The movie adaption of Agatha Christie's novel Evil Under the Sun, published in 1941, premiered March 5, 1982 with a stellar cast. Peter Ustinvo appears as Hercule Poirot for the second time. He previously played the detective in Death On The Nile. Evil Under the Sun also starred Dame Maggie Smith, Roddy McDowall, and Diana Rigg.
This movie did not do as well at the box office as previous Agatha Christie adaptions had, but it did receive critical acclaim with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 86%.
The Grammy Awards held their 24th annual ceremony February 24, 1982, and showcased the best in music, and what a celebration. Of course, this was my decade of music (also the 70s), so many of my favorites took home awards. Some of the best music ever!
Kim Carnes won Record of the Year and Song of the Year for her cover of Bette Davis Eyes.
My girls, the Pointer Sisters presented Best New Artist to Sheena Easton.
John Williams won Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special for his composition of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Dolly Parton's song 9 to 5 won Best Country Vocal Performance, Female and Best Country Song.
The Oak Ridge Boys won Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for their song Elvira.
Ella Fitzgerald won Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Female for her Digital III at Montreux.
The Manhattan Transfer won Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group for Until I Met You (Corner Pocket). They also won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with vocal for their The Boy from New York City.
Bill Withers and Grover Washington, Jr. won Best Rhythm & Blues Song for Just the Two of Us.
Pat Benatar won Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for Fire and Ice.
The Police won two Grammys: Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for Don't Stand So Close To Me. Best Rock Instrumental Performance for Behind My Camel.
Quincy Jones won a total of five Grammys: Best Instrumental Arrangement; Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) for Ai No Corrida; Best Cast Show Album; Producer of the Year; Best R&B Performance by a Due or Group with Vocal.
The J. Geils Band released Freeze Frame, their second single from their tenth studio album of the same name. It became the second consecutive million-selling, gold-certified hit from the album, after Centerfold, the first single.
It peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
Alexander Grebenkin, born July 15, 1982 in the former Soviet Union, is currently aboard the International Space Station. He arrived on SpaceX Crew-8, launched on March 4, 2024. He completed Expedition 70 with his fellow SpaceX crew members and is currently involved in Expedition 71. He is scheduled to return to Earth in August 2024.
J. Geils Band's single Centerfold, a single from their tenth studio album Freeze Frame, reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 February 6, 1982 and stayed there for 6 weeks. It is their most successful single. Centerfold is listed on Billboard's All Time Top Songs.
The second single from Private Eyes, the tenth studio album by Daryl Hall & John Oates, I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, January 30, 1982. It knocked Olivia Newton-John's Physical from the top spot where it had been for a record-setting 10 weeks. Ironically, Physical had knocked the Hall & Oates single Private Eyes from the top spot ten weeks earlier.
VH-1 listed I Can't Go for That as one of the 100 Greatest Songs of the '80's.
My girl Pat Benatar won the American Music Award for Best Pop/Rock Female Artist at the 9th annual ceremony held January 25, 1982. Her single Fire and Ice from her third album Precious Time helped her win the Grammy that year as well. It would be the first of three AMAs for her.
Air Supply? The Australian duo won Best Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group beating The Pointer Sisters? Give me a break. They even beat AC/DC as well. Something's fishy there. Hmmm....
At least, the Oak Ridge Boys won the country version of the award, beating Alabama and the Statler Brothers.
The Fixx, a new wave band from Great Britain, released their debut album Shuttered Room in August 1982. It had previously been released in England in May of that year.
It generated two singles, the first of which, Stand or Fall reached #7 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts, but only #76 on Billboard's Hot 100. The second single Red Skies reached #13 on the Mainstream Rock charts.
I'm a little surprised this album didn't do better, because I really like their sound, and they got a lot of airplay on MTV. I actually heard them as the background music of a commercial I just saw. Weird!
I suppose I fell in love with Berk Oktay when I found pictures of him on Pinterest. The impossibly handsome actor was born October 28, 1982 in Ankara, Turkey. I found more images of him in the Turkish drama Savasci, which I believe means 'warrior' in Turkish. It was probably the images of him being bound and gagged that first caught my eye.
The Go-Go's' album Beauty and the Beat reached #1 on the Billboard 200 March 6, 1982, making them the first all-female band to have an album reach the top spot. It went double-platinum and, in 2020, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #400 on its list of 500 Greatest Albums of all Time.
Charles "Charlie" Sampson, born July 2, 1957 in Los Angeles, California, is the first African-American cowboy to win a world championship in professional rodeo. He won the title of Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) World Champion bull rider in 1982. HIs idol, Myrtis Dightman, the first African-American bull rider, was known as the "Jackie Robinson of Rodeo".
He retired in 1994 at the National Circuit Finals Rodeo in Pocatello, Idaho. He was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1996.
Michael Jackson released his sixth studio album Thriller, November 30, 1982. It became Jackson's first #1 album on the Billboard Top LPs and Tapes chart, spending a record 37 weeks. It produced seven singles that reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It won a record eight Grammys in February 1984: Album of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male; Best Engineered Recording, Non-classical; Producer of the Year (Non-classical).
Beat It won Record of the Year. Billie Jean won Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male; and Best Rhythm & Blues Song.
Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with 66 million copies world-wide and has been certified 33x platinum in the US. The album has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant recordings."
Disney World, now the Magic Kingdom, opened its gates October 1, 1971 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida near Orlando. Today the area includes Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Epcot opened October 1, 1982.
It was the most visited vacation resort in the world in 2018, but in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic hit, and the parks had to close for a time.
The very first Gay Games were held in San Francisco from August 28 to September 5, 1982. San Francisco was chosen because of the large gay and lesbian population, and the games had support from local government. Tina Turner performed at the opening ceremonies and Stephanie Mills performed at the closing. The torch was lit by two former US Olympians from a flame that had been carried on a torch starting at the Stonewall Inn in New York City.
The organizers of the games reached out to recruit athletes from minority groups, such as people of color, women and rural gays.
Soyuz T-7, launched August 19, 1982, was the third mission to the Salyut 7 space station. Its crew consisted of Commander Leonid Popov, Aleksandr Serebrov and Svetlana Savitskaya. They swapped places with the Salyut 7 crew and remained aboard.
Soyuz T-7 returned to Earth in December 1982 with Anatoli Berezovoy and Valentin Lebedev.
Anna Pacquin, born July 24, 1982 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, has had a stellar career from a young age, but my favorite role of hers is Rogue, from the X-Men movies. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Piano when she was just eleven years old. She has also received numerous awards for her role in True Blood.
This is apparently a clip from X-Men: Days of Future Past that was cut from the final version.
Poltergeist, written and produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper, was released June 4, 1982. It starred Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robins and Heather O'Rourke.
It opened to mostly favorable reviews and was the highest-grossing horror film of 1982. The New York Times named it as one of the Best 1000 Movies Ever Made. The American Film Institute ranked it #84 on its AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills. The line "They're here" was named the 69th greatest movie quote on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes.
Poltergeist was nominated for three Oscars. It won three Saturn Awards for Best Horror Film, Best Makeup and Best Supporting Actress for Zelda Rubinstein who played the parapsychologist Tangina.
Salyut 7, Soviet space station, was launched April 19, 1982. It was the last of the Salyut program, which was replaced by Mir. It had six resident crews, the first of which arrived in December 1982.
In February 1985, contact with the space station was lost and began to drift. Soyuz T-13 with Valdimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh arrived in June 1985 to repair the malfunctions.
The crew of Soyuz T-15 was the final crew to visit Salyut 7 and transferred equipment to the new Mir space station.
Salyut 7 underwent an uncontrolled reentry in February 1991, breaking up over the southern Pacific Ocean.
Raiders of the Lost Ark, the mega-hit from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas that turned the movie industry on its head, won 4 Academy Awards plus a Special Achievement Academy Award March 29, 1982. It had been nominated for eight.
It won Oscars for Best Sound, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects. It received the Special Achievement Academy Award for Sound Effects Editing.
It had also received nominations for Best Picture, Best Director (Spielberg), Best Original Score (John Williams), and Best Cinematography.
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, released July 23, 1982, starred Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton in the lead roles. Dolly received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Movie - Comedy or Musical. The movie was based on a play, which was based on a true story.
Charles Durning, who played the governor of Texas, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
When released, it bumped E.T. The Extraterrestrial from the #1 spot, where it had been for the previous six weeks.
