Showbiz History: La Strada, It Chapter Two, The King's Speech

7 random things that happened on this day, september 6th, in showbiz history...

←   1879 Max Schreck born in Berlin. He is immortalized by playing undead Orlok in Nosferatu. Later Willem Dafoe will be Oscar-nominated for playing him in all his creepy eccentric possibly actually vampiric glory in Shadow of the Vampire (2000).

1928 How's this for a weird bit of history? Warner Bros second talkie was released on this day (well, some accounts say August 15th... dates are so iffy the further back you go) and it was a horror film called The Terror. In '28 many theaters had yet to convert to sound so a silent version of the same picture was released the following month. The film is one of many lost films from the era. 

1954 Federico Fellini's La Strada premieres at the tail end of the 15th annual Venice Film Festival...

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Showbiz History: Intolerance, Pee Wee, and Nightcrawler

9 random things that happened on this day, September 5th, in showbiz history...

1847 Outlaw Jesse James is born. 160 years later he'll be assassinated by Oscar nominated "supporting" actor Casey Affleck on the big screen.

← 1914 Stellar makeup artist Stuart Freeborn born in Leystone, London. You can thank him for the iconic looks of the original Star Wars trilogy (hello Chewbacca and Yoda) and the original Superman quadrilogy, and Peter Sellers transformations in Dr. Strangelove. He also worked on classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Murder on the Orient Express. He was never Oscar nominated so how did he not even get an Honorary Oscar?

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Showbiz History: The Hurt Locker, Xena, and a Truly Great Cinematographer

7 random things that happened on this day, September 4th, in showbiz history...

1936 Swing Time is released in movie theaters starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

1945 Happy 73rd birthday to the beyond-talented cinematographer Philippe Rousselot who won the Oscar for Sun-Drenched Ode to Brad Pitt's Golden Beauty (or as they called it in 1992 "A River Runs Through It")... but that's not the half of it. Rousselot is particularly gifted with erotic period dramas: Henry & June, Dangerous Liaisons, and Queen Margot are all utterly sensational to gaze upon...

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Showbiz History: Greta Garbo, R Crumb, Bill Murray, Cameron Diaz

6 random things that happened on this day in showbiz history

1797 Mary Shelley born. She lived in infamy during her time as a disgraced woman who ran off with an already married man but she'll live forever due to her epistolary novel "Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus," which has had countless editions since its first publication when she was only 20 years old. The book has inspired countless other works of art and the classic Frankenstein monster itself has shown up in over 50 films. Did any of you watch the Mary Shelley biopic starring Elle Fanning earlier this year? Murtada interviewed the director right here. 

← 1935 Greta Garbo is Anna Karenina, new in movie theaters. Garbo will win the NYFCC prize, the first of two Best Actress wins in a three year span. Surprisingly, that's not all that rare of a trick...

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Showbiz History: Cheers, The Wizard of Oz, Beach Rats

10 random things that happened on this day, August 25th, in showbiz history...

1885 Silent film master G.W. Pabst (Pandora's Box) born in Germany. 

1918 Today is the Centennial of composer Leonard Bernstein. We've been posting a three part West Side Story tribute that I hope you will all read and comment on! Part 3 later today, apologies for the 24 hour delay. (Oh, and check out today's Google Doodle in his honor)

←1939 The Wizard of Oz arrives in movie theaters. Though popular in its initial release, the 9th highest grossing film of its year and a Best Picture nominee, the budget was high enough that MGM recorded a loss of $1 million...

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