Author Archives: dcaligari

April 30, 1948 – Universal Pictures’ comedy The Noose Hangs High, directed by Charles Barton and starring Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Cathy Downs, and Joseph Calleia, opened on this date. A & C’s famous Mudder-Fodder routine is performed in this film, but strangely, Lou performs it with Leon Errol instead of Abbott. This could beContinue reading “The Noose Hangs High premiered”

April 30, 1950 –The film-noir classic, DOA, directed by Rudolph Maté and starring Edmond O’Brien, Luther Adler, and Pamela Britton went into general release on this date. When Frank Bigelow registers at the Allison Hotel in Los Angeles, the name directly above his is Russell Rouse, one of the film’s writers. Also on the registerContinue reading “Stick around for the whole movie.”

Today is Poem in Your Pocket Day. In 2002, as part of New York City’s National Poetry Month celebration, the Office of the Mayor, in partnership with the New York City Departments of Cultural Affairs and Education, initiated Poem in Your Pocket Day, a time for New York City residents to select a poem, carryContinue reading “The best words in the best order”

It’s the fourth anniversary of Mrs. Dr. Caligari rushing me to the hospital for emergency surgery. It’s been a long strange trip and hopefully all my surgeries are behind me. All in all, it’s pretty nice to be here, for another year at least.

Today is International Dance Day. The date was chosen in commemoration of the death of the greatly influential dancer, choreographer and innovator Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810). The goals of Dance Day are to increase the awareness of the importance of dance among the general public, as well as to persuade governments all over the world toContinue reading “The hidden language of the soul”

Today is also the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, the co-patron saint of Italy. The Renaissance was tough on women, Catherine’s older sister and younger sisters died in 1463 (she had 22 other siblings, although, at that point, who could tell who was alive or died or the neighbor’s cat.) Catherine’s father did whatContinue reading “Love transforms one into what one loves”

April 29, 1983 –Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s horror film The Hunger, directed by Tony Scott and starring Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon, opened in the US on this date. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this film was originally given an “X” rating by the MPAA. This delayed the release for nearly three months while several cutsContinue reading “The Hunger premiered”

April 29, 2005 –Buena Vista releases a somewhat confusing (for the uninformed) but amusing version of Douglas Adams classic sci-fi classic, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, starring Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel and the voices of Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman on this date. The producers have stated that this movieContinue reading “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy opened”

April 29, 1967 –Aretha Franklin’s classic version of Otis Redding’s Respect was released on this date. Franklin’s version is so definitive that most people assume she was the first to record the song. It was Aretha’s idea to cover this song. She came up with the arrangement, added the “sock it to me” lines, andContinue reading “Hey, what you want …”

April 28, 1975 –Former Beatle Ringo Starr appeared NBC-TV’s The Smothers Brothers Show performing his No No Song with hosts Tom and Dick Smothers, on this date. Later that evening, an interviewTom Snyder conducted with ex-Beatle John Lennon was on The Tomorrow Show was broadcast on this date. At the time, no one knew thenContinue reading “The Beatles were all over the TV that night”