Author Archives: dcaligari

May 24, 1964 –The Beatles performed You Can’t Do That from the set of A Hard Day’s Night in a taped segment on The Ed Sullivan Show on this date. Ironically, You Can’t Do That would be cut out of the finished film. May 24, 1969 –The Beatles with Billy Preston hit No. 1 withContinue reading “A double dose of Beatles”

May 23, 1966 –The Beatles released the single Paperback Writer on this date. At the time, The Beatles were about to cease touring and couldn’t make many TV appearances to perform the song. This made it very difficult to promote the single, so they commissioned a film clip that could be shown on these programs,Continue reading “Dear Sir or Madam, Did you read my book?”

May 23, 1969 –… A son! A son! A son! …. The Who released Tommy in the UK, the first rock opera on this date. Somehow this may or may not be connected with the fact, that The BBC gave the go-ahead for 13 episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus Truly a brief glorious refloweringContinue reading “Tommy, can you hear me?”

May 23, 1929 –Walt Disney released the ninth film in the Mickey Mouse film series, The Karnival Kid on this date This is first cartoon in which Mickey Mouse speaks. His first words are “Hot dogs!“

May 23, 1984 –Sergio Leone’s epic crime drama, Once Upon a Time in America starring Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Joe Pesci, Burt Young, Tuesday Weld, and Treat Williams premiered at the Cannes Film festive on this date. A few days before the film’s premiere in 1984, Treat Williams found out the two-hourContinue reading “Another cinematic masterpiece mangled”

May 23, 1980 –Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror thriller The Shining, opened on this date (I remember seeing it at the midnight showing on this date in Time Square.) There were so many changes to the script during shooting (a scene change was made almost daily) that Jack Nicholson claimed he stopped reading it. He wouldContinue reading “Red rum, Red rum”

Today is World Turtle Day. The purpose of World Turtle Day, sponsored yearly since 2000 by American Tortoise Rescue, is to bring attention to, and increase knowledge of and respect for, turtles and tortoises, and encourage human action to help them survive and thrive. It’s celebrated worldwide in a variety of ways, from dressing upContinue reading “In a fast-paced world, be the calm turtle.”

There are 29 days until summer. Hopefully, you’ll be able to make some vacation plans this year.

May 22, 1965 –The Beatles single, Ticket to Ride hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts on this date. Most Americans at the time, concluded the “ticket” was from British Railways, and “ride” was the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight. McCartney confessed to his biographer Barry Miles that they were partly right.Continue reading “I think I’m going to be sad …”

May 22, 1971 – The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers album, with a working zipper on the cover, hits #1 in the US, on this date. Andy Warhol designed the Sticky Fingers album cover. Before he started working on it, Mick Jagger send Warhol a note warning that a complicated design could cause nasty production delays,Continue reading “Yeah, gold coast slave ship bound for cotton fields …”