Author Archives: dcaligari

July 11, 1942 – A classic 40s Merrie Melodies cartoon, Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid was released on this date. The part where Bugs and Killer are temporarily fooled into thinking that the bones are theirs is a reference to a Harold Lloyd film, The Freshman.

July 11, 1997 –The under-rated Robert Zemeckis Sci-Fi film (based on a Carl Sagan novel,) Contact, starring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Angela Bassett, Rob Lowe, and David Morse, opened on this date. The remark made throughout the movie by different characters, that if humans were the only life inContinue reading “Contact premiered”

July 11, 1965 –One of the 60s best Beach movies, Beach Blanket Bingo opened today. This was the final full appearance in a “Beach Party” movie for Frankie Avalon. He only appears in six minutes of the follow-up, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini.

Just giving you a brief heads up – if in doubt, I’ll happily accept gold ingots Hey, if inmate number 67277-050 can accept them, who I’m I to turn them down. This one, not so much, thank you.

ACME would like to issue this public service announcement concerning Brain Freeze (also known as sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia) – Now to the point at hand – Why bring this up? The date today is 7/11 (at least in this country. Foreigners and other degenerates refer to the day as 11/7 but that’s another story…) T TheContinue reading “Oh, thank heaven”

It was great foresight on the part of our beloved city forefathers to lay out the city in such a way that this happens every year just around my birthday. Once again, the sun will be perfectly lined up with the east-west streets of New York. So get outside to catch the ‘Full Sun onContinue reading “Look to the skies”

July 10, 1972 –Harry Nilsson’s eighth album, Son of Schmilsson was released on this date. It featured George Harrison under the name George Harrysong and Ringo Starr, listed as Richie Snare, on some of the tracks. Peter Frampton also played guitar on most of the album.

July 10, 1958 –The first parking meter was installed in London, England, on this date in 1958 – along with the second through the 625th. It took nearly two dozen years for the parking meter to make its way across the Atlantic: the first American parking meter had been installed in Oklahoma City on JulyContinue reading “It’s probably easier to put a quarter in it”

July 10, 1947 – One of Jules Dassin’s post-war film-noir classics, Brute Force, starring Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth, and Charles Bickford, opened in Los Angeles on this date. The second of three films that Burt Lancaster made for Mark Hellinger, the writer-producer who discovered the former acrobat and turned himContinue reading “Brute Force premiered”

July 10, 1942 –Orson Welles‘ butchered masterpiece, The Magnificent Ambersons, was released by RKO Pictures, on this date. After a disastrous preview (which occurred a week after the Pearl Harbor attack,) it was clear to the execs at RKO that the film was too long, too dense and too somber. Orson Welles, however, had decampedContinue reading “Another unfortunate day for Orson”