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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 22, 2023 3:16:40 GMT
April 21, 1997
Gene Roddenberry was one of the first humans to have their ashes carried into earth orbit.
 A Celestis spacecraft with 7 grams of the cremated remains of Roddenberry was launched into Earth orbit as part of the Minisat 01 mission aboard a Pegasus XL rocket from a site near the Canary Islands. In 1985, he became the first TV writer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was later inducted into both the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.  HOW GENE RODDENBERRY’S ASHES WERE LAUNCHED ABOARD THE CELESTIS FOUNDERS FLIGHT www.celestis.com/blog/how-gene-roddenberry-s-ashes-were-launched-aboard-the-celestis-founders-flight/
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 22, 2023 19:44:38 GMT
April 22, 1976
Ingmar Bergman Decides To Move Out of SwedenIngmar Bergman, beset by tax problems, announced today that he could no longer live in Sweden and was leaving the country to continue his film work abroad.  Tax evasion charges in 1976
While rehearsing a play, Bergman was arrested by two plainclothes police officers and charged with income tax evasion. The impact of the event on Bergman was devastating. He suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of the humiliation, and was hospitalized in a state of deep depression.  Although the charges were dropped, Bergman became disconsolate, fearing he would never again return to directing. Despite pleas by the Swedish prime minister, high public figures and leaders of the film industry, he vowed never to work in Sweden again. He closed down his studio, suspended two announced film projects and went into self-imposed exile. Bergman said that despite being active during the exile, he had effectively lost eight years of his professional life.  In his autobiography he admitted to guilt in only one aspect: "I signed papers that I didn't read, even less understood." Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, Bergman said that of his works, he held Winter Light, Persona, and Cries and Whispers in the highest regard.  Jane Magnusson on exploding the myth of Ingmar Bergman lwlies.com/articles/jane-magnusson-ingmar-bergman-a-year-in-a-life/Ingmar Bergman Decides To Move Out of Sweden www.nytimes.com/1976/04/23/archives/new-jersey-pages-ingmar-bergman-decides-to-move-out-of-sweden.html
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 23, 2023 22:49:12 GMT
April 23, 1896
The Vitascope's first theatrical exhibition was at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City.  The vitascope effectively launched projected motion pictures as a screen novelty in the United States. Thomas Alva Edison presented a show that included scenes of the surf breaking on a beach, a comic boxing exhibition, and two young women dancing.  Koster and Bial's Music Hall A review in The New York Times described the exhibition as "all wonderfully real and singularly exhilarating."
 EDISON'S VITASCOPE CHEERED The ingenious inventor's latest toy is a projection of his kinetoscope figures in stereopticon fashion on a white screen in a darkened hall. In the center of the balcony of the big music hall is a curious object, which looks from below like the double turret of a big monitor. In the front of each half of it are two oblong holes. The turret is neatly covered with blue velvet brocade. The moving figures are about half life size.
A buzzing and roaring were heard in the turret, and an unusually bright light fell upon the screen. Then came into view two precious blonde young persons of the variety stage in pink and blue dresses, doing the umbrella dance with commendable celerity. Their motions were clearly defined. When they vanished, a view of an angry surf breaking on a sandy beach near a stone pier amazed the spectators.
A burlesque boxing match between a tall, thin comedian and a short, fat one, a comic allegory called "The Monroe Doctrine"; an instant of motion in Hoyt's farce, "A Milk White Flag," repeated over and over again, and a skirt dance by a tall blonde completed the views, which were all wonderfully real and singularly exhilarating. By May 1897 several hundred projectors were in use across the country.  Controversy surrounds the history of "Edison's vitascope." For some it is a history of heroic accomplishment that allowed American cinema to achieve meaningful expression. For others it is a history of greed, dishonesty, and ineptitude.  Koster and Bial's Music Hall  The Vitascope Projecting Moving Images americanhistory.si.edu/cinema/projecting.htmlEdison Invents Motion Pictures www.americaslibrary.gov/aa/edison/aa_edison_movies_4.htmlKoster and Bial’s Music Hall experiencenomad.com/koster-and-bials-music-hall/ The Birth of the Movies www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/topic_display.cfm?tcid=120The Vitascope www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/vitascope
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Post by topbilled on Apr 23, 2023 23:45:41 GMT
What a wonderful thread, full of so much good information.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 25, 2023 1:12:52 GMT
High praise coming from the King of Good Information. Thanks TB.
It is so interesting peaking behind the wizard's curtain. In doing so I have discovered a film studio was just a few blocks from my house. Apparently it was very difficult to film Peter Falk's glass eye.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 25, 2023 1:49:31 GMT
April 24, 1962
MIT sends TV signal by satellite for the first time: California to Massachusetts
 MIT's Lincoln Laboratory transmitted the first television picture, displaying the initials "M.I.T." via NASA's Echo I balloon communications satellite. The signal was bounced 2,700 miles from California to Massachusetts.  The satellite era fundamentally altered how the world watched television.  Echo 1’s design was remarkably simple: a reflective sphere 100 feet in diameter that bounced signals directed at it from one location on Earth to another. The Legacy of Echo 1
It dramatically demonstrated the promise of communication satellites. The success of Echo had more to do with the motivations of following communications satellite research than any other single event.
- Leonard Jaffe, head of communications satellite programs at NASA - By the end of 1962, AT&T launched Telstar, the first active communications satellite.
- Echo 1 played an important role in the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
- Project Echo saw the intertwining of private enterprise and the nation's space agency.
 John Robinson Pierce helped realize the first artificial communications satellite, Echo. 60 years ago, a forgotten shiny balloon in space changed how we watch TV forever www.inverse.com/science/echo-1-television-history NASA Experimental Communications Satellites, 1958-1995 history.nasa.gov/SP-4217/ch6.htmhistory.nasa.gov/SP-4217/intro.htmEcho 1 Communications Satellite on display in the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/communications-satellite-echo-1/nasm_A20030090000Beginning the Age of Satellite Communication: Echo 1, August 1960 launiusr.wordpress.com/2015/08/03/beginning-the-age-of-satellite-communication-echo-1-august-1960/
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Post by kims on Apr 25, 2023 3:10:23 GMT
Wasn't Hedy Lamar's patents the springboard for the satellites? If so, kudos to Hedy.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 25, 2023 3:44:42 GMT
Yes - nice loop back to the cinema. Lamarr and avant-garde composer George Antheil invented and patented a technology that Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellphones, drones, secure satellite communications, and GPS all employ: frequency hopping.
They patented their invention in 1942, but it was classified until 1981, and during that time only used in military technology such as sonar or satellite communications. Hedy Lamarr and Frequency Hopping Technology www.sparkfun.com/news/6147 |
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Post by sepiatone on Apr 25, 2023 15:28:04 GMT
Ah! Satellite Echo. I remember me, my brother and Mom standing on our porch one night, along with many neighbors standing on their porches looking up at the sky to watch Echo float over our part of the country. From our point of view it looked like one of the night's stars moving across the sky. Not all that fast either.
Sepiatone
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 26, 2023 0:26:35 GMT
April 25, 1965Sunday Evening with SNCC - New York Hilton, Grand Ballroom
With the help of Julie Belafonte and Diahann Carroll, the New York FOS organized an elegant black-tie dinner and dance at the New York Hilton Grand Ballroom to benefit freedom schools and voter registration drives in the South.
The program featured Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Diahann Carroll, Sammy Davis, Jr., Barbra Streisand, Sonny Terry, and Brownie McGhee. The organization also succeeded at having more parties in Los Angeles. Brando headlined one party at a Hollywood home in June 1965. Poitier cohosted a SNCC fund-raiser with Belafonte, Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory and Richard Burton, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, and Mike Nichols at a posh Beverly Hills discotheque in August. The event resembled a movie premiere.  Such guests as the actors James Garner, Lauren Bacall, and Lee Marvin, and the filmmakers Stanley Kramer, Arthur Penn, and Robert Blumofe arrived wearing tuxedoes, long gowns, and lavish jewelry. The party was written up in the New York Times for the “surprising number of Hollywood luminaries” willing to publicly support the “most radical and controversial of all the major civil rights organizations.” /arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-dmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/VRTU2MAEDTITNWMTCN37CDWE5M.jpg) The portion of my life that is of importance to me has to do with my activism. I’ve often responded to queries that ask, ‘When as an artist did you decide to become an activist?’ My response to the question is that I was an activist long before I became an artist. They both service each other, but the activism is first. - Harry BelafonteHarry Belafonte talks about his life as an activist www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/books/2011/11/26/harry-belafonte-talks-about-his-life-as-an-activist/Sunday Evening with SNCC (April 25, 1965) www.barbra-archives.info/sunday-evening-with-sncc-1965Stars for Freedom: Hollywood, Black Celebrities, and the Civil Rights Movement uwpressblog.com/2015/04/30/stars-for-freedom-hollywood-black-celebrities-and-the-civil-rights-movement/
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 27, 2023 0:11:05 GMT
April 26, 1933
Happy Birthday Carol BurnettCarol Creighton Burnett was born on April 26, 1933, at Nix Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, 
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 27, 2023 2:36:55 GMT
April 26, 1954
Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" is released
Seven Samurai was a technical and creative watershed that set a new standard for the film industry. Kurosawa made use of telephoto lenses, which were rare in 1954.  At the time, the film was the most expensive film made in Japan. It took a year to shoot and faced many difficulties. During the six-week scriptwriting process, the screenwriters were not allowed visitors or phone calls  According to actor Toshiro Mifune, the film was originally going to be called Six Samurai.  Seven Samurai is now considered one of the greatest films in cinema history.  It has remained highly influential, one of the most "remade, reworked, referenced" movies. 七人の侍
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Post by sepiatone on Apr 27, 2023 15:26:08 GMT
April 26, 1933
Happy Birthday Carol BurnettCarol Creighton Burnett was born on April 26, 1933, at Nix Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, View Attachment NBC television network had a two hour long special commemorating Carol last night at 8:00 pm. I watched it with a mixture of laughter and tears. And all the while wondering..... WHY isn't this special on CBS? The network On which Carol worked for years on as a member of the long running GARY MOORE show. And on which she hosted her also long running(and now iconic) tv variety show. Carol's been a part of my life for most of it and I'm hoping she will be for a longer part of it. Sepiatone |
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 28, 2023 0:29:15 GMT
OMG. I didn't even notice that it was NBC and not CBS. So obvious I missed it.
Once again it had me mulling that jaunty tale she tells about her unprecedented break clause - there has to be more to it. It was a great break for viewers however her comedy show came to fruition.
So many great clips and guests last night. It was fabulous.
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Post by galacticgirrrl on Apr 28, 2023 1:42:47 GMT
April 27, 1968
Simon and Garfunkel's single “Mrs. Robinson” debuts on the Billboard Hot 100.Released April 5, it spent 13 weeks on the chart, peaking at No.1 on June 1st. Director Mike Nichols tapped the famed folk duo to create music for his film The Graduate in 1967.  ![]() While filming the movie, Mike Nichols became fascinated with Simon and Garfunkel's music.  After two weeks of this obsession, he met with Clive Davis at Columbia to license their music for his film. Simon was not as immediately receptive, viewing movies as akin to "selling out", but he agreed to write at least one or two new songs for the film after being impressed by Nichols' wit and the script.  The film's use of pop music to emphasize the narrative and give voice to the inner workings of the main character, Benjamin Braddock, was groundbreaking for a film that was not a musical.  The song "Mrs. Roosevelt" began life as an instrumental. Art Garfunkel suggested naming it after Bancroft’s character and prompted it being played it for Mike Nichols after "Punky's Dilemma" and "Overs" were rejected.  It was not until after the film was released that Simon developed "Mrs. Robinson" into a full song.  The Graduate's soundtrack album uses two short versions of "Mrs. Robinson"; a full version was later included on the Bookends LP. The song was additionally released on the Mrs. Robinson EP in 1968. “Mrs. Robinson” and its resulting soundtrack kickstarted an industry. Previously, getting kids to put down cash for the mood-setting music of a movie was considered absurd. In 1969, it became the first rock song to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Art Garfunkel implicates film director Mike Nichols in split with Paul SimonGarfunkel says the director's decision to drop Simon from the film of Catch-22 contributed to their parting in 1970 Alan Arkin, Martin Sheen, Mike Nichols, and Art Garfunkel in Catch-22 (1970)Both he and Paul Simon were cast in Mike Nichols' adaptation of Joseph Heller's novel. But whereas Garfunkel received fourth billing, Simon's minor role never made the final cut. Art Garfunkel implicates film director Mike Nichols in split with Paul Simon www.theguardian.com/music/2013/feb/12/art-garfunkel-paul-simon
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