On this day in music history:

Promise Me by Beverley Craven (1990)

American V: A Hundred Highways by Johnny Cash (2006)

Essence by Reneé Michele (2011)

Promise Me

Song by Beverley Craven,

released July 4, 1990.

American V: A Hundred Highways

Album by Johnny Cash,

released July 4, 2006.

Track list: Help Me; God’s Gonna Cut You Down; Like The 309 (the last song Johnny Cash wrote and recorded); If You Could Read My Mind; Further On Up the Road; The Evening Train; I Came To Believe; Love’s Been Good To Me; A Legend In My Time; Rose Of My Heart; Four Strong Winds; I’m Free From The Chain Gang Now.

Essence

Album by Reneé Michele,

released July 4, 2011.

Track list: Believe; Yearning; Innocence; Another Time; The Last Song; Greensleeves; The Gift; No Words; Essence; Stillness.

On this day in movie history - Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956 movie & novel):

Somebody Up There Likes Me

directed by Robert Wise,

written by Ernest Lehman,

based on the autobiography by Rocky Graziano with Rowland Barber,

was released in the United States on July 4, 1956.
Music by Bronislau Kaper.

Cast:

Paul Newman, Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Eileen Heckart, Harold J. Stone, Joseph Buloff, Sal Mineo, Ray Stricklyn, Robert Loggia, Steve McQueen, Angela Cartwright, Jack Orrison, Frank Campanella, Dean Jones.

Recommended reading:

Somebody Up There Likes Me

By Rocky Graziano with Rowland Barber.

Filmed as Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), directed by Robert Wise.

Published by Ecco Press.

Published 1954.

ISBN 13: 9780880013932

ISBN 10: 0880013931

ASIN: 0880013931

Paperback.

Description:

The blood-soaked autobiography of a fist-happy hoodlum…

Rocky’s right hand saw him through three stretches in reform school, four man-size prisons, the middle-weight championship of the world, and a career as a television comedian with Martha Raye.

We get a view of what it’s like to be on the lam from truant officers, probation officers, goons, cops, and creeps too stupid to be anything but legitimate. What it’s like to hit first or get hit! – Saturday Review.

On this day in movie history - The Unholy Three (1925 movie & novel):

The Unholy Three

directed by Tod Browning,

written by Tod Robbins, Waldemar Young,

based on the novel by Tod Robbins,

released in the United States on July 4, 1925.

Cast: Lon Chaney, Mae Busch, Matt Moore, Victor McLaglen, Harry Earles, Matthew Betz, Edward Connelly, William Humphrey, E. Alyn Warren, Margie Angus, Mary Angus, Violet N. Cane, Walter P. Cole, D'Arcy Corrigan, Carrie Daumery, Delno Fritz, Alice Julian, Peter Kortes, Mickey McBan, John Merkyl, John Millerta, Louis Morrison, Marjorie Morton, Walter Perry, Louis Shank, Vera Vance, Carrie Clark Ward, Charles Wellesley, Percy Williams.

Recommended reading:

The Unholy Three

By Tod Robbins.

Published by A.L. Burt Company,

First published 1917.

ASIN: B0DM4DFX7Y

Description:

Step right up, folks, and prepare to have your blood run cold as you meet the strangest, most bizarre trio of misfits ever spawned by a carnival of TWEEDLEDEE, an adult man trapped in the body of a three-year-old toddler, whose mask of childlike innocence hides a seething brain plotting hideous revenge against all that is sane and normal! HERCULES, the circus strongman, brutal, bestial, reveling in carnage and murder – yet the submissive slave of a deadly dwarf! ECHO, the expert ventriloquist with the uncanny ability to throw his voice so that lifeless wooden dummies seem to speak even as you or I! Together, they are THE UNHOLY THREE, star attractions of Tod Robbins’ classic novel of hate, murder and madness on and off the midway. Best known as author of the story which inspired the still-controversial fear-film FREAKS, Robbins first stunned the public with this intense account of a ruthless war on society waged by a triad of carny castaways.

Born on this day – Bruce French:

Bruce French

Actor

July 4, 1945 – February 7, 2025

Credits:

21 Jump Street (1988); A Case for Murder (1993); ABC Afterschool Specials (1983); ABC Weekend Specials (1988); Airplane II: The Sequel (1982); All-American Girl (1994); Ally McBeal (2001); Ants! (1977); Baby Talk (1992); Barbarians at the Gate (1993); Beautiful Boy (2010); Beginners (2010); Benson (1983); Beverly Hills, 90210 (1997); Biography (1987); Black Eagle (1988); Bloodbrothers (1978); Bones (2006); Boston Legal (2008); Boston Public (2003); Caroline in the City (1999); CBS Summer Playhouse (1987); Cheers (1989); Christine (1983); City of Angels (2000); Coach (1996); Coming Home (1978); Crash (2009); Criminal Minds (2008); Crossing Jordan (2003); Curse of the Black Widow (1977); Dallas (1981–1982); Dark and Stormy Night (2009); Deadly Intentions (1985); Designing Women (1989); Dharma & Greg (1999); Dirty Sexy Money (2008); Eli Stone (2008); Enough (2002); Falcon Crest (1986–1988); Fame (1983); Family Ties (1982); First Family (1980); Fletch (1985); Gilmore Girls (2003); Grey's Anatomy (2009); Grounded for Life (2001); GUNS (1976); Hardball (1989); Hardcastle and McCormick (1983–1985); Hawthorne (2009); Head Cases (2005); Helter Skelter (1976); Herman's Head (1993); Highway to Heaven (1987); Hill Street Blues (1984); House (2006); Hudson Street (1996); In the Line of Duty: A Cop for the Killing (1990); It's a Horrible Life (2010); Jack Reed: Badge of Honor (1993); JAG (2002); Jagged Edge (1985); Jake and the Fatman (1991); Jane Doe: Ties That Bind (2007); Jurassic Park III (2001); Justify the Means (2009); Kaz (1979); Knots Landing (1984); L.A. Law (1986); Leave 'em Laughing (1981); Leaving L.A. (1997); Legal Eagles (1986); Lottery! (1983); Love, Sidney (1982); Mad Men (2007); Magnum, P.I. (1983); Man on a Swing (1974); Martians Go Home (1989); Matlock (1987); Men Behaving Badly (1996); Mission: Impossible III (2006); Moonlighting (1988); Mr. Deeds (2002); Mr. Mom (1983); Mr. Smith (1983); Murder Ordained (1987); Murphy's Romance (1985); Mysterious Two (1982); NCIS (2006); Newhart (1986); Night Court (1989); Pacific Palisades (1997); Party of Five (1996); Passions (1999–2008); Picket Fences (1994); Pipe Dreams (1976); Providence (2000); Raising the Bar (2008); Rendezvous Hotel (1979); Robert Kennedy and His Times (1985); Rollercoaster (1977); Roots: The Next Generations (1979); Ruby and Oswald (1978); Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1987); Sexual Life (2004); Silver Spoons (1985); Simon & Simon (1988); Snoops (1989); Soap (1979); Sorority Boys (2002); Special Bulletin (1983); Special Thanks to Roy London (2005); Star Trek: Enterprise (2001); Star Trek: Insurrection (1998); Star Trek: The Next Generation (1991); Star Trek: Voyager (1995); Star Wars: The Original Radio Drama (1981); Strong Medicine (2000); Surrender (1987); Sweetwater (1983); Team Knight Rider (1997); Terror Out of the Sky (1978); Thank You for Smoking (2005); The A-Team (1984); The Boys Are Back (1995); The Bronx Zoo (1988); The Chisholms (1980); The French Atlantic Affair (1979); The Guardian (2004); The Lyon's Den (2003–2004); The New WKRP in Cincinnati (1993); The Outer Limits (1995); The Pentagon Wars (1998); The Popcorn Kid (1987); The Powers of Matthew Star (1983); The Practice (1997–2003); The Riches (2007–2008); The Savage Bees (1976); The Visitor (1997); The Waltons (1978); The Wayans Bros. (1997); The West Wing (2002); The Wishing Well (2009); Thieves (2001); Up All Night (2012); Valerie (1990); Victim of Love: The Shannon Mohr Story (1993); Waiting for Godot (1977); Walkout (2006); War and Remembrance (1989); When Every Day Was the Fourth of July (1978); Where Pigeons Go to Die (1990); Who Is Julia? (1986); Who's the Boss? (1991–1992); Wildcats (1986).

Born on this day – Ed Bernard:

Ed Bernard

Actor

July 4, 1939 – January 23, 2025

Credits:

Across 110th Street (1972); Act of Violence (1979); Amen (1987); Bare Witness (2002); Becker (2003); Beyond Westworld (1980); Blue Thunder (1983); Cold Case (2005); Cool Million (1972); D.A. Pursuit of Justice / Video Game (1997); Doogie Howser, M.D. (1991); ER (2005); Girl in the Cadillac (1995); Girlfriends (2002); Hardcastle and McCormick (1984–1985); Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993); In the House (1997); Intimate Stranger (1991); JAG (2002); Kojak (1974); Life with Lucy (1986); Love Story (1973); Mannix (1974); Mork & Mindy (1978); Murdock's Gang (1973); Nickels (1995); NYPD Blue (1999); Pinocchio's Revenge (1996); Police Story (1973–1974); Police Woman (1974–1978); Reflections of Murder (1974); Shaft (1971); Suddenly Susan (1998); Survival Game (1987); T.J. Hooker (1982–1984); That's My Mama (1974); The Hot Rock (1972); The Last Song (1980); The White Shadow (1978–1980); Together Brothers (1974); Trader Horn (1973); Two Marriages (1983); Under Cover (1987); Unwed Father (1974); What's Happening Now! (1987); What's Happening!! (1978); Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (1995).

Born on this day – Neil Simon:

Neil Simon

Writer

July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018

Born on this day – Gina Lollobrigida:

Gina Lollobrigida

Actress

Photographer

Artist

July 4, 1927 – January 16, 2023