Birthdays; Joseph Smith, Paul Hornung,
Ruth Roman, Otto Soglow -cartoonist of 'the Little King', Frank Morgan (the
Wizard of Oz actor) Jose Greco, Elizabeth Hartmann, Harry Guardino, Claudio
Scimone, Vincent Sardi of Sardi’s restaurant in NY, Harry Shearer is 73, Bob
Barker, Frederick Forrest is 80, Japanese Emperor Akihito is 83, France’s former
First Lady Carla Bruni is 48
1823- SANTA CLAUS BORN. This day the poem "A Visit from
St. Nicholas" was published anonymously in The Troy Sentinel, a New York
newspaper. . Several years after the authorship was claimed by a Bronx Bible
teacher, the Reverend Clement Clarke Moore, and he was celebrated in his time
as the father of Santa Claus until his death in 1863.
In an 1859 reprint of the famous poem famed cartoonist
Thomas Nast (who created the Republican elephant and Democratic donkey) drew
the first likeness of Santa Claus. Because of residual rivalry from the Civil
War claiming Santa was a Yankee or came from old Dixie, in 1867 Nast ended the
argument by declaring Claus’s true address to be the North Pole. The Santa we
all recognize was created by illustrator Haddon Sundblom for a Coca-Cola ad
campaign in 1934.
1893- Humperdinck's opera "Hansel und Gretel"
debuts in Weimar Germany.
1894- Claude DeBussey’s “Afternoon of a Faun” premiered in
Paris.
1912- France’s leading literary magazine Nouvelle Revue
Francaise rejected a new novel by an author named Marcel Proust “A La Recherche
du Temps Perdu” “Remembrance of Things Past”.
1912- The Max Sennett short comedy “Hoffmeyer’s Release”
premiered, the first comedy featuring the Keystone Cops.
1913- Young Italian Rudolph Valentino arrived in America to
seek his fortune. He was so poor that after a year he sent his parents a photo
of himself in a borrowed tuxedo to allay their fears. He worked as a nightclub
dancer and gigolo until becoming a Hollywood film star in 1921.
1930- Young actress Betty Davis signed her first contract
with Universal Studio.
1935- Walt Disney sent a detailed memo to art teacher Don
Graham outlining his plans for retraining his animators to do realistic feature
films.
circa-1935- This was the traditional day for Republic
Pictures to fire all their employees and hire them back after New Years so they
wouldn't have to pay them holiday pay. Republic billed itself on it’s business
cards as The Friendly Studio.
1947- Two Bell laboratory scientists invent the Transistor.
Nobody was quite sure what to do with the little thing until Texas Instruments
invented the portable radio in 1954.
1973- Soap Opera “the Young and
The Restless” premiered.
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