Five mood-boosting showbiz anniversaries for today, and if it's a special day for you have a great one. Take these suggestions and let us know if they helped.
MAY 16th History
2003 The fabulous and seriously undervalued Down with Love opened in theaters...
In its honor today: Make an entrance your friends will remember!
1981 Kim Carnes "Bette Davis Eyes" hits #1. It spends 9 weeks at the top of the singles chart and ends the year as 1981's single biggest hit just edging out the Oscar nominated we've previously written about "Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie.
In its honor: Sing along. You know the words.
Melanie Lynskey photographed by Taylor Jewell in January 2017
1977 Actress Melanie Lynskey born in New Zealand.
In her honor: Watch I Don't What to Live In This World Anymore on Netflix. Or reread her old guest blog posts here at TFE
1946 Annie Get Your Gun about the romance of sharpshooters Annie Oakley and Frank E Butler starring Ethel Merman premieres on Broadway. The show is massive success, gets movie and TV adaptations, and is still revived to this day. Judy Garland slated for the 1950 film version was fired and replaced by Betty Hutton but it's had several adaptations and revivals over the years across mediums. Bernadette Peters won a Tony for the hit 1999 revival . Classic songs include "There's No Business Like Show Business," "They Say It's Wonderful," and "Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)"... But the Tony Awards don't start until the following year so no Tonys.
In its honor: Do what comes natur'lly 🎵
1929 The first Academy Awards are held. World War I aviator drama Wings wins the first Best Picture prize. The lead Oscars go to 40something Emil Jannings and 20something Janet Gaynor and the typical age range for both categories is prophesied right then and there! Worth noting: The lead acting categories then included multiple films so Jannings won for two roles that year (The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh) and Gaynor won for three (Street Angel, Sunrise, and Seventh Heaven). This is, in some ways, maybe a more honest way to do it because we all know that acting wins tend to be about not just that performance, but everything else that went on in that calendar year, especially if the actor is having "a moment" in their career.
In its honor today: Start something people will still be talking about years from now.
OTHER BIRTHDAYS
Actors Margaret O Sullivan, Brian F O'Byrne, Megan Fox, Danny Trejo, Debra Winger, Jesper Christensen, Pierce Brosnan, Henry Fonda, Batgirl Yvonne Craig, Musicians Liberace, Janet Jackson, Production Designer Deborah Riley (Game of Thrones), and director Kenzi Mizoguchi (Ugetsu) all share May 16th as birthday.
OTHER ANNIVERSARIES
Top Gun (1986), The Fault in Our Stars, and How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) opened on this day in theaters.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THAT "DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY" MOVIE?
HH Holmes "America's first serial killer" was born on this day in 1861 New Hamsphire. Leonardo DiCaprio was supposed to play him in a Martin Scorsese adaptation of the best seller Devil in the White City. But it's not listed on either of their IMDb profiles anymore and other projects seem to have replaced it (or been moved up).
I'm hoping against all hope that if someone wants to make it they'll realize that a miniseries is the only way to go. Hell, you could get a whole network TV season 22 hours out of the dozens and dozens and dozens of characters and events jammed into that novel which is about much much more than the now tired genre of "serial killer movie".