John Joseph (Jack) Nicholson

Popular actor Jack Nicholson is known for playing dark characters such as
Jack Torrance in “The Shining” (1980) and Frank Costello in “The Departed”
(2006). He won Academy Awards for Best Actor for his roles in “One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975) and “As Good As it Gets” (1997) and for
Best Supporting Actor in “Terms of Endearment” (1983). He also received
praise for his roles in “Chinatown” (1974) and “About Schmidt” (2002) and
for portraying the Joker in 1989’s “Batman”. 

Jack Nicholson in “Chinatown”.

The Joker

On this day in 1895, Woodville Latham and his sons, Otway and
Gray, demonstrate their “Panopticon,” the first movie projector developed  in the United States.

Although motion pictures had been shown in the United States
for several years using Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, the films
could only be viewed one at a time in a peep-show box and not
projected to a large audience. Brothers Grey and Otway Latham,
the founders of a company that produced and exhibited films of
prize fights using the Kinetoscope, called on Woodville, their
father, and W.K.L. Dickson, an assistant in the Edison Lab, to
help them develop a device that would project life-sized images 
onto a screen in order to attract larger audiences.

 

  The Lathams: Otway, Woodville, Gray.

DAVID MELENDY

In Texas City, TX, on this day in 1947, the French ship
Grandcamp, carrying ammonium nitrate fertilizer,
caught fire and blew up. The explosions and resulting
fires killed 576 people.

Rescue workers search for survivors at the Texas City
Terminal Building after disaster.

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin ( April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977)

Chaplin was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose
to fame in the era of silent film.

The Tramp

(Fox News) – A replica of the Wagon Queen Family Truckster from the classic
1985 comedy film “Vacation” was auctioned this past weekend for $100,100.

The wood-paneled green machine crossed the block at the Barrett-Jackson
Palm Beach event.

It’s based on a 1981 Ford LTD rather than a 1979 Country Squire, like the
movie car was, but is an otherwise convincing recreation that includes
Wagon Queen badging and offensive graffiti on the rear fender.

The price paid was pretty remarkable, considering a car purported to be one
of the five that were built for the film received a high bid of just $35,000 at a
2013 Mecum Auctions event. That car’s authenticity was not confirmed, but
one that was definitely used in the making of the movie is on display at the
Historic Auto Attractions museum in Roscoe, Ill., which might make for a
good destination for the owner of the Barrett-Jackson car.

ED DANAHUE

Henry Louis Aaron (nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin’ Hank")
turned 85 on February 5th.