Friday, August 15, 2025

Born on this day – Wendy Hiller:


Wendy Hiller


Actress

August 15, 1912 – May 14, 2003

Credits:

10th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (2004); A Discussion of the Growing Summer (1968); A Man for All Seasons (1966); A New Window Pane (1997); A Taste for Death (1988); Agatha Christie: A Woman of Mystery (2007); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959); All Passion Spent (1986); All the World’s a Stage (1984); Anne of Avonlea (1987); Armchair Theatre (1958); Attracta (1983); Backstage at Masterpiece Theatre (1991); BBC Play of the Month (1966–1968); BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1954); Broadway: The American Musical (2004); Clochemerle (1972); David Copperfield (1970); Ending Up (1989); Great Performances (1985); Hindle Wakes (1947); How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957); I Know Where I’m Going! (1945); I Know Where I’m Going! Revisited (1994); ITV Playhouse (1978); Jackanory (1965); Knock on Any Door (1966); Lancashire Luck (1937); Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn (2016); Lilli Palmer Theatre (1955–1956); Love Story (1972); Major Barbara (1941); Making Love (1982); Masterpiece Theatre: Lord Mountbatten - The Last Viceroy (1986); Matinee Theatre (1957–1958); Miss Morison’s Ghosts (1981); Murder on the Orient Express (1974); Night of 100 Stars (1977); Omnibus (1988); Omnibus (2001); Only Yesterday (1986); Outcast of the Islands (1951); Play for Today (1981); Plays of Today (1969); Profiles in Courage (1965); Pygmalion (1938); Sailor of the King (1953); Screenplay (1992); Separate Tables (1958); She Stoops to Conquer (1972); Something of Value (1957); Sons and Lovers (1960); Tales of the Unexpected (1979); The 39th Annual Academy Awards (1967); The 76th Annual Academy Awards (2004); The BBC Television Shakespeare (1978); The Best of Friends (1991); The Brains Trust (1955); The British Greats (1980); The Cat and the Canary (1978); The Comedy of Errors (1983); The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb (1980); The Death of the Heart (1987); The Elephant Man (1980); The Fame of Grace Darling (1939); The Growing Summer (1968); The Growing Summer (1969); The Kingfisher (1982); The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987); The Method - An ITV Special Investigation (1958); The Twelve Pound Look (1957); This Is Your Life (1978–1995); To Be a Woman (1951); Tonight on Broadway (1948); Toys in the Attic (1963); Voyage of the Damned (1976); When We Dead Awaken (1970); Witness for the Prosecution (1982); Z Cars (1964).

Born on this day – Katharine Brush:


Katharine Brush


Writer

August 15, 1902 – June 10, 1952

Credits:

Written work:

Don't Ever Leave Me (1935); Free Woman (1936); Glitter (1926); Little Sins (1927); Mannequin / aka Marry For Money (1937); Night Club (1929); Other Women (1933); Out of My Mind (1943); Red-Headed Woman (1931); The Boy from Maine (1942); This Is on Me (1940); This Man and This Woman (1944); When She Was Bad (1948); You Go Your Way (1941); Young Man of Manhattan (1930).

Movies and television:

Actor's Studio (1948); Andy Hardy's Private Secretary (1941); General Electric Theater (1959); Honeymoon in Bali (1939); Lady of Secrets (1936); Listen, Darling (1938); Mannequin (1937); Red-Headed Woman (1932); Starlight Theatre (1950); The Drop Kick (1927); Young Man of Manhattan (1930).

Born on this day – Edna Ferber:


Edna Ferber


Writer

August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968

Credits:

Books:

$1,200 A Year: A Comedy In Three Acts (1920); 30 Eternal Masterpieces of Humorous Stories (2019); A Kind of Magic (2013); A Peculiar Treasure: Autobiography (1939); American Beauty (1931); Buttered Side Down: Short Stories (1912); Cheerful, by Request (1913); Cimarron (1929); Come and Get It (1934); Dawn O'Hara: The Girl Who Laughed (1911); Emma McChesney and Co. (1915); Fanny Herself (1917); Ferber: Edna Ferber and Her Circle (1978); Giant (1952); Gigolo (1922); Great Son (1944); Half Portions (2010); Ice Palace (1958); Mother Knows Best (1927); One Basket (1947); Personality Plus (1914); Roast Beef Medium (1911); Saratoga Trunk (1941); Show Boat (1926); So Big (1924); Stage Door (1926); The Dancing Girls (2021); The Girls (1921); The Homely Heroine (2017); The Land Is Bright: A Play (2019); The Woman Who Tried to Be Good and Other Stories (1913); They Brought Their Women: A Book Of Short Stories (1933).

Movies, radio and television:

American Masters (1987); BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1951–1958); Cimarron (1931); Cimarron (1960); Classified (1925); Come and Get It (1936); Dinner at Eight (1933); Dinner at Eight (1989); Front Row Center (1955); A Gay Old Dog (1919); Giant (1956); Gigolo (1926); Glamour (1934); Great Performances (1989); Hard to Get (1929); Ice Palace (1960); Kern: Show Boat (2015); Kraft Theatre (1948); Kraft Theatre / The Philco Television Playhouse (1948); Mother Knows Best (1928); No Place to Go (1939); No Woman Knows (1921); Our Mrs. McChesney (1918); Pulitzer Prize Playhouse (1951); Radio Play Revival (2024); Saratoga Trunk (1945); Show Boat (1929); Show Boat (1936); Show Boat (1951); So Big (1924); So Big (1953); So Big! (1932); Stage Door (1937); Stage Door (1939); Stage Door (1948); Starlight Theatre (1950); The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones Documentaries (2008); The Best of Broadway (1954–1955); The Expert (1932); The Ford Theatre Hour (1950); The Home Girl (1928); The Royal Family (1977); The Royal Family of Broadway (1930); The Royal Family of Broadway (1939); The Stage Door (1950); Theatre Royal / The Royal Family (1952); Welcome Home (1925).

Born on this day – Ethel Barrymore:


Ethel Barrymore


Actress

August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959

Credits:

All Star Revue (1951–1952); An American Widow (1917); Animated Weekly, No. 26 (1912); Camille (1926); Cancer Fund Film Notables Attend Glittering Benefits (1951); Climax! (1954); Daphni: Virgin of the Golden Laurels (1951); Deadline - U.S.A. (1952); Ethel Barrymore Theater (1956); Family Theatre (1952); General Electric Theater (1955); Hollywood Opening Night (1952); It's a Big Country: An American Anthology (1951); Johnny Trouble (1957); Just for You (1952); Kind Lady (1951); Life's Whirlpool (1917); Main Street to Broadway (1953); Moonrise (1948); Moss Rose (1947); National Red Cross Pageant (1917); NBC Television Opera Theatre (1950); Night Song (1947); None But the Lonely Heart (1944); Omnibus (1953); Our Mrs. McChesney (1918); Person to Person (1955); Pinky (1949); Playhouse 90 (1956); Popular Players Off the Stage (1913); Portrait of Jennie (1948); Rasputin and the Empress (1932); Remember ... 1938 (1955); Show-Business at War (1943); Starland Review No. 13 (1922); Svengali and the Blonde (1955); That Midnight Kiss (1949); The Awakening of Helena Ritchie (1916); The Call of Her People (1917); The Divorcee (1919); The Eternal Mother (1917); The Farmer's Daughter (1947); The Final Judgment (1915); The Great Sinner (1949); The Greatest Power (1917); The Kiss of Hate (1916); The Lifted Veil (1917); The Nightingale (1914); The Paradine Case (1947); The Red Danube (1949); The Secret of Convict Lake (1951); The Spiral Staircase (1946); The Story of Three Loves (1953); The White Raven (1917); What's My Line? (1952); Young at Heart (1954).

Introvert insight:


Introverts are word economists in a society suffering from verbal diarrhea.

– Michaela Chung.

I’m self-sufficient.
I spend a lot of time on my own and I shut off quite easily.
When I communicate, I communicate 900 per cent, then I shut off, which scares people sometimes.

– Bjork.
 
Though introverts are drained by interaction, we can take immense pleasure in watching the scene around us.

– Laurie Helgoe.

I'll read my books and I'll drink coffee and I'll listen to music, and I'll bolt the door.

– J. D. Salinger.

Recommended reading - The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries (2006):


The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries

Edited by Mike Ashley.

Published by Running Press.
Published 2006.
Paperback.
ISBN-10: 0786718935
ISBN-13: 978-0786718931

Description:

Mystery conundrums from crime's finest storytellers.

This ingenious new anthology from Mike Ashley presents nearly 30 impossible mysteries and bizarre crimes guaranteed to fascinate and intrigue. Among them are some crimes so impossible that they’re near perfect, and others so perfect that they’re impossible to solve.

In all, the delight is in unravelling the puzzle and trying to work out what on earth happened.

Cases include:

A man in an all-glass phone booth, clearly visible and with no one near him, is killed by an ice pick.

Someone sitting alone in a room is shot by a bullet fired only once and that was over 200 years ago.

A man enters a cable-car carriage alone and is visible the entire journey but is found dead when he reaches the bottom.

A man vanishes at the top of the Indian rope trick and is found dead miles away.

A dead man continues to receive mail in response to letters apparently written by him after he'd died.

The stories include several brand new masterpieces as well as lesser known rare gems – from such names as Robert Randisi, Edward D. Hoch, Joseph Commings, Peter Tremayne, Bill Pronzini and Gillian Linscott.

Ann Patchett, on books:


That's important to me, to recommend books.

- Ann Patchett.