On October 19, 1985, the first Blockbuster video-rental store 
opened in Dallas, Texas. At a time when most video stores
were small-scale operations featuring a limited selection of
titles, Blockbuster opened with some 8,000 tapes displayed
on shelves around the store and a computerized check-out
process.

The first store was a success and Blockbuster expanded
rapidly, eventually becoming one of the world’s largest
providers of in-home movies and game entertainment,
before eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2010.

Blockbuster was founded by David Cook (below), who had
previously owned a business that provided computer
software services to the oil and gas industry in Texas.

On August 30, 2003, the actor Charles Bronson, best known
for his tough-guy roles in such films as The Dirty Dozen
(1967) and  the Death Wish franchise (1974), died at the age
of 81 in Los Angeles.      

Bronson was born Charles Buchinsky on November 3, 1921,
in  Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, to Lithuanian immigrants. The
11th of 15 children, he worked in the Pennsylvania coal
mines as a teen and later served in the Army during World
War II. After the war, he worked a series of odd jobs and
took acting lessons. He had an uncredited part in the 1951
film You’re in the Navy Now, starring Gary Cooper, and a
small part (credited as Charles Buchinsky) in 1952’s Pat
and Mike, with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. In
the mid-1950s, he changed his name to Bronson because
he believed it wasn’t smart for an actor have a Russian-
sounding last name at a time when there was a strong anti-Communist sentiment in America. (history.com)

Helen Elizabeth Hunt 

Actress and director.Helen is the recipient of numerous
accolades, including an Academy Award, four Primetime
Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.

Hunt rose to fame portraying Jamie Buchman in the sitcom
Mad About You (1992–1999, 2019), which earned her three
Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Television
Series – Musical or Comedy and four Primetime Emmy
Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Actress for starring
as Carol Connelly in the romantic comedy As Good as It
Gets (1997), while her portrayal of Cheryl Cohen-Greene in
The Sessions (2012), gained her a nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times posted a favorable notice,
writing that producer Brian Desmond Hurst “has not only hewed to
the line of Dickens’ classic fable of a spiritual regeneration on
Christmas Eve, but he has got some arresting recreations of the
story’s familiar characters,” adding, “The visions of Scrooge’s life
story are glimpses into depressing realms, and the aspects of
poverty and ignorance in 19th century England are made plain.

NOTE: THIS IS A GREAT FILM AS WELL! BLOGGER BOB

Alastair George Bell Sim
(9 October 1900 – 19 August 1976)

George Segal (February 13, 1934 – March 23, 2021)

(FoxNews) – Celebrities far and wide took to Twitter on Tuesday
to honor late Hollywood icon George Segal following news of
his death due to complications from bypass surgery.

Segal appeared regularly on ABC’s “The Goldbergs“ and was
nominated for an Oscar in 1967 for his supporting performance
in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?“