It's More Than Just National Coffee Day Today
Thursday, September 29, 2016 at 12:30PM 
First things first. And coffee is always first. Coffee is life. Did you know that up to 60% of the human body is made of coffee? Huh--oh, that's water? You sure it's not water filtered through ground coffee beans?
But beyond coffee there are other things to celebrate on September 29th. Happy Special day to any reader who arrived on this very day and to the following important events in Cinephile history, Judy Garland lore, and Oscar and Emmy winners...
1904 Greer Garson is born. Becomes Oscar's 7th favorite leading lady of all time.
1912 Michelangelo Antonioni is born. Becomes a favorite of cinephiles in the 1960s with classics like L'Avventura, and Blow-Up the latter of which y'all don't appreciate enough because we wrote about it and there were crickets. And it's so amazing.
1913 The Shubert Theater opens on Broadway. It's housed many productions in the 100+ years since including plays and musicals that went on to Best Picture nominations or wins when their film adaptations hit including The Philadelphia Story, Dodsworth, Oliver!, and Chicago. It was also the home of the seminal musical A Chorus Line. Next up for the theater is the Hello Dolly revival with Bette Midler which is already breaking sales records. On this day producer / director Stanley Kramer is also born. In many ways he's like an actual human version of "Oscar's Wheelhouse" that once walked the Earth. Credits include Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, and many more.
1916 John D Rockefeller becomes the world's first billionaire. Much more impressive back when income disparity was not so f***ing crazy and encouraged by the system.
1922 Noir beauty Lizabeth Scott is born.
1931 Anita Ekberg, La Dolce Vita's blond blombshell is born in Sweden. We will love her for always for that scene where she wore a tiny kitten on her head affectionately.
1935 Infamous musician Jerry Lee Lewis is born. Dennis Quaid plays him in the infamous biopic Great Balls of Fire which is weirdly his only biopic despite living quite a filmable life.
1940 Strike Up the Band starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland is a hit in its opening weekend. One of my favorite old review blurbs ever is for Judy Garland calling her "oomphy". Hee.
1942 The legendary Madeline Kahn (so brilliant in Paper Moon and other features) is born. Sadly the world only gets her for 57 years.
1948 Hamlet opens in New York. 176 days later it wins 4 Oscars: Picture, Actor, Art Direction... and Costume Design.
It was Laerte's codpieces, wasn't it?
1949 Pinky starring Ethel Barrymore, Jeanne Crain, and Ethel Waters premieres. All three of its principle women go on to Oscar nominations for this tale of a black girl "passing" as white. Her doctor boyfriend doesn't know the truth!
1954 Two major divas have film premieres on this day Ava Gardner in The Barefoot Contessa and Judy Garland in the immortal A Star is Born. I must urge New York readers to follow the cabaret star Molly Pope. I've seen her one hour A Star is Born tribute show twice in New York now (I assume she'll perform it again) and it is, quite frankly, amazing.
1963 Speaking of Judy Garland... "The Judy Garland Show" premiered on CBS on this date. Anne Marie has been covering it in her terrific series "Judy by the Numbers"
1970 Nicolas Winding Refn is born in Denmark, another mad Dane. Makes Drive, Bronson, Neon Demon and other crazy features. We interviewed him and he did not disappoint. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Natalie Wood gives birth to the first of her two daughters Natasha Gregson Wagner who also becomes an actress
1980 Malcolm McDowell marries Mary Steenburgen shortly before her terrific performance in Melvin & Howard wins the Oscar. The marriage lasts ten years but we got Charlie McDowell out of it. He's now a film director (The One I Love, The Discovery) and also Rooney Mara's boyfriend. Also on this day TV and stage actor Zachary Levi (such a good song & dance man) is born.
1985 Steven Spielberg's short lived anthology series "Amazing Stories" debuts on NBC
1987 the seminal TV series thirtystomething debuts so it will soon be turning thirtysomething itself! It wins the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for its debut season, temporarily displacing LA Law's dominance. But LA Law returns to winning each year thereafter.
1989 Danny Noriega aka "Adore Delano" is born. Adore is all kinds of amazing even though she is testing our patience greatly by walking off of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 2.
1991 Happy 25th anniversary to Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho, which should have won River Phoenix the Oscar (he wasn't nominated)
What will you be celebrating today?
Reader Comments (6)
Ah, Hamlet: One of the few Best Pictures I have yet to see. Can anyone tell me if Laurence Olivier makes a better Hamlet than Maxim de Winter?
Garson combined an everywoman quality with grace, charm, and refinement. Co-star Christopher Plummer remembered, "Here was a siren who had depth, strength, dignity, and humor who could inspire great trust, suggest deep intellect and whose misty languorous eyes melted your heart away!" Garson earned a total of seven Academy Award nominations for Best Actress, and fourteen of her films premiered at Radio City Music Hall, playing for a total of eighty-four weeks―a record never equaled by any other actress.
Thanks for this. It's my birthday today :-)
Are you sure Terence Morgan (Laertes in Hamlet) was wearing a codpiece? ;-)
Rather randomly Hamlet's playing in my local independent cinema. What's your take on it, Nathaniel?
Carlos -- it's a little overwrought but there are things about it that are pretty damn great. It's surprisingly cinematic for one with the camera roving all around the castle and the black and white is expressive.