Blog Mirror: 100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #39: It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

 

100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #39: It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Friday, December 20, 1946. Release of It's A Wonderful Life.

 

It's a Wonderful Life premiered on this day in 1946.

This is jumping the line in our 100 years ago and 80 years ago threads, and this won't become a regular, but this year, this anniversary might be worth mentioning.

The release, FWIW, was in New York. The general release would come on January 7.  The film didn't really acquire its current classic status until a failure to renew the copyright in 1974 led to it being frequently run on television.  Irrespective of that, it is a classic, although one that I tend to find makes me a bit sad.

On the same day a 1944 Soviet secret cable that had been intercepted by the US was revealed to have contained the list of scientists working on the Manhattan Project.  As the Venona Files would reveal, Soviet penetration of the US government was extensive.

British Prime Minister Clement Attlee announced that the British government was prepared to grant Burma its independence.

Sugar Ray Robinson won his first professional boxing title.

Thursday, February 8, 1900. Freak blizzards, Failed Boer attacks, Je me souviens, Okinawan legacy.

A freak blizzard, if any blizzard is a freak, broke out in the Midwest in which the unseasonably warm temperature in Chicago was 62 °F (17 °C) at 7:00 am, and fell to 10 °F (−12 °C) by 11:00 pm.  The drop in temperature stands as a record to this day.

The Boers attacked the British in Ladysmith, South Africa, but were turned back.

The the States of Jersey permitted the use of the English language in its parliamentary debates for the first time, which is a crying shame.

French had been the language that was used until that time, and in my view, still should be.

Fiddlin' Joe Martin was born January 8, 1900 in  Edwards, Mississippi.

Okinawan Toyama Kyuzo, from Kin Town, arrived in Hawaii.  He was the first of many from Okinawa.

Actress Dorothy I. Adams was born in Hannah, North Dakota.  She played Wilma Cameron's mother in the bittersweet The Best Years of Our Lives, one of the best movies of all time, and the best film about the tragic, and tragically flawed "Greatest Generation".  It's hard to believe that she was only 46 years old when the film was made, which interestingly links in, a bit, to a comment made must yesterday.

Last edition:

Wednesday, February 7, 1900. Plague comes to the United States.

Labels: 1900, 1900–1904 San Francisco plague, 1900s, California (San Fransico), China, Disease, Education, Great Plague, Satire, Wyoming Freedom Caucus