I'm glad they began the Saturn Awards back in 1972, although I just became aware of their existence within the last few years. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror films are way under-represented in the more high-falutin' award shows, like the Oscars and the Golden Globe Awards.
One of the funniest and best movies ever, Young Frankenstein, won 5 Saturn Awards at the 3rd annual ceremony by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, January 31, 1976.
It won for Best Horror Film beating Black Christmas and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Mel Brooks won for Best Director. Marty Feldman won for Best Supporting Actor. William J. Tuttle won for Best Makeup. Robert De Vestel and Dale Hennesy won for Best Set Direction.
Jaws won Outstanding Film of 1975. Katharine Ross won Best Actress for her work in The Stepford Wives.
Less than an hour before he was scheduled to sing he National Anthem at Super Bowl XXVII January 31, 1993, Garth Brooks left the stadium, since NBC was not going to air his song/video for We Shall Be Free. NBC said it was too "controversial" and weren't going to air it. Finally, NBC came to their senses and played the song. Garth performed the National Anthem with actress Marlee Matlin.
Michael Jackson performed the halftime show.
The Dallas Cowboys beat the Buffalo Bills 52-17 that day.
Two movies, in which the main character dresses up as the opposite sex, won four Golden Globes and were nominated for several more at the 40th annual celebration January 29, 1983.
Tootsie, which starred Dustin Hoffman posing as an actress to land a role in a soap opera, won Best Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical. Dustin Hoffman won Best Actor. Jessica Lange won Best Supporting Actress. Sydney Pollack was nominated for Best Director. Larry Gelbart and Murray Shisgal were nominated for Best Screenplay.
Julie Andrews won for Best Actress for her portrayal as a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman in Victor/Victoria. The movie was nominated for Best Motion Picture-Comedy or Musical but lost to Tootsie. Robert Preston was nominated for Best Actor. Lesley Anne-Warren was nominated for Supporting Actress. Henry Mancini was nominated for Best Original Score but lost to John Williams.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial won Best Motion Picture-Drama and John Williams won for Best Original Score. Steven Spielberg was nominated for Best Director and Melissa Mathison was nominated for Best Screenplay. Henry Thomas was nominated for New Star of the Year-Male.
The fabulous Dolly Parton received a nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for her work in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
The Bear River Massacre, which happened January 29, 1863 in present-day Franklin County, Idaho, is the largest massacre of Native Americans in US history. The Shoshone tribe occupied Cache Valley, where they farmed as well as hunted large and small game. Fur trapping was a successful venture, and trappers recommended Brigham Young to settle his Mormon pioneers there. Instead he chose Salt Lake Valley. Young encouraged his followers to establish friendly relations with the surrounding American tribes, saying they should help "feed them rather than fight them".
Despite this, the settlers consumed much of the game and food resources, which forced the Shoshone further away from their traditional hunting grounds. The Native Americans began to starve, and therefore out of desperation, they attacked farms and cattle ranches for food.
After years of skirmishes, Major McGarry and the 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry arrived at the Shoshone camp on the banks of the Bear River. Although he hoped for a surprise attack at dawn, the chief realized soldiers were nearby.
They tried a direct attack but the Shoshone overwhelmed them with gunfire, and the California Volunteers suffered their biggest lost during this first assault. Smaller groups retreated, regrouped, and attacked the camp from the sides and behind, blocking any attempt by the Shoshone to escape. Fortunately, some of them did.
The attack lasted about four hours. The California Volunteers suffered 14 deaths, but the Shoshone casualties numbered in the hundreds, most of them women and children. Estimates of death range from 224 to 493. Some Shoshone survived by hiding or playing dead.
The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation purchased the site in 2018 to protect it as a sacred burial ground.
The Bear River Massacre is little known since it occurred during the Civil War, when the nation's attention was directed elsewhere, and it took place in a remote area where locals wouldn't even talk about it.
On a night when Evita and The English Patient were all the buzz, The X-Files took home three Golden Globe Awards at the 54th annual ceremony, held January 19, 1997. David Duchovny won for Best Actor. Gillian Anderson won for Best Actress. The series won Best Drama Series. The X-Files won every category in which it was nominated.
Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny, a series I didn't know had aired and need to find it, also won three Golden Globes. Alan Rickman for Best Actor for a Miniseries or Television Movie. Sir Ian McKellen won for Best Supporting Actor. The show won for Best Miniseries or Television Movie.
Helen Mirren won Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Movie for her work in Losing Chase.
George Miller's post-apocalyptic epic Mad Max: Fury Road took home 9 Critics' Choice Awards at the 21st annual ceremony held January 17, 2016. It received 13 total nominations.
It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie but won for Best Action Movie. George Miller won Best Director. Charlize Theron was nominated for Best Actress but won for Best Actress in an Action Movie. Tom Hardy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Revenant, but won Best Actor in an Action Movie.
Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson won Best Art Direction. Jenny Beavan won for Best Costume Design, and Margaret Sixel won Best Editing. Mad Max also won Best Hair and Makeup and Best Visual Effects. It was nominated for Best Cinematography but lost to The Revenant.
Jurassic World received 5 nominations but got beat by Mad Max every time.
One of my favorite actresses/comediennes Andrea Martin, born January 15, 1947 in Portland, Maine, has won Primetime Emmys and Tony Awards, and many more nominations for her comedy and acting. She won an Emmy in 1982 and 1983 for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program for her work on SCTV, and received 8 more nominations. She has won two Tony Awards for Best Featured Actress in a Musical, the first in 1993 for My Favorite Year, and in 2013 for Pippin. She has been nominated for four more Tonys.
She appeared in one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine where she appeared as Quark's mom in Family Business.
In this clip, she performs with Carol Burnett in a Star Trek parody. I think she showcases her talent beautifully here.
As if Florida could not get any stupider, it once again sinks to a new low. Florida school district of Escambia County, the westernmost county in the panhandle, has removed dictionaries, encyclopedias, and thesauruses from its libraries, concerned that making these books available to students would violate Florida law HB 1069. The law, signed by Ron DeRacist in May 2023, demands the removal of any library book that "depicts or describes sexual content".
They banned dictionaries!
Dictionaries are some of more than 2800 books banned in Escambia County. Other titles that have been banned include To Kill a Mockingbird, Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, and Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile.
The school district used a checklist to determine which titles to ban. Escambia County provided a copy of the checklist to the Florida Freedom to Read Project. See below:
Note that there is no requirement to actually READ the book. Just look it up on social media and believe what others are telling you to believe.
Ang Lee's controversial, critically acclaimed movie Brokeback Mountain was nominated for 8 Critics' Choice Awards and took home three trophies at the 11th annual ceremony held January 9, 2006. It won Best Picture and Lee won Best Director. Michelle Williams tied for Best Supporting Actress with Amy Adams. A foretaste of numerous awards to come.
Heath Ledger was nominated for Best Actor and Jake Gyllenhaal was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana were nominated for Best Writing. Brokeback Mountain was also nominated for Best Composer and Best Song. I don't remember a song being in the movie.
March of the Penguins won Best Documentary. I was happy to see that because it was a very good movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would watch it again.
John Williams won Best Composer for Memoirs of a Geisha. I didn't see this movie, but I wonder if Williams (no relation to Michelle Williams, I'm sure) is tired of winning awards for his music?
Dame Judi Dench should have won Best Actress for her performance in Mrs. Henderson Presents, but lost to Reese Witherspoon.
Surprise! Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong won an award for Distinguished Achievement in Performing Arts. I think it's great when a science fiction movie or monster movie is recognized in any way. The Critics' Choice included it in their ten nominees for Best Picture.
George Clooney (swoon!) won the Freedom Award for his performance in Good Night, and Good Luck.
Elara, the 8th largest moon of Jupiter, was discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine January 5, 1905. He made his discovery at the Lick Observatory at the University of California on Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose.
Up until 1975, Elara was known as Jupiter VII when it was given the name Elara. In Greek mythology, Elara is a lover of Zeus (Jupiter in Roman mythology). Zeus hid her from his jealous wife Hera by putting her deep into the Earth, where she gave birth to the giant Tityos.
NASA lists Elara on their website as having a diameter of 43 km, but a 2015 article in the Astrophysical Journal lists its diameter as around 80 km. Don't know when that will be resolved. Elara orbits Jupiter every 258 days.
The New Horizons spacecraft captured several images of Elara as it passed on its way to Pluto.
Robert Louis Stevenson published his classic gothic horror novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, January 5, 1886 by publishers Longmans, Green & Co. It is one of the most famous and popular pieces of English literature and it continues to have a prolonged effect on popular culture.
The story follows Gabriel Utterson, a legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange events in London.
The story first appeared on stage in 1887 in Boston and was adapted to film in 1908. It has been produced, adapted, spoofed, and re-broadcast countless times since its publication.
The 77th annual ceremony of the Golden Globe Awards was held January 5, 2020, honoring the best in film and television of 2019.
1917, the WWI drama that looked like it had been filmed in one very long take, took home two Golden Globes. It won for Best Motion Picture Drama and Best Director for Sam Mendes. It also received a nomination for Best Original Score for Thomas Newman. Knives Out, another favorite of mine, received three nominations as well: Best Musical Or Comedy, Best Actor for Daniel Craig and Ana de Amas for Best Actress.
The HBO miniseries Chernobyl, nominated for four Golden Globes won for Best Miniseries or Television Film and for Best Supporting Actor Performance in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film for Stellan Skarsgard for his role as Boris Shcherbina. Jared Harris was nominated for Best Actor for his role as Valery Legasov and Emily Watson was nominated for Supporting Actress for her role as Ulana Khomyuk.
