December 7, 1919: Director/actor Erich von Stroheim, “The Man You Love to Hate,” makes his directorial debut with Blind Husbands.
December 4, 1924: Greed, previewed in a nine-hour, 42-reel version earlier in the year, opens in a studio-mandated 10-reel cut that director Erich von Stroheim disavows.
December 4, 1925: A bureau known as the Central Casting Corporation is set up by the major Hollywood studios as a pool of extras available to film productions.
December 9, 1937: In a poll conducted by gossip columnist Ed Sullivan, Clark Gable and Myrna Loy are crowned “King and Queen of Hollywood.”
December 8, 1949: Scandal erupts around actress Ingrid Bergman when columnist Hedda Hopper reports she’s pregnant by director Roberto Rossellini.
December 7, 1955: United Artists withdraws from the MPAA over the refusal to grant approval to the drug addiction drama The Man With the Golden Arm.
December 10, 1962: A relatively-unknown Peter O’Toole stars in David Lean‘s highly-anticipated, 70mm epic Lawrence of Arabia, which makes its debut in London today.
December 7, 1964: Director Sam Peckinpah is fired by the producer of The Cincinnati Kid for shooting nude scenes that were not written in the script.
December 5, 1976: The first film to take advantage of Garret Brown’s Steadicam, a device which stabilizes handheld cameras, Bound for Glory, is released.
December 10, 1978: Ed Wood, Jr., auteur of such classic turkeys as Plan 9 from Outer Space and Glen or Glenda, dies in Hollywood at the age of 54.
December 6, 1979: A decade after the TV show left the airwaves, Star Trek: The Motion Picture opens and gives new life to the Enterprise crew.
December 8, 1982: Eddie Murphy becomes the latest Saturday Night Live regular to jump to big-screen stardom with the action-comedy 48 Hrs.