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Posts Archived Under Westerns
| BOO! | By Dave Sikula
Mon, October 25, 2010, 12:01 am PDT |
It's not enough that he has to
hang from a broken ankle; he
also has to hold his breath for
three minutes and get out of
a locked cage.That's scary.
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Even though this week is dominated by the spooky holiday at the end of it, let's see what's happening between now and then.
Monday:
We'll start with artists, in particular two who couldn't have been more different. In 1881, Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, better known as just Picasso - was born in Malaga, Spain. In 1907, the flat perspectives and angular bodies of his "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" - hit the art world like a bomb, and signaled the birth of cubism. Over the next 66 years, Picasso's creativity and originality were unrivaled, as he produced some 50,000 works and became the most famous artist in the world. (And, as a bonus, dressing as one of his canvases would make a fine Halloween costume.)
On the other hand, we have Roy Lichtenstein, whose 87th birthday falls on Wednesday. In the early 1960s, Lichtenstein started copying panels from comic books, plagiarizing the original work of such (better) artists as Jack Kirby, Russ Heath, Tony Abruzzo, Irv Novick, and Jerry Grandenetti, rarely, if ever, giving the original artists credit - or any of the huge fees he collected.
Thinking of more pleasant topics, we turn to leaf peeping, and remind you that we’re at the peak of the fall foliage season. Throughout the northern latitudes - especially in New England - tourists and natives are driving through the countryside watching leaves die and turn eye-popping shades of yellow, gold, and red. It seems like magic, which is appropriate, given that this is International Magic Week.
Speaking of magic, tonight is the Broadway premiere of Alfred Uhry's play "Driving Miss Daisy," starring James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, and Boyd Gaines. Seems odd that a 23-year old play that spawned an Oscar-winning film has never appeared on Broadway, but that's showbiz.
Jones and Redgrave are huge stars, but it's the birthday of one of the smallest: Billy Barty, born on this day in 1924. Barty was born with a form of dwarfism called cartilage-hair hypoplasia and stopped growing at 3'9". He started working in movies at the age of three, almost always playing a baby while still well into his teens, but in his adult years, he was a tireless worker for the rights of little people - and turned in a series of fine performances in such films as "The Day of the Locust" and "Foul Play."
Tuesday:
Today is the anniversary of the 1881 "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" in Tombstone, Arizona. While the fight itself didn't actually take place in the corral, lasted only 30 seconds (although approximately 30 shots were fired in that time), and was essentially the result of a feud between the Earp and Clanton families, it's probably the most famous gunfight in Western history. It's the centerpiece of at least seven movies, and numerous television shows and novels.
We also note a number of debuts today. First is the 1982 premiere of "St. Elsewhere." "St. Elsewhere" was one of the most innovative television series in history; it combined gripping medical drama with in-jokes, bizarre plot twists, and possibly the most notorious finale in TV history, when it revealed that the show's entire six year run had been the imaginings of an autistic teenager. That said, it remains at the center of all television series, as the "Tommy Westphall Universe" theory posits that "90 percent of all television took place in Tommy Westphall's mind."
While we can't be certain that the "Back to the Future" trilogy takes place in Tommy's mind, we can be sure that, in the wake of Michael J. Fox's recent reappearance as Marty McFly, all three movies are making their Blu-Ray appearance today.
In the world of sports, the NBA season opens tonight. We'll be turning our attentions to Boston, where the traitorous LeBron James will be playing his first official game with the Miami Heat against the even-more-evil Celtics. We'll also be looking toward the Staples Center, where your world champion Los Angeles Lakers will be receiving their championship rings before hosting the Houston Rockets.
If that's too much basketball for you, you might consider a trip to Secaucus, New Jersey for a taste of Jewish culture at Kosherfest. (We assume the meat and dairy exhibits are kept in separate halls.)
Wednesday:
If Secaucus is just too darn far to travel, we suggest you snuggle up at home with a spud and some suds to commemorate both National Potato Day and American Beer Day, all while watching game one of the 2010 World Series, which begins tonight as the Texas Rangers travel to San Francisco's AT&T Park.
Thursday and Friday:
One team will win the Series and one will lose, but other winners and losers dominate the next two days.
In the former column, we find Edith Head, born on October 28, 1897. Head was the Hollywood costume designer par excellence, designing wardrobes for over 400 films, garnering 35 Oscar nominations and eight awards. But Ms. Head isn't our only winner today. The American people scored a win in 1886, when the Statue of Liberty was unveiled on what had been Bedloe’s Island, but has been called "Liberty Island" ever since.
Another winner is "The Sound of Music," the 1965 mega-musical that is (bafflingly to us) still staggeringly popular. In fact, adjusted for inflation, it’s still the third highest-grossing film of all time, having taken in the equivalent of more than $1.13 billion. So popular is it, in fact, that the cast will appear on Oprah Winfrey's show on Friday for a 45th anniversary reunion - including co-star Christopher Plummer, whose disparagement of the film as "The Sound of Mucous" is legendary.
Sort of stuck between "winner" and "loser" was Anton LaVey, who died October 29, 1997. LaVey was a writer and occultist who founded the Church of Satan, but the Church itself was less about "devil worship" than about the material world and the individual. We assume Mr. LaVey left plans for a suitable funeral, but, regardless, Saturday will be your own chance to think ahead, as it's Create a Great Funeral Day.
Firmly in the "loss" column is the tragedy that occurred due to the crash of the stock market on October 29, 1929, an event that plunged the planet into a Great Depression that only a world war was able to remedy.
Saturday:
The day before All-Hallow's Eve (aka "Devil's Night") gives us plenty of opportunities to celebrate. For example, it's the 72nd anniversary of Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre's radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' "The War of the Worlds," a broadcast that scared the pants off a good portion of the country. Many who tuned in late became convinced that Martians had indeed invaded Earth and the end of the world was nigh. Given that Welles was famous for his ballyhoo, we wonder how much of the panic was hoped-for.
Speaking of fear, we know we'll be glued to the tube this morning to watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert hold their "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on the National Mall in Washington. (And we'll finish the day by tuning into "Saturday Night Live" to watch Jon Hamm return once more to his hosting duties.)
Of course, the most terrifying prospect (unless you're a dentist) is the thought of all that candy tomorrow, accompanied by the prospect of toddlers hopped up on sugar. The antidote for this is a candy so horrid that no one would actually eat it. While the best solution is the worst of all candies (circus peanuts), the sweet in the number two position gets its turn in the spotlight today, National Candy Corn Day. Buy a big bag of the vile stuff and your kids will be begging for healthier treats.
Sunday:
Today is Halloween, which overshadows everything else, but there's still plenty more of interest.
For example, the San Francisco 49ers will take on the Denver Broncos in London's venerable Wembley Stadium to demonstrate American football to the Brits one more time. (Though the way the Niners have been playing so far this season, it could turn Wembley into a chamber of horrors.)
And since the dead will walk tomorrow, we note the anniversary of the body of the late Soviet leader Josef Stalin being moved in 1961 from its premium spot beside the preserved corpse of Lenin.
Two of our own personal favorites passed in this day. In 1925, French silent film comedian Max Linder committed suicide with his wife. At his peak in the 1910s, Linder was almost as famous and as popular as Charlie Chaplin. He turned out a series of droll comedies that contrasted with the adventures of Chaplin's "tramp" character by portraying a sharp urban sophisticate. Unfortunately, Linder's film career was interrupted by World War I, and the subsequent health and mental problems he suffered from his service led to his death.
On this day the following year, Harry Houdini died. Houdini was one of the greatest showmen of the Golden Age of Magic. While not the most skilled magician, he was unparalleled in giving his audience a full evening's entertainment, which included magic, escapes, and the exposure of fraudulent mediums. During his last week, Houdini suffered from appendicitis and fractured his ankle (and still performed his "Chinese Water Torture Cell" escape, which involved being suspended by his ankles) and Despite a temperature of 104ºF and intense pain, he refused to be hospitalized until he collapsed on stage (and even then, he finished the show). After a week in Detroit's Grace Hospital, he died of peritonitis brought on by his ruptured appendix.
Somewhere between horror and entertainment lies the musical "The Scottsboro Boys," which opens on Broadway tonight. One of the final collaborations between writers John Kander and Fred Ebb (the latter of whom actually died in 2004), the musical tells the story of nine black Alabama teenagers who were unjustly accused of raping two white women in 1931. The case became a cause célèbre, sparking years of trials, appeals, retrials, and Supreme Court rulings, ultimately ending in a series of convictions, pardons, and acquittals.
After all that death and destruction, let's end the week on some lighter notes. For example, Halloween 1941 saw the completion of the sculpting of the faces on Mt. Rushmore. And today, in addition to being Halloween, is also, appropriately enough, National Knock-Knock Day, dedicated not only to those first jokes many of us learned, but also to the kids who'll be knocking on your door tonight - some of whom may well be collecting for UNICEF, since this is National UNICEF Day.
See you in November!
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Welcome back to The Spark. It's a brand new week with some brand new chances to dig deep into upcoming events and anniversaries. Let's begin, shall we?
Monday:
Today is International Chocolate Day, a chance to indulge your sweet tooth and not feel guilty -- or, at least, unduly guilty. We don't know if the holiday is timed to coincide with the 1857 birthday of Milton Snaveley Hershey (the man who founded both the Hershey chocolate company and the town of Hershey, PA), but if it isn't, it's a sweet coincidence. (Of course, it's also Fortune Cookie Day, so it may not be honoring him, after all.)
In our youths, this time of year was always looked forward to anxiously, as the new television season was starting. For example (as we’ve noted previously, both "Law & Order" (1990) and "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" (1969) began their seemingly endless runs on this day, as did "The Muppet Show" in 1976.
The season still starts this week, but it's nowhere near as exciting as it used to be. Regardless, it's not without interest. For example, Martha Stewart's new show premieres on the Hallmark Channel, and both Oprah and Mary Hart begin their final seasons on their respective shows. (In the latter cases, we guess that hoping for such events paid off -- especially with this being Positive Thinking Day).
Maybe the most notable thing to happen on this day was in 1814, when lawyer Francis Scott Key observed the British attacking Fort McHenry in Baltimore and was so moved by the stars and stripes surviving intact that he penned a poem that soon became known as the "Star-Spangled Banner," which was eventually adopted as the American national anthem in 1931.
Tuesday:
We begin the day by noting some passings. First, in 1927, Isadora Duncan died. Duncan is usually considered the mother of modern dance. Her bohemian lifestyle and exuberant dancing made her world famous -- as did her death, when a scarf she was wearing became tangled in the wheels of the automobile she was riding in and broke her neck.
Next is Irving Thalberg. Thalberg was a film producer at Universal and MGM in the 1920s and '30s, who turned out such classic films as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "The Big Parade," "The Broadway Melody," "Tarzan the Ape Man," "Grand Hotel," and "A Night at the Opera." After his premature death in 1936 at the age of 37, F. Scott Fitzgerald immortalized his in his novel "The Love of the Last Tycoon," which painted him as one of the few men who was able to hold the formula for successful motion pictures in his head.
On a lighter note, it was on this day when major league baseball owners, in an attempt to break the players' union, cancelled the rest of the 1994 season – including the World Series.
Not all the news of this day is bad, though. For example, in 1961. Wendy Thomas, namesake of the eponymous hamburger restaurant chain, was born, just a year after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries -- or OPEC -- was founded -- well, maybe that second one isn’t so good, after all.
How about we finish the day by remembering the 1985 premiere of "The Golden Girls," or by telling you to get out the vote, as there are primary elections in Minnesota, Delaware, Washington DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin?
Wednesday:
Today’s birthdays include:
Marco Polo (1254), the Venetian who was one of the first Westerners to explore China and Central Asia, and who later inspired kids playing in pools to shout his name.
In 1907, it was Fay Wray, the actress who so captivated the original King Kong and whose screams pierced the eardrums of the world. (Peter Jackson even wanted to cast her -- at the age of 96 -- in his ill-fated remake of "Kong," but she unfortunately passed away before filming could begin.)
Jackie Cooper (1922) was one of the first child stars of the talkie era. Beginning at age 7, he worked as an actor, writer, producer, and director until his retirement in 1989. He was the youngest performer ever to be nominated in a leading role for an Academy Award (for 1931's "Skippy").
"Skippy" was based on a comic strip of the same name that also gave its name to the peanut butter brand (a fact which has caused a some controversy over the years), but peanut butter also plays a weird part in the death of Jumbo the elephant. Jumbo was the star attraction at the London Zoo in the 1860s and '70s. P.T. Barnum, seeing the marketing possibilities, bought Jumbo in 1882 for $10,000, and brought the pachyderm to America where he became a huge hit -- even lending his name to large-sized items. Unfortunately, Jumbo was hit by a train in 1885 and crushed. His skeleton was donated to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, but his hide was stuffed and eventually donated to Tufts University, where it was displayed until 1975, when it was destroyed by a fire. But Jumbo's ashes were recovered and now reside in a 14-ounce jar of Peter Pan Crunchy Peanut Butter in the office of the college's athletic director, where Tufts athletes still rub the jar for luck.
Three literary birthdays: James Fennimore Cooper (1789), who wrote "The Last of the Mohicans" and other adventure novels, and who was later eviscerated by Mark Twain, who called him one of the worst writers who ever lived.
Robert Benchley (1899) was a master of an-but-dead art form, the short humorous essay. Working initially as drama critic for the original "Life" magazine and "The New Yorker," he eventually became a character actor whose droll cameos enlivened any movie.
And in 1890, Agatha Christie was born. The mistress of mystery, she turned out 80 novels featuring Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and others, along with a number of plays -- one of which, "The Mousetrap," has been running continuously in London since 1952 -- to become (according to Guinness), the best-selling author of any kind in history, with over four billion copies of her books sold.
In 1902, the trio of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers (pronounced "EE-vers," if you please; not "EVV-ers"), and Frank Chance pulled off their first double play for the Chicago Cubs. They were later immortalized in a poem by columnist Franklin P. Adams.
More TV. In 1949, "The Lone Ranger" premiered, just a day after the 35th birthday of star Clayton Moore, who made a lifelong career of portraying the masked man.
Speaking of birthdays and TV stars, in 1971, "Columbo" first aired, the day before Peter Falk turned 44. Falk will be forever identified with the detective whose cigar, rumpled raincoat, and equal amounts of annoyance and inquisitiveness endeared him to millions.
The 1965 debut of "I Spy" was notable for two things. One was that it did a lot of its filming overseas, an unheard-of practice for the time. The other -- and far more important one -- is that it was the first series to feature a black actor (Bill Cosby) and a white actor (Robert Culp) as co-stars in equally important roles. There had been other shows featuring black actors, but, until then, all had traded in stereotypes and comic relief.
Finally, in 1971, Greenpeace was founded, dedicating itself to increasing public awareness of such issues as global warming, deforestation, overfishing, commercial whaling and nuclear power.
Thursday:
Lots of music today. First of all, the 1782 death of Farinelli. Farinelli was the stage name of Carlo Maria Broschi, who was probably the greatest castrato of all time. While it seems barbaric now, castrati were boys with beautiful soprano voices whose, um, manhood was cut short before adolescence in order to maintain the purity of their tone with the power of masculine singing. He traveled throughout Europe, becoming (somewhat surprisingly) a ladies' man, and retired a wealthy man.
While Farinelli sang opera, it was different from what we know today; not really the sort of thing that's much heard these days at the New York's Metropolitan Opera House, which opened in 1966 at Lincoln Center with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's "Antony and Cleopatra."
About as far away as you can get from the Met, Riley B. King was born in 1925 on a plantation in Mississippi. At the age of 21, Riley began singing on the radio in Memphis, and gained the nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy," which was later shortened to "B.B.," and combined with his last name, gave us B.B. King, one of the greatest blues singers and musicians in history.
At the other end of the spectrum from the blues and opera are cheesy animated musical TV specials such as the kind brought to us by Jules Bass, who was born in 1935. With his partner Arthur Rankin, Bass formed an animation company that gave us such "classics" as "The Year without a Santa Claus" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
Such shows could really drive a person to drink, so if that's the case, you may want to head to Denver, where the 2010 Great American Beer Festival will get underway today, featuring brewers large and micro, bringing you the finest in suds. (Not to mention Oktoberfest, which begins in Munich, Germany, tomorrow for the 200th time.)
We don't know if they indulge in the occasional brewski, but if they do, Queen Elizabeth will be meeting Pope Benedict today, and that would seem to be the right time to hoist one.
Friday:
Since April 2, 1956, many Americans have been following events in Oakdale, IL with great enthusiasm, but that all comes to an end today when "As the World Turns," the venerable soap opera, airs its last broadcast. Its death is another nail in the coffin of daytime drama, which once gave millions hours of entertainment, but is now just a relic of an earlier era or broadcasting and American history.
Speaking of American history, it was on this date in 1787 that the U.S. Constitution was ratified, setting in motion a series of debates that continue to the present day as to just what the Founding Fathers did mean. With such confusion, it's no wonder that in 1859, the otherwise-harmless Joshua A. Norton declared himself "Emperor Norton I" of the United States. Norton was humored by his fellow San Franciscans and treated with honor, and was given all the perks of royalty with none of the responsibilities. When he died in 1880, he was given a funeral whose procession stretched for two miles and drew 30,000 spectators.
A less inglorious send-off was received by guitarist Jimi Hendrix, who died of an overdose of sleeping pills in a London hotel in 1970. Hendrix's flashy and virtuosic musical style has influenced almost every rock and jazz guitarist since.
Lastly, we note that Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, begins at sundown.
Saturday:
Beginnings of note today:
In media, in 1851, The New York Times began publishing. While the "Grey Lady" is still the "paper of record," we also have to wonder if it, soon, will go the way of the soap opera. (We hope not, as we still enjoy settling down on a Sunday with the Times.) And, in 1927, the Columbia Broadcasting System, better known as CBS, went on the air for the first time. On another network (ABC) in 1964, "The Addams Family" premiered. The series, based on the New Yorker cartoons of Charles Addams, took a delight in black humor and the wholesomely perverse, and inspired the current Broadway musical.
In 1895, Daniel David Palmer gave the first chiropractic adjustment in history to one Harvey Lillard, in Davenport, IA, which is now the home of the Palmer College of Chiropractic.
In 1905, in Stockholm, Sweden, Greta Gustafsson was born. By the age of 19, as Greta Garbo, she was one of the greatest movie stars in history. Iconic and reclusive, she grew tired of the film industry and retired in 1941, and spent the half-century of her life avoiding the press and public.
Not so reclusive is birthday girl June Foray. Born in 1917, Foray is the voice behind most of the female characters in the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, not to mention playing both Rocket J. Squirrel and Natasha Fatale on the "Rocky and Bullwinkle" show. And she’s still working in her 90s!
One of the unluckiest men in sports history was born in 1925. Harvey Haddix was a pitcher for, among other teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates. On May 26, 1959, Haddix accomplished something no other pitcher in history has ever accomplished: he pitched 12 innings of perfect baseball; that is to say, he faced the first 36 batters without allowing a baserunner. Unfortunately, the Pirates being the Pirates, they didn't score any runs for Haddix. The 37th batter got on on an error, and was bunted to second. The no-hitter was still in place when Hank Aaron was walked, but the next batter, Joe Adcock, hit a home run to end the game (and even that went screwy went Adcock passed Aaron on the basepaths and was called out).
That game was tragic for Haddix, but nowhere near the tragedy of actress Peg Entwistle who, in 1932, despondent over her lack of success in the movies, committed suicide by jumping from the letter "H" in the famous Hollywood sign.
Sunday:
We end the week by letting you know that it's the beginning of TV Turnoff Week, which asks parents and kids to turn off the boob tube and read, play, talk, or just sit in quiet contemplative silence. Given that it’s Adam West's birthday (1928), his culpability in the "Batman" TV series of the '60s, makes it easy to think about never watching television again.
If you do watch, though, the Martin Scorsese-produced "Boardwalk Empire" premieres tonight on HBO. Being that it's from Scorsese, you can almost predict that it's about gangsters -- this time in the wide-open Atlantic City of the 1920s.
Speaking of thugs and villains reminds us that, in 1959, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was prevented him from visiting Disneyland. Police authorities cited security concerns, though many speculated it was punishment for his being the top Communist. (Though to some of us, having to go to the Magic Kingdom at all would be punishment indeed.)
To round out the week, we give our hopes that, at some time during the day, you'll celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day by shivering your timbers, avasting your keelhaul, or doing whatever it is buccaneers do.
See you next time!
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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.
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Excerpt from "The Chuck Norris Catalog,"
for all your Chuck Norris needs
(Photo by raindog808) |
Some say he was born in a log cabin that he built himself. Legend, perhaps, but the one sure thing is that his birth occurred on March 10, 1940, in Ryan, Oklahoma -- which makes him 70 years old tomorrow.
Who are we talking about? Chuck Norris: the man, the legend, the Internet phenomenon. How Norris grew from martial arts champion and movie star to the guy more or less in charge of the universe is unclear. Most sources cite Conan O'Brien's show, but how does a natural phenomenon like Chuck or an earthquake or a hurricane "start"?
In such a case as this, "facts" don't seem to matter; Chuck is. Any man who can count both Whoopi Goldberg and George W. Bush among his friends is truly a force to be reckoned with.
So who cares if he did or didn't count to infinity -- twice? All we know is that at the age when most men have settled into quiet retirement, he could still kick our ass -- and yours -- and anyone else's.
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"That's Fronk-en-steen!" |
Today, as we celebrate actor Gene Wilder's 76th birthday, we also celebrate a man whose role in cinematic history is legendary.
His first screen appearance came in 1967, as as one of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway’s hostages in "Bonnie and Clyde." An early friendship with Mel Brooks led to Wilder's career-defining role as a con man luring unsuspecting theater-goers into attending a musical biography of Adolf Hitler in "The Producers." This friendship would lead to two more iconic films for Brooks and characters for Wilder in "Blazing Saddles" (as The Waco Kid) and "Young Frankenstein" (as Dr. Frederick "Fronkensteen"). The pair would even receive an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for "Young Frankenstein."
Wilder would also work with Woody Allen and Sidney Poitier, among other directors, over the years. The latter directed "Stir Crazy," which paired Wilder for the first time with long-time co-star Richard Pryor. The two would go on to make five movies together, all of which are buoyed by their comic timing and easy interplay. Pryor's personal and health problems would cause his film career, partnership with Wilder, and life to end prematurely, however, and Wilder also lost his wife, "Saturday Night Live" comedienne Gilda Radner to cancer in the late 1980s.
Today, after a brief Emmy-winning stint on "Will and Grace," Wilder is mostly retired from acting. He published a memoir in 2005, as well as novels in 2007 and 2009. He also remains active in cancer activism and fundraising, and is in remission from his own battle with lymphoma.
Wilder is best known to young audiences as the manic and creative Willy Wonka in the 1971 film "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." At the end of the movie, Wonka tells Charlie, "Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted … he lived happily ever after."
Et tu, Mr. Wilder. Et tu.
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