Today is both National Puppy Day and the immortal star Joan Crawford's birthday (though the exact date i.e. year is disputed). So here is a photo combining those two wonderful things...
Joan Crawford totally loved dogs. If you do a search for "Joan Crawford puppies" or "Joan Crawford dogs" you will be surprised at how many images come up and from all decades, too, and how relaxed the famously rigid star looks with them in many of the photos...
She had poodles, terriers, you name it. At the peak of her fame in the 1940s (in the middle of her very long career) she had two famous dachshunds (photographed frequently) named "Baby" and "Boopshem." And late in life she was reportedly inseparable from a shih-tzu named "Princess". So it's a bit odd that there are no animals to be seen in her many home scenes in Feud. But then Feud, as I frequently grouse, has no interest in painting a three-dimensional portrait (how does one square, for example, knowledge of her many dogs with the much obsessed over public fascination with her mania about cleanliness and all that plastic covered furniture?). Feud just wants to show her suffering and vanity. Zzzz.
More 'on this day in showbiz history' factoids...
Akira on the set of YOJIMBO which is the first movie of his I ever saw (in college)
1910 Akira Kurosawa, one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, is born in Japan. What's your favorite Kurosawa? Throne of Blood with Ran as runner up is my answer and they're both Shakespeare adaptations which is odd since I'm normally averse to those as there are far too many of them in the world
1929 Happy 88th birthday to Mark Rydell, who directed the Oscar favorite On Golden Pond and also two Bette Midler pictures, The Rose and For the Boys
1942 The great Michael Haneke (Amour, The White Ribbon, Caché) is born in Munich
1948 Oscar nominee Penelope Milford (Coming Home), probably best remembered today as the the grief-exploiting teacher in Heathers, is born
1950 Olivia de Havilland wins her second Best Actress Oscar statue for The Heiress (1949)
... On that same exact day another movie star Frances Farmer is released from Western State Hospital after a nearly five year institutionalization. What happened in the hospital is the subject of much dispute and controversy but as depicted in the biopic Frances (1982) some claim she was repeatedly raped and had a partial lobotomy while inside
1957 Amanda Plummer, "Honey Bunny" from Pulp Fiction (and a shoulda been Oscar nominee for The Fisher King) born to actors Christopher Plummer and Tammy Grimes
1959 Two time Oscar nominee Catherine Keener is born. She was fun in Get Out (2017) wasn't she? She needed that shake up if you ask us
1964 Hope Davis is born
1976 Michelle Monaghan is born
1984 Police Academy is released, becoming a sleeper hit and spawning many needless sequels, six to be exact.
1990 Pretty Woman hits theaters making Julia Roberts into a superstar. An interesting note for all of you Oscar buffs: BOTH of Julia Roberts' Best Actress bids came from films released in March, both arriving an entire year before the Oscar nights in which she'd be honored for them.
1997 Striptease (1996) and Demi Moore are the big "winners" at the Razzies because the Razzies love to punish female movie stars
1998 Titanic performs a near sweep at the 1997 Oscars losing only its two actressing nominations and Best Makeup
1999 Ricky Martin releases "Livin' la Vida Loca" which sells millions and makes him a crossover superstar
2001 Heartbreakers starring Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt hits theaters
2003 The toned-down 2002 Oscars are held -- weren't they even red carpet free due to the Iraq War?.
Nicole Kidman and Chicago were expected winners but Adrien Brody and Roman Polanski for Actor and Director of The Pianist surprised many.
2012 The Hunger Games debuts to huge numbers, making the world completely unsafe (for a time) from dystopian YA novels as big screen franchises
2018 Yet another big screen adaptation of Robin Hood is expected on this day next year. The latest in what seem like 30+ of them will star Taron Egerton as the heroic thief. It will square off with the live-action/animation hybrid Peter Rabbit starring James Corden and Margot Robbie's voices and Rose Byrne and Domnhall Gleesons's faces.