Showbiz History: Monty Dies, Amy Debuts, Detroit Divides...

10 random things that happened on this day (July 23rd) in showbiz history.

1884 Emil Jannings born in Switzerland. In 1928 he will become the first man to ever win the Best Actor Oscar. He won for his roles in the silent films The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. He was the only man to ever win for a silent film until Jean DuJardin took the Oscar for The Artist (2011)

Montgomery Clift, Amy Adams, Woody Harrelson, Vanessa Williams and more after the jump...

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100 years ago, the first filmed Tarzan hit.

by Nathaniel R

On this weekend in 1918 the first filmed version of Tarzan of the Apes movie appeared. You may recall that I have a bit of an...um... problem with Tarzan that stems from childhood. I'd never seen the first Tarzan but it is streaming on YouTube and is only 60 minutes long. It has all the typical Tarzan controversial flashpoints (whitewashed pro-coloniaism history and in-the-now-whenever-that-happened-to-be gender politics) plus the origin story and even the yodelling (you can't actually hear it, mind you, but he does beat his chest while wailing so you know that's what's happening. 

Despite the worst Tarzan wig that ever existed and the lack of jungle animals (it was shot in Louisiana) it's significant for having launched a now 100 year old franchise...

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Random Realization

Carey Mulligan would have been a huge silent film star 100 years ago.

Doc Corner: 'Dawson City: Frozen Time' is a Masterpiece 100 Years in the Making

by Glenn Dunks

If you have ever watched a Bill Morrison film, then you will have surely remember him for the way his films appear as if they are deteriorating before your eyes. Best known for works such as Decasia that are assembled out of weathered, beaten and sometimes even partly destroyed reels of film celluloid, Morrison’s films often play with the concept that film – the physical, tactile product of film itself just as much as the broad term for motion pictures as we know them – is not something we should ever be flippant about.

His movies are made out of parts of other movies, its true -- clips and excerpts taken from decaying reels that most could consider at home in a rubbish tip. Many may find his aesthetic challenging, but there is something so delightfully classical about the way he repurposes any image that sits atop a filmstrip. His work breathes new life into old, unwanted, and unused works so that they may be seen anew in a new light, a new form and allow somebody’s hard work to prosper once more...

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OTD: Don Cheadle debuts, Mae West sentenced, Marie-Antoinette marries (sort of)

On this day (April 19th) in history as it relates to showbiz...

1770 Marie Antoinette married by proxy to Louis-Auguste. A month later she travels from Austria to the forest of Compiègne to meet her husband (essentially where Sofia Coppola's great 2006 film starring Kirsten Dunst begins) and the two soon have a ceremonial wedding.

1898 Silent screen star Constance Talmadge born (the year is disputed but around there!). One of many silent giants whose fame didn't transfer to "the talkies"...

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