November 2, 1992
Hal Roach dies.
Producer, director, and screenwriter Hal Roach dies at the age of 100. Roach is best remembered for his silent comedies featuring Laurel and Hardy, Harold Lloyd, and the gaggle of mischievous kids who starred in the "Our Gang" comedies (who later became known as the Little Rascals).
The silent-film maker,
born in Elmira, New York, had worked as a mule skinner, stunt man, truck driver,
and Alaska gold prospector when he came to Hollywood in the early 1900s. He
started out as a stunt man and bit-part actor, then formed his own production
company with D. Whiting, called The Rolin Company, after he inherited $3,000 in
1915 (he later bought Whiting out and changed the studio's name to Hal Roach
Studios).
Roach hired Harold Lloyd
to play Willie Work in a series of comic shorts he hoped to produce. The series
fell through until Roach changed Willie Work's name to Lonesome Luke, who
became a much-beloved movie character known as "the man with the
glasses." Regulars in the comic series, called "Phun-Philms,"
included Will Rogers, Edgar Kennedy, and Laurel and Hardy.
In the 1920s, Roach
started making feature films and dramas along with the comedies and westerns
that had occupied the bulk of his energy earlier in his career. He weeded out
the least-popular shows and concentrated on his gems, including the Laurel and
Hardy and Our Gang series. Actors who worked under Hal Roach contracts early in
their careers included Jean Harlow, Mickey Rooney, and Zasu Pitts, along with
directors Norman Z. McLeod, Leo McCarey, and George Stevens.
Roach
won Oscars for two shorts, The Music Box in 1932 and Bored of
Education in 1936. When he shifted his focus to feature-length movies (in
partnership with his son, Hal Roach Jr.), he sold the Our Gang rights to MGM
and produced the acclaimed film Of Mice and Men, an adaptation of John
Steinbeck's novel about a sweet, developmentally disabled man named Lennie and
his protector, George. In the 1940s, he turned his attention from the big
screen to television production. A military colonel, Roach produced propaganda
and training films for the armed forces during World War II, and when he
returned to Hollywood after the war, he began working in television. His
company collapsed in the 1950s, but in the 1960s he produced The Crazy World
of Laurel and Hardy. The film proved to be his swan song: His studio was
demolished in 1963 (a housing development is on Roach Ranch now). He received
an honorary Academy Award in 1983 for his contributions to making movies. He
died in 1992 at age 100.
November 4, 1937
Loretta Jane Swit is born.
Stage and television actress
known for her character roles. Swit is best known for her portrayal of Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan on M*A*S*H.
November 5, 2007
Writers strike stalls
production of TV shows, movies.
Members of the Writers Guild of America, East, and Writers Guild of America, West—labor organizations representing television, film and radio writers—go on strike in Los Angeles and New York after negotiations break down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a trade group that represents TV and film producers in the United States, including CBS, NBC Universal, Walt Disney Company, Paramount Pictures, News Corp., Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM and Warner Brothers. The strike caused production to shut down on more than 60 TV shows and resulted in a loss of $3 billion, by some estimates, to the Los Angeles economy alone.
The strike’s key issues included the writers’ demand
for a larger share of DVD revenues and payment for films and TV shows
distributed over the Internet and other forms of new media. Late-night talk shows,
which used guild writers, were immediately affected by the strike and went into
reruns. Production also shut down on many prime-time comedies and dramas;
however, some had stockpiled completed programming and were able to avoid going
straight into reruns.
After a series of stalemated discussions, leaders from
both sides eventually reached a tentative agreement, and on February 12, 2008,
WGA members voted to end the strike and go back to work. The strike officially
ended on February 26, when WGA members overwhelmingly approved a new three-year
contract with the AMPTP.
The impact of the writers’ walkout was felt across the
entertainment industry, from actors to caterers to editors to set designers to
animal wranglers. According to the Los Angeles Times, the chief
economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation estimated
the strike resulted in a loss to the local economy of more than $3 billion. The
Times article stated: “Of that total, an estimated $772 million came
from lost wages for writers and production workers, $981 million from various
businesses that service the industry, including caterers and equipment rental
houses, and $1.3 billion from the ripple effect of consumers not spending as
much at retail shops, restaurants and car dealers.”
Previous multiple-month strikes launched by Writers
Guild members in 1960 and 1988 had also greatly impacted the entertainment
industry, bringing TV and movie production to a standstill and costing millions
in revenue.
November 6, 1967
Phil Donahue began a TV talk show in Dayton, OH.
The show, "Donahue," was on the air for 29 years. In 1967, Phil Donahue left his positions as news reporter and interviewer at WHIO radio and television in Dayton and became the host of a new television program, Phil Donahue Show on WLWD (now WDTN), also in Dayton. His new program replaced The Johnny Gilbert Show, when Gilbert left on short notice for Los Angelesfor a hosting job. On November 6, 1967, Donahue hosted his first guest, atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Though he would later call her message of atheism "very important", he also stated she was rather unpleasant and that, off-camera, she mocked him for being Catholic.
Initially, the program was
shown only on other stations owned by the Crosley
Broadcasting Corporation (which
would later take the name of its parent Avco Company), which also
owned WLWD. But, on January 5, 1970, The Donahue Show entered
nationwide syndication.
Donahue relocated the show's
home base to Chicago in 1974, first housing it at then-independent station WGN-TV.
Around this time the show's popularity increased, and in the process it became
a national phenomenon. When the Avco Company divested their broadcasting
properties in 1976, Multimedia
Inc.assumed production and
syndication of the program, which was now known as simply Donahue.
In 1982, Donahue moved the show to CBS-owned WBBM-TV for
its final years based in Chicago and the Midwest.
In 1984, Donahue introduced
many viewers to hip-hop culture,
as a program featured breakdancing for
the first time on national television, accompanied by a performance from
the hip hop group UTFO. In 1985, Donahue left
Chicago for New York City and began recording in Studio 8-G at 30
Rockefeller Plaza, the home of his
New York affiliate WNBC-TV. Prior to the move, a month-long series of
commercials heralded the move, and NBC's late-night talk host David Letterman would
use portions of his national program counting down the days to Donahue's move
with a huge calendar in his studio. One of the most talked-about incidents in Donahue's
history came on January 21, 1985, soon after the show moved to New York. On
this day's program, seven members of the audience appeared to faint during the
broadcast, which was seen live in New York. Donahue, fearing the fainting was
caused by both anxiety at being on television and an overheated studio,
eventually cleared the studio of audience members and then resumed the show. It
turned out the fainting "spell" was cooked up by media hoaxer Alan Abel in
what Abel said was a protest against what he termed as poor-quality television.
In 1992, Donahue celebrated
the 25th anniversary of his long-running television program with a NBC special
produced at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, in which he was lauded by his
talk-show peers. Ironically, in many corners, he was seen as having been
bypassed both by Oprah Winfrey,
whose own hugely successful
national show was based in
Donahue's former Chicago home base; and Sally Jessy Raphael, whose own talk show was distributed by Do The talk show field became increasingly saturated as
the 1990s progressed, leading to a decline in ratings. The show also lost
support after Donahue expressed his feelings regarding the first Gulf War.
In the fall of 1995, ABC-owned KGO-TV in San Francisco dropped Donahue after carrying
it for several years and, weeks later, New York's WNBC-TV also
canceled it. Donahue was also evicted from its Rockefeller
Plaza home, and relocated to new studios in Manhattan. Many other stations,
such as KTRK-TV (another ABC O&O) in Houston,
and KYW-TV in Philadelphia either began dropping Donahue or
moving it to late-night and early-morning time slots, causing a further loss of
viewers. Donahue never aired on another station in New York or
San Francisco, two of the largest U.S. television markets.
After 29 years (26 of which
in syndication) and nearly 7,000 shows, the final episode aired on September
13, 1996, culminating in what continues to be the longest continuous run of any
syndicated talk show in U.S. television history.
nahue's syndicator, Multimedia.
Stay Tuned
Tony Figueroa
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