7 random things that happened on this day, February 17th, in showbiz history...
1904 Puccini's beloved opera Madame Butterfly premieres in Italy in what was essentially rough draft form. After audiences booed, he revamped it for four months and the streamlined version became a global success. The opera was based on the play by David Belasco. The story has made it to the big screen six times beginning with the silent film era. Two of the subsequent films were versions of the opera itself, one a Japanese film in 1954 and the other a French film in 1995. Have you seen any film version of this or the opera itself?
1936 The daily newspaper comic strip The Phantom launches (and is still running if you can believe it) essentially giving rise to the superhero genre...
though The Phantom wasn't that exactly. The character has been successful in multiple formats but only one attempt at a feature film followed in 1996 to tepid audience and critical response.
1939 A musical-comedy take on The Three Musketeers starring Gloria Stuart, Don Ameche, and the Ritz Brothers and the adventure film Gunga Din starring Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. both open in theaters. The latter proves a big hit. Neither score with Oscar apart from a lone cinematography nomination for Gunga Din.
1989 A big weekend for well-loved comedies as both Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure starring Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter and The 'Burbs starring Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher both open in movie theaters
Octavia and Viola at the 43rd NAACP awards
2012 The 43rd annual NAACP Image Awards are held with The Help winning Best Picture and both female movie acting awards for future Oscar winners Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. Meanwhile Jumping the Broom wins Best Director and both male acting awards. That same night future Oscar winner Regina King wins Best Actress in a Drama Series for her incredible work on Southland. (Emmy voters had yet to notice King, but once they did they couldn't get enough of her)
2017 The Great Wall opens in theaters. Legendary director Zhang Yimou had tried his hand at a Hollywood production and puts Matt Damon in the leading role of an action flick set in China. It didn't go well.
2019 The 69th annual Berlinale wraps with Synonyms as the closing film and the Golden Bear winner. The Paris set Israeli film makes a star (well, at least to cinephiles) of actor Tom Mercier and his yellow coat.
Today's Birthday Suit
Today would have been the 87th birthday of BAFTA winner Alan Bates.
His career stretched from 1960's Laurence Olivier vehicle The Entertainer through the TV miniseries Spartacus (2004) though he's surely best remembered for the films he made from mid 60s through the late 70s. In that stretch of time he appeared in several hits and classics like Georgy Girl, An Unmarried Woman, The Fixer (Oscar nomination), Zorba the Greek, The Rose, and of course participated in that infamous all nude wrestling match with Oliver Reed in Ken Russell's most acclaimed film Women in Love.
Other showbiz birthdays today: Director Alejandro Jodorowsky (The Holy Mountaiin, El Topo), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception, 500 Days of Summer), Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna), Jason Ritter (The Tale, Parenthood), Rene Russo (Nightcrawler, The Thomas Crown Affair), frequent Oscar nominee Arthur Kennedy (Peyton Place, Some Came Running), Denise Richards (Drop Dead Gorgeous, The World is Not Enough), Oscar winner Brenda Fricker (My Left Foot), Lucy Davis (Wonder Woman, Shaun of the Dead), Lou Diamond Philips (La Bamba, Courage Under Fire), Jerry O'Connell (Stand by Me, Carter), Director Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers), Jim Brown (Mars Attacks!, Rio Conchos), Dominic Purcell (Prison Break, Gridlocked), Rory Kinnear (The Imitation Game, Penny Dreadful), Becky Ann Baker (Girls, The Half of It), Chord Overstreet (Glee, 4th Man Out), Spain's Daniel Grao (Julieta, L'auberge Espanole), Ashton Holmes (History of Violence, Revenge), composer Bear McCreary (Godzilla King of Monsters, 10 Cloverfield Lane), rock star Bille Joe Armstrong, athlete Michael Jordan, heiress Paris Hilton, singer Ed Sheeran, and acting legend Hal Holbrook who we just lost.