Birthdays: Daniel Boone, Pres. James Knox Polk, Jean Chardin, Luchino Visconti, Ray Walston, Giusseppi Sinopoli, Burt Lancaster, Pat Buchanan, Steve Ditko, Ray Walston, Stephanie Powers, k.d. lang, David Schwimmer is 58
Today is the traditional day for Dio de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. It derives from the Aztecs, who believed the life you are now living is a dream. When you die, you awake to your real life.
1904- The London newspaper The Daily Mirror first published.
1920- The first US radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, began the nation’s first broadcasting with news of election results.
1928- The Little Carnegie Theater in New York opened. Until its closing in 1982, it was one of the premiere art-house cinemas.
1932- Young star Katherine Hepburn first shines in the film A Bill of Divorcement, co- starring with John Barrymore.
1947- Howard Hughes pilots his monster wooden airplane, the Hughes H-1 Hercules, known as “The Spruce Goose" for it's only test flight, one minute over Long Beach Harbor. Two hundred tons, Eight engines, a wingspan longer than a football field, it was conceived as an aid to win World War II, but was not ready to fly until long after the war was over. Today it is in an air-space museum in Oregon.
1950- 94 year old writer George Bernard Shaw died of injuries sustained from falling out of an apple tree he was pruning. His dying words were:" Oh well, it will be a new experience, anyway."
1964- CBS television purchased the NY Yankees Baseball club. This is one of the dumber business deals in entertainment history. CBS thought they were buying the world champion Murderers Row team, if they had done their research they would have known most the Yankee top stars including Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Yogi Berra were scheduled to retire. Within a year of the deal the Yankees went from first to last place, and played bad until George Steinbrenner bought them in 1977.
1966- Walt Disney stopped into St. Joseph’s Hospital for pre-op x-rays for an old polo injury to his neck. Examining the x-rays doctors discover a cancerous tumors covering most of his left lung. They recommend immediate surgery, but Walt left to work at the studio a few more days.
1966- What’s Up Tiger Lily? Opened. Producer Henry Saperstein (UPA) was stuck with a James Bond style movie with an all Japanese cast called International Secret Police: Key of Keys. He approached Lenny Bruce to redub the entire film as a comedy. Bruce turned it down because he would not be allowed to use four letter words. He suggested a new kid he saw in the Village clubs named Woody Allen. This became Allen’s first movie work. The Japanese stripper at the end credits was China Lee, the first Asian woman to be a Playboy centerfold. She was then dating comedian Mort Sahl.
1983- Yielding to nationwide lobbying, President Ronald Reagan created the Martin Luther King holiday in January. Arizona was the last state to officially celebrate the holiday.
2001- Pixar’s Monsters Inc. opened.
2012- Walt Disney’s Wreck it Ralph opened in theaters. Appearing in front of it was the short Paperman, by John Kahrs.
2016- Ending decades of frustration, the Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in ten innings to win one of the more exciting World Series of baseball. The last time the Cubs won a world series was in 1908.
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