ON THIS DATE

[GDG]

Hey Unca B.  I hope you don't mind if I borrow this thread to wish everyone a happy and blessed Mother's Day.  Thanks to all the moms that pour into so many lives.  What a wonderful illustration here on earth of our heavenly Father's love and care for us.
Blessings,
Gay

[Uncle Buck]

1970 The Carpenters release Close to You


The Carpenters release their second album, Close to You, on this day in 1970. The album became a hit and made stars out of sibling singers Karen and Richard Carpenter, who won the Best New Artist Grammy that year. The duo scored 10 gold records and 12 Top 10 hits during the next decade.

May 15

1981 20,000,000th Bug produced

The 20,000,000th Volkswagen Beetle was produced at the Volkswagen plant in Puebla, Mexico. Volkswagen first came to Mexico in 1954 as part of a museum exhibit entitled "Germany and Its Industry." That same year, 250 Beetles were assembled in Mexico. By 1962, Volkswagen had acquired its first assembly plant in Xalostoc, where the company would eventually assemble 50,000 Beetles. Pleased with the new Latin American marketplace, Volkswagen executives made plans to construct a facility in Puebla, a city an hour south of Mexico City. In 1967, the first Beetle was produced at the Puebla plant. Before closing, the Puebla plant produced more than 1.6 million vehicles.


1918 Nantucket lifts car ban

Nantucket Island voted to lift its controversial 12-year ban on automobiles. First famous as an insular whaling community off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Nantucket Island has become one of the Northeast's most exclusive tourist attractions. The original inhabitants of Nantucket were predictably resistant to the idea of automobiles overrunning their island. While the advent of the motor car didn't spell disaster for the island then, the fears of early residents may yet become a reality. As Nantucket's popularity rises, even the year-long waiting list for the car ferry can't seem to stem the tide of vehicles. The island's tourist board has attempted to institute an affordable and reliable island shuttle, but vacationers in this country want to go wherever their cars will take them. A delicate ecological structure of bogs, tidal thickets, and dune beaches, Nantucket is susceptible to the pollutants and erosion problems brought on by the increasing numbers of vehicles. The new Nantucket "natives," largely seasonal retirees, have pooled their not insignificant resources with the purpose of protecting the island. Others, though, accuse the conservationists of only wanting to conserve an uncrowded escape from their East Coast power perches.

[Uncle Buck]

May 15

1964 The Smothers Brothers debut


Singers and comedians Tom and Dick Smothers make their debut at Carnegie Hall on this day in 1964. The brothers' unique combination of folk music and satiric observations had made them a hit even before they launched their TV show in 1967.

The brothers were born in New York and moved to California, where they graduated from Redondo Union High School and attended San Jose State University. They began appearing in San Francisco nightclubs in 1959, and by 1961 they were guest stars on the popular Jack Paar Show.

In 1965, the first Smothers Brothers Show debuted, a sitcom in which Dick Smothers played a publishing executive plagued by brother Tom, who had been lost at sea but was now an apprentice angel. The show lasted only one season. The brothers fared better with their next show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which debuted in February 1967 and became the most popular show on TV for two years. Tom played an airhead and Dick was his sensible foil--the pair spoofed everything from religion to apple pie on the show. Regular guests included Steve Martin, Sally Struthers, and Nelson Riddle.

In 1969, CBS abruptly cancelled the show after a series of censorship battles. Among other controversial content in the show, network executives objected to the brothers' selection of outspoken, left-wing, and antiwar guests, including Pete Seeger, who sang a Vietnam protest song on the air. The cancellation of the show provoked outrage among free-speech advocates and devoted fans alike.

The brothers made a brief tour of the other networks. In the summer of 1970, The Smothers Summer Show aired on ABC but lasted only a few months. That fall, Tom starred in his own half-hour comedy show, Tom Smothers' Organic Prime Time Space Ride, but the series flopped. In 1975, NBC revived the original show, now called The Smothers Brothers Show, but the brothers' humor had lost its edge, and audience interest waned after the first few episodes. The show lasted only one season.

 

[Uncle Buck]

May 16

1886 Congress nixes dimes

On this day in 1866, Congress dealt a crushing blow to fans of the half-dimes by voting to discontinue use of the small silver coin. However, the disme's defeat resulted in the birth of one of the enduring coins of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The House voted to replace the half-disme with a five-cent piece, which was affectionately dubbed the "nickel." The initial version of the nickel, which featured a shield on the front and a "5" on the back, was plain-faced, but successive runs of the coin were more ornate. In 1913, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing issued the now-coveted "buffalo" nickel, with a buffalo and a bust of a Native American on its respective sides. The current, and even more ornate, incarnation of the coin pays homage to Thomas Jefferson--featuring the third U.S. president's likeness on one side and a rendering of his home, Monticello, on the other

[Uncle Buck]

1990 Jim Henson dies


Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, dies of pneumonia less than 24 hours after being rushed to the hospital.

Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1936 and grew up near Washington, D.C., where his father worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Henson joined a puppet club in high school and used his skills to land a job at a local TV station between high school and college. His homemade puppets tickled audiences, and during his freshman year at the University of Maryland, the TV station gave him his own show, called Sam and Friends. Just five minutes long, the show ran twice a day, just before popular news show the Huntley-Brinkley Report, and again before The Tonight Show with Steve Allen. Henson's program ran for eight years and won a local Emmy in 1958.

Meanwhile, Henson was studying theater and scenic design in college, where he met his future wife, Jane Nebel. She became a fellow puppeteer on Sam and Friends. In 1955, Henson took an old green coat of his mother's, attached two halves of a ping-pong ball for eyes, and created a lizard-like character named Kermit, who later evolved into Kermit the Frog. Other familiar characters took shape on Sam and Friends, as Henson's Muppets (a cross between marionettes and puppets) multiplied. In 1957, Negel and Henson made the first of more than 300 TV commercials for Wilkins Coffee. The Muppets became regular guests on talk shows, and in 1963 Rowlf the Dog became a regular on variety program The Jimmy Dean Show, which ran until 1966.

Henson showed an interest in filmmaking in the mid-1960s, making a short film called Timepiece in 1965, which was nominated for an Oscar. A few years later, he met Joan Ganz Cooney, a TV producer heading up a study of children and television, at a seminar for educators in Boston. Ganz was formulating an idea for a kids' TV program she called The Preschool Educational Television Show, and she quickly persuaded Henson and his Muppets to join her. The show, with its new, snappier title, Sesame Street, launched in 1969, and generations of children fell in love with Big Bird, Kermit the Frog, Ernie and Bert, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Cookie Monster, and many other Henson characters.

After seven years of children's television, Henson wanted to explore more sophisticated possibilities for his Muppets. He shopped around an idea for a variety show starring Kermit and a glamorous porker named Miss Piggy, but none of the networks were interested. Undeterred, Henson created The Muppet Show as a syndicated series; it became the world's most watched TV show, with 235 million viewers in more than 100 countries. The program ran from 1976 to 1981 and won three Emmys. Meanwhile, the Muppets launched a movie career in 1979 with The Muppet Movie, followed by The Great Muppet Caper(1981), and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984).

Other Henson creatures, less familiar than the Muppets, appeared in The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986), as well as in two cable TV series, Fraggle Rock and The Ghost of Faffner Hall. His Saturday morning cartoon, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, launched in 1984 and won four Emmys.

[Uncle Buck]

1899 First speeding ticket issued

Jacob German, operator of a taxicab for the Electric Vehicle Company, became the first driver to be arrested for speeding when he was stopped by Bicycle Roundsman Schueller for driving at the "breakneck" speed of 12mph on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. German was booked and held in jail at the East Twenty-second Street station house. He was, of course, not made to hand over his license and registration, as neither item was required until two years later in the State of New York. It seems fitting that our country's first arrest for reckless driving should be leveled at a New York cabbie.

1927 Spirit of St. Louis departs


At 7:52 a.m., American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, on the world's first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean and the first ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris.

Lindbergh, a daring young airmail pilot, was a dark horse when he entered a competition with a $25,000 payoff to fly nonstop from New York to Paris. He ordered a small monoplane, configured it to his own design, and christened it the Spirit of St. Louis in tribute to his sponsor--the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.

On May 20, 1927, a rainy morning, he took off from Roosevelt Field, but his monoplane was so loaded down with fuel that it barely cleared the telephone wires at the end of the runway. He flew northeast up the East Coast and as night fell left Newfoundland and headed across the North Atlantic. His greatest challenge was staying awake; he had to hold his eyelids open with his fingers and hallucinated ghosts passing through the cockpit. The next afternoon, after flying 3,610 miles in 33 1/2 hours, Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget field in Paris, becoming the first pilot to accomplish the solo, nonstop transatlantic crossing. Lindbergh's achievement made him an international celebrity and won widespread public acceptance of the airplane and commercial aviation.

[Uncle Buck]

May 30

1908 Mel Blanc born


Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and countless other Warner Bros. cartoon characters, is born this day in San Francisco. His parents, who ran a women's clothing business, moved with their son to Portland, Oregon, when Blanc was a child. Blanc began performing as a musician and singer on local radio programs in Portland before he was 20. In the late 1920s, he and his wife, Estelle, created a daily radio show called "Cobwebs and Nuts," which became a hit. Blanc made many other radio appearances and became a regular on Jack Benny's hit radio show, providing the sounds of Benny's ancient car and playing several other characters.

In 1937, Blanc made his debut with Warner Bros., providing the voice for a drunken bull in a short cartoon called "Picador Porky." Another actor provided the pig's voice, but Blanc later replaced him. In 1940, Bugs Bunny debuted in a short called "A Wild Hare." Blanc said he wanted the rabbit to sound tough and streetwise, so he created a comic combination of Bronx and Brooklyn accents. Other characters Blanc created for Warner Bros. included the Road Runner, Sylvester, and Tweety Bird. He performed in some 850 cartoons for Warner Bros. during his 50-year career. For other studios, he provided the voices of Barney Rubble and Dino the dinosaur in The Flintstones, Mr. Spacely for The Jetsons, and Woody Woodpecker's laugh.

In his 1988 autobiography, That's Not All Folks, Blanc described a nearly fatal traffic accident that left him in a coma. Unable to rouse him by using his real name, a doctor finally said, "How are you, Bugs Bunny?" and Mel replied, in Bugs' voice, "Ehh, just fine, doc. How are you?"

Blanc continued to provide voices until the late 1980s, most memorably voicing Daffy Duck dueling with Donald Duck in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988). After Mel Blanc died of complications from heart disease, his son Noel, trained by his father, provided the voices for the characters the elder Blanc had helped bring to life.

 

[Uncle Buck]

June 6

1933 First "drive-in" opens

Richard Hollingshead opened the first drive-in movie theater in Camden, New Jersey. Hollingshead was the sales manager for Whiz Auto Products in Camden when he came up with the idea for the drive-in. He acted on the notion that few Americans at that time would give up the pleasure of going to the movies, had they the chance. In 1933, though, moviegoing wasn't a family event, as few couples felt comfortable bringing their kids to the theater. Going to the movies involved getting dressed up, finding a babysitter, and driving down to a crowded Main Street to look for parking. Hollingshead believed that the drive-in would solve these problems: moviegoers didn't have to park their cars or dress up, and the kids could join their parents. Hollingshead began to experiment in his driveway at home. He mounted a 1928 Kodak film projector on the hood of his car and projected onto a screen he'd nailed to two trees in his backyard. He placed a radio behind the screen for sound. He even ran tests in simulated rainy conditions by running his sprinkler on his car while watching films. He also planned the cars' spacing by using his friends' cars to simulate a crowded theater. By using risers, he found he could afford all cars a view. He went to the patent office on August 6, 1932, and on May 16 he received exclusive rights for his idea with U.S. patent #1,909,537. A Delaware court later overturned the patent in 1950, but not before the inventor got his due. Hollingshead spent $30,000 on his first drive-in on Crescent Boulevard in Camden. The admission price was 25¢ per car and 25¢ per person, with no car paying more than $1.00.