Showbiz History: For your eyes only, Mrs Miller...
Monday, June 24, 2019 at 9:00AM 10 random things that happened on this day (June 24th) in showbiz history
1916 Mary Pickford, a very savvy businesswoman, becomes the first female movie star to get a million dollar contract. That was on top of her $10,000 a week (The average US income was under $20,000 in 1916... for the whole year). Can you imagine how much money that was in 1916 ???
1960 Opening weekend for the musical Bells are Ringing starring Judy Holliday (reprising her Tony-winning Broadway role). It proved to be the Oscar winner's last movie, tragically, since she died at only 43 years of age from cancer.
Altman and Christie on the set of "McCabe and Mrs Miller"
1971 Robert Altman's run of classics in the 1970s was really quite something. Hot on the heels of his smash hit MASH came the initially unpopular but brilliant western McCabe and Mrs Miller which opened on this day. The film stars a luminous Julie Christie (Oscar nominated) as a brothel madame who takes up with a gambler (Warren Beatty). Oscar voters didn't like it much but at least BAFTA recognized the cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond and the WGA nominated the screenplay.
1977 Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, the third in the Herbie the Love Bug franchise opens in movie theaters. The franchise would die a few years after that though an attempt was made to revive it in the aughts with Lindsay Lohan in the drivers seat.
1981 It's the world premiere of the 12th official James Bond picture For Your Eyes Only in London. It's the first of five James Bond films directed by John Glen (For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, License to Kill -every Bond film from the 1980s), which is a record. The runner up for 'most Bond films as director' is Guy Hamilton with four (Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun), a much more acclaimed set of pictures. The title track by Sheena Easton is one of only seven James Bong theme-songs to become top 10 hits in the US Billboard charts.
1983 Twilight Zone: The Movie after a troubled production the film adaptation of the classic 1959 TV series hits movie theaters with segments directed by John Landis, Steven Spielberg, George Miller, and Joe Dante. The franchise has been revived on television thrice since the movie. The latest, on CBS All Access is produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us)
2005 Nicole Kidman ends her astonishingly genius hot streak of brilliant performances (1999-2004) with a misstep in the comedy Bewitched, new in theaters on this day.
2010 Actors Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green tied the knot in Hawaii. Happy 9th anniversary - they've somehow kept it together despite all the rumors/facts about divorce filings, separations, and reconcilngs.
2011 A Better Life opens in movie theaters. The indie sleeper surprises everyone months later with a major Oscar get: A nomination for Best Actor for Demián Bichir for his role as an undocumented immigrant trying to raise his son peacefully in Los Angeles.
2019 Nomination voting closes for the annual Emmy Awards. We hope you enjoyed our FYCs.
Today's Birthday Suit
Joanna Kulig. I'm still not really over Cold War and how riveting she was in it (nominated for Breakthrough of the Year and winner of Sexpot of the Year). Cold War won 5 medals at the 2018 Film Bitch Awards including the gold for Best Cinematography for the incredibly gifted Lukasz Zal, who is also celebrating his birthday today.
Other Birthdays
Oscar Winners: Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, Reds, The Last Emperor)
Oscar Nominees: Screenwriter Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler), Cinematographer Lukasz Zal (Ida, Cold War), Songwriter Seidah Garrett (Rio, Dreamgirls)
Actors: Oz Zehavi (pictured, left, in Yossi. Remember how charming he was in that? We were delighted to see him again recently in the Israeli romcom arthouse hit The Wedding Plan), Mindy Kaling, Nancy Allen, Michele Lee, Peter Weller, Raven Goodwin, Candice Patton, Minka Kelly, Iain Glen, Irving Pichel, Adrienne Shelly, Phil Harris, Sheetal Sheth, Max Ehrich, Vijayshanti, Georg Stanford Brown, and Ji Jin-hee
Directors: Claude Chabrol, Erik Poppe, Anand Tucker, and Ursula Meier
Rock Stars: Mick Fleetwood, Solange, Sissel Kyrkjebø and Curt Smith
Reader Comments (4)
All Judy Holliday movies are worth seeing for her alone but none are bad films (even the scattershot Phffft! has a great cast-Judy, Jack Lemmon, Jack Carson and Kim Novak) but Bells Are Ringing is one of her best. Tragic that she died so young but she went out on a very high note indeed.
Oof, I'd contend that Kidman's 2001- hot streak actually ended in '03, with Dogville (which premiered at Cannes that year). After that, she had The Human Stain, Cold Mountain, and then The Stepford Wives remake (which I sort of enjoy but everyone else seems to hate). In fact, Birth is the one genius-level blip until...what? Margot at the Wedding? Rabbit Hole?
Anyway, I love Judy Holliday and still am sad that she died so young. Just think of what she could've done in her 40s and 50s in the '60s and '70s!
All Julie Christie/Warren Beatty movies are worth seeing, but McCabe & Mrs. Miller may be Julie Christie at her most luminous. (which is saying something).
God I miss Robert Altman.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller... still my favorite film by Robert Altman.