This Day…

1973 – American playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon (46) weds actress Marsha Mason (31)

1882 – Future actress Margaret Dumont was born in Brooklyn, New York.

1922 – British Broadcasting Company (BBC) founded, later called British Broadcasting Corporation.

1888 – Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).

1936 – The radio show, “Professor Quiz”, aired for the first time.

1927  -“The Second Hundred Years” silent short film released starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy – 1st Laurel and Hardy film with them appearing as a team.

1927  – “The Jazz Singer“, directed by Alan Crosland, starring Al Jolson and May McAvoy, released, 1st film with a soundtrack (Honorary Academy Award 1928).

1941 – The Maltese Falcon, John Huston‘s adaptation of Dashiell Hammett‘s famed 1930 novel, had its world premiere; it is considered by some to be the greatest detective movie ever made.

1941 – “The Maltese Falcon” directed by John Huston and based on Dashiell Hammett’s 1929 novel of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, premieres in New York City

1933 – George “Machine Gun” Kelly and his wife Kathryn are arrested in Memphis, Tennessee, for the kidnapping of oil tycoon Charles Urschel.