Birthdays: Tyrone Power, Karl Marx, Elizabeth Cochrane called Nellie Bly, Soren Kierkegard, Alice Faye, James Beard, Jim Kelly, Pat Carroll, Patrick Ewing, Jack Pierce (Hollywood makeup man who designed Frankenstein), John Rhys Davies is 80, Lance Henriksen is 84, Brian Williams, Floyd Gottfredson, Michael Palin is 82
In Mexico and parts of the US, this is Cinco de Mayo (see 1862 below)
In Japan this is a holiday known as Children's Day.
National Teacher's Day.
National Cartoonist's Day.
1862- CINCO DE MAYO- Battle of Puebla-Mexican Juarista army under Zaragosa defeated a French invasion force sent by Napoleon III. One of the heroes of the battle was a soldier named Porfiro Diaz. After Benito Juarez’s presidency Diaz made himself dictator and reigned 38 years until being ousted in the Mexican Revolution in 1910.
1889- THE PARIS WORLD EXHIBITION opened. This exposition was what the Eiffel Tower was built for: it was the centerpiece of this World's Fair to mark the centennial of the French Revolution.
Americans remembered it as the event where American painting first stood out on the world stage, despite being given a small gallery space between Bosnia and Denmark. The judging of the artwork was controversial. Here they are trying to show the world the uniqueness of American painting, yet with not a single Copley, Bierstadt, Thomas Eakins, or Winslow Homer was accepted.
James McNeill Whistler considered himself American although he lived most of the time in London. When the show was announced, he patriotically entered a dozen paintings, but the American judges rejected them all. He angrily re-submitted them as a British artist and won a gold medal.
1891-Carnegie Hall in New York opened. One old musician told me the acoustics are so perfect that you can fart in the trumpet section, and you'll be heard in the second balcony.
1932- Charles Revson founded the Revlon Cosmetics Company.
1934-Actress-singer Helen Kane sued Max Fleischer and Paramount Pictures over Betty Boop. Ms. Kane claimed the Fleischers copied her to create Betty’s distinctive “Boop-oop-a-doop”. This day she lost the case after the Fleischers proved Ms. Kane had herself taken the idea from a African-American singer named Baby Esther.
1945- Happy Birthday Yosemite Sam! Hare Trigger, the first cartoon to feature the red mustachioed desperado premiered.
1953- Broadway Director Jerome Robbins was riding high after directing hits like On the Town and King & I, when he was labeled a Communist. To save his career, this day he testified before Joseph McCarthy’s House UnAmerican Activities Committee. He admitted he had been a communist party member and named names. One actress he finked on, Margaret Lee said,” I’ve just been stabbed by a wicked fairy”. Ironically, Jerome Robbins went on to direct two of his biggest hits “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and the Fiddler on the Roof using Zero Mostel, Beatrice Arthur and Jack Gilford, blacklisted actors who all hated him. During a break in rehearsal on Fiddler, one actor said, “I’d like to kick Jerry in the balls!” Beatrice Arthur replied, “Jerry has no balls.”
The famed actor/director Orson Wells observed that “Friend informed on friend not to save their lives but to save their swimming pools.”
1961- Alan Shepard became the first American in space on board Friendship VII. The rocket took him 115 miles into space but not high enough to achieve an orbit. That was done one year later by John Glenn. Shepard was kept on the ground in his capsule for so long he had to pee in his suit. In the upside-down position the fluid ran up his back and puddled up in his helmet behind his head. NASA realized it needed to make modifications on the space suit….
1975- Anne Rice’s novel The Interview with The Vampire first published.
40th Anniv. 1984- Cartoonists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were sitting around one night. Over beers they tried to conceive the most ridiculous superheroes mag they could think of. Something with Ninjas, Mutants, and Teenagers. They had just enough from Peter’s tax refund to print one limited edition. This day at a regional Comicon in Portsmouth New Hampshire, the first edition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out and sold out in two hours. It became a monster hit and spawned TV series and movies.
2006- Walt Disney Company formally acquired Pixar Studio.
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