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This Day in Pop Culture

This Day in Pop Culture for July 28

“On the Waterfront” and Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” opened in theaters and the “mother” of Peter Rabbit was born.

July 28, 2020

2–3 minutes

1954: ‘On the Waterfront’ Debuts

Directed by Elia Kazan, the crime drama On the Waterfront opened in theaters on this day. It is considered by many as on the best movies ever made. It was inspired by a series of articles that had been published in the New York Sun in 1948. Malcolm Johnson’s series, Crime on the Waterfront won a Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, but Budd Schulberg’s screenplay was based on his own original tale.

Starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning and Eva Marie Saint, the movie focused on union violence and corruption on the waterfronts of Hoboken, New Jersey. Leonard Bernstein composed the musical score. The movie received 12 Academy Award nominations and won eight Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (for Brando) and Best Supporting Actress (for Saint).

1866: Beatrix Potter is Born

It was on this day that Helen Beatrix Potter was born in England. Born into a privileged household, Potter and her brother, Walter, grew up with teaching governesses but the two had few childhood friends. However, the pair did have numerous pets including mice, rabbits, a hedgehog, bats and a collection of butterflies and insects.

During family vacations she would spend time in Scotland where she developed an appreciation for plants and landscapes and would often sketch what she saw. She loved reading and often studied the illustrations in the books that she read. Then, she would often draw pictures of her own using her pets as inspiration.

In the 1890s, Beatrix and her brother printed their own Christmas cards as a way to earn money. Her work got the attention of publishers Hidesheimer and Faulker who purchased a number of her illustrations for A Happy Pair, a book of verses.

In 1893, Beatrix once wrote a story to the son of one of her former governesses about Peter Rabbit and his family. That letter became the start of Potter’s writing career. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published in 1902 which was followed by 22 other books, the last being published in 1930.

1951: Disney’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Comes to Theaters

Walt Disney’s version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland was released in theaters for the first time on this day in 1951. It was two days after it was released in London where British film critics argued that Walt Disney had “Americanized” the classic tale. In response, Disney said that he wanted a film that families could enjoy, not literary critics.

Alice featured the voice talents of Kathryn Beaumont (who also voiced the role of Wendy in Peter Pan), Sterling Holloway (who also voiced Winnie-the-Pooh) and Ed Wynn (who also shared a scene with Beaumont in Mary Poppins playing Uncle Albert). The movie wasn’t a huge hit and Disney was disappointed with it stating that he felt there was no warmth to Alice’s character. (Image: Wikimedia)