Author Archives: dcaligari

There are 136 days until Christmas Secure your position on the naughty/ nice list accordingly

August 10, 2020 –Split Enz hit #1 in their native New Zealand with the 40th anniversary reissue of their album True Colours, on this date The album knocked off Folklore by Taylor Swift the top of the charts. Swift was born nine years after the album was first released.

August 10, 1957 – The Merrie Melodies short, Birds Anonymous, directed by Friz Freleng, and starring Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird was released on this date. This cartoon won the 1958 Academy Award for best animated short subject. Before producer Eddie Selzer, the head of Warner Bros. Cartoons, died, he gave the Oscar toContinue reading “Birds Anonymous premiered”

August 10, 1940– The Merrie Melodies short, Ghost Wanted, directed by Chuck Jones, was released on this date. At one point in the cartoon, the older ghost offers a cigarette to the younger ghost. Some broadcasts of this short had the scene omitted because some found it objectionable that an “adult” would offer cigarettes toContinue reading “Ghost Wanted premiered”

August 9, 1985 –The Tim Burton comedy, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure starring Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, Mark Holton, Diane Salinger and Judd Omen, was released n this date. Paul Reubens said that he, Phil Hartman, and Michael Varhol had never written a screenplay prior to this film. They purchased a book by Syd Field on howContinue reading “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure premiered”

August 10, 1950 – Billy Wilder’s caustic, black-hearted masterpiece, Sunset Boulevard premiered in New York City, on this date. Unlike the character she played, Gloria Swanson had accepted the fact that the movies didn’t want her anymore and had moved to New York, where she worked on radio and, later, television. Although she had longContinue reading “It’s the pictures that got small”

August 10, 1994 – The cult comedy classic, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, directed by Stephan Elliott and starring Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Bill Hunter, was released in the US on this date. According to director Stephan Elliott, he got the idea for the film while seeing a plumeContinue reading “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert premiered”

August 10, 1948 –Candid Camera, considered by many to be the first reality tv show, debuted on ABC-TV on this date. The series was previously known on the radio. Its name: Candid Microphone. For a period in 1958, the show appeared as a regular segment of Jack Paar’s The Tonight Show, airing on NBC. InContinue reading “When it’s least expected, you’re elected”

August 10, 1968 –According to the strip below, Snoopy’s birthday is August 10. There had, however, been no reference to this in previous years and it did not become an annual feature of the strip, (in fact, there are some references to Snoopy’s birthday being August 28.)

Happy National S’mores Day. S’mores – the most popular campfire treat is recognized each year on August 10th. In 1927, Girl Scouts troop leader Loretta Scott Crew wrote a recipe for “Some Mores,” and published it in Tramping and Trailing With the Girl Scouts, an official Girl Scouts publication, though the exact origin of S’moresContinue reading “One s’more is never enough.”