4 random things that happened on this day, March 2nd, in showbiz history...
1933 King Kong opened in NYC, where the film begins and ends, on this day. It played in two gigantic theaters (one of which is still standing, Radio City Music Hall) and was preceded by a stage show calld "Jungle Rhythms". The highest ticket price was 75¢ or $14 in today's prices -- imagine getting a stage performance + movie for that price today...
[Tangent for Nerds: Here's an Oscar trivia conundrum. IMDb's bio for Willis O'Brien claims he received a special Oscar for his work on the film but the IMDb awards page has no such honor. Meanwhile the Wikipedia page says Kong only received a special achievement award for the "the development of the translucent acetate/cellulose rear screen" which went to two different people (not O'Brien) but IMDb lists no such award either... and I don't see any info about either of those on the official Academy site but maybe I'm looking in the wrong place. / Tangent]
Jennifer Jones had an exciting 25th birthday with the biggest stars of Hollywood celebrating
1944 The 16th Academy Awards are held honoring the films of 1943 are held. Casablanca takes Best Picture and The Song of Bernadette wins the most Oscars (4) including Best Actress for Jennifer Jones (on her 25th birthday!). We covered this year in the Smackdown series.
1965 The Sound of Music opens in movie theaters. It becomes a colossal hit and wins 5 Oscars including Best Picture. If you adjust for inflation its still the 3rd highest grossing film of all time.
2014 The 86th Academy Awards are held honoring the films of 2013. 12 Years a Slave wins Best Picture but it was probably a tight race since Gravity wins 7 Oscars from its 10 nominations. Remember that intense Supporting Actress race?
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 53rd to our current 007 Daniel Craig who we loved long before his days as Bond thanks to Road to Perdition, The Mother, Layer Cake, Tomb Raider, and above all else the queer Francis Bacon bio Love is the Devil (pictured below)
click to uncensor
In some ways we haven't minded the long long wait for No Time To Die because we don't really want to say goodbye to the best Bond since Connery.
Bonus Bollywood Birthday Fun
Love this number from War (2019) starring Hrithik Roshan and today's birthday boy Tiger Shroff. Happy 31st, Tiger!
In unrelated news, I once paid full price to see a Hrithik Roshan movie in theaters assuming there'd be an elaborate dance scene and they had cut out all but like 60 seconds of dancing for the US release. This is why we can't have nice things. I would have seen this one in theaters if I'd known there was a gargantuan colorful dance number but with the film's title I assumed it'd be stingy on the joyful dancing.
Other showbiz birthdays today: Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World, The Village), Kofi Siriboe (Queen Sugar, Girls Trip), South Korea's Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite, A Hard Day), Jake Picking (Hollywood, Top Gun Maverick), Denmark's Pilou Asbæk (Ghost in the Shell, A War), Broadway's John Cullum (1776, Northern Exposure), Rebel Wilson (Pitch Perfect, Isnt It Romantic) Nathalie Emmanuel (Furious 7, Game of Thrones), France's Valérie Donzelli (Declaration of War, Notre Dame), Norway's Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Hercules), Israel's Ziva Rodann (Adam & Eve, The Story of Mankind), Laraine Newman (SNL, Perfect), Oscar winner and novelist John Irving (Cider House Rules, World According to Garp), comedian Blake Anderson, rock stars Jon Bon Jovi and Chris Martin, and singer Becky G
and late greats including... Jennifer Jones (Song of Bernadette, Since You Went Away), Desi Arnaz (I Love Lucy), Director Martin Ritt (Hud, Cross Creek), Jon Finch (Frenzy, Macbeth) and immortals like Dr. Seuss, Lou Reed, and Karen Carpenter.