Born on this day – Nicki Aycox:

Nicki Aycox

Actress

Musician

May 26, 1975 – November 16, 2022

Credits:

3rd Rock from the Sun (1997); Ally McBeal (1999); Animals (2009); Beyond the Blackboard (2011); BlackBoxTV (2012); Boy Meets World (1997); Christina (2010); Cold Case (2004–2010); Crime + Punishment in Suburbia (2000); Criminal Minds (2006); Cruel Justice (1999); CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2001); CSI: Miami (2008); Dark Angel (2001); Dark Blue (2009–2010); Dead Birds (2004); Dead on Campus (2014); Defying Gravity (1997); Double Tap (1997); Ed (2002–2004); Family Law (2002); Howard Stern (2003); Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003); Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003); John from Cincinnati (2007); Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (2008); L.A. Heat (1997); Las Vegas (2004); Law & Order (2008); LAX (2004–2005); Lifted (2010); Lights, Camera, Creeper: Making 'Jeepers Creepers 2' (2003); Longmire (2013); Making 'Dead Birds' (2005); Mercenary (2008); Momentum (2003); Opposite Sex (2000); Over There (2005); Perfect Stranger (2007); Profile for Murder (2013); Providence (1999); Rave Macbeth (2001); She Gets What She Wants (2002); Showboat & Boonie (2005); Significant Others (1998); Supernatural (2006–2008); Supernatural Fandom (2016); The Dogwalker (1999); The Employer (2013); The Girl on the Train (2014); The Glades (2013); The Twilight Zone (2002); The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008); The X-Files (1999); Ticking Clock (2011); Tom Cool (2009); USA High (1997); Weird Science (1996).

On this day in movie history - French Connection II (1975):

French Connection II

directed by John Frankenheimer,

written by Alexander Jacobs, Robert Dillon, Laurie Dillon and Pete Hamill,

based on the story by Robert Dillon and Laurie Dillon,

was released in the United States on May 18, 1975.
Music by Don Ellis.

Cast:

Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Bernard Fresson, Philippe Léotard, Ed Lauter, Charles Millot, Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Cathleen Nesbitt, Samantha Llorens, André Penvern, Reine Prat, Raoul Delfosse, Ham Chau Luong, Jacques Dynam, Malek Kateb, Pierre Collet, Alexandre Fabre, Jean-Pierre Zola, Manu Pluton, Daniel Vérité, Jean-Marc Allègre, Roland Blanche, Patrick Bouchitey, Philippe Brizard, Marie-Christine Descouard, Paul Mercey, Hal Needham, Ambroise Perrin.

On this day in movie history - Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975 movie & book):

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

directed and written by Chantal Akerman,

was released at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 14, 1975.

Cast:

Delphine Seyrig, Jan Decorte, Henri Storck, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, Yves Bical, Chantal Akerman.

Recommended reading:

Nothing Happens:

Chantal Akerman’s Hyperrealist Everyday

By Ivone Margulies.

Published by Duke University Press Books.

Published 1996.

ISBN-10: 0822317230

ISBN-13: 9780822317234

Description:

Through films that alternate between containment, order, and symmetry on the one hand, and obsession, explosiveness, and a lack of control on the other, Chantal Akerman has gained a reputation as one of the most significant filmmakers working today. Her 1975 film Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is widely regarded as the most important feminist film of that decade. In Nothing Happens, Ivone Margulies presents the first comprehensive study of this influential avant-garde Belgian filmmaker.

Margulies grounds her critical analysis in detailed discussions of Akerman’s work – from Saute ma ville, a 13-minute black-and-white film made in 1968, through Jeanne Dielman and Je tu il elle to the present. Focusing on the real-time representation of a woman’s everyday experience in Jeanne Dielman, Margulies brings the history of social and progressive realism and the filmmaker’s work into perspective. Pursuing two different but related lines of inquiry, she investigates an interest in the everyday that stretches from postwar neorealist cinema to the feminist rewriting of women’s history in the seventies. She then shows how Akerman’s “corporeal cinema” is informed by both American experiments with performance and duration and the layering present in works by European modernists Bresson, Rohmer, and Dreyer. This analysis revises the tired opposition between realism and modernism in the cinema, defines Akerman’s minimal-hyperrealist aesthetics in contrast to Godard’s anti-illusionism, and reveals the inadequacies of popular characterizations of Akerman’s films as either simply modernist or feminist.

An essential book for students of Chantal Akerman’s work, Nothing Happens will also interest international film critics and scholars, filmmakers, art historians, and all readers concerned with feminist film theory.

On this day in movie history - Brannigan (1975):

Brannigan

directed by Douglas Hickox,

written by Christopher Trumbo, Michael Butler, William P. McGivern and William W. Norton,

based on a story by Christopher Trumbo and Michael Butler,

was released in the United States on March 26, 1975.
Music by Dominic Frontiere.

Cast:

John Wayne, Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, Mel Ferrer, John Vernon, Daniel Pilon, John Stride, James Booth, Arthur Batanides, Ralph Meeker, Barry Dennen, Lesley-Anne Down, Pauline Delaney, Del Henney, Brian Glover, Stewart Bevan, Janette Legge, Anthony Booth, Tony Robinson, Don Henderson, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Enid Jaynes.

On this day in movie history – Hustling (1975 movie & book):

Hustling

directed by Joseph Sargent,

written by Fay Kanin,

based on the 1971 series Redpants and Sugarman, published in New York Magazine, and the book by Gail Sheehy,

was released in the United States on February 22, 1975.
Music by Jerry Fielding.

Cast:

Lee Remick, Monte Markham, Jill Clayburgh, Alex Rocco, Melanie Mayron, Beverly Hope Atkinson, Dick O'Neill, Burt Young, Paul Benedict, John Sylvester White, Allan Miller, Burke Byrnes, James Andronica, Howard Hesseman, Clifford A. Pellow, Stephen Nathan, Alex Colon, Richard Keith, Lisa Daniels, Bernie McInerney, Edward Colmans, Kathryn Janssen, Bruce Kirby, Lauren Simon, Tim Thomerson, Garry Walberg, Buck Young.

Recommended reading:

Hustling

By Gail Sheehy.

Filmed as Hustling (1975), directed by Joseph Sargent.

Mass Market Paperback.

Published by Dell.

First published 1974.

ISBN 13: 9780440138006

ISBN 10: 0440138000

ASIN: 0440138000

Description:

Hustling. Hell’s bedrooms. The blindingly real inside story of the netherworld of prostitution, the whole sordid subculture of brutal pimps, Mafia businessmen, profit-mad landlords, venal lawyers – and the women, from ghettos and suburbs, who sell their bodies on the street, at cheap hotels and expensive brothels, in the tawdry whirl of the world’s oldest profession.

“It took guts to write this book … there is a street toughness to the writing that is gripping.” – Newsday.

“A kind of Times Square peep show tour …” – Washington Post.

“realistic … brings the world of the prostitute to life, real life.” – Sacramento Bee.

Recommended reading: The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (1975):

The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Published 1975.

VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION.

ISBN: 0394716787

Description:

One of the most original American writers, Edgar Allan Poe shaped the development of both the detective story and the science-fiction story. Some of his poems — "The Raven," "The Bells," "Annabel Lee" — remain among the most popular in American literature.

Poe's tales of the macabre still thrill readers of all ages. Here are familiar favorites like "The Purloined Letter," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," together with less-known masterpieces like "The Imp of the Perverse," "The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym," and "Ligeia," which is now recognized as one of the first science-fiction stories, a total of seventy-three tales in all, plus fifty-three poems and a generous sampling of Poe's essays, criticism and journalistic writings.

On this day in television history - Space 1999 (1975):

Space 1999

Season 1. Episode 18.

Episode entitled: The Infernal Machine.

Released December 29, 1975.

Directed by David Tomblin.

Written by Anthony Terpiloff, Elizabeth Barrows.

Series created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson.

Music by Barry Gray.

Cast:

Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Barry Morse, Leo McKern, Clifton Jones, Zienia Merton, Nick Tate, Gary Waldhorn, Tony Allyn, Sarah Bullen, Loftus Burton, Andy Dempsey, Barbara Kelly, Quentin Pierre, Michael Stevens.

On this day in movie history - Hustle (1975):

Hustle

directed by Robert Aldrich,

written by Steve Shagan,

was released in the United States on December 25, 1975.
Music by Frank De Vol.

Cast:

Burt Reynolds, Catherine Deneuve, Ben Johnson, Paul Winfield, Eileen Brennan, Eddie Albert, Ernest Borgnine, Colleen Brennan, Catherine Bach, Jack Carter, Robert Englund.

On this day in television history - Space 1999 (1975):

Space 1999

Season 1. Episode 16.

Episode entitled: Another Time, Another Place.

Released December 22, 1975.

Directed by David Tomblin.

Written by Johnny Byrne.

Series created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson.

Music by Barry Gray.

Cast:

Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Barry Morse, Prentis Hancock, Clifton Jones, Zienia Merton, Anton Phillips, Alan Carter, Judy Geeson, Tony Allyn, Emily Bolton, Loftus Burton, Andy Dempsey, Alan Harris, Barbara Kelly, Claire McLellan, Robert Phillips, Quentin Pierre, Alan Roberto, Suzanne Roquette, Michael Stevens.

On this day in movie history - Barry Lyndon (1975 movie & novel):

Barry Lyndon

directed and written by Stanley Kubrick,

based on the novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray,

was released in the United States on December 18, 1975.
Music by Leonard Rosenman and Ralph Ferraro.
Main theme Sarabande by George Frideric Handel.
Women of Ireland by Peadar Ó Doirnín and Seán Ó Riada, performed by The Chieftains.

Cast:

Michael Hordern, Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Gay Hamilton, Godfrey Quigley, Steven Berkoff, Marie Kean, Murray Melvin, Frank Middlemass, Leon Vitali, Dominic Savage, Leonard Rossiter, André Morell, Anthony Sharp, Philip Stone, David Morley, Diana Koerner, Arthur O'Sullivan, Billy Boyle, Jonathan Cecil, Peter Cellier, Geoffrey Chater, Wolf Kahler, Liam Redmond, Roger Booth, Ferdy Mayne, John Sharp, Pat Roach, Hans Meyer.

Recommended reading:

The Luck of Barry Lyndon

By William Makepeace Thackeray.

Filmed as Barry Lyndon (1975), directed and written by Stanley Kubrick.

First published 1844.

Published by East India Publishing Company.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1778940242

ISBN-13: 978-1778940248

Description:

Step into the world of 18th-century Europe with "The Luck of Barry Lyndon" by acclaimed author William Makepeace Thackeray. This captivating novel offers a mesmerizing glimpse into the life of its eponymous protagonist, Barry Lyndon, as he navigates the precarious paths of ambition, love, and fortune.

Thackeray's exquisite storytelling paints a vivid portrait of a charismatic and cunning protagonist, whose relentless pursuit of wealth and status takes him from the Irish countryside to the glittering courts of Europe. Through Barry's adventures, readers are immersed in a world of decadence, intrigue, and social climbing, where each twist of fate presents new opportunities and perilous challenges.

"The Luck of Barry Lyndon" is not merely a tale of personal ambition, but also a scathing social commentary on the moral bankruptcy and vanity of the aristocracy. Thackeray's sharp wit and incisive observations cut through the veneer of high society, exposing the hypocrisy and pitfalls that lie beneath.

With its rich historical backdrop and compelling characters, this novel stands as a testament to Thackeray's masterful storytelling. "The Luck of Barry Lyndon" is a timeless classic that continues to captivate readers, inviting them to reflect on the elusive nature of fortune and the consequences of relentless ambition.

Prepare to be enthralled by Thackeray's intricate narrative, as he weaves a tale of passion, deceit, and unexpected turns of fate. This extraordinary novel promises an unforgettable journey into a world where luck can both make and break a man.

On this day in television history - The Blue Knight (1975 TV series & novel):

The Blue Knight

created by Albert Ruben and E. Jack Neuman,

based on the novel by Joseph Wambaugh,

was released in the United States on December 17, 1975, and ran for two seasons until October 20, 1976.

The pilot episode was shown on May 9, 1975.
Theme music by Henry Mancini.

Partial cast:

George Kennedy, John Steadman, Barbara Rhoades, Lee Weaver, Lucy Saroyan, Robert Hays, Phillip Pine, Al Hansen, Jess Nadelman, Don Maxwell, Bruce Glover, Gerald McRaney, Tom Bower, Anthony Geary, James A. Watson Jr., Jason Bernard, Ben Frank, Kelly Thordsen, Marc Alaimo, Hoke Howell, Don Hanmer, Byron Mabe, Phillip Simms, Jonathan Goldsmith, Jan Peters, Harry Lauter, Ross Elliott, Alex Rocco, Vic Tayback, Joanna Moore, Mitchell Ryan, John Ireland, Verna Bloom, Steve Sandor, Suzanne Charny, Carmen Zapata, Jacqueline Scott, T.J. Castronovo, Mel Novak, Juno Dawson, Christina Hart, Claire Brennen, Edward James Olmos, Judson Pratt, Lewis Charles, Claudia Bryar, Thomas Carter, Joseph Wambaugh, Kitty Carl, Paul Fierro, Peter Brandon, Booth Colman, Roy West, Lisa Moore, Dorothy Dells, William C. Coleman, Hilary Beane, Sharon Compton, Lieux Dressler, Jason Sommers, Curtis Henderson, Dorothy Meyer, Rita Gomez, Brooks Almy, Michael O'Keefe, Aneta Corsaut, Anjanette Comer, Judith McConnell, Janet MacLachlan, Charles Aidman, Davis Roberts, Kathryn Reynolds, Michael Swan, Helen Craig, Lucy Marlow, Jeff Goldblum, Sherry Jackson, P. J. Soles, Katherine Helmond, Gary Lockwood, Joanne Linville, Elisha Cook Jr., Jim Davis, James Whitmore Jr., Salome Jens, Norman Fell, Guy Stockwell, John Quade, John Lone, Woodrow Parfrey, Hampton Fancher, Jillian Kesner, Kathleen Hughes, Rudy Ramos.

Recommended reading:

The Blue Knight

By Joseph Wambaugh.

First published 1972.

Published by Grand Central Publishing.

Mass Market Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0446509191

ISBN-13: 978-0446509190

Description:

Ex-cop turned #1 New York Times bestselling writer Joseph Wambaugh forged a new kind of literature with his great early police procedurals. Gritty, luminous, and ultimately stunning, this novel is Wambaugh at his best – a tale of a street cop on the hardest beat of his life.

The Blue Knight.

Twenty and two. Those are the numbers turning in the mind of William "Bumper" Morgan: twenty years on the job, two days before he "pulls the pin" and walks away from it forever. But on the gritty streets of L.A., people look at Bumper like some kind of knight in armor – they've plied him with come-ons, hot tips, and the hard respect a man can't earn anywhere else. Now, with a new job and a good woman waiting for him, a kinky thief terrorizing L.A.'s choice hotels, and a tragedy looming, Bumper Morgan is about to face the only thing that can scare him: the demons that he's been hiding behind his bright and shiny badge...

“Marvelous … realistic, frightening, touching in its humanity. – Detroit Free Press.

“An extraordinary piece of craftsmanship.” – Los Angeles Times.