Born on this day – Tom Petty:

Tom Petty

Musician

Singer

Songwriter

October 20, 1950 – October 2, 2017

Credits:

Albums:

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976); You're Gonna Get It! (1978); Damn the Torpedoes (1979); Hard Promises (1981); Long After Dark (1982); Southern Accents (1985); Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) (1987); Into the Great Wide Open (1991); Songs and Music from "She's the One" (1996); Echo (1999); The Last DJ (2002); Mojo (2010); Hypnotic Eye (2014); Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 (1988); Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 (1990); Full Moon Fever (1989); Wildflowers (1994); Highway Companion (2006); Mudcrutch (2008); 2 (2016); American Treasure (2018); The Best of Everything (2019); Wildflowers & All the Rest (2020); Finding Wildflowers: Alternate Versions (2021); Angel Dream (Original motion picture soundtrack to the movie: She's the One) (2021).

On this day in movie history - The Breaking Point (1950):

The Breaking Point

directed by Michael Curtiz,

written by Ranald MacDougall,

based on the novel To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway,

was released in the United States on October 6, 1950.
Music by Max Steiner.

Cast:

John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter, Juano Hernández, Wallace Ford, Edmon Ryan, Ralph Dumke, Guy Thomajan, William Campbell, Sherry Jackson, Donna Jo Boyce, Victor Sen Yung.

On this day in movie history - Dark City (1950):

Dark City

directed by William Dieterle,

written by John Meredyth Lucas and Larry Marcus,

based on the story No Escape by Larry Marcus,

was released in the United States on October 6, 1950.
Music by Franz Waxman.

Cast:

Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, Viveca Lindfors, Dean Jagger, Don DeFore, Jack Webb, Ed Begley, Harry Morgan, Walter Sande, Mark Keuning, Mike Mazurki.

Born on this day – Jeff Conaway:

Jeff Conaway

Actor

October 5, 1950 – May 27, 2011

On this day in movie history - Between Midnight and Dawn (1950):

Between Midnight and Dawn

a.k.a. Prowl Car,

directed by Gordon Douglas,

written by Eugene Ling,

based on a story by Gerald Drayson Adams and Leo Katcher,

was released in the United States on September 30, 1950.

Music by George Duning.

Cast:

Mark Stevens, Edmond O'Brien, Gale Storm, Donald Buka, Gale Robbins, Anthony Ross, Roland Winters, Tito Vuolo, Grazia Narciso, Madge Blake, Lora Lee Michel, John Butler, Dudley Dickerson, Cliff Bailey, Tony Barr, Robert Bice, Symona Boniface, Chet Brandenburg, John Breen, Ralph Brooks, James Brown, Wheaton Chambers, Tom Daly, Sayre Dearing, Jack Del Rio, George DeNormand, Douglas Evans, Janey Fay, Charles Ferguson, George Ford, Robert Foulk, Lee Frederick, Jack Gargan, Alex Gerry, James Gonzalez, Billy Gray, William E. Green, Chuck Hamilton, Harry Harvey, Myron Healey, Mary Alan Hokanson, Ted Jordan, Louise Kane, Richard Karlan, Johnny Kascier, Mary Ellen Kay, Don Kohler, Marc Krah, Mike Lally, Richard LaMarr, Harry Lauter, Nolan Leary, Robert Locke Lorraine, Eric Mack, Peter Mamakos, Tommy Mann, Charles Marsh, Sydney Mason, Harry Mayo, Frances Morris, William H. O'Brien, Frank O'Connor, Paul Palmer, Steve Pendleton, Frank Pharr, Maudie Prickett, Tom Quinn, Joe Recht, Robert Robinson, Ric Roman, Cosmo Sardo, Fred Shellac, Ted Stanhope, Bert Stevens, Brick Sullivan, Tony Taylor, Carlo Tricoli, Philip Van Zandt, Ruth Warren, Guy Way, Gayne Whitman.

On this day in movie history - The Sleeping City (1950):

The Sleeping City

directed and written by George Sherman,

was released in the United States on September 20, 1950.
Music by Frank Skinner.

Cast:

Richard Conte, Coleen Gray, Richard Taber, John Alexander, Peggy Dow, Alex Nicol, Carroll Ashburn, Frank Baxter, Dort Clark, Mickey Cochran, Russell Collins, James Daly, Henry Hart, Ralph Hertz, Tom Hoirer, Richard Kendrick, Jack Lescoulie, Jimmy Little, William Martel, Rod McLennan, Florence Morrison, James O'Neill, Herbert Ratner, Hugh Reilly, Ernest Sarracino, Robert Strauss, Michael Strong, Mimi Strongin, Victor Sutherland, Frank M. Thomas, Frank Tweddell, James J. Van Dyk.

Recommended reading - Jealous Woman (1950):

Jealous Woman

By James M. Cain.

First published in 1950.

Published by Black Lizard Books.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0887390889

ISBN-13: 978-0887390883

Description:

An ambitious Reno salesman. A wealthy would-be divorcée. An insurance policy. It’s a toxic combination in this noir thriller by an MWA Grand Master . . .

Jane Delvan had dark, red hair and plenty of shape of a nice, refined kind. To Ed Horner she was only a little fancy flirtation under the Nevada moon, but he found some peculiar circumstances developing when Jane’s husband, Tom Delavan, himself came to town, followed very shortly afterwards by his first wife, the beautiful but jealous Lady Sperry.

Ed wondered what kind of game Jane Delavan was playing with him, leading him on as she was? And why should Lady Sperry take a heated interest in him of a sudden? What were the cause of secret midnight callers roaming at will through hotel bedrooms? Suddenly Ed Horner found himself slowly being ringed about by a group of hard-hating, highly emotional people who all had motives that involved them in a case of murder and the Jealous Woman.

If Las Vegas is a city of lovers, in Reno, the business is divorce. Six weeks in Reno can erase the darkest marriages, and the only question is how to pass the time – craps or roulette? Jane Delavan is a roulette woman, a stately beauty from back East who is too classy for the motel where she’s shacked up. She’s come for a divorce, but her husband has other ideas. He wants an annulment, and in exchange offers to take out a $100,000 insurance policy on himself – just in case something happens to him before their paperwork goes through. Jane is cunning enough to make sure that if she wants something to happen, it will. Ed Horner is the insurance agent sent to settle the agreement, and it doesn’t take long for Jane to settle him. They fall in love over twenty-five-cent roulette and soon have a bigger score in mind. In the Biggest Little City in the World, a king-size scheme is brewing . . .

“Cleverly plotted.” – The New York Times.

“Swift and absorbing.” – The Wall Street Journal.

Born on this day – Michael Schlesinger:

Michael Schlesinger

Director

Producer

Writer

September 4, 1950 – January 9, 2025

Credits:

13 Ghosts: The Magic of Illusion-O (2001); A Stanley Kramer Production (2016); American Frontiers: Anthony Mann at Universal (2019); Battle-Axe: The Making of 'Strait-Jacket' (2002); Beast Wishes (2012); Bride of Finklestein (2015); Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That (2005); Budd Boetticher: An American Original (2005); Complicated Women (2003); Damn Dirty Geeks (2017); Dark and Stormy Night (2009); Film It Again, Sam: The Katzman Chronicles (2015); Footprints (2009); Forces of Nature: Anthony Mann at Universal (2025); Frank Capra's American Dream (1997); Glorious Technicolor (1998); Godzilla 2000 (1999); If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast (2017); Imagining 'Heavy Metal' (1999); Imitation of Wife (2015); In the Picture (2012); It's a Frame-Up! (2013); It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles (1993); Monstrkyd Manor (2016); Obey the Lost Skeleton! (2004); Out of Print (2014); Psychette: William Castle and 'Homicidal' (2002); Rita (2003); Rock and Doris (try to) Write a Movie (2024); Schmo Boat (2015); Screen Test / Contestant (1981) (1979–1984); So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM (2004); Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007); Stu's Show (2013–2018); Taking the Punishment Poll (2002); That Guy Dick Miller (2014); The Adventures of Biffle and Shooster (2015); The Biffle Murder Case (2015); The Lost Skeleton Returns Again (2008); They Came from Beyond - Sam Katzman at Columbia (2023); Trail of the Screaming Forehead (2007); Trailers from Hell (2016–2025); Why Be Good? Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema (2007); Yesterday Was a Lie (2009).

Born on this day – Jessie Jones:

Jessie Jones

Actress

Writer

August 21, 1950 – March 20, 2026

Credits:

Books / plays:

A Doublewide, Texas Christmas (2018); Always a Bridesmaid (2013); Buddy Bro Bubba Dude: Men in Twisted Shorts (2022); Christmas Belles (2007); Dearly Beloved (2005); Dearly Departed: A Comedy (1992); Deliver Us from Mama! (2020); Doublewide, Texas (2016); Farce of Habit (2017); Farce of Nature (2014); Funny Little Thing Called Love (2014); Honey Sugar Lady Doll: Women in Bodacious Shorts (2022); Honky Tonk Hissy Fit (2021); Last Round-up of the Guacamole Queens (2015); Lickety Split: Women and Men in Outrageous Shorts (2022); Mama Won't Fly (2012); Rex's Exes (2012); Sitting Ducks (2025); Southern Hospitality (2008); The Dixie Swim Club (2008); The Hallelujah Girls (2010); The Red Velvet Cake War (2010); The Savannah Sipping Society (2016); The Second-To-Last Chance Ladies League (2025); The Sweet Delilah Swim Club (2020); The Wild Women of Winedale (2019); 'Til Beth Do Us Part: (a Marital Confection) (2010).

Movies and television:

Backfield in Motion (1991); Border Line (1999); Caroline in the City (1996); Caught in the Act (1993); Cold Case (2005); Designing Women (1990); Ed and His Dead Mother (1993); Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure (1989); For Their Own Good (1993); For Your Love (2002); Fudge (1995); Grace Under Fire (1995); Hooperman (1989); Judging Amy (2004); Jury Duty: The Comedy (1990); Kingdom Come (2001); Melrose Place (1997); Murphy Brown (1990); My Brother's Keeper (1995); Newhart (1989); Night Court (1990); Perfect Strangers (1990); Switch (1991); Teacher's Pet (2001–2002); The Crew (1995); The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (1993); Unhappily Ever After (1997); Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase (1990); Weird Science (1996); Who's the Boss? (1991); Wife, Mother, Murderer (1991); You're the One (1998).

Born on this day – Maria O'Brien:

Maria O'Brien

Actress

August 14, 1950 – February 24, 2026

Credits:

1st & Ten (1990); ...And Then She Was Gone (1991); Ave 43 (2011–2017); Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction / Segment: The Chess Game (1998); Chico and the Man (1976); CHiPs (1982); Dead on Arrival (2017); Desperate Rescue: The Cathy Mahone Story (1993); False Arrest (1991); Father O Father (1976); For the People (2002); Good Luck (1996); Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1987); Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 2 (1999); How the West Was Won (1979); In Sickness and in Health (1992); In the Best Interest of the Child (1990); Ironside (1974); Jack & Jill (1999); Jake and the Fatman (1989–1990); L.A. Law (1987); Magnum, P.I. (1987); Matlock (1988); Murder, She Wrote (1996); Nash Bridges (1996); Number 96 (1980); Police Woman (1974); Prime Time (1977); Promised a Miracle (1988); Protocol (1984); PSI Factor (1980); Quincy, M.E. (1980–1982); Sam Benedict (1963); Shell Game (1975); Sister Margaret and the Saturday Night Ladies (1987); Smile (1975); Spyder Games (2001); Suddenly Susan (1998); Tabitha (1976); Table for Five (1983); The Choirboys (1977); The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981); The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts (1980); The Love Boat (1978); The Sexy Mysterious Murders (2000); The World According to Straw (1990); Viva Valdez (1976); Your Mother Wears Combat Boots (1989).

On this day in movie history - Sunset Boulevard (1950 movie & books):

Sunset Boulevard

aka SUNSET BLVD.,

directed by Billy Wilder,

written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder and D. M. Marshman Jr.,

was released in the United States on August 10, 1950.
Music by Franz Waxman.

Cast:

William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Lloyd Gough, Jack Webb, Franklyn Farnum, Larry J. Blake, Charles Dayton, Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper, Buster Keaton, Anna Q. Nilsson, H.B. Warner, Ray Evans, Jay Livingston, Fred Aldrich, Joel Allen, Gertrude Astor, Anne Bauchens, Edward Biby, Danny Borzage, Ken Christy, Ruth Clifford, John Cortay, Archie R. Dalzell, Eddie Dew, Peter Drynan, Julia Faye, Al Ferguson, Gerry Ganzer, Rudy Germane, Kenneth Gibson, Joe Gray, Sanford E. Greenwald, Creighton Hale, Chuck Hamilton, James Hawley, Len Hendry, E. Mason Hopper, Stan Johnson, Tiny Jones, Howard Joslin, Arthur Lane, Perc Launders, Alan Marston, William Meader, Gertrude Messinger, Harold Miller, John ‘Skins’ Miller, Lee Miller, Ralph Montgomery, Bert Moorhouse, Jay Morley, Bernice Mosk, Howard Negley, Ottola Nesmith, Eva Novak, Frank O’Connor, Robert Emmett O’Connor, Jack Perrin, Virginia L. Randolph, Bill Sheehan, Sidney Skolsky, Emmett Smith, Roy Thompson, Archie Twitchell, Yvette Vickers, Edward Wahrman, Jack Warden, Henry Wilcoxon.

Recommended reading:

Sunset Boulevard

By Billy Wilder.

Published by University of California Press.

Published 1999.

ISBN-10: 0520218558

ISBN-13: 978-0520218550

Description:

Sunset Boulevard (1950) is one of the most famous films in the history of Hollywood, and perhaps no film better represents Hollywood's vision of itself. Billy Wilder collaborated on the screenplay with the very able Charles Brackett, and with D. M. Marshman Jr., who later joined the team. Together they created a film both allusive and literate, with Hollywood's worst excesses and neuroses laid out for all to see. After viewing Sunset Boulevard Louis B. Mayer exclaimed: "We should throw this Wilder out of town!" The New York Times, however, gave the movie a rave review, praising "that rare blend of pungent writing, expert acting, masterly direction, and unobtrusively artistic photography." The film was nominated for Best Picture, and Wilder won an Academy Award for Best Story and Best Screenplay.

This facsimile edition of Sunset Boulevard makes it possible to get as much pleasure from reading the highly intelligent screenplay as from seeing the film. Jeffrey Meyers's introduction provides an intriguing array of background details about Wilder, the film's casting and production, and the lives of those connected to what has become a classic.

Sunset Boulevard

By Steven Cohan.

BFI Film Classics.

Published by British Film Institute.

Published 2022.

ISBN-10: 1839024089

ISBN-13: 978-1839024085

Description:

Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard was a critical and commercial success on its release in 1950 and remains a classic of film noir and one of the best-known Hollywood films about Hollywood. Both its opening, with William Holden as the screenwriter Joe Gillis floating face down in ageing star Norma Desmond's (Gloria Swanson) pool, and lines such as 'I am big, it's the pictures that got small' are some of the most memorable in Classical Hollywood cinema.

Steven Cohan's study of the film draws on original archival research to shed new light on the film's production history, and the contribution to the film's success and meanings of director Wilder, stars Holden and Swanson but also supporting actors Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson (who plays Betty Schaefer), Cecil B. DeMille, and Hedda Hopper, as well as costumier Edith Head, and composer Franz Waxman. Cohan considers the film both as a 'back studio' picture (a movie about Hollywood) and as a film noir, and in the context of McCarthyism, blacklisting and the Hollywood Ten.

Cohan explores how the film was marketed, its reception and afterlife, tracing how the film is at once a product of its own particular historical moment as the movie industry was transitioning out of the studio era, yet one that still speaks powerfully to contemporary audiences, and speculates on the reasons for its enduring appeal.

Born on this day – John Masius:

John Masius

Writer

Producer

July 30, 1950 – September 13, 2025

Credits:

Back from the Dead: Resurrecting 'Dead Like Me' (2009); Biography (2010); Bittersweet Love (1976); Brooklyn Bridge (1991–1992); Chestnut Hill (2001); Dead Like Me (2003–2004); Dead Like Me: Life After Death (2009); Dolphin Cove (1989); Ferris Bueller (1990–1991); Hawthorne (2009–2011); L.A. Law (1992–1993); Las Vegas Lady (1975); Nick & Hillary (1988–1989); Providence (1999–2002); St. Elsewhere (1982–1988); The 36th Primetime Emmy Awards (1984); The 38th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (1986); The Single Guy (1995–1997); The Visitor (1997–1998); The White Shadow (1979–1981); Touched by an Angel (1994–2003); Tracks (1976).

On this day in movie history - The Underworld Story (1950):

The Underworld Story

directed by Cy Endfield,

written by Henry Blankfort and Cy Endfield,

based on a story by Craig Rice,

was released in the United States on July 26, 1950.
Music by David Rose.

Cast:

Dan Duryea, Herbert Marshall, Gale Storm, Howard Da Silva, Michael O’Shea, Mary Anderson, Gar Moore, Melville Cooper, Frieda Inescort, Art Baker, Harry Shannon, Alan Hale Jr., Stephen Dunne, Roland Winters, Sue England, Lewis L. Russell, Frances Chaney, Stanley Blystone, Jack Mower, Edward Van Sloan.

On this day in television history - Detective’s Wife (1950):

Detective’s Wife

Directed by Franklin Schaffner.
Written by Milton “Mort” Lewis.
Released July 7, 1950.
Cast: Lynn Bari, Donald Curtis.

On this day in movie history - The Second Woman (1950):

The Second Woman

directed by James V. Kern,

written by Mort Briskin and Robert Smith,

was released in the United States on July 7, 1950.
Music by Joseph Nussbaum.

Cast:

Robert Young, Betsy Drake, John Sutton, Florence Bates, Morris Carnovsky, Henry O'Neill, Jean Rogers, Raymond Largay, Shirley Ballard, Vici Raaf, Jason Robards, Sr., Steven Geray, Jimmie Dodd, Smokey Whitfield, Cliff Clark.

On this day in movie history - Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950):

Where the Sidewalk Ends

directed by Otto Preminger,

written by Ben Hecht,

based on a story by Victor Trivas, Frank P. Rosenberg and Robert E. Kent,

and the novel Night Cry by William L. Stuart,

was released in the United States on July 7, 1950.
Music by Cyril Mockridge.

Cast:

Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Gary Merrill, Bert Freed, Tom Tully, Karl Malden, Ruth Donnelly, Craig Stevens, Fred Aldrich, Don Appell, Tony Barr, David Bauer, Eddie Borden, Neville Brand.