Author Archives: dcaligari

January 13, 1967 –Decca Records released The Rolling Stones single, Let’s Spend The Night Together, (the b-side was Ruby Tuesday,) in the UK on this date, It’s pretty obvious what’s going on in this song, as Mick Jagger makes a play to bed down a lovely lady. All this talk of “satisfying her every need”Continue reading “Don’t you worry ’bout what’s on your mind,”

January 13, 1945 – One of the ‘banned’ World War II Looney Tunes cartoons, Herr meets Hare, opened on this date. This cartoon marks the first appearance of Bugs’ classic “left turn at Albuquerque” joke. The cartoon was finally broadcast in its entirety in July, 2001, on a special episode of the Cartoon Network’s programContinue reading “The infamous Herr Meets Hare premiered”

January 13, 1966 –Samantha gave birth to a baby girl, Tabitha on the ABC-TV program Bewitched (entitled, And Then There Were Three,) on this date. This is the first appearance of Cousin Serena, who would be a recurring character for the remainder of the series.

January 13, 1989 – British comedy sketch show series A Bit of Fry and Laurie starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie debuts on BBC1 on this date. Stephen Fry was never able to convincingly fake hitting someone, so often he genuinely hit Hugh Laurie while filming the sketches.

January 12, 2007 –Concert violinist Joshua Bell, played for free, for 45 minutes, on a violin worth 3.5 million dollars at a subway station in a DC Metro station on this date. Of the 1,097 people who passed by Bell, only seven stopped to listen him play, including a 3-year old boy, and only oneContinue reading “A surprise is always around the corner”

January 12, 1944 – Probably Alfred Hitchcock’s most underrated film, Lifeboat, opened in NYC on this date. This movie was shot entirely on a restricted set in which the boat was secured in a large studio tank. Alfred Hitchcock, always striving for realism, insisted that the boat never remain stationary and that there always beContinue reading “Hitchcock made his cameo appearance”

January 12, 1967 – You’re pretty high and far out son, what kind of kick are you on son? Dragnet reappeared in color when their iconic episode The LSD Story premiered on this date. When the revival was in the planning stages, Jack Webb had originally planned on bringing in his former co-star Ben AlexanderContinue reading “Dragnet… now in color”

January 12, 1992 – “… My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it I can sing it for you.” The HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic Computer) 9000 computer became operational in the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on this date in the film, 2001, AContinue reading “The Robot Wars started on this date”

January 11, 1980 –The Pretenders eponymous album Pretenders debuted on this date in the UK. In the UK, three singles were released before the album appeared. The first was a cover of The Kinks song Stop Your Sobbing, which was released in January 1979 and reached #34 in March 1979. Kid followed in June, goingContinue reading “I like the way you cross the street”

January 11, 1940 –The classic newspaper comedy, His Girl Friday, starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, premiered in New York on this date. During the 1930s, Howard Hawks was hosting a dinner party when the topic of dialogue was brought up. He pulled out a copy of The Front Page to demonstrate the snappy exchangesContinue reading “His Girl Friday premiered”