Tag: 1949

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October 31, 1949 — Cecil B DeMille’s “Samson and Delilah” is released

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Cecil B DeMille’s “Samson and Delilah” was the second film version of the tale, and the first to be in colour and sound. The marquee stars were Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature in the title roles, along with George Sanders as the Saran, Angela Lansbury as Semadar.

The film would go on to become the highest grossing film of 1950, and win two Academy Awards (for Costume Design and Art Direction). A portion of the film’s sets and production would later be recreated in Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard”, with De Mille playing a character based on himself.

Samson and Delilah original 1949 poster.JPG
By Unknown – eBay, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Tombstone Blues — Bob Dylan

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October 8, 1949 — DiMaggio leads the New York Yankees to victory in the World Series

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It wasn’t quite a lockout, but it was close. The 1949 World Series, played between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees, was played one five successive days, October 5 to October 9. The Yankees won the first game, the Dodgers the second, but then Joltin’ Joe led the Yankees to three straight wins to claim the series.

DiMaggio retired two years later, at the end of the 1951 season. Four years later, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Joe DiMaggio 1951.png
By Unknown – Baseball Digest, page 2, July 1951 issue. [1], Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Joe DiMaggio Done It Again — Woody Guthrie

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September 6, 1949 — Howard Unruh goes on a killing spree

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Sometimes, you really think that these things should have been caught earlier than they were.

Surely, for example, someone in Howard Unruh’s unit, back in World War Two, must have noticed the meticulous notes he kept about each German he killed? And although many men came home with souvenir firearms, not many of them went on to decorate their bedrooms with military paraphernalia, or built shooting ranges in their basements.

Whatever the reason, Howard Unruh’s madness went unnoticed until the morning of September 6, 1949. On this day, Howard loaded his captured luger, left his Camden, New Jersey home, and in only twelve minutes, killed 13 people and wounded 3 more.

A siege developed, but Unruh surrendered to police fairly quickly, and at his trial was ruled not guilty by reason of insanity. He was placed in the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, where he died in 2009. He was 88 years old.

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August 10, 1949 — John George Haigh is executed for murder

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The murderous career of John George Haigh is an object lesson in the importance of forensics in obtaining convictions. Haigh disposed of the bodies of people he killed by dissolving them in baths full of acid – he believed that the police needed a body in order to convict.

He was wrong, of course – although police originally began investigating him based on the items he stole from his victims, an analysis of the residue in his acid bath revealed three human gallstones and part of of denture. Haigh was arrested, and confessed to nine murders although he was convicted of only six. He was hanged in Wandsworth Prison, an execution that caused considerable controversy at the time (for its method – his guilt was not contested).

JohnGeorgeHaigh.jpg
By Sussex Constabulary – Police photograph taken at Horsham Police Station, 1949, taken in the same session as Oates, Jonathan John George Haigh, the Acid-Bath Murderer: A Portrait of a Serial Killer and His Victims, Barnslesy, Yorks: Pen and Sword Crime, p. 147 ISBN: 978-1-78346-214-8. This particular file was found on blogspot.com., Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Acid Bath Vampire — Macabre
Make Them Die Slowly (John George Haigh) — Church of Misery

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July 8, 1949 — The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act comes into force in South Africa

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The first of the pieces of legislation that would collectively form Apartheid to be created by the National Party after they took power in 1948. It was a self-evidently a pointless piece of law in its own right – only 0.23% of all marriages in South Africa from 1946-1948 were mixed – but it was the thin end of the Apartheid wedge, the beginning of that oh so slippery slope.

The law was repealed in 1995, after the fall of the Apartheid regime.

ApartheidSignEnglishAfrikaans.jpg
By Dewet – Derived from Aprt.jpg on en.wiki, corrected perspective and lighting somewhat. Permission from photographer here., Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Sun City — Artists United Against Apartheid

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April 7, 1949 — “South Pacific” opens on Broadway

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“South Pacific” was a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, based on James Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific”, an anthology of short stories. The musical has a single coherent narrative drawing on some of those short stories while also including what was, for its time, a progressive social message about race.

The musical was a hit, running for 1925 performances on Broadway (at that time, the second most of any Broadway production) and winning a Pullitzer prize for drama in 1950. It has been filmed several times, and remains a perennial favourite for revivals.

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1949 — Georgia O’Keeffe moves to New Mexico

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After her first visit in 1929, painter Georgia O’Keeffe became enamoured of the landscapes and colours of the American South West. She spent at least a part of each year there. Many of her paintings, including some of her best known, such as Summer Days (1936).

In 1945, she bought a property at Ghost Ranch, north of Abiquiu, New Mexico, and began renovating it. In 1949, she permanently relocated there, producing numerous paintings, sketches and sculptures. She eventually moved to Santa Fe as old age took its toll on her health, where she died in 1986. Her artistic legacy is vast and she is particularly noted for her contributions to abstract landscape painting.

O'Keeffe-(hands).jpg
By Alfred Stieglitz – http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/citi/images/standard/WebLarge/WebImg_000053/78993_349420.jpg, Public Domain, Link

As mentioned in:

Splendid Isolation — Warren Zevon

I have been unable to pin this down any more clearly than August 1940 – if anyone out there knows the correct date, please let me know.