On this day: Joan Allen, JCVD Movies, and Jacqueline Susann
Saturday, August 20, 2016 at 10:27AM 
On this day as it relates to showbiz history...
1858 Charles Darwin first publishes his theory of evolution. That one that caused Spencer Tracy so much trouble in Inherit the Wind.
1882 Tchaikovsky debuts his "Overture of 1812". It's still used in movies two centuries later in a truly diverse range of movies including The Iron Lady, Laurence Anyways, V For Vendetta and The Blind Side
1918 Novelist Jacqueline Susann is born. Her trashy best-sellers become hit movies and even turn Oscar heads: Valley of the Dolls (1967 best score nomination) and Jacqueline Susann's Once is Not Enough (1975, best supporting actress nomination)
1931 Fright haired boxing promoter Don King is born. Sixty-six and a ½ years later Ving Rhames wins the Golden Globe playing him in a TV movie. Remember that sweet but odd moment when Ving Rhames invited Jack Lemmon on stage with him to share the award he had just lost for 12 Angry Men? King's been played by other actors too including Mykelti Williamson (Ali), Tim Meadows (SNL), and in forthcoming movies he'll be played by Reg E Cathey (Hands of Stone) and Keith David (The Last Punch)
I promise you there's incredible actressy stuff after the jump including a must-see clip...
1941 The Little Foxes premieres in New York City. It's one of Bette Davis's best movies. You must see it if you haven't. It was a chilly joy to watch during our 1941 Smackdown. (It's also worth noting that The Little Foxes is coming back to Broadway with The Lovely Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon alternating parts. Yes, we will try to see it twice because that is all too exciting.)
1942 Isaac Hayes is born. Twenty nine and a ½ years later he wins the Oscar for "Theme Song for Shaft"
1956 Masterful actress Joan Allen is born. How's this for a frightening statistic - she still hasn't won a Globe, a BAFTA, an Oscar, a SAG, or an Emmy despite nominations for each. The only major awards body that's awarded her greatest is The Tonys for "Burn This" in the 1980s which is receiving a revival this coming February on Broadway. No word yet on who will play Allen's winning role. You must watch the clip below of Joan Allen winning the Tony. Look who gave her the prize and look who she was nominated against. It's a multi-orgasmic actressexual moment in showbiz history
1958 David O. Russell is born to terrorize actors whilst helping them snag Oscar nominations
1960 Connie Francis begins work on classic Spring Break movie Where the Boys Are which is released that December. She sings the original title song which becomes a hit but Oscar ignores it.
1964 "The Harmonica Incident" between Manager Yogi Berra and his New York Yankees occurs. Apparently this is quite famous among sports fans but if it hasn't been movie-fied how am I to know of this?
1974 Amy Adams is born. Academy voters & The Hollywood Reporter can't get enough of her
1982 The Beastmaster opens in theaters
1983 Andrew Garfield is born. Still hasn't delivered the career we expected post-Social Network. Damn you, Spider-Man!
1992 Sting and Trudie Styler are married
1993 Jean Claude Van Damme is a Hard Target in movie theaters this day. Dat mullet, doh
please don't read anything into these gifs of Jean Claude choking and spanking a rattlesnake.
1997 A 50 mile stretch of Interstate 65 is renamed "Hank Williams Memorial Lost Highway". For whatever reason there seems to be a renewed interest in Hank Williams last days of late with movies like The Last Ride and I Saw the Light
1999 Jean Claude Van Damme returns in Universal Soldier: The Return but without Dolph Lundren so sad face.
2010 Nanny McPhee 2, Piranha 3D both open but they're no match for the second weekend of The Expendables at the box office starring Jean Claude Van Damme and other former action stars.
If it's your birthday today have a good one. If it's not, Happy Unbirthday to you!
Reader Comments (16)
Nat: The Harmonica Incident would definitely be a THING if they ever get around to making an exhaustive, Walk the Line style, Yogi Berra biopic (along with the Yogi Bear lawsuit and a couple other key points), but the issue is that Berra's iconic style of speaking necessitates it to be, tonally, less Selma or 42 and more Florence Foster Jenkins or Ed Wood.
Ohmygod that clip is everything! Thank you for that and BURN THIS to your brain people lol. Turner Allen Danner Jackson McDormand hot damn
LOVE.
(Allen clip.)
(Obviously.)
Oh wow, that Tony lineup is insane!
Glenda in shoulderpads is EVERYTHING.
OMG Danner certainly looks like a young Gwynnie there,Allen ruined her face though.
Andrew Garfield should be neck and neck with Eddie Redmayne by now.
kinda awkward that they sat the nominees next to each other no? I could understand Danner next to McDormand, since they were co-stars (interesting that the latter was nominated for lead actress, not supporting like Kim Hunter at the Oscars, btw)... but that's not even how they did it!
I'm surprised they didn't put a large picture of Glenda in her seat to keep up the tradition of her not showing up to awards ceremonies.
LOVED both clips! Joan looks great, excepting the unfortunate frizzy 80's hair, and what a line up! I've even seen one of those performances! Glenda Jackson in Macbeth (of course she was brilliant). Appalling that her awards tally is so small, but then if they didn't even nominate her for The Upside of Anger she's obviously undervalued.
The original Where the Boys Are is great fun until it takes that dark turn towards the end but it doesn't ruin it and the song fits the film perfectly. The remake isn't even worth speaking of.
The Little Foxes is brilliant Bette. It's her day tomorrow on TCM's Summer Under the Stars and this film is scheduled along with the usual expected excellent titles, Now Voyager, Baby Jane, etc., but the one I'm looking forward to the most is the incredibly obscure and unimaginatively named "Housewife" which I expect will be nothing special but a hoot nonetheless.
The Turner had the best hair and the best everything.
I am obsessed with Connie Francis. The woman could sing. She wanted to be a movie star, but clearly didn't have the traditional looks. Her life story is interesting, with her being a rape survivor and one of the first real victim rights advocates. Her life story should be made into a movie for some great young actress. Love her. Also, Where the Boys Are is one of those perfect summer throw-away movies. Love it.
Joan Allen is delightful in that clip, and (sigh) Kathleen Turner. Lovely bit of nostalgia.
1988 tony actress in a play nom is STACKED!!!
i was intrigued enough to google who played stanley in that production of 'streetcar': turned out to be aidan quinn [unlikely casting - mcdormand's stella would have the upper hand in that household]
par - me too! that clip sent me down a rabbit hole of Broadway revivals and award trivia
Please remember that Frances became famous playing an abused housewife in Mississippi Burning. She's got range. She's only playing embittered characters now because that's what you're supposed to do when you're over 50 and not into Botox.