 31, 1992, the Vatican admitted it was wrong.
June 22, 1843 -
Mmmm....donuts.*drools*
One of the most popular credits American seafarer Hanson Crockett Gregory, of Rockport, Maine, with inventing the donut's hole in 1847 while aboard a spice ship. He was just 16 years old at the time. Supposedly, his mother's fry-cakes were not cooked in the center, so he cut the centers out so they would no longer have undercooked centers. His claim to be the creator of the sweet deep-fried, ring-shaped cake treat has been hotly disputed, despite its wide acceptance in Maine, which was early adopter of the doughnut in the 19th century and has since gone on to conquer the world.
June 22, 1906 -
Billy Wilder was born on this date. Not surprisingly, Mr. Wilder would go on to produce Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, all of whom frolicked giddily on the beach in bikinis. Mr. Wilder, you see, was comfortable in his season.
Not like some people. Some people had to force it. Some people had to prove something. Some people were like Brian Wilson, who was born the day before Summer (June 20) in 1942, and subsequently became a "Beach Boy" and released an album called Endless Summer.
June 22, 1918 -
The worst circus train wreck in history occurred just outside Hammond, Indiana on this date. A seriously over-tired engineer, Alonzo Sargent, fell asleep at the throttle of a trainload of empty Pullman cars and slammed into the rear of the 26-car Hagenbeck-Wallace circus train.
I believe it is appropriate to quote Joan Crawford at this time
85 of the 400 performers and workers on board were killed. There were no reports on whether or not the crowd at the previous days performance was greater than the gawkers at the scene of the wreck.
June 22, 1940 -
Eight days after German forces overran Paris, France was forced to sign an armistice on this date; hilarity ensues.
Adolf Hitler forces the instrument of surrender to be signed in the very railcar in which the French inflicted the humiliating World War I Treaty of Versailles upon the Germans. (In a bizarre co-incidence, it was also the anniversary of Napoleon's second abdication in 1815.)
June 22, 1941 -
The German Army invaded Russia on this date, quickly destroying five Russian armies and one fourth of the Red air force. At completion of the war in 1945, nearly 27 million Soviets were dead.
Thus ended the German- Soviet "Peace and Friendship" Treaty.
(Let's not discuss Hitler for the rest of the week.)
June 22, 1949 -
According to a former president, one of the most over-rated actresses of her generation, Mary Louise Streep, was born on this date.
Her accumulation of 21 Oscar nominations (3 wins) was accomplished over a period of only 38 years. Bette Davis scored 10 nominations (2 wins) over 28 years (all leading roles). Katharine Hepburn garnered 12 nominations (4 wins) after a relatively lengthy 48 years (all leading roles).
Imagine if she applied herself, how far her career would go.
June 22, 1969 -
The patron saint of perpetual bachelors of a certain age, Judy Garland died of a barbiturate overdose in her London apartment, either by accident or suicide.
Folks, she did not do a header into the toilet and drown.
June 22, 1993 -
All lives have triumphs and tragedies, laughter and tears, and mine has been no different. What really matters is whether, after all of that, you remain strong and a comfort to your loved ones. I have tried to meet that test.
The patron saint of long suffering political wives and good Republican cloth coats, Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan Nixon died on this date.
And so it goes.
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