August 1, 1971 –The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour debuted on CBS television as a summer replacement show, on this date. And Cher will outlive us all.
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The border between summer and autumn
The festival of Lammas marks the beginning of the harvest, when people go to church to give thanks for the first grain to be cut. This is the long way of saying that it’s August again. How did a single month become so important? Like almost everything else that’s difficult to understand, the history ofContinue reading “The border between summer and autumn”
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter premiered
July 31, 1968 –The film adaptation of the 1940 novel of the same name by Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, directed by Robert Ellis Miller, and starring Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke (in her film debut), Cicely Tyson, and Stacy Keach, was released on this date. Montgomery Clift was approached to play SingerContinue reading “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter premiered”
The 39 Steps premiered
July 31, 1935 –The British spy thriller, The 39 Steps, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Robert Donat, and Madeleine Carroll, was released on this date. Alfred Hitchcock regarded this as one of his favorite movies. Before filming the scene where Hannay (Robert Donat) and Pamela (Madeleine Carroll) run through the countryside, Alfred Hitchcock handcuffedContinue reading “The 39 Steps premiered”
The War of the Gargantuas premiered
July 31, 1966 –The cult classic movie, The War of the Gargantuas (AKA ,Furankenshutain no Kaiju: Sanda tai Gaira) directed by Ishiro Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya, and starring Russ Tamblyn, Kumi Mizuno, Kenji Sahara, Yû Sekida and Haruo Nakajima, was release on this date, in Japan. Haruo Nakajima, the man who playedContinue reading “The War of the Gargantuas premiered”
Climbing every mountain
It was on this day in 1954 that human feet first stood upon the summit of Pakistan’s K2, the second-tallest mountain in the world. K2 was known to the Chinese as the “Great Mountain,” and to Indian and Pakistani locals as “That Big Thing Over There.” It wasn’t until 1856, when T.G. Montgomerie of Britain’sContinue reading “Climbing every mountain”
Plenty of Money and You premiered
July 30, 1937 – The Merrie Melodies short, Plenty of Money and You, directed by Friz Freleng, was released on this date. Sloppy Joe’s, a Key West fixture that was beloved by Ernest Hemingway, had its beginning just four years prior, when Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
All our times have come
July 31, 1976 –Blue Oyster Cult single, from their album, Agents of Fortune, (Don’t Fear) the Reaper, was released on this date. (Don’t Fear) The Reaper was written and sung by Blue Öyster Cult’s lead guitarist, Donald Roeser, also known as Buck Dharma. It was rumored to be about suicide, but it actually deals withContinue reading “All our times have come”
Sometimes one should think before they speak
July 31, 1966 –The Beatles records were burned in Birmingham, Alabama on this date — only because John Lennon innocently declared that the band happens to be “more popular than Jesus.“ The record burning of course has the opposite effect, as sales of Beatles records dramatically increase (in part to burn them.)
Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb!
July 30, 1966 – The Dynamic Duo made the jump from the TV scene to the movie scene – Batman, The Movie, premiered in Austin, Texas on this date. Originally planned as the pilot story for the TV series Batman, the film was then made and released between the end of season 1 of theContinue reading “Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”
