Birthdays: King Henry V of England, John Dryden, Sir Issac Walton-author of the Compleat Angler, Melanie Griffith, Whitney Houston, David Steinberg, Bob Cousy, Jill St. John, Robert Shaw, Robert Aldrich, Sam Elliot is 81, Gillian Anderson is 57, Pamela Travers –the creator of Mary Poppins, Marvin Minsky, Eric Bana is 59, Audrey Tautou is 49, Philippe Bergeron is 66
Today was the ancient Egyptian festival of Opet, when they carried the statue of Amon-Ra, to the temple of his wife the goddess Mut for their annual conjugal visit. Because it happened during a full moon, the other name for the festival was the Honeymoon, the origin of the term.
1854- Henry David Thoreau published “Walden”, the first great work about nature conservation.
1896- Actors Equity formed, the first actors union.
1919- HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZORRO! Mexican California ranchers had issues with the provincial governors sent from Mexico City. Juan de Alvarado revolted against Gov Michel de Micheltorena in 1847. In the 1850s Joaquin Murrietta was a kind of Jesse James, Robin Hood bandit who rode through California Gold Rush Country. A book was written about him in 1854.
Then in 1919, Johnson McCulley, a Los Angeles man who made a living writing adventure stories for pulp magazines, took the bio of Murietta, and wrote a story of a rebellious ranchero, borrowing also from The Scarlet Pimpernel.
He named him Don Diego De La Vega, who rode at night as El Zorro, the Fox. This day The Curse of Capistrano, the first story of Zorro appeared in All Story Weekly magazine.
1944- Antoine Du Saint-Exupery, the author of the Little Prince, died when he crashed his fighter plane. For many years the official story was his plane crash was an accident. In 1998 experts found an old German journalist named Horst Rippert who confessed that as a Luftwaffe pilot he shot him down in air combat. He didn’t know it was Saint-Exupery and was an admirer of his writing. The main protagonist of The Little Prince was an aviator who crashed his plane.
1947 -The British government in an attempt to bolster revenue for their shattered postwar economy, announced a 300% import tariff on Hollywood films. The also placed a cap on the amount of revenue you could take out of the country. The Big Eight-Hollywood studios retaliate by stopping the export of movies to Britain. The British film industry has a heyday and Disney started producing films locally in Britain like 'Rob Roy Highland Rogue'.
1961- Marvel creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby first introduced their superhero team The Fantastic Four comic book. (Its dated today, but may have come out in November)
1963 – Britain’s rock & roll TV show, Ready Steady Go, premieres.
1967- Joe Orton, English actor/playwright (Leaf, Murdered), died at age 34.
1969- The Haunted Mansion attraction opened at Disneyland.
1985- PeeWee’s Big Adventure premiered. The first mainstream feature success of Tim Burton. The first music scoring by Danny Elfman.
1989- The Abyss opened, directed by James Cameron. Ed Harris, Mary Elisabeth Mastrantonio, and breakthrough CGI water effect.
1993- Heidi Fleiss, The Hollywood Madam arraigned for prostitution. The film community shuddered when she threatened to reveal the names of her clients in her “black book”. Most were suppressed except actors Charlie Sheen and Sean Penn who admitted as much early on. Fleiss wrote a memoir called “Pandering” and still thinks prostitution is an honorable profession. “I ran an 85% cash business.”
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