Author Archives: dcaligari

February 23, 1950 –A nearly forgotten Alfred Hitchcock film, Stage Fright starring Marlene Dietrich, Jane Wyman, Richard Todd, and Michael Wilding, opened in New York City on this date. In an extraordinary move for the normally controlling director,  Alfred Hitchcock provided Marlene Dietrich an exceptional amount of creative control for this movie, particularly in howContinue reading “Stage Fright premiered”

February 23, 1967 – The Star Trek episode A Taste of Armageddon first airs on NBC, on this date. In it, the Enterprise visits a planet fighting a war with its neighboring planet via computers. In his memoir, Beam Me Up, Scotty, James Doohan described Gene Lyons (Ambassador Robert Fox) as being “out of hisContinue reading “The TOS Star Trek A Taste of Armageddon premiered”

It’s also National Margarita Day. Margarita, in spanish it means Daisy Remember, we’ve just come off a three-day weekend – celebrate responsibly.

Today is the 13th day of the Lunar New Year. All of the festival food should probably be done by now. Most people just want to eat something simple on this day. Some people eat vegetarian foods to cleanse their digestive system (remember yesterday was Diarrhea Day.) This day is dedicated to the General GuanContinue reading “Concentrate on making your lantern”

February 22, 1956 –Elvis Presley’s song Heartbreak Hotel debuted on the Billboard pop chart at No. 68, on this date. Mae Axton, a Nashville songwriter who wrote the music for Heartbreak Hotel, was living in Jacksonville when this song was written. She got a local country singer named Glenn Reeves to do the demo forContinue reading “I wonder what the room rates are there?”

February 22, 1956 –The film widely considered the worst film produced by a major studio in the 50s, The Conqueror, directed by Dick Powell and starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, and Pedro Armendáriz, premiered in the US on this date. The film was shot downwind from a nuclear test siteContinue reading “A lot of people died getting this film made”

February 22, 1934 –Frank Capra’s romantic comedy It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, premiered at Radio City Music Hall on this date. Claudette Colbert complained nearly every day during the making of the film. On the last day of shooting she told a friend, “I just finished making the worst pictureContinue reading “Gable nearly killed the undershirt industry”

Today is the 12th day of the Lunar New Year. Technically, the Spring Festival is 15 days, but celebrations start on New Year’s eve making it 16. However, you can also say that the holiday season starts in lunar December with the Laba Festival (December 30,) making it 34 days of celebration. Since the LunarContinue reading “We’re nearing the end, have faith”

February 21, 1947 –Edwin H. Land first demonstrated, the first instant camera, the Polaroid Land camera, during a meeting of the Optical Society of America (OSA) at the Hotel Pennsylvania, in New York City. The camera produces a black and white photograph in sixty seconds, using development and fixer chemicals sandwiched in pods with theContinue reading “Shake, shake”

February 21, 2008 – Paul Mawhinney’s collection of 3 million vinyl records, amassed over 40 years while he owned a record store in Pittsburgh, was sold on eBay for $3,002,150, on this date. The bid was a sham, it turned out to be an unsuspecting Irishman who said his account had been hacked. Mawhinney heldContinue reading “That’s a lot of vinyl”