Born on this day – Connie Chiume:

Connie Chiume

Actor

June 5, 1952 – August 6, 2024

Credits:

Heart of the Hunter (2024); Soon Comes Night (2024); Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022); Jewel (2022); Housekeepers (2018–2022); Umama (2021); Gomora (2020–2023); Black Is King (2020); Seriously Single (2020); Queen Sono (2020); What Did You Dream? (2020); Blessers (2019); Losing Lerato (2019); Ring of Lies (2017–2018); Black Panther (2018); Thula's Vine (2017); Rhythm City (2007–2015); It's Complicated (2015–2016); Lerato (2015); Fanie Fourie's Lobola (2013); Stokvel (2007); 90 Plein Street (2007); Home Affairs (2006); Zone 14 (2005–2008); Yizo yizo (2001–2004); Mazinyo Dot Q (2004); In My Country (2004); Soul City (2003); I Dreamed of Africa (2000); Chikin Biznis ... The Whole Story! (1999); Tierärztin Christine III: Abenteuer in Südafrika (1998); A Woman of Color (1997); The Line (1994); The Air Up There (1994); Warriors from Hell (1990); Inkom' Edla Yodwa (1989).

On this day in movie history - Loan Shark (1952):

Loan Shark

directed by Seymour Friedman,

written by Eugene Ling and Martin Rackin,

based on a story by Martin Rackin,

was released in the United States on May 23, 1952.
Music by Heinz Roemheld.

Cast:

George Raft, Dorothy Hart, Paul Stewart, John Hoyt, Helen Westcott, Henry Slate, Russell Johnson, Margia Dean, Benny Baker, Lawrence Dobkin, Robert Bice, Ralph Brooks, Claire Carleton, Virginia Carroll, Russell Custer, Jack Daley, Mike Donovan, George Eldredge, Ross Elliott, Rudy Germane, Dick Gordon, Jack Gordon, Herschel Graham, Joe Hinds, Robert Karnes, Robert Lawson, Charles Meredith, Spring Mitchell, Hans Moebus, William H. O'Brien, Frank O'Connor, William 'Bill' Phillips, William Phipps, Mike Ragan, Keith Richards, John Roy, Brick Sullivan, William Tannen, Harlan Warde, Robert B. Williams, Barbara Wooddell.

Recommended reading - The Natural, by Bernard Malamud (1952):

The Natural

By Bernard Malamud.

Filmed as The Natural (1984), directed by Barry Levinson.

Paperback.

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

First published 1952.

ISBN: 9780374502003

ISBN 10: 0374502005

ASIN: 0374502005

Description:

The Natural, Bernard Malamud's first novel, published in 1952, is also the first – and some would say still the best – novel ever written about baseball. In it, Malamud, usually appreciated for his unerring portrayals of postwar Jewish life, took on very different material – the story of a superbly gifted "natural" at play in the fields of the old daylight baseball era – and invested it with the hardscrabble poetry, at once grand and altogether believable, that runs through all his best work. Four decades later, Alfred Kazin's comment still holds true: "Malamud has done something which – now that he has done it! – looks as if we have been waiting for it all our lives. He has really raised the whole passion and craziness and fanaticism of baseball as a popular spectacle to its ordained place in mythology."

Born on this day – Caitlin Clarke:

Caitlin Clarke

Actress

Teacher

May 3, 1952 – September 9, 2004

Credits:

Movies and television:

A Cure for Serpents (1997); Blown Away (1994); CBS Summer Playhouse (1987); Cost of Living (1997); Crocodile Dundee (1986); Dellaventura (1998); Dragonslayer (1981); Gabriel's Fire (1991); Joe the King (1999); Kiss and Tell (1996); Law & Order (1997–2000); Love, Lies and Murder (1991); Matlock (1990); Mayflower Madam (1987); Moonlighting (1987); Never Again (2001); New York Undercover (1995); Northern Exposure (1991); Nurse (1982); Once a Hero (1987); Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989); Sex and the City (2000); The Big Picture (1989); The Cosby Mysteries (1994); The Equalizer (1986); The Kid Brother (1987); The Stepford Husbands (1996).

On stage:

Aristocrats (2002); Arms and the Man (1985); As You Like It (1984); Bal (1980); Griller (1999); Indiscretions (1997); Mrs. Warren's Profession (1996); No End of Blame (1981); Not Quite Jerusalem (1984); Othello (1979); Our Country's Good (1989); Plenty (1981); Quartermaine's Terms (1984); Strange Interlude (1985); Summer (1983); Summer Vacation Madness (1982); Tales from the Vienna Woods (1978); Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap (1983); The Gigli Concert (2002); The Glass Menagerie (1997); The Marriage of Figaro (1985); The Queen And The Rebels (1991); The Winter's Tale (1979); Thin Ice (1984); Three Birds Alighting On A Field (1994); Titanic: A New Musical (1998); Total Eclipse (1984); Unexpected Tenderness (1994); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (2000).

On this day in movie history - The Narrow Margin (1952):

The Narrow Margin

directed by Richard Fleischer,

written by Earl Felton,

based on story by Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard,

was released in the United States on April 23, 1952.
Music by Gene Rose, Leith Stevens, Dave Torbett and Roy Webb.

Cast:

Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Queenie Leonard, David Clarke, Peter Virgo, Don Beddoe, Paul Maxey, Harry Harvey, Gordon Gebert, Peter Brocco, Ivan Browning, George Chandler, James Conaty, Don Dillaway, Franklyn Farnum, Bess Flowers, Don Haggerty, Clarence Hargrave, Art Howard, Bobby Johnson, Milton Kibbee, Mike Lally, Johnny Lee, William A. Lee, Walter Merrill, Harold Miller, Howard M. Mitchell, Edgar Murray, Franklin Parker, George Sawaya, Jeffrey Sayre, Ray Spiker, Jasper Weldon, Napoleon Whiting, Bob Whitney.

Recommended reading - Kiss Me Deadly, by Mickey Spillane (1952):

Kiss Me Deadly

By Mickey Spillane.

Filmed as Kiss Me Deadly (1955), directed by Robert Aldrich.

Published by Orion.

First published 1952.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1409158691

ISBN-13: 978-1409158691

Description:

# 6 in the Mike Hammer series.

Before Jack Reacher . . . there was Mike Hammer.

One night, a blonde jumps out in front of PI Mike Hammer's car. She's so scared he doesn't have much choice but to give her a ride. At a police roadblock, he discovers she's on the run from a sanatorium, but he passes her off as his wife. Other people besides the police are after the blonde, and these people play rough. Real rough.

The blonde turns out to be the star witness against some big-time mobsters. Mike has blundered into something unimaginably big, but the Feds don't want him involved – and take his PI licence and gun.

For Mike, it's a chance to strike a blow against evil on a grand scale. He discovers that something representing a great deal of money, and a lot of power, has gone missing, and that some people will go to any lengths to get it back . . .

On this day in movie history - Hoodlum Empire (1952):

Hoodlum Empire

directed by Joseph Kane,

written by Bruce Manning and Bob Considine,

based on a story by Bob Considine,

was released in the United States on April 15, 1952.
Music by Nathan Scott.

Cast:

Brian Donlevy, Claire Trevor, Forrest Tucker, Vera Ralston, Luther Adler, John Russell, Gene Lockhart, Grant Withers, Taylor Holmes, Roy Barcroft, William Murphy, Richard Jaeckel, Don Beddoe, Roy Roberts, Richard Benedict, Phillip Pine, Damian O'Flynn, Pat Flaherty, Gertrude Astor, Walter Bacon, Joe Bailey.

On this day in movie history - The Captive City (1952):

The Captive City

directed by Robert Wise,

written by Karl Kamb and Alvin M. Josephy,

based on a story by Alvin M. Josephy,

was released in the United States on April 11, 1952.
Music by Jerome Moross.

Cast:

John Forsythe, Joan Camden, Harold J. Kennedy, Marjorie Crossland, Victor Sutherland, Ray Teal, Martin Milner, Geraldine Hall, Hal K. Dawson, Ian Wolfe, Gladys Hurlbut, Jess Kirkpatrick, Paul Newlan, Frances Morris, Paul Brinegar, Patricia Goldwater, Robert Gorell, Glenn Judd, William C. Miller, Estes Kefauver, Charles Regan, Victor Romito, Charles Wagenheim.