December 16, 1974: “The Towering Inferno” Premieres

December 16, 1974: The Towering Inferno premieres, directed by John Guillerman and produced by Irwin Allen, "The Master of Disaster." Within the past 2 years, the 1,368-foot, 110-story World Trade Center had opened in New York; the 1,454-foot, 110-story Sears Tower had opened in Chicago; and the 1,815-foot CN Tower in Toronto, with a 1,122-foot-high observation deck, had begun construction.

It's a film with "a cast of thousands." Steve McQueen and Paul Newman were two of the biggest stars in the movies at the time, and each wanted top billing. So a compromise was reached: Their names were staggered on the posters, so that McQueen was listed on the left, but Newman's name was higher, allowing each man to claim top billing. Each man was paid $1 million -- about $5.75 million in 2022 money.

The film was based on the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern, and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. In the film, the skyscraper is known as the Glass Tower, designed by architect Doug Roberts (Newman). It's 1,688 feet high (a height that wouldn't be reached in real life until 2007) and 138 stories above the streets of San Francisco.

The Tower's electrical system gets overloaded, and a fire starts on the 81st floor. McQueen plays Battalion Chief Michael O'Hallorhan, leading the firefighters. Maureen McGovern, previously in Allen's disaster film The Poseidon Adventure, plays a singer, and, as she did in the previous film with "The Morning After" (which hit Number 1 for her in 1973), sings the theme song.

Older stars: Fred Astaire, William Holden, Jennifer Jones, Olan Soule. Younger stars: Richard Chamberlain, Dabney Coleman, Faye Dunaway, Susan Flannery, Mike Lookinland, Felton Perry, Gregory Sierra, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner... and football star O.J. Simpson.

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December 16, 1974 was a Monday. Despite this, ABC did not air a Monday Night Football game, having aired a Saturday night game 2 nights earlier. Baseball was out of season. No games were played in the NBA, the ABA, the NHL or the WHA. So there were no scores on this historic day.

November 7, 1980: The Death of Steve McQueen

November 7, 1980: Steve McQueen dies at age 50, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where he had been seeking alternative treatment for the asbestos-induced cancer that was killing him.

The legendary actor and daredevil had starred in The Blob, The Sand Pebbles, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Papillon, The Cincinnati Kid, Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Getaway and The Towering Inferno. He was called "The King of Cool," and I've only seen that nickname given to one other person, singer-actor Dean Martin.

Such was the respect for McQueen that he was one of the three members of the Magnificent Seven to survive the film's final shootout; and that, despite co-starring in The Towering Inferno with Paul Newman, he insisted on top billing, so his name and picture were put at the left of the film poster, with Newman's picture and name being slightly higher, so it looked like either man could claim top billing.

Shortly after his death, baseball legend Yogi Berra and his wife Carmen were watching TV at home, and one of McQueen's films came on. Yogi said, "He must have made that before he died."

Steve's son Chad also became an actor. So did a grandson, billed as Steven R. McQueen. The original Steve remains an exemplar of macho Hollywood charisma. Sheryl Crow had a hit song titled "Steve McQueen" in 2002. Starting in 2006, Disney began an animated film franchise titled Cars, and the lead character, voiced by Owen Wilson, is a race car named Lightning McQueen in his memory.

There is also a black British director named Steve Rodney McQueen, who has been knighted and goes by Sir Steve McQueen. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2014, for 12 Years a Slave.

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November 7, 1980 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Denver Nuggets, 124-115 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Boston Celtics, 102-101 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Kansas City Kings, 117-100 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Detroit Lions, 114-88 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Atlanta Falcons, 103-100 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 126-102 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas. Magic Johnson scored 32 points.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Golden State Warriors, 122-113 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics, 113-94 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 2 NHL games played that night. The Edmonton Oilers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-2 at the Winnipeg Arena. And the Vancouver Canucks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 3-2 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

October 12, 1960: "The Magnificent Seven" Premieres

Left to right: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz,

Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn

October 12, 1960: The Magnificent Seven premieres. It is a Western, directed by John Sturges, based on the Japanese film The Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurosawa.

The title characters are gunfighters, hired by a small Mexican town to protect them from a gang of bandits, whose leader is played not by a Latino actor, but by the Brooklyn-born Austrian Jew Eli Wallach. (Wallach would also play a Mexican villain opposite Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name" in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; and had already played a Japanese interpreter for the U.S. Army in Teahouse of the August Moon.)

The Seven are played by Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz. I won't spoil the movie by telling you which ones survive.

Sturges had directed McQueen before, and wanted him again, but he was starring in the TV Western Wanted Dead or Alive. McQueen, like Paul Newman an avid auto racer, staged an accident, and claimed he needed time off to recover. He got it, and was free to appear. But he and Brynner, by far the 2 biggest stars at the time, did not get along.

Coburn had an affinity for Japanese culture, as he would show many years later as a guest star on The Muppet Show. He claimed to have seen Seven Samurai 15 times, and badly wanted to appear in this version. Vaughn was a friend, and put in a good word for Coburn.

Despite being the leader of the good guys, Brynner's Chris Adams wears all black, much like Zorro does, and like Richard Boone did as Paladin on the then-current TV hit Have Gun -- Will Travel. Brynner would pay homage to this role, playing a robot in Westworld, which spawned a sequel, Futureworld, and a TV series reboot.

Brynner would play Adams again in the 1966 sequel Return of the Seven, but would be replaced in the role by George Kennedy in Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) and by Lee Van Cleef in The Magnificent Seven Ride (1972).

McQueen died in 1980, from cancer, only 50 years old. Brynner also died from cancer, in 1985, at 65, shortly after filming an anti-smoking commercial, saying, "Now that I'm dead, I'm warning you: Don't smoke." Coburn and Dexter lived until 2002, Bronson and Buchholz until 2003, and Wallach until 2014. Vaughn, later to star as Agent Napoleon Solo on the TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., turned out to be the last survivor of the actors, living until 2016, and was the only one of the good guys to outlive Wallach.

A Magnificent Seven TV series aired on CBS from 1998 to 2000, with Michael Biehn playing the leader, there named Chris Larabee. Vaughn played the man who hired the Seven in the pilot. In the 2016 remake, Denzel Washington played the leader, Sam Chisolm.

In 1980, the film Battle Beyond the Stars took the concept to space, with George Peppard playing "Space Cowboy," and Vaughn playing a variation on his character in M7. The planet they're hired to protect is named Akira, in honor of Kurosawa. Peppard would also star as John "Hannibal" Smith in The A-Team, after M7 veteran Coburn turned the part down. That show was devised as a combination of The Magnificent Seven and The Dirty Dozen. (Bronson was the only actor to be one of the M7 and the D12.)

Toshiro Mifune was Japan's Steve McQueen, its Harrison Ford, and its Clint Eastwood, before any of those men had become famous in America. In 1954, he starred in Seven Samurai, so he was McQueen as Vin Tanner. In 1958, he starred in The Hidden Fortress, which George Lucas used as a basis for Star Wars, so he was Ford as Han Solo. In 1961, he starred in Yojimbo, which Sergio Leone turned into A Fistful of Dollars, so he was Eastwood as "The Man With No Name." Not that Kurosawa was above doing an homage: In 1957, he made Throne of Blood, set it in feudal-era Japan, and cast Mifune as his Macbeth.

Mifune was in some English-language films, including John Frankenheimer's 1966 Grand Prix, John Boorman's 1968 Hell in the Pacific, and Steven Spielberg's 1979 film 1941. He died in 1997.

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October 12, 1960 was a Wednesday. It was the day of Game 6 of the World Series. Whitey Ford pitches a 7-hit shutout, and singles home the 1st run of a 12-0 New York Yankees rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field. There will be a Game 7 tomorrow, also in Pittsburgh.

The Yankees had won their 3 games 16-3, 10-0 and 12-0. The Pirates wins had been by scores of 6-4, 3-2 and 5-2. It seems as though a high-scoring game favors the Yankees. And the Yankees will score 9 runs in Game 7, while the Pirates hadn't yet scored more than 5. Sounds like a Yankee title. Except...

Football was in midweek. The NBA season didn't begin until November 1. There was 1 NHL game that day: The Chicago Black Hawks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-0 at the Chicago Stadium.

July 4, 1963: "The Great Escape" Premieres

July 4, 1963: The film The Great Escape premieres, based on the 1950 non-fiction book by Paul Brickell, itself based on an actual event during World War II.

The real story: Stalag Luft III was a prisoner-of-war camp set up by Nazi Germany in Sagan, Lower Silesia, within German borders. Due to the changing borders after the war, the town is now in Poland, and named Żagań. The name "Luft," meaning "Air," indicates that all the prisoners were survivors of Allied planes that had been shot down.

On March 25, 1944, having dug 3 tunnels, codenamed Tom, Dick and Harry, 76 Allied prisoners escaped. All but 3 were quickly recaptured: Bram van der Stok of the Netherlands, and Norwegians Per Bergsland and Jens Müller. van der Stok, due to his language skills and contacts with the French resistance, found safety with the British consulate in neutral Spain. The 2 Norwegians made it to neutral Sweden by train and boat, with the help of friendly sailors. But of the 73 men captured, the Nazis executed 50. Bergsland lived until 1992, van der Stock until 1993, Müller until 1999.

Only 3 of the real escapees were Americans. But, given the nature of Hollywood, Americans were given starring roles in the film, some as foreigners. Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn were veterans of the 1960 Western film The Magnificent Seven.

Bronson, of Lithuanian descent, played a Polish pilot who had volunteered for Britain's Royal Air Force, and stands in for one of the successfully escaped Swedes. Coburn played an Australian. And James Garner played an American who had volunteered for the RAF. Among the British actors, not yet widely known among American audiences, were Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Donald Pleasance and David McCallum. McQueen's character, despite his famed motorcycle jump, was one of those recaptured. But, since McQueen was a big Hollywood hero, his character could not be among the executed, so the film ends with him planning his next escape.

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July 4, 1963 was a Thursday. This was also the day that the English Football League's maximum wage and retain-and-transfer clauses were abolished. I have a separate entry for that.

Baseball player José Oquendo was born. Obviously, the 4th of July is not a holiday in Britain, but it is one in America, traditionally one on which baseball teams played doubleheaders:

* The New York Yankees split with the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won the opener, 9-1. Whitey Ford, who would have won the American League's Cy Young Award had it not then been a both-Leagues award, outpitched Gary Peters, who went on to be named the AL's Rookie of the Year. Roger Maris and Elston Howard hit home runs.

The White Sox won the nightcap, 4-2. Juan Pizarro outpitched Bill Stafford. Mickey Mantle was injured, and did not play in either game. Nor did Yogi Berra, who was in his last full season as a player.

* The New York Mets were swept by the Chicago Cubs, 2-1 and 3-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The only Met run in the 1st game came on a home run by Jim Hickman, who would be a part of the Cubs' 1969 "September Swoon." Other than that, Glen Hobbie allowed only 1 hit, a single by Ron Hunt. Paul Toth pitched a 3-hit shutout in the 2nd game. Over the 2 games, Ernie Banks went 1-for-6 with a walk.

* The Philadelphia Phillies swept the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-0 and 5-1 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Don Demeter singled pitcher Art Mahaffey home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning of the 1st game. Mahaffey allowed only 2 hits over 10 innings, a triple to Roberto Clemente and a single to Donn Clendenon. He outpitched Bob Friend, who also went the extra distance.

In the 2nd game, Ryne Duren, previously known as a star Yankee reliever, went the distance for the win. The only run the Pirates scored was on a home run by Clemente.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Los Angeles Angels in a single game, 7-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-5.

* The Washington Senators swept the Kansas City Athletics, 2-1 and 3-2 at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. (D.C. Stadium was renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1969.)

* The Cleveland Indians swept the Boston Red Sox, 4-3 and 7-5 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Jerry Kindall won the 1st game with a home run in the bottom of the 14th inning. Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-4 with 2 walks, then came back in the 2nd game to go 3-for-4 with a home run, a walk, and 2 RBIs.

* The Detroit Tigers swept the Minnesota Twins, 5-3 and 3-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Over the 2 games, Al Kaline went 3-for-8, and Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-5 with a walk.

* The Houston Colt .45s swept the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2 and 6-2 at Colt Stadium in Houston. Over the 2 games, Pete Rose, who was named National League Rookie of the Year, went 2-for-9. But Frank Robinson did not play. (The Colts became the Houston Astros in 1965.)

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-7 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Dodgers scored 8 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning. Stan Musial, in his last season, went 2-for-5.

* And the Milwaukee Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Hank Aaron went 3-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Willie Mays went 4-for-5, and Willie McCovey hit a home run.