October 10, 1909: The New York Times publishes its first movie review, a critique of D.W. Griffith’s Pippa Passes.
October 6, 1927: The curtain opens on the “talkies” with Warner Bros.’ The Jazz Singer. Star Al Jolson says, “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.”
October 7, 1928: The short subject Dancing Town, starring Helen Hayes, marks the first film appearance of stage actor Humphrey Bogart.
October 5, 1939: With the Hollywood remake of Intermezzo, a version of which she made in her native Sweden two years earlier, Ingrid Bergman makes her American debut.
October 10, 1939: Babes in Arms, the first in a popular quartet of Busby Berkeley musicals teaming Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, opens.
October 7, 1951: Citing “immorality,” the New York State Censor denies an exhibition license for Max Ophuls’ film La Ronde.
October 5, 1956: Charlton Heston, as Moses, parts the Red Sea in Cecil B. DeMille’s gargantuan remake of The Ten Commandments.
October 6, 1959: Pillow Talk, the first of several successful romantic comedies pairing Doris Day and Rock Hudson, opens.
October 5, 1962: Sean Connery is “Bond…James Bond” in the series’ first entry, Dr. No, despite the wishes of author Ian Fleming, who preferred Roger Moore.
October 10, 1961: Warren Beatty, who had starred on TV and on Broadway, makes an impressive film debut in Splendor in the Grass, co-starring Natalie Wood.
October 7, 1963: With an assortment of cinematic tricks, including freeze frames and sped-up film, director Tony Richardson fashions a comedic triumph in Tom Jones.
October 8, 1971: NYPD detective Gene Hackman shows how to drive in the Big Apple, as eventual Best Picture Oscar-winner The French Connection opens.
October 5, 1979: Dudley Moore becomes a star, Bo Derek is the new “It” girl and Ravel’s “Bolero” gains popularity as Blake Edwards’ 10 opens.
October 10, 1985: “Boy Wonder” actor/writer/director Orson Welles dies of a heart attack at 70.
October 6, 1989: Two-time Oscar-winner and indomitable screen heroine Bette Davis dies in Paris of breast cancer at 81.
October 5, 1990: Director Philip Kaufman’s Henry & June is the first film to receive the MPAA’s new NC-17 rating.
October 6, 1991: Actress Elizabeth Taylor weds—for the eighth and final time, marrying construction worker Larry Fortensky at Michael Jackson’s Neverland estate.
October 7, 2003: Following in fellow actor Ronald Reagan’s footsteps, action star Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected governor of California.
October 10, 2004: Screen Superman Christopher Reeve, paralyzed from the neck down since a 1995 equestrian accident, dies from cardiac arrest at the age of 52.
October 6, 2006: Martin Scorsese’s crime drama The Departed, which will finally earn him a Best Director Oscar, opens.