AUGUST 9
Q: On this day exactly 50 years ago, August 9 1974, Richard Nixon became the first and only President to resign his office. Nixon also significantly brought Best Actor nominations to two actors who played him on screen. Who are they?
A: Anthony Hopkins was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for 1995’s Nixon. Frank Langella was nominated in the same category for 2008’s Frost/Nixon. Langella had previously won a Tony Award for the play on which that movie was based. Only one actor has ever won a Best Actor Oscar for playing a real life U.S. President. Daniel Day Lewis took his third Lead Actor Academy Award in 2012’s Lincoln. Raymond Massey was also previously nominated as Lincoln for Best Actor in 1940’s Abe Lincoln In Illinois. Nixon and Lincoln are the only real life U.S. Presidents to be responsible for multiple Oscar nominations for those who played them.
AUGUST 2
QUESTION: Carroll O’Connor who died in 2001 would have turned 100 years old today, August 2, 2024. He is only one of two male actors in television history to have won the Emmy for his leading role in both a comedy series and a drama series. Who is the other one?
ANSWER: Robert Young won Emmys in 1957 for Continuing Performance by an Actor and in 1958 for Continuing Performance in a Leading Role by an Actor in a Drama or Comedy Series for his role as Jim Anderson in the sitcom Father Knows Best. In 1970, he won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Marcus Welby M.D.
Vera Miles and Robert Young, on ‘Marcus Welby, M.D.’ in 1970
Carroll O’Connor won four Emmys for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for All In The Family in 1972, 1977, 1978, and 1979. He won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1989 as Bill Gillespie In The Heat Of The Night, the series based on the 1967 Best Picture winner, In The Heat Of The Night which, coincidentally, had its World Premiere in NYC on August 2, in 1967. Its star Rod Steiger would go on to win the Best Actor Oscar also playing the very same Bill Gillespie.
JULY 26
QUESTION 1: On this day in 1896 the first permanent for-profit movie theater in the U.S. opened. In what Southern city was it located?
ANSWER: On July 26, 1896, the 400 seat Vitascope Hall, the first fixed-seating movie theatre in U.S. opened at 623 Canal Street in New Orleans. Admission was 10 cents. If you could spare an additional dime you could go behind the curtain to see the innovative Vitascope projector that converted still B&W photos into moving images up to a minute long, the very first technology that added motion to pictures. 128 years later the tradition continues.
The 1896 Vitascope movie projector in operation
QUESTION 2: On this day in 1972 one of the most iconic show business couples filed for legal separation. In 2022 and 2023 two successive individual biopics were released, each using one of their first names as titles. Who are the couple?
ANSWER: On July 26, 1972 Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley filed for legal separation after five years of marriage. In 2022 Baz Luhrman’s Elvis was released and in 2023 Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla hit theaters.
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Priscilla and Elvis Presley leaving a divorce hearing together in 1973.
JULY 19
QUESTION 1: What is the first Basic Cable series to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama?
ANSWER: Mad Men which premiered on AMC on this day, July 19, 2007. The series, which ran for 7 seasons, went on to win the Drama Series Emmy for each of its first four seasons and is tied for the most Drama Series Emmy wins with four other shows that have earned four statuettes each, HBO’s Game Of Thrones and NBC’s Hill Street Blues, LA Law and The West Wing.
MIchael Yarish/AMC
QUESTION 2: What teen comedy inspired by Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ marked Paul Rudd’s film debut?
ANSWER: Clueless, which opened on this day, July 19, 1995. The movie, written and directed by Amy Heckerling, went on to earn $88 million worldwide. Alicia Silverstone starred and Rudd got his first film role.
Paramount Pictures
