17 August: Life of Brian

On this date in 1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian premièred. 10 facts about the film.

1. Life of Brian was first conceived in Amsterdam, was written in Barbados and filmed in Tunisia. Tunisia had been used not long before as a location for Star Wars and also Franco Zeffirelli’s TV miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth. Conveniently for the Python Team, Zeffirelli’s crew had left behind a load of props and costumes, which could be used again.

2. An idea the Monty Pythons considered was to make Brian the 13th Apostle who would miss all of the critical moments of Jesus' life, like the Last Supper. That they intended to call the film Jesus Christ's Lust For Glory was only a rumour, however, and they stated the intention was never to ridicule Jesus or his teachings. “What He's saying isn't mockable, it's very decent stuff," Eric Idle said.

3. Even so, the film was banned in many countries as blasphemous. Norway banned it for a year before finally allowing it with an 18 certificate and a content warning. Sweden responded by marketing it as "The film that is so funny that it was banned in Norway!" It was 1987 before anyone in Ireland could see it. Frank Hall, the Irish movie censor, said: "offensive to Christians and to Jews as well, because it made them appear a terrible load of gobshites.” The soundtrack album wasn’t banned, however, and become the biggest selling soundtrack album of 1980, which didn’t impress the Catholic Church at all. Some more local bans were enacted as well. Torbay Council, Devon, refused to show this film until September 2008, and in Aberystwyth, Wales, the local ban wasn’t lifted until 2009 when Sue Jones-Davies, who was actually in it, was elected Mayor. Jewish people didn’t like it either. A council of rabbis complained because in one scene, John Cleese was wearing a sacred prayer shawl, and the name of God was taken in vain. In response to various denominations protesting, Cleese joked "We've brought them all together for the first time in 2000 years!"

4. The film almost didn’t get made at all when Bernard Delfont, the head of EMI Films at the time, finally read the script at the last minute, and deciding the film was too controversial to make a profit, withdrew funding. In the end, Beatle George Harrison bankrolled the production, by setting up a film company HandMade Films and stumping up $4 million of his own money. When asked why, he said "Because I want to go see it."

5. John Cleese wanted to cast George Lazenby for the cameo appearance of Jesus, simply because he fancied the idea of the poster saying '...and George Lazenby as Jesus Christ'. That didn’t happen, of course. The actor who took on the role of Jesus was Kenneth Colley, who also played Admiral Piett, an Imperial officer, in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

6. There’s one scene where Brian appears in a window naked, accidentally exposing himself to a crowd below. Since Graham Chapman, who plays him, wasn’t Jewish, and Brian was, Director Terry Jones pointed out this was a definite “costume” flaw. Chapman, therefore, had to use an elastic band on his member to make it look as if he’d been circumcised. Another issue with this scene was the crowd of extras. They hadn’t been told what was going to happen so their reactions would be genuine. However, many of the extras were Muslim women who are banned from looking at naked men they aren’t married to, so at the sight of Chapman’s naughty bits, they screamed and ran away. Chapman recalled, "When I flung open the shutters, half the crowd ran away screaming. That had a profound effect on my psyche."

7. The character Stan, who wants to be a woman, asks to be called “Loretta”, a name which was used as a tribute to Marty Feldman’s wife. Executive producer George Harrison then used the name in the song Get Back, which includes the lyric "Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman/But she was another man."

8. Members of the Monty Python team put their former day jobs to good use during filming. John Cleese used to be a Latin teacher, which came in handy when he was playing a Roman centurion who tries to give Brian a Latin lesson; and Graham Chapman had trained as a doctor, and so doubled as the on set medic.

9. Brian’s scene with the aliens and the UFO caused a few problems, too. The scenes inside the UFO were to be filmed in London, but this was an issue because Graham Chapman at the time was a tax exile who could spend no more than 24 hours in the UK for tax reasons. He had to rush to the set and film his scenes in a hurry before he had to leave the country. The other problem was the black smudge caused by the UFO crashing. Terry Gilliam, production designer, believed the substance used to make the mark would wash off easily. Only it didn’t. This meant members of the crew had to go out at dead of night and paint over it in the hope nobody would notice.

10. The famous song from the film is of course Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, which was intended as a nod to the British “stiff upper lip”. Which British people got on board with easily. For example, during the Falklands War, the HMS Sheffield was struck by a cruise missile and started sinking. The crew gathered on deck and sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life as they waited to be rescued. RAF pilots would also sing it before going on their missions during the First Gulf War.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

13 August: Bert Lahr

Born on this date in 1895 was Bert Lahr, the American actor best known for his role as the Cowardly Lion and the Kansas farmworker Zeke in Wizard of Oz. 10 facts about him.

1. His real name was Irving Lahrheim. His parents were German Jewish immigrants.

2. He left school at 15 to join a juvenile vaudeville act.

3. Lahr was already well-known as a stage and Vaudeville star by the time he was cast as the Cowardly Lion. He’d made his Broadway debut in 1927 in Harry Delmar's Revels, and his first feature film was in Flying High in 1931.

4. He was married twice. His first wife, dancer and comedienne Mercedes Delpino, had mental health problems which resulted in her being permanently hospitalised. Lahr divorced her in the end because she was too ill to function as his wife, and he’d met and fallen for someone else, Mildred Schroeder. The divorce wasn’t straightforward though, and Midlred got tired of waiting and married someone else, although Lahr did win her back in the end, and they married and had three children. This didn’t mean he didn’t still love his first wife, however. When she died, he didn't speak a word for three days.

5. Lahr was a typical archetype of a Clown who performed on stage and made people laugh but was plagued by depression offstage. Lahr's son John would later write that his father was “plagued by morbid worry and moroseness," and that there were no mementoes in their home from his most famous role in Wizard of Oz.

6. He had some interesting hobbies. Aside from a fairly usual fondness for Golf, his other favourite pastimes were Embroidery and Tightrope walking.

7. He also gave serious theatre a go. Having read the script of the play Waiting for Godot and was very impressed by it, but unsure how such a revolutionary play would be received in America. Lahr played Estragon in a production in Florida in 1956, but it bombed. Some of the audience walked out, and critics panned it, although Lahr’s son John would later write that it was the director’s artistic choices that led to the failure of the play.

8. Lahr was a spokesman for Blatz Beer and also appeared in commercials for Lay's Potato Chips, introducing the famous phrase “Betcha can’t eat just one.”

9. When playing the Cowardly Lion, he’d often ad-lib lines on set which often resulted in scenes taking several takes because other members of the cast were laughing so much.

10. Lahr died on December 4, 1967, at the age of 72. He was in the middle of filming The Night They Raided Minsky's, and filming a night scene in December resulted in him catching pneumonia, which was the official cause of death, although he had terminal cancer, which he hadn’t known about when he signed up for the part. His last words were, “Mildred, why aren't my clothes laid out? I've got a seven o'clock call.”

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

6 August: Barbara Windsor

Born this date in 1937 was actress Barbara Windsor. 10 facts about her.

1. She was born in East London as Barbara Ann Deeks, after ice skater Barbara Ann Scott, of whom her parents were fans. Her father was a bus conductor who also ran a fruit and veg stall; her mother was a dressmaker. Her mother’s grandmother came to England from Ireland during the potato famine.

2. Barbara’s parents would eventually divorce and her father totally rejected her to the extent that he would ignore her if they passed in the street. It was his rejection of her which sealed her decision not to have children of her own.

3. At the age of six, she was evacuated to Blackpool during world war 2. Her mother had resisted sending her at first but when one of Barbara's classmates was killed in an air raid she changed her mind. Initially, she was placed with a couple who tried to abuse her, but she screamed and neighbours called the police. She was then placed with a schoolfriend and her parents, although they struggled with her because she was a bit too loud for them. It was they who first sent her to dance school where she was bitten by the showbiz bug.

4. Returning to London, her mother continued sending her to dance, drama and singing lessons, and also elocution lessons. By now, her parents were moving towards divorce and the lessons provided a welcome distraction from troubles at home. Even here, things didn’t always go smoothly. Once, her father showed up at one of the shows in his bus conductor’s uniform which resulted in the other girls making fun of her. Barbara retaliated by throwing theatrical face powder over them and the adult who tried to stop her.

5. She adopted the stage name Windsor in 1953, soon after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Perhaps she knew even then that one day she’d be showbiz royalty! The Royals didn’t seem to hold it against her – several of them later became big fans and she was made a dame by the Queen in 2016.

6. She was in the chorus line of a West End show called Love From Judy at 15 and also appeared as a feral schoolgirl in the 1954 film, The Belles of St Trinian’s.

7. She rose to fame in Carry On films. Her first was Carry On Spying in 1964, is probably best known for a certain scene in Carry On Camping, when her bra flies off during an exercise class. Her favourite Carry On, however, was Carry on Henry VIII. She became great friends with Kenneth Williams, even though he said he was intimidated by her at first, and also had a well publicised affair with another Carry On star, Sid James.

8. She had affairs with a number of other famous people, including Reggie Cray and his older brother Charlie; Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees; actor Victor Mature; singer Anthony Newley; jazz musician Ronnie Scott, and footballer George Best. She was married three times. Her first marriage was to a member of the Kray Twins gang, Ronnie Knight, who fled to Spain after bank robbery charges were filed against him. Her second husband was Stephen Hollings, a chef, 19 years younger than her; and her third was Scott Mitchell, also much younger than she was. She stayed married to him until she died.

9. When EastEnders began in 1985, Barbara wanted to be in it from the start, but the creators declined on the grounds that she was too famous, and it wasn’t a comedy show. Almost a decade later, however, when the production team had changed, she was invited to play Peggy Mitchell, and was a great success. She was one of eight actors from that show to win the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Soap Awards, and was the shortest serving one to do so. Her least favourite storyline was the one where Peggy Mitchell launched a hate campaign against Mark Fowler because he was HIV positive.

10. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2014. She chose not to announce it to the public although in 2018, her husband Scott revealed it. She died on 10 December 2020, aged 83.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

12 June: Cleopatra (the movie)

The most expensive film ever made, Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, opened on this date in 1963. 10 facts you might not know.

1. Its budget was $44 million is equivalent to over $411 million in 2024. This included construction of 79 sets, 26,000 costumes and the $1 million Elizabeth Taylor demanded for her role. Even being the highest grossing film at the box office that year didn’t save Twentieth Century Fox from almost going bankrupt. It took years for the film just to break even. If it wasn’t for The Sound of Music three years later, the studio would have gone under.

2. Elizabeth Taylor's 65 costumes alone cost $194,800, the highest ever for a single-screen actress. These included a dress made from 24-carat Gold cloth.

3. It was supposed to be two three hour films: "Caesar and Cleopatra", followed by "Antony and Cleopatra". Twentieth Century Fox decided to edit it down to three hours fourteen minutes for general release as just one film.

4. Another huge expense would have been all the ships needed for Cleopatra’s fleet. It was actually said at the time that Twentieth Century Fox had the world's third largest navy.

5. It was the first film that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton starred in together, and marked the beginning of their famous on-off love affair. At the time, they were both married to other people, Burton to Sybil Williams and Taylor to Eddie Fisher. Hence their on-set affair caused a massive scandal that made headline news.

6. Before the role was offered to Elizabeth, Sophia Loren, Joan Collins, and Dorothy Dandridge were among those considered for the role.

7. At first, filming took place in Pinewood in England only eight minutes of this footage made it into the final cut because the weather in England isn’t much like it would have been in ancient Egypt. Those eight minutes cost £6.45m. Another problem was that the British climate didn’t do much for Taylor’s health, and she contracted pneumonia and almost died. A tracheotomy had to be performed in order to save her life; the scar is visible in some scenes. The climate in Rome was better for her recovery.

8. There were a few errors. In one scene, Caesar is saying goodbye to Cleopatra in Alexandria before sailing back to Rome, when an aide informs him he must hurry up or they’ll miss the tide. In fact, tides in the Mediterranean Sea are so minimal that the tide would never have been an issue. Other “mistakes” were not actually goofs at all, such as Cleopatra talking to Caesar about Rome's interest in Egyptian corn. Americans would claim that the Egyptians wouldn’t know about the corn they are familiar with, maize, because it was originally cultivated in prehistoric Mesoamerica and only spread worldwide in the 15th and 16th centuries. In fact, the script uses the British meaning of the word corn, which includes other cereal grains as well.

9. Elizabeth Taylor was originally barred from entering Egypt to film because, for her marriage to Eddie Fisher, she had converted to Judaism. However, when the authorities realised how much money the film would bring in to their economy, they relented.

10. Cleopatra eventually earned nine Oscar nominations, winning four, but people who actually worked on it were less than impressed. Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was never proud of it and the only reason he didn’t quit was because Elizabeth Taylor was a good friend of his. He did later try to get his name removed from the credits. As for Taylor, it’s said that when she saw the final cut, she threw up.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

11 June: Gene Wilder

This date in 1933 saw the birth of the American actor Gene Wilder. 10 things you might not know about him.

1. His real name was Jerome Silberman. He changed it to Gene Wilder because he didn’t think "Jerry Silberman in Macbeth" sounded right. "Wilder" was after author Thornton Wilder, while "Gene" came from the character Eugene Gant in Thomas Wolfe's first novel, Look Homeward, Angel, and also a distant relative of his, who’d been a bomber in the second world war and whom he admired.

2. He was eight when he caught the acting bug. His mother was ill, and her doctor said that he should try and make her laugh. His sister was studying acting, too, and after watching her perform he asked her teacher if he could join the class. He was 11. The teacher said that if he was still interested when he turned 13, he could. The day after his 13^th birthday, he called the teacher who accepted him.

3. He was bullied at one of his schools as he was the only Jewish boy in the school. About his faith, he would later say he was proud to be Jewish but didn’t believe in any of it apart from the Golden Rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

4. Wilder studied Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of Iowa, graduating in 1955. He then attended Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, England.

5. He studied fencing, and after learning the sport for just six months became the first freshman to win the All-School Fencing Championship. He would later work as a fencing instructor to support himself while studying acting (he also drove limos) and later still, alongside acting, was a fencing choreographer.

6. He was drafted into the army in 1956 and served as a paramedic in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Valley Forge Army Hospital, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.

7. Wilder's first professional acting job was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he played the Second Officer in Herbert Berghof's production of Twelfth Night in 1959. His first screen role was as a hostage in Bonnie and Clyde, who was thrown out of the car when he told his kidnappers he was an undertaker. His first leading role was in a film called Mother Courage and Her Children. This was where he met Mel Brooks, who was dating his co star. One of his most famous roles was as Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, even though it was a flop at the Box office at first. Fred Astaire, Joel Grey, Ron Moody, and Jon Pertwee had all been considered; Roald Dahl wanted to cast Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers had begged Dahl for the role. However, director Mel Stuart cast Wilder immediately after hearing him recite a few lines. Wilder refused to watch the 2005 remake because was a fan of Johnny Depp and feared he might be disappointed.

8. He married four times. His first wife was Mary Mercier, from 1960 to 1965; Mary Schutz, a friend of his sister, from 1967 to 1974 – she had a daughter, Katharine, from a previous relationship. Wilder adopted her but they became estranged when she grew up; Gilda Radner, from 1984 until her death in 1989 from ovarian cancer (the disease which his mother also died of); and Karen Webb, who he married in 1991.

9. He eventually gave up acting in films because he was “tired of watching the bombing, shooting, killing, swearing, and 3-D.” He said he’d consider returning to the big screen if the right script came along but in the mean time, he’d stick to television, and spend more time on his hobbies: watercolour painting and writing (He wrote several memoirs and novels, including one called Even Dogs Learn How to Swim, which was published after he died.

10. He died from complications of Alzheimer's disease in 2016 at the age of 83. He’d been diagnosed three years earlier, but kept it quiet because he didn’t want the children who knew him as Willy Wonka to get upset. He died listening to his favourite song, Over the Rainbow sung by Ella Fitzgerald.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

8 June: Ghostbusters

On this date in 1984, Ghostbusters was released. 10 things you might not know about Ghostbusters:

1. The film was written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Aykroyd had a lifelong fascination with the paranormal and you could say it was in his blood. His mother claimed to have seen ghosts; his father wrote a book called A History of Ghosts; his grandfather experimented with using Radios to contact the dead; and his great-grandfather was a renowned spiritualist. More specific inspiration came when he read an article on quantum physics and parapsychology in The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, and from living in a house that was said to be haunted by the ghost of Cass Elliot.

2. Aykroyd’s original name was going to be "Ghost Smashers." The name Ghostbusters was chosen in the end, but it turned out to have been used before in a TV series in 1975 called The Ghost Busters. There was a long legal battle over the rights to the name, with the possibility it wouldn’t be resolved in time for the film’s release. Which meant shooting many of the scenes twice with one version using the alternative name of 'Ghostbreakers'. This was abandoned in the end because it was too much work and the crew continued on faith that they’d win the rights in the end. Luckily, they did.

3. There were legal issues with the Ghostbusters logo as well. Harvey Comics, creator of Casper, sued the producers because they thought the ghost in the logo looked too much like a character in their comic, a ghost called Fatso. The judge’s response when it came to court was something along the lines of, “Come on, guys, there are only so many ways you can draw a ghost. Case dismissed.”

4. Christopher Walken, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, and Jeff Goldblum were all considered for the role of Dr. Egon Spengler. So was Michael Keaton, who turned it down. He also turned down the role of Dr. Peter Venkman, as did Steve Guttenberg (in favour of Police Academy). Tom Hanks, Richard Pryor and Robin Williams were also considered for Dr. Peter Venkman. Daryl Hannah, Denise Crosby, Julia Roberts, and Kelly LeBrock auditioned for the role of Dana Barrett. Julia Roberts was turned down because she was deemed to be too young. Bill Murray agreed to be in it only if Columbia agreed to a remake of The Razor's Edge with him as the star. They did.

5. Creating the soundtrack proved to be a challenge. The Ghostbusters score was composed by Elmer Bernstein who once said it was the most difficult score he had written because of the combination of seriousness and comedy. Over 50 different theme songs by different artists were considered and rejected before Ray Parker Jr. got involved. Even he struggled with it, partly because he didn’t like the name Ghostbusters and didn’t want to use it in the song. He was inspired in the end by an advert he saw at 4.30am one morning for a drain company, which resulted in the line "Who you gonna call?" Working to a tight deadline, the only people he could find to shout the answer, “Ghostbusters!” were his girlfriend and her mates.

6. You’ve probably noticed that phone numbers appearing on screen in American movies nearly always begin with “555”. This is because, over there, it’s a non-existent code. One trailer for Ghostbusters, however, displayed a 1-800 number on their commercial, one that viewers could actually call. Callers got a recorded message of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd saying something along the lines of "Hi. We're out catching ghosts right now." They got 1,000 calls per hour, 24 hours a day, for weeks.

7. The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man suits cost approximately $20,000 each. Three of them were made, all to be destroyed in the course of filming. Staying with the Marshmallow Man, it was initially envisaged that he’d arise out of the water next to the Statue of Liberty, but that was abandoned because the logistics of filming it were insurmountable.

8. The actors were encouraged to ad-lib. Most of Bill Murray's lines were ad-libs and at least one resulted in a new slang term. The scripted line was "I'm gonna turn this guy into Toast". Murray said instead, "this chick is toast". This is thought to be the first ever usage of the word “toast” meaning something is finished or doomed. The producers also used a method called guerrilla filmmaking, in which scenes are shot spontaneously in public places. One of the locations for this was Rockefeller Center. During the filming here the actors were chased away by an actual security guard.

9. 55 Central Park West in New York City is the address of the real life building used for Dana’s apartment. The building in question isn’t as high as it appears in the film – it only has 20 floors. Paintings and models were used to add more floors and the top of the building is based on the top of the Continental Life Building in St. Louis, MO.

10. Gilda Radner once complained she found Ghostbusters difficult to watch because she had dated all of its stars: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

19 April: Carousel

On this date in 1945 The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel opened on Broadway. 10 facts about it:

1. It was the second musical Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together, the first being Oklahoma! two years earlier.

2. Carousel was based on a 1909 play by Ferenc Molnár which was written in Hungarian and set in Budapest. The play was called Liliom, and wasn’t a hit first time around, but when it was revived after the first world war it was a success. Rodgers and Hammerstein saw a production of it and liked the story, but at first were unsure about acquiring the rights to it. Molnár had refused to grant the rights in the past; also the ending of his play was possibly too dark for musical theatre.

3. However, they did get the rights. They changed the setting to Maine and re-worked the ending so that it was more hopeful.

4. So what’s it about? It’s the story of a carousel barker Billy Bigelow who gets together with millworker Julie Jordan. They marry, she gets pregnant, but they both lose their jobs. Billy plans a robbery with his friend Jigger, but it fails and Billy commits suicide. In the afterlife, he is processed by a Starkeeper who tells him he’s not good enough to get into heaven but after fifteen years of purgatory he gets a chance to return to Earth for a day to try and redeem himself by helping his daughter, Louise. In the original play, he fails and goes to hell; in the musical, he succeeds and also tells Julie that he loves her, and is allowed into heaven.

5. The leading actors in that first production were John Raitt as Billy and Jan Clayton as Julie. Carousel initially ran for 890 performances on Broadway. Stephen Douglass and Iva Withers played the lead roles when it opened in London’s West End in 1950. A film version was made in 1956, starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones.

6. Carousel won the first-ever New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical in 1945-1946.

7. The dress rehearsal went badly, and some last minute changes were made to the pantomime scene. There were fears the show would be a flop. Indeed, Rodgers thought it was as he watched the opening performance. He had a back injury at the time and had to watch it propped up in a box behind the curtain, dosed up on pain killers. He couldn’t see all of the stage and couldn’t hear the audience applauding. He only found out later what a resounding success it had been.

8. The best known songs from the show are If I Loved You, June is Bustin’ Out All Over and You’ll Never Walk Alone.

9. Act One begins with a scene which has become known as “The Bench Scene.” This scene is seen as an exemplary example of a musical theatre scene, and is studied in most musical theatre performance classes.

10. Carousel, like many productions of its time, is not without its issues for audiences today. Billy is abusive to both Julie and Louise. At the time, the fact that Billy is a good man at heart, that he never actually plans to hit women, and doesn’t hit them very hard, doesn’t cut much ice in the 21^st century.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

10 April: Omar Sharif

This date in 1932 was the birthdate of Omar Sharif (Michael Shalhoub), Egyptian actor whose films include Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago and Funny Girl.

1. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt. His father, Joseph Shalhoub, was a lumber merchant, and his mother, Claire, was a professional gambler, ranked with King Faroukh as one of the most daring players.

2. His parents gave him the name Michel Demitri Shalhoub and he was brought up as a Catholic.

3. He attended Cairo University and got a degree in mathematics and physics, then worked at the family lumber business for a time.

4. His first film was an Egyptian one, called The Blazing Sun in 1954. His co-star was a well known Egyptian actress of the time called Faten Hamama.

5. Who became his wife in 1955. He converted to Islam in order to marry her and that is when he took the name Omar Sharif. They had one son, Tarek, and divorced in 1974. Sharif claimed she was the love of his life and although he had affairs, he never remarried.

6. He was also famous as a bridge player and was known to postpone film shootings in order to take part in tournaments. In the 1970s and 1980s, he co-wrote a syndicated newspaper bridge column for the Chicago Tribune, and was also the author of several books about the game. A bridge computer game, "Omar Sharif Bridge", has been marketed since 1992. Another of his hobbies was breeding and racing Horses.

7. Lawrence of Arabia was the first film he made in English. He played Sherif Ali, but wasn’t the first choice for the role. Dilip Kumar turned it down, Horst Buchholz was unavailable and Maurice Ronet could not use the contact lenses to mask his eye colour. It was considered a risky move by David Lean at the time as Sharif was virtually unknown outside Egypt.

8. He had a bit of an anger management problem. In 2003 he got a one-month suspended prison sentence for hitting a police officer in a Paris casino, and in 2005 was ordered to take an anger management course for punching a parking attendant who refused to accept his European currency.

9. He was fluent in Arabic, English, French, Greek, Italian and Spanish.

10. He had triple bypass surgery in 1992, and immediately quit his 100 a day smoking habit. He died of a heart attack in 2015.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

20 February: Sidney Poitier

This date in 1927 saw the birth of Sidney Poitier, American actor. 10 things you might not know about him.

1. His family lived in the Bahamas, which at that time was a British Crown colony, but Sidney wasn’t born there. He was born in Miami, which made him a US citizen. His father was a farmer and the family would travel to the US on business, which is why they were there when Sidney was born, two months prematurely. It was touch and go whether he’d survive, but he did, and his parents returned to the Bahamas where he grew up.

2. At 15, he went back to Miami, and then to New York when he was 16. He’d decided by then that he wanted to be an actor. He worked washing dishes to support himself.

3. He failed his first audition with the American Negro Theatre because he wasn’t able to read a script fluently. One of the waiters worked with him every night, listening to him as he read from a newspaper.

4. Soon after that, in 1943, Poitier lied about his age so he could join the army, since he was homeless at the time and the military would provide accommodation. He served as a medical attendant at a mental hospital in New York, but hated it and faked a mental illness to get discharged. Faced with the prospect of electric shock treatment, he confessed that he’d been faking and also that he’d lied about his age. After some therapy sessions, he was discharged.

5. After this he tried again for the American Negro Theatre and this time was successful, although he still had a lot of work to do. He couldn’t sing, which was something expected of actors at the time, and he still had a noticeable Bahamian accent, which he needed to work on losing.

6. His breakthrough film role was as a high school student in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle. He was blacklisted for a time because he was an active member of the Committee for the Negro in the Arts (CNA).

7. Ultimately, though, he was a great success. He was the first African-American actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role for Lilies of the Field in 1963, and the first to place autograph, hand, and footprints in the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1967.

8. In 2009, Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama. He’d already, in 1974, been awarded an honorary knighthood of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. He served as as ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan, and was was a member of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company.

9. He was the visual inspiration for the original illustrations of the superhero Green Lantern.

10. At the time of his death, aged 94, he was the last surviving Oscar nominee as Best Actor from the 1950s, and the last surviving winner from the 1960s. Incidentally, he died on the same day and in the same city as Peter Bogdanovich, who directed him in To Sir, with Love II in 1996.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

8 February: The Hollywood Walk of Fame

On this date in 1960, construction on the Hollywood Walk of Fame officially began. 10 facts about the Hollywood Walk of fame:

1. It started as a marketing tactic by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The idea was first suggested by that organisation’s volunteer president E. M. Stuart in 1953 to “maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world.” In January 1956 an official proposal was submitted to the Los Angeles City Council. Initially, the proposal was to have a caricature of the star honoured rather than a star, and placed along Brown and Blue sidewalks. The caricature idea was rejected because it would be too complicated and the colours because they’d clash with a building being erected along the route at the time.

2. Who the recipient of the first star was depends on what you count. Before the official inauguration, a temporary installation to raise awareness and support was unveiled in August 1958. Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, Ernest Torrence, and Joanne Woodward were the stars to receive the honours. Joanne Woodward is sometimes said to have been the first, although in truth that was probably because she happened to be the first to have her picture taken with her star. The first star to be installed in the Walk of Fame proper was Film-maker Stanley Kramer, whose star was put in place on 28 March 1960.

3. In August 2025 there were 2,818 stars at 6-foot (1.8 m) intervals along the sidewalk. Wikipedia describes the stars as “five-point, coral-pink terrazzo rimmed with brass and inlaid into a 3-by-3-foot (0.91 by 0.91 m) charcoal-coloured terrazzo background. The honoree's name is inlaid in brass block letters in the upper portion of each star, and below the name, a round inlaid brass emblem indicates the category of the honoree's contributions.” There are also several hundred blank stars, as placeholders for future recipients. Stars face east or west on Hollywood Boulevard and north or south on Vine Street so that whichever direction you walk there will be stars facing you.

4. That said, not all the stars are in the sidewalk and not all of them are stars. Four of the plaques are moons, dedicated to the astronauts and TV coverage of the Apollo 11 Moon landing; and one star is in a wall. That one is for boxer Muhammad Ali who, since he shares his name with a certain prophet, requested that the star be placed where it would not be walked on.

5. There are seven categories for which a star can be awarded: motion pictures; Television; recording/Music; live performance/theatre; Radio; sports entertainment and a special category for other achievements the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce deem worthy of inclusion, like the Apollo 11 astronauts. Muhammad Ali, incidentally, received his star before the sports entertainment category was introduced in 2023 – boxing was deemed to be a kind of live performance in order to allow him the star. Two sports teams have been honoured since: the Harlem Globetrotters and Los Angeles Dodgers.

6. A star can request a location for their star. A few are placed in quite ironic locations. Carol Burnett’s is in front of the cinema where she was fired as an usherette for advising a couple of latecomers to wait for the next showing of the movie as seeing the ending might spoil it for them; Jay Leno requested his star be near Hollywood and Highland because he was twice picked up by police for vagrancy there; Mike Myers's star was placed outside an adult store called the International Love Boutique; Roger Moore's and Daniel Craig's are located at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard. Michael Jackson refused to attend the unveiling of his star if it wasn’t outside Grauman's Chinese Theater. The Chamber agreed, and the unveiling of his star turned out to be a record breaker with around five thousand people turning up to watch.

7. As of October 2025, 44% of the stars were in the motion pictures category, 25% in television, 19% in audio recording or music, 9% in radio, fewer than 3% in theatre/live performance, and fewer than 1% in sports entertainment and the "special category" combined. 5.1% honoured African-Americans, 3.4% honoured Hispanic people, and 0.4% honoured Asians, all significantly less than those minorities' percentage of the overall population.

8. Gene Autry is the star nominated in the most categories: five. Bob Hope and Roy Rogers have been honoured in four. The family with the most individuals recognised is the Barrymores, with five. The line up also includes three dogs: Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart. Lassie was the first fictional character to be included, although some claim Lassie was an animal actor in her own right although she was often portrayed by a male canine actor called Pal. If you don’t count Lassie, the first fictional character included was Mickey Mouse. They have since been joined by many more, including Snoopy, Kermit the Frog, Minnie Mouse and Batman, the first superhero to receive a star. Inventors who influenced the entertainment industry and have been recognised with stars include George Eastman, inventor of roll film; Thomas Edison for the phonograph, motion picture camera and lightbulb; and Ray Dolby, pioneer in surround sound. One inventor also has a star in the motion picture category: actress Hedy Lamarr, co-inventor of a frequency-hopping radio guidance system that was a precursor to Wi-Fi networks. There are two murderers: Spade Cooley and Gig Young. There are politicians there, too, unsurprisingly, Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ignacy Paderewski, Prime Minister of Poland between World War I and II, is the only foreign head of government represented. Even Trump has one, for his work on the Miss Universe pageant and The Apprentice although there have been a lot of protests and calls for his star to be revoked, including one from West Hollywood City Council, who made a statement: "The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an honour. When one belittles and attacks minorities, immigrants, Muslims, people with disabilities or women – the honour no longer exists." His star has also been vandalised many times, including by one protester who let his dog poo on it and posted the result on Twitter.

9. The nomination process is strict. Anyone can make a nomination, including fans, although the nominee or their management must be in agreement and there is a hefty fee to pay. Nominees must have a history of "charitable contributions" and a minimum of five years' experience in their category; and they must agree to attend the unveiling of their star or the nomination will be rejected. In the case of deceased honorees, (who must have been dead for at least two years) a member of their family must agree to attend. I’m not sure what happens in the case of fictional characters! Some stars have declined to have stars on the walk, including Madonna (because she thinks it’s cheesy), Clint Eastwood and Prince. Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Roberts, Bruce Springsteen, and Denzel Washington all ruled themselves out by refusing to attend their ceremonies.

10. There are two pairs of stars bearing the same name but representing different people. There are two Harrison Fords, one for the silent film actor and the other for the present-day actor, and two Michael Jacksons, one for the pop singer and the other for the radio personality. There might have been three, but for the correction of a typo. Actor Don Haggerty was awarded a star in 1960 that was wrongly engraved as Dan Haggerty. The star was replaced, and in 1994 an actor who was actually called Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams) received a star, too. Typos do happen. Julia Louis-Dreyfus's star read "Julia Luis Dreyfus". Dick van Dyke's star misspelled his last name as "Vandyke". Both stars were said to be amused rather than angry. Van Dyke took a marker pen and corrected the mistake. Both stars were replaced with the correct names in due course but a handful of mistakes live on. Carmen Miranda was honoured in the motion picture category but her star bears the television emblem, and four names remain mispelled: Lotte Lehmann (spelled as "Lottie"), Merian C. Cooper ("Meriam"), Auguste Lumière ("August"), and Mary Livingstone ("Livingston").

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

18 January: A Fistful of Dollars

On this date in 1967, Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars starring Clint Eastwood, premiered in Hollywood. 10 facts about the film.

1. It was the first of a trilogy, the other two parts being For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The three films are known as the Dollars Trilogy, or the Man with No Name Trilogy.

2. It’s a remake of a 1961 Japanese film called Yojimbo, which in turn was based on a 1929 novel called Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett. The Japanese screenwriters, Akira Kurosawa and Ryûzô Kikushima sued the makers of A Fistful of Dollars which delayed its US release. Kurosawa and Kikushima won, and received 15% of the worldwide gross and exclusive distribution rights for Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.

3. Clint Eastwood stars as the Man with No Name, although he wasn’t the first choice. James Coburn was too expensive, Charles Bronson turned it down because he thought it was the "worst script I have ever seen." Richard Harrison declined the role, but suggested Leone consider someone from the TV show Rawhide. Sergio Leone offered the role to Eric Fleming, who turned it down but suggested his co-star Clint Eastwood. Having played a do-good hero in Rawhide for several years, Clint Eastwood jumped at the chance to play an anti-hero. Meanwhile, Leone was satisfied too, saying, "More than an actor, I needed a mask, and Eastwood, at that time, only had two expressions: with hat and no hat."

4. The Man With No Name is a bit of a misnomer as he is given one by Piripero the undertaker, which is also reflected in the credits. The name is “Joe”.

5. Eastwood was instrumental in creating the look of his character. He bought the black jeans from a sport shop on Hollywood Boulevard, the hat from a Santa Monica wardrobe firm and the trademark black cigars from a Beverly Hills store. Eastwood cut the cigars up to make them shorter. The boots were the same ones he wore in Rawhide. He found the poncho in Spain, and still has it. He says it has never been washed.

6. The Man With No Name has a cigar in his mouth for most of the movie. Clint Eastwood didn’t smoke and found the taste of the cigars disgusting, which is partly responsible for his surly attitude. His squint was caused by the sun and bright lights on set.

7. Marianne Koch played the role of Marisol had taken time out from studying to be a doctor in favour of acting. In 1971, she quit acting and went back to medical school, qualifying as a doctor in 1974. She worked as a specialist in her native Germany until 1997, and up until at least 2014 was hosting a medical advice programme on German radio.

8. The music was written by Ennio Morricone. Leone liked the Music so much that he often allowed scenes to go on for longer than intended so that the music could play out to its end.

9. The film was going to be called The Magnificent Stranger right up until just a few days before release. Nobody thought to tell Clint Eastwood about the title change, and so he had no idea that the positive buzz was about his film.

10. A scene of a dinner party 57 minutes in is a deliberate reference to Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper painting.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/