Author Archives: dcaligari

May 17, 1940 –Garson Kanin’s screwball comedy, My Favorite Wife, opened on this date. Leo McCarey was supposed to direct the film, but shortly before the filming began, he was injured in an automobile accident and had to hand over the direction to Garson Kanin. Gail Patrick has stated that the severity of McCarey’s injuriesContinue reading “My Favorite Wife premiered”

May 17, 1950 –Nicholas Ray’s excellent film noir, In a Lonely Place, starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame premiered on this date. Gloria Grahame and husband and Director Nicholas Ray quietly separated during filming, keeping it a secret for fear that one of them would be replaced. Ray slept on the studio set, saying thatContinue reading “In Lonely Placed debuted”

May 17, 1980 –Call Me by Blondie reached No. #1 on the Billboard charts on this date. Call Me was the most successful of all Blondie singles in the USA, where it was the best-selling single of 1980.

May 16, 1984 –Prince’s single When Doves Cry – written at the request of Purple Rain director Albert Magnoli to accompany a sequence in the film – was released and would soon become Prince’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit. This was the second US chart-topper with a kind of bird in the title,Continue reading “When Dove’s Cry topped the charts”

May 16, 1966 –The Beach Boys released their 11th studio album, Pet Sounds on this date. It has since been recognized as one of the most influential albums in the history of popular music and is widely regarded as one of the best albums of the 1960s. All that beautiful music and barking dogs, too.

May 16, 1965 –“The neat round spaghetti you can eat with a spoon“, Spaghetti-O’s first went on sale, on this date. Oh happy day, the squirrel meat brand has stuck around.

May 16, 2019 –After 12 seasons, Sheldon finally learns how to acknowledge his friends when CBS TV aired the last episode of The Big Bang Theory: The Stockholm Syndrome, on this date. With this final episode, the four male characters Leonard, Sheldon, Howard and Raj are the only ones that have appeared in every episode.Continue reading “It ended with a small bang”

May 16, 1977 –The sequel to the TV movie, Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway, Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn, starring Leigh McCloskey, Eve Plumb, Juliet Mills, Jean Hagen, and Earl Holliman, premiered on NBC TV, on this date. This was Jean Hagen’s final performance.

But not the less, it’s National Sea Monkey Day, (My old pal, Mr. Teeny has told me countless times that it was his uncle in the video and he came to a very bitter end. For those of you who’ve asked – Mr Teeny is fine, living in L.A. and is now a sports agent.)Continue reading “When you were a kid, who know what they were.”

May 15, 1981 – Look, there was no real reason for this but The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island premiered on NBC on this date. According to both Sherwood Schwartz and Dawn Wells, It was a very emotional day on set when Jim Backus filmed his brief scene. He was thin and very shaky, butContinue reading “It seemed that they would never get off that damn island”