Calendar: March 23

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

Blades of Grass

March 23, 1910 was the birthdate of Japanese film director and screenwriter Akira Kurosawa, regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in cinema history.

Kurosawa entered the Japanese film industry in 1936. After years of working on numerous films as an assistant director and scriptwriter, he made his debut as a director during World War II with the popular action film “Sanshiro Sugata”, known as “Judo Saga”. After the war, the critically acclaimed film “Drunken Angel” made in 1948, in which Kurosawa cast then-unknown actor Toshiro Mifune in a starring role, cemented the director’s reputation as one of the most important young filmmakers in Japan.

His film “Rashomon”, which premiered in Tokyo, became the surprise winner of the Golden Lion Award, the highest prize at the 1952 Venice Film Festival. The film’s multiple conflicting eye-witness testimonies, the sound complexity, and the experimental cinematography combined to produce a classic film. The commercial and critical success of that film opened up Western film markets for the first time to the products of the Japanese film industry, which in turn led to international recognition for other Japanese filmmakers.

Kurosawa directed approximately one film per year throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, including a number of highly regarded (and often adapted) films, such as “Ikuro” in 1952, “Seven Samurai” in 1954, and “Yojimbo” in 1961. After the 1960s he became much less prolific; even so, his later work—including his final two epics, “Kagemusha” in 1980 and “Ran” in 1985—continued to win awards, though more often abroad than in Japan. These two epic films, particularly “Ran”, are often considered to be among Kurosawa’s finest works. After the release of “Ran”, Kurosawa would point to it as his best film, a major change of attitude for the director who, when asked which of his works was his best, had always previously answered “my next one”.

Akira Kurosawa wrote the original screenplays “The Sea is Watching” in 1993 and “After the Rain” in 1995. While putting finishing touches on the latter work in 1995, Kurosawa slipped and broke the base of his spine. Following the accident, he would use a wheelchair for the rest of his life, putting an end to any hopes of him directing another film. After his accident, Kurosawa’s health began to deteriorate. While his mind remained sharp and lively, his body was giving up, and for the last half-year of his life, the director was largely confined to bed, listening to music and watching television at home. On September 6, 1998, Kurosawa died of a stroke in Setagaya, Tokyo at the age of 88.

“One thing that distinguishes Akira Kurosawa is that he didn’t make one masterpiece or two masterpieces. He made, you know, eight masterpieces.”- Francis Ford Coppola

“Let me say it simply: Akira Kurosawa was my master, and … the master of so many other filmmakers over the years.”- Martin Scorsese

Calendar: March 22

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

The Fire Fighter

The Emerald Buddha was moved with great ceremony on March 22, 1784 to His current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand.

Phra Kaeo Morakot, the Emerald Buddha, is considered the palladium of the Kingdom of Thailand; an figure of great antiquity on which the safety of Thailand is said to depend. The figure of the meditating Buddha seated in a yogic posture is made of semi-precious jade, clothed in gold and 26 inches tall in His seated position. Historical sources indicate the the figure of the Buddha surfaced in northern Thailand in the Lanna kingdom in 1434.

In 1779, the Thai General Chao Phraya Chakri put down an insurrection, captured Vientiane, the capital of Laos where the Buddha had resided for 214 years, and took the Emerald Buddha to Siam. It was installed in a shrine close to Wat Arun in Thonburi, Siam’s new capital. Chao Phraya Chakri took control of the country and founded the Chakri Dynasty of Rattanakosin Kingdom. He adopted the title ‘Rama I’ and shifted his capital across the Menam Chao Phra River to its present location in Bangkok.

There Rama I constructed the new Grand Palace including Wat Phra Kaew within its compound. Wat Phra Kaew was consecrated in 1784, and the Emerald Buddha was moved with great pomp and pageantry to its current home in the Ubosoth, the holiest prayer room, of the Wat Phra Kaew temple complex on 22 March 1784.

The Emerald Buddha is adorned with three different sets of gold seasonal costume; two were made by King Rama I, one for the summer and one for the rainy season, and a third made by King Rama III for the winter or cool season. The clothes are changed by the King of Thailand, or another member of the royal family in his stead, in a ceremony at the changing of the seasons – in the first waning of lunar months around March, August and November.

King Rama I initiated this ritual for the hot season and the rainy season, Rama III introduced the ritual for the winter season. The robes, which adorn the figure of Buddha, represent those of monks and the King, depending on the season, a clear indication of highlighting its symbolic role “as Buddha and the King”, which role is also enjoined on the Thai King who formally dresses the Emerald Buddha image. The costume change ritual is performed by the Thai king who is the highest master of ceremonies for all Buddhist rituals.

Calendar: March 20

A Year: Day to Day Men: 20th of March

Hot Water with Bubbles

On March 20, 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly” is published as a book.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary and an active abolitionist. Her book featured the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters revolve. Stowe was inspired to write this anti-slavery book by the narrative story of Josiah Henson, a formerly enslaved black man who escaped slavery in Maryland by fleeing to Ontario, Canada. There he helped other fugitive slaves settle and become self-sufficient; and there he wrote his memoirs. In 1853 Stowe acknowledged that Henson’s writings inspired “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.

Because of the story’s popularity when it appeared as a serial in ‘The National Era”, an abolitionist periodical, the publisher John P. Jewett contacted Stowe about turning the serial into a book. Published in book form on March 20, 1852, the novel sold 3000 copies on that day alone, and sold out its complete print run. A number of other editions were soon printed including a deluxe edition in 1853 with illustrations by the artist Hammatt Billings. In the first year of publication, 300,000 copies of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” were sold.

The book was translated into all major languages, and in the United States it became the second best-selling book after the Bible. A number of the early editions carried an introduction by Reverend James Sherman, a Congregational minister in London noted for his abolitionist views. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” sold equally well in Britain, with the first London edition appearing in May 1852 and selling 200,000 copies. In a few years over 1.5 million copies of the book were in circulation in Britain.

In recent years, the negative associations with “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” have, to an extent, overshadowed the historical impact of the book as a vital anti-slavery tool. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, the first widely-read political novel in the United States, was dominated by a single theme: the evil and immorality of slavery. While Stowe weaves other sub-themes throughout her text, such as the moral authority of motherhood and the redeeming possibilities offered by Christianity, she emphasizes the connections between these and the horrors of slavery.

In 1853, Stowe went further in her fight against slavery by publishing “A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in which she criticized how the legal system supported slavery and licensed owners’ mistreatment of slaves. Thus, she put more than slavery on trial; she put the law on trial. This continued an important theme of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”- that the shadow of law brooded over the institution of slavery and allowed owners to mistreat slaves and then avoid punishment for their mistreatment.

Calendar: March 19

A Year: Day to Day Men: 19th of March

White Anchors on Black

March 19, 1928 was the birthdate of Patrick Joseph McGoohan, an American-born Irish actor, writer and director.

In 1959, ITC Entertainment production executive Lew Grade approached Patrick McGoohan about a television series in which he would play a spy named John Drake. Having learned from bad contract experiences in the past, McGoohan insisted on several conditions in the contract before agreeing to appear in the program: all the fistfights should be different, the character would always use his brain before using a gun, and, much to the horror of the executives, no kissing. The series debuted in 1960 as “Danger Man”, a half-hour program geared toward an American audience. Production lasted a year and 39 episodes.

Patrick McGoohan was one of several actors considered for the role of James Bond in the movie “Doctor No” and later for the James Bond role in “Live and Let Die”, but turned both of them down. After he had also turned down the role of Simon Templar in “The Saint”, Lew Grade asked him if he would like to give John Drake another try. The show was resurrected in 1964 as a one-hour program, now known by the name “Secret Agent”. The scripts now allowed McGoohan more range in his acting. The popularity of the series led to McGoohan becoming the highest-paid actor in the UK, and the show lasted almost three more years.

Knowing of McGoohan’s intentions of leaving “Secret Agent”, Grade asked if he would at least work on something for him. McGoohan gave him a run-down of what would later be called a miniseries, about a secret agent who resigns suddenly and wakes up to find himself in a prison disguised as a holiday resort. Grade asked for a budget, McGoohan had one ready, and they made a deal over a handshake early on a Saturday morning to produce “The Prisoner”. Apart from being the star of “The Prisoner” in his role as Number Six, McGoohan was the executive producer, forming Everyman Films with series producer David Tomblin, and also wrote and directed several episodes, in some cases using pseudonyms.

Patrick McGoohan appeared in many films and television series: “Ice Station Zebra” in 1968, “Silver Streak” in 1976, “The Man in the Iron Mask” in 1977, “Escape from Alcatraz” in 1979, and received two Emmy Awards for his performances on the show “Columbo”. His last film role was as the voice of Billy Bones in the animated film, “Treasure Planet”, released in 2002. That same year, he received the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for his show “The Prisoner”.

Calendar: March 15

A Year: Day to Day Men: 15th of March

Flesh Against Teal

On March 15, 1972, the film “The Godfather” has its New York City premiere.

“The Godfather” is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola based on Mario Puzo’s best selling novel of the same name. Published in 1969, it became the best selling published work in history for several years. Paramount Pictures originally found out about Puzo’s novel in 1967 when a literary scout for the company contacted then Paramount Vice President of Production Peter Bart about Puzo’s sixty-page unfinished manuscript. Bart believed the work was “much beyond a Mafia story” and offered Puzo a $12,500 option for the work, with an option for $80,000 if the finished work were made into a film. Despite Puzo’s agent telling him to turn down the offer, Puzo was desperate for money and accepted the deal.

Paramount Pictures wanted the film to be directed by an Italian American to make the film “ethnic to the core”. Sergio Leone was Paramount’s first choice to direct: but Leone turned down the option to work on his own gangster film. Paramount had offered twelve other directors the job with “The Godfather” before Coppola agreed. Coppola agreed to receive $125,000 and six percent of the gross rentals.

Coppola’s request to film on location was observed; approximately 90 percent was shot in New York City and its surrounding suburbs, using over 120 unique locations. Several scenes were filmed at the Filmways Studio in East Harlem. The remaining portions were filmed in California, or on-site in Sicily, except for the scenes set in Las Vegas because there were insufficient funds to travel there. Savoca and Forza d’Argro were the Sicilian towns featured in the film. The opening wedding scene was shot in a Staten Island neighborhood using almost 750 locals as extras.

The world premiere for “The Godfather” took place in New York City on March 15, 1972, almost three months after the planned release date of Christmas Day in 1971, with profits from the premiere donated to The Boys Club of New York. Before the film premiered, the film had already made $15 million from rentals from over 400 theaters. The following day, the film opened in New York at five theaters.

Calendar: March 5

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

The White Stetson

On March 5, 1616, Nicolaus Copernicus’s book “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres” is added to the index of Forbidden Books by the Roman Catholic Church.

“On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres” is the seminal work on the heliocentric (sun-centered) theory of the solar system by the Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. The book, first printed in 1543 in Nuremberg, offered an alternative model of the universe to Ptolemy’s geocentric system (earth-centered), which had been popular since ancient times.

Copernicus argued that the universe comprised eight spheres. The outermost consisted of motionless, fixed stars, with the Sun motionless at the center. The known planets revolved about the Sun, each in its own sphere, in the order: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The Moon, however, revolved in its sphere around the Earth. What appeared to be the daily revolution of the Sun and fixed stars around the Earth was actually the Earth’s daily rotation on its own axis.

Very soon, Copernicus’ theory was attacked with Scripture and with the common Aristotelian proofs. In 1549 Melanchthon, Martin Luther’s principal lieutenant, wrote against Copernicus, pointing to the theory’s apparent conflict with Scripture and advocating that “severe measures” be taken to restrain the impiety of Copernicans. The works of Copernicus and Zúñiga—the latter for asserting that Copernicus’ book was compatible with Catholic faith—were placed on the Index of Forbidden Books by a decree of the Sacred Congregation of March 5, 1616 (more than 70 years after its publication).

Copernicus’ book was not formally banned but merely withdrawn from circulation, pending “corrections” that would clarify the theory’s status as hypothesis. Nine sentences that represented the heliocentric system as certain were to be omitted or changed. After these corrections were prepared and formally approved in 1620 the reading of the book was permitted. But the book was never reprinted with the changes and was available in Catholic jurisdictions only to suitably qualified scholars, by special request. It remained on the Index until 1758, whenPope Benedict XIV (1740–58) removed the uncorrected book from his revised Index.

Calendar: March 4

A Year: Day to Day Men: 4th of March, Solar Year 2018

Warmth of the Light

A preview by invitation of “Nosferatu” premiered on March 4, 1922 in the Marble Hall of the Berlin Zoological Garden.

The studio behind “Nosferatu”, Prana Film, was a short-lived silent-era German film studio founded in 1921 by Enrico Dieckmann and occultist-artist Albin Grau. Although the studio’s intent was to produce occult and supernatural themed films, “Nosferatu” was its only production. It declared bankruptcy in order to dodge copyright infringement suit from Bram Stoker’s widow Florence Balcombe.

Albin Grau had the idea to shoot a vampire film, the inspiration of which had risen from a war experience: in the winter of 1916, a Serbian farmer told him that his father was a vampire and one of the undead. Diekmann and Grau gave Henrik Galeen, a disciple of the German author Hanns Heinz Ewers, the task to write a screenplay inspired by Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula”, despite Prana Film not having obtained the film rights.

For cost reasons, cameraman Fritz Arno Wagner only had one camera available, and therefore there was only one original negative. Murnau, the director, followed Galeen’s screenplay carefully, following handwritten instructions on camera positioning, lighting, and related matters. Nevertheless, the director completely rewrote 12 pages of the script, as Galeen’s text was missing from the director’s working script.

This concerned the last scene of the film, in which Ellen sacrifices herself and the vampire dies in the first rays of the Sun. Murnau prepared carefully; there were sketches that were to correspond exactly to each filmed scene, and he used a metronome to control the pace of the acting.

The film was praised for its visual style; Murnau’s nature shots were praised as “mood-creating elements”. However, the Bram Stoker estate, acting for his widow, won the copyright infringement case against Prana Film Company. The court ordered all existing prints of “Nosferatu” burned, but one purported print of the film had already been distributed around the world. This print was duplicated over the years, kept alive by a cult following of viewers, making it an early example of a cult film. The film is regarded as one of the most foreboding and influential horror films in the history of cinema- a classic.

Calendar: February 28

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

White Drawstring

February 28, 1824 marks the birthdate of Jean-Francois Gravelet, known to many by his stage name Charles Blondin.

In 1829, when he was five years old, a circus troupe performed near his home, and Jean-Francois Gravelet became enthralled by the tightrope walker. It was the first time he had ever seen anyone attempting such stunts. He was so impressed that he felt compelled to try and accomplish the same kind of feats.

Instead of discouraging this rather risky pursuit, Gravelet’s father, who was a gymnast, supported his son’s ambitions. That same year he enrolled his son in the Ecole de Gymase, a school focused on physical education that was located in Lyon, France. Gravelet proved to be quite adept, and after only six months of training he made his amateur performance debut. Billed as “The Little Wonder,” the future Blondin became a popular attraction, as his performances demonstrated surprising skill and originality.

In 1851 he was recruited by an agent for William Niblo, the famed theatrical promoter, to perform with the Ravel Troupe of family acrobats in the United States at Niblo’s Garden. Gravelet then toured America with the troupe that, at one point, performed in New York City, working for P. T. Barnum as part of the world-famous circus impresario’s “Greatest Show on Earth.” During this period, Gravelet assumed his stage name, Charles Blondin.

Charles Blondin toured with the Ravel Troupe for several years. Seeing Niagara Falls for the first time in 1858, he became obsessed with the idea of crossing the gorge on a tightrope. On June 30, 1859, a crowd of 100,000 people witnessed Blondin’s historic feat. For this first attempt, Blondin used a single three-inch hemp cord that was 1,100 feet long and rigged 160 feet above the Falls at one side and 270 feet at the other.

After this first successful crossing, Blondin performed the stunt many times throughout the next year. Each time the crowds grew larger, and he employed different and much more dangerous variations. Once he crossed the Falls while blindfolded. On August 17, 1859, he crossed the Falls while carrying his manager, Harry Colcord, on his back. On September 14, 1860, he traversed the tightrope while walking on stilts. During this period of his career, he became known as “the Prince of Manila,” because the rope he used was made of Manila hemp. In all, Blondin walked across Niagara Falls 17 times.

Calendar: February 27

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

Straw Hat

February 27, 1940, was the general release of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rebecca”.

The film “Rebecca” is a 1940 American romantic psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was Hitchcock’s first American project under contract with David O. Selznick. It was based on the book of the same name by Daphne du Maurier with an adaption by Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan. The film star Laurence Olivier played the aristocratic widower Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine played the young woman who became his second wife.

The film is a gothic tale shot in black and white. Maxim de Winter’s first wife Rebecca, who died before the events of the film, is never seen. Her reputation and recollections of her, however, are a constant presence in the lives of Maxim, the housekeeper Mrs Danvers (Judith Anderson), and especially the new wife, Mrs. de Winter. The young bride’s first name is never mentioned in the film; she is always referred to as Mrs. de Winter.

At the 13th Academy Awards in 1941, “Rebecca” won two awards, ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Cinematography, Black and White’, out of a total 11 nominations. Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson also were Oscar-nominated for their respective roles as were Hitchcock and the screenwriters. It is the only film since 1936 (when awards for actors in supporting roles were first introduced) that, despite winning Best Picture, received no Academy Award for acting, directing or writing.

Selznick insisted that the film be faithful to the novel. According to the book “It’s Only a Movie”, Selznick wanted the smoke from the burning Manderley to spell out a huge “R”. Hitchcock thought the touch lacked subtlety. While Selznick was preoccupied by the production of “Gone with the Wind”, Hitchcock was able to replace the smoky “R” with the burning of a monogrammed négligée case lying atop a bed pillow.

According to Leonard J. Leff’s book “Hitchcock and Selznick”, Selznick took control of the film once Hitchcock had completed filming, reshooting many sequences and re-recording many performances. Some sources say this experience led Hitchcock to edit future pictures “in camera” -shooting only what he wanted to see in the final film, a method of filmmaking that restricts a producer’s power to re-edit the picture.

Calendar: February 24

A Year: Day to Day Men: 24th of February

The Sunken Garden

Jacques de Vaucanson, a French inventor and artist, was born on February 24, 1709.

At just 18 years of age, Jacques de Vaucanson was given his own workshop in Lyon, and a grant from a nobleman to construct a set of machines. Vaucanson decided to make some automata, self-operating machines designed to automatically follow a predetermined sequence of operations. The automata would serve dinner and clear the tables for the visiting politicians. However one government official declared that he thought Vaucanson’s tendencies “profane”, and ordered that his workshop be destroyed.

In 1737, Vaucanson built “The Flute Player”, a life-size figure of a shepherd that played a portable snare drum and the pipe and had a repertoire of twelve songs. The following year, in early 1738, he presented his creation to the Académie des Sciences. Mechanical creatures were somewhat a fad in Europe; but most could be classified as toys. Vaucanson’s creations were recognized as being revolutionary in their mechanical lifelike sophistication.

Later that year, he created two additional automata, “The Tambourine Player” and “The Digesting Duck”, which is considered his masterpiece. The duck had over 400 moving parts in each wing alone, and could flap its wings, drink water, digest grain, and defecate. Although Vaucanson’s duck supposedly demonstrated digestion accurately, his duck actually contained a hidden compartment of “digested food”, so that what the duck defecated was not the same as what it ate. Despite the revolutionary nature of his automata, he is said to have tired quickly of his creations and sold both in 1743.

In 1741 he was appointed by Cardinal Fleury, chief minister of Louis XV, as inspector of the manufacture of silk in France and was charged with undertaking reforms of the silk manufacturing process. In 1745, he created the world’s first completely automated loom. Drawing on the work of Basile Bouchon and Jean Falcon, Vaucanson was trying to automate the French textile industry with punch cards; but his proposals were not well received and largely ignored by the weaving industry. The technology he proposed, as refined by Joseph-Marie Jacquard more than a half century later, would revolutionize weaving and, in the twentieth century, would be used to input data into computers and store information in binary form.

Calendar: February 21

A Year: Day to Day Men: 21st of February

Formation of a Decision

The first International Pancake Race was held on February 21, 1950 in Liberal, Kansas.

A Shrove Tuesday competition began February 21, 1950, between people in Liberal, Kansas, and Olney, Buckinghamshire, England, creating International Pancake Day. Each year the communities hold a 415-yard race to determine the fastest runner who can also flip a pancake.

Commemorated elsewhere as Mardi Gras, Pancake Day, and Carnival, Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, a 40-day fasting period in preparation for Easter. The verb “shrove” is Old English and relates to judgment or penance in preparation of Lent. Observers of Lent traditionally quit eating richer foods with ingredients such as eggs, milk, and sugar.

The Olney, England tradition dates to around 1445. Legend holds that a woman in Olney was making pancakes when the church bells began ringing to announce the service. Carrying her frying pan and wearing an apron, she raced to arrive at church on time. In subsequent years, others in the community joined in the race. The prize was the “Kiss of Peace” from the verger, or bell ringer.

The Liberal/Olney competition began when members of the Liberal Junior Chamber of Commerce learned about the Olney race and proposed a friendly competition with the English community. The contest, which continues today, requires that runners wear a traditional apron and scarf and carry a frying pan in which they toss a pancake at the beginning and ending of the race. The event concludes with presentation of awards and a church service.

A competitor from Liberal, Kansas, has won the 2018 International Pancake Day Race against the top runner from Olney, England. Gaby Covarrubias of Liberal ran the course on Shrove Tuesday with a time of 1:08.85, about 2.5 seconds faster than Olney’s Katie Godof at 1:11.4. It’s Liberal’s first win in the annual contest since 2015; Liberal now leads the all-time series 38-29.

Calender: February 14

A Year: Day to Day Men: 14th of February

Sports Attire

On February 14, 1931, the film “Dracula” directed by Tod Browning is released throughout the United States.

“Dracula”, starring Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula, was produced by Universal Studios and is based on the 1924 stage play “Dracula” written by Hamilton Deane and John L Balderston. The play was based loosely on the novel by Bram Stoker.

Bram Stoker’s novel had already been filmed without permission as “Nosferatu” in 1922 by the German expressionist film maker F.W. Murnau. Bram Stoker’s widow sued for plagiarism and copyright infringement, and the courts decided in her favor, essentially ordering that all prints of “Nosferatu” be destroyed. Enthusiastic young Hollywood producer Carl Laemmie, Jr. also saw the box office potential in Stoker’s gothic chiller, and he legally acquired the novel’s film rights.

Decision on casting the title role proved problematic. Initially, Laemmle was not at all interested in Lugosi, in spite of good reviews for his stage portrayal. Lugosi had played the role on Broadway, and to his good fortune, happened to be in Los Angeles with a touring company of the play when the film was being cast. Against the tide of studio opinion, Lugosi lobbied hard and ultimately won the executives over, thanks in part to him accepting a paltry $500 per week salary for seven weeks of work.

Due to the limitations of adding a musical score to a film’s soundtrack during 1930 and 1931, no score had ever been composed specifically for the film. The music heard during the opening credits, an excerpt from Act II of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, was re-used in 1932 for another Universal horror film, “The Mummy”. During the theatre scene where Dracula meets Dr. Seward, Harker, Mina and Lucy, the end of the overture to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Numberg can also be heard.

Today, “Dracula” is widely regarded as a classic of the era and of its genre. In 2000, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. It was ranked 79th on Bravo’s countdown of The 100 Scariest Movie Moments. To many film lovers and critics alike, Lugosi’s portrayal is widely regarded as the definitive Dracula.

Calendar: February 13

A Year: Day to Day Men: 13th of February

Red Bell Peppers

On February 13, 1961, the Coso artifact is discovered near the town of Olancha, California.

The Coso artifact is an object claimed by its discoverers to be a spark plug found encased in a lump of hard clay or rock. It was found by Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey and Mike Mikesell while they were prospecting for geodes near the town of Olancha. It has been long claimed as an example of an out-of-place artifact. Such an artifact is an object of historical, archaeological, or paleontological interest found in an unusual context, that challenges conventional historical chronology by being “too advanced” for the level of civilization that existed at the time.

Following its collection, Mikesell destroyed a diamond-edged blade cutting through the rock containing the artifact and discovered the item. In a letter written to “Desert Magazine of Outdoor Southwest” a reader stated that a trained geologist had dated the nodule as at least 500,000 years old and it had contained a manmade object. The identity of the alleged trained geologist and means of geologic dating were never clarified, nor the findings ever published in any known periodical.

At the time that Virginia Maxey reported the Coso artifact being dated at 500,000 years old, there was no known method, including the use of guide fossils, by which either the artifact or concretion could have been dated as being this old. The nodule surrounding the spark plug may have accreted in a matter of years or decades, as demonstrated by examples of very similar iron or steel artifact-bearing nodules, which are discussed and illustrated by J. M. Cronyn’s “Elements of Archaeological Conservation”, a reference work for the conservational excavation of materials at sites.

An investigation carried out with the help of members of the Spark Plug Collectors of America, suggested that the artifact is a 1920s Champion spark plug. Chad Windham, President of the Spark Plug Collectors of America, identified the Coso artifact as a 1920s-era Champion spark plug, which was widely used in the Ford Model T and Model A engines. Other spark plug collectors concurred with his assessment.

The location of the Coso artifact is unknown as of 2008. Of its discoverers, Wallace Lane has died, Virginia Maxey is alive but avoids public comment, and the whereabouts of Mike Mikesell are not known.

Calendar: February 6

A Year: Day to Day Men: 6th of February

The Gray Sweatshirt

Ninety five years ago, on February 6, 1921, Charlie Chaplin’s silent film “The Kid” was released around the country.

“The Kid” is an American silent film written, directed, produced by and starring Charlie Chaplin in 1921. Since this film was written and shot during the economic depression of 1920-1921, one can see a very strong influence of the classic lifestyle of a lower class citizen with economic struggles throughout the film. This was Chaplin’s first feature film and was a huge success when it was released, making it the second highest grossing film in 1921.

“The Kid” is a highly meaningful, perhaps philosophical film about fatherhood and childhood. It is almost pure drama and Chaplin shows himself more of a dramatic actor and less of a clown than in any previous film. Laughter springs most often to the situation or pantomime, not rude or playful harlequinades. The scenario is studied and the dramatic situations are dealt with in a realistic style that foreshadowed his previous films. The film lets see how this misery can give a powerful sensitivity to those who suffer. Among these beings hunted and constantly on the defensive, the least little dramas soon take a look, a tone of tragedy.

The film made Jackie Coogan, then a five year old vaudeville performer, into the first major child star of the movies. Many of the Chaplin biographers have attributed the relationship portrayed in the film to have resulted from the death of Chaplin’s firstborn infant son just ten days before the production began.

In December 2011, “The Kid” was chosen to be preserved in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry. The Registry said that the film is “an artful melding of touching drama, social commentary and inventive comedy” and praised Chaplin’s ability to “sustain his artistry beyond the length of his usual short subjects and could deftly elicit a variety of emotions from his audiences by skillfully blending slapstick and pathos.”

Calendar: February 4

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

Breath of Fresh Air

February 4, 1895 was the birth date of William Nigel Ernie Bruce, a British character actor on stage and screen.

Nigel Bruce made his first appearance on stage on May 12, 1920 at the Comedy Theater, a theater in the West End of London, as a footman in the play “Why Marry?”. In October of that year, he went to Canada as stage manager to Henry Esmond and Eva Moore, also playing “Montague Jordan” in “Eliza Comes to Stay”. Upon returning to England, he toured acting the same part. He appeared constantly onstage thereafter, and eight years later started also working in silent films.

Nigel Bruce typically played buffoonish, fuzzy-minded gentlemen. During his film career, he worked on seventy-eight films, including “Treasure Island”, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, ”Rebecca”, and “Suspicion”. He took a role out of character when he played a detestable figure in “The Rains Came”.

Bruce’s signature role was that of Doctor Watson in the 1939-1946 Universal Studios’ Sherlock Holmes film series with close friend Basil Rathbone as Holmes. Bruce starred as Watson in all 14 films of the series and over 200 radio programs of “The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”. Though for most viewers Nigel Bruce formed their vision of Dr. Watson, Holmes purists have long objected that the Watson of the books was intelligent and capable (although not an outstanding detective), and that Bruce’s portrayal made Watson far dimmer and more bumbling than his literary original.

Basil Rathbone, however, spoke highly of Bruce’s portrayal, saying that Watson was one of the screen’s most lovable characters. The historian David Parkinson wrote that Bruce’s “avuncular presence provided the perfect counterbalance to Rathbone’s briskly omniscient sleuth”. Cinema historian Alan Barnes notes that, despite the criticisms against him, Bruce rehabilitated Watson, who had been a marginal figure in the cinematic Holmes canon to that point: “after Bruce, it would be a near-unthinkable heresy to show Holmes without him”.

“Cheer up old fellow, cheer up. As Dr Samuel Johnson once said, “There’s no problem the mind of man can set, that the mind of man can not solve.” — Nigel Bruce as Watson in “Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Code”, 1945 BBC Serial Series