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March 18, 1967 –The Beatles’ single Penny Lane became their 13th hit to go to the #1 spot on the Billboard Charts, on this date. Paul McCartney was sitting at a bus shelter waiting for John Lennon to meet him on Penny Lane, a street near their houses in Liverpool, England. While sitting there PaulContinue reading “Penny Lane topped the charts”

March 18, 1968 –Mel Brook’s screamingly funny first film, a send-up of Broadway, The Producers, opened in New York City on this date. Gene Wilder said in an interview on TCM that at the first reading of the script, he excused himself to leave for a dentist appointment he could not miss, when in factContinue reading “Remember to flaunt it if you got it”

March 18, 1975 –McLean Stevenson’s character (Lt. Colonel Henry Blake) died in the MAS*H episode Abyssinia, Henry, its third season finale on this date. According to producer Larry Gelbart, when Larry Linville read the (previously concealed) final page of the script, he said, “Fucking brilliant!” When Gary Burghoff read it, he looked at McLean StevensonContinue reading “The Death Of Henry Blake”

The Feast Day of St. Patrick is celebrated on March 17. St. Patrick is considered the father of Celtic Christianity. He founded more than three hundred churches, drove the snakes out of Ireland, invented green beer, and coined the popular slogan, Kiss me, I’m Irish (although, he himself was not.) This year, the Citizenry ofContinue reading “May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.”

March 17, 1972 –John Water presented Divine to an unsuspecting world: Pink Flamingos, opened in Baltimore on this date. (In 2021, this cult classic was inducted into the National Film Registery of important films that need to be preserved.) According to production designer Vincent Peranio, the art department’s budget was about $200. Half went toContinue reading “Pink Flamingos premiered”

March 17, 1982 –Dean Jones reprised his role as Jim Douglas when CBS aired the short-lived TV version of Herbie The Love Bug on this date Herbie The Love Bug was a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle deluxe ragtop sedan painted in Volkswagen L87 pearl white. Under normal circumstances, the interior would be a matching white. However,Continue reading “Herbie The Love Bug premiered”

March 17, 1978 – Paramount Pictures releases the bio-pix about Alan Freed, American Hot Wax, starring Tim McIntire, Fran Drescher, Jay Leno, and Laraine Newman (and featuring performances by Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and Frankie Ford,) on this date. The film was not as successful at the box-office as the similarlyContinue reading “American Hot Wax premiered”

It’s National Hiccup Day today (apparently, according to the interweb, this is a cure for hiccups. But, do not put it over your head.) It’s also known as synchronous diaphragmatic flutter or singultus. Now you know.

March 16 – Today is the celebration of St. Urho’s Day, Patron saint of Finnish vineyard workers. Attributed to him is the miracle of banishing grasshoppers from Finland which he accomplished with a few choice Finnish phrases, thereby saving the season’s grape crop. But in reality a bunch of very drunk people made this upContinue reading “It’s St. Urho’s Day again”

March 16, 1979 –The Columbia Pictures thriller The China Syndrome, starring Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, and Wilford Brimley opened in the US on this date. The film debuted less than two weeks before the Three Mile Island Nuclear meltdown. When the film was first released, nuclear power executives soon lambasted the picture asContinue reading “The China Syndrome premiered”