Author Archives: dcaligari

March 19, 1977 –It was the end of the road at WJM-TV when the final episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Last Show, aired on CBS TV on this date. In an interview years later Mary Tyler Moore said that the scene where they embraced and then huddled to the tissues was notContinue reading “Thank you for being my family.”

March 19, 1962 –Bob Dylan’s self-titled debut album went on sale in the US on this date. Initially, poor sales led the record to be known around Columbia Records as “Hammond’s Folly” (John Hammond was producer of Dylan’s early recordings and the man responsible for signing Dylan to the label). The album was praised byContinue reading “The first Dylan album”

March 19, 1953 –NBC TV aired The Academy Awards on television for the first time on this date. Though the winners had been announced several months earlier, the program still garnered a lot of attention. The show was hosted by Bob Hope and Conrad Nagel.

March 18, 1968 –Mel Brook’s screamingly funny first film, a send-up of Broadway, The Producers, opened in New York City on this date. Gene Wilder said in an interview on TCM that at the first reading of the script, he excused himself to leave for a dentist appointment he could not miss, when in factContinue reading “We find the defendants incredibly guilty.”

March 18, 1964 –In his first outing as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, Peter Sellers starred in The Pink Panther, which opened in New York City on this date. The film was intended to have David Niven’s character Sir Charles Lytton as the main character. However, Peter Sellers’ portrayal of Inspector Clouseau was so loved byContinue reading “The Pink Panther premiered”

March 18, 1967 –The Beatles’ single Penny Lane became their 13th hit to go to the #1 spot on the Billboard Charts, on this date. Paul McCartney was sitting at a bus shelter waiting for John Lennon to meet him on Penny Lane, a street near their houses in Liverpool, England. While sitting there PaulContinue reading “there is a barber showing photographs …”

March 18, 1972 –Neil Young’s Heart Of Gold, with backing vocals by James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, hit No. #1 on the Billboard Charts in the US, on this date. Young wrote this in 1971 after he suffered a back injury that made it difficult for him to play the electric guitar, so on theContinue reading “Heart of Gold topped the charts”

March 17, 1972 –Ringo Starr released the single Back off Boogaloo, in the UK, on this date. The song peaked at number 2 in Britain and Canada, and number 9 on the U.S.’ Billboard Hot 100 chart. It remains Starr’s highest-charting single in the United Kingdom. “Boogaloo” was Ringo’s nickname for Paul McCartney. The songContinue reading “Back off Boogaloo went on sale”

March 17, 1958 –The song Tequila by the Champs was number one on the music charts on this date. This was originally released as the B-side to a song by The Champs called Train to Nowhere in December 1957. Disc jockeys flipped the single and played Tequila instead, making the song one of the biggestContinue reading “A perfect drink for the day”

March 17, 1978 –Paramount Pictures releases the bio-pix about Alan Freed, American Hot Wax, starring Tim McIntire, Fran Drescher, Jay Leno, and Laraine Newman (and featuring performances by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and Frankie Ford,) on this date. During a TV interview at the time just after this film was released,Continue reading “American Hot Wax dropped”