Showbiz History: '98's American History X, '80s Harry Hamlin

8 random things that happened on this day (October 30th) in showbiz history

Rudolph Valentino cheekily decides you can't watch him undress in behind the scenes footage

1921 The Sheik starring Rudolph Valentino premieres, inventing the male movie star sex symbol. The world swoons. Women faint.

1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast of HG Wells "The War of the Worlds" causes mass panic when people are convinced it's real.

1943 Federico Fellini (23) and Giulietta Masina (22) marry in Italy. A scriptwriter and a radio actress at the time, they will become legends.

American History X, Baby Boom, Harry Hamlin, and more after the jump...

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Showbiz History: Valentino's Wedding, Shirley's Discovery, Frasier's Ending

Six random things to celebrate on this day (May 13th) in showbiz history...

1919 It's the centennial today of the silent film Broken Blossoms starring Lillian Gish (which you can watch in full on YouTube), an interracial weepie romance with Richard Barthelmess in "yellow face" as a Chinese Man that Gish falls for. Some critics consider it D.W. Griffith's best film. 

Valentino and Rambova

1922 Silent film superstar Rudoph Valentino, who made millions swoon all over the world, weds costume and set designer Natacha Rambova at the age of 27. Valentino would then be arrested for bigamy since he'd been divorced for less than a year at the time (which was legally a no-go back then in California)...

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Showbiz History: The Sheik, Never Cry Wolf, Wicked

9 random things that happened on this day (October 30th) in showbiz history

Rudolph Valentino cheekily decides you can't watch him undress in behind the scenes footage about his Sheik movies (he made two of them)1821 Novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky born in Moscow. His work, particularly the Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment, has been adapted to film and television many time.

1921 The Sheik starring Rudolph Valentino premieres, inventing the male movie star sex symbol. The world swoons. Women faint.

1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast of HG Wells "The War of the Worlds" causes mass panic when people are convinced it's real...

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The Sex Appeal of Garbo, Valentino and a 150-Year-Old Novelist

By either bizarre coincidence or brilliant intuition, Greta Garbo and Rudolph Valentino began their careers in nearly the same way. Both achieved overnight success with adaptations of one Spanish novelist, a writer who has almost entirely faded from popular consciousness since then. At the time, though, he was more famous than either actor.

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On This Day: Madonna's Globes, Damien's Birth, Biopic Worthies

Damien and Emma in Venice, Fall 2016Happy birthday to Damien Chazelle, who turns 32 today! He's already an Oscar nominee for writing Whiplash (2014) and he will easily boost his tally this coming Tuesday when he may well nab two nominations for writing and directing La La Land. If he wins Best Director he'll become the youngest person to ever win, beating a record set way back in 1931 by Norman Taurog for Skippy... who was 32½ when he won.

If you aren't dancing for joy at La La Land's success (and you should be... an original musical heading towards a blockbuster gross is great for the future of the genre!) here are other people and things you can celebrate today. Celebrate something since life isn't worth living otherwise in this brink of the apocalypse world.

Other Things To Celebrate...
1809 Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston and life was harsh from the get go - before he was two he was an orphan but his tales of the macabre will live forever in print and in their film and TV adaptations
1839 Post impressionist giant Paul Cezanne is born in France. The recent French film Cezanne et moi (2013) is about his friendship with writer Emile Zola

Biopic Suggestions and Golden Globe memories after the jump...

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