Sunday, February 16, 2025

Born on this day – Olga James:


Olga James


Actress

Singer

February 16, 1929 – January 25, 2025

Credits:

Music:

Cannonball Adderley Presents the Nat Adderley Sextet Plus Rick Holmes / Soul of the Bible (1972); Carmen Jones / Original Movie Soundtrack (1954); David Axelrod / Heavy Axe (1974); Sammy Davis Jr. / 1956 Broadway Cast / Mr. Wonderful (1956); The Cannonball Adderley Quintet / The Happy People (1972).

Movies and television:

Carmen Jones (1954); Dorothy Dandridge: An American Beauty (2003); Hollywood Singing & Dancing: A Musical History - 1980s, 1990s and 2000s (2009); Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History - The 1950s: The Golden Era of the Musical (2009); Omnibus (1978); Sealab 2020 (1972); The Bill Cosby Show (1969–1971); The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1956); Val Parnell's Sunday Night at the London Palladium (1957).

Born on this day – John Schlesinger:


John Schlesinger


Director

Writer

Actor

February 16, 1926 – July 25, 2003

Credits:

A Kind of Loving (1962); A Loan from Lorenzo (1953); A Woman of Property (1957); Aggie (1957); An Englishman Abroad (1983); Armchair Theatre (1957); As I Was Saying (1955); Assignment Foreign Legion (1957); BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1953); Big City (1956); Billy Liar (1963); Black Tide (1958); Brothers in Law (1957); Cold Comfort Farm (1995); Colonel March of Scotland Yard (1956); Darling (1965); Der Rosenkavalier (1994); Eye for an Eye (1996); Far from the Madding Crowd (1967); Honky Tonk Freeway (1981); ITV Television Playhouse (1957); Ivanhoe (1958); Madame Sousatzka (1988); Madame Sousatzka (1988); Marathon Man (1976); Midnight Cowboy (1969); Monitor (1958–1961); Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955); Pacific Heights (1990); Paul McCartney: Little Willow (1997); Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956); Sailor of the King (1953); Screen One (1991); Screen Two (1985); Separate Tables (1983); Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971); Sunday in the Park (1956); Terminus (1961); The Adventures of Annabel (1955); The Adventures of Robin Hood (1956–1957); The Beasts of Marseilles (1957); The Believers (1987); The Buccaneers (1956); The Day of the Locust (1975); The Divided Heart (1954); The Falcon and the Snowman (1985); The Grove Family (1956–1957); The Innocent (1993); The Last Man to Hang (1956); The Lost Language of Cranes (1991); The McCartney Years (2007); The Next Best Thing (2000); The Starfish (1952); The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1997); The Twilight of the Golds (1996); The Vise (1955); The Wednesday Play (1967); The Why Store: Father (1996); Un ballo in maschera (1990); Visions of Eight (1973); Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years (1960); Yanks (1979).

Born on this day – Vera-Ellen:


Vera-Ellen


Actress

Dancer

February 16, 1921 – August 30, 1981

Credits:

Let’s Be Happy (1957); The Ford Television Theatre (1957); Lux Video Theatre (1954); White Christmas (1954); Big Leaguer (1953); Call Me Madam (1953); The Belle of New York (1952); Happy Go Lovely (1951); Three Little Words (1950); On the Town (1949); Love Happy (1949); Words and Music (1948); Costa Rica (1947); Three Little Girls in Blue (1946); The Kid from Brooklyn (1946); Wonder Man (1945).

Born on this day – Joseph Langland:


Joseph Langland


Writer

February 16, 1917 – April 9, 2007

Credits:

A Dream of Love (1986); An Interview and Fourteen Poems (1973); Any Body’s Song (1980); Selected Poems (1992); The Green Town (1956); The Sacrifice Poems (1975); The Wheel of Summer (1963); Twelve Preludes and Postludes (1988).

Born on this day – Dorothy Lovett:


Dorothy Lovett


Actress

February 16, 1915 – April 28, 1998

Credits:

A Patch of Blue (1965); Lassie (1965); The Donna Reed Show (1961–1963); Tales of Wells Fargo (1962); Why Must I Die? (1960); City Detective (1954); Chevron Theatre (1952); The Mantrap (1943); Powder Town (1942); Sing Your Worries Away (1942); Call Out the Marines (1942); Look Who's Laughing (1941); They Meet Again (1941); Lucky Devils (1941); The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1940); Remedy for Riches (1940); Dr. Christian Meets the Women (1940); The Courageous Dr. Christian (1940); That's Right - You're Wrong (1939); Meet Dr. Christian (1939); These Glamour Girls (1939); Fixer Dugan (1939); The Flying Irishman (1939); The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939); Twelve Crowded Hours (1939).

Recommended reading - The Canary Murder Case, by S.S. Van Dine (1927):


The Canary Murder Case

By S.S. Van Dine.

First published 1927.
Library of Congress Crime Classics.
Paperback.
Edited by Leslie S. Klinger.

Description:

Philo Vance #2.

At the height if his popularity, S.S. Vane Dine pens a locked-room mystery with a lethal dose of sex and sin where infamous actress, "The Canary," is murdered in her cage after a passionate night with her lover.

Margaret Odell, the famous Broadway beauty and ex-Follies girl known as "The Canary", is found murdered in her ransacked apartment, her jewelry stolen. It appears to be a robbery gone wrong, but the police can find no physical evidence to pinpoint a culprit. No one witnessed anyone entering or leaving, and the only unwatched entrance to the apartment building was bolted from the inside.

Who could have killed the Canary in her locked cage? Margaret was seeing a number of men, ranging from high society gentleman to ruthless gangsters, and more than one man visited her apartment on the night she died.

Ann Patchett, on reading:


It's always better to have too much to read than not enough.

- Ann Patchett.