Born on this day – H. Bruce Humberstone:

H. Bruce Humberstone

Director

November 18, 1901 – October 11, 1984

Born on this day – Irvin Willat:

Irvin Willat

Director

November 18, 1890 – April 17, 1976

Credit:

A Daughter of the Wolf (1919); All the Brothers Were Valiant (1923); Always in the Way (1915); America (1914); Back to God's Country (1927); Behind the Door (1919); Below the Surface (1920); Civilization (1915); Damaged Love (1931); Down Home (1920); Fifty Candles (1921); Fog Bound (1923); In Slumberland (1917); Luck of Roaring Camp (1937); North of 36 (1924); Old Louisiana (1937); On the High Seas (1922); One of Millions (1914); Paradise (1926); Partners of the Tide (1921); Pawned (1922); Rugged Water (1925); Rustling a Bride (1919); Screen Snapshots, Series 1, No. 19 (1921); Submarine (1928); The Air Mail (1925); The Ancient Highway (1925); The Cavalier (1928); The Covered Wagon (1923); The Enchanted Hill (1926); The Face of the World (1921); The False Faces (1919); The Grim Game (1919); The Guilty Man (1918); The Heritage of the Desert (1924); The Isle of Lost Ships (1929); The Law of the North (1918); The Michigan Kid (1928); The Midnight Patrol (1918); The Siren Call (1922); The Story Without a Name (1924); The Toss of a Coin (1911); The Zeppelin's Last Raid (1917); Three Miles Out (1924); Uncle Tom's Cabin (1914); Under Strange Flags (1937); Wanderer of the Wasteland (1924); Yellow Men and Gold (1922).

Born on this day – Frances Marion:

Frances Marion

Writer

Director

November 18, 1888 – May 12, 1973

Credits:

Dinner at Eight (1989); The Champ (1979); The Clown (1953); The Pirate (1948); The Hoodlum Saint (1946); Miss Susie Slagle's (1946); Molly and Me (1945); Without Love (1945); Presenting Lily Mars (1943); Tish (1942); Northwest Passage (1940); Green Hell (1940); Rosalie (1937); Knight Without Armor (1937); Maytime (1937); A Night of Terror (1937); The Good Earth (1937); Camille (1936); Poor Little Rich Girl (1936); Riffraff (1935); Going Hollywood (1933); The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933); Dinner at Eight (1933); Hold Your Man (1933); Peg o' My Heart (1933); The White Sister (1933); Secrets (1933); Cynara (1932); Smilin' Through (1932); Blondie of the Follies (1932); Emma (1932); Menschen hinter Gittern (1931); Big House (1931); Daybreak (1931); The Secret 6 (1931); The Bachelor Father (1931); Forever Yours (1930); Anna Christie (1930); Min and Bill (1930); El presidio (1930); Wu Li Chang (1930); Good News (1930); Let Us Be Gay (1930); The Big House (1930); In Gay Madrid (1930); Anna Christie (1930); The Rogue Song (1930); Their Own Desire (1929); The Pagan (1929); The Bellamy Trial (1929); The Masks of the Devil (1928); The Awakening (1928); The Wind (1928); Excess Baggage (1928); The Mysterious Lady (1928); Kit Carson (1928); The Cossacks (1928); The Sunset Legion (1928); Bringing Up Father (1928); Pioneer Scout (1928); The Fair Co-Ed (1927); Jesse James (1927); Madame Pompadour (1927); The Callahans and the Murphys (1927); Silver Comes Through (1927); Mr. Wu (1927); The Red Mill (1927); Don Mike (1927); The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926); Lone Hand Saunders (1926); The Scarlet Letter (1926); The Son of the Sheik (1926); The Two-Gun Man (1926); Hands Across the Border (1926); Paris at Midnight (1926); Partners Again (1926); The Tough Guy (1926); The First Year (1926); Stella Dallas (1925); Simon the Jester (1925); Lazybones (1925); Thank You (1925); Ridin' the Wind (1925); The Dark Angel (1925); Graustark (1925); Lightnin' (1925); Zander the Great (1925); His Supreme Moment (1925); The Lady (1925); A Thief in Paradise (1925); Sundown (1924); Thundering Hoofs (1924); In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter (1924); Tarnish (1924); Cytherea (1924); Secrets (1924); Galloping Gallagher (1924); The Mask of Lopez (1924); The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924); Through the Dark (1924); The Song of Love (1923); Potash and Perlmutter (1923); The French Doll (1923); Dulcy (1923); The Love Piker (1923); The Eagle's Talons (1923); Within the Law (1923); The Nth Commandment (1923); The Famous Mrs. Fair (1923); The Voice from the Minaret (1923); Minnie (1922); The Toll of the Sea (1922); East Is West (1922); The Eternal Flame (1922); Sonny (1922); The Primitive Lover (1922); Back Pay (1922); Just Around the Corner (1921); Straight Is the Way (1921); The Love Light (1921); The Restless Sex (1920); The World and His Wife (1920); Go and Get It (1920); Humoresque (1920); The Flapper (1920); Pollyanna (1920); The Cinema Murder (1919); Anne of Green Gables (1919); A Regular Girl (1919); The Dark Star (1919); The Misleading Widow (1919); Captain Kidd, Jr. (1919); The Temple of Dusk (1918); Johanna Enlists (1918); The Goat (1918); He Comes Up Smiling (1918); The City of Dim Faces (1918); How Could You, Jean? (1918); M'Liss (1918); Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918); Stella Maris (1918); A Little Princess (1917); Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917); The Amazons (1917); Beloved Adventuress (1917); The Divorce Game (1917); The Stolen Paradise (1917); The Crimson Dove (1917); Forget-Me-Not (1917); As Man Made Her (1917); The Social Leper (1917); The Web of Desire (1917); The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917); A Girl's Folly (1917); A Square Deal (1917); A Hungry Heart (1917); Tillie Wakes Up (1917); On Dangerous Ground (1917); A Woman Alone (1917); The Rise of Susan (1916); All Man (1916); Bought and Paid For (1916); The Heart of a Hero (1916); The Hidden Scar (1916); The Gilded Cage (1916); The Revolt (1916); Friday the 13th (1916); The Summer Girl (1916); A Woman's Way (1916); The Crucial Test (1916); La vie de Bohème (1916); Tangled Fates (1916); The Battle of Hearts (story: Woman Against the Sea (1916); The Feast of Life (1916); The Social Highwayman (1916); Then I'll Come Back to You (1916); The Yellow Passport (1916); A Circus Romance (1916); The Foundling (1916); Camille (1915); A Daughter of the Sea (1915); Esmeralda (1915); The Foundling (1915); Rags (1915); A Sister's Burden (1915); Fanchon, the Cricket (1915); The Wild Girl from the Hills (1915); The Jest of Jealousy (1915); A Girl of Yesterday (1915); The New York Hat (1912).

Recommended reading - In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash (1966):

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash

By Jean Shepherd.

Filmed as A Christmas Story (1983), directed by Bob Clark.

Published by Broadway Books.

Published 1966.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0385021747

ISBN-13: 978-0385021746

Description:

A collection of humorous and nostalgic Americana stories – the beloved, bestselling classic that inspired the movie A Christmas Story.

Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant – and utterly hilarious – works of comic art. In God We All Others Pay Cash represents one of the peaks of his achievement, a compound of irony, affection, and perfect detail that speaks across generations.

In God We Trust, Shepherd's wildly witty reunion with his Indiana hometown, disproves the adage “You can never go back.” Bending the ear of Flick, his childhood-buddy-turned-bartender, Shepherd recalls passionately his genuine Red Ryder BB gun, confesses adolescent failure in the arms of Junie Jo Prewitt, and relives a story of man against fish that not even Hemingway could rival. From pop art to the World's Fair, Shepherd's subjects speak with a universal irony and are deeply and unabashedly grounded in American Midwestern life, together rendering a wonderfully nostalgic impression of a more innocent era when life was good, fun was clean, and station wagons roamed the earth.

A comic genius who bridged the gap between James Thurber and David Sedaris, Shepherd may have accomplished for Holden, Indiana, what Mark Twain did for Hannibal, Missouri.

“Shepherd has a fine eye for absurdity, for the madness and idiocy in all of us.” – Best Sellers.

Lloyd Alexander, on reading:

Keep reading.

It's one of the most marvelous adventures that anyone can have.

- Lloyd Alexander.

On this day in movie history - Frailty (2001):

Frailty

directed by Bill Paxton,

written by Brent Hanley,

was released in the United States on November 17, 2001.
Music by Brian Tyler.

Cast:

Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O'Leary, Jeremy Sumpter, Luke Askew, Levi Kreis, Derk Cheetwood, Missy Crider, Alan Davidson, Cynthia Ettinger, Vincent Chase, Gwen McGee, Edmond Scott Ratliff, Rebecca Tilney, Blake King, Brad Berryhill, Greg Serano, Edgar L. Davis, Jim Flowers, Lance E. Nichols, John Paxton, Richard A. Bell, Chelsea Butler, Jennifer Drake, Betty Gurule, Ona Harris, Greg Bronson, Dave Power.

On this day in movie history - Sleepy Hollow (1999):

Sleepy Hollow

directed by Tim Burton,

written by Andrew Kevin Walker,

story by Kevin Yagher and Andrew Kevin Walker,

based on the short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving,

was released in the United States on November 17, 1999.
Music by Danny Elfman.

Cast:

Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, Richard Griffiths, Ian McDiarmid, Michael Gough, Christopher Walken, Marc Pickering, Lisa Marie, Steven Waddington, Claire Skinner, Christopher Lee, Alun Armstrong, Mark Spalding, Jessica Oyelowo, Tony Maudsley, Peter Guinness, Nicholas Hewetson, Orlando Seale, Sean Stephens, Gabrielle Lloyd, Robert Sella, Michael Feast, Jamie Foreman, Philip Martin Brown, Sam Fior, Tessa Allen-Ridge, Cassandra Farndale, Lily Phillips, Bianca Nicholas, Paul Brightwell, Layla Alexander, Henry Allan, Kelley Costigan, Sean Cronin, Tracy Gardener, Nathanael Hopkins-Smith, Kevin Hudson, Martin Landau, Nic Main, João Costa Menezes, Stuart Walker, Allen Woodman.