July 23, 1885 –One of the most famous residents of West 122nd Street and Riverside Drive made a most fateful decision on this date. He decided to give up the ghost. In 1881, Ulysses S. Grant – American general, the eighteenth President of the United States, and a famous horseback-riding drunk – purchased a houseContinue reading “My failures have been errors in judgment, not of intent.”
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If you can dream it, you can do it.
July 23, 1904 –At the turn of the last century, ice cream men were a breed apart. It was hard work making ice cream, and the rewards were few. “You don’t choose ice cream,” they said. “Ice cream chooses you.” Well, Charles E. Menches was an ice cream man. They say it ran in hisContinue reading “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
The world got a bit smaller
July 23, 1962 –Telstar relayed the first publicly transmitted, live, trans-Atlantic television program, featuring CBS’s Walter Cronkite and NBC’s Chet Huntley in New York, and the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby in Brussels. The first broadcast was intended to have been remarks by President John F. Kennedy, but the signal was acquired before the president was ready,Continue reading “The world got a bit smaller”
The Gene Autry Show premiered
July 23, 1950 –The Singing Cowboy Gene Autry’s series The Gene Autry Show, co-starring Pat Buttram, sponsored by Wrigley’s Doublemint Gum, debuted on CBS-TV, on this date. Two-thirds of the way through the first season’s production, Pat Buttram was severely injured in an explosion and was hospitalized for several months. In order to complete theContinue reading “The Gene Autry Show premiered”
Surfer Girl went on sale
July 22, 1963 –The Beach Boys released the single Surfer Girl, (the b-side is Little Deuce Coupe,) 0n this date. The single was the first Beach Boys record to have Brian Wilson officially credited as the producer. Brian Wilson’s girlfriend when he wrote this song was Judy Bowles, who was with him before he formedContinue reading “Surfer Girl went on sale”
Dead and on view
July 22, 1934 –John Dillinger was shot dead outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre on this date in history. And one of the most bizarre urban legends was born. According to the rumor, J. Edgar Hoover — pug-ugly head of the FBI and notorious transvestite — rushed to Chicago to see the corpse of Dillinger, Public EnemyContinue reading “Dead and on view”
You Freud, me Jane?
July 22, 1964 – One of Hitchcock’s most underrated (and sexually twisted) films, Marnie premiered on this date. To film real horses riding without having to work outdoors, Alfred Hitchcock came up with the idea of running the horses on a gigantic treadmill. Crew members objected to the idea, because it was considered highly unsafe,Continue reading “You Freud, me Jane?”
Can your heart stand the shocking facts
July 22, 1959 –Either considered the worst or greatest film ever made, Ed Wood Jr’s sci-fi classic, Plan 9 from Outer Space, starring Bela Lugosi, Gregory Walcott, Mona McKinnon, Tor Johnson, Vampira and narrated by Criswell, opened in the US on this date. The film played for years in relative obscurity (to some) on late-nightContinue reading “Can your heart stand the shocking facts”
Fighting a liar
Today is Spooner’s Day, honoring Reverend William Archibald Spooner, a 19th Century British clergyman, who was born on this date in 1844. Spoonerisms are usually a two-word phrase in which the first letters (and occasionally the initial vowels) of the words are reversed. Reverend Spooner was adept at the art of the oopsy linguae, orContinue reading “Fighting a liar”
The Wall in Berlin aired
July 21, 1990 –Roger Waters staged an over-sized version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall near the Berlin Wall, on this date, to celebrate the actual wall’s fall several months earlier. During the live TV transmission the second and third songs, The Thin Ice and Another Brick in the Wall part I, were disrupted when aContinue reading “The Wall in Berlin aired”
The Haus of Dcaligari 