10 random things that happened on this day (Nov 5th) in showbiz history...
1930 The 3rd annual Academy Awards are held for films released between August 1, 1929, and July 31, 1930... they hadn't yet settled on the easier full calender year system. The anti-war masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front took Best Picture and Norma Shearer, the First Lady of MGM, won Best Actress for scandalous pre-code classic The Divorcée (which you really should see).
1935 Parker Brothers launches board game classic "Monopoly". Remember when Ridley Scott was going to do a movie version? That was so weird...
1940 Ernest Hemingway & Martha Gellhorn marry. Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman will later dramatize the relationship between the famous novelist and journalist in an Emmy and Globe nominated TV movie Hemingway & Gellhorn.
1943 Son of Dracula starring Lon Chaney Jr opens in movie theaters
1956 The Nat King Cole Show debuts on NBC. Contrary to some reports on the interent, it was not the first variety show hosted by an African-American but it was a trailblazing show given Cole's fame at the time and the fact that the nation was still largely segregated. Guests over the series short run included luminaries like Eartha Kitt, Mahalia Jackson, Johnny Mercer, Betty Hutton, Sammy Davis Jr, Hugh O'Brian, Margaret Whiting, Harry Belafonte (in the clip above ❤️), and Tony Bennett. You can read more about the show here. Strangely it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page!
1971 Opening weekend for the movie musical version of stage classic Fiddler on the Roof which will go on to 8 Oscar nominations including Best Picture and 3 wins (including the first Oscar win for perennial nominee John Williams for adapting the Broadway show's score). Seems like a perfect time to remake it given its tragically eternal timeliness. The recent stage production here in NYC, directed by Oscar /Tony winner Joel Grey and entirely in Yiddish and Russian, was revelatory.
1982 A high and low opening weekend at the movies. The then well loved Australian family film The Man From Snowy River makes waves (and received a Globe nod for foreign film despite being in English). Also a little B movie named Piranha II: The Spawning opens which no one pays any mind to but it proves historic since its debuting director James Cameron becomes one of the most powerful Hollywood forces by the end of the decade.
1993 Flesh and Bone starring then-couple Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid opened 25 years ago today featuring Gwyneth Paltrow in her breakthrough film-stealing role. It was writer/director Steve Kloves's sophomore effort after his astonishing debut with The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989). Sadly he never directed again but spent the Aughts co-writing all the Harry Potter movies. He's only 58 years old so not sure what he's been up to since!
1999 Michael Mann's The Insider opens in movie theaters. It will receive 7 Oscar nominations including Best Picture but be shockingly snubbed in Supporting Actor (Christopher Plummer).
2010 For Colored Girls opens in movie theaters. The movie stars a whos-who of black actresses at that moment. Best in show was the incredible Kimberly Elise who witnesses an unthinkable tragedy and Macy Gray who is spellbinding in her cameo as an abortionist.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 50th birthday to Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell. Everyone loves his adorable penchant for dancing onscreen, in all kinds of movie genres, but did you know that it wasn't his first cross-movies habit? In BOTH of his breakthrough back-to-back indies, Box of Moonlight (1996) and Lawn Dogs (1997), he dove naked into rivers. The differing quality of the dives is pretty stark side-by-side (stunt double in Lawn Dogs?)
Today's Other Birthdays
Oscar winners: Cinematographer Guy Green (Great Expectations), Vivien Leigh (Gone with the Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire), Tatum O'Neal (Paper Moon), and the incomparable Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)
Oscar nominees: Songwriter Bryan Adams (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), Animator Mike Gabriel (Lorenzo), Composer Jonny Greenwood (Phantom Thread), Actor Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff)
Actors: Sebastian Arcelus, Seth Gilliam, Jon-Erik Hexum, Famke Jannsen, Han Ji-min, Joel McRea, Sam Page, Robert Patrick, Judy Reyes, Elke Sommer
Other Showbiz Peeps: Singer Ryan Adams, Comedienne Mo Gaffney, Singer Art Garfunkel, TV Personality Kris Jenner, Paris is Burning house mother Pepper LaBeija, Talent agent Bryan Lourd, Film critic Jeffrey Lyons, the original "Annie" Andrea McCardle, Cinematographer Tobias A Schliessler