Birthdays: Heinrich Heine, Mary Todd Lincoln, Mike Mosley, Darryl Zanuck Jr., George Schulz, Christopher Plummer, Steve Buscemi is 66, Jamie Fox is 53, Lynn Holly Johnson, Wendy Malick, Taylor Swift is 33, Dick Van Dyke is 97
1895- Gustav Mahlers 2nd Symphony “Resurrection” premiered.
1928- Leopold Damrosch conducted the premiere of George Gershwin's -"An American in Paris."
1940- Fleischer Popeye cartoon "Eugene the Jeep" .The character would give its name to the new army General Purpose vehicle- G.P. or "Jeep".
1951- One of the legendary Hollywood producers was Walter Wanger- starting in 1921 his films included The Sheik, Stagecoach, Queen Christina, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Silk Stockings and Cleopatra. His wife was beautiful starlet Joan Bennett, but at this time she was having an affair with her agent Jennings Lang. On this day Wanger surprised Hollywood by pulling out a gun and shooting Lang in the nads right in the MCA studio parking lot.
In true Hollywood fashion Wanger got off, sentenced to just a few months in an honor ranchero compound and was soon back to work. Contributors to pay his legal fees included the Jack Warner, Walt Disney and Sam Goldwyn. Jennings Lang recovered and later produced House Calls and High Plains Drifter. After all, who needs balls to be a producer?
1961- Jimmy Dean’s folk ballad Big Bad John went to #1 of the country charts. Later Dean had his own TV variety show featuring the Muppets, and started Jimmy Dean’s Pure Pork Sausage Company.
1969- Arlo Guthrie’s hit song Alice’s Restaurant released.
1971- Disney’s film Bedknobs and Broom Sticks opened.
1996- In Terry Gilliam’s sci-fi apocalypse epic the Plague of the 12 Monkeys was unleashed today, a virus pandemic that killed 4/5ths of the world’s population and drove the remainder underground.
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