Showbiz History: Actress Stamps, Beyoncé's Debut, and Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"
Thursday, July 26, 2018 at 11:30AM 10 random things that happened on this day in showbiz history
1775 The US Postal System is created. Are there any great movies about mailmen? I'm drawing a blank. Do not say The Postman.
The first movie actress to get a postage stamp would be Ethel Barrymore but she had to share it with her brothers Lionel and John! Grace Kelly was (I believe) the first movie star to get a solo postage stamp. Since that time (in 1993) we've had: Theda Bara, Clara Bow, Zasu Pitts, Marilyn Monroe, Lucille Ball, Audrey Hepburn, Greta Garbo, Hattie McDaniel, Judy Garland, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, and Shirley Temple. Who is next? Any guesses?
More after the jump including Mr Julie Andrews, Pee Wee Herman, and Cate Blanchett...
1922 Blake Edwards, future writer/director and future Mr Julie Andrews is born in Tulsa Oklahoma. Despite numerous box office hits and enduring films, he will only be nominated for one Oscar for writing Victor/Victoria, his wife's triumphant 1982 return to the genre she owned in the 1960s. Oscar will make it up to him in his eighties when he's given an Honorary Oscar.
1928 Stanley Kubrick, legendary director is born. What's your favorite Kubrick?
1968 Olivia Williams is born in London. Happy 50th birthday to one of the most perpetually undersung actresses. She's always good but probably best known for her 90s hits Rushmore (1998) and The Sixth Sense (1999) we're especially fond of her work in Ghost Writer (2010) and in TV's "Dollhouse" (2009-2010). What's your favorite of her roles?
1975 "The Hustle" hits #1, the symbolic start of the shortlived but wondrous disco era.
1991 Paul Reubens is arrested in Florida for indecent exposure at an adult movie theater temporarily ending the legendary Pee Wee Herman persona,
1997 James Cameron and Linda Hamilton are married in Malibu, six years after their classic Terminator 2 triumph in theaters and four years after their daughter is born. It's the second marriage for Hamilton and the fourth for Cameron. They will divorce a year and a half later post Titanic-mania.
2002 Austin Powers in Goldmember opens in movie theaters featuring Beyoncé's feature film debut as "Foxxy Cleopatra". It's the third and final film in the Austin Powers series. Mike Meyers will win an MTV Award for his performance but get this: Beyoncé will lose her category of Breakthrough Female Performance... I mean look at this list.
Different times, folks. Different times.
2013 Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine opens in limited release to huge numbers. It will become one of his biggest hits and Cate Blanchett will steamroll her way to a well deserved second Oscar.
Brad & Leo in costumes by Arianne Phillips
2019 Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will open in movie theaters starring QT alums Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tim Roth, and Michael Madsen as well as first timers in Tarantino's filmography: Margo Robbie, Burt Reynolds, Timothy Olyphant, James Marsden, Dakota Fanning, Al Pacino, Emile Hirsch, Damian Lewis, and Clifton Collins Jr. Though it takes place during the Manson murders, it's not explicitly about that (we don't believe) though Sharon Tate (Robbie) is a character. The official synopsis:
A faded TV actor and his stunt double embark on an odyssey to make a name for themselves in the film industry during the Helter Skelter reign of terror in 1969 Los Angeles.
Reader Comments (21)
Fanny Brice beat Grace Kelly by two years getting her stamp in 1991. It's rather odd that Doris Day was never honored with a stamp since they've done both iconic actresses and singers and she falls under both umbrellas. She should be next but much like the Honorary Oscar poor Dodo might remain on the outside looking in.
Favorite Blake Edwards-This Happy Feeling
Favorite Kubrick-Spartacus
Favorite Olivia Williams-Ghost Writer
So glad the filmmakers changed the release date on the Tarantino movie from August 9th as originally planned (the date of the Tate killings) to the 26th. The first was just unbelievably crass and thoughtless.
I love Olivia in The Ghost Writer but I would gladly watch a spin-off or whatever about her character in An Education.
Edwards would be "Victor / Victoria"
Kubrick would be "The Shining" (but the Book was better!)
Williams would be "The Sixth Sense"
I would have voted for Eve.
I think you have to be dead to get on a stamp? If not, defenitely Doris. If so, ... Joan Crawford? Or too much of the Bad Girl?
A Clockwork Orange is my favorite Kubrick.
‘The Shining’ is my favorite Kubrick, and possibly my favorite horror film. Labyrinthine and intangible.
To be honored on a U.S. postage stamp, an individual must be deceased for at least five years. Hence, Doris Day is blessedly ineligible.
Barbara Stanwyck would be a worthy honoree.
I also have other stamps for Gary Cooper, James Stewart, John Wayne, Bob Hope and a series of 4 featuring Gene Autry, Paul Mix, William S. Hart and Roy Rogers.
Others that were published include Cagney, Bogart, Heston, H. Fonda, Allen, Grant, Newman, Temple, Lunt and Fontaine, Dean, Lugosi, Hitchcock and a series of 5 monsters: The Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula, The Woolf Man and The Phantom of the Opera.
Two early film honorees were Will Rogers and W.C. Fields.
We're three and a half years away from the possibility of a Debbie Reynolds stamp. A year away from Lauren Bacall.
Elizabeth Taylor seems like a good bet for a stamp.
A Clockwork Orange is my favorite film by Kubrick.
I saw The Sixth Sense so long ago it was before Williams was on my radar. Who was she?
She was Bruce Willis' wife, in their troubled marriage.
Ah. Thank you.
It's not *about* postmen, but The Postman Always Rings Twice is one of the great potboilers.
How Edwards didn't get a Best Director nomination for Days of Wine and Roses is beyond me. I mean, that film got his & hers *lead* acting nominations without a directing nom, which granted is not unprecedented (see The Theory of Everything) but still rare, no?
My (sentimental) favorite Kubrick film is The Shining (ru: Eyes Wide Shut), although 2001 is a more perfect film. A Clockwork Orange (ru: Full Metal Jacket) is the film of his I could only ever muster to see once.
Williams is Oscar-worthy in The Ghost Writer. Her growing as an (amazing) actress and impressing (me) incrementally is reminiscent of Rebecca Hall, who also left a dull impression out of the gate.
Is it just me or did Hamilton & Cameron look so uncomfortable together at the '97 Oscars? The Titanic "king of the world" mishegas aside, he seemed to make her cringe more than once.
Gyllenhaal *obviously* should've won Breakthrough Female (ru: Vardalos), but it's the MTV Movie Awards so it's kind of an honor *not* to win given their dubious history of "winners."
I don't know if it counts as a "great movie" exactly, but Margo Martindale's character in Alexander Payne's portion of Paris, Je T'aime is a postwoman. That certainly counts as some great film-making!
Happy Birthday glorious Dame Helen Mirren for today.
Cannot wait for The Good Liar with Sir Ian McKellen next year
Favorite Kubrick - The Shining
Favorite Williams - Rushmore
Shirley Temple died 2014 was on the Legends of Hollywood stamps issued 2016
Evan - I absolutely adore Margo in the final segment of Paris, je t’aime. Beautiful and funny performance.
Maybe they shortened the five year window to two? Also, you can have a fictional character on a stamp (like, say "Luke Skywalker" even if it looks exactly like Mark Hamill), so the whole thing is confusing. Still, the "you have to be dead to get a commemorative stamp" law is still, as far as I know, on the books.