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Three of the past century’s finest comedians were born on October 2: Groucho Marx (1890), Bud Abbott (1895), and Mahatma Gandhi (1869). Groucho and Abbott were funny enough, but they pale beside the towering comic greatness of Gandhi. “When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have alwaysContinue reading “A Plethora of Birthdays”

October 2, 1925 –Scottish inventor John Logie Baird successfully transmitted the first television picture with a greyscale image: the head of a ventriloquist’s dummy nicknamed Stooky Bill on this date. (“Stooky” being slang for someone who moves woodenly and a colloquial term for the plaster cast used to immobilize bone fractures.) Almost immediately, Logie BairdContinue reading “First TV image transmitted”

October 2, 1982 –John Cougar’s (John Mellencamp) single Jack And Diane, a little ditty about two American kids growin’ up in the heartland, becomes his first and only #1 hit in America, on this date. Jack and Diane were a interracial couple in the first version of this song, inspired by the blended couples JohnContinue reading “Jack And Diane topped the charts”

October 2, 1950 –The comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles Schulz, debuted in nine newspapers with the characters of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Patty and Sherman. It is still the most-read comic strip in the world. And yet, Charlie still hasn’t kicked that damn football. Demand Euphoria!

October 2, 1955 – Revenge, the very first story on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents show premieres on this date. The sponsors, who had great influence regarding the presentation of the show, insisted that for the episodes ending with the perpetrator “getting away with a crime,” Alfred Hitchcock provide a statement in his closing monologue thatContinue reading “Alfred Hitchcock Presents premiered”

October 2, 1959 –…a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind…. The first episode of the anthology series The Twilight Zone, Where is Everybody?, premiered on this date Rod Serling wanted Richard Egan to do the narration because of his rich, deep voice. However, due to strict studio contracts of the time,Continue reading “The Twilight Zone premiered”

October 1, 1968 –Night of the Living Dead premiered in Pittsburgh on this date. When the zombies are eating the bodies in the burnt-out truck, they were actually eating roast ham covered in chocolate sauce. The filmmakers joked that it was so nausea-inducing that it was almost a waste of time putting the makeup onContinue reading “Boo!”

October 1, 1979 –One of the most famous sports commercials ever was aired by Coca-Cola featuring “Mean Joe” Greene. The now iconic commercial took place in an NFL stadium tunnel, where Mean Joe is confronted by a 9 year old fan. The commercial ended with Greene tossing the kid a coke and uttering the famousContinue reading “Hey, kid, catch!”

October is the tenth month of the year and its name is therefore derived from Octo, the Latin word for eight (as the vegetables in V8 well knows.) October is often preceded by September and sometimes followed by November. There are 31 days in October, many of which are Wednesdays. (Wednesday is the fourth dayContinue reading “The leaves have ripened to the fall”

October 1, 1955 –The Honeymooners half hour episodes premiered on this date. Audrey Meadows received hundreds of household items in the mail such as curtains, pot holders, and irons from fans who wanted Alice to have better things. One fan sent her ten cents to buy a curtain rod, because it was too hard toContinue reading “The Honeymooners premiered”