Starring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Henry Travers, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, Beulah Bondi, Gloria Grahame, H.B. Warner, Frank Faylen, Charles Lane, Jimmy Hawkins, and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer. Directed by Frank Capra. Attempting to commit suicide on Christmas Eve, a man is rescued by a guardian angel and shown what his hometown would be like had he never lived.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, S.Z. Sakall, Reginald Gardiner, and Dick Elliott. Directed by Peter Godfrey. Desperate for some real food, the survivor of a U-boat sinking pretends to be in love with his nurse, and it works. In fact, it works so well that she is prepared to marry him. As a way of escaping her attention, the soldier tells her that he's never really known what a real home is like. Determined to see the engagement through, the nurse reads an article in a housekeeping magazine by Elizabeth Lane, who writes about her life on a Connecticut farm with her husband and baby. She is a model of domesticity — a gourmet cook admired by housewives across the country. Mary decides to write to the publishing magnate, Alexander Yardley, asking if her fiance can spend Christmas on Mrs. Lane's Connecticut farm, and Mr. Yardley, sensing a public relations boon, supports the idea wholeheartedly. There is only one problem with the idea: Elizabeth Lane is not what she appears to be. In reality, she lives in a small apartment in New York City, is unmarried, and cannot cook.
Character actor Harry Morgan, best known for playing Colonel Potter in the long-running television series “M*A*S*H”, died on Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles. He was 96. In more than 100 movies, he played Western bad guys, characters with names like Rocky and Shorty, loyal sidekicks, judges, sheriffs, soldiers, thugs and police chiefs.
On television, he played Officer Bill Gannon who provided a light touch to Jack Webb’s always-by-the-book Sgt. Joe Friday in the updated “Dragnet,” from 1967 to 1970. He starred as Pete Porter, a harried husband, in the situation comedy “Pete and Gladys” (1960-62), reprising a role he had played on “December Bride” (1954-59). He was also a regular on “The Richard Boone Show” (1963-64), “Kentucky Jones” (1964-65), “The D.A.” (1971-72), “Hec Ramsey” (1972-74) and “Blacke’s Magic” (1986).
But to many fans he was first and foremost Col. Sherman T. Potter, commander of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit in Korea. With a wry smile, flat voice and sharp humor, Harry Morgan played Colonel Potter from 1975 to 1983, when “M*A*S*H” went off the air. He replaced McLean Stevenson , who had quit the series, moving into the role on the strength of his performance as a crazed major general in an early episode.
Born in New York City on November 30, 1918, actor Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. turns 93 years old today.
Flip side of Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind
Album cut from the 1966 LP "Changes"
Today marks the 48th anniversary of one of the most tragic events to take place in the United States -- the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States. The president was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was fatally shot while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connally, and Connally's wife, Nellie, in a Presidential motorcade. A ten-month investigation by the Warren Commission, 1963–1964, concluded that the President was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone and that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald before he could stand trial. Conspiracy theories have abounded in the ensuing years.
I was a freshman in high school that fall of 1963. I had come home from school for lunch when the first bulletins about the shooting came on TV. I knew that the president had been shot at but did not know he had died until I got back to school. I remember that weekend just as vividly as if it happened just yesterday. Friday, November 22 in Central Illinois was a cold, rainy, and gloomy day. School let out early and we went to church for a prayer service that evening. We were glued to the TV set the whole weekend. And on Monday we had another church service in the morning before the Kennedy funeral began. It was a very sad time.
