birthdays: Woodrow Wilson, Robert Sessions, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Hildegarde Neff, Edgar Winter, Stan Lee, Martin Branner the creator of Winnie Winkle, Johnny Otis, Martin Milner (1-Adam-12), Lew Ayres, Lou Jacobi, Terri Garber, Denzel Washington is 70, Maggie Smith, Sienna Miller is 43, Animator teacher Rick Farmiloe
1895- THE BIRTHDAY OF CINEMA- In Paris at the Grande Cafe des Capucines the Lumiere brothers combined Edison's kinetoscope using George Eastman’s roll film with a magic lantern projector and showed a motion picture to an audience in a theater. Back in the U.S. Thomas Edison thought the idea of projecting film in a theater was foolish and would never catch on. They called their device a Cinematograph, hence the word Cinema is born. The screening included dancers and people leaving a factory but the biggest reaction out of the audience was from shots of waves crashing on a rocky beach. The audience in the front row jumped for fear of getting wet.
1897- Edmond Rostands famous play Cyrano de Bergerac premiered in Paris. There really lived a poet-duelist in the 1640’s named Cyrano de Bergerac-Servigan but little was known about him. Rostand created the hopelessly lovesick big nosed hero who helps another man romance his girlfriend Roxanne.
1928- Last recording of Ma Rainey, The Mother of the Blues.
1941- Paramount Pictures called Max Fleischer to their business offices in New York. There they told him his contract with the studio would not be renewed and he was fired. Paramount had seized direct control of Max Fleischer Productions in May and put Max and Dave on notice. Dave Fleischer took the hint and left around Thanksgiving. Max was probably holding out that if Hoppity Goes to Town was a hit he might still work out an accommodation. But such was not to be.
1944- On The Town, a musical written by Betty Comden & Adolf Green and young composer Leonard Bernstein premiered in NY.
1945- In Los Angeles, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and his wife became U.S. citizens. Actor Edward G. Robinson was his friend and witness.
1950- The first stretch of the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles was dedicated.
1951- The British film A Christmas Carol with the memorable performance of Alastair Sim as Scrooge premiered in the USA.
1963-Happy Birthday the Daleks. In the first season of the BBC TV show Dr. Who, this day Dr. Who first met the Daleks.
1968- The Beatles White Album goes to number one on the pop charts.
1973-Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s book “The Gulag Archipelago” first published in Paris. The exposing of the Soviet prison camp system was a great success in the west. It gave the word for prison camp-“Gulag” into popular parlance.
1973- Pres. Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law. It saved animals like Bald Eagles, Buffalo, Grizzly Bears and Gray Whales from extinction.
1983- Dennis Wilson was the original drummer of the Beach Boys, but he had a pretty bad drinking and drug habit. He was once friendly with the Manson Family.
Taking time off from rehab for Christmas he and some friends sat on a yacht doing more drugs and booze near Marquesas Pier. Wilson recalled this very spot was where after breaking up with his first wife he threw her mementos overboard. He wondered if he could get them back and started “pearl-diving “, i.e.-diving holding your breath without any scuba equipment. But being stoned, he miscalculated the depth and drowned.
Dennis Wilson was 37. Of all the Beach Boys he was the only one who liked to surf.
1987- The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered. ________________________________________
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