November 1, 1929: “Happy Days Are Here Again” Is Recorded

Leo Reisman

November 1, 1929: "Happy Days Are Here Again" is recorded by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra. The timing is bad, within days of the stock market crash that caused the Great Depression.

It is saved by Franklin Roosevelt using it as his campaign theme song in 1932. And 1936. And 1940. And 1944. The song became identified with FDR and the recovery he launched, and with the Democratic Party in general.

However, at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, when delegates sang "We Shall Overcome" following the approval of the platform plank supporting the Vietnam War, Mayor Richard Daley ordered the band on hand to play "Happy Days Are Here Again" to drown it out. It didn't work.

Reisman lived until 1961. Jack Yellen wrote the lyrics, and lived until 1991. Milton Ager wrote the music, and lived until 1979. Together, they also wrote "Ain't She Sweet."

Barbra Streisand recorded a slow version of the normally uptempo "Happy Days Are Here Again" in 1962.

*

November 1, 1929 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. The NHL season was 13 days away.

There was 1 college football game that night: Drake University beat Creighton University, 34-12 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. Having installed lights at their stadium the season before, making them the 1st major college football team to do so, Drake went on to win the Missouri Valley Conference title that season.

Drake dropped its football program in 1986, only to bring it back the next year, at the level of NCAA Division I-AA, now the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), where they remain. Creighton, of Omaha, Nebraska, dropped football after the 1942 season, due to the manpower drain of World War II, and have never restored it.

 

October 19, 1973: “The Way We Were” Premieres

Robert Redford & Barbra Streisand, 1973

October 19, 1973: The Way We Were premieres, directed by Sydney Pollack. Arthur Laurents adapted the screenplay from his own 1972 novel of the same name, which was based on his college days at Cornell University, and his experiences with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

It stars Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand, both at their peak. Streisand sings the theme song, which hit Number 1 the following February. It was written by Marvin Hamlisch, and the husband & wife team of Alan & Marilyn Bergman.

Katie Morosky and Hubbell Gardiner are immensely different. Katie is a staunch Marxist Jew with strong anti-war opinions, while Hubbell is a carefree WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), with no particular political bent.

While attending college in 1937, Katie is attracted to Hubbell's good looks and admires his natural writing skill, which he seemingly excels at. Hubbell is intrigued by Katie's ability to communicate and persuade others into supporting various social causes. Hubbell's snobbish college friends mock Katie and her passionate political stances. Neither Katie nor Hubbell act upon upon their mutual attraction, and they lose touch after graduation.

The two meet again towards the end of World War II. Katie works at a radio station, and Hubbell, having served as a naval officer in the South Pacific, is readjusting to civilian life. They fall in love, despite their differences. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies on April 12, 1945, Katie is vocally incensed when Hubbell's friends make disparaging jokes. She rejects Hubbell's indifference towards their insensitivity and dismissive political engagement. Hubbell is uncomfortable with Katie's bluntness and strong opinions. Hubbell ends their relationship, but they eventually reconcile.

When Hubbell receives an offer to adapt his novel into a screenplay, Katie believes his talent will be wasted in Hollywood. Despite her frustration, they move to California, where he becomes a successful screenwriter, and the couple enjoy an affluent lifestyle.

As the Hollywood blacklist grows in the late 1940s, and what will eventually be known as McCarthyism encroaches on their lives, Katie's political activism resurfaces, seemingly jeopardizing Hubbell's position and reputation. Eventually, Katie and other Hollywood liberals confront the government over their suppression of personal privacy and free speech.

Katie's involvement strains the marriage, and Hubbell becomes alienated and refuses to understand Katie's persistent political combativeness. Although Katie is now pregnant, Hubbell has an affair with Carol Ann, his college girlfriend. After their daughter's birth, Katie and Hubbell divorce. Katie realizes Hubbell is not the man she idealized and that he will always choose the easiest path. Hubbell is emotionally exhausted and unable to live up to Katie's expectations of him.

Years later, Katie and Hubbell meet by chance in front of the Plaza Hotel in New York, where activist Katie is part of a "Ban the Bomb" demonstration. Hubbell, accompanied by a woman, now writes for a television show, essentially confirming Katie's prediction about him. After a brief, friendly reunion, they part ways, then Hubbell crosses the street to where she is protesting. He asks about their daughter, Rachel, and whether Katie's new husband is a good father to her. After a more tender and bittersweet goodbye, Hubbell goes to the waiting taxi.

That's it. No big ending. No reconciliation. No tragedy. The film just sort of... drips to an end. Men tend to end up disappointed in the film, not because the male lead is unheroic, but because watching the film feels like a waste.

Women don't feel that way at all: If Gone With the Wind is women's Casablanca, then The Way We Were is women's The Godfather. It became a trope of women in sitcoms watching it to help them get over a breakup.

The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning 2: Best Song, for Hamlisch and the Bergmans; and Best Original Score, also for Hamlisch. Streisand was nominated for Best Actress, but lost to Glenda Jackson for A Touch of Class. Redford was nominated for Best Actor -- not for this film, but for another film that year, The Sting. He did not win, losing to Jack Lemmon for Save the Tiger.

Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand, 2015

Streisand had already won Best Actress for her 1969 performance in Funny Girl, and would win for Best Song for "Evergreen" from the 1976 version of A Star Is Born. The Sting remains Redford's only nomination for Best Actor. However, he won for Best Director for the 1980 drama Ordinary People, in which he didn't even appear. He usually doesn't appear in the films he directs. Streisand has directed, and usually does cast herself.

*

October 19, 1973 was a Friday -- the day before President Richard Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre." The World Series was on a travel day, between Games 6 and 7. The New York Mets led the Oakland Athletics, 3 games to 2, and only had to win 1 game in Oakland. They didn't, and the A's won the Series in Game 7.

There was a college football game between ranked teams: The University of Houston, ranked Number 14, beat the University of Miami, ranked Number 15, 30-7 at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

There were 6 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 92-90 at the Cleveland Arena.

* The Boston Celtics beat their arch-rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers, 133-102 at the Boston Garden.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Capital Bullets, 117-103 at the Chicago Stadium. Phil Chenier scored 36 points in defeat for the Bullets, who changed their name to the Washington Bullets the next season.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Detroit Pistons, 96-94 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 118-91 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, 111-99 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

There were 5 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets beat the Memphis Tams, 101-88 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Virginia Squires beat the San Antonio Spurs, 105-93 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia, outside Norfolk.

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Carolina Cougars, 121-109 at the Greensboro Coliseum.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Indiana Pacers, 101-96 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum (now the Corteva Coliseum) in Indianapolis.

* And the Denver Rockets beat the San Diego Conquistadors, 113-100 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The Vancouver Canucks beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. This was an outlier: The Canucks had a terrible season, while the Flyers went on to win the Stanley Cup.

There were 2 games played in the World Hockey Association. The Minnesota Fighting Saints beat the New England Whalers, 1-0 at the St. Paul Civic Center. ("Saints" because they played in St. Paul, not in Minneapolis, or in suburban Bloomington like the NHL's Minnesota North Stars.) And the Vancouver Blazers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-1 at the Edmonton Coliseum.

October 6, 1963: Barbra Streisand Appears On "The Judy Garland Show"

October 6, 1963: Barbra Streisand, just 22 years old but coming off her debut album, appears on The Judy Garland Show on CBS. Although Judy was, by no means, ready to pack it in at age 41, even she could see that this was a "passing of the torch" (or, at least, of the torch song) moment for people who loved popular music but hated rock and roll.

CBS had taken a chance on the temperamental, hard-drinking, pill-popping legend, airing her variety show on Sunday nights after The Ed Sullivan Show, starting on September 29, 1963. The episode with Streisand was taped on October 4.

Judy told Barbara, "You're so good that I... I hate you!" Barbara responded, "That's so sweet of you. Thank you. You know, you're so great, I've been hating you for years. In fact, it's my ambition to be great enough to be hated by as many singers as you." They both laughed, and said they really loved each other. But Barbara added, "But don't stop hating me, because I need the confidence!" (She wasn't kidding: Throughout her career, Barbra has struggled with stage fright.)

Together, they sang Barbra's slown-down version of "Happy Days Are Here Again," "Hooray for Love," and "Get Happy," a tune associated with Garland since her 1950 film Summer Stock. Later, Broadway legend Ethel Merman came on, and the 3 of them sang Ethel's song "There's No Business Like Show Business."

Also appearing on that episode were comedian Jerry Van Dyke, brother of Dick Van Dyke; and the Smothers Brothers, who would later get their own variety series on CBS, and have their own battles with the establishment.

Garland's unreliability, and her clashes with both producers and network brass, led to the show's cancellation after just 1 season of 26 episodes, the last airing on March 29, 1964, just 7 weeks after Ed Sullivan hosted The Beatles for the 1st time.

No one knew it yet, but, in 1976, Streisand would remake one of Garland's biggest films, itself a remake: A Star Is Born.

*

October 6, 1963 was a Sunday. The Los Angeles Dodgers completed a 4-game sweep of the New York Yankees, 2-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. As with Game 1, 4 days earlier, Sandy Koufax outpitched Whitey Ford.

These games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants beat the Washington Redskins, 24-14 at District of Columbia Stadium (later Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington.

* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys, 24-21 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

* The Detroit Lions beat the San Francisco 49ers, 26-3 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* The Chicago Bears beat the Baltimore Colts, 10-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 42-10 at City Stadium (later renamed Lambeau Field) in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

* The football version of the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Minnesota Vikings, 56-14 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The day before, the Cleveland Browns beat their arch-rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, 35-23 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. (Scheduling it for the Saturday made no sense, since Ohio State was also playing that day, and beat Indiana, 21-0 at Memorial Stadium in Bloomington, Indiana.)

And in the American Football League:

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Oilers, 28-7 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 50-34 at Bears Stadium (later renamed Mile High Stadium) in Denver.

* The day before, the New York Jets beat the team that would one day become their arch-rivals, then known as the Boston Patriots, 31-24 at the Polo Grounds. The Jets would play 4 more games at the old Harlem Horseshoe before closing it out, and moved the Shea Stadium in Queens, which they would share with the Mets for 20 seasons.

* Also the day before, the Buffalo Bills beat the Oakland Raiders, 12-0 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.

April 20, 1937: "A Star Is Born" Premieres

Janet Gaynor and Frederic March

April 20, 1937: A Star Is Born, directed by William Wellman, premieres. Among the people contributing to the script was Dorothy Parker, the writer, poet and critic associated with the Algonquin Round Table.

Janet Gaynor plays Esther Victoria Blodgett, a farm girl who wants to be a film star. She meets film star Norman Maine, played by Frederic March. He's impressed with her, and gets her a screen test. She gets a role, and a stage name: Vicki Lester.

They get married, but as her star rises, so does his drinking, and his star falls. He ends up committing suicide. Vicki wants to drop out of show business, but her grandmother, who funded her trip to Hollywood, convinces her to stick with it. Later, interviewed for the newsreels outside her next film premiere, she pays tribute to the man she loved, the man who gave her her big break, telling the crowd, "Hello, everyone: This is Mrs. Norman Maine."

James Mason and Judy Garland

It's been remade 3 times. In the 1954 version, James Mason keeps Norman as an actor, but Judy Garland plays Esther/Vicki as an aspiring singer. In 1976, both halves of the couple are singers: Kris Kristofferson plays John Norman Howard, and Barbra Streisand plays Esther Hoffman, who takes his name upon marriage but doesn't change her given name. A variation is that John doesn't drown himself, but rather drinks, drives, and crashes.

Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand

And in 2018, again, both were singers: Bradley Cooper as Jackson Maine, and Lady Gaga as Ally, whose maiden name is not revealed. And Jackson hangs himself. This film led to rumors of Cooper and Gaga becoming a real couple, which both have denied.

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga

So there have been gaps of 17 years, 22 years, and 42 years. That's an average of 27 years. So, look for another remake around 2045 or so.

*

April 20, 1937 was a Tuesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Washington Senators, 3-2 at Yankee Stadium. Monte Weaver outpitched Lefty Gomez. Former Philadelphia Athletics star Al Simmons went 3-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs for the Senators.

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-3 at Ebbets Field. Pitcher Hal Schumacher helped his own cause by driving home George "Kiddo" Davis with the winning run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the 9th inning. Mel Ott went 0-for-4.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 11-5 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 2-0 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Johnny Mize doubled home the winning run in the top of the 10th inning. Dizzy Dean allowed 13 hits, but kept the shutout through all 10 innings.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 4-3 at Navin Field in Detroit. (The ballpark was renamed Briggs Stadium in 1938, and Tiger Stadium in 1961.) Elden Auker outpitched Mel Harder. Lyn Lary and Roy Hughes each had 3 hits for the Indians. But Gerald "Gee" Walker went 4-for-4 with a solo home run for the Tigers. Hank Greenberg went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Cy Blanton pitched a 5-hit shutout. Paul Waner went 2-for-4. His brother, Lloyd Waner, did not play.

* The Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Browns were rained out at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The game was made up as part of a 4th of July doubleheader. The ChiSox swept, 4-2 and 9-5.

* And the Boston Bees (as the Braves were known from 1936 to 1940) and the Philadelphia Phillies were not scheduled.

March 26, 1964: "Funny Girl" Premieres On Broadway

March 26, 1964: The musical Funny Girl premieres at the Winter Garden Theatre, at 1634 Broadway, off 50th Street. Barbra Streisand stars as World War I-era comedienne Fanny Brice, and would again in the 1968 film version.

Fania Borach was born in 1891 in Manhattan, to an Alsatian father and a Hungarian mother, both Jewish. She started in burlesque in 1908, and began headlining Florenz Ziegfeld's Ziegfeld Follies in 1910, sticking with them into the 1930s. In the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921, she sang the songs with which she's most identified: "My Man" and "Second Hand Rose." She became, as the old saying goes, "star of stage, screen and radio." She married 3 times: Briefly to a barber named Frank White, from 1918 to 1927 to professional gambler Julius "Nicky" Arnstein, and from 1929 to 1938 to theater producer Billy Rose. She starred in both stage and film musicals produced by Rose.

Fanny had 2 children, both with Arnstein: Daughter Frances and son William. The son became an artist, calling himself William Brice. Frances married film producer Ray Stark, who went on to produce the musical Funny Girl, based on his mother-in-law's life. Bob Merrill (not to be confused with opera singer Robert Merrill) and Jule Styne wrote it, including the song for which Babwa Joan would be most remembered: "People." As in, "People, people who need people, are the luckiest people in the world."

Sydney Chaplin, son of Charlie Chaplin and his 2nd wife, Lita Grey, played Nicky Arnstein in the musical. Roger DeKoven played Flo Ziegfeld. Jean Stapleton, later to play Edith Bunker on All in the Family, played Mrs. Strakosh. The musical was nominated for 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actress for Streisand, Best Actor for Chaplin, and Best Producer for Stark -- but won none of them.

William Wyler directed the film version, premiering on September 18, 1968. Streisand reprised her role, Omar Sharif played Nicky, and Walter Pidgeon played Ziegfeld. Sharif, an Egyptian Muslim, caught a lot of flack for doing a love scene with the Jewish Streisand, especially since the Six-Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including Egypt, broke out during filming. When Sharif told Streisand there was even a movement to revoke his Egyptian citizenship, she said, "You think Cairo got upset? You should see the letter I got from my Aunt Rose!"

The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including for Stark for Best Picture. This time, it won 1. Or, rather, for the only time in "Oscar" history, there was a tie vote for Best Actress: Streisand, and Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter. Presented with the statuette at the ceremony, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on April 14, 1969, Streisand looked at it, and gave it the film's first line: "Hello, gorgeous!" (Oliver!, the musical based on Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, won Best Picture.)

In 1975, a sequel, also produced by Stark, Funny Lady, premiered. Streisand again played Fanny, and James Caan played Billy Rose.

Fanny Brice died in 1951, well before the musical was staged. Nicky Arnstein and Billy Rose lived long enough to see the musical, but not the film, dying in 1965 and 1966, respectively. William Wyler died in 1981, Walter Pidgeon in 1984, Frances Stark in 1992, Ray Stark in 2004, William Brice in 2008, Sydney Chaplin in 2009, and Omar Sharif in 2015.

The Winter Garden Theatre still stands. It staged the Ziegfeld Follies in 1934, 1936, 1943 and 1957. It also staged the original productions of Wonderful Town in 1953, Peter Pan in 1954, Bus Stop in 1956, West Side Story in 1957, The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1960, Mame in 1966, Purlie in 1970, Follies in 1971, Beatlemania in 1977, 42nd Street in 1980, and Mamma Mia! in 2001. From 1982 to 2000, it staged Cats. And it's hosted musical versions of Rocky in 2014, School of Rock in 2015, and Beetlejuice in 2019. For 2023, it is planned for a staging of Back to the Future: The Musical.

*

March 26, 1964 was a Thursday. This was also the day of the only face-to-face meeting between Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. No games were scheduled in the NBA. There were 2 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-0 at the Montreal Forum. And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the Chicago Stadium. However, the the Leafs and the Wings would both bounce back, and would face each other in the Finals, where the Leafs would win.