November 29, 1945: "The Lost Weekend" Premieres

November 29, 1945: The Lost Weekend premieres, based on the novel by Charles R. Jackson, and directed by Billy Wilder. It is Hollywood's classic portrayal of alcoholism. And the title is a little misleading: Although it wraps around a weekend, it runs from Thursday afternoon to Tuesday morning, so The Lost Week might have been a better title.

Ray Milland plays Don Birnam, an alcoholic writer from New York, preparing for a weekend vacation with his brother Wick. Jane Wyman plays his girlfriend, Helen. He goes out for a drink, but, as so often happens, one drink becomes many, and he misses the train for his vacation.

Don tells Helen that he's 2 different people: "Don the Writer" and "Don the Drunk." He's lying, both to her and to himself, proving it by pawning his typewriter on Saturday so he can buy more booze. He wakes up in the alcoholics' ward of a hospital on Sunday. On Monday, he falls victim to delirium tremens, a.k.a. "The D.T.'s." His screams alert a neighbor, who calls Helen, who nurses him through the night. He commits to being Don the Writer, and begins to write his novel based on the events of the "weekend."

Milland won the Academy Award for Best Actor, preceding Richard Burton as the 1st actor from Wales to win one. He later appeared in Dial M for Murder and Love Story, directed for television, and became one of TV's finest character actors. He died in 1986, as a result of substance abuse -- not alcohol, but tobacco.

Wyman later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Johnny Belinda. She was married to Ronald Reagan from 1940 to 1949, and was the mother of his daughter Maureen. Together, they adopted a son, Michael. She was already a Republican, so his political switch, from liberal to conservative, was not one of the reasons they split. She later remarried, and starred on the TV series Falcon Crest. She lived until 2007.

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November 29, 1945 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. No games were scheduled for the NHL.

There were 2 games in college football. Number 10 Texas beat their arch-rivals, Texas A&M, 20-10 at Kyle Field in College Station. And the University of Chattanooga (now the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) beat the University of Mississippi (a.k.a. Ole Miss), 31-6 at Chamberlain Field in Chattanooga, Tennessee.