Jackie Ormes Brought Black Characters To The Comics Page (Cool Weird Awesome 1060)
Today in 1911, the birthday of Jackie Ormes, the first Black woman to have syndicated comic strips in newspapers.
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08, 2023
10
04, 2023
The Wilhelm Scream Is The Classic Hollywood Sound Effect You Can’t Stop Hearing (Cool Weird Awesome 984)
Today in 1921, the birthday of Sheb Wooley, who had a hit song in the 50s called the “Purple People Eater" and is believed to be the guy who gave a scream that's been featured in hundreds of movies: the Wilhelm Scream.
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01, 2023
President Franklin Roosevelt Once Dreamed Of Writing Movies (Cool Weird Awesome 938)
Today in 1882, the birthday of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He wound up being America’s longest serving president, but at one point FDR had a very different destiny in mind for himself: he wanted to write screenplays for movies.
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03, 2022
Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 Point Game Was Truly One Of A Kind (Cool Weird Awesome 723)
Today in 1962 one of the most stunning performances in the history of basketball, or really in all of pro sports: Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game.
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02, 2022
Wally Funk, At Long Last An Astronaut (Cool Weird Awesome 707)
Today in 1939, the birthday of Wally Funk. She first passed astronaut training in her 20s and could have been one of the first US astronauts, but after some 60 years of trying, she finally got into space.
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01, 2022
The Time Paul Newman Really Didn’t Want People To See A Paul Newman Movie (Cool Weird Awesome 703)
Today was the birthday in 1925 of actor and entrepreneur Paul Newman, who made some very popular and very acclaimed movies. But there was one movie he made that he loathed so much, he actually took out ads to convince people not to watch it.
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12, 2021
The Woman Who Brought Hollywood To Communist Romania (Cool Weird Awesome 676)
In the late 1980s Romania was still behind the Iron Curtain, but its people wanted to see and hear film, TV shows and music from the US and other countries. Irina Nistor used her voice to bring some of that outside media to the people.
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12, 2021
Get me, I’m giving out DVDs
A Christmas present story
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11, 2021
“Casablanca” Almost Had A Sequel – Twice (Cool Weird Awesome 665)
After the landmark movie "Casablanca" became an unexpected hit, Hollywood tried a couple times to make a sequel.
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11, 2021
Being Nice Really Can Make The World Around You Nicer, Science Has Shown It (Cool Weird Awesome 655)
A University of Oregon study on what's called the “perceiver-elicited similarity effect" finds that when you’re nice, that can lead to more niceness around you! Plus: today in 1910, what’s believed to be the first movie stunt took place. And it was quite a stunt.