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 61, Patton Oswalt is 49
1888- The first magazine published of the National
Geographic Society.
1900- Italian
opera composer Guiseppi Verdi died. On his instructions no music was
played at his funeral.
1918- Warner Bros. Pictures incorporated. The Brothers
Warner (originally Wonkolasser)- 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 animator 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
televiser system- the first true television image. The image was too small, and
resolution too weak and fuzzy to yet be more than a scientific curiosity. More
potential was seen in American Philo Farnsworth’s system of radio-transmitted
scan line images.
1927- The first Tarzan
movie premiered. A silent film, the first Tarzan was named Elmo Lincoln.
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. Disney later became an F.B.I. informant, but like
Reagan, it may have been after the F.B.I. reminded him of his attendance at
this little soiree'....
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.
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