Born on this day – Willie Lee Brown:

Willie Lee Brown

Blues singer

Guitarist

August 6, 1900 – December 30, 1952

Born on this day – Lillian Albertson:

Lillian Albertson

Actress

Theatrical producer

August 6, 1881 – August 24, 1962

Credits:

AFI Life Achievement Award (1980); Fireside Theatre (1951–1953); Racket Squad (1952–1953); Storm Warning (1950); Summer Theatre (1953); The Blue Veil (1951); The Cisco Kid (1953–1955); The Greatest Show on Earth (1952); The Ten Commandments (1956); Your Favorite Story (1953–1954).

Born on this day – Alfred Tennyson:

Alfred Tennyson

Writer

August 6, 1809 – October 6, 1892

Credits:

Poems:

A Farewell; Ask Me No More; Break, Break, Break; Charge of the Light Brigade; Circumstance; Cradle Song; Crossing the Bar; Early Spring; England and America in 1782; Far-far-away (For Music); Flower in the Crannied Wall; From The Palace of Art; In Memoriam, VII; Lady Clare; Of Old Sat Freedom; Ring Out, Wild Bells; Strong Son of God, Immortal Love; Sweet and Low; Tears, Idle Tears; The Blackbird; The Brook; The City Child; The Death of the Old Year; The Deserted House; The Dying Swan; The Eagle; The Flower; The Kraken; The Lady of Shalott; The May Queen; The Mermaid; The Oak; The Owl; The Poet's Song; The Sea-Fairies; The Shell; The Splendor Falls; The Tears Of Heaven; The Throstle; Will.

Movies and television:

A Day That Is Dead (1913); A Dream of Fair Women (1920); After Many Years (1908); Balaclava (1928); Becket (1923); Break, Break, Break (1914 / 2019); Catalogue of Ships (2008); De glada åren (1946); Dora (1909 / 1910 / 1912 / 1915); Enoch Arden (1914 / 1915); Enoch Arden: Part I (1911); Enoch Arden: Part II (1911); Facing the Music (1933); Gunsmoke (1960); Holding Back the Years (2018); Jack Buchanan with the Glee Quartet (1930); Lady Clare (1912); Lady Godiva (1911 / 1921); Last of the Summer Wine (1988); Lauzon Lauzone (2001); Leolo (1992); Les maris, les femmes, les amants (1989); Maud (1911); Montenegrins: The Mighty Race of the Mountaineers, Says Lord Tennyson (2013); My Favorite Wife (1940); Naked Hearts (1916); Project Green Gables (2016); Sweet and Low (1914); The Arthur Haynes Show (1962); The Brook (1917); The Charge of the Light Brigade (1914 / 1936); The Gardener's Daughter (1913 / 1914); The Golden Supper (1910); The Lady Clare (1919); The Lady of Shalott (1912 / 1915); The May Queen (1914); The Morecambe & Wise Show (1972); The Stefan University (2019); The Vanishing Hand (1928); Tolvslaget på Skansen (1977); V. Alexander Stefan in V. Alexander Stefan: My Passion (2018); Vanity Fair (2004); Your Favorite Story (1954).

Recommended reading – The Cocktail Waitress (2012).

The Cocktail Waitress (2012).

by James M. Cain.

Hard Case Crime.

Published posthumously.

Hardcover.

First edition.

ISBN-10: 1781160325

ISBN-13: 978-1781160329

Description:

Grieving widow … or black widow?

The day Joan Medford buried her husband was a fateful one – because before the day was out she’d meet the two men who would change her life forever. Forced to take a job waitressing yo support herself and her child, Joan finds herself caught between the handsome young schemer whose touch she comes to crave and the wealthy older man whose touch repels her … but who otherwise would make a tempting husband number two. It’s a classic Cain triangle – brutal sexual and stark – that can only end in death. But for whom, the guilty … or the innocent?

The final novel written by James M. Cain and never before published, The Cocktail Waitress is a testament to the enduring power of one of the most acclaimed novelists of the twentieth century. The author of unforgettable noir classics such as Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and The Postman Always Rings Twice, Cain’s work remains as impossible to put down today as when first written, and will leave even jaded modern readers breathless. Featuring an afterword by Edgar and Shamus Award-winning editor Charles Ardai. One of the most celebrated and notorious crime writers of all time, James M. Cain launched his career with the publication of two back-to-back masterpieces – The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity – selling millions of copies worldwide and inspiring classic movies. Cain continued with an unmatched run of noir novels including Mildred Pierce which inspired both the Academy Award-winning film starring Joan Crawford and the Emmy-winning HBO miniseries starring Kate Winslet. Cain died in 1977. And that’s where everyone thought the story ended. But James M. Cain had one more story to tell – one last blistering tale of sex and greed, betrayal and deception, written at the end of his life but never published – The Cocktail Waitress. Destined to take its place alongside his other classics, The Cocktail Waitress is Cain at his brutal and seductive best.

"Here, long after anyone would have expected it, is the voice of James M. Cain, as fresh and as relevant as ever. The Cocktail Waitress will involve you, and then shock you with an ending you'll never forget. A true rarity: a reader’s novel that’s also a literary event." – Stephen King.

Edmund Wilson, on books and reading:

No two persons ever read the same book.

- Edmund Wilson.

On this day in music history - Rain, by Madonna (1993):

The song Rain,

by Madonna,

was released on August 5, 1993.

On this day in movie history - The Blob (1988):

The Blob,

directed by Chuck Russell,

written by Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont,

story by Irvine H. Millgate,

based on the original 1958 screenplay by Theodore Simonson and Kay Linaker,

was released in the United States on August 5, 1988.
Music by Michael Hoenig.

Cast:
Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, Donovan Leitch Jr., Jeffrey DeMunn, Candy Clark, Joe Seneca, Del Close, Paul McCrane, Sharon Spelman, Beau Billingslea, Art LaFleur, Ricky Paull Goldin, Robert Axelrod, Bill Moseley, Frank Collison, Michael Kenworthy, Jack Rader, Billy Beck, Wade Mayer, Douglas Emerson, Jack Nance, Charlene Fox, Erika Eleniak, Margaret Smith, Teddy Vincent, Don Brunner II, Clayton Landey, Jacquelyn Masche, Julie McCullough, Daryl Sandy Marsh, Jamison Newlander, Judith Flanagan, Richard Anthony Crenna, Pons Maar, M. James Arnett, Peter Crombie, Rick Avery, David Weininger, Moss Porter, Noble Craig, Opelene Bartley, Portia Griffin, Jennifer Lincoln, Charlie Spradling, Kristen Aldrich, Lilli Fields, Robert Hammond, Michael Lindström, Ann Mills, Lloyd Bryan Molander, Verna Lynn Richland, Chuck Russell.