12.06.09 | Jay Steinberg | This Week in Film HistoryPrint this Post
December 7, 1919: Director/actor Erich von Stroheim, "The Man You Love to Hate," makes his directorial debut with Blind Husbands.
December 11, 1930: A protest of All Quiet on the Western Front by members of the Nazi Party in Berlin will lead to the banning of the film from Germany.
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 12, 1939: Douglas Fairbanks, dashing and athletic leading man of the silent era and co-founder of United Artists, dies of a heart attack at age 56.
December 12, 1941: Lon Chaney, Jr. follows in his father's frightening footsteps, playing the title role in The Wolf Man and reviving Universal's horror genre.
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 11, 1963: The Cardinal, the first film released in Panavision 70, a process which enlarges 35mm film to 70mm and is then projected onto a wide screen, debuts.
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 12, 1972: Audiences flip for The Poseidon Adventure. Its success will lead to a rash of disaster films, many made by Poseidon producer Irwin Allen.
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 8, 1982: Eddie Murphy becomes the latest Saturday Night Live regular to jump to big-screen stardom with the action-comedy 48 Hrs.
December 11, 1991: Despite success with Dances with Wolves and The Silence of the Lambs, Orion Pictures files for bankruptcy protection in federal court.
