Showbiz History: A Very Meryl Streep Kind of Day

5 random things that happened on this day, December 8th, in showbiz history

1861 Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès born in Paris to boot factory owners. He would eventually become a stage magician and then in the early days of the silent era, a popular filmmaker. He is often regarded as the father of visual effects so he really ought to be more canonized given that that's the kind of movie the public cares most about for many many years now. You might recall Ben Kingsley played him in Scorsese's Hugo.

Gene Kelly, Meryl Streep, and Matthias Schoenaerts after the jump...

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Showbiz History: Oscar-nominated sequels and 'the Death of Queen Jane'

We announced on twitter that we were going to quit these history posts because of lack of return on investment -- people just dont seem that into them. And then some people complained because they love them. So, hmmm. Perhaps we'll rejigger the concept to make them much less time consuming or chalk it up to too niche even for TFE. Anyway, one last one?

4 random things that happened on this day, December 6th, in film history

1945 The Bells of St Marys premieres. Here's a trivia note you might not know about. This was the first sequel ever nominated for Best Picture...

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Showbiz History: Adele drops, Bridget retires, Natalie drowns

6 random things that happened on this day, November 29th, in showbiz history

1898 C.S. Lewis born in Belfast, Ireland. His Narnia books would be adapted for screens both large and small and he even got his own biopic of sorts in Shadowlands (1993) starring Sir Anthony Hopkins. I always believeed that Hopkins would have been Oscar nominated for this if it hadn't arrived the same year as Remains of the Day (since you can't be nominated twice in any one acting category in the samee year). On an unrelated note: my personal favourite C.S. Lewis work is "The Screwtape Letters" but "Chronicles of Narnia" gets all of the attention.)

The Nuremberg trials, movie star deaths, and one vanishing act by marriage after the jump... 

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Showbiz History: Casablanca, The King's Speech, and "We Found Love"

5 random things that happened on this day in showbiz history

1937 Nothing Sacred, one of the great screwball comedies of the 30s (but there are so many of them, he said with glee) opens in theaters after its NYC premiere the previous day. It was a personal favourite of Carole Lombard so in addition to being a genius actress, she had good taste in her own work. 

1942 Casablanca premieres in NYC. It has one of the weirdest Oscar timetables ever for a Best Picture winner...

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Showbiz History: Milk baths, hit singles, and Montalban's centennial

7 random things that happened on this day (Nov 25th) in showbiz history... 

1932 Claudette Colbert infamously bathes in milk in Cecil B DeMille's The Sign of the Cross, new in theaters.

1947 The Hollywood Blacklist begins, denying employment to those with perceived Communist ties or sympathies. This period has haunted self-reflecting Hollywood since as witnessed in Trumbo, The Way We Were, Guilty by Suspicion, Good Night and Good Luck, and numerous other movies...

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