Birthdays: Gore Vidal, Mikail Lermontov, Chubby Checker, James Herriot, Eleanor Duse, Emily Post, Leo McCarey the director of the Marx Brothers classic film Duck Soup, and many Laurel & Hardy shorts, Steven Reich, Tommy Lee, Neve Campbell, Clive Owen is 60,
Cartoonist teacher Harvey Kurtzman would be 100!
1855- American James McNeill Whistler arrived in Paris to study painting. He had gotten into West Point for a military career, but dropped out after a year. Later, he joking told friends "If I hadn't identified phosphorous as a gas, I'd be a major general by now!'
1903- Dr Horatio Nelson Jackson, the first man to drive an automobile across the American continent, was given a ticket in his home town for driving faster than 6 miles an hour.
1910- English comedians Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel first arrive in the U.S. with a touring British vaudeville company, the Fred Karno Troupe. Fred’s advice to his comics, “when in doubt, fall on your arse!”
1934- Walt Disney held a story meeting on their planned Snow White movie. They discussed the bed-building sequence, and one where Snow White teaches the Dwarfs how to pray. (both never made)
1941- Warner Bros. THE MALTESE FALCON "premiered. Screenwriter John Huston asked if he could direct an adaptation of this old Dashell Hammett story, which had been already made into movies twice. This version became the most famous. The name was kept despite producer Hal Wallis wanting to change it to THE GENT FROM FRISCO.
1951- The Shot Heard Round the World- Bobby Thompson's bottom of the ninth, last out, home run which enabled the N.Y. Giants to defeat the Brooklyn Dodgers for the National League Pennant.
1953- Chuck Jone’s “Duck, Rabbit, Duck” The third of his hunting trilogy.
1955- 'Good Morning, Captain.' The Captain Kangaroo kid show debuted on television.
1955- The Mickey Mouse Club TV show premiered. “Who’s the leader of the Band that’s Made for you and me…?”
1957-Walter Lantz's The Woody Woodpecker TV Show debuted.
1957- Jayne Mansfield met Greta Garbo and asked for her autograph.
1961- The Dick Van Dyke Show premiered. It made stars of Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore and was written by ex-Sid Caesar writer Carl Reiner and Rocky & Bullwinkle writer Alan Burns. Carl Reiner originally wanted to be the star, but after one show, producer Sheldon Leonard told him, “We’re going to find a better actor to play you.” So in came Dick Van Dyke. The show was a favorite of Orson Welles and Stan Laurel.
1967- Folksinger and union activist Woodie Guthrie died of Huntington’s Chorea. He was 55. His family scattered his ashes in New York Harbor, then went to Nathans on the Coney Island Boardwalk for hot dogs, Woody’s favorite.
1967- Voice actor and vaudevillian Pinto Colvig died of lung cancer. He was 75. He was the original voice of Disney’s Goofy, Pluto the dog, Grumpy and Sleepy on Snow White, Gabby in Fleischer’s Gulliver’s Travels and the first Bozo the clown.
1980- David Lynch’s “ The Elephant Man” with John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft opened.
1992- Bald Irish pop star Sinead O’Connor caused a fuss by tearing up a picture of the Pope on the show Saturday Night Live. She was later booed off stage during a concert at Madison Square Garden.
2003- The Siegfried and Roy magic show in Las Vegas ran to sell out crowds for years. Today the act finally came to an end after a large Bengal Tiger attacked Roy Horn and tore his throat open in front of an audience. Most thought it was part of the act. Roy survived, but they wisely decided to retire.
Roy Horn died in 2020 of covid at age 75. Siegfried (Fishbacher) died the following January.
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