Author Archives: dcaligari

August 20, 1972 – Stax Records commemorates the seventh anniversary of the 1965 Watts riots with a star-studded benefit concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, on this date. More than 100,000 fans show up to hear Isaac Hayes, The Bar-Kays, The Staple Singers, and Kim Weston, among others, perform at what becomes known asContinue reading “Watt Stax”

August 20, 1896 –A patent application was filed (US Patent No. 597,062) by brothers John and Charles J. Erickson & Alexander E. Keith for the rotary dial telephone on this date. The dial telephone made it possible for people to dial phone numbers on their own thereby making the communication process easier and more efficient.Continue reading “Watching the dial go around”

August 20, 1941 – William Wyler’s pitch-perfect adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, starring Bette Davis, opened on this date. Bette Davis and William Wyler fought a great deal during filming. Disagreements ranged from Davis’s interpretation of the character (Wyler thought she should be more sympathetic) to the appearance of the house (Davis thoughtContinue reading “The Little Foxes premiered”

August 20, 1988 –Steve Winwood’s single Roll With It when to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts on this date. The song was Winwood’s biggest solo hit in the US, spending four weeks at #1 and also topped the pop chart in his native Britain. The album of the same title also topped the USContinue reading “Roll With It topped the charts”

August 19, 1960 –The Soviet Union convicted U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage on this date, sentencing him to three years in prison and seven years of hard labor. All because he didn’t jab himself with the poison needle; another example of our faulty military training.

August 19, 1977 –Why should I care about posterity? What’s posterity ever done for me? One of the world’s leading commentator on the human condition, Julius Marx gave up the ghost on this date.

August 19, 1972 –NBC-TV presented The Midnight Special for the first time on this date. John Denver hosted the first episode of the show with guests including: Mama Cass, The Everly Brothers, The Isley Brothers, Harry Chapin, Linda Ronstadt and Argent. Helen Reddy was also a musical guest on the show, but did not hostContinue reading “The pilot of The Midnight Special aired”

August 19, 1932 – The Marx Brothers‘ fourth movie, Horse Feathers, went into general release on this date. Although the present running time is very close to that of the original, there are still a few bits and pieces and lines of dialogue missing, due to re-editing in 1935 in order to bring the filmContinue reading “I think I got it. Is it “swordfish”?”

August 19, 1969 –David Crosby, Steven Stills, Joni Mitchell, and the Jefferson Airplane appeared on the Dick Cavett Show, giving a first-hand account of the Woodstock festival that took place over the weekend. Jefferson Airplane’s performance of We Can Be Together marked the first time the word “fuck” was uttered on live US television.

August 18, 1986 –Mercury Records released Bon Jovi’s third studio album, Slippery When Wet on this date. The album was going to be called Wanted Dead Or Alive (another song on the album) and show the band on the cover dressed as cowboys. After doing the photo shoot with photographer Mark Weiss, the band decidedContinue reading “Slippery When Wet dropped”