" They that approve a private opinion, call it opinion; but they that dislike it, heresy, and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion.'
-Thomas Hobbes, English political philosopher (1588-1679)
Go ahead, make my day!Today is the 81st birthday of the former mayor of Carmel, NY. A mayor who although he has had a major Hollywood career and still manages to do so has never been involved in a scandal!
His first leading lady and screen kiss was with Carol Channing!
Happy Birthday, Clint Eastwood!
"'Clint Eastwood: A Life in Pictures," edited by Pierre-Henri Verhlac (Chronicle Books, $40), a new book documenting legendary actor Clint Eastwood's life.
Clint started trying out for bit parts in B-movies, and was signed as a contract player for Universal. He found work as an actor with brief, uncredited appearances in Tarantula (1955) and Revenge of the Creature (1955)
.
Revenge of the Creature is the first sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon.
The film is notable as being the only sequel to a 3-D film to be also shot in 3-D. It is also the first screen role for Clint Eastwood, who appeared as an uncredited lab technician early in the film.
He is shown having a discussion with the professor, accusing a test subject cat of eating a lab rat. However his character had in fact accidentally put the lab rat in his lab coat pocket. The movie was released May 11, 1955, in the United States. In 1997, it was aired as an episode of the comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000, which mocked the film.
Having survived being riddled with bullets at the end of the first film, the Gill-man is captured and sent to the Ocean Harbor Oceanarium in Florida, where he is studied by animal psychologist Professor Clete Ferguson and ichthyology student Helen Dobson.
Helen and Clete quickly begin to fall in love, much to the chagrin of Joe Hayes, the Gill-man's keeper. The Gill-man takes an instant liking to Helen (as he did to Kay in the first film), which severely hampers Professor Ferguson's efforts to communicate with him. Ultimately, the Gill-man escapes from his tank, killing Joe in the process, and flees to the open ocean.
Unable to stop thinking about Helen, he soon begins to stalk her and Ferguson, ultimately abducting her from a seaside restaurant where the two are at a party. Clete tries to give chase, but the Gill-man escapes to the water with his captive. Clete and the local law enforcement must now try to track down Helen and her amphibious abductor.
John Agar was also in this film!
John G. Agar (January 31, 1921 – April 7, 2002)ANOTHER AQUARIAN! He and Carol Channing were born on the SAME DAY! John's birthplace: Chicago, IL.
Location of death: Burbank, CA
John was an American actor. He starred alongside John Wayne in the films Sands of Iwo Jima
, Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, but was later relegated to B movies, such as Tarantula, The Mole People, The Brain from Planet Arous, Flesh and the Spur, and Hand of Death. He also starred with Lucille Ball in the 1951 movie The Magic Carpet.
REVENGE OF THE CREATURE led to credited supporting roles in Francis in the Navy
(1955), The First Traveling Saleslady (1956), Lafayette Escadrille (1958)
and Ambush at Cimarron Pass (1958).
He got his breakthrough at the end of the decade with the TV series "Rawhide"
(1959), where he was a cast member for six years.
As Rowdy Yates, he made the show his own and became a household name around the country.
Perhaps the icon of macho movie stars, and a living legend, Clint Eastwood has become a standard in international cinema. Born in San Francisco, he is the son of steelworker Clinton Eastwood Sr. (1906-1970), and factor worker Ruth Eastwood-Belden (nee Runner, 1909-2006). The family moved around Northern California before settling in Oregon.
After graduating high school, he moved to Seattle and worked as a lifeguard before training as a lifeguard for the military in 1951. After completing his service, he moved to Los Angeles where he found work digging swimming pools.
Funny, Carol Channing was born in Seattle and moved to San Francisco.
But Eastwood found even bigger and better things with A Fistful of Dollars (1964), and For a Few Dollars More (1965). But it was the second sequel where he found one of his trademark roles: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
. The movie was a big hit and he became an instant international star. Blondie (The Good) is a professional gunslinger who is out trying to earn a few dollars. Angel Eyes (The Bad) is a hit man who always commits to a task and sees it through, as long as he is paid to do so. And Tuco (The Ugly) is a wanted outlaw trying to take care of his own hide. Tuco and Blondie share a partnership together making money off Tuco's bounty, but when Blondie unties the partnership, Tuco tries to hunt down Blondie. When Blondie and Tuco comes across a horse carriage loaded with dead bodies, they soon learn from the only survivor (Bill Carson) that he and a few other men have buried a stash of gold in a cemetery. Unfortunately Carson dies and Tuco only finds out the name of the cemetery, while Blondie finds out the name on the grave. Now the two must keep each other alive in order to find the gold. Angel Eyes (who had been looking for Bill Carson) discovers that Tuco and Blondie meet with Carson and knows they know the location of the gold... (Source: Jeremy Thomson)
Eastwood got some excellent roles thereafter. He starred in Coogan's Bluff (1968), the western Hang 'Em High (1968) and the musical Paint Your Wagon (1969). Eastwood went in an experimental direction again with Kelly's Heroes (1970) and Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), both of which combined tough-guy action with offbeat humor.
1971 proved to be his best year in film, or at least one of his best.
He directed his first movie, the thriller Play Misty for Me (1971)
, in which he played a man being stalked by a crazed female admirer whose obsession with him turns from seductive to violent. That same year, he played the hard edge police inspector in Dirty Harry (1971) that gave Eastwood one of his signature roles and invented the loose-cannon cop genre that has been imitated even to this day. Eastwood also found work in American revisionist westerns like High Plains Drifter (1973), which he also directed. He had constant quality films over the next few years, teaming up with Jeff Bridges in the buddy action flick Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), and starring the "Dirty Harry" sequels Magnum Force (1973) and The Enforcer (1976/I), and the quintessential western The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), the action flick The Gauntlet (1977), and the hugely successful comedy Every Which Way But Loose (1978) with Clyde the orangutan.Eastwood found even more solid work with the fact-based thriller Escape from Alcatraz (1979). The sequel to "Every Which Way but Loose", Any Which Way You Can (1980), was also a blockbuster despite negative reviews from critics. It was the fourth 'Dirty Harry' sequel, Sudden Impact (1983) (the highest grossing film of the series) that made him a viable star for the eighties. Clint also starred in Firefox (1982), Tightrope (1984), Pale Rider (1985), and Heartbreak Ridge (1986), which were all big hits but did not become classics. His fifth and final "Dirty Harry" movie, The Dead Pool (1988), was a minor commercial hit but severely panned by critics. Shortly after his career declined with the outright bomb comedy Pink Cadillac (1989) and the disappointing cop adventure The Rookie (1990). It was fairly obvious Eastwood's star was declining as it never had before.
Happy Birthday, Clint Eastwood!
Today is also the 73rd birthday of Pete Yarrow.
Peter Yarrow, Bethany Yarrow, and Rufus Cappadocia perform a beautiful rendition of the international classic "Puff, the Magic Dragon."
Joe Namath is 68 today!
Joseph William "Joe" Namath (born May 31, 1943), nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie",
is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the American Football League (AFL) and National Football League (NFL) during the 1960s and 1970s. Namath was an American Football League icon and played for that league's New York Jets for most of his professional career but finished his career with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985.
Namath retired after playing in 140 games 62 wins, 63 losses and 4 ties. In his career he threw 173 touchdowns, 220 interceptions, and completed 1,886 passes for 27,663 yards.
During his thirteen years in the AFL and NFL he played for three division champions (the 1968 and 1969 AFL East Champion Jets and the 1977 NFC West Champion Rams), earned one league championship (1968 AFL Championship), and one "world championship" (Super Bowl III).
In 1999, he was ranked number 96 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. He was the only player on the list to have spent a majority of his career with the Jets.
He is known for brashly telling the media that he guaranteed that his team would upset Don Shula's NFL Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in 1969, and then delivering on his promise.
Namath's Hungarian-born grandfather, known as A.J. to his family and friends, came to Ellis Island and worked in the coal and steel industries of the Pittsburgh Metro Area.While growing up, Joe was close to both of his parents, who were divorced. Following his parents' split, Joe lived with his mother, Rose.
Remembering Vicki Sue Robinson on her Birthday.She was instrumental in defining the "disco era". [May 31st 1954-April 27th 2000].
Our dance queen, Vicki.
Camille Savitz's birthday today!
Happy Birthday, Danny Goggin!
Judy Garland concert headed for theatersMark Marino -- Special to CNN
Justin Bieber
.Canadian Justin Bieber become famous via YouTube and ever since he has gathered millions of fans all over the world. Four of Bieber's pre-album singles 'One Time', 'One Less Lonely Girl', 'Love Me' and 'Favorite Girl' (was he referring to Selena Gomez?). They all were in Top 15 hits on the Canadian Hot 100 and Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. This made Bieber the only artist in Billboard history to have four singles from a debut album chart in the Top 40 of the Hot 100 before the album's release.
Since last year, Bieber is also a constant presence on Twitter. In early February, he spent an entire week at the top of the Trending Topics list. Just imagine how many people will look for information about him today!"On March 1st, 12:56am. A baby boy was born, the most gorgeous, kind hearted, beautiful person in the world. That person is Justin Bieber", one fan wrote on the Twitter. "A few years ago 'justin' meant timberlake, and now it means bieber", another one said.
The Bieber Mania is fueled by Justin himself, who, once in a while, uses to post messages for his fans. "Surrounded by great friends and my birthday is almost here. thanks to everyone for the well wishes", he wrote for his fans on his birthday.
Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers have all seen their tours get transferred to the big screen, and now an unlikely star is getting the concert-film treatment: late Hollywood legend Judy Garland.
According to the L.A. Times, Garland's historic 1961 Carnegie Hall concert will be turned into a documentary courtesy of filmmakers Steven Lippman, Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein. Though Garland's comeback performance earned critical raves, countless standing ovations, and spawned a chart-topping double album, no footage exists of the actual event.
"The concert is a cultural touchstone, something I remember vividly as a kid," Friedman tells the L.A. Times. "It's a magical moment in theatrical history. And yet there's almost no record of it."
Until now.
The filmmakers hope to re-create the Carnegie Hall experience with "Stay All Night," a documentary that will combine music snippets and recently uncovered backstage footage of Garland with new interviews of people who witnessed the show. The movie will focus on the connection between Garland and her audience that evening, and the team hopes to evoke that same feeling for those seated in theaters.
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Richard Skipper, Richard@RichardSkipper.com
