Author Archives: dcaligari

March 3, 1933 –W.C. Fields classic short, The Fatal Glass of Beer, opened on this date. In Fields’ first sound film, The Golf Specialist there is a wanted poster of Fields which shows him in his Fatal Glass of Beer costume. It evidently was taken from an earlier stage presentation of the classic Fields sketch.

March 3, 1972 –Elton John released the song Rocket Man, (officially titled Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time), on this date. The song was produced by Gus Dudgeon, who worked with David Bowie on his 1969 song Space Oddity. Both songs have similar subject matter, and lots of peopleContinue reading “Rocket Man first blasted off”

March 2, 1965 –The movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, had its world premiere at New York’s Rivoli Theater on this date. When Maria is running through the courtyard to the Von Trapp house in I Have Confidence, she trips. This was an accident.Continue reading “Thank goodness it wasn’t called The Sound of Mucus”

March 2, 1933 – RKO Studios, on the brink of bankruptcy, gambled the studio on a filmed puppet show for kids, releasing the film King Kong on this date. In the original film, the character’s name is Kong — a name given to him by the inhabitants of “Skull Island” in the Indian Ocean, whereContinue reading “It as beauty that killed the beast”

March 1, 1973 –Pink Floyd released their eighth studio album, Dark Side Of The Moon, on this date. The album debuts at an inauspicious #95 on the US Albums chart, but has become the album with the most weeks on the Billboard charts, thanks in large part to a run from 1977-1988 when it neverContinue reading “Breathe, breathe in the air”

March 1, 1968 –The Star Trek episode The Omega Glory first aired in this date. In it, the Enterprise comes across the derelict Federation ship Exeter, and the crew discovers that its entire crew has been killed by a plague. NBC announced that Star Trek would be renewed for a third season during the closingContinue reading “The Omega Glory premiered”

February 28, 1936 –Wife vs. Secretary starring, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, and Myrna Loy premiered on this date. This was the fifth of six films paring Gable and Harlow, and the fourth picture for Gable and Loy starring together. This was the first film Loy and Harlow appeared together. They would be together again forContinue reading “Please refer to the flowchart provided to follow along –”

February 28, 1963 –Patsy Cline made the final TV appearance on this date, when she’s on The Glenn Reeves Show, performing San Antonio Rose and I Fall To Pieces. She died tragically in a plane crash just five days later at the age of 30.

Today is the Feast of Saint Juliana of Nicomedia. She refused to marry a Roman official, so he had her roasted in flames, then dipped into boiling oil before finally being beheaded, which seems rather harsh even for Roman times. Once again, Springsteen was right – it’s hard being a saint (in the city.)

February 16, 1956 –The film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical Carousel, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones, premiered on this date. While appearing in a nightclub act with his wife at Lake Tahoe, Gordon MacRae received an emergency phone call to replace Frank Sinatra as Billy Bigelow, after Sinatra walked out before filmingContinue reading “Carousel opened”