Born on this day – Saul Bass:

Saul Bass

Graphic designer

Director

May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996

Credits:

84C MoPic (1989); Advise & Consent (1962); Alcoa Premiere (1961–1963); Anatomy of a Murder (1959); Aquamania (1961); Around the World in 80 Days (1956); Attack (1956); Bass on Titles (1982); Big (1988); Bonjour Tristesse (1958); Broadcast News (1987); Brothers (1977); Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965); Cape Fear (1991); Carmen Jones (1954); Casey Bats Again (1954); Casino (1995); Champion (1949); Chips Ahoy (1956); Chun King Chow Mein Hour (1962); Cinema mil (2005); Coming Attractions: The History of the Movie Trailer (2009); Cowboy (1958); Die Titelmacher (1976); Doc Hollywood (1991); Donald and the Wheel (1961); Edge of the City (1957); Evolutions: The Making of 'Phase IV' (2024); Exodus (1960); Fear in the Dark (1991); From Here to There (1964); Goodfellas (1990); Grand Prix (1966); Grin and Bear It (1954); High Note (1960); Higher Learning (1995); How to Have an Accident at Work (1959); How to Sleep (1953); Hurry Sundown (1967); In Harm's Way (1965); In the Bag (1956); It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963); Jack and Old Mac (1956); Johnny Concho (1956); Last Sunset (2012); Le grand échiquier (1972); Love in the Afternoon (1957); Mr. Saturday Night (1992); Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann (1999); Nihon eiga no hyaku nen / Century of Cinema (1995); Nine Hours to Rama (1963); North by Northwest (1959); Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966); Notes on the Popular Arts (1978); Ocean's Eleven (1960); One, Two, Three (1961); Otto Preminger (1999); Phase IV (1974); Philemon (1976); Pluto's Christmas Tree (1952); Pluto's Party (1952); Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991); Psycho (1960); Psycho (1998); Quest (1984); R'coon Dawg (1951); Return from the River Kwai (1989); Rosebud (1975); Saint Joan (1957); Saul Bass: Title Champ (2008); Seconds (1966); Six Characters in Search of an Author (1976); Something Wild (1961); Spartacus (1960); Storm Center (1956); Such Good Friends (1971); Talking Film (1980); Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970); That's Entertainment, Part II (1976); The 69th Annual Academy Awards (1997); The Age of Innocence (1993); The Big Country (1958); The Big Fisherman (1959); The Big Knife (1955); The Cardinal (1963); The Facts of Life (1960); The Firemen's Ball (1967); The Hemingway Play (1976); The Human Factor (1979); The Last of Mrs. Lincoln (1976); The Litterbug (1961); The Little House (1952); The Man with the Golden Arm (1955); The Night of the Hunter (1955); The Pride and the Passion (1957); The Racers (1955); The Searching Eye (1964); The Seven Year Itch (1955); The Shining (1980); The Shrike (1955); The Solar Film (1980); The Truth About Mother Goose (1957); The Two of Us (1967); The War of the Roses (1989); The Young Stranger (1957); Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953); Vertigo (1958); Very Happy Alexander (1968); Walk on the Wild Side (1962); West Side Story (1961); Why Man Creates (1968); Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too (1974).

Born on this day – Robert Clampett:

Robert Clampett

Animator

Director

Producer

Puppeteer

May 8, 1913 – May 2, 1984

Credits:

A Beany Story (1952); A Cartoonist’s Nightmare (1935); A Corny Concerto (1943); A Coy Decoy (1941); A Great Big Bunch of You (1932); A Gruesome Twosome (1945); A Tale of Two Kitties (1942); Africa Squeaks (1940); Ain’t We Got Fun (1937); Ali-Baba Bound (1940); Along Flirtation Walk (1935); An Itch in Time (1943); Any Bonds Today? (1942); Baby Bottleneck (1946); Bacall to Arms (1946); Beany and Cecil (1988); Beany and Cecil Meet Billy the Squid (1959); Beauty and the Beast (1934); Behind the Tunes: A Conversation with Tex Avery (2004); Behind the Tunes: Animal Quackers (2003); Behind the Tunes: Blanc Expressions (2003); Behind the Tunes: Bugs - A Rabbit for All Seasonings (2003); Behind the Tunes: Forever Befuddled (2003); Behind the Tunes: Looney Tunes - A Cast of Thousands (2006); Behind the Tunes: Looney Tunes Go Hollywood (2004); Behind the Tunes: Man from Wackyland - The Art of Bob Clampett (2004); Behind the Tunes: Porky Pig Roast - A Tribute to the World’s Most Famous Ham (2003); Birdy and the Beast (1944); Booby Traps (1944); Book Revue (1946); Bosko at the Beach (1932); Bosko in Person (1933); Bosko Shipwrecked! (1931); Bosko’s Picture Show (1933); Boston Beanie (1947); Breakdowns of 1938 (1938); Buckaroo Bugs (1944); Buddy and Towser (1934); Buddy of the Apes (1934); Buddy Steps Out (1935); Buddy the Gob (1934); Buddy’s Beer Garden (1933); Buddy’s Beer Garden / Buddy the Detective (1934); Buddy’s Beer Garden / Buddy’s Adventures (1934); Buddy’s Beer Garden / Buddy’s Circus (1934); Buddy’s Beer Garden / Viva Buddy (1934); Buddy’s Day Out (1933); Buddy’s Show Boat (1933); Buddy’s Trolley Troubles (1934); Buffalo Billy (1954); Bugs & Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons (1989); Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout (1990); Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942); Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942); Bugs Bunny in Space (1977); Bugs Bunny Superstar (1975); Bugs vs. Daffy: Battle of the Music Video Stars (1988); Bwana Devil (1952); Bye, Bye Bluebeard / Behind the Tunes: Bosko, Buddy and the Best of Black and White (2005); Bye, Bye Bluebeard / Behind the Tunes: Fine Tooning (2005); Bye, Bye Bluebeard / Behind the Tunes: Looney Tunes Go to War! (2005); Camera Three (1975); Cartoon Alley (2005); Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990); Cat-Tastrophy (1949); Chicken Jitters (1939); Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943); Cockatoos for Two (1947); Coo-Coo Bird Dog (1949); Country Boy (1935); Crazy Cruise (1942); Daffy Duck & Egghead (1938); Don’t Look Now (1936); Dough for the Do-Do (1949); Draftee Daffy (1945); Eatin’ on the Cuff or The Moth Who Came to Dinner (1942); Falling Hare (1943); Farm Frolics (1941); Fifty Years of Bugs Bunny in 3 1/2 Minutes (1989); Fighting Tools (1943); Flora (1948); Fowl Brawl (1947); Get Rich Quick Porky (1937); Gold Diggers of ‘49 (1935); Goofy Groceries (1941); Goopy Geer (1932); Hare Ribbin’ (1944); Having a Wonderful Time with Angels in Dirty Places (1938); His Hare Raising Tale (1951); Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land (1931); Hollywood Capers (1935); Hollywood Christmas Lane Parade of the Stars (1960); Honeymoon Hotel (1934); Horton Hatches the Egg (1942); I Haven’t Got a Hat (1935); I Like Mountain Music (1933); I Love to Singa (1936); I Only Have Eyes for You (1937); I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937); I’d Love to Take Orders from You (1936); Injun Trouble (1938); Into Your Dance (1935); Irreverent Imagination: The Golden Age of the Looney Tunes (2003); It’s a Grand Old Nag (1947); I’ve Got to Sing a Torch Song (1933); Jasper Goes Hunting (1944); Jeepers Creepers (1939); Kitty Kornered (1946); Kristopher Kolumbus Jr. (1939); Lady, Play Your Mandolin! (1931); Les Chroniques du Mea (2018); Little Dutch Plate (1935); Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary (1986); Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 (1958); Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1 (2011–2012); Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3 (2014); Matty’s Funnies with Beany and Cecil (1962); Meet John Doughboy (1941); Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends (1990–1993); Milk and Money (1936); Mr. and Mrs. Is the Name (1935); My Green Fedora (1935); Natural Vision 3-Dimension (1952); Naughty Neighbors (1939); Nutty News (1942); One Meat Brawl (1947); Page Miss Glory (1936); Patient Porky (1940); Pettin’ in the Park (1934); Picador Porky (1937); Pickled Puss (1948); Pied Piper Porky (1939); Pilgrim Porky (1940); Plane Dippy (1936); Plenty of Money and You (1937); Polar Pals (1939); Pop Goes My Heart (1934); Porky & Daffy (1938); Porky and Gabby (1937); Porky in Egypt (1938); Porky in Wackyland (1938); Porky the Rain-Maker (1936); Porky the Wrestler (1937); Porky’s Badtime Story (1937); Porky’s Duck Hunt (1937); Porky’s Five & Ten (1938); Porky’s Garden (1937); Porky’s Hero Agency (1937); Porky’s Hotel (1939); Porky’s Last Stand (1940); Porky’s Movie Mystery (1939); Porky’s Naughty Nephew (1938); Porky’s Party (1938); Porky’s Picnic (1939); Porky’s Pooch (1941); Porky’s Poor Fish (1940); Porky’s Poppa (1938); Porky’s Snooze Reel (1941); Porky’s Super Service (1937); Porky’s Tire Trouble (1939); Prehistoric Porky (1940); Rover’s Rival (1937); Så er der tegnefilm (2014); Scalp Trouble (1939); Shake Your Powder Puff (1934); Sittin’ on a Backyard Fence (1933); Slap Happy Pappy (1940); Slick Hare (1947); Slightly Daffy (1944); Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! (1931); Swiss Tease (1947); Tex & Judy (1962); That’s Warner Bros.! (1995); The Bashful Buzzard (1945); The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938); The Big Snooze (1946); The Blow Out (1936); The Bob Clampett Show (2000); The Bugs n’ Daffy Show (1996–1999); The Cagey Canary (1941); The Chewin’ Bruin (1940); The Daffy Doc (1938); The Film Fan (1939); The Golf Widow (1927); The Goofy Gophers (1947); The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946); The Henpecked Duck (1941); The Hep Cat (1942); The Lone Stranger and Porky (1939); The Looney Tunes Hall of Fame (1991); The Looney Tunes Show (2011–2013); The Old Grey Hare (1944); The Porky Pig Show (1964); The Shell Shocked Egg (1948); The Sour Puss (1940); The Timid Toreador (1940); The Up-Standing Sitter (1948); The Village Smithy (1936); The Wacky Wabbit (1942); The Wise Quacking Duck (1943); Thunderbolt the Wondercolt (1952); Tick Tock Tuckered (1944); Time for Beany (1949–1953); Tin Pan Alley Cats (1943); Tokyo Woes (1945); ToonHeads (1992–2003); Tortoise Wins by a Hare (1943); Troldspejlet (2010); Uncensored Cartoons (1982); Uncle Tom’s Bungalow (1937); Up’n Atom (1947); Ups ‘n Downs (1931); Wabbit Twouble (1941); Wacky Blackout (1942); Wagon Heels (1945); We, the Animals - Squeak! (1941); We’re in the Money (1933); What Price Porky (1938); What’s Cookin’ Doc? (1944); When’s Your Birthday? (1937); Willy the Wolf (1954); Wise Quacks (1939); You Don’t Know What You’re Doin’! (1931); You Ought to Be in Pictures (1940).

Born on this day – Robert Johnson:

Robert Johnson

Blues singer

Guitarist

Harmonic player

Songwriter

May 8, 1911 – August 16, 1938

Credits:

Album:

Robert Johnson: The Centennial Collection (2011).

Movies, video and television:

11.6 (2013); Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (1990); American Epic (2017); Among Giants (1998); Animal House of Blues: How a Community Helped Create a Hollywood Blockbuster or Two (2012); B.B. King: The Life of Riley (2012); Bank Roll (2012); Baseball (1994); Beat the Devil (2002); Bluesland: A Portrait in American Music (1993); Boys on the Side (1995); Cadillac Records (2008); Chocolat (2000); Crepuscular Suburban Blues (2009); Crossroads (1986); CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2009); Dancing with the Stars (2007); Danville 2nd Ward Young Men (2010); Dark (2017); Deep Water (2022); Desperate Man Blues (2003); Dickey Betts & Great Southern: Back Where It All Begins - Live at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum (2005); Die Harald Schmidt Show (1995); Down Terrace (2009); EarthBound (1994); Elementary (2013); Employee of the Month (2004); Eric Clapton & Friends in Concert: A Benefit for the Crossroads Centre at Antigua (1999); Eric Clapton and Friends (1988); Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars (2017); Eric Clapton: Sessions for Robert J (2004); Eric Clapton: Standing at the Crossroads (2021); For the Boys (1991); Freaks and Geeks (1999); Fringe (2009); Get on Up (2014); Ghosts of Mississippi (1996); Gimme Shelter (1970); Great Performances (2005); Greenleaf (2017); Grudge Match (2013); Guardami (1999); Guitar Hero (2005); Guitar Man (2015); Holes (2003); Hounddog (2007); I Am Not Okay with This (2020); iBrain (2013); Kings of the Road (1976); Kopps (2003); Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones (1973); Late Show with David Letterman (2011); Led Zeppelin (2003); Led Zeppelin: Travelling Riverside Blues (1990); Life on Mars (2007); Luck (2011); Luther (2013); Matlock (1989); Misfits (2010–2011); Music High Classroom (2012); Not Fade Away (2012); Patti Cake$ (2017); Phoenix (1998); Post Mortem (1999); Power (2015); Pump Up the Volume (1990); Red Tails (2012); Rush: R30 (2005); Saturday Night Live (1991–1995); Scratch (2001); SeaChange (1998–1999); Sid Meier's Railroads! (2006); Soap&Skin: Me and the Devil (2015); Starbuck in Rock Concert (1973); Stoned (2005); Suck (2009); Supernatural (2006); Sweet Talk (2015); The Blues (2003); The Blues Brothers (1980); The Cream of Eric Clapton (1990); The Demons (2015); The Downbeat (2010); The Ed Sullivan Show (1969); The Five Devils (2022); The Good Wife (2014); The Jeff Healey Band: Live at Montreux 1999 (2005); The Last Summer (2019); The Man Who Fell to Earth (2022); The Missing (2014); The Music Never Stopped (2011); The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll (2009); The Search for Robert Johnson (1992); The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (1982); The Skeleton Key (2005); The Stones in the Park (1969); The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (2010); The Wolf of Wall Street (2013); Thunderground (1989); Tu cara me suena - Argentina (2015); Two Trains Runnin' (2016); Under the Rainbow (2013); Unplugged (1992); When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? (1979); Where the Road Runs Out (2014); Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016); Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights - Hollywood to the Heartland (2006).

Born on this day – Phillis Wheatley:

Phillis Wheatley

Writer

May 8, 1753 – December 5, 1784

Credits:

Book:

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773).

Recommended reading - Jaws, by Peter Benchley (1974):

Jaws

By Peter Benchley.

Published by Ballantine Books.

First published 1974.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0345544145

ISBN-13: 978-0345544148

Description from the original hardcover inner sleeve:

A girl swims lazily in the cool midnight sea - the shark, attracted by the movement, glides unerringly on to its prey; and the girl is next seen as a hideously mangled carcass in the flotsam left by the receding so begins the terror which will reign in Amity, a holiday resort on Long Island which is just preparing for another successful summer season.

Sharks are rare in those waters; and great white sharks – three-ton, thirty-foot eating machines which hunt alone – are almost unheard of. But Martin Brody, Amity’s police chief, realizes that the killer must be a shark, and begins to suspect which kind. The beach, he sees at once, must be closed.

But Amity depends on its summer season, and there are people behind the town’s development who are not prepared to contemplate a financial loss. The shark will surely move on. The girl’s death must be ‘an accident’. Reluctantly Brody gives way to pressure.

From that moment the monster in the sea becomes more than the killer of individual victims. It becomes an evil presence felt throughout the town, shaking it out of its complacency and exposing its innermost fears and tensions; and Brody will not be able to face himself again until he has cleared the ocean of its menace. Peter Benchley’s magnificent story ends with a sea-chase which for tension and drama is second to none.

This novel is a spectacular achievement, and ensures that Benchley will be the most avidly read novelist of the year.

Carl Sagan, on imagination:

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were.

But without it, we go nowhere.

- Carl Sagan.

On this day in movie history - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015):

Mad Max: Fury Road

directed by George Miller,

written by George Miller, Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris,

was released in the United States on May 7, 2015.
Music by Tom Holkenborg, aka Junkie XL.

Cast:

Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones, Zoë Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, John Howard, Richard Carter, Iota, Angus Sampson, Jennifer Hagan, Megan Gale, Melissa Jaffer, Melita Jurisic, Gillian Jones, Joy Smithers, Antoinette Kellermann, Christina Koch, Jon Iles, Quentin Kenihan, Coco Jack Gillies, Chris Patton, Stephen Dunlevy, Richard Norton, John Walton, Ben Smith-Petersen, Russ McCarroll, Judd Wild, Elizabeth Cunico, Greg van Borssum, Robert Jones, Sebastian Dickins, Darren Andrew Mitchell, Crusoe Kurddal, Shyan Tonga, Cass Cumerford, Albert Lee, Riley Paton, Ripley Voeten, Macyn Van Borssum, Hunter Stratton Boland, Nathan Jenkins, Fletcher Gill, Whiley Toll, Ferdinand Hengombe, Gadaffi Davsab, Noddy Alfred, Jackson Hengombe, Christian Fane, Callum Gallagher, Abel Hofflin, Lee Perry, Debra Ades, Toby Ayers, Rhavin Banda, Karl Heinz Barr, Alison Benstead, Craig Bourke, Nerida Bronwen, Will C., Hélène Cardona, Jeremy Costello, Sandi Finlay, Gareth Hamilton-Foster, Dawn Hogan, Georgia Jarrett, Hiroshi Kasuga, Jack Kelly, Ryan Madden, Robert Alexander Maxwell McCann, Shuhei Ogawa, Benjamin W Sullivan, Vanessa Summerfield, Yassica Switakowski, Leanne Michelle Watson.