On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...
1873 WC Handy famous musician is born in Alabama. The first credited use of his music in a movie was in the original Scarface (1932). That same song "St Louis Blues" is his most popular with Hollywood and has been used in dozens of movies since including The Aviator and The Great Gatbsy recently. But Blue Jasmine got all feisty and went with "Aunt Hagar's Blues" instead.
1889 Playwright George S Kaufman is born. He wins two Pulitzers and his work has been adapted to films many times including classics like You Can't Take It With You, Dinner at Eight, The Man Who Came to Dinner and Stage Door.
1907 Oklahoma becomes the 46th State...
Happy 109th birthday Oklahoma. Given how deep red that state is politically, though, do they really desrerve the joyful musical Oklahoma!? They probably don't even appreciate it! On this day Burgess Meredith is born. He works consistently for several decades and classic roles include The Penguin on "Batman," and Mickey Goldmill in the Rocky film series (Oscar nomination) and Harry Green in The Day of the Locust (Oscar nomination).
White Parade1922 The great novelist José Saramago is born. Film adaptations of his work include Enemy and Blindness.
1928 Clu Gulager is born. He specialized in westerns and then horror films. He's still with us so happy 88th birthday, Clu!
1934 The White Parade starring Loretta Young which is about a nursing school, opens in theaters. Later it's nominated for Best Picture and Sound
1942 Donna McKechnie the original "Cassie" in A Chorus Line is born
1945 The Lost Weekend opens in theaters. On this same day a new theatrical short opens called "The Friendly Ghost" introducing Casper to the world.
1954 Allison Anders is born. One of the early women to challenge Hollywood's "all male" take on who should sit in the director's chair. Her breakthrough was Gas, Food, Lodging (1992) and her next film is the TV remake of Beaches with Idina Menzel in the Bette role
1957 Serial killer Ed Gein kills for the last time and is captured soon thereafter. Gein's case will inspire Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) three years later and other serial killer movies thereafter.
1958 Marg Helgenberger of China Beach and CSI fame is born. Also had a key supporting role in Erin Brockovich (2000)
1959 The Sound of Music opens on Broadway and will be nominated for 9 Tonys, winning 5 of them including Best Musical. Six years later the beloved film version will be nominated for 10 Oscars winning 5 of them including Best Picture.
1960 Clark Gable, 'The King of Hollywood,' dies of cardiac arrest at age 59. The Misfits (1961) would be his last film. After his death the public would learn that he fathered a child with Loretta Young (the child she'd always claimed she adopted). His only other child, a son, would be born to his widow Kay Williams four months after his death.
1964 Harry Lennix is born in Chicago. His career though he works a lot is not what we thought it would be after that intense breakout in Titus (1999).
1965 Valeria Bruni Tedeschi is born in Turin Italy. Key films include 5x2 (2004), Human Capital (2014), A Castle in Italy (2013 with then boyfriend Louis Garrell) and her César winning role in Normal People are Nothing Exceptional (1993)
1967 Lisa Bonet, eldest "Cosby Kid" is born. Later briefly attempts movie stardom with Angel Heart and then eloped with Lenny Kravitz. Currently she mostly does TV guest work and has babies with her husband, Aquaman star Jason Momoa
1970 Martha Plimpton, who the nation first fell in love with as a feisty smart teenage actress (The Goonies, Mosquito Coast, Running on Empty) and girlfriend of River Phoenix, later became a respected stage star with multiple Tony nominations, and now a very funny sitcom star (Raising Hope, The Real O'Neals) - so many acts in that career!
1972 Funny girl Missi Pyle (Spring Breakers, Gone Girl, The Artist, Captain Fantastic) is born. If you've never read her awesome guest posts here, please do.
1977 Insanely talented Maggie Gyllenhaal is born in New York City. Key works include: The Honorable Woman, Secretary, Happy Endings and Sherrybaby
1981 Merrily We Roll Along opens on Broadway for an unexpectedly short run abruptly ending the string of hits that made Sondheim a household name. There's a fine documentary about this production called Best Worst Things That Ever Could Have Happened... opening Friday. More on that soon
1984 Just the Way You Are starring Kristy MacNichol opens - anyone remember that one?
1990 Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award when news surfaces that they didnt sing at all on their Grammy winning hit "Girl You Know It's True". Home Alone opens in theaters
2007 Beowulf opens giving us demonic nude Angelina Jole in animated form
2012 Future Best Picture nominee Silver Linings Playbook opens in limited release part of the 1-2 punch alongside The Hunger Games that made Jennifer Lawrence the #1 female star of this particular era. In all the excitement she'd win the Oscar (quite prematurely if you ask us!)
What were you feeling at this particular moment?