Birthdays: Antonio Stradivari, Karl Maria Von Weber, Ty Cobb, George Stevens, Ozzie Davis, Diane Disney-Miller, Anita O’Day, Paul Klee, Betty Grable, Willy Brandt, Keith Richards is 81, Leonard Maltin is 73, Alyssia Sanchez-Vaccario, Ray Liotta, Katie Holmes is 45, Brad Pitt is 59, Steven Spielberg is 77, Billy Ellis is 22.
1812- The first volume of stories Children’s and Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm came out. The world learns of Rapunzel, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.
1917- Universum-Film AG (UFA) was founded as a consolidation of private film companies in Berlin.
1919- in France, composer Cole Porter married divorcee Linda Thomas. They stayed together all their long lives even though she knew that he preferred male companions.
1937- Mae West did a comedy routine on national broadcast radio with Don Ameche about Adam & Eve that was considered so suggestive CBS banned her from their network. At the same time she got fined by the networks for joking about ventriloquist puppet Charlie McCarthy:" Hmmm…he’s a yard long and all wood."
1956- TV Game show To Tell the Truth made its debut. Bud Collyier hosting, and panelists like Kitty Carlisle, Bennett Cerf, Orson Bean and Dorothy Kilgallen as panelists.
1960- A young, eccentric man named Jerry Garcia was dishonorably discharged from the U.S. Army. He had done things like drive a tank into a field then walking away. He had been AWOL 8 times in one year. After leaving the army, Jerry Garcia became a hippie musician in San Francisco. In 1966 formed the rock band the Grateful Dead.
1961-" In the Jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps to-night… a winoweh, etc. " this song by the Tokens goes to #1 in pop charts.
1962- UPA’s Mr Magoo’s Christmas Carol directed by Abe Levitow, premiered on NBC. Songs by Bob Merrill and Jules Styne, who went on to write musicals like Funny Girl.
1964- DePatie-Frelengs The Pink Phink, the first Pink Panther cartoon short.
1966- Chuck Jones 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' premiered.
1970- An atomic leak at a Nevada weapons stockpile caused hundreds to flee.
1975- Rod Stewart announced he was leaving the band Faces, for a solo singing career.
1978- SAG strikes Hollywood again for residuals. (again...)
1983- The film of Jean Shephard’s A Christmas Story opened to tepid reviews and weak box office, but on cable and video sales it became an annual holiday classic.
1984- Christopher Guest married Jamie Lee Curtis at Rob Reiner’s house .
1984- Pixar’s first short The Adventures of Andre and Wally-B released in theaters. Directed by Alvy Ray Smith and animated by John Lasseter.
1997- Comedian Chris Farley was found dead in his Chicago apartment in the John Hancock Tower, surrounded by empty food containers and porn magazines. The chubby 31-year-old had been partying for 17 straight hours doing cocaine, heroin, vodka and crystal-meth. His last words were to an exhausted prostitute:" Please don’t leave me.” Farley idolized the late John Belushi, who had also died of drugs and hard living at age 31. One writer recalled a drunken Farley once turned to him and asked:" Do you think Belushi is in heaven?"
1988- Don Bluth’s The Land Before Time opened.
1998- Dreamworks The Prince of Egypt”, opened wide in theatres.
2015- Star Wars VII, The Force Awakens opened. J.J. Abrams reboot of the old Star Wars franchise became a box office phenomenon. It earned $247 million in its opening weekend and ended way over a billion and a half dollars.
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