This Date in History - February 4

 

Happy February 4.   An earthshaking day.  As you will read.

211:  ROMAN EMPEROR SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS DIES AT EBORACUM WHILE PREPARING TO LEAD A CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE CALDEONIANS.  HE LEAVES THE EMPIRE IN THE CONTROL OF HIS TWO QUARRELING SONS.

So you thought that Game of Thrones was intriguing?

960:  THE CORONATION OF ZHAO KUANGYIN AS EMPEROR TAIZU OF SONG, INITIATING THE SONG DYNASTY PERIOD OF CHINA THAT WOULD LAST MORE THAN THREE CENTURIES.

Three hundred years of song.  Just like Tony Bennett.

1169:  A STRONG EARTHQUAKE STRIKES SICILY, CAUSING TENS OF THOUSANDS OF INJURIES AND DEATH.

One.

1703:  IN EDO (NOW TOKYO), 46 OF THE FORTY-SEVEN RONIN COMMIT SEPPUKU (RITUAL SUICIDE).

Seppuku.  Not to confused with Sudoku.

1789:  GEORGE WASHINGTON IS UNANIMOUSLY ELECTED AS THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE US BY THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.

It's all downhill from here.

1797:  THE RIOBAMBA EARTHQUAKE STRIKES ECUADOR, CAUSING UP TO 40,000 CASUALTIES.

Two.

1825:  THE OHIO LEGISLATURE AUTHORIZES THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE OHIO AND ERIE CANAL.

The good news?   Not an earthquake.

1846:  THE FIRST MORMON PIONEERS MAKE THEIR EXODUS FROM ILLINOIS TOWARDS SALT LAKE CITY.

Here comes the Osmonds.

1861:  IN ALABAMA, DELEGATES FROM SIX BREAK-AWAY US STATES MEET AND FORM THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA.

You Yankee bastards.

1902:  PILOT CHARLES LINDBERGH IS BORN.

Future Nazi sympathizer.

1915:  ACTOR WILLIAM TALMAN IS BORN.

Perry Mason's Hamilton Berger.

1918:  ACTRESS IDA LUPINO IS BORN.

Howard Duff's former wife.

1923:  ACTOR CONRAD BAIN IS BORN.

Gary Coleman's adopted father.

1936:  RADIUM BECOMES THE FIRST RADIOACTIVE ELEMENT TO BE MADE SYNTHETICALLY.

Glow in the dark.

1941:  THE USO IS CREATED TO ENTERTAIN AMERICAN TROOPS.

And to give Bob Hope an excuse to avoid Dolores during the holidays.

1945:  THE YALTA CONFERENCE BETWEEN CHURCHILL, ROOSEVELT, AND STALIN OCCURS IN THE CRIMEA.

This would ultimately be FDR's last trip abroad.

1966:  ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS FLIGHT 60 PLUNGES INTO TOKYO BAY, KILLING 133.

Unlike Malaysian Airways, they know what happened to this plane.

1969:  YASSER ARAFAT TAKES OVER AS CHAIRMAN OF THE PLO.

Yessir, Yasser.

1971:  MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI IS BORN.

The new Mayor of Los Angeles.  Which means we finally got rid of the old Mayor, that lummox Villaraigosa.

1974:  THE SYMBIONESE LIBERATION ARMY KIDNAPS PATTY HEARST IN BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA.

When will they release here?   What's the hold up?

1975:  THE HAICHENG, CHINA EARTHQUAKE.

Three.

1976:  AN EARTHQUAKE KILLS MORE THAN 22,000 IN GUATEMALA AND HONDURAS.

Four.

1977:  A CHICAGO TRANSIT AUTHORITY ELEVATED TRAIN REAR-ENDS ANOTHER AND KILLS 11, THE WORST ACCIDENT IN THE AGENCY'S HISTORY.

But, at least, it wasn't during one of their lake-effect blizzards.

1983:  SINGER KAREN CARPENTER DIES.

From Top of the World to....

1987:  PIANIST LIBERACE DIES.

He died of AIDs???   How is that possible???

1998:  A 6.1 EARTHQUAKE KILLS MORE THAN 5,000 IN AFGHANISTAN.

Five.

2004:  FACEBOOK IS FOUNDED.

Like this.

2005:  ACTOR OSSIE DAVIS DIES.

Don't you wish he was once married to Harriet Tubman?

2006:  ACTIVIST BETTY FRIEDAN DIES.

No mistake.  Or mystique.

2018:  ACTOR JOHN MAHONEY DIES.

The unsung cast member from "Frasier."

Dinner last night:   Smoked beef sausage.

These Are Starting To Sting

 

Now wherever I turn, there is sad news from Hollywood.  They're bringing up that old gang of mine.  Movie stars I enjoyed as contemporaries.  Robert Redford.  Diane Keaton.

We're all a little closer to the end than we are to the beginning.

The latest loss is Catherine O'Hara and the sting is a little sharper.   I've enjoyed her comedic work in a variety of movies as well as the SCTV show.  Another person we will all miss.

Thinking about her career, one of the more unsung performances she gave is in the "Home Alone" franchise. Indeed, amidst all the crazy slapstick, Catherine gives the movies some heart and she effectively grounds the whole film.   

Check it out next Christmas and you will see what I mean.  

Regardless, the loss then will still hurt.

Dinner last night:  Sandwich.

Monday Morning Video Laugh - February 2, 2026

 February...the month of weather.

Dinner last night:  Baby back ribs at the Smoke House.

The Sunday Memory Drawer - My First Ever Movie

 

The Oscar nominations came out and nobody cares.   There are other ways to celebrate movies.  For instance, how about a flashback to my very, very first foray into a cinema?

Of course, knowing me, you know it couldn't have gone smoothly.  The location of the disaster is shown above.  The wonderful Loews Theater right across from City Hall in Mount Vernon, New York.  Well, that's where it used to be.  It's nothing but a dumpy parking lot now and just another sterling example of how my hometown has turned into nothing but a toxic waste dump raped and pillaged by a conga line of inept and crooked politicians over the past three decades.  A hamlet that used to have two beautiful movie palaces now has none.  As soon as my one friend still residing there moves out, the whole city can easily be blown off the Google map. 

But I digress...

Back to the movies, I can remember that they were a big part of my mom's life.  She was always reading the fan magazines.  Photoplay.  Modern Screen.  TV/Radio Mirror.  At least one night a week and with my dad working evenings, she was off to the theater with her girlfriend, Ronnie, who was a dead ringer for Susan Hayward herself.  I always knew they had been to the movies if I found a box of Pom Poms or Milk Duds on the kitchen table.  The breakfast of four-year-old champions.

If my mother and Ronnie weren't at the movies, they were on the phone talking about what they had just seen or what they were planning to check out the next week.  And they'd gossip about some of the screen stars as if they knew them.

"Maurice Chevalier looked a little bloated in Gigi."

"Did you see how bloodshot Eleanor Parker's eyes were in Home From the Hill?"

"Do you think Kirk Douglas dyed his hair for Spartacus?"

I can only imagine how catty they were with people they actually knew.

Nevertheless, I guess my mom couldn't wait to include me in her movie going world.  I couldn't have been more than four years old when I was considered cinema ready.

And, from my vivid recollection, my very first movie would be...

Perfect entertainment for somebody my age.  And, oh, look, "it's colorsome."

So, on one warm weekday afternoon, Mom walked me down Stevens Avenue to Loews for the first of what would be thousands of motion picture experiences for yours truly.

Except...

I remember the huge and glorious edifice being empty.  It was the first show of the day and apparently even a colorsome movie like Tom Thumb wasn't packing them in just yet.   We made the long climb to the balcony, which was my mother's prime viewing location.  Why?  It was the smoking section.

I probably was in awe of my surroundings.  It was so eerily quiet.  But the hall was very pretty.  And the velvet curtain that faced us all.

Moments later, the lights began to dim.

Uh oh, what's happening?

The curtain slowly started to inch its way apart to reveal a huge white wall.  

Suddenly, this all didn't look so inviting.  I had no clue what was happening.  But none of it looked good.  And I reacted the way any well-adjusted child would.

I started to scream.

'WHHHHAAAAAAAA!   WHHHAAAAAAAAAAA!"

My mom was so off-put that she probably had to douse her cigarette.  What the hell was wrong with me?

"WHHHHHAAAAAAA!  WHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!"

If there was anybody else in the theater at that moment, I am sure they were complaining to the manager.  Can you shut that freakin' kid up?

Mom had no luck with me.  This freakin' kid wouldn't shut up.  I sounded like Lucy Ricardo on the umpteenth time that Ricky wouldn't let her be in the show down at the Tropicana.

There would be no Tom Thumb for me that afternoon. 

I think I stopped the histrionics several blocks away.  And re-ignited them  anew when Mom had her say.

"You've wasted my money, today, young man."

Young man?  Okay, I was four.

With a great flourish, my mother ripped apart the two movie tickets.  Wasted money, indeed.  The tickets were probably no more than fifty cents each.  Needless to say, the rest of my afternoon was spent in my room.  A just punishment for having squandered my family's fortune.

Not wanting to repeat the scream fest ever again, my mother got smart at how to get around my "dimming lights/curtain parting" phobia.  For the next two years whenever I was taken to the movies, we arrived ten minutes into the first feature.  I clearly recall one afternoon while we hung around Hartley Park just up the street from the RKO Proctors theater.  The show had started at 1PM.  My mom looked at her watch.

"1:15PM.  I guess we can go in now."

Now, this late arrival trend was admittedly a little strange.  And it couldn't have gotten more bizarre on the occasion where I first remembered ever going to the movies with not one, but both of my parents.  And I previously told this particular saga when I wrote about my Top 25 Favorite Films.  The movie that came in at # 2....

"Some Like It Hot" holds a very special place in my own personal film history, as it was the very first time I heard a movie theater audience laugh. Out loud. I was very, very, very young, but I distinctly remember going to Loews' Mount Vernon theater to see it. It was even more noteworthy since it was probably the only time I ever went to an indoor theater with both my parents in tow. Back in those days, your neighborhood movie house ran two pictures and you frequently didn't pay attention to start times. You just showed up when you wanted to. There were many times when we would show up and see the final 20 minutes of one movie, see the next one, and then leave at the exact spot where we came in. Very weird and I would never even fathom doing that today.

We inexplicably arrived to see "Some Like It Hot" about ten minutes from the end. I remember very little except that it was the big chase scene through the hotel. And the audience was roaring with laughter. I did not know what to make of it all. Many years later, I truly understood.

There is not one single wasted moment or line of dialogue in this whole movie. Every word has a purpose and a function. And, more importantly, it gets you to where Billy Wilder wants you. In the palm of his hand. Laughing hysterically till it hurt. I've read the screenplay several times and it is a master course in film comedy. It should be used as a textbook in film schools all over the country.

I've seen "Some Like It Hot" probably 30 or 40 times in my life. It never gets old or repetitive. I've seen it on TV and on the big screen. It never gets any less funnier than it was the very first time. When I walked into that Loews theater across from City Hall in Mount Vernon.

And heard all those people enjoying a truly phenomenal movie.

Oddly enough, there are days now where I crave to see a curtain open up to reveal a movie screen.  Nothing excites me more.  You sadly see it done any more.  The Alex Theater in Glendale does it.  The Bruin and the Fox Westwood Theaters do it.  But, otherwise, it is a lost art.

And just when I got over that screaming thing...

Dinner last night:  Hamburger at Fanny's.

Classic Musical Comedy Production Number of the Month - January 2026

Woo hoo.  A five Saturday month gives us the chance to revel in a moment from Broadway or Hollywood musical lore.  Today, we celebrate Donald O'Connor in the wonderful "Singin' In The Rain."

Dinner last night:  Cheese and crackers.

Hollywood Then and Now - January 2026

 We like to talk about things that are not around anymore.  Particularly when it comes to movies, so many old palaces are gone.   And when you look at past locations used around Hollywood, invariably you see a strip mall standing in the post today where film history was once made.

But, not always.   

Maybe you remember the great film "The Best Years of Our Lives."  It won Best Picture in...I believe...1946.   It is about military folks coming home after serving in World War II.   

At the beginning, three such men from the same hometown arrive back together and take a cab to each of their destinations.   One is a banker played by Frederic March.   He comes home to his family and his wife, Myrna Loy.   They live in a seemingly prestigious apartment building.  Here's how that looked in the film.

Almost magically, here's the same shot today.

The apartment building sits one block east of La Brea on Beverly Boulevard in Hollywood.  People pass it every single day.   Most don't know its prominence in film history.  Hey, I bet the tenants don't even know.

But I do.   And now so do you.

You see, not everything has been torn down.

Dinner last night:  Hamburger.

The Best TV Show I'm Watching Right Now

 

It takes a lot to bowl me over when it comes to TV shows.   Here's the latest one that has done just that.

"The Pitt," brought to you by former "ER" star and a whole bunch of writers/producers from that legendary show, came onto HBO last year and I never watched Season 1.  I had heard it was designed to be a reboot of Noah's previous character and how he was coping with post pandemic medicine.  But I also read that "ER's" original creator Michael Crichton's estate did not allow him to use Wylie's character.  So the show was redeveloped as an original and not a reboot.  But it was all about this actor running a Pittsburgh emergency room.

None of the behind-the-scenes hoopla had prompted me to watch it.   But then it cleaned up at the Emmys and the Golden Gloves.  More importantly, some good friends told me to check it out.

I did and immediately binged on the first four episodes.   And then, speaking of hospitals and ERs, I landed in one.  Emergency surgery on four pesky hernias and I spent my first night ever in a hospital bed.  As it turned out, I spent four consecutive nights in said hospital bed.

Suddenly, "The Pitt" was very real to me.  And, upon returning home, I made very short shrift of the remaining 11 episodes of Season 1 as well as the first three segments of Season 2.

Yep, it's that good and that compelling.  Wylie is amazing as the chief ER doctor, but, for me, the amazing feat is that I truly like the rest of the cast.  Oh, sure, there are one or two who get on your nerves but they do it in a way that is...strangely...likeable.

I am now a fan and heartily recommend it.   Sure, it can get gross but that's what happens in ERs.   I should know.   I had a tube through my nose into my stomach. 

Dinner last night: Sandwich.