Author Archives: dcaligari

Purim starts tonight – The festival of Purim is celebrated every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar (late winter/early spring). It commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Haman’s plot “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a singleContinue reading “A dessert to build a holiday around”

March 6, 1965 –Script writers build up for a laugh, but they don’t allow any pause for it. That’s where I come in. I ad lib – it doesn’t matter what I say – just to kill a few seconds so you can enjoy the gag. I have to sense when the big laughs willContinue reading “Margaret Dumont”

March 6, 1998 –The Coen Bros. off-kilter take on a Raymond Chandler detective story, The Big Lebowski, opened on this date. In an early draft of the script, The Dude’s source of income was revealed. He was an heir to the inventor of the Rubik’s Cube, which would have also made him Hungarian in turn.Continue reading “The Big Lebowski premiered”

March 6, 1970 –The Beatles released Let it Be in the UK on this date. Paul McCartney wrote this song supposedly after he had a dream about his mother who died when he was 14. Since Let It Be was The Beatles last album, it made an appropriate statement about leaving problems behind and movingContinue reading “Let it Be went on sale”

March 5, 2006 – The nature documentary Planet Earth narrated by David Attenborough premieres on the BBC TV, on this date. The project took 40 camera teams shooting at over 200 different locations all over the world for more than five years.

March 5, 1959 – In The Twilight Zone episode The Last Flight, (which originally aired February 5, 1960,) British RFC Flt. Lt. Decker was lost over France on March 5, 1917, and he seemed to have returned on this date, 42 years later. The episode was filmed at Norton AFB, San Bernardino, California–playing the rollContinue reading “The last of the squadron returned”

March 5, 1956 –Frank Sinatra released his tenth studio album Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! on this date. Sinatra aficionados often rank it his best album and many music critics consider it one of the greatest albums of its era.

On March 1, 1953, after an all-night dinner with interior minister Lavrenty Beria and future premiers Georgi Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, Josif Stalin, truly Evil Bastard, did not emerge from his room the next day, having probably suffered a stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body. Although his guards thought itContinue reading “Bizarre ironies of History”

March 4, 1982 – The David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker silliness, Police Squad, starring Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin, premiered on ABC-TV on this date. Each week featured a “Special Guest Star” who is killed off in the opening credits. Lorne Greene and William Conrad are knifed and tossed out of cars; GeorgContinue reading “Police Squad debuted”

March 4, 1967 –The Rolling Stones song, Ruby Tuesday, topped the charts on this date. Brian Jones played the recorder (it sounds like a flute) on this song. He was a founding member of the group and fancied himself their leader, which along with a debilitating drug habit, starting causing problems in the band aroundContinue reading “Ruby Tuesday was No. 1 on the Billboard Charts”