Today in History

[LizzieMaine]

I wonder if Bryce Harper will spend the summer working on his farm in Maryland?

 

[Fading Fast]

I wonder if Bryce Harper will spend the summer working on his farm in Maryland?

Just sent you something on this via email.

 

[3fingers]

I wonder if Bryce Harper will spend the summer working on his farm in Maryland?

There is a fair number of pro athletes in every sport who would benefit greatly from a little farm labor.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

On this day in 1801, Thomas Jefferson, was elected the 3rd president of the U.S.

On this day in 1904, Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly, was premiered at La Scala theatre, Milan.

 

[GHT]

On this day in:
1621, Myles Standish is elected as the first commander of the Plymouth Colony.
1691 Thomas Neale granted English patent for American postal service.
1883 Mr. A. Ashwell of Herne Hill, South London, patented: Vacant - Engaged signs, for toilet doors.
1969 Golda Meir sworn in as the first female Prime Minister of Israel.
On this day in 1932, the musical, "Let's Face The Music," premiered on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre.
The musical was written as a political satire, specifically spoofing political and police corruption that the Seabury Commission was investigating. It also satirised show business, showing the far-fetched economies, such as seeing 4 films with a room and bath for 10¢. The musical did not ignore the Depression but rather found humour in it. There were many titles considered, among them Nickels and Dimes, but Berlin came up with the final title.

 

[Fading Fast]

...On this day in 1932, the musical, "Let's Face The Music," premiered on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre.
The musical was written as a political satire, specifically spoofing political and police corruption that the Seabury Commission was investigating. It also satirised show business, showing the far-fetched economies, such as seeing 4 films with a room and bath for 10¢. The musical did not ignore the Depression but rather found humour in it. There were many titles considered, among them Nickels and Dimes, but Berlin came up with the final title.
View attachment 156805

And Rogers does it in heels and, well, without a slip on underneath (even with the code enforced, Hollywood still slipped some titillation in here and there, in this case, with the use of strategic backlighting and a heck of pair of legs on Rogers).

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Face The Music" is my pick for Berlin's best show -- it helps that Moss Hart did the book, giving the whole thing a snide pit-of-the-Depression edge. The opening number was just great -- a chorus of starving actors singing "Lunching At The Automat" which transitioned from an outside-the-Automat set to an inside-the-Automat set where the romantic leads swung right into a sarcastic rendition of "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee."

There were a lot of good songs in the show, but I have to single out "I Say It's Spinach (And I Say The Hell With It)," which opened the second act, as a highly uncharacteristic-for-Berlin snarky love song. It's almost like his coat got mixed up with Cole Porter's at an Elsa Maxwell party, and he found the manuscript in the pocket.

Given how bad business was on Broadway in early 1932, it's surprising that a show this good managed to get staged, let alone that it lasted for a reasonable run. By the last weeks of the run, you could see it for fifty cents -- or even less, if you knew your way around.

 

[vitanola]

"Face The Music" is my pick for Berlin's best show -- it helps that Moss Hart did the book, giving the whole thing a snide pit-of-the-Depression edge. The opening number was just great -- a chorus of starving actors singing "Lunching At The Automat" which transitioned from an outside-the-Automat set to an inside-the-Automat set where the romantic leads swung right into a sarcastic rendition of "Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee."

There were a lot of good songs in the show, but I have to single out "I Say It's Spinach (And I Say The Hell With It)," which opened the second act, as a highly uncharacteristic-for-Berlin snarky love song. It's almost like his coat got mixed up with Cole Porter's at an Elsa Maxwell party, and he found the manuscript in the pocket.

Given how bad business was on Broadway in early 1932, it's surprising that a show this good managed to get staged, let alone that it lasted for a reasonable run. By the last weeks of the run, you could see it for fifty cents -- or even less, if you knew your way around.

Well, I'd go for "As Thousands Cheer" myself, but I'd definitely agree that these two Depression shows are the best of a mighty fine crop. Heck, I even like "Call Me Madame" and have a soft spot even for "Miss Liberty".

 

[Lean'n'mean]

On this day in 1885, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was published.

On this day in 1930, the planet Pluto, was 'discovered' by astronomer, Clyde W. Tombaugh, at the Lowell observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

 

[2jakes]

• Feb 18
• 1865 Evacuation of Charleston, South Carolina during Civil War.
  
• 

 

[scotrace]

In 2001, Dale Earnhardt bit the wall a Daytona and died on the scene. He was 49.

 

[Fading Fast]

In 2001, Dale Earnhardt bit the wall a Daytona and died on the scene. He was 49.

What's amazing is that a sport as dangerous as auto racing has so improved its safety that a driver's death is (thankfully) a rare event. It's wonderfully unbelievable - and a testament to the technology advances - that the sport has so few casualties versus its early years.

 

[3fingers]

In 2001, Dale Earnhardt bit the wall a Daytona and died on the scene. He was 49.

Like many others who passed away young, he will forever be 49.
The shocking part to me is that he would be closing in on 70 now.

 

[MissMittens]

Today in 1473, Polish astronomer Copernicus, the man who proved the heliocentric universe model, was born.

In 1807, VP Aaron Burr was arrested for treason in Alabama.

In 1902, the Smallpox vaccination became mandatory in France, erasing Smallpox in that country.

In 1911, Merle Oberon was born

 

[GHT]

On this day in:
1674 Netherlands & England sign Peace of Westminster (NYC becomes English)
1878 Thomas Edison is granted a patent for his gramophone (phonograph) it will never catch on.
1906 Will Keith Kellogg and Charles D. Bolin found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, now the multinational food manufacturer Kellogg's.
1945 US 5th Fleet launches invasion of Iwo Jima against the Japanese.

 

[scotrace]

Feb 20--Today is the birthday of Kurt Cobain, 1967.
The Soviets launched the Mir spacecraft in 1986.
John Glenn, who lived a few miles from where I sit and who my wife, from the same town, knew and spoke to several times, orbited the earth in 1962.
New York City, 1872, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens its doors.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

On this day in 1965, Malcolm X, was assassinated.

On this day in 1926, Swedish actress, Greta Garbo, had her first U.S. screen debut in the movie, The Torrent.

And on this day in 1981, this hit #1 in the charts.

 

[2jakes]

Woolworth borrowed $300 and opened a five-cent store in Utica, New York, on February 22, 1879.
It failed within weeks. Woolworth opened his second store in April 1879, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he expanded the concept to include merchandise priced at ten cents.

In 1911, the F.W. Woolworth Company was incorporated with 586 stores. In 1913, Woolworth built the Woolworth Building in New York City at a cost of $13.5 million in cash. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world, measuring 792 feet.

 

[scotrace]

Feb. 23 is the annivsary of the raising of the US flag on Iwo Jima, 1945.

It is also the anniversary of the appearance of the Gutenberg Bible, in 1455. It is the first book printed with moveable type, and it changed everything.

 

[Fading Fast]

Woolworth borrowed $300 and opened a five-cent store in Utica, New York, on February 22, 1879.
It failed within weeks. Woolworth opened his second store in April 1879, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he expanded the concept to include merchandise priced at ten cents.

In 1911, the F.W. Woolworth Company was incorporated with 586 stores. In 1913, Woolworth built the Woolworth Building in New York City at a cost of $13.5 million in cash. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world, measuring 792 feet.

I took a tour of the building a few years back - it's insane as it's the impossible: a gothic super high-rise.

It's impressive and interesting how many of that era's (and, really, all eras') mega-successful businessmen and women have similar stories of first failing several times (I believe Milton Hershey had the same experience) before getting it massively right.