January 28

Alan Alda is born in New York City, 1936. Known primarily for his work on TV’s M*A*S*H (1972-1983), the actor began work in feature films in 1963 with Gone Are the Days!, an adaptation of Ossie Davis’s 1961-1962 Broadway play Purlie Victorious. To date, he has appeared in 33 motion pictures and worked with such prominent directors as David O. Russell (for 1996’s Flirting with Disaster) Martin Scorsese (receiving an Oscar nomination for 2004’s The Aviator), and, most recently, Steven Spielberg (for 2015’s Bridge of Spies). Alda performed in three Woody Allen films, the best of which was Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), with the actor earning raves for his performance as an arrogant television producer. But the director for which Alan Alda has worked most often is Alan Alda, who directed himself in The Four Seasons (1981), Sweet Liberty (1986), A New Life (1988) and Betsy’s Wedding (1990).

Freaks has its world premiere at the Fox Theater in San Diego, 1932. In spite of his detractors, MGM producer Irving Thalberg was firmly committed to bringing the unusual tale of romance and deception set in the world of circus sideshow performers to the screen. Screenwriter Willis Goldbreck was given the task of adapting Spurs, the Clarence Aaron “Tod” Robbins’s story that served as the genesis for Freaks, with the sole stipulation from Thalberg that it should be “horrible.” Complaints on the lot to Thalberg about the pinheads, dwarfs, limbless people, conjoined twins and others that comprised most of the cast were met with a reminder that, at MGM, all kinds of movies were being made and that director Tod Browning knew what he was doing. A dreadful test screening spurred Thalberg to make several edits, but not in time for the premiere in San Diego, which became the only theater to ever show the uncut version of the film. Lines were around the block and the Fox Theater enjoyed unprecedented business.

August 16

In 1956, Hungarian-born actor Bela Lugusi dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles. Lon Chaney was director Tod Browning's choice for what became Lugosi's signature persona; when Chaney died, Lugosi stepped in and assumed the title role in the 1931 film Dracula. "It's a living, but it's also a curse," Lugosi once said of the character, which he played for three years on Broadway prior to the film version. "It's Dracula's curse." Towards the end of his life, he accepted any role that came his way—most of them variations on the Dracula theme. He died during the filming of Ed Wood's infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959). Frank Sinatra is said to have quietly paid for the financially destitute actor's funeral.