Author Archives: dcaligari

December 26, 1967 – 56 years ago today, The Beatles gave their fans a Christmas present – Magical Mystery Tour was shown on the BBC on this date. After its premiere on BBC1 on this date, in 1967, Ringo Starr apparently rang up the BBC complaining that the movie got poor ratings because it wasContinue reading “We all sang songs today, that were a hit before our mother was born”

Your Christmas gifts are starting to arrive (we’ll be keeping a count.) (Remember, we are going to count this as a unit and not as two individual gifts.) As always, we here at ACME want to help spread hope, peace, joy, and other marketing buzzwords Hopefully you haven’t overeaten this Christmas, but if you have,Continue reading “Our Annual Christmas Tally”

December 25, 1990 –Francis Ford Coppola’s much maligned sequel, The Godfather III starring everyone you would expect (except Robert Duvell, who couldn’t come to an agreement about his salary,) went into general release on this date. Robert Duvall turned down the $1 million the studio offered to re-create his role of Tom Hagen. Duvall didContinue reading “It wasn’t that bad”

December 25, 1962 –Robert Mulligan’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, starring Gregory Peck and Mary Badham opened on this date. The watch used in the film was a prop, but Harper Lee gave Gregory Peck her father’s watch after the film was completed, because he reminded her so much of him.

Do you hear what I hear? Christmas is but a day away. Although the ACME phone banks are closed, believe me, ACME factories are hard at work. So, were you naughty or nice? (Perhaps Mr. Bourdain will intercede on your behalf; after all, Buddha is a catholic saint.) And so it goes

Ok bunkies, today is the fourth and last Sunday of the Advent season. The day is called the Fourth Sunday of Advent, sorry no fancy french or Latin name. The fourth candle is lit on this day along with the first three. The fourth candle is often called the Angel candle. It represents the messengersContinue reading “One more to go”

December 24, 1994 –Pearl Jam’s third studio album Vitalogy went to No.1 position on the US album charts on this date. The Vitalogy album was released as a vinyl record two weeks before it was issued on CD. Vinyl was completely outdated and not yet retro-cool, but many people still had record players and PearlContinue reading “Vitalogy topped the charts”

December 24, 1940 –George Cukor’s classic film-comedy The Philadelphia Story, starring Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart opened on this date. Cary Grant demanded top billing and $100,000 salary–a huge amount at the time. As it turned out, however, he donated his entire earnings to the British War Relief Fund.

December 24, 1953 –Jack Webb’s series Dragnet aired a special episode, The Big Little Jesus on this date. The episode was network television’s first half-hour color film. It was the only color show of the series. Those of you with very sharp eyes can tell with some prompting that this is not the color episode.

December 23, 1972 –Franco Harris of the Pittsburgh Steelers grabbed a deflected pass from quarterback Terry Bradshaw to score a touchdown, winning the game for the Steelers 13-7 over the Oakland Raiders. The NFL’s Immaculate Reception, as it has become to be known, is one of the most famous plays in the history of AmericanContinue reading “People are still arguing this one”