Freaky Friday

November 3

1892 - The first successful automatic telephone system was introduced in Laporte, IN. Almond Strowger, the inventor, came up with the idea because the non-automatic system made it possible for his customers calls to be intercepted by his competitor. Strowger ran a funeral parlor.

1900 - The first National Automobile Show opened in Madison Square Garden in New York City. A total of 31 car makers put their autoware on display.

1934 - The first race track in California opened under a new parimutuel betting law. Bay Meadows, in San Mateo, is still a favorite of pony players in the Bay Area.

1941 - The classic Jerry Gray arrangement of String of Pearls was recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra - on Bluebird 78s. The recording featured the trumpet of Bobby Hackett.

1952 - Frozen bread was offered for sale for the first time. A supermarket in Chester, New York featured the stuff. It was an invention of a local baker who used the quick-freeze technology developed by Clarence Birdseye (of Birdseye frozen foods fame).

1953 - Nanette Fabray starred in the first color TV program to be sent coast to coast. The telecast, from the Colonial Theatre in New York City, was broadcast via WNBT, New York to Burbank, CA.

1953 - The Rules Committee of organized baseball restored the sacrifice fly (credited to a batter who flies out to drive in a run). The rule had not been used since 1939.

1956 - The classic MGM film, The Wizard of Oz, was first seen on television. The film cost CBS $250,000 to show. The movie was shown 18 times between 1956 and 1976, and you can probably catch it again no matter what year it is.

1957 - Sam Phillips, owner of legendary Sun Records in Memphis, TN, released Great Balls of Fire, by Jerry Lee Lewis. Looking carefully at the original label, one will find credit to Lewis and “his pumping piano.”

1960 - The Unsinkable Molly Brown, opened on Broadway. The play would become an American theater standard and a smashing career launch for Shirley MacLaine.

1962 - Billboard magazine dropped the “Western” from its chart title. The list has been known as Hot Country Singles ever since.

1964 - For the first time, residents of the District of Columbia were permitted to vote in a presidential election. The ratification of the 23rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (in 1961) gave Washington, D.C. citizens the right to vote for President and Vice President of the United States (not for members of Congress, however). Before that (since 1936), D.C. residents had voted only for party officials and delegates to the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

1972 - Singers Carly Simon and James Taylor were married in Carly’s Manhattan apartment. The couple was said to be the highest-paid couple in the world -- next to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Carly and ‘Sweet Baby’ James would divorce years later, but we hear they are still good friends.

1975 - Actor David Hartman became coanchor of ABC’s Good Morning America. Hartman’s co-host was actress Nancy Dussault.

1979 - The Eagles had the number-one album in the U.S. The Long Run started a nine-week run at the top these tracks to remember: The Long Run, I Can’t Tell You Why, In the City, The Disco Strangler, King Of Hollywood, Heartache Tonight, Those Shoes, Teenage Jail, The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks and The Sad Cafe.

1986 - “The Fight for Fort Knox” was announced this day. ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler and ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard agreed to duke it out in April, 1987. The two were guaranteed at least $23 million. (Leonard won in a 12-round split decision.)

1990 - Vanilla Ice was number one in the U.S. with the single Ice Ice Baby, from the album To the Extreme. “Ice Ice Baby Vanilla, Ice Ice Baby Vanilla...”

1992 - Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton (and running-mate Al Gore) easily defeated President George Bush and VP Dan Quayle to win the U.S. presidential election.

1996 - George Foreman won a 12-round unanimous decision over Crawford Grimsley in Tokyo. The aging (actually the oldest heavyweight champ) collected a purse of about $5 million.

2000 - Movies making their first U.S. runs this day: Charlie’s Angels, with Camerin Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu (the angels), Bill Murray and Sam Rockwell ; and The Legend of Bagger Vance, starring Will Smith, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, J. Michael Moncrief and Bruce Mcgill.