TV History Weekly

April 27
1937—The original version of "A Star Is Born" debuts.
1954—"White Christmas," starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, debuts.
1986—A video pirate manages to override the satellite transmission of an HBO movie.

April 28
1937—The country's first museum of costumes is incorporated. The Museum of Costume Arts, in New York, created a collection of theater and movie costumes to promote "cultural education" in the design field.
1990—The Broadway musical "A Chorus Line" closes after 6,237 performances.

April 29
1932—Long-running radio series "One Man's Family" debuts.
1944—"Dancing Romeo," the last "Our Gang" film, is released.
1960—In testimony before a House subcommittee, radio disk jockey Dick Clark denies involvement in the payola scandal that shook the radio industry in 1959 and 1960.

April 30
1945—Radio personality Arthur Godfrey debuts in his own morning show, "Arthur Godfrey Time."
1992—The final episode of the popular "Cosby Show" airs.

May 1
1941—Orson Welles' landmark film, "Citizen Kane," debuts.
1967—Elvis Presley marries 21-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu.

May 2
1932—Comedian Jack Benny's long-running radio show debuts.
1948—Radio program "Hour of Charm" broadcasts for the last time.
1972—Steven Spielberg begins filming "Jaws."

May 3
1937—Margaret Mitchell's novel, "Gone With the Wind," wins the Pulitzer Prize.
1960—The musical comedy "The Fantasticks" opens in an off-Broadway playhouse in New York's Greenwich Village.
1991—Prime-time soap opera "Dallas" airs its last episode.

Information provided by History.com.

TV History Weekly

April 20
1896—For the first time, a projected movie is shown as a commercial attraction.
1909—Mary Pickford, soon to become the first real movie star, begins her first motion picture job.
1926—Western Electric and Warner Bros. announce Vitaphone, a process to add sound to film.

April 21
1895—Woodville Latham and his sons, Otway and Gray, demonstrate the first projected movie in the United States.
1955—Bob Hope's long-running radio program airs for the last time.

April 22
1937—Film actor Jack Nicholson is born in Neptune, New Jersey.
1976—Barbara Walters signs a record-breaking five-year, $5 million contract with ABC.
1988—Silent-film star Irene Rich dies.

April 23
1867—William Lincoln of Providence, Rhode Island, patents the Zoetrope on this day in 1867. The machine showed animated pictures by mounting a strip of drawings in a wheel.
1986—Director Otto Preminger dies at the age of 80.

April 24
1936—A group of firemen responding to an alarm in Camden, New Jersey, is televised as the first unscheduled television event.
1942—Ingrid Bergman signs with Warner Bros. to play Ilsa, opposite Humphrey Bogart, in "Casablanca."
1962—The first coast-to-coast telecast by satellite takes place.
1974—Entertainer Bud Abbott, half of the famous Abbott and Costello comedy team, dies.

April 25
1995—Actress Ginger Rogers dies at the age of 83.

April 26
1924—Louis B. Mayer dedicates the new Metro-Goldwyn (later called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) movie lot in Culver City, California.
1970—Actress, writer and stripper Gypsy Rose Lee dies at the age of 56.
1989—Comedian Lucille Ball dies at age 78.

Information collected from History.com.

TV History Weekly

April 13
1939—"Wuthering Heights," starring Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon and David Niven, is released.
1964—Sydney Poitier becomes the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role as a laborer who helps build a chapel in "Lilies of the Field" (1963).
1986—The cast of the popular Andy Griffith Show is reunited for a one-time television special in "Return to Mayberry."

April 14
1894—Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope first appears in a New York City arcade.
1956—The first videotape recorder is demonstrated. The machine, invented by Ray Dolby, Charles Ginsberg and Charles Anderson, recorded both images and sound.
1995—Actor and singer Burl Ives dies.

April 15
1927—Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and Norma and Constance Talmadge become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater.
1948—TV talent show "Hollywood Screen Test" debuts.
1990—Actress Ava Gardner dies at the age of 67.

April 16
1935—"Fibber McGee & Molly" premieres.
1949—Radio personality Dave Garroway moves to TV as the host of one of television's earliest musical-variety shows, "Garroway at Large."

April 17
1924—Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and the Louis B. Mayer Company merge to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, or MGM.
1937—Daffy Duck makes his debut in the Warner Bros. short "Porky's Duck Hunt."

April 18
1929—"Small Talk," the first "Our Gang" picture with sound, debuts.
1932—The Hollywood Reporter states that William Faulkner, "a writer from the South," has been hired to write scripts for MGM.
1953—"All Star Revue," starring various hosts, including Jimmy Durante and Danny Thomas, airs for the last time.
1956—American actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco in a spectacular ceremony.

April 19
1927—Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity. She had written, produced and directed "Sex," a Broadway play about a gigolo, which the courts condemned for its scandalous content.
1938—RCA-NBC launches its first regular TV broadcasts.
1957—The Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, presents its first showing of "Casablanca" (1943) on this day in 1957, introducing a new generation of film viewers to Humphrey Bogart, who had died in January 1957. The showing marked the beginning of a Bogart revival that would boost the star to cult-like status in the 1960s and later.

Information collected from History.com.

TV History Weekly

April 6
1930—Humorist Will Rogers begins broadcasting "The Will Rogers Program" on CBS radio.

April 7
1891—American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum dies in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
1927—The first simultaneous telecast of image and sound takes place on this day in 1927. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover read a speech in Washington, D.C., which was transmitted to Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York City, where an audience saw and heard a tiny televised image of Hoover, less than 3 inches square.
1961—Marian Jordan, co-star of the long-running radio show "Fibber McGee and Molly," dies.

April 8
1918—Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin sell war bonds on the streets of New York City's financial district.
1986—Actor Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel, California. The legendary actor served until 1988.
1990—Director David Lynch's surreal series, "Twin Peaks," premieres on ABC.

April 9
1962—The Hollywood musical "West Side Story," an updated Romeo and Juliet tale set in gang-ridden New York, sweeps the Oscars.
1972—Actress Jane Fonda wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as a call girl who witnesses a crime in "Klute."

April 10
1939—"Dr. I.Q., the Mental Banker" debuts.
1953—"The House of Wax," starring Vincent Price, opens at New York's Paramount Theater. The first color three-dimensional picture, the movie had to be viewed through special glasses.

April 11
1915—"The Tramp," Charlie Chaplin's third film and first comic masterpiece, is released.

April 12
1909—Carl Laemmle establishes the Independent Motion Picture Company (IMP).
1914—The Strand movie theater opens in New York City. The theater was the first movie "palace," seating 3,000 people and boasting a second-floor balcony.
1922—Director Fatty Arbuckle is found not guilty in his third trial for the death of Virginia Rappe.

TV History Weekly

March 30
1946—"Academy Award," an anthology radio show on CBS, debuts.
1962—Jack Paar films his final episode of "The Tonight Show."
1994—"Ellen," Ellen DeGeneres' popular show about single thirty-somethings in Los Angeles, premieres.

March 31
1930—The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America formally adopt the Production Code.
1970—In response to government scrutiny of Hollywood hiring practices, studios agree to increase minority employment and adopt an equal-opportunity employment agreement worked out with the Justice Department banning discrimination.
1973—President Richard Nixon awards director John Ford the Medal of Freedom.
1992—"Dateline" on NBC premieres.

April 1
1916—Movie mogul Lewis Selznick founds his own movie studio.
1935—General Electric Co. announces the first radio tube made of metal.
1949—The first TV variety show starring an African-American cast debuts. The show, "Happy Pappy," starred Ray Grant as master of ceremonies.
1988—Jim Jordan, star of radio comedy "Fibber McGee and Molly," dies.

April 2
1902—The first American theater devoted solely to movies opens in Los Angeles.
1941—Radio sitcom "Life of Riley" debuts.
1972—Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since 1952.

April 3
1956—Elvis sings his first RCA recording, "Heartbreak Hotel," on NBC's "Milton Berle Show."

April 4
1939—Comedian Jack Benny pleads guilty to buying more than $2,000 worth of smuggled gems.
1963—The movie musical "Bye Bye Birdie" opens at Radio City Music Hall.
1969—The most popular show on TV, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," is canceled by CBS because the brothers failed to submit an episode to network executives before its broadcast.

April 5
1931—Fox Film Corp. drops John Wayne from its roster of actors.
1949—"Fireside Theatre," one of TV's first dramatic series to be filmed rather than broadcast live, debuts.
1965—Movie musicals sweep the Oscars. "My Fair Lady" won Best Picture, and its star, Rex Harrison, won Best Actor. Singer-actress Julie Andrews won Best Actress for her role in "Mary Poppins."

Information from History.com.

TV History Weekly

March 23
1940—Long-running radio game show "Truth or Consequences" debuts.
1950—Olivia de Havilland wins the Best Actress Oscar.
1964—Actor Peter Lorre, best known for his roles in "Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon," dies at age 59.

March 24
1934—The debut of radio program "Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour" launches a national craze among amateur performers hoping to hit the big time.
1958—Elvis Presley is inducted into the army.
1980—The late-night news program "Nightline," anchored by legendary newsman Ted Koppel, airs for the first time on ABC.

March 25
1932—"Tarzan the Ape Man" opens, with Olympic gold medal swimmer Johnny Weismuller in the title role.
1955—"Blackboard Jungle" is released.

March 26
1885—Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company in Rochester, New York, begins manufacturing the first movie film.
1947—Radio show "Pot O' Gold," the country's first big-money giveaway, airs its last episode.
1970—The classic documentary "Woodstock," showing the 1969 concert that drew half a million people and kicked off the "Summer of Love," premieres.

March 27
1940—Alfred Hitchcock's first American film, "Rebecca," starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, opens.
1952—Considered by many to be the greatest Hollywood musical ever made, "Singin' in the Rain" premieres at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

March 28
1920—Hollywood stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford marry.
1947—The final episode of the long running "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" airs on radio network CBS.

March 29
1939—Clark Gable and Carole Lombard marry on this day in 1939 as Gable is filming "Gone with the Wind."
1949—TV show "I'd Like to See" airs its last episode.
1971—Shooting starts on Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather."

Information from History.com.

TV History Weekly

March 16
1909—The purchase of movie rights becomes standard industry practice following a federal court's decision.
1971—Al Pacino settles a lawsuit filed by MGM. The studio sued him for reneging on a deal to star in "The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight" in order to accept the role of Michael Corleone in "The Godfather."

March 17
1931—Radio star Kate Smith launches her first program.
1993—Actress Helen Hayes dies at the age of 92.

March 18
1924—"The Thief of Baghdad," starring Douglas Fairbanks, opens.
1968—Actor and director Mel Brooks wins the Oscar for Best Screenplay with his first feature film, "The Producers."

March 19
1928—Radio program "Amos 'n' Andy" first airs.
1953—The first network broadcast of the Academy Awards takes place on this day in 1953.
1971—The Italian American Civil Rights League announces a truce with the producers of "The Godfather." Upset at the portrayal of Italian Americans as gangsters, the League persuaded the producers not to use the words "Mafia" or "Cosa Nostra."

March 20
1948—CBS televises a concert by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.
1952—Humphrey Bogart receives his first and only Oscar, for Best Actor in "The African Queen."
1970—Actor Steve McQueen is part of a racing team that wins its class at the Grand Prix in Florida.

March 21
1971—"The Andromeda Strain," the first movie to use computer animation, opens.
1983—The last episode of the long-running TV series "Little House on the Prairie" airs.

March 22
1895—Louis and Auguste Lumiere give the first public demonstration of the cinematograph.
1929—Will Rogers signs with Fox to write and star in four films for $600,000.
1958—Elizabeth Taylor's third husband, producer Mike Todd, dies in a plane crash.

Information from History.com.

TV History Weekly

March 9
1922—Producer Samuel Goldwyn resigns from Goldwyn studios after losing control of the company he founded in 1916.
1938—Comedian Bob Hope makes his first film appearance, singing "Thanks for the Memories" in "The Big Broadcast of 1938."
1955—James Dean makes his first appearance in a major film role in "East of Eden," for which he received an Academy Award nomination.
1976—Prime-time soap opera "Family" debuts.

March 10
1902—In the case of Edison v. American Mutoscope Company, the U.S. Court of Appeals rules that despite his claims, Thomas Edison did not invent the movie camera.
1918—Warner Bros. releases its first film, "My Four Years in Germany."
1938—For the first time since they began in 1927, the names of Academy Award winners are kept secret until their announcement at the awards ceremony.
1938—"Jezebel," starring Bette Davis, opens.

March 11
1927—The world's first rear-projection screen is installed at New York's Roxy Theater.
1950—After 26 years on the radio, the long-running country music radio show "National Barn Dance" airs for the last time.
1989—Reality-based TV show "COPS" is first broadcast nationally on Fox.

March 12
1923—Inventor Lee de Forest demonstrates Phonofilm, the first film capable of taping sound.
1946—Liza Minnelli, the only offspring of two Oscar winners to win an Oscar herself, is born to actress Judy Garland and director Vincent Minnelli.
1969—The soundtrack of "The Graduate," which features Simon and Garfunkel's song "Mrs. Robinson," is presented with the Grammy for Best Record of 1968.

March 13
1940—"The Road to Singapore," starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour, opens.
1958—"The Long Hot Summer," starring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Orson Welles, opens in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

March 14
1931—The Trans-Lux Theater opens in Manhattan.
1935—Six-year-old actress Shirley Temple presses her hands in cement outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles.
1976—Director and choreographer Busby Berkeley dies.

March 15
1972—Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather" opens.
1992—Hollywood screenwriter Helen Deutsch dies.

TV History Weekly

March 2
1925—Director, producer and screenwriter Cecil B. DeMille founds his own studio.
1944—For the first time, the Academy Awards are presented as part of a televised variety show.
1973—The Women in Film organization is founded.

March 3
1914—The first episode of "The Perils of Pauline," starring Pearl White, is released.
1915—Director D.W. Griffith's controversial Civil War epic "The Birth of a Nation" opens in New York City, a few weeks after its West Coast premiere in Los Angeles.
1943—"The Milton Berle Show" first airs on radio.
1959—Radio and film comedian Lou Costello, of the renowned comedy duo Abbott and Costello, dies just three days shy of his 53rd birthday.

March 4
1938—The movie serial "The Lone Ranger" is first released.
1942—Actress Joan Fontaine engages in a public argument with gossip columnist Hedda Hopper at the Brown Derby, a popular Hollywood haunt.
1996—A longtime fixture of Nashville's "Grand Ole Opry," comedienne Minnie Pearl dies.

March 5
1960—Elvis Presley is discharged from the army after a two-year stint.
1962—George C. Scott turns down his nomination for Best Supporting Actor in "The Hustler," disdaining the awards as self-serving and meaningless.
1984—Actor William Powell dies at the age of 91.

March 6
1927—The German film "Metropolis" opens in the United States.
1947—"Hour Glass," the first regularly scheduled network variety hour, airs its last episode.
1967—Nelson Eddy, popular actor and singer, collapses onstage during a performance in Australia and dies of a stroke at the age of 66.

March 7
1946—Actress Joan Crawford, born Lucille Fay Le Sueur, is awarded the Oscar for her performance in "Mildred Pierce."
1955—The first Broadway play to be televised in color, featuring the original cast, airs. The play was "Peter Pan," starring Mary Martin.
1960—A month after walking off "The Tonight Show" to protest censorship, host Jack Paar returns to the show.

March 8
1933—"42nd Street," choreographed by Busby Berkeley, opens.
1986—"Mask," starring Eric Stoltz and Cher, opens.
1991—Violence breaks out in theaters around the country at the opening of "New Jack City."

TV History Weekly

February 24
1927—Fox demonstrated its new Movietone sound process to the media by filming a group of reporters in the morning, then showing the film, with sound, at night.
1938—Variety reports that MGM has cast Judy Garland as Dorothy, Ray Bolger as the Tin Man, and Buddy Ebsen as the Scarecrow for the film "The Wizard of Oz."

February 25
1909—Movie studios, including Biograph, Vitagraph, the Edison Studio, Pathe and others, begin submitting films to the Board of Censorship for review.
1928—The Federal Radio Commission issues the first television license.
1950—Comedy program "Your Show of Shows," hosted by Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, first airs on this day.

February 26
1942—Joan Fontaine wins Best Actress for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion."
1957—The last radio episode of "Dragnet" airs.

February 27
1929—"Hearts in Dixie," the first film created by a major studio specifically for an African-American audience, premieres in New York.
1936—Shirley Temple receives a new contract from 20th Century Fox that will pay the seven-year-old star $50,000 a film.
2003—Beloved children’s entertainer Fred Rogers succumbs to stomach cancer at 74.

February 28
1983—"M*A*S*H," the cynical situation comedy about doctors behind the front lines of the Korean War, airs its final episode.
1992—The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., opens an exhibit honoring the original "Star Trek" television series.
1993—Actress Ruby Keeler, star of numerous Busby Berkeley musicals featuring over-the-top dance numbers, dies.

February 29
1928—Variety reports that director and screenwriter William DeMille, brother of director Cecil B. DeMille, hired Beth Brown to write jokes for the film "Tenth Avenue." Brown was the first woman on record to work as a Hollywood comedy writer.
1940—Bob Hope hosts the Oscar banquets for the first time.

March 1
1950—The TV series "Ripley's Believe It or Not," featuring strange and unusual phenomena, begins broadcasting.
1965—The Supreme Court strikes down a Maryland movie censorship law, ruling that it violated the First Amendment.

TV History Weekly

February 17
1927—Several major studios, including MGM, Paramount, and Universal, agree to postpone their decision to produce talkies.
1979—Garrison Keillor's popular radio variety show is first broadcast nationally as part of National Public Radio's Folk Festival America.
1982—American director, actor, and drama coach Lee Strasberg, the founder of "method acting," dies of a heart attack at age 80.

February 18
1929—First Academy Awards announced.
1952—"Your Show of Shows" wins Emmy.
1995—The revival of the 1960s comedy "Get Smart" is canceled after only seven episodes.

February 19
1878—Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
1914—Pittsburgh movie theaters are required to establish a seating section for unaccompanied women.
1916—A crowd of 16,000 people gather at New York's Madison Square Garden to catch a glimpse of movie stars attending the Movie Costume and Civic Ball.

February 20
1936—Despite freezing weather, some 20,000 people line up for the premiere of "Follow the Fleet," starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
1943—Movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies informally.

February 21
1901—Vaudeville performers go on strike.
1926—"Torrent" opens, starring glamorous, husky-voiced actress Greta Garbo in her first U.S. film.
1952—Elizabeth Taylor, 20, marries Michael Wilding.

February 22
1923—Variety reports that producer Hal Roach has signed a Montreal beauty pageant winner named Norma Shearer.

February 23
1965—Comedian Stan Laurel dies at age 74, eight years after the death of his long-time comedy partner, Oliver Hardy.
1997—"Schindler's List" is shown on NBC, the first network to broadcast a movie without commercial interruption.

TV History Weekly

February 10
1887—For the first time, an American actor performs in two cities on the same day. Nathaniel Carr Goodwin performed in "Turned Up" in Boston in the morning, then dashed to New York City to perform in "The Mascot" at 8 p.m.
1920—"Kathleen Mavourneen," starring Theda Bara, provokes a riot when it opens in San Francisco.
1992—Alex Haley, author of "Roots" (1976), dies of a heart attack at age 70 in Seattle.

February 11
1960—Jack Paar, host of NBC's "The Tonight Show," walks off the program to protest censorship on this day in 1960.

February 12
1924—The first network radio program to be sponsored by advertising debuts.

February 13
1895—French inventors Louis and August Lumiere patent the Cinematographe, a combination movie camera and projector.
1939—"Gone with the Wind" director George Cukor is fired.
1949—Actor-director Jack Webb, creator of the hit radio and TV series "Dragnet," gets his start in realistic crime drama with the radio show "Pat Novak for Hire."

February 14
1927—English director Alfred Hitchcock's first suspense film, "The Lodger," opens.
1938—Hedda Hopper's first gossip column appears in the Los Angeles Times.
1942—"This Is War," a 13-week anti-fascist radio series, debuted in the midst of World War II.
1962—The first televised tour of the White House airs this day in 1962. First Lady Jackie Kennedy hosted the tour.

February 15
1914—The Jesse L. Lasky Company releases "The Squaw Man," the first film to be directed by Cecil B. DeMille.
1950—Walt Disney's animated feature "Cinderella" opens.
1984—Stage and screen actress and singer Ethel Merman dies at age 75.

February 16
1933—David O. Selznick becomes vice president and producer at MGM.
1950—TV game show "What's My Line" debuts.

TV History Weekly

February 3
1922—Comic actor and director Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's trial ends in a hung jury.
1938—Vaudeville comedy team Bud Abbott and Lou Costello first appear as regulars on the "Kate Smith Hour" radio program.
1959—Rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson are killed when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashes in Iowa.

February 4
1926—The Western Association of Motion Picture Advertisers forecasts the success of a group of young actresses. The group's published list of "Baby Stars" included Joan Crawford, Mary Astor and Fay Wray, all of whom became Hollywood hits.
1935—Actor and director Ernst Lubitsch, known for his silent comedies and early talking pictures, is named head of production for Paramount.
1938—Hollywood talent agent Myron Selznick is banned from the 20th Century Fox lot.
1941—The United Service Organization, a civilian agency, is founded.

February 5
1918—Francis X. Bushman, one of cinema's earliest heartthrobs, is sued for divorce by his wife.
1919—Hollywood superstars Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and director D.W. Griffith launch the United Artists Corporation, agreeing to share full financial and artistic control.
1921—Loew's State Theater opens in Chicago.
1936—A riot squad is called out for crowd control on this day in 1936 at the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's film "Modern Times."

February 6
1926—Comedian Oliver Hardy signs a long-term contract with producer and director Hal Roach.
1993—Director-producer-screenwriter Joseph Mankiewicz dies.

February 7
1914—Charlie Chaplin, age 24, makes his first appearance in his popular "Little Tramp" role, in "Kid Auto Races at Venice."
1993—Actress Lillian Gish, often dubbed "First Lady of the Silent Screen," dies at age 97.

February 8
1915—Director D.W. Griffith's film "Birth of a Nation" premieres at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles.
1953—Walt Disney is featured in a one-hour special broadcast of Ed Sullivan's hit show "The Toast of the Town."

February 9
1933—"She Done Him Wrong," starring Mae West and Cary Grant, opens.
1951—Swedish actress Greta Garbo, 46, becomes an American citizen.

TV History Weekly

January 20
1910—Director D.W. Griffith and his stock company arrive in Los Angeles.
1984—Champion swimmer and "Tarzan" star Johnny Weissmuller dies.

January 21
1916—The National Board of Review, founded in 1909 as the National Board of Censorship, agrees it will not accept nudity in films.
1959—Carl Switzer, better known as Alfalfa from the "Our Gang" comedies, is shot and killed in a brawl.
1959—Director, producer and screenwriter Cecil B. De Mille, one of the most influential filmmakers of his day, dies.

January 22
1947—The first television station west of the Mississippi River goes on the air.
1968—"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" makes its debut.
1972—"Emergency!," produced by "Dragnet" star and producer Jack Webb premieres, featuring the same semi-documentary style popularized by Webb's earlier police drama.

January 23
1961—The United States upholds a Chicago film censorship law. The law forbade the showing of any motion picture until it had been screened and approved by the city censors.
1977—The miniseries "Roots" debuts on ABC.
1992—The Smithsonian Institution awards producer, director and screenwriter Hal Roach its highest honor, the James Smithson Medal.

January 24
1920—A group of politicians and movie executives called the Americanization Committee announce a new production, "The Land of Opportunity," featuring actor Ralph Ince as Abraham Lincoln.
1927—Young director Alfred Hitchcock's first film, "The Pleasure Garden," is released in England.
1961—Film icon Marilyn Monroe divorces her third husband, playwright Arthur Miller, four and a half years after they were married.
1986—Director Vincente Minnelli, father of Liza Minnelli, dies.

January 25
1926—The Central Casting Corporation opens.
1949—The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences presents its first Emmy Award at the Hollywood Athletic Club in Los Angeles.

January 26
1934—Producer Samuel Goldwyn buys the film rights to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum on this day in 1934.
1940—Twenty-nine-year-old actor Ronald Reagan marries actress Jane Wyman.

TV History Weekly

January 13
1910—Lee De Forest, the American inventor of the vacuum tube, broadcasts a live performance of Enrico Caruso from the Metropolitan Opera.
1928—Television sets are installed in three homes in Schenectady, New York.

January 14
1952—The "Today" show introduces the morning news format.
1954—Twenty-eight-year-old Marilyn Monroe, born Norma Jean Baker, marries baseball legend Joe DiMaggio.
1955—Alan Freed, disc jockey of the popular radio show "Rock 'n' Roll Party," produces his first rock and roll dance concert in New York at the St. Nicholas Arena.

January 15
1918—Comedian Stan Laurel first starts work with the Hal Roach movie studio.
1974—The first episode of "Happy Days" airs.
1981—The award-winning "Hill Street Blues" premieres on NBC.
1987—Ray Bolger, 83, dies. Bolger, who started his career as a vaudeville performer, was best known for his role as the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz."

January 16
1973—Long-running western series "Bonanza" is finally canceled after 14 seasons.
1976—Music variety show "Donny and Marie" premieres, starring 18-year-old Donny Osmond and his 16-year-old sister, Marie.

January 17
1942—Millions of movie fans are stunned when actress Carole Lombard dies in a plane crash at the age of 34.
1949—"The Goldbergs" debuts on this day in 1949 as television's first situation comedy. The show ran until 1954.
1984—The Supreme Court rules that home videotaping did not violate copyright laws. The decision paved the way for the success of video store chains like Blockbuster.

January 18
1948—One of TV's first talent shows, the "Original Amateur Hour," debuts.
1974—The "Six Million Dollar Man" debuts.
1991—Documentary film pioneer Leo Hurwitz dies at the age of 82.

January 19
1931—Legendary producer Samuel Goldwyn announces he has contracted with fashion designer Coco Chanel to advise United Artists costumers.
1940—The Three Stooges film "You Nazty Spy" is released.
1953—On this day in 1953, episode #56, “Lucy Goes to the Hospital,” of the hit 1950s sitcom "I Love Lucy" airs for the first time. The episode, in which Lucy Ricardo, famously played by Lucille Ball, gives birth to a son, was one of the most popular in television history.
1955—Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the first president to hold news conferences to be filmed by TV and newsreels.

TV History Weekly

January 6
1936—Porky Pig makes his world debut in a Warner Brothers cartoon, "Gold Diggers of '49."
1973—The animated Saturday morning TV series of shorts called "Schoolhouse Rock" premieres on ABC with "Multiplication Rock."
1974—"Radio Mystery Theater" debuts on more than 200 CBS stations.

January 7
1911—One of the most popular film stars of the early Hollywood days, Mary Pickford, marries actor Owen Moore.
1926—George Burns and Gracie Allen are married by a justice of the peace on this day in 1926 in Cleveland, Ohio.
1940—Gene Autry's musical variety show premieres on CBS radio, where it will run for the next 16 years.

January 8
1941—American mogul William Randolph Hearst, owner of the Hearst newspaper chain, forbids any of his newspapers from accepting ads for Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane," slated for release later in the year.
1966—Rock and roll TV variety show "Shindig!" airs its last episode on ABC.

January 9
1894—William Kennedy Laurie Dickson copyrights the first motion picture.
1911—Mary Pickford's first film with her new studio, IMP, is released.
1959—Western TV series "Rawhide" premieres, starring Clint Eastwood as a cattle-driving cowboy.
1976—Sylvester Stallone begins work on "Rocky" after five months of training.

January 10
1951—The House Committee on Un-American Activities clears actor Edward G. Robinson from charges of communism.
1967—The first educational television network, National Education Television, launches.
1971—The long-running PBS series, "Masterpiece Theater" debuts.

January 11
1927—Charlie Chaplin's $16 million estate is frozen by court receivers after his second wife, Lita Grey Chaplin, sues for divorce.
1949—NBC links its East and Midwest TV networks, celebrating with a special ceremonial telecast.

January 12
1926—Radio program "Sam 'n' Henry" debuts on WGN in Chicago.
1944—Alfred Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" premieres at the Astor Theater in New York.
1971—Controversial comedy "All in the Family" debuts.

TV History Weekly

December 23
1912—Keystone Pictures releases its first "Keystone Kop" movie, "Hoffmeyer's Release."
1930—Actress Bette Davis signs with Universal after years of work as a struggling actress.

December 24
1922—Actress Ava Gardner is born in Smithfield, North Carolina.
1948—Perry Como launches his long-running TV variety show.
1953—"Dragnet" becomes the first network series with a regular sponsor when Fatima cigarettes signs on to back the show.

December 25
1938—Producer David O. Selznick asks Vivien Leigh to play Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind."
1995—Actor and singer Dean Martin dies at the age of 78.

December 26
1974—Beloved comedian Jack Benny dies of cancer on this day.
2000—Actor Jason Robards dies.

December 27
1927—The musical "Show Boat" opens on Broadway.
1932—Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City.
1939—Radio program "The Glen Miller Show" debuts on CBS.

December 28
1895—The world's first commercial screening of a film takes place at the Grand Cafè in Paris.

December 29
1913—Shooting begins on "The Squaw Man," the first feature-length film made in Hollywood.
1936—Mary Tyler Moore is born in Brooklyn.

TV History Weekly

December 16
1913—Young British actor Charles Chaplin reports to work at Keystone studios for the first time.
1951—Detective series "Dragnet" appears on television for the first time, as a sneak preview on the anthology show "Chesterfield Sound-Off Time."

December 17
1936—Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his wisecracking dummy Charlie McCarthy debut on Rudy Vallee's popular radio show.
1969—Singer Tiny Tim marries his sweetheart, "Miss Vickie" (Victoria Budinger), on "The Tonight Show."
1977—Elvis Costello makes a rare television appearance on "Saturday Night Live."

December 18
1916—Betty Grable is born in St. Louis, Missouri. Grable, trained as an actress and dancer, began appearing in Hollywood musicals in her teens.
1946—Director Steven Spielberg is born in Cincinnati.

December 19
1915—Internationally renowned French singer Edith Piaf is born on this day in Paris in 1915.
1971—Director Stanley Kubrick's controversial film "A Clockwork Orange" opens.

December 20
1898—Actress Irene Dunne is born on this day in Louisville, Kentucky.
1932—Al Jolson, the most famous singer of his day, records one of his best-known songs, "April Showers."

December 21
1937—Actress Jane Fonda is born on this day in 1937.
1937—"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" debuts.
1967—The Rolling Stones release their album, "Their Satanic Majesties Request."

December 22
1949—Twin brothers Robin and Maurice Gibb are born on this day.
1972—Joni Mitchell's album "For the Roses" goes gold.

TV History Weekly

December 9
1929—18-year-old Ginger Rogers makes her Broadway debut, in "Top Speed."
1972—Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons dies.

December 10
1938—Filming finally begins on "Gone with the Wind" after years of delay.
1957—Actor Sidney Poitier agrees to star in the film version of George Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess."
1982—Freeman Gosden, the white actor who played the African-American character Amos Jones in the radio show "Amos 'n' Andy," dies.

December 11
1939—Actress Marlene Dietrich records her hit song "Falling in Love Again."
1956—The movie industry's tight restriction of language and subject matter, known as the Hays Code or the Production Code, is eased slightly for the first time since its adoption in 1930.

December 12
1915—Singer and actor Frank Sinatra is born in Hoboken, New Jersey.
1968—Stage and screen actress Tallulah Bankhead dies at the age of 65.

December 13
1928—The New York Philharmonic debuts "An American in Paris" by George Gershwin.
1950—An undiscovered actor named James Dean appears in a Pepsi commercial, dancing with other teens around a jukebox.

December 14
1944—"National Velvet" opens. The movie boosts 12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor to stardom.
1993—Actress Myrna Loy dies.
1999—Cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Peanuts gang, announces his retirement after more than 50 years of drawing the cartoon for syndication.

December 15
1939—"Gone With the Wind" premieres in Atlanta.
1966—Animation pioneer Walt Disney dies.

TV History Weekly

December 2
1932—Bing Crosby and Bob Hope appear together for the first time onstage in a show at the Paramount Theater, where "The Mask of Fu Manchu" opens.

December 3
1907—Future movie star Mary Pickford and future director Cecil B. DeMille both appear in the Broadway play "The Warrens of Virginia."

December 4
1921—The manslaughter trial for actor and director Fatty Arbuckle ends in a hung jury.
1936—Actress Tallulah Bankhead auditions unsuccessfully for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind."

December 5
1906—Director Otto Preminger is born in Vienna, Austria.
1912—"The New York Hat" opens. The first movie written by Anita Loos, the film was directed by D.W. Griffith and starred Mary Pickford.
1952—Comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello launch their TV show. They made only 52 episodes, but the show appeared in reruns for decades.

December 6
1948—"Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts," one of TV's first amateur talent shows, debuts.
1998—Comedian and actor Bill Cosby receives the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors.

December 7
1925—Future "Tarzan" actor Johnny Weissmuller sets the world record for the 150-yard freestyle swim.
1941—Japanese planes launch a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, propelling the United States into World War II.
1990—Actress Joan Bennett dies at the age of 80.

December 8
1964—Radio and television actor William Bendix, best known for playing bull-headed family man Chester Riley in "Life of Riley," dies.
1980—John Lennon, one of rock's most influential musicians, is murdered by a deranged fan in front of Lennon's New York apartment building.

TV History Weekly

November 25
1947—Film industry executives announce that 10 directors, producers and actors who have refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) will be fired or suspended.

November 26
1913—Showman Jesse Lasky forms the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company in partnership with his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn) and his friend Cecil B. DeMille.
1922—"Peanuts" cartoonist Charles M. Schulz is born in St. Paul, Minnesota.
1922—Two-tone Technicolor is used for the first time on a general release film, "Toll of the Sea."

November 27
1940—Lee Yuen Kam, later known as Bruce Lee, is born in San Francisco.

November 28
1907—Scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens a small movie theater and soon becomes owner of the largest chain in New England. He eventually manages Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
1920—"The Mark of Zorro" opens, starring Douglas Fairbanks.
1925—Country-variety show "The Grand Ole Opry" debuts.

November 29
1928—MGM releases "Love," a silent film version of Leo Tolstoy's novel "Anna Karenina."
1948—Children's show "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" premieres on prime time network TV.
1986—Actor Cary Grant dies of a stroke at the age of 82.

November 30
1959—Production begins on Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller "Psycho."

December 1
1934—Jazz clarinet pioneer Benny Goodman debuts as a regular on radio variety show "Let's Dance."
1946—"Geographically Speaking," the first TV show with a commercial sponsor, airs its last episode.
1960—Actress Sandra Dee, best known for playing the title role in the teenybopper beach movie "Gidget," marries her fellow teen idol singer Bobby Darin.

TV History Weekly

November 18
1928—Cartoon star Mickey Mouse appears for the first time in "Steamboat Willie," an animated short produced by Walt Disney.
1932—Al Jolson makes his debut as radio host on "Kraft Music Hall."
1938—Glamour queen Lana Turner auditions unsuccessfully for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind."

November 19
1916—Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn) and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Company. Goldwyn became one of the world's most successful independent filmmakers.

November 20
1952—A struggling Frank Sinatra agrees to a screen test for a role in "From Here to Eternity." The movie will win him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
1962—Actress Jodie Foster is born in Los Angeles. Foster made her show business debut in 1969, on the TV series "Mayberry R.F.D."

November 21
1934—The hit musical "Anything Goes," starring Ethel Merman, opens on Broadway.
1945—Actress Goldie Hawn is born in Washington, D.C.

November 22
1958—Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is born to actors Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh in Los Angeles.
1980—Actress and writer Mae West dies at the age of 88.

November 23
1883—Adolph Marx (later known as Arthur, then as Harpo), is born in New York City.
1958—Western series "Have Gun, Will Travel" launches on the radio.

November 24
1951—Broadway play "Gigi" opens, based on the novel by French writer Colette. Colette herself insisted that little known actress Audrey Hepburn play the lead.
1978—David Letterman makes his first guest appearance on "The Tonight Show."

TV History Weekly

November 11
1942—"The Road to Morocco," starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, opens.

November 12
1929—Actress Grace Kelly is born in Philadelphia.
1934—Movie musical "Babes in Toyland" opens, featuring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as comic relief.
1990—Actress Eve Arden, best known for playing the title role in the radio and TV series "Our Miss Brooks," dies at age 78.

November 13
1939—Director, actress, and screenwriter Lois Weber dies. Weber was the first female director in Hollywood.
1940—Walt Disney's "Fantasia" opens.
1949—Caryn Johnson, later known as Whoopi Goldberg, is born in New York City.

November 14
1906—Actress Louise Brooks is born in Cherryvale, Kansas.
1919—Actress Constance Frances Marie Ockleman, later known as Veronica Lake, is born in Brooklyn.

November 15
1926—Radio network NBC debuts, celebrating its launch with one of the earliest remote musical broadcasts.
1956—"Love Me Tender," Elvis Presley's first movie, opens at the Paramount Theater in New York.

November 16
1946—"Television Screen Magazine" launches. The show, one of NBC's first network series, included a collection of features on news, lifestyles, fashion and other topics.
1957—Bandleader Lawrence Welk's radio show airs for the last time.
1960—Actor Clark Gable dies.

November 17
1925—Roy Harold Scherer, later known as Rock Hudson, is born in Winnetka, Illinois.
1942—Film director Martin Scorsese is born in Flushing, New York.
1944—Actor and director Danny DeVito is born in Neptune, New Jersey.

TV History Weekly

November 4
1879—Beloved American actor and humorist Will Rogers is born in "Indian Territory" (now the state of Oklahoma).
1960—Filming wraps up on "The Misfits," the last film for both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable.

November 5
1911—Leonard Slye, later known as Roy Rogers, is born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1913—Actress Vivien Leigh is born in Darjeeling, India. Leigh is best remembered for playing Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind," for which she received her first Best Actress Oscar.
1930—Norma Shearer wins the Best Actress Academy Award for her role in "The Divorcee."

November 6
1921—Launching the cult of Rudolph Valentino, "The Sheik" opens.
1939—Hollywood gossip Hedda Hopper makes her radio debut with the "Hedda Hopper Show."
1946—Actress Sally Field is born in Pasadena, California.

November 7
1932—"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" was broadcast for the first on CBS Radio.
1951—Hollywood stars Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra marry.
1963—The comedy "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" premiered in Hollywood.
1965—The "Pillsbury Dough Boy" debuted in television commercials. 

November 8
1880—French actress Sarah Bernhardt makes her first appearance on the New York stage, in "La Dame aux Camelias," by Alexandre Dumas.
1965—The soap opera "Days of Our Lives" debuted on NBC.

November 9
2003—Academy Award-winning actor Art Carney dies.

November 10
1889—Actor Claude Rains, best known for his role as the dapper chief of police in "Casablanca," is born in England.
1925—Actor Richard Burton is born Richard Jenkins, the 12th of 13 children born to a South Wales coal miner.
1931—Actor Lionel Barrymore wins the Best Actor Oscar for "Free Soul."

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