Showbiz History: Buffy, Muriel's Wedding, and the most Glamourous Globes night?
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 10:00AM 9 random things that happened on this day, March 10th, in showbiz history...
1938 The 10th annual Academy Awards are held honoring the films of 1937. The Life of Emile Zola wins Best Picture, the second consecutive biopic to win, cementing the agonizing fact that Oscar then and now obsesses over the snooziest of all film genres, the biopic, more than any of its far more interesting cousins. It beat screwball classic The Awful Truth, the actressexual bliss of Stage Door, the non-musical Janet Gaynor version of A Star is Born, and other superior films. Meanwhile Luise Rainer became the first actor in movie history to pull off a two consecutive year Oscar coup with her second win for her yellowface performance in The Good Earth...
1948 The 5th annual Golden Globes are held. They had not yet split into drama and comedy so the winners were very similar to the upcoming Oscars honoring the films of 1947 with Gentleman's Agreement triumphant in Pic, Director and Supporting Actress, Edmund Gwenn winning for his Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street and Ronald Colman winning Best Actor for A Double Life. The Globes disagreed with the Oscars on Lead Actress though: It was Rosalind Russell for Mourning Becomes Electra at the Globes and, later, Oscar going for Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter.
1960 The 17th Golden Globes are held honoring the films of 1959. This was the second year during a short experiment (1958-1962) when the Globes divvied up their Best Picture into three categories (Drama, Comedy, and Musical) though Comedy and Musical had to share an acting category (strange right?) so there were three Best Pictures: Ben-Hur, Some Like It Hot, and Porgy & Bess. but only four lead acting categories. Elizabeth Taylor (Suddenly Last Summer) and Marilyn Monroe (Some Like It Hot) both won Best Actress. From what we can gather Liz wasn't there that night (or at least there aren't clearly identifiable surviving photos) which is probably a good thing. Would the world have ever recovered from two movie stars that blazingly charismatic and glamorous both winning trophies at the peak of their beauty and acting powers on the very same night? People talk so much smack about the Globes (sometimes with good reason) but you can't deny that with their mix of categories they've also honored the wonder of the movies over the years in a way that the less flexible Academy has rarely been able to. The Globes also awarded brilliant Jack Lemmon for Some Like It Hot and Stephen Boyd for his awesome best-in-show work in Ben-Hur that night. All of the Globe acting winners lost at the Oscars that season.
1975 The Rocky Horror Show opens on Broadway after a runs in London, Los Angeles, Sydney, and Copehhagen. The sci-fi horror musical about a newly engaged couple chancing upon a transvestite mad scientist one dark and story night was not successful on the Great White Way closing quickly. It received just one Tony nomination (Lighting Design) but quickly becomes a movie which makes the show immortal over the long haul with infinite midnight screenings across decades for the next decade plus. The show was revived in 2000 and ran for two years
1981 Kim Carnes drops the single "Bette Davis Eyes" which becomes a smash hit and wins the Grammy for Record and Song of the Year. Bette Davis was still alive and sent thank you letters and roses to the songwriters and Kim Carnes. There is a photo of Bette with Kim on the internet but we don't know if its real or not.
1988 Andy Gibb, singer and heartthrob (brother to the Bee-Gees) dies at just 30 years of age
1995 Australian sleeper hit comedy Muriel's Wedding, which sets Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths on the path to big careers, and the pandemic thriller Outbreak are the new releases in US movie theaters on this day.
1997 Buffy the Vampire Slayer premieres with the "Welcome to the Hellmouth" episode. The show will prove hugely influential, critically acclaimed, and run for 7 seasons though all mainstream awards bodies will basically ignore it. The then-quite stuffy Emmys ignored its first season outside of a nomination for Best Makeup for this episode. The highest profile Emmy nomination it will receive during its run was a writing Emmy for the classic "Hush" episode from season 4. The very shortlived AFI Awards (Drama Series of the Year for season 6) and the Golden Globes (Best Actress Drama Series for season 5) give it its only high profile nominations during its entire run.
2017 Kong Skull Island opens in movie theaters. Can't remember anyone being excited about this but somehow we're the franchise is unkillable. Godzilla vs Kong arrivse simultaneously on HBOMax and in theaters on March 31st.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 37th to Austrian actor Robert Finster (Tribes of Europa, Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe) who starred as Sigmund Freud on the streaming series Freud last year. We meant to watch that. Did you ever check it out?
Other showbiz birthdays today: Oscar nominated superstar Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct, Casino), Emmy winner Jon Hamm (Mad Men, The Town), Chuck Norris (Missing in Action, Delta Force), actress/director Olivia Wilde (Booksmart, Tron), Jasmine Guy (Harlem Nights, A Different World), Madeleine Arthur (Snowpiercer, Big Eyes), Emily Osment (The Kominksy Method, Hannah Montana the Movie), Oscar nominated writer/director Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby), Rafe Spall (The Big Short, Life of Pi), Danny Pudi (Community, DuckTales), Paget Brewster (DuckTales, Criminal Minds), Katharine Houghton (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Kinsey), Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley, Godzilla King of Monsters), Austria's Robert Finster (Freud, Tribes of Europa), Japan's Shin Koyamada (Last Samurai), Oscar nominated screenwriter Scott Frank (Logan, Get Shorty, Out of Sight), Oscar nominated Sam Jaffe (The Asphalt Jungle, The Day After the Earth Stood Still), Oscar nominated cinematographer Robert D Yeoman (Grand Budapest Hotel, Drugstore Cowboy), Oscar winning screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost, Brainstorm), and undervalued cinematographer Maryse Alberti (The Wrestler, Velvet Goldmine), Belgiums Luc Dardenne (of the Dardenne brothers), Playmate Shannon Tweed, singers Carrie Underwood, Edie Brickell, and Robin Thicke.
And late greats like Oscar nominated brilliant director Gregory La Cava (Stage Door, My Man Godfrey), Oscar winner Barry Fitzgerald (Going My Way, The Quiet Man), Richard Haydn (The Sound of Music, Young Frankenstein), and Joe Viterelli (Analyze This, Bulles Over Broadway)
Reader Comments (19)
I wish Rachel Griffiths was in more things. Will love her always for Six Feet Under.
The Life of Emile Zola has a bad rep that it doesn't deserve. Of course, The Awful Truth is an out-and-out masterpiece that should have won in a walk, and A Star Is Born is also clearly superior, but I rank Zola a strong 3rd.The scene where Donald Crisp (he should have been the Supporting Actor nominee) addresses the Congress is electrifying. The only big minus for me is Muni's unabashed ham acting, even worse than Spencer Tracy's award-winning shenanigans. And that Best Actress field! I think it's still one of the strongest fields ever - Garbo, Dunne, Stanwyck, Gaynor - even Luise Rainer (clearly 5th of 5) manages to be quite moving at times.
Andy Gibb was not a Bee Gee, he was the younger brother of Barry, Maurice and Robin who were the 3 who were the Bee Gees. Andy was a solo artist.
The Life of Emile Zola is probably my least favorite Best Picture winner ever. I find it almost impossible to even get through it, let alone enjoy it. I mean I guess in a way it's "better" than things like Broadway Melody and maybe The Greatest Show On Earth, but at least those movies have their campy pleasures. Zola has got, well, nothing. Sorry fans.
Has anyone ever seen Porgy & Bess? I have been waiting years for it to show up on TV/TCM somewhere. It can't be THAT bad can it?
It's still hard to believe Stephen Boyd didn't even get nominated for Ben Hur. He gives the best performance in that movie!
I think Louise Rainer was a fine actress, but she was clearly a support player in her both wins, Carole Lombard (My man godfrey) and Irene Dunne (The awful truth) deserved the Oscars in her respective years.
The Life of Emil Zola is better than Cimarron and Cavalcade, too, but I agree that it's pretty boring. I have no desire to watch it ever again.
Based on the trailer, I went into "Muriel's Wedding" expecting a wacky Australian sex comedy.
I was misinformed. (Still a great movie, though!)
Rest in Peace, Andy. You were one of my first crushes when I didn't understand what that meant.
Quoting Bette Davis in song is what I live for see also Vogue by Madonna
Marilyn looking beautiful,Movie Stars really looked like it back then.
Toni Collette one of the best Australian exports after Kylie of course who is always No 1.
Never saw any of the popular American TV shows of the 90's Friends,Buffy,My so called Life,Dawson's Creek etc.
SMG not being nominated for an Emmy for "The Body" ....trash
I think Sam Jaffe should be under "Late Greats."
Dave In Hollywood - "Porgy and Bess" is available on YouTube, not the best print but "due to rights issues, and the failure of the Gershwin and Goldwyn families to come to an agreement, this has never been given a home video release." I have seen it in this print and film is pretty good, I like the music, stars and story.
Dave in Hollywood: I was lucky enough to see Porgy and Bess on the big screen in London a number of years back. I liked it a fair amount but I thought it was perhaps too slow. Worth a watch if you get the chance.
Emile Zola is a big snooze indeed. If there were any justice Make Way for Tomorrow would have cleaned up at the Oscars that year. Such a wonderful film that was ahead of its time in the themes it handles. When Leo McCarey collected his directing trophy for The Awful Truth he even said the Academy gave him the Oscar for the wrong film.
After seeing Porgy and Bess, I finally understood why Sammy Davis Jr was such a star. He's electrifying as Sportin' Life and definitely should have been Oscar nominated. I really don't understand the Gershwin estate's hatred of the film. It's not perfect (a normal production of the opera is more than an hour longer than the film, for starters). Until they were called out for it, they were trying to buy up all the prints of the film and destroy them. The print I saw was serviceable but very faded.
‘Freud’ on Netflix: What If Sigmund Freud Was a Coked Up, Kinky ‘Sherlock’? (Decider headline)
Yeah, I'll bite. Especially with Finster giving us Monty-Clift-in-Freud realness...
So crazy that neither Marilyn nor Stephen Boyd were nominated for Oscars. Marilyn is an essential piece of a truly golden lineup of performers. Jack Lemmon was madly deserving of his nod but so were the ignored Tony Curtis, Joe E. Brown and Marilyn.
Even nuttier is Boyd's miss, Ben-Hur is mostly a well appointed preachy bore and Heston mostly a snore with Boyd outshining him in every scene. Baffling how both missed.
Paranoid Android: Griffiths is pretty consistent in her work here in Australia, mostly in series. If you can find them in your region, I'd recommend watching "Total Control" (where she plays the Australian prime minister) and "Barracuda". She also directed AACTA Best Film Nominated RIDE LIKE A GIRL.
That photo of Bette Davis and Kim Carnes is real as I remember seeing that photo many years ago on an episode of Behind the Music on the year of 1981. Davis dug that song.
Andy Gibb's death was sad and the timing of it was awful as he was going to become the fourth Bee Gee. The idea was to make him a fourth member as he would work and sing with his brothers as he can be part of something and help him deal with his own demons.
How can anyone not love Muriel's Wedding? It was the film that introduced me to Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, and ABBA when I was a teen listening to alt-rock and gangsta rap.
Buffy would be lauded today. Such a crime. Should've been nominated for so much more, but at LEAST Sarah Michelle Gellar!