Calendar: June 5

A Year: Day to Day Men: 5th of June

La Pièce de Résistance

June 5, 1895 was the birthdate of American film actor William Boyd.

William Boyd’s breakout role was Jack Moreland in Cedil B DeMille’s silent 1925 “The Road to Yesterday”, Boyd’s performance in the film was praised by critics, while movie-goers were equally impressed by his easy charm, charisma, and intense good-looks. Due to Boyd’s growing popularity, DeMille soon cast him as the leading man in the highly acclaimed silent drama film, “The Volga Boatman”.

Boyd’s role in that film firmly established him as a matinee idol and romantic leading man; he began earning an annual salary of $100,000. He acted in DeMille’s big lavish production “The King of Kings” and later in the 1928 DeMille production “Skyscraper” playing the lead role of Blondy. In 1931 his picture was mistakenly run in a newspaper story about the arrest of another actor, William “Stage” Boyd, on gambling charges. This story damaged his career, despite having been shown false; and Boyd became virtually bankrupt.

In 1935 William Boyd was offered the supporting role of Red Conners in the movie “Hop-Along Cassidy”. He asked for the title role and won it. The original role of tlhe Hop-Along Cassidy character, written by Clarence E. Mulford for pulp magazine serials, was changed from a hard-drinking, rough-living red-headed wrangler to a cowboy hero who did not smoke, swear, or drink alcohol and who always let the bad guy start the fight. Although Boyd never lived in real life as a cowboy and disliked Western music, he became indlibly associated with the Hop-Along character and, like the cowboy stars Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, gained lasting fame in the Western film genre.

The films were more polished and impressive than the usual low-budget “program westerns”. The Hop-Along Cassidy adventures usually boasted superior outdoor photography of scenic locations and name supporting players familiar from major Hollywood films. Big-city theaters, which usually wouldn’t play Westerns, noticed the high quality of the productions and gave the series more exposure than other cowboy films could hope for.

The series of films ended in 1948 as interest in the character waned and fewer theaters were showing the films. William Boyd bought all the rights to all the Hop-Along Cassidy movies, mortgaging almost everything he owned to meet the price of $350,000 for the rights and the film backlog. He offered a print to a local NBC television station; it was so well received Boyd released the entire library to the national network, beginning the long-running genre of Westerns on television. Boyd’s gamble paid off, making him the first national TV star and restoring his personal fortune.

William Boyd estimated in 1940 (after only 5 years of the thirteen-year role) that he had starred in 28 outdoor films in which he fired 30,000 shots and killed at least 100 villians. He wore out 12 costumes and 60 ten-gallon hats, rode his horse Topper more than 2000 miles and rode herd on 5000 head of cattle. A score or more of heroines had been saved, but were never kissed.

Calendar: June 4

A Year: Day to Day Men: 4th of June

Modern Man in the Ancient Wood

On June 4, 1783, a hot-air balloon was demonstrated by Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier.

The Montgolfier brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne were born into a family of paper manufacturers founded in 1534 in Annonay, France. Of the two brothers, it was Joseph who was first interested in aeronautics: as early as 1775 he was building and experimenting with parachutes. He first contemplated building machines when he observed laundry drying over a fire incidentally form pockets that billowed upwards.

While living in Avignon in November of 1782 he made his first definitive experiments. Joseph Montgolfier built a box-like chamber out of very thin wood, and covering the sides and top with lightweight taffeta cloth. He crumpled and lit some paper under the bottom of the box. The contraption quickly lifted off its stand and collided with the ceiling.

Joseph recruited his brother Jacques to balloon building. They built a similar device, however scaled up to three times the dimensions of the original, making it 27 times greater in volume. They did their first test flight on December 14, 1782, lighting wool and hay underneath. The lifting power was so great, that they lost control of the craft. The device floated nearly two kilometers and was destroyed, after landing, by a passerby.

To make a public demonstration and to claim its invention the brothers constructed a globe-shaped balloon of sackcloth tightened with three thin layers of paper inside. The envelope could contain nearly 28,000 cubic feet of air and weighed 500 pounds. It was constructed of four pieces (the dome and three lateral bands) and held together by 1,800 buttons. A reinforcing fish net of cord covered the outside of the envelope.

The Montgolfier brothers flew the balloon at Annonay on June 4, 1783 in front of a group of dignitaries. The flight covered 2 km (1.2 mi), lasted 10 minutes, and had an estimated altitude of 5,200-6,600 feet. Word of their success quickly reached Paris. Étienne went to the capital to make further demonstrations and to solidify the brothers’ claim to the invention of flight.

On September 19, 1783, the Montgolfiers’ new balloon Aerostat Revelillon was flown with the first living beings in a basket attached to the balloon: a sheep called Montauciel, a duck and a rooster. The flight covered two miles at an altitude of 1500 feet and lasted eight minutes: it landed safely with all aboard surviving. Since the animals survived, King Louis XVI, who had witnessed the flight, allowed flights to proceed with human passengers.

Calendar: June 3

A Year: Day to Day Men: 3rd of June

Firmness of Purpose

On June 3, 1839, Governor-General Lin Tse-hsu destroyed 1.2 million kilograms of opium confiscated from British merchants.

Lin Tse-hsu, or Lin Zexu, was a Chinese scholar and official of the Qing Dynasty of China. In 1811, he obtained the position of a jinshi with a degree in Literature in the imperial examination, and in the same year gained admission to the Hanlin Academy founded by Emperor Xuanzong. He rose rapidly through the various grades of provincial service, opposed the opening of China to foreigners, and became Governor-General of the provinces of Hunan and Hubei in 1937.

In March 1839, Lin arrived in Guangdong Province to take measures that would eliminate the opium trade. He was a formidable bureaucrat known for his competence and high moral standards, with an imperial commission from the Daoguang Emperor to halt the illegal importation of opium by the British. Upon arrival, he made changes within a matter of months. He arrested more than 1,700 Chinese opium dealers and confiscated over 70,000 opium pipes. He initially attempted to get foreign companies to forfeit their opium stores in exchange for tea, but this ultimately failed.

Lin resorted to using force in the western merchants’ enclave. A month and a half later, the merchants gave up nearly 1.2 million kilograms (2.6 million pounds) of opium. Beginning on the 3rd of June, 1839, five hundred workers labored for 23 days to destroy it, mixing the opium with lime and salt and throwing it into the sea outside of Humen Town on the Pearl River Delta. Lin composed an elegy apologizing to the gods of the sea for polluting their realm.

In 1839, Lin also wrote an extraordinary memorial to Queen Victoria in the form of an open letter published in Canton, urging her to end the opium trade. He argued that China was providing Britain with valuable commodities such as tea, porcelain, spices and silk, with Britain sending only “poison” in return. Lin appears to have been unaware that opium was not banned in the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, and was commonly used for its medicinal rather than recreational effects. The letter to the Queen never reached her.

Neither Lin nor the Daoguang Emperor appreciated the depth or changed nature of the problem. They did not see the change in international trade structures, the commitment of the British government to protecting the interests of private traders, and the peril to British traders who would surrender their opium.

Open hostilities between China and Britain started in 1839 in what later would be called the the First Opium War. The immediate effect was that both sides banned all trade. A series of military and naval engagements were fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice in China, ending in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking.

Calendar: June 2

A Year: Day to Day Men: 2nd of June

Truly Blessed

June 2, 1904 was the birthdate of the competition swimmer and actor, Johnny Weissmuller.

Johann Weissmuller was an ethnic German, the elder son of Peter and Elisabeth Weissmuller, immigrants who entered the United States through Ellis Island in New York. At the age of nine, young ‘Johnny’ Weissmuller contracted polio. At the suggestion of his doctor, he took up swimming and eventually earned a spot on the YMCA swim team. As a teen, while working at the Illinois Athletic Club, Weissmuller began training under swim coach William Bachrach. In August 1921, he won the national championships in the 50-yard and 220-yard distances.

Although foreign-born, Weissmuller gave his birthplace as Tanneryville, Pennsylvania, and his birth date as that of his younger brother, Peter Weissmuller. This was to ensure his eligibility to compete as part of the United States Olympic team, and was a critical issue in being issued a United States passport. On July 9, 1922, Weissmuller broke the world record in the 100-meter freestyle. He won the title for that distance at the 1924 Summer Olympics, beating the current champion, Duke Kahanamoku, for the gold record.

Johnny Weissmuller, in his life’s swimming competitions, won five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal, fifty-two United States national championships, and set sixty-seven world records. He was the first man to swim the 100-meter freestyle under one minute and the 440-yard freestyle under five minutes. Weissmuller never lost a race and retired with an unbeaten amateur record.

Weissmuller’s acting career began when he signed a seven-year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In his first film, he played the role of Tarzan in the 1932 “Tarzan the Ape Man”. The movie was a huge success and Weissmuller became an overnight international sensation. The author of “Tarzan”, Edgar Rice Burroughs, was pleased with Weissmuller as his book’s hero, although Burroughs hated the studio’s depiction of a Tarzan who barely spoke English. Weissmuller starred in six Tarzan movies for MGM with actress Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane and Cheeta the Chimpanzee. The last three also included Johnny Sheffield as Boy.

In 1942, Weissmuller went to RKO and starred in six more Tarzan movies with markedly reduced production values. Sheffield also appeared as Boy in the first five features for RKO. Brenda Joyce took over the role of Jane in Weissmuller’s last four Tarzan movies. In a total of 12 Tarzan films, Weissmuller earned an estimated two-million dollars and established himself as what many movie historians consider the definitive Tarzan. Although not the first Tarzan in movies, Weissmuller was the first to be associated with the now traditional ululating, yodeling Tarzan yell.

Top Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Johnny Weissmuller”, 1934, Gelatin Silver Print

Bottom Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Johnny Weissmuller”, circa 1930, Gelatin Silver Print

Calendar: June 1

A Year: Day to Day Men: 1st of June

Jumping Rope

June 1, 1890 was the birthdate of the American character actor, Frank Morgan.

Frank Morgan was an American character actor whose career spanned four decades, most of it under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He was born in New York City, the youngest of eleven children. His family earned its wealth h distributing Angostura bitters, allowing him to attend Cornell University. Both Frank and his brother Ralph Morgan went into show business, first on the Broadway stage and later into motion pictures.

After Morgan’s film debut in the 1916 “The Suspect”, he provided support to his friend John Barrymore in the 1917 “Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman”, an independent film produced in and about New York City. Morgan’s career expanded when talkies began, his most stereotypical role being that of a befuddled but good hearted middle-aged man. By the mid-1930s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, impressed by his performances, signed him to a lifetime contract.

Morgan’s best remembered film performances, playing six roles, are in the 1939 “The Wizard of Oz”: as the carnival huckster “Professor Marvel”, the gatekeeper at the Emerald City, the coachman of the carriage drawn by “The Horse of a Different Color”, the guard who initially refuses to let Dorothy and her friends in to see the Wizard, the Wizard’s scary face projection, and the Wizard himself. Morgan was cast in the role on September 22, 1938, after the studio tired of negotiating the salary of W.C. Field for his possible participation in the role.

An actor with a wide range, Morgan was equally effective playing comical, befuddled men such as Jesse Kiffmeyer in the 1937 “Saratoga” and Mr. Ferris in 1944’s “Casanova Brown”, as he was with more serious, troubled characters like Hugo Matuschek in “The Shop Around the Corner” and Professor Roth in “The Mortal Storm” released in 1940. A musical-comedy film centering on Frank Morgan was released by MGM in 1946 entitled “The Great Morgan”. The film is a compilation of unrelated short subjects and musical numbers built around the premise of Morgan trying to produce a movie.

Morgan died of a heart attack on September 18, 1949, while filming “Annie Get Your Gun”. He was replaced in the film by Louis Calhern. His death came before the 1956 premiere televised broadcast on CBS of “The Wizard of Oz”, which would make him the only major cast member from the film who would not live to see the film’s revived popularity and its becoming an annual American television institution.

Frank Morgan was nominated twice for Academy Awards: Best Actor for his role in the 1934 “The Affairs of Cellini” and Best Supporting Actor fo “Tortilla Flat” released in 1942. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for his work in radio and one for motion pictures. Both were dedicated in 1960.

Calendar: May 31

A Year: Day to Day Men: 31st of May

Curvature of Nature

Ramesses II assumed the throne on III Shemu day 27 (May 31, 1279 BC), becoming the third Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty of Egypt.

Ramesses II is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated and the most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. The Greek sources knew him as Ozymandias from the transliteration into Greek of a part of his throne name Usermaatre Setepenre, “The justice of Rê is powerful- chosen of Rê”.

Ramesses II led several military expeditions into historical Syria, reasserting control over Canaan, the area of Phoenicia, Philistia, and Israel. He also led expeditions into the south to restore possession of previously held territories that had been lost to the Nubians and Hittites. The Egyptian army during his reign was formidable, estimated to have totaled about one hundred thousand men- a force he used to strengthen Egyptian influence.

After reigning for 30 years, Ramesses II joined a select group that included only a handful of Egypt’s longest-lived rulers. By tradition, in the 30th year of his reign, Ramesses celebrated a jubilee called the Sed Festival. These were held to honor and rejuvenate the pharaoh’s strength. Only halfway through what would be a 66-year reign, Ramesses already had eclipsed all but a few of his greatest predecessors in his achievements. He had brought peace, maintained Egyptian borders, and built great and numerous monuments across the empire. Ramesses’ kingdom was more prosperous and powerful than it had been in nearly a century.

Ramesses built extensively throughout Egypt and Nubia, and his cartouches are prominently displayed even in buildings that he did not construct. There are accounts of his honor hewn on stone, statues, and the remains of palaces and temples—most notably the Ramesseum in western Thebes and the rock temples of Abu Simbel. Ramesses covered the land from the Nile Delta to Nubia with buildings in a way no monarch before him had. He also founded a new capital city in the Delta during his reign, called P-Ramesses.

By the time of his death, Ramesses, now near ninety years of age, was suffering and plagued by arthritis and hardening of the arteries. He had outlived many of his wives and children and left great memorials all over Egypt. Nine future Egyptian pharaohs took the name Ramesses in his honor.

Ramesses II originally was buried in the tomb KV7 in the Valley of the Kings, but because of looting, priests later transferred the body to a holding area, re-wrapped it, and placed it inside the tomb of queen Inhapy. Seventy-two hours later it was again moved, to the tomb of the high priest Pinudjem II. All of this is recorded in hieroglyphics on the linen covering his body. Ramesses’ mummified body is today in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum.

Top Insert Image: Ramesses II Burning Incense and Pouring Water, 19th Dynasty, Frescoe Painting, Valley of the Kings, Thebes, Egypt

Bottom Insert Image: Ramesses II (Ramessess the Great), 19th Dynasty, Pink/Gray Granite, One of a Pair, Ramesseum, Thebes, Luxor West Bank, Egypt, British Museum

Calendar: May 30

A Year: Day to Day Men: 30th of May

Sitting in a Field of White Cotton

May 30, 1896 was the birthdate of American film director, producer and screenwriter Howard Hawks.

By the end of April in 1917 Howard Hawks was working on De Mille’s “The Little American” and later on on the Mary Pickford film “The Little Princess” directed by Marshall Neilan. Hawks began directing at age 21 after he and cinematographer Charles Rosher filmed a double exposure dream sequence with Mary Pickford. He worked with Pickford and Neilan again on another film before joining the United States Army Air Service. After the war he returned again to Hollywood.

Hawks first major film was the 1926 “Road to Glory”, the story of a young woman going blind and trying to spare her loved ones of the burden of her illness. Ir was filmed in two months and premiered in April of 1926, It received good reviews from critics but Hawks was dissatisfied with the film. Immediately after completing the film, he began writing his next film, his first comedy “Fig Leaves”. It was released in July of 1926 and was Hawks’ first hit as a director.

In March 1927, Howard Hawks signed a one-year, three-picture contract with 20th Century Fox and mad “A Girl in Every Port” in 1928. This film is considered by film scholars to be the most important film of Hawks’ silent career. It is the first of his films to utilize many of the distinctive themes and characters that would define much of his subsequent work.”A Girl in Every Port” was his first “love story between two men,” within which two men bonded over their duty, skills and careers and, as a result, considered their friendship to be more important than their relationships with women. Hawks wrote the original story and developed the screenplay with James Kevin McGuinness and Seton Miller. The film was released in February 1928, successful in the US, and a hit in Europe.

Over his career Howard Hawks directed and produced many important films in a wide variety of genres. He was a versatile director, whose career included comedies, dramas, gangster films, science fiction, film noir and westerns. His most popular films include” the 1932 “Scarface”, “Binging Up Baby” with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, the 1940 “His Girl Friday”, “The Big Sleep” with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, the western “Red River” starring Montgomery Clift and John Wayne, the sci-fi classic “The Thing from Another World”, and the 1959 “Rio Bravo” with John Wayne and Dean Martin.

Howard Hawks popularized a particular female archetype in his films; women were portrayed as strong, less effeminate characters. Such an emphasis had never been done in the 1920s and therefore was seen to be a rarity. Hawks’ directorial style and the use of natural, conversational dialogue in his films are cited as major influences on many noted filmmakers, including Robert Altman, John Carpenter, and Quenton Tarantino. Howard Hawks received his only Oscar in 1975 as an Honorary Award from the Academy.

Calendar: May 29

A Year: Day to Day Men: 29th of May

Friend to Man

May 29, 1453 marks the end of the Byzantine Empire with the fall of the city of Constantinople.

The Byzantine empire was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East lasting into the Middle Ages. The capital of this empire was Constantinople, the site of ancient Byzantium. It survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe.

The borders of the empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Emperor Maurice from 582-602 AD, the Empire’s eastern frontier was expanded and the north stabilized. However, his assassination caused the Byzantine-Sasanian War, which lasted from 602 to 628 AD, exhausted the empire’s resources, and contributed to major territorial losses during the seventh century. In a matter of years the empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs.

The empire recovered again during the reigns of the Komnenian family; by the 12th century, Constantinople had become the largest and wealthiest European city. However, the city was delivered a mortal blow during the Fourth Christian Crusade. During this crusade, Constantinople was sacked in 1204 and the territories that the empire formerly governed were divided into competing Byzantine Greek and Latin realms. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small rival states in the area. For the final two centuries of its existence, the empire’s remaining territories were progressively annexed by the Ottomans.

The capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the invading Ottoman army occurred on May 29, 1453. The attackers were commanded by the then 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II, who defeated an army commanded by Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos and took control of the imperial capital, ending the seige of the city. After conquering the city, Sultan Mehmed transferred the capital of his Empire from Edime to Constantinople, and established his court there. The Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque, the Greek Orthodox Church was allowed to remain intact, and Gennadius Scholarius was appointed the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The fall of Constantinople was a watershed moment in military history. The substantial fortifications of ramparts and city walls of the city had been a model followed by other cities throughout the Mediterranean region and Europe. The Ottomans ultimately prevailed due to the use of gunpowder which fueled their cannons.

Calendar: May 28

A Year: Day to Day Men: 28th of May

A Small White Space

The musical film “On with the Show!” by Warner Brothers Studio was released on May 28, 1929.

Filmed in Two-strip Technicolor, “On with the Show!” is noted as the first all-talking, all-color feature length movie. Warner Brothers promoted the film as being in “natural color”. This would be the first of a series of contracted films by Warner Brothers to be made in the Technicolor process. The film generated much interest in Hollywood; and other studios began shooting films in the process. The film, though a success, was eclipsed by the success of their next color film “Gold Diggers of Broadway”.

“On with the Show!” was a combination of a backstage musical using the ‘show within a show” format, a comedy and a mystery. The story and dialogue were written by Robert Lord with the music and lyrics by Harry Akst. William Bakewell was in the role of the head usher eager to get his sweetheart played by Sally O’Neil. Betty Compson played the temperamental star and the whiny young male star of the show was Arthur Lake. The vaudeville actor Joe E. Brown had a role as a comedian in the show; through this role his career shot to stardom status.

The film was a box office hit, with a worldwide gross of over two million dollars. Reviews from critics were mixed. Many thought the length was too long and the story was bad; however, most were impressed with the color process. Josh Mosher, the first regularly assigned film critic of the New Yorker magazine, wrote that the film was “completely undistinguished for wit, charm, or novelty, except that it is done in color. Possibly in the millennium all movies will be colored. In these early days of the art, however, not much can be said for it, except that it is not really distressing.”

The original color print of “On with the Show!” is lost, a fate of many of the early films printed on a nitrate film base. Only black and white prints of the film have survived. A 20 second fragment of an original color print surfaced in 2005; it was found in a toy projector. Other original color fragments have been discovered in 2014. The Library of Congress has long held a copy of the black and white version in its collection.

Calendar: May 27

A Year: Day to Day Men: 27th of May

The Path of Roses

May 27, 1922 is the was the birthdate of the English actor Sir Christopher Lee.

Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains.

After attending Wellington College from age 14 to 17, Lee worked as an office clerk in a couple of London shipping companies until 1941 when he enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Following his release from military service, Lee joined the Rank Organization in 1947, training as an actor and playing a number of bit parts in such films as the 1948 “Corridor of Mirrors”. He also made a brief appearance in the Laurence Olivier’s 1948 film “Hamlet”.

Lee had numerous parts in film and television throughout the 1950s. However, playing the monster in the 1957 Hammer film “The Curse of Frankenstein” proved to be a blessing in disguise, since the film was successful. It led to him being signed on for many future roles in Hammer Film Productions. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing often than not played contrasting roles in Hammer films, where Cushing was the protagonist and Lee the villain, whether it be Van Helsing and Dracula respectively in “Horror of Dracula”, or John Banning and Kharis the Mummy respectively in “The Mummy”.

Lee continued his role as “Dracula” in a number of Hammer sequels throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s. During this time, he co-starred in the Sherlock Holmes film “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. Lee also made numerous appearances as Fu Manchu, most notably in the first of the series “The Face of Fu Manchu”. By the mid-1970s, Lee was tiring of his horror image and tried to widen his appeal by participating in several mainstream films, such as; “The Three Musketeers” in 1973 and the 1974 James Bond film “The Man with the Golden Gun”.

The success of these films prompted him in the late 1970s to move to Hollywood, where he remained a busy actor but made mostly unremarkable film and television appearances, and eventually moved back to England. The beginning of the new millennium relaunched his career to some degree, during which he has played Count Dooku in two Star Wars movies (2002 and 2005). He also had the role of Saruman the White in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

On June 16, 2001, Christopher Lee was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to drama. He was created a Knight Bachelor on June 13, 2009 in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List for his services to drama and charity. Lee died at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital on June 7, 2015 at 8:30 am after being admitted for respiratory problems and heart failure, shortly after celebrating his 93rd birthday there.

Calendar: May 26

A Year: Day to Day Men: 26th of May

Early Summer on the Deck

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the eighth studio album by the Beatles, is released in the United Kingdom on May 26, 1967.

In August of 1966, the Beatles permanently retired from touring and began a three month individual holiday. During a return flight to London in November from a Kenya holiday with tour manager Mal Evans, Paul McCartney had an idea for a song that eventually formed the impetus of the “Sgt. Pepper” concept. His idea involved an Edwardian military band, for which Evans invented a name in the style of contemporary San Francisco-based groups.

In February of 1967, after recording the title track “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, McCartney suggested releasing an entire album representing a performance by the fictional Sgt. Peppers band. This alter-ego group would give them the freedom to experiment musically. During the recording sessions, the band furthered the technological progression they had made with their 1966 album “Revolver”. Knowing they would not have to perform the tracks live, they adopted an experimental approach to composition and recording on songs such as “With a Little Help from My Friends” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.

Producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick helped realize the group’s ideas by approaching the studio as an instrument, applying overdubs of an orchestra, sound effects and other methods of tape manipulation. Recording was completed on 21 April 1967. The cover, depicting the Beatles posing in front of a tableau of celebrities and historical figures, was designed by the British pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. The album was released in the United Kingdom on May 26 and in the United States on June 2nd of 1967.

“Sgt. Pepper” is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the use of extended format in popular music while continuing the artistic maturation seen on the Beatles’ preceding releases. It is described as one of the first art rock long playing albums, aiding the development of progressive rock, and is credited with marking the beginning of the album era. For several years following the album’s release, straightforward rock and roll was supplanted by a growing interest in extended form, and for the first time in the history of the music industry sales of albums outpaced sales of singles.

With certified sales of 5.1 million copies, “Sgt. Pepper’ is the third best-selling album in the United Kingdoms’s chart history. In the United States, the Record Industry Association of America in 1997 certified 11 million album sales, making it one of the most commercially successful albums in the United States.

Calendar: May 25

A Year: Day to Day Men: 25th of May

Afternoon in the Bayou

May 25, 1969 was the release date for the film “Midnight Cowboy”.

“Midnight Cowboy” is a drama film based on the 1965 novel by James Leo Herlihy with the screenplay written by Waldo Salt. It was directed by the English film and stage director John Schlesinger and starred Jon Voight as the young Joe Buck alongside Dustin Hoffman playing the con man Enrico Salvatore “Ratso” Rizzo.

Jon Voight was paid “scale”, or the Screen Actor Guild minimum wage, for his portrayal of Joe Buck, a concession he willingly made to obtain the part. The director John Schlesinger was reluctant to hire Dustin Hoffman because Hoffman was associated by the public with the clean-cut image of Benjamin Braddock in “The Graduate”. Schlesinger checked out Hoffman in an Off-Broadway play in which he was performing. He saw Hoffman in a scruffy beard, disheveled clothes and speaking with a Bowery accent; he gave Hoffman the role of Ratso Rizzo.

The famous scene in which Joe and Ratso attempt to walk across the street and almost get hit by a cab was filmed guerilla-style, with a camera in a van across the street. The scene was a difficult shoot, logistically, because those were real pedestrians and there was real traffic. Director Schlesinger also wanted to do it in one shot—he didn’t want to cut the scene. After several attempts, the two actors figured out how to properly time the walk but then almost got run over by a cab. Dustin Hoffman yelled the line ‘I’m walking here’ at the cab meaning, ‘We’re shooting a scene here, and this is the first time we ever got it right.” That improvised, out-of-script, now famous yell remained in the film.

Upon initial review by the Motion Picture Association of America, “Midnight Cowboy” received a “Restricted” (“R”) rating. However, after consulting with a psychologist, executives at the United Artists studio were told to accept an “X” rating, due to the “homosexual frame of reference” and its “possible influence upon youngsters”. The studio refused to edit anything out; so the film was released with an “X” rating. The MPAA later broadened the requirements for the “R” rating to allow more content and raised the age restriction from sixteen to seventeen. The film was later rated “R” for a reissue in 1971. The film today retains its “R” rating.

The film won three Academy Awards in 1970: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was the first gay-related Best Picture winner and the only X-rated film ever to win Best Picture, although such a classification no longer exists. At the British Academy Film Awards it won in six categories: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Leading Actor – Dustin Hoffman, Best New Leading Newcomer – Jon Voight, Best Screenplay and Best Editing.

Calendar: May 24

A Year: Day to Day Men, 24th of May

At the Mountain’s Summit

May 24, 1923 was the birthdate of Japanese filmmaker, actor and screenwriter, Seijun Suzuki.

In 1954, the Nikkatsu Company lured many assistant directors from the other major film studios with the promise of quick promotion. Among these was Seijun Suzuki, who took an assistant directing position there. His first screenplay to be filmed was the 1955 “Rakujitsu no Ketto (Duel at Sunset)” directed by Hiroshi Noguchi. His directorial debut, credited to his real name, Seitarō Suzuki, was “Victory is Mine”, a kayo eiga, or pop song film, part of a subgenre that functioned as a vehicle for hit pop records and singers.

His third film and first yakuza action movie was “Satan’s Town” which linked him inexorably to the genre. The 1958 film “Underworld Beauty” was the first to be credited to his pseudonym Seijun Suzuki. His style increasingly shirked genre conventions, favoring visual excess and visceral excitement over a coherent plot and injecting madcap humor into a normally solemn genre,

Seijun Suzuki’s increasingly surreal style began to draw the ire of the Nikkatsu Company studio in 1963 and culminated in his ultimate dismissal for what is now regarded as his magnum opus, the 1967 “Branded to Kill”, starring notable collaborator Joe Shishido. Suzuki successfully sued the studio for wrongful dismissal, but he was blacklisted for 10 years after that.

He collaborated with producer Genjiro Arato in 1980 and made the first part of what would become his Taishō trilogy, “Zigeunerweisen”, a psychological, period, ghost story, named after a gramophone record of gypsy violin music featured prominently in the film. When exhibitors declined to show the film, Arato screened it himself in an inflatable mobile dome to great success. It won Honorable Mention at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival, was nominated for nine Japanese Academy Awards and won four, including best director and best film, and was voted the number one Japanese film of the 1980s by Japanese critics. He followed the film with “Kagero-za”, made the following year, and completed the trilogy ten years later with “Yumeji”.

His films remained widely unknown outside Japan until a series of theatrical retrospectives beginning in the mid-1980s and tributes by such acclaimed filmmakers as Jim Jarmusch, Takeshi Kitano, Wong Kar-wai and Quentin Taratino signaled his international discovery. Italy hosted the first partial retrospective of his films outside Japan at the 1984 Pesaro International Film Festival. In celebration of 50th anniversary of his directorial debut, the 2006 “Suzuki Seijun 48 Film Challenge” showcased all of his films to date at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Calendar: May 23

A Year: Day to Day Men: 23rd of May

The Paper Airplane

May 23, 1975 marks the death of the American standup comedian Loretta Mary Aiken, known by her stage name Jackie “Moms” Mabley.

Loretta Mary Aiken was born in North Carolina, one of sixteen children. Her father worked as a volunteer fireman, dying in 1909, when a fire engine exploded. Loretta was fifteen years old at that time. Her mother ran a general store but was killed after being run over by a truck on her way home from a Christmas day service at the church. After being raped twice, Loretta, at the encouragement of her grandmother, went to Cleveland, Ohio, and joined a traveling vaudeville minstrel show where she sang and entertained.

Loretta Aiken took her stage name, Jackie Mabley, from an early boyfriend, commenting to Ebony Magazine in 1970 “that he had taken so much from her, it was the least she could do to take his name”. Later she became known as “Moms” because she was indeed a “Mom” to many other comedians on the circuit in the 1950s and 1960s. She came out as a lesbian at the age of twenty-seven, becoming one of the first openly gay comedians. During the 1920s and 1930s she recorded several of her early lesbian standup routines.

Moms Mabley was one of the most successful entertainers of the Chitlin’ circuit, another name for the Theater Owners Booking Association, a segregated organization for which Mabley performed until the organization dissolved during the Great Depression. Despite her popularity, wages for black women in show business were meager; however, she persisted for more than sixty years. At the height of her career, she was earning $10,000 dollars a week at Harlem’s Apollo Theater.

Mabley became know to a wider white audience in the 1960s playing Carnegie Hall in 1962, and making mainstream television appearances. She appeared multiple times on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour when that CBS show was ranked number one on television, introducing her to a whole new audience of younger viewers. Mabley was billed as “The Funniest Woman in the World”. She tackled topics too edgy for most mainstream comics of the time, including racism.

Moms Mabley died from heart failure in White Plains, New York on May 23, 1975 at the age of 81. Her life is the subject of “Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley” a documentary film which first aired on HBO on November 18, 2013. This documentary was nominated for two Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the 66th Emmy Awards ceremony in 2014. Jackie Moms Mabley was named by Equality Forum in 2015 as one of their 31 icons of the 2015 LGBT History Month.

Calendar: May 22

A Year: Day to Day Men: 22nd of May

Bouyancy and Surface Tension

May 22, 1842 marks the discovery of Howe Caverns in New York state by Lester Howe and Henry Wetsel.

The Howe Caverns is a cave system in Schoharie County, New York. Geologists believe the formation of the cave, which lies 156 feet below ground, began several million years ago. The cavern is composed mainly of two types of limestone from different periods in the Earth’s early history, deposited hundreds of millions of years ago when the Atlantic Ocean stretched far inland. The cave is at a constant temperature of 52 degrees Fahrenheit, irrespective of the outside weather.

The Howe Caverns is named after farmer Lester Howe, who discovered the cave on May 22, 1842. Noticing that his cows frequently gathered near some bushes at the bottom of a hill on hot summer days, Howe decided to investigate. Behind the bushes, Howe found a strong, cool breeze emanating from a hole in the Earth. Howe proceeded to dig out and explore the cave with his friend and neighbor, Henry Wetsel, on whose land the cave entrance was located.

The cavern was open eight hours during the day for public tours in 1843. As the site became popular, a hotel was built over the entrance to the cave. From 1890 until the turn of the century, as visitors steadily decreased, a small community of management, quarry workers and their families sprang up in the hamlet now known as Howes Cave. While the Cave House Hotel had a steady business form 1871 to 1890, it eventually became a boarding house and later office space.

The rebirth and successful commercial development of Howe Caverns, as it is known today, between the years 1927-1929, is in large part attributable to two men, John Mosner of Syracuse and Walter H. Sagendorf of Saranac Lake. Mosner, an engineer, proposed the modern engineering developments that would make the cave easily accessible-even comfortable-to the average visitor. Mosner who was impressed by his visit to Howe’s Cave in 1890, believed that with a shaft for elevators sunk at the opposite end of the cave and the addition of electric lighting, Howe’s Cave would become a leading tourist attraction.

Sagendorf provided the organization for the Mosner plan; his brother John owned most of the land on which today’s Visitor Center is located. Howe Caverns, Inc. was organized as a closed stock corporation on October 11, 1927. Work began the next year under difficult conditions. The 156-foot elevator shaft was built at a cost of $1,100 per foot. A work force of well over 50 men constructed the walks and bridges and the above-ground facilities. The much-awaited grand re-opening of Howe’s Cave as Howe Caverns, Inc. took place on May 27, 1929. On the occasion more than 2,000 visitors toured what was once known as “Blowing Rock,” Lester Howe’s great wonder, down under.