This Day in Pop Culture for March 14

1920: The Father of Dennis the Menace is Born

Born on this day in Seattle, Washington, Henry King Ketcham was inspired to become an artist at the age of sis. Hank’s father had an illustrator over for dinner one night and showed Hank his “magic pencil” which he drew a few pictures for the boy. Hank’s dad set up a drawing desk in Hank’s bedroom closet. Hank attended the University of Washington but dropped out during his first-year hitchhiking to Los Angeles with dreams of working in animation. He got his wish starting out working for Walter Lantz and then Walt Disney. Ketcham had a hand in the making of Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi and some Donald Duck cartoons. He created his first comic strip, Half Hitch, while he was in the Navy during World War II. It ran in The Saturday Evening Post.

In 1951, Hank was inspired to create his second comic series. His four-year-old son, Dennis was on his wife’s last nerve when she declared, “Your son is a menace” after destroying his bedroom instead of napping. In about five months, Dennis the Menace was appearing in 16 different newspapers. By the middle of 1951, that number jumped to 193 newspapers in the U.S. alone with 52 more in other countries amounting to about 30 million readers. Hank retired in 1994 and passed away in 2001 when over 1,000 newspapers worldwide were caring his comic.

2009: National Pi Day

Today is National Pi Day. Celebrated on 14th day of the third month (recognizing the numbers of pi: 3:14), the first National Pi Day (or at least the largest event held on the day up to that point) was celebrated on this day in 1988. The event was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium and was organized by Larry Shaw. Today the event is celebrated by math enthusiasts and pie lovers and oftentimes, both. Years later in 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution recognizing March 14, 2009 as National Pi Day.

1879: Albert Einstein is Born

Albert Einstein was born to a Jewish family on this day in Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire in 1879. He is known for developing the general theory of relativity and for creating “the world’s most famous equation” (E=mc2).

In 1921, Einstein received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his “services to theoretical physics.” He had become a professor at the Berlin Academy of Science in Germany when he visited the U.S. While here, Adolf Hitler came to power in his homeland. Einstein never went back.

Einstein became an American citizen in 1940. He alerted President Franklin D. Roosevelt about new “extremely powerful bombs of a new kind” and later with the philosopher Bertrand Russell, signed the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, which spoke of the danger of nuclear weapons. Einstein passed away in 1955. To this day, no one knows who his hair stylist was.

1991: Howard Ashman Passes Away

It is sort of ironic that the boy who would play role of Aladdin for the Children’s Theater Association would later become the man writing lyrics for Disney’s animated Aladdin many years later. Howard Ashman moved from his hometown in Indiana in 1974 to New York taking a job working as an editor at Grosset & Dunlap.

By 1977, Ashman wrote as least three plays and became the artistic director of the WPA Theater where he met composer Alan Menken during a workshop. Their first musical production, Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater was created in 1979 followed by the musical comedy, Little Shop of Horrors which premiered in 1982. It was later turned into a film in 1986 in which Ashman wrote the screenplay.

That same year, Ashman was asked by Disney to write some lyrics for the animated film Oliver & Company. This led to The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin which came out in 1992. Sadly, Ashman never saw the finished product as he had passed away on this day in 1991.

Minute to Win It

Similar to Beat the Clock, Minute to Win It also created 60-second challenges using everyday objects. The first version of the show aired from this day in 2010 to 2011 on NBC with Guy Fieri serving as the show’s host. It was a show that was hugely popular as families and youth groups could easily replicate the games in their own homes, but the show faded out quickly as well. In 2013, the show was revived on Game Show Network (GSN) running for two seasons with Apolo Ohno as host. However, the show has done better internationally having appeared in over 50 international versions.

1972: An Offer We Couldn’t Refuse

Originally, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather was to be released on Christmas day in 1971 but was delayed until this day in 1972. The world premiere took place at Loews’s State Theater in New York City. Coppola co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Mario Puzo and was based on Puzo’s book of the same name. It was the first of what was to become a trilogy and even to this day, there is some talk about making a 4th film.

Marlon Brando played Vito, the patriarch of the Corleone family, but much of the story focused on his youngest son, Michael (played by Al Pacino) who at first wants little to do with the mafia but ends up as the big boss in the end. The movie also starred James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte and Diane Keaton.

The Godfather was made with a budget somewhere between $6 and $7.2 million and made up to $290 million in box office ticket sales. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won three for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Brando who did not attend the award show and declined his Oscar. Instead, Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather, an American Indian rights activist to go in his place. His reason for boycotting the award ceremony had to do with his hating how American Indians were being portrayed in movies and TV. Interestingly enough, Pacino also didn’t show despite being nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Given that he had more lines than Brando in the film, Pacino was miffed that he wasn’t nominated for Best Actor. (Image: Wikipedia)