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February 23
Contributed by Pearleen Ang
BORN TODAY
2012 – Princess Estelle, Duchess of Östergötland
1994 – Dakota Fanning
1983 – Emily Blunt
1981 – Josh Gad
1976 – Kelly Macdonald
1975 – Robert Lopez
1970 – Niecy Nash
1965 – Kristin Davis
1955 – Howard Jones
1952 – Brad Whitford
1951 – Patricia Richardson
1940 – Peter Fonda
BORN TODAY
Melvin Franklin of The Temptations (Born: October 12, 1942 / Died: February 23, 1995)
Philip Abbott (Born: July 21, 1955 / Died: February 23, 2003)
Howie Epstein (Born: July 21, 1955 / Died: February 23, 2003)
MOVIES TODAY
1935 – Disney’s Mickey Mouse short The Band Concert is released at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City (the first Mickey cartoon to be shown at the Music Hall). Also the first official Mickey cartoon in Technicolor, it is directed by Wilfred Jackson (who will go on to direct such Disney classics as Peter Pan), and features the animation of such famous names in Disney history as Les Clark, Jack Kinney, Wolfgang Reitherman and Dick Huemer.
Also released on the same day is the Mickey Mouse short Mickey’s Service Station. Directed by Ben Sharpsteen, trouble comes for Mickey and his gang when Pete (in his typical bully role) drives up to Mickey’s service station in his souped-up roadster, demanding that they get rid of the squeak in his car or else
1944 – The Purple Heart – A dramatization of the “show trial” of a number of US airmen by the Japanese during World War II. The film is loosely based on the trial of eight airmen who took part in the April 18, 1942, Doolittle Raid.
1951 – You’re in the Navy Now – A Hollywood film released in 1951 by Twentieth Century Fox about the United States Navy in the first months of World War II. It is s a comedy starring Gary Cooper as a new officer wanting duty at sea but who is instead assigned to an experimental project without much hope of success.
1966 – Harper (released in the UK as The Moving Target) – The film stars Paul Newman as the eponymous Lew Harper (Lew Archer in the novel). Goldman received a 1967 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. The film pays homage to the Humphrey Bogart Sam Spade and other detective films by featuring Bogart’s wife, Lauren Bacall, who plays a wounded wife searching for her missing husband.
1990 – Where the Heart Is – A romantic comedy featuring Dabney Coleman and Uma Thurman, is released by Touchstone Pictures.
1996 – Mary Reilly Starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovich. A housemaid falls in love with Dr. Jekyll and his darkly mysterious counterpart, Mr. Hyde.
1996 – Before and After – Stars Meryl Streep as Dr. Carolyn Ryan, Liam Neeson as Ben Ryan, Edward Furlong as Jacob Ryan, and Julia Weldon as Judith Ryan (who also narrated the movie). Two parents deal with the effects when their son is accused of murdering his girlfriend.
1996 – Unforgettable – A thriller film with science fiction elements, directed by John Dahl, and starring Ray Liotta and Linda Fiorentino. The film is about a man named David Krane (Liotta), who is obsessed with finding out who murdered his wife.
2001 – 3000 Miles to Graceland – An action film starring Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Bokeem Woodbine, Christian Slater, and Kevin Pollak. It is a story of theft and betrayal, revolving around a plot to rob the Riviera Casinoduring a convention of Elvis impersonators.
2001 – Monkeybone – An American black comedy fantasy film that combines live-action with stop-motion animation. The film stars Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda and Whoopi Goldberg with Rose McGowan, David Foley, Giancarlo Esposito, Megan Mullally, Lisa Zane, Chris Kattan, John Turturro and an uncredited Thomas Haden Church.
2002 – Cinderella II: Dreams Come True – The premiere screening of Disney’s Cinderella II: Dreams Come True is held at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. Voice-over actresses Jennifer Hale and Russi Taylor and recording artist Brooke Allison are all on hand for the event.
MUSIC TODAY
1959 – “Stagger Lee” by Lloyd Price made it to a third week at #1 on the Singles chart. “Donna” from the late Ritchie Valens was next with “16 Candles” from the Crests down a spot.
1963 – Paul & Paula remained at #1 for a third consecutive week with “Hey Paula”.
1963 – The Rooftop Singers stayed up there for the fifth week on the Easy Listening chart with “Walk Right In”.
1964 – The Dave Clark Five, featuring Clark as one of the great drummers early in the Rock Era, released the single “Bits And Pieces”.
1969 – ‘If Paradise Is Half As Nice’ by Amen Corner was at No.1 on the UK singles chart, The Move were at No.2 with ‘Blackberry Way’ and Peter Sarstedt was as No.3 with ‘Where Do You Go To’.
1974 – Planet Waves by Bob Dylan was #1 for a second week on the Album chart, just ahead of John Denver’s Greatest Hits. Two new albums joined the Top 10 – The amazing Court and Spark from Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon moved from 16-7 with Hotcakes.
1974 – Eddie Kendricks had it all going on with the #1 R&B song for the third week–“Boogie Down”.
1978 – Three hallmark winners at the Grammys that are all some of the best of all-time in their categories – Album of the Year–to Rumours by Fleetwood Mac.
1978 – The Eagles won Record of the Year for “Hotel California”.
1978 – Best Pop Vocal Performance went to the Bee Gees for “How Deep Is Your Love”.
1979 – Dire Straits began their first tour of North America at the Paradise Club in Boston, Massachusetts.
1980 – “Give It All You Got” from Chuck Mangione, the theme of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, was the new #1 song on the Adult Contemporary chart.
1980 – A new rock group first appeared on the charts, although most of us wouldn’t get to know them until later. Survivor debuted with their first single–“Somewhere In America”.
1980 – “Special Lady” by Ray, Goodman & Brown was the new #1 on the R&B chart.
1980 – Officially, Queen scored their first #1 song with “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, although anyone with sense reported “Bohemian Rhapsody” as a #1 song in 1976.
1981 – Rick Springfield released the single “Jessie’s Girl”.
1983 – Toto deservedly dominated the Grammy Awards with six trophies, including Record of the Year (“Rosanna”) and Album of the Year (Toto IV).
1985 – “Missing You”, the Diana Ross tribute to the late Marvin Gaye, hit #1 on the R&B chart.
1985 – Like a Virgin was #1 on the Album chart for Madonna.
1985 – “Careless Whisper” from Wham! was #1 on the AC chart for the third straight week.
1991 – C&C Music Factory reached #1 on the R&B chart with “Gonna’ Make You Sweat”.
1991 – Whitney Houston amazingly had her ninth career #1 in 14 releases with “All the Man That I Need”.
TV/RADIO TODAY
1955 – Disney’s 3rd installment of the 5-part Davy Crockett trilogy “Davy Crockett At the Alamo” airs on ABC-TV’s Disneyland series.
1956 – The Disneyland episode “Davy Crockett” wins a Golden Globe Award for Best TV Show.
1964 – The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show for a third time. The show had actually been recorded on February 9, the date of their first appearance, in front of a different audience, then broadcast on February 23.
1964 – Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color airs the 3rd and final episode of “The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh.”
1966 – Batman: The Thirteenth Hat aired on ABC.
1970 – The 5th Dimension were guest stars on It Takes a Thief on ABC-TV.
1970 – Ringo Starr was a guest star on the popular television show Laugh-In on NBC, his first solo television appearance.
1977 – Mouseka-alumni Darlene Gillespie and Cubby O’Brien make a special Surprise Day appearance on episode 28 of The New Mickey Mouse Club. Cubby is featured on the drums and Darlene sings “Silver Threads and Golden Needles.” The new Mouseketeers join the original “Mice” in the production number “Sing and Dance.”
1991 – Superboy:“Werewolf” aired on CBS with John Newton playing the lead role of Superboy/Clark Kent. Superboy faces one of his most dangerous foes yet in “Werewolf.”
1993 – Batman: The Animated Series – Day of the Samurai aired on FOX. Batman visits one of his teachers to help fight Kyodai Ken who has learned the secret of a death touch attack.
1998 – 101 Dalmatians: The Series “Dog Food Day Afternoon” and “Spot’s Fairy God-Chicken” aired on ABC.
https://youtu.be/_ySH3lYJInk
https://youtu.be/WXvHs1620Po
2001 – Disney Channel airs the Lizzie McGuire episode “Jack of All Trade” for the first time
OTHER IMPORTANT EVENTS...
1939 – Walt Disney receives a special Oscar for his classic 83-minute animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, at the 11th Academy Awards held at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Eleven-year-old child star Shirley Temple presents Walt with one statuette and seven miniature statuettes for “a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon.”
“I am sure the boys and girls in the whole world are going to be very happy when they find out that the daddy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Mickey Mouse, Ferdinand, and all the others is going to get this beautiful statue!” – Shirley Temple
1959 – Academy Award nominations are announced with Disney receiving 5. Winners were announced April 6:
White Wilderness – Documentary, Features
White Wilderness – Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
Paul Bunyan – Short Subjects, Cartoons
Grand Canyon – Short Subjects, Live-Action Subjects
Ama Girls – Documentary, Short Subjects
1972 – After nearly five years of marriage, Priscilla Presley moved out of Elvis Presley’s California home and into a two bedroom apartment near the Pacific Ocean. Their divorce would be finalized on October 9, 1973, with Priscilla being awarded an outright cash payment of $725,000 as well as spousal support, child support, 5% of Elvis’ new publishing companies and half the income from the sale of their Beverly Hills home.
1988 – Michael Jackson played the first of two nights at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. The first shows on the second leg of his Bad World Tour.
1994 – The ground breaking ceremony for the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas occurred.
1998 – All members of Oasis were banned for life from flying Cathay Pacific Airlines after “abusive and disgusting behavior” during a flight from Hong Kong to Perth, Australia.
1999 – Oasis guitarist Paul Arthurs was arrested and jailed overnight for being drunk and disorderly. Police found the guitarist outside a Tommy Hilfiger store in London.
2000 – Santana received a record-tying eight Grammy Awards, tying the mark set by Michael Jackson.
2000 – In today’s episode of Dangerous Inmates Run Rap Music, Sean “Puffy” Combs was indicted on charges of bribing a witness. In Combs’ trial for a nightclub shooting in New York City on December 27, 1999, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office learned that Combs offered money and jewelry to his driver if the driver would claim ownership of the gun that police recovered from Combs’ car.
2000 – British rocker Phil Collins wins a Grammy for his work on Disney’s Tarzan soundtrack. Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture or for Television is awarded to A Bug’s Life, composed by Randy Newman.
2001 – Mardi Gras at Downtown Disney Pleasure Island begins today in Florida. (It will run through the 27th).
2002 – LeAnn Rimes, 19, married dancer Dean Sheremet, 21.
2002 – The Bee Gees gave their last concert at the Love and Hope Ball in Miami Beach, Florida.
2002 – As part of Walt Disney’s 100th birthday celebration, The Disney Gallery (located in New Orleans Square in Disneyland) opens its doors to reveal a special art exhibit featuring 100 images of Mickey Mouse created by former Disney Imagineer Eric Robison. The exhibit will remain on display through September 8th.
2002 – At Walt Disney World, one of the park’s longest running shows, Legend of the Lion King, has its final curtain call after more than 75,000 performances. (A new 20-minute 3-D film called Mickey’s PhilharMagic will replace it.)
2003 – At the 45th Grammy Awards (held in New York City) “If I Didn’t Have You” – from Disney’s Monster, Inc. written by Randy Newman – wins Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media. Also Monsters, Inc. – Scream Factory Favorites (by Riders in the Sky) wins for Best Musical Album for Children.
2003 – Norah Jones cleaned up at the 45th Grammy Awards, held at Madison Square Garden, New York. The singer, songwriter won, Album of the year and Record of the year, with ‘Don’t Know Why.’ Song of the year, Best new artist and Best female pop vocal for ‘Don’t Know Why’.
ANSWER
Peter Fonda