This Week In Film History 05-02-10

button-film-historyMay 5, 1903: The film world first mines the riches of the literary world with Edwin S. Porter’s version of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

May 4, 1934: With a show-stopping performance of “Baby Take a Bow” in Fox’s Stand Up and Cheer, 4-year-old Shirley Temple is attracting a lot of attention.

May 5, 1934: The Three Stooges star in their first Columbia short, Woman Haters, billed behind Marjorie White. “Hey, what’s the big idea?!”

May 4, 1949: Re-teaming for the first time in a decade, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers have their last dance together in The Barkleys of Broadway.

May 2, 1957: A new (and bloodier) era in screen horror is launched by England’s Hammer Films’ Curse of Frankenstein, with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

May 5, 1968: Actor Albert Dekker, 62, is found hanged in his bathroom, bound, handcuffed, clad in lingerie, and with obscenities scrawled on his body in lipstick.

May 4, 1975: Moe Howard, sole survivor of the original Three Stooges, dies at the age of 78.

May 6, 1992: Marlene Dietrich, sultry and sensuous figure of German and American cinema, dies at age 90.