Showbiz History: Taxi Driver, Grammy Openers, and Globe Switcheroos
Monday, February 8, 2021 at 8:00AM 5 random things that happened on this day, February 8th, in showbiz history...
Julie Andrews in her infamous 'kill them with kindness' Globes speech in which she thanked the producer of... wait for it... My Fair Lady.
1921 One hundred years ago movie star Lana Turner was born. More on her later.
1965 The 22nd annual Golden Globe awards honoring the films of 1964 were held. Becket (drama) and My Fair Lady (comedy/musical) took the Best Picture prizes. And at the peak of the popularity of gigantic big screen musicals, it was the "comedy/musical" winners for acting that repeated on Oscar night with Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady) and Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins) both winning here first...
The Globe and Oscars disagreed on the supporting categories that year. In Best Supporting Actor Edmond O'Brien won the Globe for Seven Days in May while Peter Ustinov won the Oscar for Topkapi. In Best Supporting Actress (a year we covered in the Smackdown with special guest Melanie Lynskey): Agnes Moorehead took the Globe for Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte but Lila Kedrova won the Oscar for Zorba the Greek.
1968 Planet of the Apes has its world premiere in NYC (its release will follow in April where it set house records at theaters in NYC - see the ad above). Remember when Don Draper took his son to see that seminal sci-fi classic in Mad Men?
1974 Spin-off of the All in the Family spin-off Maude, Good Times premieres on CBS. It was not quite the first black family sitcom (Julia and Sanford and Son both preceded it) but it was the first to feature a two-parent household.
Jodie Foster and Robert DeNiro in 1976
1976 Taxi Driver premieres in New York City (and will open in theaters the next day). Later that year it wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes (the photo above is from Cannes). In a strange outcome (because you'd think it would be the exact opposite) the film is nominated for Best Picture but not Best Director once Oscar season rolls around. Scorsese had been nominated at the DGA but Oscar's directing branch replaced him with Ingmar Bergman (for Face to Face, with the rest of the DGA's stellar lineup transferred over to Oscar) rather than honor the fresh director shaking things up in US cinema. Scorsese had to wait for Raging Bull (1980) before receiving his first Oscar nomination.
2006 The 48th Grammy Awards are held in Los Angeles with Madonna, Gorillaz and De La Soul opening the show with a performance of "Feel Good Inc" and "Hung Up" Kelly Clarkson became the first American Idol to win a Grammy and U2 became the first (and still only) rock group to ever nab a second win in Album of the Year.
2007 The 57th Berlinale begins with opening night film La Vie En Rose (which would win Marion Cotillard the Oscar a year later). The Mongolia-set Chinese drama Tuya's Marriage wins the Golden Bear at festival's end.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 53rd birthday to stuntman Mike Massa. He was Harrison Ford's stunt double on Blade Runner 2049, Chris Pine's stunt double on Star Trek, and David Boreanaz's stunt double on Angel among many many other credits. Recent credits include The Call of the Wild, Terminator Dark Fate, Hobbs & Shaw, and SEAL Team.
Bonus Birthday Suit
Here's Jack Lemmon's son talking about his movie star dad in front of a gag photo of the two time Oscar winner naked on a bear-skin rug. Wut? Jack Lemmon was born on this day in 1925 and would go on to become a ginormous movie star with a stellar filmography which included Mister Roberts, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, It Should Happen To You, Days of Wine and Roses, Save the Tiger, The China Syndrome, Irma La Deuce, The Odd Couple, Missing, Glengarry Glenn Ross, Grumpy Old Men, and Short Cuts.
Other showbiz birthdays today: Oscar winner Mary Steenburgen (Melvin & Howard), Oscar nominee Dame Edith Evans (The Whisperers, Tom Jones), iconic Oscar nominated legend James Dean (East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause), China's Chao Deng (Shadow, The Mermaid), Oscar's favourite composer John Williams (Star Wars, Jurassic Park), Oscar nominated director King Vidor (The Crowd, The Champ, War and Peace), France's Niels Arestrup (A Prophet, War Horse), Nick Nolte (Warrior, Prince of Tides), William Jackson Harper (The Good Earth, MidSommar), Gary Coleman (Different Strokes), Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies), Seth Green (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Mary McCormack (Deep Impact, In Plain Sight), Jim Parrack (Suicide Squad, True Blood), Susan Misner (The Americans, Assassination Nation), Brooke Adams (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Dead Zone), Anna Hutchison (Robert the Bruce, Encounter), Cecily Strong (SNL, The Boss), Jonah Blechma (This Boy's Life, Treasure Island), Sweden's Bengt Ekerot (The Magician, The Seventh Seal), Audrey Meadows (the Honeymooners), and oft-adapted novelists John Grisham and Jules Verne.
Reader Comments (15)
In regards to the 1965 Golden Globes, Peter Ustinov could not win the Supporting Actor prize. He was nominated for Lead Actor for Topkapi and lost to Rex Harrison.
Interestingly, Ustinov's Oscar for Topkapi might have gone to Peter Sellars. Originally cast as the tour guide Arthur Simon Simpson, Sellars refused to work with the already cast Maximilian Schell and subsequently left the project.
Should I watch Benh Zeitlin's Wendy? You were very into Beasts.
Hope we get to hear more of Mary Steenburgen's songwriting. She was robbed of a nomination (and arguably a win) for Glasgow from Wild Rose.
Quite a varied collection of famous names sharing a birthday. It's probably the only thing Lana and James Dean had in common, they're such disparate types.
Someone else born today is the undervalued Betty Field, best known as the farmer's wife Mae in the 1939 Of Mice and Men. She should have had a bigger Hollywood career but she preferred the stage and was married to playwright Elmer Rice (Street Scene) so her life was centered more on the East Coast. She was however viewed as a prestige actress and as such appeared as Daisy in the Alan Ladd version of The Great Gatsby, the mad Cassie in Kings Row as well as The Birdman of Alcatraz, Peyton Place and Marilyn Monroe's Bus Stop.
Didn't know movies advertised individual theater box office totals.
I still can't believe Julie Andrews won Best Actress for Mary Poppins. It's a movie I saw as a kid, and when I got a little older and got super into the Oscars, it was such a weird win to discover. It just... it's such a Disney movie. It isn't undeserved, it just feels like an odd choice... or maybe it's just me.
I love Julie but Mary Poppins was NOT an acting challenge whatsoever
The Grammys... fuck 'em. They're a bunch of bullshit as they award mediocrity.
Mary Poppins wouldn't work without Julie Andrews, plain and simple. I love this win.
That is a real Red Skelton expression on Jack Lemmon's face in that bare-ass photo.
@joel6:
Greta Garbo and Monroe
Dietrich and DiMaggio
Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean
On the cover of a magazine
Grace Kelly, Harlow, Jean
Picture of a beauty queen
Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire
Ginger Rogers, dance on air
They had style, they had grace
Rita Hayworth gave good face
Lauren, Katherine, Lana, too
Bette Davis, we love you
Ladies with an attitude
Fellas that were in the mood
Don't just stand there, let's get to it
Strike a pose, there's nothing to it
@Philip H. - I know! I feel the same about that win, but I'm so glad it happened and it was well deserved. You reminded me when I was I teenager it was a huge surprise to find out that Believe's singer (as I knew Cher) was also an actress and an oscar winner.
Cash -- i love that win too. For numerous reasons.
KC -- apparently they did back then. strange, right? I guess it was a precursor to box office returns being reportedly constantly decades later.
@Phillip H - Yes it looks an "odd" win now considering the genre of Mary Poppins, but Julie Andrews had quite a few advantageous edges against her competitors then:
1) the general consensus was tt she was robbed of her breakout role in My Fair Lady by Warner.
2) Her closest competitor, Anne Bancroft (who won the GG Drama side & Bafta & Cannes) has recently won the Oscar two yrs prior.
The Pumpkin Eater is The Wife of 1965, snaggin only one lone nomination, while Mary Poppins scored a whopping 13 noms, incl Pic & Dir.
3) The Sound of Music opened in Mar 1965 just as voting begins and it becomes the biggest blockbuster in town, cementing Julie Andrews at the pinnacle of her fame.
Andrews herself was surprised at her own win, as she thot Bancroft is gonna win, kinda like the recent Colman/Close situation. History does repeat itself!! lol
Claran - Thanks for the backstory. :) I'm glad I understand how it happened more now!
Just for clarity, me saying it's an odd win doesn't mean I don't like it lol. I love it--I think she's fantastic in it. Just not a role that would make me say "Oscar!" after seeing, that's all. Makes it interesting.
J - Hahah, I think I knew about Cher being an actress all along, but I'm glad someone relates on that feeling of being younger and discovering all this stuff for the first time. I imagine that would be quite a pill to swallow, especially if Believe was the calling card!
That is the last year I cared about the Grammys because Album of the Year belonged to THE EMANCIPATION OF MIMI.