On this date in 1946, The Killers premiered. The American film noir stars Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner in her career booster, Edmond O'Brien, and a host of B-movie stalwarts. The opening scene is one of the most captivating in noir history. Under the footsteps of two assassins, Charles McGraw and William Conrad is Miklós Rózsa's pounding theme. The "dum-de-dum-dum" motif would soon be adapted as the Dragnet theme by Walter Schumann. Although the same notes were used, Rózsa's theme had a faster tempo with no rests.
Partly based on the 1927 short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, it centers on an insurance detective's investigation via flashbacks into the execution of Lancaster's character by the two aforementioned killers. In this respect, not unlike a Columbo or Monk series, the viewer sees the end at the beginning.
Note: Not many get top-billed in their screen debut, but Lancaster or his contract pulled it off.
On this date in 1946, Step by Step had its full US premiere. It is a rare good guy role for Lawrence Tierney as a Marine veteran. His love interest and co-star, Anne Jeffries, works as a secretary for a senator on a case of national security. The suspenseful drama deepens when three German spies infiltrate the senator's house, knocking him unconscious, bind and gag Jeffries, leaving behind a murdered associate. Jeffries is rescued by Tierney who both met earlier during more pleasant circumstances. However, they both become the chief suspects in the senator's beating and the associate's murder. While attempting to elude authorities and the spies, they become convinced the Germans were unable to find a top-secret document that implicates them and others as spies. Rest assured, they locate the documents in the nick of time.
On this date in 1913, a relative newcomer to the materials science world, stainless steel, was invented by Harry Brearley of Sheffield, England. Brearley stumbled upon this discovery while trying to solve the problem of erosion of the internal surfaces of gun barrels for the British army during the onset of the First World War. The secret to the success of stainless steel is its incredible physical and chemical properties. Stainless steel has high corrosion resistance, heat resistance up to 2,192°F, formability and weldability, durability, and rustproof. It is also inexpensive compared to specialist, non-corrosive alloys. Between the years 1919 and 1923, the use of stainless steel was adapted to manufacture surgical scalpels, tools, and cutlery in Sheffield. In the 1930s, the first stainless steel train was built in the USA and by 1935, stainless steel kitchen sinks were widely used. In the 1980s, stainless steel was used to build the longest movable flood barrier in the world on the river Thames.
Mary Blair (1911-1978) was one of Walt Disney’s favorite artists, joining The Walt Disney Company in 1940 where she created concept paintings for projects related to Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), and The Lady and the Tramp (1955). Blair learned her craft at The Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles in the mid-1930s. She and her husband, Lee Blair, also a Disney employee, accompanied Disney and several of his artists on a South American tour in 1941. Upon their return, Blair created concept art that ended up being used for films inspired by the trip. Her imagination and use of bright colors was a perfect fit for Disney's fantasy films but left Disney in 1953 to concentrate on illustrating children’s books, most notably, a series of Little Golden Books. Walt Disney did convince Blair to work on Disney’s contribution to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. Her concept art on this project would be her final major design work for Disney. The “It's a Small World” ride proved extremely popular and was later adapted for Disneyland and Disney World.
The SS United States is a retired ocean liner built in 1950–51 for the United States Lines. The ship is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the United States and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction. In New York, her owners were awarded the Hales Trophy, the tangible expression of the Blue Riband competition, for the highest average speed since her maiden voyage in 1952. It maintained an uninterrupted schedule of transatlantic passenger service until 1969. The ship has been sold several times since the 1970s, with each new owner trying unsuccessfully to make the liner profitable. The SS United States Conservancy assumed ownership of the liner in 2011. By 2018, the conservancy announced an agreement with the commercial real estate firm RXR Realty in New York City to explore options for restoring and repurpose the ocean liner as a permanently moored hospitality and cultural space. The liner is currently docked in Philadelphia.
On this date in 1945, the romantic comedy, Christmas in Connecticut, premiered nationally. Barbara Stanwyck plays an unmarried big-city magazine food writer whose popular articles and recipes about her fictitious Connecticut farm, husband, and baby are admired by housewives nationally. Stanwyck's writing charade must assume the role of her character, however, in order to save her career from scandal. She has no idea how to prepare a meal for a returning war hero, Dennis Morgan.
The film is directed by Peter Godfrey from a story by Aileen Hamilton. The film also stars Sydney Greenstreet as Stanwyck's editor and S.Z. Sakall as her uncle and chef, and Reginald Gardiner as her dull potential husband to help cover her charade. Saving her from that marriage, however, Morgan arrives early then his fiancée unexpectedly arrives. The film was a huge financial success, earning over 3 million domestically.
Barbara Pepper (Marion Pepper 1915-1969) was an American stage, television, radio, and film actress, often uncredited as "the blonde" in Thirties and Forties films. She had a lead role opposite Wallace Ford in the 1936 murder mystery, The Rogues' Tavern. During the Sixties, she was again uncredited in the 1963 comedies, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and Who's Minding the Store?. The following year she was cast as Dr. Doolittle's dance partner in My Fair Lady. Gaining weight and fame late in her career, she was the television mom, Doris or Ruth, to the multi-talented pig, Arnold Ziffel, on the surreal Green Acres sitcom. A long-time friend of Lucille Ball, Pepper was initially considered for the role of Ethel Mertz on the I Love Lucy series. However, due to her drinking problem, she was not hired. Having both Mertz characters, adding William Frawley, with an off-camera alcohol problem was a concern to the producers. Yet Pepper was cast in several episodes of the series (above). Her final film appearance was in 1969's Hook, Line & Sinker, playing Jerry Lewis's secretary.
On this date in 1955, Boeing’s Chief of Flight Test, Alvin “Tex” Johnston, barrel-rolled the Model 367-80, prototype of the KC-135 Stratotanker and 707 Stratoliner, over Lake Washington. Twice.
The "Dash 80" was scheduled to perform a simple flyover for representatives of the aircraft industries. Many jaws dropped, I imagine, when the unthinkable occurred. Johnston got a tongue-lashing for his "salesmanship." Flight test engineer, Bill Whitehead, took the photograph.
The Oldsmobile F-88 was a General Motors concept car created by Oldsmobile in 1954 with the final design done under the direction of Art Ross. Also with a fiberglass body, it was based on the Chevrolet Corvette. Legend has it there were three F-88 concepts built over a three-year period, each looking quite different. GM displayed the concept to the public for the first time at their Motorama Auto Show exhibition. The car sold for nearly $3.5 million in 2005 at Barrett-Jackson and today it is on display at the Gateway Colorado Automobile Museum. Fortunately, GM came to their senses and the redundant car was never in direct competition to Chevrolet's Corvette.
The Convair 990A is an American narrow-body four-engined jet airliner produced by the Convair division of General Dynamics in response to a request from American Airlines. The 990 began flight testing at the beginning of 1961 and was produced for only two years. The plane was a modified version of its earlier Convair 880. A major change was the large anti-shock bodies on the upper trailing edge of the wings to increase the critical Mach and reduce transonic drag. The larger inboard bodies also carried additional fuel. The anti-shock "speed capsules" and substantial streamlining of the engine pylon/wing interface increased the velocity at which the onset of transonic drag would occur by 0.09 Mach. As such, the 990A was capable of speeds slightly in excess of 700 miles per hour, the fastest airliner in the world until the Concorde.
Aside from its hot-rod good looks and balanced beauty, the aircraft was a total failure due to delays in delivery, high fuel consumption, and limited passenger capacity. The aircraft never lived up to its promise of coast-to-coast nonstop capability and American Airlines soon sold their fleet. The airliner was better suited for the short hops of European carriers. One of the more successful was Swissair, who bought eight of the speedsters and the only airline to call their fleet the "990 Coronado."
A bus full of children as signals flash for an approaching train. The 1959 illustration was for the Standard Pressed Steel Company, founded in 1903 by Howard T. Hallowell and Harald F. Gade, a Norwegian engineer. Headquartered today in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, and known as SPS Technologies, Inc., it is a leading international company producing both stock and specialty fasteners and fastening systems. For airplanes, helicopters, and satellites, SPS designs and manufactures instrument and distribution panels, armament controls, turbine lockplates, and other items. They manufacture components for the automotive, aerospace, industrial sectors, and according to the illustration, oversized school buses stopped way too close to the tracks.
Jacqueline Sue Browne (1930-2003) known professionally as either Kathie or Cathy Browne, began her career with an appearance in one episode of the film series Big Town, 1955. Her films were few but noticeable in her brief role in the movie, Murder by Contract, 1958, as a secretary and a for-hire party girl. The following year she did City of Fear. Both films starred Vince Edwards. The blonde-haired, blue-eyed actress was nearly typecast in ingénue parts, which kept her a very busy television actress in the Sixties and Seventies in numerous westerns, dramas, and comedies. Her first marriage was to actor, Sherwood Price, from 1953 to 1961. She appeared in four episodes of Perry Mason, 77 Sunset Strip, and Bonanza as the prospective bride of Pernell Roberts character. Star Trek fans will know her as Deela (above) in the episode, Wink of An Eye, 1966. She guest-starred with her second husband, Darren McGavin on his series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and in The Rockford Files for Pastoria Prime Pick, 1975, as a blackmailing mayor of a crooked town. Her last professional appearance before retiring was for a two-part episode of The Love Boat, 1980. Browne and McGavin's thirty-four-year marriage lasted until her death.
