Archive for August 19th, 2011

SERIES CREATER ~ GENE RODDENBERRY

  
star-trek-logo

TV producer Gene Roddenberry and wife, actress Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, attend the premiere of "Crocodile Dundee II" on May 22, 1988 at Mann Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California.  

                          Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry     
                           (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991)

Gene Roddenberry was a television screenwriter, producer , best known for
creating the science fiction series Star Trek. He was born in El Paso Texas
and grew up in Los Angeles, California. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions
in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War ll, and flew as a commercial airline
pilot after the war. He later followed in his father’s footsteps by joining the Los  
Angeles Police Department and soon began to focus on writing scripts for TV. 

As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for the syndicated TV series
Highway Patrol from 1955 to 1959, Have Gun, Will Travel on CBS from 1957 to
1963 and others, before creating and producing his own TV series on NBC, The Lieutenant from 1963 to 1964. It was in 1964 that Roddenberry created Star Trek, 
premiering in 1966, it ran for three seasons before cancellation.

Gene Roddenberry was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. His creation of Star Trek 
has spanned over four decades, produced six television series, 715 episodes 
and eleven films. A twelfth film is currently in development and is scheduled 
to be release in 2012.

roddenberry b-17 & crew

Pictured is 1st lieutenant Roddenberry (2nd from left) and crew in front
of their Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in 1943.

 

enterpriseshuttle

Gene Roddenberry (third from right) and original Star Trek cast members are  
seen with NASA’s real-live Enterprise in 1976. 

posted by Bob Karm in AUTHORS,BIRTHDAY,DEATH,HISTORY,Hoor/Sci-Fi,MILITARY,MOVIES,SPACE,TV,WAR and have No Comments

NUMBER ONE SONG ON THIS DAY IN 1967

all you need is love button

beatles-

“All You Need is Love”  held the number one spot for a week

all-you-need-is-love

posted by Bob Karm in ANNIVERSARY,Billboard #1,HISTORY,MUSIC and have No Comments

TV SHOW PREMIERED ON THIS DAY IN 1972

MidnightSpecial

The Midnight Special
was a musical variety series that that aired on NBC-TV during
the 1970s and early 1980s, created and produced by Burt Sugarman. It premiered
as a 90-minute pilot on August 19, 1972, with host John Denver (below), then began  
its run as a regular series on February 2, 1973; the last episode of the show was on
May 1, 1981. It followed the Friday night edition of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

 

Burt Sugarman
Burt Sugarman

posted by Bob Karm in ANNIVERSARY,DEBUT,HISTORY,MUSIC,TV and have No Comments

ORVILLE WRIGHT (AUG.19, 1871 – JAN. 30, 1948)

OrvilleWright then main
Orville_Wright-1928 

Orville Wright along with his older brother Wilbur are credited with inventing
and building the world’s first successful airplane and making the first controlled,
powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903.

In the two years afterward, the brothers developed their invention into the first
practical fixed-wing aircraft.  Although not the first to build and fly experimental
aircraft, Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first to invent aircraft controls that
made fixed-wing powered flight possible. On August 19, 1940 – The new Civil
Aeronautics Administration awarded honorary license #1 to Orville Wright.

 

1903-flight-wright-640x450

Orville Wright’s famous first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, December 17, 1903.

wrightbros

Orville Wright with his brother Wilbur

Orville%20Wright book

posted by Bob Karm in AIRCRAFT,BIRTHDAY,DEATH,DEBUT,HISTORY,INVENTION and have Comment (1)

BOND GIRL JILL ST. JOHN IS 71 TODAY

jill then
jill today

Actress Jill St. John is best known for her role as Tiffany Case, the lead
Bond girl in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Jill continues to act, primarily
in television sitcoms and made-for-TV movies. She has worked on five
films with her husband actor Robert Wagner. Jill St. John is the author
of The Jill St. John Cookbook (1987).

diamonds are foreever
Jill_St_John bond girl
Jill as Bond girl Tiffany Case with costar Sean Connery

jill's cook book

posted by Bob Karm in BIRTHDAY,Drama,HISTORY,MOVIES,THEN AND NOW,TV and have No Comments