Saturday, March 8, 2014

Please folks, try to remain calm

We lose an hour of sleep tonight - daylight saving time starts at 2 AM tomorrow morning, so don't forget to turn all those clocks, microwaves, DVD players, etc. ahead.



Please do this work yourself: you don't want rabid animals scurrying around the house, do you?


March 8, 1933 -
The quintessential backstage musical, 42nd Street, premiered in New York City on this date.



The film was so financially successful that it saved Warner Brothers from bankruptcy.


March 8, 1969 -
Mad Monster Party was released by Embassy Pictures for Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc on this date.



The heads of the "Boris" and "Monster" figures are the same basic shape, appropriately enough, with Boris's fine-tuned for a more human appearance and the Monster's for that monsterish look (look at the figures' heads when they're in the same shot, both more or less in profile, during the "greeting the guests" scene!)


March 8, 1991 -
The highest grossing independent film of 1991, New Jack City, directed by Mario Van Peebles was released on this date.



Ice-T almost refused the role as Scottie because he felt that if the film was a failure it would negatively affect his rap career.  However, not only was the film a hit, but it also proved to give him his huge break as an actor. For some reason, never clearly explained, on the opening day of this film, violence broke out throughout the country at various theatres.


March 8, 1996 -
The film that put the Coen Bros. into the mainstream consciousness, Fargo, went into limited release on this date.



Joel Coen had Frances McDormand and John Carroll Lynch conceive a back-story for their characters to get the feel of them. They decided that Norm and Marge met while working on the police force, and when they were married, they had to choose which one had to quit. Since Marge was a better officer, Norm quit and took up painting.


Today in History -
March 8, 1941
-
Sherwood Anderson and his fourth wife, Eleanor, were enjoying a well deserved vacation on a ocean liner bound from from New York to Valparaiso, Chile. During a cocktail party on the ship, Anderson was enjoying his olive from a well chilled martini: it would be his last.



Anderson soon became very ill and he and his wife had to disembarked at Colon in Panama and headed to a local hospital. He died in agony, two days later on this date. An autopsy revealed that he had accidentally swallowed a small piece of a toothpick (presumably in the martini olive), which had perforated his colon and caused a fatal case of peritonitis.

Not a great way to go.


March 8, 1950 -
Marshal Voroshilov
announces the existence of the Soviet atomic bomb.

This baffled the western powers, who were sure they had left it somewhere safe.



33 years later, on this date, the ever swift President Ronald Reagan gets around to calling the Soviets, "an evil empire."


March 8, 1959 -
The apex of the golden age of Television was achieved on this date when Groucho, Chico and Harpo make their final TV appearance together.



It was all down hill from here.


March 8, 1968 -
The Soviet submarine, K-129, sank in the Pacific Ocean, killing all 97 crewmembers aboard. Later in the year a U.S. submarine secretly retrieves an encryption machine, codebooks, and nuclear warheads from the Soviet vessel.



A further bold attempt is made in 1974 to bring up the entire submarine using the CIA ship Glomar Explorer, built by Howard Hughes. That mission supposedly fails, and is made public by the Los Angeles Times to the great embarrassment of the Agency.


March 8, 1999 -
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio passed away in his Florida home on this date in 1999.



We actually know where he's gone? And since he's been dead for 15 years, we should take our lonely eyes off of him. It's giving me the creeps.


And so it goes.

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