Showbiz History: Lady Godiva, RMS Titanic, and a Good Girl Gone Bad
Friday, May 31, 2019 at 11:23AM 15 random things that happened on this day, May 31st, in history as it relates to showbiz...
1279BC Ramasses II becomes Pharoah in ancient egypt. He grows up to look like Yul Brynner in the 1950s. yum.
1057 Lady Godiva takes a naked ride. 898 years later Maureen O'Hara fills her shoes...er... saddle (she weren't wearing no shoes) in an G-rated wig in Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955)
1790 President George Washington signed the first US copyright act into law...
At first the copyright act was a good thing to protect creators but it was later perverted by massive corporations like Disney to prevent anything from ever going into the public domain where things should absolutely belong after a number of years have passed.
1894 On this day in history John Harvey Kellogg patents “flaked cereal”. They're gggggggreeaaat according to Tony the Tiger and us... but not Ryan Gosling. Remember this classic vine?
1935 Public Hero #1 starring Lionel Barrymore, Chester Morris, and Jean Arthur opens in movie theaters. Also on this day in history 20th Century Fox was born, of a merger between Fox Film Corp and Twentieth Century Pictures. But now they are essentially no more, devoured just this year by the Mouse House.
1941 The first issue of “Parade” magazine goes on sale. It used to be the most widely read publication because it's inserted into newspapers all over the country. But do people still read print? Raise your hand if you have a newspaper subscription.
1911 RMS Titanic, the unfinished ship, enters the water in Belfast. The construction will go on... and on. 11 months later it will be complete and begin its doomed maiden voyage a week after that. 70+ years later it is reconstructed as a phenomenally successful movie.
1985 Fletch opens in movie theaters, a big hit for Chevy Chase at the time.
1990 Seinfeld's first regular episode "The Stakeout" (after a pilot the summer before) airs.
1991 Soapdish opens in theaters with Sally Field and a fine cast deliciously hamming it up.
1992 Best Musical is apparently a tight tight race with "Falsettos" winning Best Book and Best Score, "Crazy for You" winning Choreography and Costumes and "Jelly's Last Jam" winning Lead Actor (Gregory Hines), Featured Actress (Tonya Pinkins) and Lighting. But Crazy For You prevails in the end. Glenn Close hosts the ceremony and also wins Best Actress in a play for Death and the Maiden. Curiously, despite Glenn Close being a major movie star at this point in her career, Sigourney Weaver takes the leading role in the very quick movie adaptation released for Christmas 1994.
2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban released in the UK a week before its debut in other territories. It remains the best Potter movie because Cuarón.
2007 Rihanna’s “Good Girl Gone Bad” album drops, making her a superstar with the help of the smash hit "Umbrella"... remember when Tom Holland made such a literal splash doing that one a year or two ago?
2013 After Earth and Now You See Me both open in movie theaters. The former was supposed to be the sure thing blockbuster but it turned out to be the unheralded latter that popped with audiences -- sorry Will & Jaden.
2017 Kathy Griffin fired after that Donald T***p bloody head photo. As much as we loathe Donald T***p we never understood this impulse... solely on the grounds that the photo wasn't remotely funny and she's a comedian.
Which of these events do you remember fondly or will think on today?
Reader Comments (8)
I don't get Glenn's joke.
Death and the Maiden desperately needs a Spanish remake.
We are all Leeza Gibbons stopping mid-sentence to scream "Celeste Talbert!"
The Ryan Gosling cereal meme is bittersweet now. That Vine creator died of cancer -- and then Ryan Gosling filmed himself (finally) eating cereal as a tribute.
Why did Glenn decide not to do DATM,I personally think Sigourney rocked that part.
The Lady Godiva legend comes from the Middle Ages. Wikipedia says the Lady Godiva on whom the legend is based died in the 11th century.
Soapdish is such a blast. Field is outstanding in it, but I think I'll spend part of the afternoon thinking on Cathy Moriarty (it was good to see her pop up again in the last few years in The Double and Patti Cake$).
My Glenn Close knowledge is clearly lacking as I didn't know she played that part on stage. I thought Sigourney Weaver was excellent in the movie (which I like a lot, but I'd be up for a remake).
Ken -- oops. had the year wrong. the year i listed was a tribute to commemorate the date.
mark, I believe she wasn't even considered!
Wish that we could all grow up looking like Yul Brynner.
I remember being in New York for school in 2007. Umbrella was everywhere, but I knew it was something else when I saw a garbage truck stopped on the side of the road with a big white guy inside just jamming away.