7 random things that happened on this day, December 24th, in showbiz history
1936 The Jungle Princess starring Dorothy Lamour and Ray Milland opens in movie theaters. How about that tagline?
"You savage, untamed she-devil -- I adore you!"
1943 The Busby Berkeley musical The Gangs All Here and the biopic Jack London starring Michael O'Shea and Susan Hayward both open in theaters...
1945 Mary Astor marries her fourth and final husband. This is not important to note but we just like typing the name Mary Astor because she should be more beloved.
1948 The Paleface opens in theaters. The western comedy starred Jane Russell as Calamity Jane and Bob Hope as a dentist named 'Painless' Peter Potter. It won the Best Original Song Oscar for "Buttons and Bows". That's an interesting Best Original Song year, not because of the songs (which aren't exactly standards today) but because one of the nominees wasn't even from a feature film but from an animated Woody Woodpecker short. Is that still doable within the Academy rules? To tell you the truth we're not sure!
Incidentally Bob Hope was probably overseas at the time since 1948 was when he began his annual Christmas shows for US troops overseas, that year in Berlin, a tradition he continued until 1990.
1968 Disney's The Love Bug, the franchise launch about that anthropomorphic Volkswagon Beetle named Herbie, opens in limited release. Weirdly it doesn't go wide for another three months but when it does it's a smash hit, and the second most succcessful film of 1969 (after Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). Disney attempted a reboot in the Aughts with Herbie Fully Loaded starring Lindsday Lohan but by then Volkswagen Bugs were super retro.
1969 Disney's Kurt Russell picture The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes opens in movie theaters for the holidays
1972 Bob Hope gives his ninth and final Christmas show to the US troops stationed in Vietnam. He was criticized for it given all the protests against the war. US troops withdrew in early 1973.
Why no modern years?
Movies have rarely opened on Christmas Eve in our lifetimes, even if it falls on a Friday. In our era it seems films wait until Christmas day to open, or two days before it, even if Christmas day falls on a Saturday!
Today's Birthday Suit
Ava Gardner, one of the world's most beautiful movie stars and enormous celebrity of the mid 20th century, was born 98 years ago today in North Carolina. She would have turned 98 today but died at age 67 in London where she'd lived since 1968. Gardner's fame was large all on its own but once multipled by her famous suitors or ex-husbands, Mickey Rooney, Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, it was titanic. Have you ever seen The Barefoot Contessa, her only Oscar-nominated role in Mogambo? I think my favourite performance of hers might just be the divisive Night of the Iguana. Yours?
Bonus Birthday Suit
Dogs don't live to 30, unfortunately, but 30 years ago today this adorable little pup "Moose" was born, the youngest but biggest of his litter. He went on to major tv stardom as "Eddie" on Frasier (earning $10,000 an episode). And in his later years movie stardom, too, as the titular character in My Dog Skip (2000), a role he shared with his son. Good boy. Moose went to heaven, where all dogs go, in 2006.
Other showbiz types with anniversaries or birthdays today: Millie Brady (The Queen's Gambit, King Arthur), Blessedly outrageous director Lee Daniels (Precious, The Paperboy, Empire), Crazy tycoon Howard Hughes (subject of The Aviator), Gifted director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Mildred Pierce), Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire), Sofia Black-D'elia (The Night Of, The Mick), Hunky Austin Stowell (Battles of the Sexes, Swallow, Bridge of Spies), Denmark's Thure Lindhart (Pelle the Conqueror, The Last Kingdom), Amaury Nolasco (A Good Day to Die Hard, Prison Break), model /actor Burak Özçivit (Can Feda, Endless Love), Producer/Director Gavin O'Connor (Warrior, Tumbleweeds), actor and mr Mary Stuart Masterson Jeremy Davidson (Seven Seconds, Royal Pain), tv personality Ryan Seacrest, and sex symbol singer/actor Ricky Martin (Jingle Jangle, The Assassination of Gianni Versace)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL OF THEM AND HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE TO YOU