Alfred Nobel: "Boom goes the dynamite!" Welcome to this the very special Nobel Prize-week edition of The Spark! Let others bask in the sham glow of the Oscars and Emmys. The Nobels are the Big Prizes -- as we'll see as we travel through the week. We're too excited to wait, so let's begin! Monday: hile almost nothing can top the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which will be awarded today, we'd like to think that National Taco Day comes close. Celebrate medicine by clogging your arteries, we say! That's not all, though. This week is also World Space Week, commemorating not only the 1957 launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik I, (the world's first artificial satellite), but also landmarks like SpaceShipOne, which, in 2004, became the first private craft to fly into space, winning the Ansari X Prize. And don't forget World Animal Day, a day to celebrate all our furry, feathered, and finned friends. (Many of whom them may be uninvited guests in the athletes' village at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India. Athletes and animals vying for the same living space seems a scenario tailor-made for Buster Keaton, whose 115th birthday we note. Keaton was the greatest of the clowns who populated silent film in the 1910s and 1920s; his physical feats and creativity were seldom equaled. And although his personal life hit the skids in the early '30s, he never stopped working, and he lived long enough to see his films rediscovered in the 1960s, and his genius acknowledged. Today is also the birthday of writer Damon Runyon (1880). Runyon started out as a street-wise sportswriter, reporter, and columnist in 1920s New York, and he came to know a vast number of characters from all strata of society, from gamblers and con men to socialites and evangelists. He portrayed them in a language all his own, in a series of short stories that paint the Big Apple as a giant amusement park. Those stories were adapted into the musical "Guys and Dolls," which opened in 1950 and became an instant classic. For all the characters Runyon described, few had the colorful grotesqueness of the cast of "Dick Tracy," the venerable comic strip that made its debut in the Detroit Mirror this day in 1931. Created by writer and artist Chester Gould, Detective Tracy fought such oddities as The Mole, Pruneface, "Itchy" Oliver, and Flattop Jones (not to mention Flattop Jr.). Gould died in 1985, but the strip continues to this day with its unique mix of grotesque villains who meet gruesome deaths. Fun for the whole family! Not as bizarre -- but with as colorful a cast of characters -- was the Orient Express, the luxury train that ran from Paris to Istanbul starting in 1883. In novels and films, the train's passengers are usually portrayed as committing espionage, blackmail, murder, or any number of other unsavory exploits. While the original train stopped running in 2009, a private company picked up both the route and the rail cars -- although nowadays the full route is offered only twice a year. We were going to remark that, if any of those characters on the Orient Express gets too nefarious, the Supreme Court is back in session today and could take care of them. But of course, the Court has no jurisdiction in Europe, so the point is moot. The Court does have jurisdiction in South Dakota, where, in 1927, the first carving began on Mount Rushmore. Over the decades, there have been calls for other presidents to join Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, but those petitioners are out of luck, since there's no more rock that can be sculpted. Tuesday: Today's Nobel category: physics. Who will follow in the footsteps of Einstein, Bohr, and the Curies? Today's birthdays: Larry Fine (1902), the most valuable of the Three Stooges, who provided the necessary buffer between Moe and Curly, Shemp, Joe, and Curly Joe. Ray Kroc (also 1902), the milkshake-machine salesman who, became the head of McDonald's and terrorized untold millions of cows. In 1922, cartoonist Bil Keane was born. Keane created "The Family Circus." Even though the strip has long since been taken over by Jeff Keane (the red-haired, oval-headed one), it has spawned innumerable parodies and is both loved and loathed by millions. Not realy "birthdays," but also making their debuts today were "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (which premiered on the BBC in 1969) and the first of the James Bond films, "Dr. No," which opened in 1962. (Let it be noted that Sean Connery was not the first Bond, though. Barry Nelson portrayed American secret agent "Jimmy Bond" in a 1954 television adaptation of "Casino Royale.") And not exactly a "debut," but something to be noted is that October 5 is the most common birthday in the United States. That makes sense, since it would mean that most of those children were conceived on New Year's Eve. (We'll let you do the rest of the math ...) All those children need education, so it's appropriate that Tuesday is also World Teachers Day. Wednesday: This time of year, it's hard to not think of baseball, especially with the Major League playoffs beginning today, so it's fortunate that there are two baseball-related events. In 1880, the Cincinnati Red Stockings were kicked out of the National League for selling beer. (Hard to imagine any franchise today going without beer sales.) And speaking of "going without," in 1945, restaurateur Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat were ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the World Series. Sianis took the occasion to curse the team, which went on to lose the Series -- to which the team has never since returned. (The Cubs, of course, won their last world championship in 1908.) A winning team needs chemistry, which is perhaps why the Nobel Committee chose today to award the prize for that discipline. (We're hoping to win the Nobel for strained transitions.) For those not so interested in baseball, but who are still looking for a pastime, we offer Balloons Around the World, dedicated to those artists who twist and sculpt inflated rubber bladders. If balloons don't tickle your fancy, you might head to Dallas, where the Fall Toy Preview opens, giving consumers and retailers a clue as to what will be the hot toys this holiday season. We have to wonder what will be this year's Cabbage Patch Kid, the red-hot can't-get-it doll that debuted 27 years ago tomorrow. If toys and balloons aren't your speed, you might screen "The Jazz Singer," to commemorate its 1927 opening. The film wasn't the first talking picture by any means, but the combination of Al Jolson and its story proved a powerhouse that was the death-knell for silent movies. If musicals aren't your speed, how about a movie starring Bette Davis? Davis may well have been the greatest actress in the history of the movies, garnering 11 Academy Award nominations (winning two), whose career spanned the decades from 1931 until her death on this day in 1989. Davis did a couple of Broadway musicals (which is unfortunate, given her overall lack of a voice), but neither of their scores made the "Great American Songbook," so you’'ll have to depend on Michael Feinstein, whose PBS series on the Songbook begins airing tonight. Thursday: Birthdays of the day: 1859: Thomas J. Wise. Wise was one of England's foremost bibliographic experts, who made a fortune selling rare books and first editions for outrageous prices. The books Wise sold were rare and first editions, but not in the way he alleged. The fact was that he forged most of them. (None of them, of course, would have been alleged to be by the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, which will be announced today.) Rssian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin turns 58 today. We assume he'll pose shirtless and perform feats of strength, as is his wont. We further assume he won't don a black t-shirt and try to make his biceps look huge, as does today's other birthday boy, Simon Cowell, born in 1959. And please, if you would, take a moment on this, the ninth anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan, to reflect on all the lives lost and changed forever. Friday: The late Harvey Pekar would have turned 71 today. Pekar's comic series "American Splendor" gave new life to the independent comics movement, as he turned his mundane daily life into art. Not so arty are the books of R.L. Stine, who was born in 1943. Stine and his innumerable ghost writers have turned out scores of young adult horror novels designed to scare kids and throw parents into throes of agony because their children aren't reading better books. In movies, actress Sigourney Weaver turns 61 (and it's a damn fine-looking 61, we may add), and the biopic of Secretariat opens, just four days after the 21st anniversary of his death. Secretariat was probably the greatest racehorse of all time, whose athleticism and personality won him millions of fans -- and many of whose racing records still stand, decades after they were set. One of the few awards Secretariat did not receive was the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced today. Saturday: Something for everyone today. It's the birthday of Lt. Col. Alfred Dreyfus (1859), the French Army officer who was falsely convicted of treason, and whose imprisonment on Devil's Island sparked international outrage and exposed a vast strain of anti-Semitism running through France's government and society. For the more sensationally-minded, it's the 120th birthday of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. "Sister Aimee" was a circus in herself, exhibiting equal measures of religious fervor and a genius for self-promotion -- to the point where she faked her own kidnapping in 1926. Over the decades, though, her fame faded, and she died of an accidental overdose of Seconal in 1944. (And, coincidentally, a television film was made about her fake kidnapping that starred Bette Davis as her mother.) As loud and boisterous as McPherson was, Jacques Tati (1909) was silent. Tati was a French writer/actor/director who achieved worldwide fame with his comedies featuring himself as the befuddled Monsieur Hulot, a gentle and quiet man who was baffled by the modern world. In December, "The Illusionist," based on an unproduced screenplay of his, will open in the U.S. -- starring a animated version of Tati. For the adventurous, Kona, Hawaii, will today feature the Ironman Triathlon World Championships, wherein competitors will take on a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike race, and a 26.2-mile run -- and then ask for more. If that sounds too strenuous, you might want to take a trip to Manhattan, where the ice rink at Rockefeller Center will open. Seems a bit early to be taking part in winter sports, but we suppose anything is possible in New York. Of course, even skating may seem a bit much for some, so we'll just remind them that it's Moldy Cheese Day, devoted to the tasting and enjoyment of smelly fromage -- the smellier and moldier, the better. Lastly, we note with sadness that, had history run a different course, we'd be celebrating the 70th birthday of the late Beatle John Lennon and the 30 years of music we've been robbed of because of his untimely murder. Sunday: To end the week, we suggest you dig out your fancy duds to celebrate Tuxedo Day, which marks the anniversary of the tuxedo dinner jacket making its debut in New York City in 1886. The coat got its origins when the members of the exclusive Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo Park, NY (and you wondered how the coat got its name ...) began looking for a new style of jacket that was less formal than a cutaway but was still dressy. If you’'re in a mood to travel, you might take your tux and head to London for the grand reopening of the Savoy Hotel. The Savoy originally opened in 1899 and was the last word in luxury and opulence, featuring electric lights and elevators, and bathrooms with hot and cold running water inside most of the room. The hotel's been closed since 2007 while it's undergone a $350 million renovation, which promises to bring it into the 21stst century and beyond. If London sounds a bit expensive, you might try traveling to Pyongyang to celebrate North Korea's Party Foundation. After all, it's the 65thth anniversary of the founding of Workers Party of Korea. If you run into Kim Jong Il, you might give him a lovely cake (since it's National Cake Decorating Day) -- though you might likelier be reminded that it's World Mental Health Day. But the Dear Leader isn't the only reminder of the varying degrees of mental well-being. For example, today would have been the 86thth birthday of film director Ed Wood. Wood is generally considered to be the worst director who ever lived, and his masterpiece, "Plan 9 from Outer Space," is thought to be one of the worst movies ever made. (We've seen worse, personally.) Wood was less mentally unstable than he was incompetent, so who else might we think of when speaking of poor mental health? How about the good citizens of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, who bought and dismantled London Bridge, moved it to their desert town, and reopened it on this day in 1971? Or the well-meaning folks who'll be traveling to Ashton, England, for the World Conker Championships? What is conkers?, you may ask. It's a game where two players take horse-chestnut seeds, run stringa through them, and then swing them at an opponent's conker. The first player to break the other's seed wins. We don't get it, but they love it. Our final note for the week is to call attention to the day's date: 10/10/10. 10+10+10=30, and "-30-” is the old newspaperman's code for the end of a story, which we'll take as our cue. See you next time! -30- Suggested Sites... Food Network: Taco Recipes - food doesn't get much simpler or better. International Buster Keaton Society - how many people still love Buster? Damfino! Roadside America: More and More Rushmore - Mount Rushmore: it's not just for South Dakota anymore. How to Make Balloon Animals - anything more difficult than a snake is beyond us. Sound Film History - let's hear it for the movies.

Directory categories: Civilian Space Travel, Animals, Insets, and Pets, Silent Movie Actors and Directors, Comic Strips, Passenger Trains

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The most famous shot in "A Trip to the Moon." Special effects have gotten slightly better in the century since. Welcome once more to The Spark, your weekly digest of events and happenings and information in the Yahoo! Directory to help you appreciate them more. As we begin this last Spark before the Labor Day holiday, we have to ask just where in the heck the summer went. Seems like it was Memorial Day about five minutes ago, and now kids are back in school and Fall is lurking around the corner. Anyway, let's look at the week ahead. Monday: It's a day for monsters and creators. In the former category, we have Benedict Arnold, who on this day in 1780, secretly promised to surrender the Continental Army's fort at West Point, NY, to the British. Arnold was an egomaniac, who was frustrated with the lack of attention he had received, and what better way to get attention than to commit treason? Speaking of outsized egos, we note that today would have been the 127th birthday of Huey Long, the "Kingfish" who ran Louisiana like a private fiefdom until he was gunned down in 1935. Long ruled the state as both governor and senator, and his campaign slogan of "Every Man a King" mixed populism and fascism in equal measure. But let us not mention only those who destroy, let's celebrate those who create. When thinking of monsters, one almost automatically turns to thoughts of Dr. Frankenstein and his creation, for which we owe thanks to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, born in 1793, she wrote her novel, "Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus," at the tender age of 18. And where would kids (and parents) be today without Babar? Laurent de Brunhoff (born in 1925), is son of Jean de Brunhoff, who created the elephant king, and who continued his adventures when his father died. Of course, those kids grow up to be teenagers and young adults, and where would they be without Robert Crumb, who turns 73 today? Crumb was in the vanguard of the underground comix movement of the 1960s, and he’s still active and creative, and his influence on modern pop culture is incalculable. And what would pop culture be without the Beatles? One hesitates to guess, but you can try to get a handle on it this week at the International Beatle Week in Liverpool, England. Of course, the Beatles played in the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York when they made their American debut in 1964, and that theatre is today home to the Late Show with David Letterman, which made its own debut in "the Ed" in 1993. A nice contrast to end the day. Gazillionaire Warren Buffett hits the big 8-0 today, and out in the Nevada desert, Burning Man begins. The best thing we can say about Burning Man is that it gets all those people who want to go to Burning Man in one spot away from the rest of us. Tuesday: More monsters. In 12, Gaius Caligula was born. Though the surviving sources are incomplete, Caligula was one of the most notorious Roman emperors of them all, known for the stories of his cruelty, instability, and sexual perversion. (We won’t deal with them here, but you can find the stories easily enough.) But Caligula isn't the only monster we note. On this date in 1888, Mary Ann Nichols was murdered and became the first of known victim of Jack the Ripper. And, of course, in 1928, Berlin saw the premiere of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s "Die Dreigoschenoper" (known in English as "The Threepenny Opera"), with its main character, the vicious murderer Captain Macheath, better known as "Mack the Knife." In 1959, Bobby Darin had a huge hit with that song (which is really odd, when one considers it's about a mass murderer killing people), and Friday will see the 51st anniversary of that song being banned by WCBS radio in New York City. At the time, there had been a series of teenage stabbings in the city, and the station didn't want to those crazy teens any ideas. And while marijuana possession is small potatoes compared to all of the above, we see that, in 1948, actor Robert Mitchum was arrested in a Hollywood drug bust, and was eventually sentenced to 60 days in prison, a scandal which in those days threatened to kill his career, but nowadays would rate only a passing mention on "Entertainment Tonight." All this talk of criminals and murderers makes us long for a hero, and fortunately, in 1942, "The Adventures of Superman" radio series began airing on the Mutual Broadcasting System. Wednesday: All we have for today is that in 1902, George Melies’s "A Trip to the Moon," was released in France and became the world’s first science fiction film. Thursday: So, in 490 BCE, the Athenian army was at Marathon, battling with Persia. The herald Pheidippides was sent to Sparta for help. He ran the 150 miles in two days, but because of religious laws, the Spartans couldn't send any help, so he ran back. In spite of not having the extra troops, Athens won the battle. And poor Phidippides took off again, this time running the 26.2 miles from Marathon to Athens to carry the news of the victory. He gasped out his last words, "We have won," and dropped dead of exhaustion. The lesson: do not underestimate the usefulness of warm-ups and warm-downs. In 1666, the Great Fire of London began in the wooden house of King Charles II's baker. By the time it ended three days later, more than 13,000 houses, including St Paul's Cathedral, had burned to the ground -- but amazingly, only six people had died. If you were living in England in 1752, tomorrow would have been September 14th. While most of the rest of the world had switched from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, the stubborn Brits had stuck to their guns. But, after nearly 200 years, there was an eleven-day discrepancy between the two calendars, and the English had no choice but to convert. There were actual riots, as people cried, "Give us back our eleven days!" But it was to no avail. Great Britain and her colonies were dragged kicking and screaming into the 18th century. Speaking of fighting against reality, in 1934, singer Russ Columbo accidentally shot himself to death. Columbo was a wildly popular singer and actor, and when he killed himself (with an antique gun that was supposedly unloaded), his friends thought the news would prove fatal to his mother, so for the last years of her life, those friends created an elaborate ruse, sending postcards and letters from far-off locations, and using his records to simulate a radio show. In 1944, Mrs. Columbo died, never suspected that her son had died a decade before. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: Let's talk about pioneers this weekend. First, there's Louis Sullivan, born in 1856. Sullivan is, for all intents and purposes, the man who invented the skyscraper. Since Chicago had had its own giant fire in 1871, Sullivan had the opportunity and the laboratory to erest steel-framed buildings that towered over anything built before. In 1833, 10-year-old Barney Flaherty answered an ad in "The New York Sun" and became the first world's first newsboy, which is why we celebrate Newspaper Carrier Day today -- at least for those relatively few Americans who still have newspapers carried to them. Sunday would have been the 163rd birthday of Jesse James. Jesse was not the first Western outlaw, but he was the first to become world famous while plying his dubious trade. 1885 saw the opening of the Exchange Buffet in New York City. It was the first self-service restaurant (read, "cafeteria") in the United States. We don't know if they served chocolate (we'd guess yes), but whether they did or not, it's World Chocolate Day Friday, so you can serve yourself and indulge. In 1888, George Eastman registered the trademark "Kodak" (for the clicking sound a camera's shutter makes) and received a patent for his camera that used rolled film. Eastman's "Brownie" camera came from the factory loaded with enough film for 100 photos. When the roll was complete, the customer would mail the whole camera back to the factory in Rochester, NY, where the pictures would be developed and sent back along with a new camera. Sunday is the 81st birthday of comedian Bob Newhart. Newhart is a two-time pioneer, having been in the forefront of the stand-up comedy revolution of the 1950s, when he transformed himself from "button-down accountant" to a comedian with the top-selling album in America. Then, in the '70s, his sitcom, "The Bob Newhart Show," set new standards for writing, ensemble acting, and just plain goofiness. The weekend before Labor Day always marks the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. While it's easy to criticize the telethon for its corniness and out-of-date show business aesthetic, it's impossible to deny Lewis's commitment and ability to raise money -- nearly a billion-and-a-half dollars since 1966. Lastly, we'll note the 98th birthday of the late avant-garde composer John Cage with 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. Suggested Sites... United States Military Academy at West Point - for sale, cheap. Contact Gen. Arnold. Official R. Crumb Site - keep on truckin'. The Beatles - the core of the apple. Dangerous Minds: Early Technicolor - the good folks at Kodak bring you color movies from 1922. Jerry Lewis Telethon - mock him if you will, but he does good work.

Directory categories: Revolutionary War, Children's Literature, Rock and Pop Artists, Musicals, Running

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We celebrate the return of The Spark -- and the anniversary of the invention of champagne (Photo by geishaboy500) Welcome back! As the little girl said in "Poltergeist 2," "Wee’rrrrreee baaaa-aack!" Our new mission here at The Spark is to point you to the Yahoo! Directory, America's favorite source of aggregated and categorized Internet information for more than a tenth of a century. Look, we know you're busy, we're busy, everyone's busy. But there are times when you want to know a bit (or a lot) more about an event or topic, and that's where we come in. Since 1995, we've searched the web to find the best sites and information in order to present them to you. The beauty part of it is, every week, we'll give you an overview of what's happening and what's coming up. If you simply want to know what's going on, we're one-stop shopping. But if you see something that piques your interest, well, there's plenty more lurking behind the links. So, here we go! Monday: Today is the 241st anniversary of the founding of Los Angeles. In fact, it's a good fortnight for civic anniversaries, as August 12th marks the 177th birthday of Chicago. The London Tube turns 140 today. It was the world's first subway, and is ridden by around three million people daily. As long as we've already mentioned Los Angeles and Chicago, we should note that they have subways, too. Chicago's El (which isn't a "subway," but you know what we mean ...) came along in 1892, so Chicagoans had to wait only 60 years to hitch a ride, but Angelenos weren't able to ride underground until 1990. (We won't mention the old Southern Electric Red Cars that were replaced by the freeway system.) We note the birthdays of some of our favorite actors today. Myrna Loy (1905) was voted "Queen of the Movies" in the 1930s (in the same poll that named Clark Gable "The King"). Ann Dvorak (1912) had a shorter career, but remains indelible for what performances she did give. She was once described as being able to do everything Bette Davis could -- plus being able to sing and dance -- but she never got the right roles and faded. Peter O'Toole celebrates his 78th birthday. He's been nominated for eight Oscars (the most ever without a win) for movies like "Lawrence of Arabia," "The Stunt Man," and "My Favorite Year." And if you should feel a need to celebrate any of those birthdays, you might break out your favorite board game and head for Amish country, since this whole week will see the World Boardgaming Championships in Lancaster, PA. Tuesday: Even a multi-gazillion dollar business like college sports got a start somewhere, and today's the anniversary of that beginning: in 1852, Harvard and Yale competed in a boat race that was the first intercollegiate athletic event in the U.S. More birthdays today: Mystery novelist P.D. James hits 90, singer Tony Bennett is 84, homemaker extraordinaire Martha Stewart turns 69, and both film director John Landis and actor Martin Sheen hit the big 6-0. And while it’s not a "birthday," per se, the National Basketball Association was founded on this day in 1949. Wednesday: More birthdays: jazz legend Louis Armstrong would have been 109 today if he could only have laid off the reefer and laxatives, and, in an odd juxtaposition, both President Barack Obama (49) and recently-retired journalist Helen Thomas (90) are celebrating today. If only they could have talked things over with a glass of champagne (which was invented by Dom Perignon on this date in 1693), maybe Helen wouldn't have had to retire. Thursday: We note some travelers today. In 1620, the Mayflower left Southampton, England, with its passenger list of sour Puritans who were eager to see that no one in the New World had a good time. Neil Armstrong, who was the first man on the moon in 1969, is 80 today. Movie director John Huston, who traveled from Hollywood to Ireland to Africa making films would have been 104 today. And actress Marilyn Monroe shuffled off this mortal coil -- whether by her own hand or a conspiracy -- on this day in 1962. Friday: A mixed bag today. We begin by noting the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which kind of throws all the other events into perspective. In happier anniversaries, in 1889, London’s Savoy Hotel opened. At the time, it was one of the most luxurious hotels in the world, run by César Ritz (yes, that Ritz, as in "Puttin' on the ...") and featuring chef Auguste Escoffier in the kitchen. The Savoy is currently undergoing a three year, $150 million renovation, and will reopen in October. It's also pioneering television comedienne Lucille Ball's 99th birthday and the 50th anniversary of Chubby Checker's first appearance on national TV doing his (one and only) hit, "The Twist." Oh, and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival opens today. It's the world's largest convocation of performing artists and writers from around the planet. The whole town will be one giant stage for the next three to four weeks, so consider that either an invitation or a warning. Saturday: It's really something for everyone today. For those who like football, well, this weekend, the 2010-2011 season begins, with the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony, followed by Sunday's pre-season opener featuring Cincinnati and Dallas (boy, that ought to be a real barn-burner). For those who like a more violent pastime, may be present UFC 117 in Oakland? For those who like intrigue and sex, well, you can commemorate the 134th birthday of World War I's superspy Mata Hari. And for those of you who are skeptical of all of the above, you can celebrate the 82nd birthday of James (The Amazing) Randi, professional skeptic and debunker of any number of hoaxes and scams. Sunday: To finish the week, may we offer the suggestion of having a breakfast of waffles (since it is National Waffle Day) and taking the time to watch an "Little Rascals" comedy featuring birthday boy Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer? Well, that's all for this week. See you again next time with the random events and facts that you've gradually come to love over the course of the last five years. Suggested Sites... The Red Cars of Los Angeles - the largest urban transportation network in the world -- and then it vanished. World Boardgaming Championships - I wanna be the top hat. How Champagne is Made - the bubbles tickle my nose. Edinburgh Fringe Festival - from genius to hooey, it's all here. The Life and Death of "Our Gang's" Alfalfa - a short, and (unfortunately) unhappy one.

Directory categories: Classic Hollywood, Mystery Authors, Jazz, Apollo Project, Conspiracies

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There's some kind of mad genius in advertising gum on matchbook covers (Photo by Oliver Hammond) What's so great about William Wrigley Jr., anyway? Sure, he founded his own company at age 29. And he was plucky, too, we suppose. He started as a soap salesman, wooing his customers with free baking soda. The baking soda became more popular than the soap, and Wrigley changed his business. He gave away chewing gum next, but again the freebies proved more popular. Sounds like Mr. Supersalesman didn't even know what his customers really wanted. Granted, he did learn from his mistakes. He switched to gum sales, launching products like Juicy Fruit and Wrigley's Spearmint in 1893. But how big could the gum business be? Well, Wrigley invested wisely and made good use of advertising, turning his small company into an international confectionery empire. And then there are the skyscrapers, mansions, hotels, and university research centers. And there's that island he bought and preserved from overdevelopment. And then, that Chicago neighborhood that's named for him. And the baseball team -- wait, teams. Okay, we confess -- now that we've chewed it over, we're impressed. Suggested Sites... The Wrigley Company - official site of the confectionery giant, founded April 1, 1891. Includes histories of the company and of Chewing Gum. Wrigley Mansion Club - visit Wrigley's Phoenix, Arizona estate and pretend you're a chewing gum magnate. USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies - research and conservation programs at the University of Southern California. Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Gardens - a Catalina Island tribute to its benefactor. Wrigleyville Guide - highlights of the Chicago neighborhood bearing the Wrigley name.

Directory categories: William Wrigley Jr., Chewing Gum, Wrigley Field, Wrigley Building, Ballparks

Archived under: 19th Century, Advertising, American History, Anniversaries, Ballparks, Baseball, Buildings, Business, Chewing Gum, Chicago, Food and Drink, Wrigley

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Ben Hecht, acting in "Angels Over Broadway, which he also wrote, directed, and produced He was born to poor Russian immigrants on the Lower East Side of New York City. He grew up to become a hard-boiled reporter in the Chicago of the 1910s and '20s, in the years when corruption, graft, gangsters, and politicians all went hand-in-hand. He co-wrote one of the most important plays in American history, and by the time he died, he'd written the screenplays for more than 70 films (including the highest-grossing film ever), won two Oscars (including the first one ever awarded for screenwriting), and became known as the man "who personified Hollywood." His name was Ben Hecht, and we note his 116th birthday on February 28. Hecht's writing reflected the unlikely mixture of his various careers as reporter and scriptwriter. He was a voracious reader of French philosophers, and was friends with such literary giants as Theodore Dreiser, Maxwell Anderson, and Carl Sandburg. His years as a newspaperman introduced him to characters from all strata of society, from murderers to senators. "I haunted streets, whorehouses, police stations, courtrooms, theater stages, jails, saloons, slums, madhouses, fires, murders, riots, banquet halls and bookshops." he wrote. "I ran everywhere in the city like a fly buzzing in the works of a clock, tasted more than any fit belly could hold, learned not to sleep, and buried myself in a tick-tock of whirling hours that still echo in me." Spurred by a telegram from screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, ("Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around."), Hecht found himself in Hollywood, turning out such screenplays as "Underworld" (for which he won the Oscar) and "Scarface," which set the template for virtually every gangster film that has followed. Like most serious writers of the period, though, he saw screenwriting as slumming. The big prize for Hecht was Broadway, where such heavyweight playwrights as Eugene O'Neill and Bernard Shaw tackled big ideas. In 1928, he and fellow reporter Charles MacArthur hit the big time with their play "The Front Page." Although the play was widely condemned as crude and vulgar, even those who criticized it acknowledged its realism. It marked the first time that Americans were shown on stage as they were in life -- swearing, sweating, spitting -- even using the bathroom. Audiences couldn't get enough of it, and its authors soon found themselves the toast of the town. Hecht migrated between New York and Hollywood -- where he would stay only long enough to collect the outrageous salaries that would finance his more serious writing the rest of the year. In 1939, he embarked on his most legendary escapade, writing the script for "Gone With the Wind." Producer David O. Selznick, frustrated over his inability to get a coherent script out of seventeen writers, locked himself in an office with Hecht and director Victor Fleming -- neither of whom had read the original book. Over the next five days, fueled by only bananas and peanuts, Selznick and Fleming acted out the novel while Hecht batted out the script on a typewriter. Hecht spent the next 25 years turning out scripts, both credited and uncredited, on such classic films as "Spellbound," "Strangers on a Train," "A Farewell to Arms," "Cleopatra," and "Casino Royale." But despite his own preferences for the 35 books he wrote, it's his screenwriting, brash, bold, and original, for which he's remembered. Suggested Sites... Books and Writers: Ben Hecht - biography of Hecht, with excerpts from his books. Wikipedia: Ben Hecht - details on his life and many, many works. Mythical Monkey: Scarface - the history of the great granddaddy of all gangster pictures. IMDb: Ben Hecht - writing and directing credits. The Atlantic: The Making of "Gone With the Wind" - five days in Selznick's office.

Directory categories: Ben Hecht, Screenwriters, Screenwriting, Playwrights, Film History

Archived under: 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, Authors, Ben Hecht, Birthdays, Broadway, Chicago, Entertainment, Filmmaking, Gone With the Wind, Hollywood, Movie History, Movies, Screenwriters, Writers, Writing

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