Milestones: December 27, 2023

December 27, 2023 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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KEY SUPPLIER WAS ANTI-UNION — PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT ON DEC. 27, 1944, ordered Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson to seize the properties belonging to the Montgomery Ward company after the manufacturer and department store chain refused to honor labor agreements. Roosevelt established the National War Labor Board in 1942 to prevent strikes in industries that provided critical war support. Montgomery Ward was a vital supplier of war supplies ranging from workmen’s clothing to tractors and equipment parts and was actively supporting the Allies in this way. However, the company had been involved in three separate labor disputes in 1933-34, and its chairman, Sewell Avery, refused to comply with the terms of three different collective bargaining agreements that had been made with the United Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union that were negotiated between 1943 and 1944. With the possibility of strikes threatening to cripple and endanger the Allies, Roosevelt ordered the properties seized.

The December 1944 seizure was the second time that Roosevelt had to act against Sewell Avery, who was known for his anti-government and anti-New Deal stance. In April of that year, federal troops had to personally remove Mr. Avery — physically carrying him from his office.

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FATHER OF MODERN ASTRONOMY — THE 16TH-17TH CENTURY SCIENTIST JOHANNES KEPLER, BORN ON DEC. 27, 1571, in the autonomous city of Weil der Stadt in the Holy Roman Empire, came to be known as the Father of Modern Astronomy. A teacher, mathematician, and inventor, he also explored astrology. His 1596 treatise Mysterium Cosmographicum was the first published defense of the Copernican system (the sun at the center of the universe). Further revising the Copernican system, Kepler later published his own laws of planetary motion.

Kepler’s scientific writings built the foundation for Sir Isaac Newton’s later theory of universal gravitation. Newton was born in January 1643, about 12 years after Kepler’s death.

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PREDATING KITTY HAWK — BEFORE THE WRIGHT BROTHERS CAME ALONG, THERE WAS GEORGE CAYLEY, BORN IN YORKSHIRE 250 YEARS AGO, ON DEC. 27, 1773. This English scientist, inventor and aviation pioneer was designing gliders, airplanes and helicopters 130 years before the famous successful flights at Kitty Hawk. Often hailed as the father of aerodynamics, Cayley conducted pioneering studies and experiments with flying machines, including the piloted glider that he designed and built. He studied and measured the “drag” on objects at different speeds and ballistics, and he further developed his work in the invention of a “whirling-arm apparatus,” a development of earlier work in ballistics and air resistance. Utilizing the stairwells at Brampton Hall, a country estate in Herefordshire, Cayley also experimented with rotating wing structures.

The 2007 discovery of Cayley’s school notebooks, containing sketches illustrating his theories of flight, showed that he was already inventing from an incredibly young age.

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LEGENDARY ACTRESS — THE SULTRY ACTRESS MARIE MAGDALENE DIETRICH WAS BORN DEC. 27, 1901, IN WHAT IS NOW BERLIN. “Marlene” wasn’t only her stage name, but rather her blending, at age 11, of her first and middle names. A stage and silent-film actress, Dietrich got her first big break in 1930 when she was cast in “The Blue Angel,” the first talkie (voiced film) produced in Germany. That film’s director, Josef Von Sternberg, moved with Dietrich to Hollywood, to make six films that became iconic, among them, “Shanghai,” “The Devil is a Woman,” and “Destry Rides Again.” The first of these movies, “Morocco,” is the only one for which Dietrich received an Academy Award nomination, but it also gave her a contract with Paramount Pictures. Dietrich later appeared in “Judgment at Nuremberg.” She also played Christine, the wife of an accused man, in director Billy Wilder’s adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel, “Witness for the Prosecution.”

Dietrich and von Sternberg had already moved to Hollywood three years before Hitler came to power in Germany. A humanitarian during and after World War II, Dietrich provided housing and financial help to German and French exiles from Europe, and advocated for their American citizenship.

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‘THE SHOWPLACE OF THE NATION’ — RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL OPENED IN NEW YORK CITY ON DEC. 27, 1932, AS A DIVERSION FROM THE BURDENS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION. Thousands attended the opening at the resplendent Art Deco theater on the Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue) in New York City, which had been designed and built for ordinary folk to experience high-caliber entertainment. The “Radio Roxyettes,” debuted at the opening, and were later renamed as The Rockettes, a precision-dance ensemble that remains a popular attraction at Radio City Music Hall’s beloved Christmas Spectacular tradition, which this year marked its 90th birthday. The music hall’s iconic Great Stage, which resembles a setting sun, uses a sophisticated system of elevators that enable the special staging effects.

Radio City Music Hall has partnered with several dance companies, schools and organizations, including Alvin Ailey, Dancewave and the New York City public schools.

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FEATURED CLARABELL THE CLOWN — “HOWDY DOODY,” THE FIRST POPULAR CHILDREN’S SHOW ON TV, MADE ITS TELEVISION PREMIERE ON DEC. 27, 1947. Set in the circus town of Doodyville, the program featured a “Peanut Gallery” bleacher section in the studio where children took part in activities. “Howdy Doody featured human stars Bob Smith as Buffalo Bob and the silent Clarabell the Clown, (whose original actor was Long Island native Bob Keeshan, who later had his own show as Captain Kangaroo. The puppet characters included Howdy Doody, Phineas T. Bluster, Dilly Dally, Flub-a-Dub, Captain Scuttlebutt, Double Doody and Heidi Doody. During the show’s September 24, 1960 finale, Clarabell finally spoke, saying only, “Good-bye, kids.”

One spinoff of “The Howdy Doody Show” was the “Gumby” animated cartoon series, which was piloted in 1955, with a Season 1 in 1956, was given two more non-continuous seasons in syndication from 1966-68 and again in 1988.

See previous milestones, here.