February 10, 1930
Robert Wagner is born.
A veteran of many films in the 1950s and '60s,
Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three
decades: It Takes a Thief (1968–70), Switch (1975–78), and Hart to
Hart (1979–84). In movies, Wagner is known for his role as Number Two in the Austin Powers films (1997, 1999, 2002). He
also had a recurring role as Teddy Leopold on the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men.
February 10, 1940
A number of spin-offs have been made, including the television series The Tom and Jerry Show (1975), The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (1980–82), Tom & Jerry Kids (1990–93), Tom and Jerry Tales (2006–08), and The Tom and Jerry Show (2014–present). The first feature-length film based on the series, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, was released in 1992, and 13 direct-to-video films have been produced since 2002, with an upcoming animated/live-action hybrid film to be released in 2020. A musical adaptation of the series, titled Tom and Jerry: Purr-Chance to Dream, debuted in Japan in 2019 in advance of Tom and Jerry's 80th anniversary
February 10, 1960
"An English lady, while visiting Switzerland, was looking for a
room, and she asked the schoolmaster if he could recommend any to her. He took
her to see several rooms, and when everything was settled, the lady returned to
her home to make the final preparations to move. When she arrived home, the
thought suddenly occurred to her that she had not seen a "W.C."
around the place. So she immediately wrote a note to the schoolmaster asking
him if there were a "W.C." around. The schoolmaster was a very poor
student of English, so he asked the parish priest if he could help in the
matter. Together they tired to discover the meaning of the letters "W.C.,"
and the only solution they could find for the letters was letters was a Wayside
Chapel. The schoolmaster then wrote to the English lady the following note:
The "Water
Closet" joke involved a Enlish woman writing to a vacation resort in
Switzerland and asking about the availability of a "W.C." the
initials for "Water Closet" or bathroom, but the gentleman who
received the letter was a schoolmaster who had a very lmitid English
vocabulary, so he asked the parish priest if he could help in the matter.
Together they tired to discover the meaning of the letters "W.C.,"
and the only solution they could find for the letters was letters was a Wayside
Chapel. The full text of the joke contains multiple double
entendres like, “It is capable of
holding 229 people and it is open on Sunday and Thursday only”. This is mild by
today's standards, but too much for the network to bear in 1960.
Paar returned to the show on
March 7th, looked right into the camera and said, "As I was saying before
I was interrupted. When I walked off, I said there must be a better way of
making a living. Well I've looked and there isn't. Be it ever so humble, there
is no place like Radio City. Leaving the show was a childish and perhaps
emotional thing. I have been guilty of such action in the past and will perhaps
be again. I'm totally unable to hide what I feel. It is not an asset in show
business. But I shall do the best I can to amuse and entertain you and let
other people speak freely, as I have in the past."
February 11, 1980
The Canadian actor and musician
was best know for television roles as Ben Cartwright on the western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the science fiction television series Battlestar
Galactica and Galactica 1980. He also worked on the Canadian televisionnature documentary series Lorne
Greene's New Wilderness, and in television commercials.
February 15, 1960
In the
episode, Griffith played fictional Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry, North
Carolina, who arrests Thomas for running a stop sign. Future players in The Andy
Griffith Show, Frances Bavier and Ron Howard, appeared in the episode as
townspeople, Henrietta Perkins, and Sheriff Taylor's son, Opie.
February 16, 1950
TV game show What's My Line debuts on this day in 1950. The show,
produced by game show magnates Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, became the
longest-running prime-time game show in the history of television. It ran for
18 years. A radio version launched in 1952 but was cancelled in 1953.
February 10, 1930
Robert Wagner is born.
A veteran of many films in the 1950s and '60s,
Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three
decades: It Takes a Thief (1968–70), Switch (1975–78), and Hart to
Hart (1979–84). In movies, Wagner is known for his role as Number Two in the Austin Powers films (1997, 1999, 2002). He
also had a recurring role as Teddy Leopold on the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men.
February 10, 1940
Tom and Jerry First Short
The first short, Puss Gets the Boot, features a cat named Jasper and an unnamed mouse, named Jinx in pre-production, and an African American housemaid named Mammy Two Shoes. Leonard Maltin described it as "very new and special that was to change the course of MGM cartoon production" and established the successful Tom and Jerry formula of comical cat and mouse chases with slapstick gags. It was released onto the theatre circuit on February 10, 1940 and the pair, having been advised by management not to produce any more, focused on other cartoons including Gallopin' Gals (1940) and Officer Pooch (1941). Matters changed, however, when Texas businesswoman Bessa Short sent a letter to MGM asking whether more cat and mouse shorts would be produced, which helped convince management to commission a series. A studio contest held to rename both characters was won by animator John Carr, who suggested Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse after the Christmastime drink. Carr was awarded a first place prize of $50. Puss Gets the Boot was a critical success, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject: Cartoons in 1941 despite the credits listing Ising and omitting Hanna and Barbera.
Tom and Jerry is an American animated franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series centers on a friendship/rivalry (a love-hate relationship) between the title characters Tom, a cat, and Jerry, a mouse. Many shorts also feature several recurring characters.
In its original run, Hanna and Barbera produced 114 Tom and Jerry shorts for MGM from 1940 to 1958. During this time, they won seven Academy Awards for Animated Short Film, tying for first place with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies with the most awards in the category. After the MGM cartoon studio closed in 1957, MGM revived the series with Gene Deitch directing an additional 13 Tom and Jerry shorts for Rembrandt Films from 1961 to 1962. Tom and Jerry then became the highest-grossing animated short film series of that time, overtaking Looney Tunes. Chuck Jones then produced another 34 shorts with Sib Tower 12 Productions between 1963 and 1967. Three more shorts were produced, The Mansion Cat in 2001, The Karate Guard in 2005, and A Fundraising Adventure in 2014, making a total of 164 shorts.
A number of spin-offs have been made, including the television series The Tom and Jerry Show (1975), The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (1980–82), Tom & Jerry Kids (1990–93), Tom and Jerry Tales (2006–08), and The Tom and Jerry Show (2014–present). The first feature-length film based on the series, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, was released in 1992, and 13 direct-to-video films have been produced since 2002, with an upcoming animated/live-action hybrid film to be released in 2020. A musical adaptation of the series, titled Tom and Jerry: Purr-Chance to Dream, debuted in Japan in 2019 in advance of Tom and Jerry's 80th anniversary
February 10, 1960
Jack Paar told the following joke.
"An English lady, while visiting Switzerland, was looking for a
room, and she asked the schoolmaster if he could recommend any to her. He took
her to see several rooms, and when everything was settled, the lady returned to
her home to make the final preparations to move. When she arrived home, the
thought suddenly occurred to her that she had not seen a "W.C."
around the place. So she immediately wrote a note to the schoolmaster asking
him if there were a "W.C." around. The schoolmaster was a very poor
student of English, so he asked the parish priest if he could help in the
matter. Together they tired to discover the meaning of the letters "W.C.,"
and the only solution they could find for the letters was letters was a Wayside
Chapel. The schoolmaster then wrote to the English lady the following note:
Dear Madam:
I take great pleasure in informing you that the W.C. is situated nine
miles from the house you occupy, in the center of a beautiful grove of pine
trees surrounded by lovely grounds. It is capable of holding 229 people and it
is open on Sunday and Thursday only. As there are a great number of people and
they are expected during the summer months, I would suggest that you come
early: although there is plenty of standing room as a rule. You will no doubt
be glad to hear that a good number of people bring their lunch and make a day
of it. While others who can afford to go by car arrive just in time. I would
especially recommend that your ladyship go on Thursday when there is a musical
accompaniment. It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the
W.C. and it was there that she met her husband. I can remember the rush there
was for seats. There were ten people to a seat ordinarily occupied by one. It
was wonderful to see the expression on their faces. The newest attraction is a
bell donated by a wealthy resident of the district. It rings every time a
person enters. A bazaar is to be held to provide plush seats for all the
people, since they feel it is a long felt need. My wife is rather delicate, so
she can't attend regularly. I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for
you if you wish, where you will be seen by all. For the children, there is a special
time and place so that they will not disturb the elders. Hoping to have been of
service to you, I remain,
Sincerely,
The
Schoolmaster."
The "Water
Closet" joke involved a Enlish woman writing to a vacation resort in
Switzerland and asking about the availability of a "W.C." the
initials for "Water Closet" or bathroom, but the gentleman who
received the letter was a schoolmaster who had a very lmitid English
vocabulary, so he asked the parish priest if he could help in the matter.
Together they tired to discover the meaning of the letters "W.C.,"
and the only solution they could find for the letters was letters was a Wayside
Chapel. The full text of the joke contains multiple double
entendres like, “It is capable of
holding 229 people and it is open on Sunday and Thursday only”. This is mild by
today's standards, but too much for the network to bear in 1960.
The NBC censors thought the
joke was dirty and cut it from the February 10th, 1960 broadcast and
replaced that section of the show with news coverage. All of this was done
without consulting Paar.
When Paar discovered that
his four-minute story had been cut, he retaliated by walking off in the of the
February 11th show during the opening monologue saying, "I've
been up thirty hours without an ounce of sleep wrestling with my conscience all
day. I've made a decision about what I'm going to do. I'm leaving THE TONIGHT SHOW. There must be a better
way to make a living than this, a way of entertaining people without being
constantly involved in some form of controversy. I love NBC, and they've been
wonderful to me. But they let me down."
Paar walked offstage, leaving
his announcer Hugh Downs
to finish the show for him.
Paar returned to the show on
March 7th, looked right into the camera and said, "As I was saying before
I was interrupted. When I walked off, I said there must be a better way of
making a living. Well I've looked and there isn't. Be it ever so humble, there
is no place like Radio City. Leaving the show was a childish and perhaps
emotional thing. I have been guilty of such action in the past and will perhaps
be again. I'm totally unable to hide what I feel. It is not an asset in show
business. But I shall do the best I can to amuse and entertain you and let
other people speak freely, as I have in the past."
February 11, 1980
The
concept for the episode was described as "admirably ambitious" by
William Beamon, writing in the Evening
Independent before he had viewed the episode. The radio station promotes a concert by The Who, and employees
prepare to attend the concert. Station employees are overcome with guilt
after a stampede for seats by attending fans results in some fans
dying. They discuss the tragic events the next morning. The plot is based
on the events of The Who concert disaster in Cincinnati of December 3, 1979
during the band's U.S. tour. Of the 18,348 tickets sold for the concert,
14,770 were for unassigned seats known as festival seating, obtained on a first-come, first-served basis. City officials had objected to
the use of festival seating at the facility as early as October 1976.
Attendees
arrived as much as six hours before the start of the concert to attempt to
garner the best available seats, and a crowd had gathered by 3:00 p.m.
ET. An hour before the start of the concert, "thousands were tightly
packed around the entrance doors", and by 7:20 p.m. ET the crowd
consisted of 8,000 people. Some members of the crowd rushed the gates on
the plaza level on the west side of the Coliseum, crushing those at the front. The
incident resulted in the death of 11 individuals by compressive asphyxia and injuries to 23. In a press conference after the concert,
police lieutenant Dale Menkhaus stated that too few gate doors had been
opened, and witnesses stated only one door had been opened at the main
gate. Menkahus stated that the doors had been purposely kept closed
because The Who had arrived late for a sound check. An emergency room
supervisor stated that the victims had sustained "multiple contusions and hemorrhages".
The
facility and its executives had received lawful orders from the city's fire chief as early as 1976
concerning event actions, such as "locking and barring of exit doors
during performances, overcrowded conditions and the blocking of
aisles". Executives were later charged for failure to comply with
those lawful orders.
Security
for a concert by The Who in Buffalo, New York the next night was
doubled, and the band dedicated it to the victims. Two concerts
scheduled at Riverfront Coliseum were postponed: that by Blue Öyster Cult on December 14, and that by Aerosmith on December 21.
On
December 27, 1979, the Cincinnati municipal council enacted bylaws
banning festival seating as a result of this event. The council and theGovernment of Ohio also passed laws involving crowd control. The cities of Indianapolis and Louisville prepared ordinances to ban festival
seating.
February
12, 1915
Lorne
Greene was born Lyon Himan Green
The Canadian actor and musician
was best know for television roles as Ben Cartwright on the western Bonanza, and Commander Adama in the science fiction television series Battlestar
Galactica and Galactica 1980. He also worked on the Canadian televisionnature documentary series Lorne
Greene's New Wilderness, and in television commercials.
February 15, 1960
"Danny Meets Andy Griffith" was telecast on The
Danny Thomas Show.
In the
episode, Griffith played fictional Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry, North
Carolina, who arrests Thomas for running a stop sign. Future players in The Andy
Griffith Show, Frances Bavier and Ron Howard, appeared in the episode as
townspeople, Henrietta Perkins, and Sheriff Taylor's son, Opie.
February 16, 1950
What's My
Line debuts on TV.
TV game show What's My Line debuts on this day in 1950. The show, produced by game show magnates Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, became the longest-running prime-time game show in the history of television. It ran for 18 years. A radio version launched in 1952 but was cancelled in 1953.
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was".
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
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