Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 40: The Three Dollar League rides again

While technically not the same league, the United States Football League "returned" to action on Saturday, April 16, 2022, with the Birmingham Stallions defeating the New Jersey Generals 28-24 at home (technically all games were home games for everyone, as all games save the championship were played in Birmingham).

The league bought the rights to the USFL name and several of its original franchises, so there was a lot about the new USFL that was familiar to anyone who watched the old USFL. Less familiar was the level of play, as the new USFL wasn't looking to actually compete with the NFL for players. So the actual gameplay was more on the level of other spring leagues (like the XFL or AAF).

The Stallions would go on to win the new league's first title, defeating the Philadelphia Stars. The league also won by making it to a second season (not common for spring football), helped no doubt by being a fully owned subsidiary of Fox.

And so we wrap up another year of Lentorama. See you early in 2024!

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 39: Back to back to back to back

Early season baseball games don't often raise much interest, but the April 17, 1976 game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Chicago Cubs was the exception that proved the rule. In that game, Phillies third baseman Mike Schmidt became the first National League player to hit home runs in four consecutive at bats. 

The Phils needed every one of those home runs, as they spotted the Cubs an early 12-1 lead (future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton was chased after giving up 7 earned runs in one and two-thirds innings). Schmidt, who had been moved down to sixth in the batting order due to a slump, 

The Phillies needed every one of those home runs (and then some), as the Cubs had jumped out to a 12-1 lead (they chased future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton after he gave up seven runs in one and two-thirds innings). Schmidt didn't hit his first home run until the fifth inning (making the score 13-4, Cubs), and his last homer in the 10th gave the Phils the lead, which they held to win 18-16. 

While he was the first player to hit four consecutive home runs in the National League, he was the fourth in major league baseball, behind Bobby Lowe of the Boston Beaneaters (1894), Lou Gehrig from the Yankees (1932) and Rocky Colavito from Cleveland (1959).

Schmidt would go on to lead the NL in home runs that year, as well as earn his first Gold Glove and second trip to the All Star Game (fitting played in Philadelphia). Schmidt played his entire career with the Phillies, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1995, his first year of eligibility. 

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 38: Fair achievements

The Paris World Exhibition official opened on Saturday, April 14, 1900, and would run through November, with an estimated 50 million visitors (though it's not clear if that includes people who went to related events, such as the 1900 Olympics). Two things of note from the fair:

* It was for the fair that Michelin published its first guide, though it was more to spur the sale of tires than to direct patrons to the best restaurants. The guide included information on tire repair, the location of garages and gas stations, and road maps.

* The fair was also the debut for the step-type escalator. Previous escalators were more of a conveyor belt with slats or other attachments riders could use for traction. 

The fair also prompted the building of the Gare d'Orsay train station (now the Musee d'Orsay) and Line 1 of the Paris Metro, among other things that may be more important than the escalator. 

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 37: What a long strange trip it was

In the mid-1780s the painter Charles Gainsborough executed a portrait of Georgiana Cavendish, the the Duchess of Devonshire. It then hung in the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth House... briefly. It went missing and its whereabouts were unknown until the 1830s, when it was found in the possession of a schoolmistress (who had cut it down so it would fit over her fireplace).

In 1841 she sold the painting to a dealer, who then gave it to a friend who was also an art collector. When that person died the painting went up for auction at Christie's, where it was sold to art dealer William Agnew for 10,000 guineas (at the time the highest price paid for a painting at auction). 

Three weeks later it was stolen out of Agnew's gallery. Once again, its whereabouts were unknown.

Things would stay that way for nearly 25 years, until it was discovered that Adam Worth, known as the "Napoleon of crime," had stolen it. He intended to sell it to bail his brother out of jail, but when his brother was released Worth decided to keep the painting. 

Which he did until 1901, when the Pinkerton detective agency negotiated the painting's return. In return for $25,000 (paid by Agnew's son), the Pinkertons collected the painting from Worth in Chicago (paying him most if not all of the 25 large) and retuned it to the UK. It made its return to British soil on Saturday, April 6, 1901.

It didn't stay that long. JP Morgan bought the painting soon after for a reported $150,000. The Morgan family held the painting until 1994, when it was sold at auction again. The 11th Duke of Devonshire paid $408,870 for the work, and finally returned it to Chatsworth House more than two centuries after it left.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 36: You will see the Doctor now

The day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy seems like a bad time to debut a new TV show, even in the UK. But on November 23, 1963, the BBC rolled out the first episode of Doctor Who, albeit 80 seconds late in order to finish news updates about the assassination. Originally intended as a family show that would use time travel to explain scientific concepts and visit moments of historical importance, it soon morphed into the sci-fi hit that attracted fans for decades.

In 1985 the leadership at the BBC tried to cancel the show, but only succeeded in delaying a new season for 18 months. That may have been enough, though, as once the show returned it did not draw as well (a move to a new time slot likely didn't help), and the show was taken off of the scheduled in 1989. There were vague promises that the show would return.

Which it did... eventually. There was new content in various media - books, audio plays, and even a TV movie in 1996 - but no new series, mostly due to attempts to create a feature film. Once it became clear that the film wouldn't happen, the BBC decided to bring back the series with Russell Davies as showrunner.

And so on Saturday, March 26, 2005, the first new episode of Doctor Who in fifteen years aired on BBC One (along with a companion documentary series on BBC Three, which aired directly after the episode). The show drew enough viewers to land in the top ten for the week, and was greenlighted for both a Christmas special and a second season. From there the show built into becoming a TV staple for viewers worldwide, along with a number of spin-off series such as Torchwood. 

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 35: A failure by all accords

As the 1930s progressed, Britain and France became increasingly concerned that fascist Italy would ally with Nazi Germany in the future conflict that was looming over Europe. This led both countries to take a less than forceful approach towards Italy's invasion of Ethiopia and the participation of Italian troops in the Spanish Civil War. 

Italy, for its part, wanted to isolate Britain from Spain so that when it did ally with Germany and start that future conflict, Italy could invade France without worrying about a British response. They also were spreading anti-British propaganda in the Middle East and supplying arms to Palestinian rebeles, who were fighting the British mandate.

These competing interests were addressed at the negotiating table, leading to the signing of the Easter Accords on Saturday, April 16, 1938. In these agreements the two countries agreed (more or less) to respect each other's possessions in the Middle East, which was assumed to include Ethiopia given that the country wasn't mentioned by name. Italy also agreed to remove its troops from Spain once the civil war there ended.

The Easter Accords wound up being an appetizer for the Munich Agreement that came later in 1938, in that the accords, like the agreement, failed to achieve its ultimate goals. Italy allied with Germany in the Pact of Steel, and Britain and France continued to be staunch allies against fascism.  

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 34: Last and first bookings

Saturday, April 5, 1980, marked the final episode of the TV show Hawaii 5-0, in which Honolulu police detective Steve McGarrett finally get his arch-nemesis, Wo Fat, in handcuffs. He'd been chasing after Wo Fat since the first episode in 1968, so you can imagine this final incantation of "Book him, Dan-O" was especially sweet.

Playing at their first booking on the same day was the band that would become R.E.M. They played the birthday part of Kathleen O'Brien, who introduced Michael Stipe and Peter Buck to Bill Berry and Mike Mills. Which seems like the least they could do, in hindsight.

 Lentorama 2023: It Happened on Holy Saturday

Day 33: Toon debut

When Disney started its Silly Symphony series of animated shorts, the folks at Warner Brothers decided that imitation would be the sincerest form of profit-making. This led to the development of their own series of musically-inspired animated shorts, Looney Tunes. The first short released in the series, Sinkin' in the Bathtub, debuted on Saturday, April 19, 1930.

The star of the short was Bosko, who would go on to feature in 39 shorts during the decade. The early description of Bosko notes that he's Black, but his race would be made more ambiguous as the series went on (helped by getting rid of the "blackface" dialect that was only used for this particular short). Bosko had a girlfriend (Honey) and a dog (Bruno); any resemblence to Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto is probably intentional.

In this short, we get to see Bosko prepare for a date with Honey, and the comedic impediments they run into while taking a drive in the country. At the end, Bosko does cap things off with a "That's all, folks!," a line most people would now associate with Porky Pig.

The creators of Bosko moved from Warners to MGM in 1933, where they redesigned the character to the point where his name was about the only thing he shared with his Warners incarnation. MGM pulled the plug on Bosko after only 8 shorts, none of which were particularly popular.

Bosko short occasionally still show up on TV with the more well-known Looney Tunes shorts featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and that generation of characters. He does not fare well by comparison. Bosko has made a couple of appearances more recently, in Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, and the original Space Jam. This did not spark a Bosko renaissance.