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.

August 2, 1939: "Beau Geste" Premieres

Left to right: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston

August 2, 1939: Beau Geste premieres, directed by William Wellman, and based on P.C. Wren's 1924 novel of 3 English brothers joining the French Foreign Legion in the years before World War I.

Gary Cooper, Ray Milland and Robert Preston star as the brothers. Among the other actors are Susan Hayward, Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford, and, just 13 years old, Donald O'Connor as the child version of Cooper's character, Michael "Beau" Geste.

This film was yet another reason why 1939 was Hollywood’s greatest year -- but the trailer's tag "Savage Desert Tribesmen!" shows that this was well before the era of sensitive American movies.

It had first been filmed in 1926 (silent, of course), and would be again in 1966 (the 1st color version). It has been parodied many times, including by Laurel & Hardy (Beau Hunks, 1931), the Carry On films (Follow That Camel, 1967), and the Peanuts comic strip (one of Snoopy's many fantasies). In 1977, a parody film was made, The Last Remake of Beau Geste. In spite of that title, the BBC would make a serious miniseries (or a "serial," as they'd say in Britain) in 1982.

The French Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army created to allow foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831, at a time when many people in Europe were trying to escape a hard life in their own countries.

Legionnaires are today renowned as highly trained soldiers whose training focuses on traditional military skills and on the Legion's strong esprit de corps, as its men come from different countries with different cultures. Consequently, training is often described as not only physically challenging, but also very stressful psychologically.

Legionnaires may apply for French citizenship after 3 years' service, or immediately after being wounded in the line of duty. This latter provision is known as "Français par le sang versé": "French by spilled blood."

In the English-speaking world, the Legion is best known from old movies such as Beau Geste. But in the rest of the world, it has never recovered from its reputation of being part of the Armée d’Afrique, committing terrible acts in the Algerian War of 1954 to 1962.

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August 2, 1939 was a Wednesday. Horror film director Wes Craven was born. So was someone who made a true horror: George  W. Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, John W. Snow.

This was also the day that Albert Einstein and Leo Szilárd sent their letter concerning the building of an atomic bomb to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. And it was the day the Hatch Act became law. I have separate entries for those events.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers, 7-2 at Yankee Stadium. Bill Dickey hit a home run, but Atley Donald did not have good stuff.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Joe Bowman pitched a 5-hit shutout.

* The New York Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds, 12-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Mel Ott went 2-for-4 with an RBI.

* A doubleheader was split at Fenway Park in Boston. The Cleveland Indians won the opener, 8-2. The Boston Red Sox won the nightcap, 5-4. Red Sox rookie sensation Ted Williams went 0-for-6, although he did draw 2 walks.

* A doubleheader was split at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Athletics won the 1st game, 13-4. The Chicago White Sox won the 2nd game, 2-1.

* The Washington Senators beat the St. Louis Browns, 2-1 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* The St. Louis Cardinals were supposed to play the Boston Bees (as the Braves were known from 1936 to 1940) at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, but were rained out. It was made up as part of a doubleheader the next day. The Cards swept, 5-1 and 4-3.

* And the Philadelphia Phillies were supposed to play the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago, but were rained out. It was rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on September 14. The Cubs swept, 13-1 and 5-2.