Author Archives: dcaligari

May 3, 1937 – A short little southern lady wrote a novel for her own amusement, and with solid support from her husband, she kept her literary efforts a secret from all her friends. She would hide the voluminous pages under towels, disguising them as a divan, or hide pages in her closets or underContinue reading “Gone With the Wind Pulitizer win”

May 3, 1966 –Johnny Carson played the new party game Twister with Eva Gabor on the Tonight Show on this date. Gabor and Carson got tied up in knots, the studio audience went hysterical and Twister went on to sell more than three million copies over the next year.

May 3, 1942 –Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, was put into effect by Lt. General John DeWitt from his headquarters in the SF Presidio on this date. It called for the evacuation of Japanese-Americans from Los Angeles effective May 9. Some 110,000-112,000 Japanese-Americans were settled in 10Continue reading “More things your teacher didn’t tell you”

May 3, 1991 –CBS TV finally tired of Larry Hagman’s shenanigans and scheduled the final episode of the 13 seasons running series, Dallas (which began on September 23, 1978,) Conundrum, on this date. Larry Hagman (J.R. Ewing), Patrick Duffy (Bobby Ewing), Ken Kercheval (Cliff Barnes), Linda Gray (Sue Ellen Ewing) and Steve Kanaly (Ray Krebbs)Continue reading “The finale of Dallas”

May 3, 1980 –The Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band single Against The Wind began a six week run at No.1 on the Billboard charts on this date. Bob Seger won the 1980 Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal Grammy award for this song.

May 3, 1947 – Sylvester tried to have Tweety Bird for lunch for the first time in the Looney Tunes cartoon, Tweetie Pie, which premiered on this date (Yeah, yeah, I know Sylvester is called Thomas but it’s Sylvester just the same. In 1948, with the cartoon Scaredy Cat, his name was changed to Sylvester,Continue reading “Tweetie Pie debuted”

May 2, 1936 –Sergei Prokofiev was commissioned by The Central Children’s Theatre of Moscow to create a symphonic tale for children. Peter and the Wolf had its world premiere in Moscow on this date. Prokofiev felt, in his own words, the work had an inauspicious opening at best: “…[attendance] was poor and failed to attractContinue reading “Peter and the World debuted”

May 2, 1997 –New Line Cinema released Jay Roach’s mega-hit Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery starring Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, and Michael York, on this date. Mike Myers originally wanted Jim Carrey to play Dr. Evil, but Carrey eventually passed, due to scheduling conflicts with the film, Liar Liar. Myers then took the iconicContinue reading “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery premiered”

May 2, 1979 – The film Quadrophenia, based on The Who’s album and featuring Sting, premiered in London on this date John Lydon (the former Johnny Rotten) was originally approached for the role of Jimmy and even screen-tested for the role. However the distributors refused to insure him for the part and he was replaced.

May 2, 1965 –The Rolling Stones made their second appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on this date. The Stones performed three songs: The Last Time, Little Red Rooster, and Everybody Need Somebody To Love.