Author Archives: dcaligari

August 25, 1972 –American International Pictures released another film in the blaxploitation vein, Blacula, on this date. Blacula was popular in America, debuting at #24 on Variety’s list of top films. It eventually grossed over a million dollars, making it one of the highest-grossing films of 1972.

August 24, 1968 –France exploded its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world’s fifth nuclear power. The Germans break out in an ever slight sweat. (The 1998 film Godzilla uses this particular test as the basis for the monster Godzilla, an infant green iguana mutated by the fallout from the blast.) Another reason to hateContinue reading “Sacre Bleu!”

August 24, 1979 –NBC-TV introduced the girls of Eastland School, an all-girls boarding school in Peekskill, New York, to audiences when The Facts of Life premiered on this date. The pilot Rough Housing may have been the very first children’s program on network television to discuss gender confusion and sexual identity crises among youth; asContinue reading “The Facts of Life”

August 23, 1985 –Atlantic Releasing Corp releases the comedy film Teen Wolf, directed by Rod Daniel and starred Michael J. Fox, on this date. Michael J. Fox and Jeff Glosser couldn’t eat solid food while in make-up. They had milkshakes and soup.

August 23, 1985 –The Toho Studio and New World Pictures released the heavily re-edited American version of The Return of Godzilla (a sequel of the original Gojira movie), Godzilla 1985 (a sequel of the American Godzilla, King of the Monsters) starring the great Raymond Burr, Ken Tanaka, and Yasuko Sawaguchi, on this date. Raymond BurrContinue reading “Godzilla 1985”

August 22, 1893 –If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to. Dorothy Parker was born in New York City, to Henry and Eliza Rothschild (… My God, no, dear! We’d never even heard of those Rothschilds ….) on this date. Her birth was twoContinue reading “Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”

August 21, 1911 –Pablo Picasso was having a very bad day. His so called friend, French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be “burnt down,” came under suspicion when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Lourve on this day; he was arrested and put in jail. Apollinaire, as allContinue reading “It really was the Crime of the Century (at the time, anyway.)”

What did Vincenzo Peruggia steal on August 21, 1911? a. The Shroud of Turinb. Home platec. The Mona Lisad. The Sistine Chapele. The Hope Diamond Bonus: what was his day job? (Answer later today) And so it goes.

First we were Four Then we were three Now we are two. It was a long haul but we got Olivia and Julietta up to school.We still have a bunch of Olivia’s things here at the house, (we’ll have to go back another day with them.) She got settled in and is currently enjoying theContinue reading “We did it!”

August 20, 1941 –William Wyler’s pitch-perfect adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, starring Bette Davis, premiered on this date. Bette Davis was a contract player for Warner Brothers at the time, earning $3000 a week. When she heard how much Warners was receiving for her services she demanded a share of the payment.