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December 22 1958 –The song by Dave Seville and The Chipmunks, The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late), hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, on this date, and stayed there for four weeks.  (Sorry about the ear worm.) The song, written and performed by Ross Bagdasarian Sr. (a.k.a. David Seville) who varied the tapeContinue reading “Those damn Chipmunks topped the charts”

December 22, 1975 –Archie Bunker’s “little girl” Gloria gave birth to a son, Joseph Michael Stivic, on CBS’s All in the Family, on this date. The birth occurred in the second part of a two-part episode, The Baby, which begins with Edith and Archie (Jean Stapleton and Carroll O’Connor) beating Mike and Gloria (Rob ReinerContinue reading “The birth of Baby Joey”

December 22, 1965 – David Lean’s Russian epic, Dr Zhivago, starring Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness, Ralph Richardson, Siobhán McKenna, and Rita Tushingham, opened in the US, on this date. This movie was shot in Spain during the regime of General Francisco Franco. One day, while filming theContinue reading “Dr Zhivago premiered”

The Winter Solstice in Northern Hemisphere will be at 10:27 PM (EST), the shortest amount of daylight of the year and the longest night. It’s officially the first day of Winter and one of the oldest known holidays in human history. Anthropologists believe that solstice celebrations go back at least 30,000 years, before humans evenContinue reading “Fear not the darkness”

December 21, 1963 – The Doctor Who story arc The Daleks, the second story of Season One, first aired on the BBC on this date. The episodes mark the first appearance of the Doctor’s mortal enemies, the Daleks, a race of genetically engineered mutants who abhor all other races.

December 21, 1970 –Paranoid, alcoholic President Richard Nixon met with prescription drug addict Elvis Presley at the White House to discuss The King’s becoming a special drug enforcement agent He presented Nixon with a pistol, and received a special DEA badge in return.

The pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock on December 21, 1620 or some other day, the pilgrims were too busy depriving themselves of luxuries like accurate calendars (Their stepping ashore onto a large rock that later became known as the Plymouth Rock probably is a myth.) Their boat was the Mayflower. They wore black and whiteContinue reading “I don’t believe indigenous people celebrate this day”

December 21, 1969 –Diana Ross and the Supremes make their final television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, on this date. The song they sang, Someday We’ll Be Together, would become the last of their 12 number one singles.

December 21, 1937 – Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length color and sound cartoon, opened on this date. The animation took over two years and a then astronomical $1.5 million to create. Disney had to mortgage his house to pay for the film’s production.

December 20, 1939 –The Paramount Pictures animated version of Gulliver’s Travels directed by Dave Fleischer, opened in NYC on this date. Even though the film was a box-office success, it never managed to recover its enormous cost, which went nearly $500,000 over budget due to the relocation of the Fleischer studios, transportation of film forContinue reading “Gulliver’s Travels premiered”