Showbiz History: Casper, Martha Plimpton, Pete Davison, and Silver Linings Playbook
Monday, November 16, 2020 at 9:00AM 11 random things that happened on this day, November 16th, in showbiz history...
1934 The White Parade about a nursing school starring Loretta Young opens in theaters. Later it's nominated for Best Picture.
1945 Happy 75th Anniversary to both the Best Picture nominee The Lost Weekend and the animated short "The Friendly Ghost" which introduced Casper to the world. The whole short is available on YouTube and it's much darker than you might remember it if you ever saw it as a kid. Poor Casper really needs a hug and or friends...
Psycho, The Sound of Music and celebrity birthday suits after the jump...
1957 Serial killer Ed Gein kills for the last time and is captured soon thereafter. Gein's case will inspire Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) three years later which in turn will influence a gazillion other movies.
1959 The Sound of Music opens on Broadway and will be nominated for 9 Tonys, winning 5 of them including Best Musical. Six years later the much more beloved film version will arriving winning Best Picture at the Oscars.
1960 Clark Gable, 'The King of Hollywood,' dies of cardiac arrest at age 59. The Misfits (1961) would then become his last film, released posthumously.
Martha & River in "Running on Empty"
1970 HAPPY HALF CENTURY TO MARTHA PLIMPTON who the nation first fell in love with as a feisty smart teenage actress (The Goonies, Mosquito Coast, Running on Empty) and girlfriend of River Phoenix, later became a respected stage star with multiple Tony nominations, and then a very funny sitcom star (Raising Hope, The Real O'Neals). So many acts in this career!
1981 Merrily We Roll Along opens on Broadway for an unexpectedly short run abruptly ending the string of hits that made Sondheim a household name. There's a fine documentary about this production called Best Worst Things That Ever Could Have Happened that's currently streaming on Netflix.
1987 Lisa Bonet in her supernova year (The Cosby Show and A Different World on TV, Angel Heart in theaters, goes topless in Interview magazine) elopes with rock star Lenny Kravitz on her 20th birthday. (Many years later she's now married to Jason Momoa). She was all over magazine covers that year as we mentioned in our retrospective of pop culture history of 1987.
1990 Home Alone opens in theaters. Did you hear that Disney is going to remake it and Christopher Columbus, the original director, is not at all pleased. Disney really can't help themselves, can they?
2007 Beowulf opens giving us demonic nude Angelina Jole in CGI form
2012 Future Best Picture nominee Silver Linings Playbook opens in limited release part of the 1-2 punch alongside The Hunger Games that made Jennifer Lawrence the #1 female star of this particular era. In all the excitement she'd win the Oscar (quite prematurely if you ask us!)
What were you feeling at this particular moment?
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 27th to Pete Davidson, who garnered fine reviewsfor King of Staten Island this summer. Pictured here in a photoshoot last year for Paper Magazine (photographer Tommy Dorfman).
Other Actors celebrating birthdays today: Francesca Scorsese (21) --yes, that's Marty's daughter in the HBO series "We Are Who We Are", Mackenyu (24), Milo Gibson (30), Aditya Roy Kapoor (35), Kimberly J Brown (36), Maggie Gyllenhaal (43), Brooke Elliott (46), Missi Pyle (48), Lisa Bonet (53), Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (55), Harry Lennix (56), Marg Helgenberger (62), Wai Ching Ho (77), Tony-winner Donna McKechnie (78) and Clu Galager (92) one of the oldest living screen actors of note.
Other showbiz people with birthdays today: Figure skater Oksana Baiul (43), Director Jamie Babbit (50), Singer Diana Krall (56), and Director Allison Anders (66)
Gone but not forgotten: Blues musician WC Handy ("St Louis Blues") born on this day in 1873, Playwright George Kaufman (You Can't Take It With You) born on this day in 1889, Actor Burgess Meredith (Rocky, Batman TV series) born on this day in 1907, Novelist José Saramago (Blindness) born on this day in 1922
Reader Comments (6)
Clu Galager!!! 92!!! Wow. One of the material cult films are made of!
Being Jennifer Lawrence's age, I've never seen a phenomenon quite like her. Her rise was meteoric, with a critical hit and two succesful franchises. Her inescapable Oscar win sealed everything.
It's hard to keep that momentum, and I'm sure she knew it. As soon as she had a flop with Passengers and people started to have JLaw fatigue (not her fault given how exposed she was), she had to step away for a while.
I hope she comes back, maybe in a more restrained way. She sure is a comedic talent and I don't think she has shown everything she can do in that regard.
While I'm sure its no barn burner I'd love to be able to see The White Parade. It seems to be the most difficult to view Best Picture nominee that is still extant with only one surviving print that is held at the UCLA Film Archive.
Odd that with the distinction of a BP nomination that it hasn't been restored and duplicated. Perhaps the print is in irreparable shape? It has quite a cast of popular at the time names attached as well, Loretta Young, Jane Darwell, Joyce Compton, John Boles, Sara Haden and Loretta's sister Polly Ann among them.
Gable's death was so sudden but at least he went out on a very high note with one of his very best, if not the best, performances in The Misfits. It didn't do too well at the time but it's stature has grown with the years.
Jennifer Lawrence was wise to take a break. It's not easy to sustain her level of success for a prolonged period without a guiding hand managing it very carefully (as the studios use to do with their contract players) which from the look of what she was making she didn't have. Best to step away temporarily catch your breath and be a bit more selective in your return vehicle. Looks like she has several in the pipeline hope she chose wisely.
Lucky can I say as somebody older her ascendence was nowhere near the impact and power of Julia in 1990,though i'm one of those who despite the miscasting she is very good in the role and her Oscar win was ok with me.
i hope there are many more acts for martha - i love her
"1945 Happy 75th Anniversary to both the Best Picture nominee The Lost Weekend." Actually, it WON Best Picture.