January 19, 1907: An Exciting Honeymoon and The Life of a Cowboy are the first films to be reviewed in the entertainment trade magazine Variety.
January 22, 1928: The John Ford melodrama Mother Machree features, as an unbilled extra, former prop man John Wayne in his first film appearance.
January 20, 1929: The release of In Old Arizona, directed by Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh, marks the first time a sound film was shot on location.
January 23, 1932: Educational Films Corporation signs 3-year-old Shirley Temple to appear in a series of film take-offs called Baby Burlesks.
January 20, 1933: Because of a memorable nude swimming scene, Austrian actress Hedy Kiesler (soon to be known as Hedy Lamarr) causes a sensation with the release of Ecstasy.
January 21, 1938: Pioneering French filmmaker and visual effects master Georges Melies dies at the age of 76.
January 19, 1952: Jerome “Curly” Howard, most manic of the Three Stooges, shuffles off this mortal coil at age 49.
January 23, 1952: Precedent-setter James Stewart chooses to share in the profits of Universal’s Bend of the River rather than accept a fixed salary.
January 19, 1953: After months of campaigning, Frank Sinatra is signed by Columbia to play Maggio in From Here to Eternity at a cut-rate $8,000 a week.
January 24, 1957: RKO, the studio that produced King Kong and Citizen Kane, announces plans to close and distribute its remaining films through Universal.
January 20, 1964: A lethal combination of alcohol and depressants claims the life of ’40s tough guy Alan Ladd, 50, whose career had been in decline over the last decade.
January 19, 1966: Director Otto Preminger loses his battle in New York court to prevent Anatomy Of A Murder from being edited for television or broadcast without commercials.
January 25, 1970: Robert Altman‘s M*A*S*H marches into theaters, but showings of the irreverent comedy will be banned on U.S. military bases.
January 25, 1973: Tough guy Edward G. Robinson dies at the age of 79; two months later the Academy will honor him with a posthumous lifetime achievement award.
January 24, 1974: Larry Fine of the Three Stooges dies at the age of 72 in Woodland Hills, California.
January 20, 1990: Barbara Stanwyck, star of Stella Dallas and Double Indemnity, dies in Santa Monica of heart failure at the age of 82.