November 19, 1980: “Heaven’s Gate” Sinks United Artists

November 19, 1980: Heaven's Gate premieres. This "revisionist Western" was director Michael Cimino's follow-up to the critical darling The Deer Hunter, and had a lot of talent: Kris Kristofferson, Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Walken, Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Terry O'Quinn, Mickey Rourke, and, in his film debut, Willem Dafoe. It should have worked.

But Cimino was a nut, and everyone chafed against his directing. Filming ran long. The movie eventually came in at 3 hours and 39 minutes, about twice as long as the average filmgoer's attention span for a movie without explosions. There were accusations of the horses and cattle being abused.

And, at a time when inflation was rampant in America, the cost ran up to $44 million. That doesn’t sound like much now, and with over 40 years' worth of additional inflation, it would be $153 million, which would now be a lot for a Western without much special effects, but not for a science-fiction blockbuster.

But it only made back $3.5 million, and bankrupted United Artists, one of the great Hollywood studios. MGM bought them out. It became the standard by which all movie bombs are measured.

When Kevin Costner made Dances With Wolves 10 years later, and costs ran high, people joked that it would be Kevin's Gate. Instead, it was a hit, and won the Oscar for Best Picture. They said the same thing about his film Waterworld, but that made a profit, too. They said the same thing about The Postman. and they were finally right. I guess, having made 2 baseball-themed movies (and, since, 2 more), Costner should have known: Three strikes, and you're out.

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November 19, 1980 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the San Antonio Spurs, 112-104 at the Rutgers Athletic Center (now the Jersey Mike's Arena) in Piscataway, New Jersey. George Gervin scored 38 points.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Golden State Warriors, 110-101 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* And the Boston Celtics beat the Indiana Pacers, 103-91 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

And there were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Quebec Nordiques beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1 at the Colisée de Québec

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-4 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Winnipeg Jets, 7-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Boston Bruins, the St. Louis Blues, the New York Islanders, the Calgary Flames, the Colorado Rockies, the Washington Capitals and the Hartford Whalers were not scheduled.

August 29, 1970: The Hate-the-Performer Festival

Joni Mitchell

August 29, 1970: The 3rd annual Isle of Wight festival is held at Afton Down, on the Isle of Wight, on the south coast of England -- coincidentally, in a town named Newport, whose namesake in Rhode Island had hosted folk and jazz music festivals.

The year before, Bob Dylan played it as his 1st concert since his 1966 motorcycle crash. It has long been rumored that the reason the Woodstock festival was named that, and intended to be held in the New York State town of that name, is that Dylan was living there, and that he would not be able to resist playing "in his own backyard." The show was finally moved to Bethel, 57 miles away. But when it began on August 15, Dylan was already flying to England for the Isle of Wight Festival.

Shows like Woodstock, Altamont, and the Rolling Stones' Hyde Park concert, all in 1969, upped the ante on rock festivals. The Isle of Wight Festival surpassed Woodstock, with over 600,000 spectators. But the prevailing wind blew the sound sideways across the venue, making it hard for the more distant spectators to hear.

The lineup:

* August 26: Judas Jump (a "heavy progressive rock" band), Kathy Smith, Rosalle Sorrels, David Bromberg, Kris Kristofferson, and Mighty Baby (listed as a "psychedelic rock band").

Kristofferson sang his song "Blame It On the Stones," and, not hearing the words properly, the audience thought he was criticizing the Rolling Stones, and the youth movement in general. He got booed off the stage.

* August 27: Gary Farr, formerly of the T-Bones, the band that produced Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Supertramp; Andy Roberts' Everyone; Ray Owen, formerly of Juicy Lucy; Howl, a Scottish hard rock band; Black Widow, a British band of practicing Satanists; The Groundhogs, British blues rockers; Terry Reid and David Lindley; Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, Brazilian musicans; and Gracious!, a British progressive rock band.

* August 28: Fairfield Parlour; Arrival; Lighthouse, a Canadian band; Taste, led by guitarist Rory Gallagher; Tony Joe White, who sang his song "Polk Salad Annie"; Chicago, early in their career; Family; Procol Harum; The Voices of East Harlem, singing school children from New York, one of the few acts to receive a standing ovation; and Cactus.

* August 29: John Sebastian, joined for a few songs by his former Lovin' Spoonful bandmate, Zal Yanovsky; Shawn Phillips; another set by Lighthouse; Joni Mitchell; Tiny Tim; Miles Davis; Ten Years After; Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Doors, in what turned out to be their 3rd-from-last performance, besieged by cold and wind; The Who; Sly and the Family Stone; and Melanie, who got one of the few nice receptions.

Sebastian, Ten Years After, The Who, Sly and Melanie had played at Woodstock; Mitchell hadn't, though she'd written the song "Woodstock." While she sang it, she was interrupted by a hippie calling himself Yogi Joe. Her manager grabbed him, and took him off the stage. The crowd booed, and she got upset, telling the audience, "Give us some respect!" She would later call this event "the Hate-the-Performer Festival."

* August 30: Good News, an American acoustic duo of cellist Larry Gold and guitarist Michael Bacon; Kristofferson, for a 2nd try, which was much better received; Ralph McTell; Heaven, a British "jazz-influenced rock band"; Free; Donovan; Pentangle, a British folk band: The Moody Blues, who played "Nights in White Satin"; Jethro Tull; and the headliner for the entire festival, Jimi Hendrix. No one knew it yet, but he would be dead just 20 days later.

* August 31: As with Woodstock, delays forced a spillover into one more day than was intended. This day featured Joan Baez, who sang "Let It Be," by the recently broken-up Beatles; Leonard Cohen; and the festival was closed by the man who opened Woodstock, Richie Havens.

"It was a total disaster," Kristofferson recalled. "They just hated us. They hated everything. They booed us, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Sly Stone. They threw shit at Jimi Hendrix. At the end of the night, they were tearing down the outer walls, setting fire to the concessions, burning their tents, shouting obscenities. Peace and love it was not."

The unexpectedly high attendance levels led, in 1971, to the British Parliament adding a section to the Isle of Wight County Council Act 1971 preventing overnight open-air gatherings of more than 5,000 people on the island without a special license from the council.

The event was revived in 2002, and, except for the COVID year of 2020, has been held every year since.

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August 29, 1970 was a Saturday. Elsewhere in England, Chelsea beat Arsenal, 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in West London. This would be the North Londoners' only loss in their 1st 9 Football League games that season. They then began a streak of 13 wins, 4 draws and only 1 loss, on their way to winning the League and the FA Cup, a feat known as "doing The Double."

These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Minnesota Twins, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Bill Zepp outpitched Mel Stottlemyre. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Rod Carew did not play.

* The New York Mets lost to the Houston Astros, 9-8 at the Astrodome in Houston. The Mets took an 8-7 lead in the top of the 10th inning, but the Astros won it in the bottom of the 10th, on RBI singles by Bob Watson and Cesar Cedeño.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Montreal Expos beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Jarry Park in Montreal. The Reds scored 2 runs in the top of the 11th inning, and the Expos could only scored 1 in the bottom half. Pete Rose went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Johnny Bench went 2-for-5.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Atlanta Braves, 10-9 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Hank Aaron went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-1 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-4, and Frank Robinson went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the California Angels, 14-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. They played as if they hadn't been shaken up by teammate Tony Horton's suicide attempt the night before, so maybe they didn't know. Roy Foster and Buddy Bradford each hit 2 home runs for the Tribe, while Eddie Leon hit 1. Sam McDowell went the distance for the win.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-2 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Reggie Jackson did not play. Al Kaline went 2-for-3 with 2 walks.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox, 13-9 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 2 RBIs.

* The Washington Senators beat the Kansas City Royals, 11-4 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Lou Brock went 3-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Joe Torre went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-9 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Willie Mays, Jim Ray Hart and Bobby Bonds hit home runs. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4 with 2 walks. Willie Stargell only appeared as a pinch-hitter, and did not reach base.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the San Diego Padres did not play, since the San Diego Chargers had dibs on the facility later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). So the game scheduled for this Saturday was moved back to the preceding Thursday, August 27. The Cubs won, 5-1. Ernie Banks did not play.

April 1, 1970: Kris Kristofferson Releases His Self-Titled Debut Album

April 1, 1970: Kris Kristofferson releases his debut album, Kristofferson. If there has ever been a country version of Bob Dylan, he was the one.

He wrote all the songs on it, including "Me and Bobby McGee," "Help Me Make It Through the Night," "For the Good Times," and "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down." Each of these would become better known by someone else, respectively: Janis Joplin (a former girlfriend of his), Sammi Smith, Ray Price and Johnny Cash.

Born on June 22, 1936 in Brownsville, Texas, on the Rio Grande and thus the U.S.-Mexican border, he grew up in the San Francisco suburb of San Mateo, California. By the time he won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University in England in 1958, he had already had stores published in The Atlantic Monthly.

There were more rockers with military service than you might think, and he enlisted in the U.S. Army -- albeit in 1961, before the Vietnam War resulted in big draft calls. He completed Ranger training, became a helicopter pilot, taught literature at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and was discharged with the rank of Captain in 1965.

He hit it big as a singer while working on an oil rig in Louisiana. So he was more of a "working man's poet" than just about anybody who's ever pretended to such a status. He went into acting, and starred in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born, Convoy, and Heaven's Gate. And he joined with fellow "outlaw country movement" stars Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to form the "supergroup" The Highwaymen.

He married 3 times, including to singer Rita Coolidge, who appeared on the cover of his 1973 album Jesus Was a Capricorn, which featured his biggest hit under his own name, "Why Me." He had 8 children.

In 1992, he served as the master of ceremonies for the Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden. This was shortly after Sinéad O'Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on SNL. At the tribute concert, Kris introduced her by saying that, like Dylan, she was a champion of free speech, but she still got booed off the stage. She walked off and cried on Kris' shoulder, and a microphone picked up him saying to her, "Don't let the bastards get you down."

He retired from performing in 2021, citing age and health issues.

UPDATE: He died on September 28, 2024, at the age of 88. His last performance had been a year earlier, at a tribute concert for Nelson's 90th birthday.

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April 1, 1970 was a Wednesday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There was 1 game in the NBA: The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 118-111 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then still using his birth name of Lew Alcindor, scored 33 points. Billy Cunningham scored 50 in defeat.

There was 1 game in the American Basketball Association: The Los Angeles Stars beat the New York Nets, 113-101 at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

There were 5 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 6-3 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 5-2 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the St. Louis Blues and the Oakland Seals played to a tie, 2-2 at the St. Louis Arena.

February 15, 1987: "Amerika" Premieres On ABC

February 15, 1987: Amerika premieres on ABC. It imagined a Soviet takeover that year, and showed the occupation 10 years in.

It is not a sequel to The Day After, but was based on the reaction to it of former Nixon speechwriter turned actor Ben Stein, who said we have nuclear weapons because of what would happen if the Soviets took over:

Perhaps they might make a TV movie about why the people of the United States face such a dreadful risk. They might make a movie about what life in the United States would be like if we lived under Soviet domination. Here is the idea: Let's have a movie called "In Red America." It would be about a few days or weeks in the life of several American families after the Soviet Union had taken over America.

The miniseries was described as "the most ambitious American miniseries ever created," running 14 1/2 hours over 7 nights. ABC Entertainment President Brandon Stoddard explained that the intent was to explore the U.S. spirit under such conditions, not to portray the conflict of the Soviet coup.

So the backstory is almost an aside: Four atomic bombs, detonated at a particular height, acted as an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), destroying the U.S. electrical grid, including computer systems and communications systems, cutting the U.S. off from its NATO allies; but without killing people or destroying buildings or other infrastructure, thus giving the Soviets something to take over.

The U.S. is forced to accept Soviet terms for surrender: Unilateral disarmament, the end of the dollar as a reserve currency, and integration into the Soviet military/economic bloc. The United States quickly falls under Soviet military occupation under the command of Russian General Petya Samanov (played by German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl), with the President and the Congress becoming mere figureheads for their Soviet overseers.

Singer-songwriter-actor Kris Kristofferson starred as Devin Milford, who had been a maverick politician before the Soviet occupation, running for President in 1988, after the Soviet takeover began. He was placed in a prison camp for daring to speak the truth about the Soviet conquest.

At the beginning of the miniseries, he is declared "rehabilitated," and released back into society into the custody of his father, who lives in the Nebraska county run by Peter Bradford. Played by Robert Urich. Bradford cooperates with the Soviets to create a better life for his community. He attracts the attention of the Soviet leadership because, while cooperative, he is independent and respected by his constituents.

New Zealand-based actor Sam Neill plays KGB Colonel Andrei Denisov, the Soviet administrator for the American Central Administrative Area. He is romantically involved with actress Kimberly Ballard (Mariel Hemingway).

The miniseries ends on a downbeat note: With some semblance of national communications restored, Milford is shown about to make a nationwide speech, telling Americans to revolt against the Soviet occupation, but is assassinated. It is unclear if he managed to make a nationwide broadcast calling on Americans to resist the breakup of the United States, but, based on the ending, it appears that the United States of America will cease to exist forever as a nation, and will be broken up into several independent countries within North America, at least for the time being.

If Ben Stein's intent was to create a surge of enthusiasm for Reagan, or for American nuclear power, or for hatred of the Soviet Union or Communism in general, he failed: The Iran-Contra scandal was raging, and Reagan's prestige had been dented, if not permanently ruined; nuclear power was still seen as dangerous by most Americans; and pretty much everybody except a few college students and old leftists now accepted that Communism was bad.

Of course, the Russians couldn't actually take over America. Could they? Not in 1987...

In July 1987, Donald Trump and his first wife, Ivana, traveled to Moscow at the invitation of Soviet Ambassador Yuri Dubinin, to explore building a luxury hotel near the Kremlin. During the visit, he was treated to high-level hospitality by Soviet officials, with some reports suggesting KGB involvement. Shortly after, he began expressing interest in politics, and criticized NATO. The rest is not yet history, since the American media has never truly investigated this trip, because they like the profits that Trump gives them.

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February 15, 1987 was a Sunday, the date on which networks usually started a miniseries in the format's glory years.

Baseball and football were out of season. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 120-104 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 106-103 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Magic Johnson scored 39 points.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 98-93 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

And there were 4 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-4 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Minnesota North Stars beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-2 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* And the Washington Capitals beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.