Author Archives: dcaligari

June 20, 1946 –Rex Harrison’s first American movie, Anna and the King Of Siam, with Irene Dunne, opened in theaters on this date While most of the Caucasian actors and actresses playing Asians in this movie wore dark make-up, Gale Sondergaard was allergic to the make-up being used. Instead, through several weeks of cautious sunbathing,Continue reading “Anna and the King Of Siam premiered”

June 20, 1941 – Advertised as their farewell film (they went on to appear in two more,) The Big Store, starring the Marx Brothers and Margaret Dumont (in her final appearance in a Marx Bros. film) premiered on this date. This film made MGM the modest profit of $33,000 according to studio records. But, itContinue reading “Hey, pressa’ the grapes – no pressa’ my wife!”

June 19, 1976 –The original emo boy, Eric Carmen’s single Never Gonna’ Fall in Love Again went to the top of The Billboard Charts on this date. Once again, Carmen uses (steals) a piece of classical music – this time, the melody line from Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 for this song. It comes from theContinue reading “No use pretending things can still be right”

June 19, 1954 – The Tasmanian Devil, Taz, made his debut in the Looney Tunes cartoon, Devil May Hare, (also starring Bugs Bunny,) on this date. This was the film that came up with the popular title motif “I Was a insert noun here.” Numerous films, songs, and books have paid homage to this filmContinue reading “Devil May Hare premiered”

June 19, 1937 – The Looney Tunes short, Porky’s Building, directed by Frank Tashlin, and starring Porky Pig was released on this date. The City Building Commissioner’s name is Sandy C. Ment (Sandy Cement) – Sand and cement are basic materials used in commercial building construction.

June 19, 1937 – The Merrie Melodies short, Streamlined Greta Green, directed by Friz Freleng, was released on this date. Tex Avery would eventually rework this cartoon during his tenure at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1952 as One Cab’s Family, which shares a similar plot but involving taxicabs instead of cars.

June 19, 1941 – The Merrie Melodies short, The Aristo-cat, directed by Chuck Jones and starring Claude the Cat, and Hubie and Bertie, was released on this date. The author of the first book Claude reads is F.E. Line, a play on the word feline.

June 19, 1963 – Columbia Pictures’ classic Ray Harryhausen fantasy film Jason and the Argonauts, directed by Don Chaffey and starring Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Gary Raymond, and Laurence Naismith, was released in the U.S. on this date. While filming footage of the Argo off the coast of Italy, a replica of the Golden HindContinue reading “Jason and the Argonauts premiered”

June 19, 1957 –The classic 50s teenage-horror film, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, starring Michael Landon, premiered on this date. American International Pictures released this on a double bill with Invasion of the Saucer Men with the tag line “We DARE You To See The Most Amazing Pictures of Our Time!“