Showbiz History: Matt Dillon endures, Reality Bites opens, and Three Billboards peaks

6 random things that happened on this day, February 18th, in showbiz history...

1928 Sonja Henie wins her first of three consecutive gold medals in women's figure skating (a feat that's never been equalled in women's figure skating). Hollywood comes calling in the mid 30s (back when they used to make movie stars of famous athletes -- see also Buster Crabbe, Esther Williams, and Johnny Weismuller) and she headlines several hit films, starring with One in a Million in 1936...

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Showbiz History: The Help, Madame Butterfly, and the first superhero comic?

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...

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Showbiz History: "It" girls and Scarlett Johansson's first big win

Happy President's Day. Aren't you glad an actual adult is in the White House again? Anyway, here are 5 random things that happened on this day, February 15th, in showbiz history

1927 "It" starring Clara Bow is released. Did it create the lingo of "It girl" like Gaslight spawned the term "gaslighting"? I don't know. I'm not a linguistic historian. If you are, do tell... 

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Showbiz History: Meg & Dennis, Clarice & Hannibal, Wayne & Garth

6 random things that happened on this day, February 14th, in showbiz history...

1931 Tod Browning's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi arrives in US theaters, two days after its NYC premiere. The studio wisely publicized that people had fainted at the premiere and the movie was a huge success. Sequels and spin-offs and endless remakes or, rather, adaptations of the Bram Stoker source material follow...

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Showbiz History: Cabaret, Mannequin, The Wedding Singer

7 random things that happened on this day, February 13th, in showbiz history...

1972 Bob Fosse's film version of Cabaret is released in theaters becoming an immmediate sensation. We hope you've read Team Experience's super deep dive of this movie -- we love it so. A year later at the Oscars it looks like a sweeper only to lose Best Picture to The Godfather. It retains the record of most Oscars ever won by a movie that didn't win Best Picture with 8 statues in total. The only movie that's come close to tying that record was Gravity (2013) which fell one short. Four films are tied for third in this particular "loser" trivia with 6 wins: Star Wars, A Place in the Sun, and two very recent ones: La La Land, and Mad Max Fury Road...  

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