Birthdays-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Kaiser Wilhelm II,
Charles Dodgson-better known as Lewis Carroll, Eduard Lalo, William Randolph
Hearst, Samuel Gompers, Jerome Kern, Skitch Henderson, Donna Reed, Bridgette
Fonda, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Kate Wolf, Ross Bagdasarian a.k.a. David Seville-
creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks, James Cromwell, Mimi Rogers, Keith
Olbermann, Frank Miller is 59, Patton Oswalt is 47
1900- Italian opera composer Guiseppi Verdi died. On his
instructions no music was to be played at his funeral.
1918- Warner Bros. Pictures incorporated. The Brothers
Warner (originally Wonskolasser)- Sam Albert, Harry and Jack were the sons of
Jewish immigrants who had moved from Poland in 1882 and after some time in
Canada, set up a bicycle repair shop in Ohio. In 1903 Albert and Harry bought a
movie theater and began showing flickers. After their move to Hollywood, their
first movie was Five Years in Germany.
Throughout the 1920’s their little studio survived making pictures with dog star
Rin Tin Tin. They called him The Mortgage Lifter, because the profits from his
pictures paid their bills. Later they bought Vitagraph from James Stewart
Blackton, and gambled on the new Sound technology. When they made The Jazz
Singer with Jolson, Warner Bros became a major studio.
1926- Englishman John Logie Baird demonstrated his televisor
system- the first true television image.
1927- Charlie Chaplin’s short comedy The Circus
premiered.
1944- WAS WALT A RED? Walt Disney donated money and may have
attended a tribute to cartoonist Art Young in New York who had died three weeks
before. Art Young was a political lefty and a close friend of John Reed and
Louise Bryant, founders of the American Communist Party. The F.B.I. noted the
memorial to Young was sponsored by the socialist newspaper The New Masses and
other attendees included progressives like Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes,
Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg.
Walt was already
a founding member of the Hollywood Society for the Preservation of American
Ideals, a group of conservative Hollywood celebrities meant to counteract the
rampant Hollywood Liberals.
1948- The Wireway Company announced the first tape
recorder for sale using the new magnetic tape. It cost $150.
1997- First day shooting on the Cohen Bros. film The Big
Lebowski- The Dude Abides.
No comments:
Post a Comment