Bambi rains down Death from Above! Another reason why Canadians have such a bloodthirsty reputation. WWII Bomber nose art courtesy rcaf.com

You may have noticed recently I listed two days for the first showing of Walt Disney's Bambi. One of of pitfalls of the trivia game is what date to acknowledge. Before the 1980s movies had a Premiere opening at a first run theater, then ran for a month say in three or four theaters in New York, Chicago and LA, then had a second opening in general release, the 400 plus theaters around North America. A European film like Richard Lester's HELP! starring the Beatles, marks the date of a London Premiere, and an America premiere.

With inventions it gets worse: One date for Thomas Edison conceives the idea of the Light Bulb, another for the date he successfully tests it, another for his patent, another for the public announcement of the invention.

And of course, we also have to deal with the discrepancies in the calendar. The Gregorian reform calendar went into use in Italy and Spain 1582, but wasn't accepted in the Protestant countries for a hundred years and not in England until 1750! So all that history trips up historians on the 14 day difference in the two calendars.
Columbus discovered America on Oct 12, 1492, although he thought he did it on October 22nd 1492, Old Style.

So if I get a few dates crossed, please bear with me. Wasting the worlds energy broadcasting inane bits of film trivia is a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
hey, did mention I wrote a book?

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History for 8/14/2006
Birthdays: Steve Martin is 61, Far Side cartoonist Gary Larson, Erwin "Magic" Johnson, Lina Wertmuller, David Crosby, California Banditto Triburcio Vasquez, Alice Ghostly, Buddy Greco, The 20's Parisian nightclub singer known as Bricktop, Mark "The Bird" Fidrych, Film composer James Horner, Wim Wenders, Emmanuele Beart, Halle Berry is 40

1928 - Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur's play" The Front Page," premieres in NYC. They later went on to become top comedy writers in Hollywood. MacArthur is the one who sent Hecht the famous cable from LA. "Hecht, some quick, fortunes to be made and the competition are idiots!- Mac" When MacArthur died he put on his tombstone the epitaph "Over My Dead Body!"

1935- President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the National Social Security Act. Considered the most successful US Federal social program ever, today there is great controversy over it’s financial overhaul. In 1972 young George W. Bush submitted a paper in his business class at Yale. It’s theme was that Social Security was a big commie mistake.

1956- The Marilyn Monroe movie "Bus Stop" premiered.

1965 - Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" hits #1.FYI -their real names? Salvatore Bono and Cheriyn Sarksiian LaPierre.

1965- Jane Fonda married director Roger Vadim, who put the beautiful young blonde in naughty movies like Barbarella. His previous wife Bridgette Bardot was a beautiful young blonde that he put in naughty movies….hmm.