Born on this day – Jorja Curtright:

Jorja Curtright

Actress

August 14, 1923 – May 11, 1985

Credits:

Ben Casey (1962); Bonanza (1966); Boston Blackie (1952); Campbell Summer Soundstage (1952); Celanese Theatre (1952); Chevron Theatre (1952–1953); China Smith (1952); City Detective (1953–1954); Conflict (1956); Crusader (1956); Dangerous Assignment (1952); Fireside Theatre (1951); General Electric Theater (1958); Gruen Guild Theater (1951); Gunsmoke (1956); Heaven Only Knows (1947); Hitler's Madman (1943); Hollywood Opening Night (1951–1952); I Dream of Jeannie (1966); Insight (1963); Iron Horse (1967); Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955); M (1951); Passport to Danger (1954); Perry Mason (1962); Racket Squad (1952); Stage 7 (1955); Stars Over Hollywood (1951); State Trooper (1956); Strange Stories (1956); Studio 57 (1954); Surfside 6 (1961); The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1954); The Best in Mystery (1954); The Cases of Eddie Drake (1952); The Danny Thomas Show (1953); The Joseph Cotten Show: On Trial (1957); The Loretta Young Show (1953); The Millionaire (1957); The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse (1953–1954); The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956); The Rogues (1965); The Sheriff of Cochise (1957); Whistle Stop (1946); Zane Grey Theatre (1958).

Born on this day – Andrea Leeds:

Andrea Leeds

Actress

August 14, 1913 – May 21, 1984

Credits:

Anna Karenina (1935); Asegure a su mujer (1935); Bachelor of Arts (1934); Come and Get It (1936); Dante's Inferno (1935); Earthbound (1940); Elinor Norton (1934); Forgotten Faces (1936); It Could Happen to You (1937); Letter of Introduction (1938); Life Hesitates at 40 (1935); Magnificent Obsession (1935); Meet the Baron (1933); Meet the Stars #6: Stars at Play (1941); My Man Godfrey (1936); Song of the Trail (1936); Stage Door (1937); Sutter's Gold (1936); Swanee River (1939); The Bohemian Girl (1936); The Count Takes the Count (1936); The Goldwyn Follies (1938); The Laurel and Hardy Show (1986); The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind (1988); The Moon's Our Home (1936); The Real Glory (1939); They Shall Have Music (1939); Youth Takes a Fling (1938).

Born on this day – Angela Clarke:

Angela Clarke

Actress

August 14, 1909 – December 16, 2010

Credits:

A Double Life (1947); Alcoa Premiere (1962); Alias Smith and Jones (1971); All in the Family (1979); Arnie (1970); Backlash (1947); Baretta (1977–1978); Ben Casey (1961); Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953); Blindfold (1966); Bonanza (1965–1970); Bracken's World (1970); Brookside (1983); Cagney & Lacey (1984); Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1949); Cinemassacre's Monster Madness (2009); Combat! (1963); Daniel Boone (1966); Darling, How Could You! (1951); Death Valley Days (1965–1969); Dr. Kildare (1966); Dundee and the Culhane (1967); Fantasy Island (1978); Going My Way (1962); Gunsmoke (1962–1964); Harrad Summer (1974); Her Sister's Secret (1946); Houdini (1953); House of Wax (1953); Insight (1974–1980); It's a Big Country: An American Anthology (1951); Killer in the Mirror (1986); Kojak (1974); MacGyver (1985); Mission: Impossible (1967); Mr. Novak (1965); Mr. Soft Touch (1949); Mrs. Mike (1949); My Favorite Spy (1951); Night Song (1947); Nightmare Honeymoon (1974); Outrage (1950); Petrocelli (1974–1975); Rich Man, Poor Man (1976); St. Elsewhere (1984); The Bounty Hunter (1954); The Doctor and the Girl (1949); The Egyptian (1954); The Ghost of Flight 401 (1978); The Girl Most Likely to... (1973); The Great Caruso (1951); The Gunfighter (1950); The Harlem Globetrotters (1951); The High Chaparral (1968); The Interns (1962); The Killer That Stalked New York (1950); The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952); The Outer Limits (1964); The Partridge Family (1973); The Savage (1952); The Seven Little Foys (1955); The Snake Pit (1948); The Undercover Man (1949); The Untouchables (1962–1963); The Virginian (1966); The Young Lawyers (1970); Undercover Girl (1950); Visions (1977); Voyagers! (1983); Woman in Hiding (1950).

Born on this day – Letitia Elizabeth Landon:

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Writer

August 14, 1802 – October 15, 1838

Credits:

Books:

Calendar of the London Seasons (1834); Castruccio Castrucani (date?); Duty and Inclination (1838); Ethel Churchill (1837); Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Books (1832–1839); Flowers of Loveliness (1838); Fragments in Rhyme (1822); Francesca Carrara (1834); Lady Anne Granard (1842); Medallion Wafers (1823); Metrical versions of the Odes tr. in Corinne, or Italy by Madame de Staël (1833); Pictorial Album (1837); Poetic Sketches (1822); Poetical Catalogue of Pictures (1823); Romance and Reality (1831); Schloss's (English) Bijou Almanacks (1836–1839); Subjects for Pictures (1836);  The Book of Beauty (1833); The Easter Gift (1832); The Enchantress and Other Tales / The Novelists Magazine 1 (1833); The Fate of Adelaide (1821); The Female Picture Gallery (1838);  The Golden Violet with its tales of Romance and Chivalry, and other poems (1827); The Improvisatrice and other poems (1824); The Love Letter (1816); The Marriage Vow (date?); The Troubadour (1825); The Venetian Bracelet, The Lost Pleiad, A History of the Lyre and other poems (1829); The Vow of the Peacock and other poems (1835); The Zenana, and minor poems of L.E.L. London (1839); Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836); Versions from the German (1835).

Recommended reading - The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories (1988):

The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories

Edited by Bill Pronzini and Martin H. Greenberg.

Published by Running Press.

First published 1988,

This revised edition published in 2004.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0786713712

ISBN-13: 978-0786713714

Description:

The very best in hardboiled fiction, from such masters as Ross Macdonald, Raymond Chandler, Marcia Muller, Michael Collins, Ed McBain, William Campbell Gault and many more.

With its roots in the American private detective fiction of the 1920s but traceable back as far as Sherlock Holmes, the private eye story remains as popular as ever. Here are 24 of the finest short novels and stories from the hardboiled world of the private eye. The characters in this collection range from the tough, cynical, hard-drinking Philip Marlowe type to hard-hitting female private eyes and the one-armed intellectual Dan Fortune – from masters of the genre past and present.

Ray Bradbury, on writing:

Find out what your hero or heroine wants,

and when he or she wakes up in the morning,

just follow him or her all day.

- Ray Bradbury.

On this day in movie history - Hard Times (1975):

Hard Times

aka The Streetfighter,

directed by Walter Hill,

written by Walter Hill, Bryan Gindoff and Bruce Henstell,

based on a story by Bryan Gindoff and Bruce Henstell,

was released in France on August 13, 1975.
Music by Barry De Vorzon.

Cast:

Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Jill Ireland, Strother Martin, Margaret Blye, Michael McGuire, Felice Orlandi, Edward Walsh, Bruce Glover, Robert Tessier, Nick Dimitri, Frank McRae, Maurice Kowalewski, Naomi Stevens, Lyla Hay Owen, John Creamer, Robert Castleberry, Becky Allen, Joan Kleven, Anne Welsch, Fred Lerner, Jimmy Nickerson, Chuck Hicks, Walter Scott, Max Kleven, Valerian Smith, Bob Minor, Larry Martindale, Charles W. Schaefer Jr., Leslie Bonano, Ronnie Philips, Greater Liberty Baptist Church Choir and Congregation, Ron Centanni, M.C. Gainey, Brion James, Laura Misch Owens.