August 30, 1951: "David and Bathsheba" Premieres

August 30, 1951: The film David and Bathsheba premieres. Directed by Henry King, it tells of Israel's greatest king, played here by Gregory Peck, and his best-remembered wife, played by Susan Hayward. Producer Daryl F. Zanuck wanted the film, inspired by Cecil B. DeMille's 1949 film Samson and Delilah.

David is said to have ruled, roughly, between 1000 and 960 BC, and his life is told in the Bible's Books of 1st Samuel and 2nd Samuel, named for the prophet (played here by Paul Newlan) who told of David's coming.

David becomes infatuated with Bathsheba, wife of one of his generals, Uriah the Hittite (Kieron Moore), as his mistress. She returns his affections. (In the movie, anyway. The Hays Code was still in effect. Most sources suggest that, as King, he could force her to submit.) When she becomes pregnant, David's plan is to send Uriah on a suicide mission, and then, after his death, marry Bathsheba, and pass their child off as premature and legitimate. At first, Uriah resists, but finally follows orders, and is killed. David does marry Bathsheba.

The prophet Nathan (Raymond Massey) reminds David that he is still married to Michal (Jayne Meadows), and has committed the sins of adultery and bigamy. A drought hits the land, and the newborn child dies. (Although the Bible doesn't have nearly the same problem with bigamy that it has with adultery. The Hays Code had a problem with it, though, and it insisted that sinners be properly punishes, especially for sex offenses. But, being a Biblical story, the Code allowed for repentance.) 

The people turn on David, and want him and Bathsheba to die for their sins. David tries to protect her, saying he is the one truly at fault, but she accepts her own responsibility. David, known as a poet, and the author of many of the entries in what became the Bible's Book of Psalms, recites what the modern world knows as his most famous work, Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want."

He decides to face God's judgement alone. He goes to the Ark of the Covenant, and begs God to stop punishing Israel, and Bathsheba in particular, for his sins. He touches the Ark, thinking it will mean certain death. But there is a thunderclap, and he has flashbacks to his youth, including his fight with Goliath (Walter Talun, a Croatian professional wrestler) and his anointing by Samuel. When he takes his hands off the Ark, rain begins to fall. God has accepted his repentance.

The film ends there. It does not tell of David's later life, including his conflict with his eldest son, Absalom; or of the son that is later born to him and Bathsheba, Solomon, whom David eventually chooses as his successor.

Michelangelo carved his statue of David in Florence, Italy in 1504. David has also been played in film by Finlay Currie in Solomon and Sheba in 1959, Jeff Chandler in A Story of David on ABC in 1961, Timothy Bottoms (younger) and Keith Michell (older) in The Story of David on ABC in 1976, Richard Gere in King David in 1985, Nathaniel Parker in David and Max von Sydow in Solomon in 1997, and, with the story moved into the present day, with Christopher Egan as a young Captain David Shepherd in the 2009 NBC series Kings.

Timothy Bottoms, who played the younger David in the 1976 ABC production, was born on August 30, 1951, the day David and Bathsheba premiered.

Bathsheba was played by Jane Seymour in The Story of David, Alice Krige in King David, and an older version by Anouk Aimée in Solomon.

One more thing: People call the story of a team or a person that wins when supposedly overmatched a "David vs. Goliath story." The funny thing is, people forget that David didn't kill Goliath with a slingshot, which sounds like a child's toy. He knocked Goliath out with a sling, which can be a very formidable weapon, and then used a sword to hack the giant's head off. Goliath was overconfident, and didn't put his shield up to block the slung stone. David won because Goliath was a fool. And it wasn't the only battle he won because his opponent was a fool.

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August 30, 1951 was a Thursday. This was also the day that the film Rhubarb premiered, and the New York Yankees traded Lew Burdette to the Boston Braves for Johnny Sain. I have separate entries for those events.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-9 at the Polo Grounds. I guess the buzzer system was working that day, but couldn't overcome the poor pitching of George Spencer, Sheldon Jones, Dave Koslo and Larry Jansen, the last of whom gave up a 9th-inning home run to Ralph Kiner. Rookie Willie Mays hit 2 home runs.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 3-1 at Ebbets Field. Preacher Roe outpitched Ewell Blackwell. Jackie Robinson went 0-for-2, but also drew 2 walks and stole a base. Duke Snider went 1-for-3 with a walk.

The Giants only lost 5 more games over the course of the regular season, and on only 3 of those days -- September 8, 11 and 20 -- did the Dodgers also win.

* The Boston Braves beat the Chicago Cubs, 16-2 at Braves Field in Boston. Earl Torgeson went 2-for-6 with a home run and 4 RBIs.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-3 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Stan Musial went 1-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Morrie Martin, in what had to be the career highlight for the lifetime 38-34 pitcher, outpitched Bob Feller.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 10-4 at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Ted Williams went 0-for-4, but did draw 2 walks.

* And the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, the St. Louis Browns and the Washington Senators were not scheduled.

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.

February 22, 1956: John Wayne's Cursed Film

February 22, 1956: The Conqueror premieres, starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan. I swear, I’m not making that up. It is often considered the worst film of its era, and it was the last John Wayne film to have been shown on television.

From 1203 until his death in 1227, Genghis Khan ruled the Mongol Empire in East Asia, having conquered more land than any human being, before or since. Tales of his savagery are legend, but he was also a smart politician: Any city willing to submit to his rule and his taxes was left to live in peace. Just as just about every person of European ancestry alive today is said to be descended from Charlemagne, just about every person of East Asian ancestry alive today is said to be descended from Genghis Khan.

But John Wayne, best known as the most iconic star of American Western films, was the wrong actor to play him: Not only was he not the least bit Asian, but his hatred of Asians was well established before the film was made. He made that clear in his World War II films, which showed him fighting the Japanese more than the Nazis; and, later on, the Vietnamese in the 1968 film The Ballad of the Green Berets.

The Conqueror was produced by Howard Hughes. Since the airline and film studio mogul was, by then, living in seclusion in Las Vegas, he wanted it filmed near Vegas. Well, in the American West, "near" is relative. It was filmed near St. George, Utah, 117 miles northeast of Las Vegas -- and 137 miles downwind of the federal government's Nevada National Security Site.

Director Dick Powell died of cancer in January 1963, 7 years after the film's release. Pedro Armendáriz, a Mexican actor who was nearly as iconic in his homeland as Wayne was in America, was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 1960, and committed suicide in June 1963 after he learned his condition had become terminal, shortly after he completed filming on the James Bond film From Russia with Love. Wayne, female lead Susan Hayward, and Agnes Moorehead all died of cancer in the 1970s.

The cast and crew totaled 220 people. By the end of 1980, as ascertained by People magazine, 91 of them had developed some form of cancer, and 46 had died of the disease. That's 41 percent developing cancer, and 21 percent dying from it. In addition, several of Wayne's and Hayward's relatives also had cancer scares after visiting the set. Michael Wayne developed skin cancer, his brother Patrick had a benign tumor removed from his chest, and Hayward's son Tim Barker had a benign tumor removed from his mouth.

Dr. Robert Pendleton, professor of biology at the University of Utah, stated, "With these numbers, this case could qualify as an epidemic. The connection between fallout radiation and cancer in individual cases has been practically impossible to prove conclusively. But in a group this size, you'd expect only 30-some cancers to develop. With 91 cancer cases, I think the tie-in to their exposure on the set of The Conqueror would hold up in a court of law."

Bigotry is also a disease. Cultural appropriation, less so, but bad enough. Casting white actors in Asian roles continued, with one of the worst examples being Mickey Rooney as nasty landlord Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961. In 1964, with heavy makeup and a heavier accent, Marlo Thomas, a white actress of Lebanese descent (as was her father, Danny Thomas), played a Chinese woman on the TV Western Bonanza.

By the time the TV shows Hawaii Five-O and M*A*S*H premiered, in 1968 and 1972, respectively, TV studios had begun to cast Asian actors in Asian roles, even if the actors weren't specifically Hawaiian (as on the former) or Korean (as on the latter).

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February 22, 1956 was a  Wednesday. Baseball and football were out of season. There were 3 games played in the NBA. Two of them were a doubleheader, at the Philadelphia Arena in West Philadelphia. In the opener, the Rochester Royals beat the St. Louis Hawks, 110-109. In the nightcap, the New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia Warriors, 117-108. In the other game, the Boston Celtics beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 93-90 at the Minneapolis Auditorium.

And there was 1 game in the NHL: The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New York Rangers, 4-2 at the old Madison Square Garden.