There's lots to say about arts and entertainment over the next few days. Let's start at the top, with Boris Karloff, born November 23, 1887 . The erstwhile William Henry Pratt labored as a truck driver, farmhand, and occasional character actor until 1931, when he landed the role of the monster in Frankenstein. Even though he went unbilled in the original release of the movie, he became an instant star whose name was linked with horror until his death in 1969.
In a
nice coincidence, Forrest J. Ackerman, the man who became one of Karloff's
best friends and biggest boosters was born a day later (albeit in 1916).
Ackerman was the longtime editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, and cultivated
a love for monsters and psychological horror in a million youngsters in the 1950s and 60s.
But we've only scratched the surface when it comes to entertainment. For example, in 1889, the first jukebox went into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. (We'll add that "juke" was slang for ... well, a "house of ill repute," and leave it at that.)
This distant ancestor to the iPod contained a tinfoil phonograph with four listening tubes and a coin slot for each tube. So popular was it that it took in $1,000 in the first six months - in 1889 dollars, a nickel at a time. Musical entertainment has evolved significantly in the century since.
On Wednesday, we'll note the 142nd birthday
of composer Scott Joplin, who didn't invent ragtime music, but was one of its foremost composers; his
"Maple Leaf Rag" virtually defined the era.
Joplin isn't the only great artist who's an exemplar of his chosen genre. On
Wednesday evening, PBS will broadcast an all-star concert celebrating the 80th birthday of Stephen Sondheim, composer and lyricist for some of the
best - and most important - musicals in theatre history. And on November 25, 1949,
Robert May and Johnny Marks's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" made its debut. Gene Autry's recording of the tune eventually sold more than 25 million
records.
If those are the heights musical genres can reach, we note what some might
consider the nadir, represented by tonight's episodes of Glee (featuring Carol Burnett) and the (tainted?) finale of Dancing with the Stars. (And we mention the 1871
founding of the National Rifle Association purely in passing here - in case
someone wants to emulate Steven Cowan.)
Music can have an effect even in the world of science. Wednesday is the 36th
anniversary of Donald Johanson and Tom Gray's discovery of the Australopithecus afarensis skeleton that they named "Lucy," after the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
The fine arts are also represented this week. Tuesday is the 118th birthday of
Romain de Tirtoff, who, under the name Erté (taken from the French pronunciation of his initials)
virtually defined the Art Deco style of the early 20th century, and Wednesday is
the 146th birthday of French illustrator Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who captured the
lives of the Parisian demimonde of the late 19th century.
And
while it's not exactly "art," the first issue of Life Magazine was published in 1936. Over the next 36
years, the photojournalism magazine featured some of the finest photography in
the world - though none of those early photographers could have used a zoom lens, since it wasn't invented until this week in 1948.
In performing arts, Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opened in London's West End in 1952, and has been running ever since, making
it the longest continuously-running play in history. (There was even a recent
controversy over whether the surprise ending should be revealed on Wikipedia. It was, so if you go over there, consider
yourself warned.). Pity movie producer John Woolf, who bought the movie rights to the play, on the
condition that he not film it until it closed. Woolf died in 1999, but the play
runs on.
That sounds like a disaster almost profound enough to be filmed by
producer Irwin Allen, king of such disaster movies as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, and whose 94th birthday would
have been Wednesday. It could have been a disaster, but not a cosmic mystery suitable
for solving by Doctor Who, the venerable BBC television series that began broadcasting this week in
1963.
Crime and criminals also figure into this week (like every week, probably). On
November 24, 1971, D.B. Cooper skyjacked a Boeing 727, collected $200,000 in ransom, and
parachuted out over southern Washington state, never to be seen again.
We mention an odd birthday coincidence in passing. Wednesday is the 122nd
birthday of motivational author Dale Carnegie, and Thursday is the 175th birthday of
industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Dale (whose last name was originally
spelled "Carnagey") wrote the book How to Win Friends and Influence People (which is
still a best-seller on the self-help charts, nearly 75 years after it was
published).
Andrew made his fortune in the steel business and ended up giving
most of it away, endowing libraries, schools, universities, along with numerous charities and
foundations. By 1919, he had given away more than $350 million (about $4.3 billion
in 2010 dollars), with the remaining $30 million distributed after his death
that year.
In animal events, President Obama is scheduled to give an executive pardon to a turkey on Wednesday, and Thursday (in
addition to everything else) is the National Dog Show in Philadelphia.
Lastly, we mention what is, for many, the most notable event of the week: Thanksgiving, with its attendant gorging and football. T-Day also brings us the Macy's Parade, which gives television viewers across the
country the chance to watch b-list actors and singers lip synch to lousy music,
and this year will feature such traditional holiday entertainers as Jessica Simpson, Jimmy Fallon and the Roots, and Kanye West. Truly a Thanksgiving smorgasbord!
Suggested Sites...
- Karloff.com - the Master of Horror -- and the nicest guy in Hollywood, by all accounts.
- Biography of Scott Joplin - the King of Sedalia, Missouri.
- Lucy: The Fossil That Revolutionized the Search for Human Origins - and we don't mean Mrs. Ricardo.
- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - the complete works.
- The 16 Greatest Disaster Movies of All Time - the more stuff blows up, the more we love 'em!
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