Capitol Hill Blue Forums Hot Topics & Breaking News The RoundTable Round Table For Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

1928 - Walt Disney debuted his talking, animated cartoon, "Steamboat Willie", at the Colony Theatre in New York. The short film featured a character who had been named Mortimer. Walt changed the name to Mickey Mouse. "Steamboat Willie" was the first cartoon with synchronized sound. And, for those of you who don’t remember, "Steamboat Willie" was in black and white. Disney’s first color cartoon wasn’t released for another four years. The star of the film has changed somewhat over the years; but Mickey Mouse is still with us, in full living color, in cartoons, on TV, in books and even in his own stores. What a great success story -- especially for a mouse!



Click on the picture!


Today In History~

1307 - The story of William Tell shooting the apple off of his young son’s noggin is said to have taken place on this day. The story is of either Swiss, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, or Persian origin. In other words, Who knows?

1626 - St. Peter’s Basilica was dedicated in Rome by Urban VIII.

1894 - The "New York World" published the first colored Sunday comic.

1919 - One of the first ticker-tape parades was held -- to welcome the Prince of Wales to New York City. Ticker tape came from Wall Street, you know. Rolls of paper were used to record stock trades long before computers were invented. As the paper rolled over pins that punched stock information read by stock brokers, it would leave holes. When a big parade was organized, the shredded tape was scooped up and thrown out of windows on the marchers below. We now call the stuff confetti, since ticker tape isn’t used anymore.

1932 - For the first time, a tie occurred for the Best Actor Academy Award. Wallace Beery and Fredric March were only one vote apart so the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ruled it a tie. Both received an Oscar at the Fifth Annual Academy Awards, March for his performance in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and Beery for his role in "The Champ". March thought it rather funny that the two were honored for ‘best male performance of the year’ when they each had adopted a child that year. "The Champ" also was honored when Frances Marion received the Writing/Original Story Academy Award for the film. There was only one Best Actress Award and it was presented to Helen Hayes for her performance in "The Sin of Madelon Claudet". Host Lionel Barrymore greeted the film industry this night in the Fiesta Room at LA’s grand hotel, The Ambassador. The movie, "Grand Hotel" (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), earned the top honors as Outstanding Production. It was also a grand night for the film, "Bad Girl". Its director, Frank Borzage, and its writer (adaptation), Edwin Burke, were both presented with Academy Awards. Walt Disney also received two awards: an honorary award for the creation of Mickey Mouse and for the cartoon short subject, "Flowers and Trees". Short Subject awards were presented to two other well-known Hollywood talents on this evening. Hal Roach won his prize for the comedy, "The Music Box" and Mack Sennett for the novelty short, "Wrestling Swordfish". Both were first-time Academy Award winners as were Gordon Wiles for Art Direction ("Transatlantic") and Lee Garmes for Cinematography ("Shanghai Express"). A grand night was had by all.

1942 - Thornton Wilder’s play, "The Skin of Our Teeth", opened in New York City. The play was Wilder’s sequel to "Our Town". "The Skin of Our Teeth" starred Tallulah Bankhead, Fredric March, Montgomery Clift and E.G. Marshall. One critic wrote, “As of last evening, the theatre was looking up.”

1949 - Alben W. Barkley married Jane Rucker Hadley in St. Louis. It was the first time a U.S. Vice President married while in office.

1951 - On this, a Sunday afternoon, Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly launched one of the most highly-praised TV productions in history. "See It Now" debuted on CBS. On that first program, Murrow showed a live camera shot of the Atlantic Ocean, followed by a live shot of the Pacific, then he said, “We are impressed by a medium through which a man sitting in his living room has been able to look at two oceans at once.” In April of 1952, "See It Now" moved into an evening time slot.

1967 - Lulu’s "To Sir with Love", from the movie of the same name, started its fifth and final week at number one on the "Billboard Hot 100" chart. Lulu was born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie (November 3, 1948). She changed her name to Lulu (and The Luvvers) in Scotland, early in her career.

1970 - Nobel Prize-winner Linus Pauling declared that large doses of Vitamin C could ward off the common cold.

1975 - John Denver received a gold record for "I’m Sorry".

1978 - The worst case of murder-suicide in history took place in Jonestown, Guyana. Religious-cult leader Jim Jones (Peoples Temple) directed the ingestion of Kool-Aid (laced with cyanide) by at least 900 of his followers. He and his mistress then followed suit. Earlier in the day, Jones had directed the murder of California Congressman Leo J. Ryan, three newspeople and several ‘defectors’. Ryan, on a fact-finding tour of Jonestown, was boarding a privated airplan with the small group when they were shot down.

1986 - For the first time since his departure from his own late-night TV show, Jack Paar was a guest of Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show". One of TV’s great lines came from the show, when Carson quipped (after one of Paar’s long, long spiels), “Why is it that I feel I’m guesting on your show?”

1986 - Roger Clemens was named the American League’s Most Valuable Player. He was the first American League starter to be so named in 15 years. The Boston Red Sox hurler won the honor one week after earning the Cy Young Award.

1995 - Tha Dogg Pound’s album "Dogg Food" hit #1 in the U.S. for one week. The tracks were: "Intro", "Dogg Pound Gangstaz", "Respect", "New York, New York (Tha Night I Served 2,000 M.C.s}", "Smooth", "Cyco-Lic-No (Bitch Azz Niggaz)" "Ridin’, Slipin’ and Slidin’", "U Can’t See Me", "Big Pimpin 2", "Let’s Play House", "I Don’t Like to Dream About Gettin Paid", "Do What I Feel", "If We All Fuc*", "Some Bomb Azz Pussy", "A Dogg’z Day Afternoon", "Reality", "One By One (Subtracting Sucka Azz Niggaz from the Face of the Earth)", "Sooo Much Style". This album will make the perfect gift for grandma this Christmas.

1997 - Two Willem de Kooning paintings topped the lots at Christie's blue-chip contemporary sale in New York City. "Two Standing Women" (1949), sold for $4,182,500 and "Woman (Blue Eyes)" (1953), which went for about $2 million.

1997 - The Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays begin taking shape with 35 selections apiece in baseball’s expansion draft. Both the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays began their baseball lives with sufficient funds to contend quickly.


Music For The Day~



Click on the picture! The B-52's- Love Shack


Quote For The Day~

Even though people may be well known, they hold in their hearts the emotions of a simple person for the moments that are the most important of those we know on earth: birth, marriage and death.
Jackie Kennedy





Chuckle For The Day~

The other day Bob
age 70, came home and was greeted by his wife, dressed only in very sexy
underwear and holding a couple of short velvet ropes.

"Tie me up," she purred, "and you can do anything you want."

So, Bob tied her up and went golfing






Picture For The Day~



Bora Bora, French Polynesia


Trivia For The Day~

Philippines is the world leader in coconut production (2007) followed by Indonesia and India in distant third.

Great Opener Scout! I haven't thought of Jackie Kennedy for a long time. She was like America's Princess Dianna. A beautiful woman, a tragic story.

B-52s, B-52s, they were from some big music town, weren't they? Detroit, maybe? (Whut, Olyve?)

Jackie - I've often wondered what she might have been if she had been born in a different era, and not married men of such power. She accomplished a lot, even though she spent much of her life in the shadow of the men she married. Hmmm.

Guyana - there's a fascinating book called "Seductive Poison," written by Deborah Layton, who managed to escape Jonestown a few weeks before the last night. It's one of those books I'd like to read again but just can't bring myself to.

'Night, all.

Good morning and thanks for the great opener, Scout!

I love the B-52s and here's my fave: try not to shimmy!
Rock Lobster

I'm making food for our office Thanksgiving lunch today. Ham and stuffing with chicken-apple sausage, celery, onion, walnuts and mushrooms. Oh, and some of Greger's favorite chicken stock.

Have a great day, all!

P.S. I just learned on the Intertubes that when it's cooked inside a turkey, it's stuffing; outside a turkey and it's dressing. Duh!

EmmaG

That was great Emma! He reminds me so much of early David Byrne.

Wasn't 80's music fun?

We're getting snow flurries this morning. Supposed to get all the way up to 35 later today. Heat wave!

NAY NAY, THRICE NAY

Whut??
hey hey...those are our guys!
Detroit?
Hrrrrmmpphfff...

Thanks Scout.
Great opener.

Morning all.
I'll be back later. Got up late so I'm rushing out.

Well two out of three ain't bad, as the song goes. For the homosexuals that is.

Kisses and Salams,
F&N

Absolutely!!!!!!!!

My two favorite B-52s tunes are Roam and the not-so-airplayed Revolution Earth. Both songs speak to me.

(Click the pictures!!)

Remember this song? (I dedicate this song to President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney)

(Click the Picture!!)