This Day in Humor with Mike Durrett


Born 1898: Gracie Fields, "a comedienne and singer in the British Music Halls, she was the top box-office draw and the highest paid actress in Britain in the 1930's," according IMDb. "Her Northern, working-class girl character was a favourite during the inter-war years." Died 1979.

Born 1901: Chic Young, cartoonist, who created one of the longest-running and, certainly, most beloved comic strips of all time, "Blondie," in 1930. It spawned a lengthy series of theatrical movies (1938-50), TV series (1957, 1968, 1986), and a sandwich. Died 1973.

Born 1917: Herbert Lom, prolific film actor, who as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus was driven to insanity by Inspector Clouseau in the "Pink Panther" theatrical comedies. Lom's increasing lunacy began in the second film, "A Shot in the Dark," (1964).

Born 1935: Bob Denver, underrated comic actor, immortalized as Maynard G. Krebs in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" sitcom (1959-63) and as the bumbling namesake of "Gilligan's Island" (1964-67). "Work?!!"

Born 1939: Jimmy Boyd, actor, known primarily for juvenile parts, as in the sitcoms "Date With the Angels" (1957-58) and "Bachelor Father" (1958-61). His enduring claim to fame is the 1952 recording of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus."

1940: "The Male Animal" by James Thurber and Elliott Nugent opened on Broadway. Writer/director Robert Armin says: "During the 1939 pre-Broadway tryout in Los Angeles, one of the sharpest critics of 'The Male Animal' was Groucho Marx, who told Thurber, 'You got too many laughs in it. Take some of them out.' Thurber correctly understood this to mean that he and Nugent should 'take out irrelevant gags and stick to the laughter of character and situation' and, for the most part, they succeeded."

1979: Steve Martin's hit comedy album "Let's Get Small" was pulled from K-Mart shelves for matters of taste.

1984: Dick Clark produced and co-hosted with Ed McMahon "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes," which debuted as a weekly series. "TV's Censored Bloopers" specials with Clark had previously appeared.

Copyright ©2003 Mike Durrett. All rights reserved.