On this day: Gloria Swanson, Typhoid Mary, and Sacheen Littlefeather
Monday, March 27, 2017 at 7:30AM On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...
Gloria Swanson surrounded by herself in SUNSET BLVD
1898 Oscar winning costume designer Norma Koch is born. She designed the costumes on both of the main movies that Feud: Bette and Joan revolves around, winning for Baby Jane though Feud seems to hand the costuming credit on that movie over to Bette Davis
1899 The iconic Gloria Swanson (Sunset Blvd) is born...
1902 Oscar winning cinematographer Charles Lang (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Some Like It Hot) is born in Utah. He was nominated for the Oscar an incredible 18 times, winning just once for A Farewell to Arms (1932)
The Knick Clip 3 - Apprehending Typhoid Mary from Soumajit Kundu on Vimeo.
1915 Typhoid Mary is arrested and sent to quarantine (where she would remain the rest of her life). The Knick (just cancelled) used this as a subplot. She was played by Melissa McMeekin who regularly pops up in David O. Russell's movies.
Beery & Swanson, an unhappy marriage1916 Gloria Swanson gets married for the first time at only 17 years old to future Oscar winning actor Wallace Beery, then 31. She was already a credited regular in silent shorts at that point though they're divorced by the time by the time she's a star three years later. She'll marry again five more times though never again on her birthday.
1940 Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca has its Los Angeles premiere. It will win the Best Picture Oscar 11 months later. We had so much fun writing about it here as a team.
1942 Seventies star Michael York (Cabaret, Logan's Run) is born in England
1952 Singin' in the Rain' has its world premiere in New York City.
...on this same day Maria Schneider of Last Tango in Paris and The Passenger fame is born in Paris and Oscar nominated Makeup artist Peter Montagna (Hitchcock) is born in Brooklyn. We're not crazy about Hitchcock but Montagna also has a rich history on TV working on Saturday Night Live, and two of our all time favorites: Once and Again and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
1957 Stephen Dillane is born in London. The actor is best known as Stannis Barantheon in Game of Thrones, but we like him best when he's married to complicated women played by great actresses as in The Hours and Savage Grace.
...On this same day the 1956 Oscars are held with Best Picture going to Around the World in 80 Days and Yul Brynner taking Best Actor for The King and I.
1960 Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) is born in NYC
1963 Writer Director Chatterbox Quentin Tarantino is born in Tennessee
1971 Nathan Fillion, Captain Tight Pants himself, is born in Canada
1973 Cabaret wins the most Oscars ever for a film that actually loses Best Picture, 8 statues! The Godfather takes that one, as well as Actor and Adapted Screenplay at the 1972 Oscars. Marlon Brando famously sends Sacheen Littlefeather onstage to refuse his Oscar due to the entertainment industry's treatment of Native Americans.
1981 James Caan and Tuesday Weld star in Michael Mann's The Thief, new in theaters
1982 The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas closes on Broadway after a four year run. But fans can quickly get their fix in movie theaters as the film adaptation starring Dolly Parton opens four months later.
1987 Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger have a terrible Blind Date in movie theaters
1992 White Men Can't Jump, The Power of One, and The Cutting Edge are all new in movie theaters
1995 At the 1994 Oscars Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) and Jessica Lange (Blue Sky) take the top acting prizes, and Dianne Wiest wins for Supporting Actress (Bullets Over Broadway). It's one of those rare years where most of the winners had already won. Only Martin Landau (Ed Wood) was the only first time winner of the four.
2002 Writer/Director Billy Wilder, one of the cinema's great titans, dies at 95 years of age. He left us so many classics!
2009 Monsters vs Aliens hits movie theaters
Reader Comments (15)
Wow those 1972/1973 Oscars. Seems likely that 2016 (2017) will be remembered (and seem as crazy/landmark) in your Feb 26 list 5-10 years from now...
Monsters vs. Aliens was a thing that happened? Hmm
that white man can't jump: the musical plot line on girls this week was very timely
@par, indeed. The 1994 Oscars also may be one of the few when the supporting actor/actress winners are two of the best performances in those categories EVER, while the actor/actress winners are two of the most lackluster. It doesn't usually shake out that way.
Check out that bondage neckwear on Swanson in the Beery pic!
Only two Oscar ceremonies had three out of four return acting winners.
What Mareko said. They picked just the right performances for the supporting categories in 1994, but failed to even nominate the best performances in the lead categories (Terence Stamp or, failing that, Johnny Depp for Lead Actor, Rena Owen for Lead Actress).
Also, could I throw in two singers who tried their hand at actressing to, let's say, rather varying degrees? Mariah Carey is turning either 47 or 48 today (sources vary), and Fergie turns 42.
Yah, those supporting awards in '94 were so great, while the 2 leads were so not. Jessica Lange was perfectly fine in Blue Sky but her Oscar is somehow one of those default awards, the kind they give in a weak category in a weak year. How many people have ever even seen Blue Sky?
I have seen as have most Actressexuals,not Lange's best but from the nominees who'd you pick,I would have given it to Foster but the other 3 are real filler,I don't know what Miranda is doing here but she is doing it to OTT,Ryder is miscast in LW and Sarandon just seems like lazy voting,I love Susie but they nominated her for this but passed her over in 88 and 90.
94 Lead
Foster
Weaver
Rock
Ryan
Lange
@markgordon: I just looked up 1994 and wow, that was a weak lineup for Best Actress! None of those films are much discussed nowadays, with the possible exception of Little Women - I literally can't remember anything of The Client or Tom & Viv. Eh.....I guess Lange should be able to keep her award, based on the competition (have actually never seen Nell and have heard polarizing opinions). Look at 1992: the situation then was much the same, with even more films that were obscure even then, which few remember today (which is not a judgement on their artistic merit). Glad we're currently having a renaissance of good roles for actresses, and hope it continues.
Rob -- the thing is that 1994 actually did have some strong female performances but it was one of those years when the best work was in films that were outside Oscar's wheelhouse (like, say, 2003 or 2005). Whenever there's a "weak" best actress year, i find that's usually the problem.
some 1994 performances they could have chosen many of which won rave reviews:
WINONA RYDER - Reality Bites
JENNIFER JASON LEIGH - Mrs Park and the Vicious Circle
JULIETTE LEWIS - Natural Born Killers
MELANIE LYNSKEY - heavenly creatures
KATE WINSLET -Heavenly Creatures
JAMIE LEE CURTIS -True Lies
KATHLEEN TURNER -Serial Mom
JUDY DAVIS - The New Age or The Ref (she's great in both but biting satires aren't Oscar plays)
SIGOURNEY WEAVER - death and the maiden
ISABELLE ADJANI - queen margot
EMMANUEL BEART - L'enfer
GONG LI - To Live
famously disqualified
LINDA FIORENTINO - the last seduction
and within their wheelhouse and very very famous at the time so they definitely snubbed:
MEG RYAN - when a man loves a woman
/3rtful: Which was the other year?
Ah, think I just got it as I typed the quesion. 1938?
@Nathaniel: omg, Judy Davis in The Ref is everything. And Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction + Kate Winslet in Heavenly Creatures are also included in the everythingness that was great actress performances of 1994. Thanks for the reminder!
Isabelle Adjani is my Best Actress pick for 1994. Few actresses have worked as effectively in front of a camera as she has...out-of-this world talent and beauty to match.
"LINDA FIORENTINO - the last seduction" ... wait, why?
And yeah the biggest snubs that year were Meg Ryan (SAG nom) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Globe win, SAG nom ... though possible category confusion).
philip H -- it was a confusing situation... when they realized how strong the movie was they decided to release it in theaters but it had had one airing on television before they made that move and thus disqualified.