1. National Bake Cookies Day.
2. National Flake Appreciation Day.
   1. Does that mean to appreciate flakes like me?
   2. Really about Snow Flakes and this was started by a photographer, Wilson A. Bentley, called the snowflake man. In 1885 at the age of 19, he combined his microscope with his camera and became a pioneer in Photomicrography.
      1. Donated 500 photographs to the Smithsonian.
      2. Because of his photography; we discovered that no two snowflakes are alike.
   3. Ware a plunger on your head day.

Famous People’s Birthdays:

1. Steven Spielberg - 1946
   1. Director of over 30 films.
   2. In 1958 he fulfilled the requirements for the Boy Scout photography merit badge, with an 8 mm/9minute movie called the “Last Gunfight” and at 13 won a prize for a 40 minute war film called “Escape to nowhere” with high school friends.
   3. His early influences were “Godzilla, King of the Monsters”, “Captains Courageous” and “Laurence of Arabia”.
   4. At 16 he wrote and directed a Science Fiction Adventure called “Fire Light”
      1. It took $500 to make, showed at a local theater for one night and even made a small profit.
   5. Applied for the film school at USC but was turned down due to grades, and went to Cal State University at Long Beach.
   6. His first professional job was to direct an episode of “Night Gallery” starring Joan Crawford.
      1. Dealing with Joan got him ready for the great white shark to follow.
   7. Followed even by an episode of “Colombo”
   8. First full length T.V. movie was “Dual” written by Richard Matheson, who we have talked about so many times on this show.
   9. Movies:
      1. Sugarland Express was his first theatrical release
      2. Jaws
         1. My first real exposure to him.

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
  1. Mobile, Louisville and Nashville Railroad depot in Bay Minette; all Alabama.

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. E.T.
3. Jurassic Park
   1. Jurassic and Schindler’s list came out the same year of 1993. Universal balked at such a long B&W movie as Shindler’s List and made him a deal to do a lucrative blockbuster first; Jurassic Park.  The rest is history.

• Shindler’s List
  1. For which he refused to be paid, and used the profits he would have received to found the USC SHOAH Foundation, (he showed them) established in 1994 to remember and honor the survivors of the Holocaust by collecting personal recollections with audio and video interview. “When Hate goes Unchecked; it becomes accepted”.
  2. Spielberg thought he was not the right director for the job on Shindler’s List and asked Roman Polanski, a holocaust survivor himself, whose mother was killed in Auschwitz.
     2003. Polanski turned it down to make his own Holocaust movie, “The Pianist” earning him the best director Oscar in 2003.
     2004. Sidney Pollok also passed, but Martin Scorsese said yes, and then Spielberg decided he was ready.

• War of the Worlds

1. Minority Report
2. A.I.
   1. Orginally a Kubrick project that Spielberg completed.
3. The Post

• Bridge of Spies
• Ready Player One.
  1. If you did not know what Godzilla would do or how to use Atari; you could not be able save the world.

2. Brad Pitt – 1963
   1. Starred in over 95 films
   2. Growing up in Missouri he was very interested in movies and starred in plays and musicals.
      1. Moved to L.A. for the film industry and took odd-jobs while taking acting lessons.
         1. His early actor heroes were Gary Oldman, Sean Penn, and Mickey Rourke.
      2. He started in uncredited roles, such as “No Way Out” and starred in T.V. soaps and sitcoms graduating to T.V. movies.
         1. He won numerous awards including the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Once upon a time in Hollywood” and another for “7 Years a Slave”. I really do remember his nominated performance for “12 Monkeys”.
            1. Another great Terry Gilliam film.
         2. Movies:
            1. Thelma and Louise
               1. His first major role.
            2. 7 Years in Tibet
               1. Not a slave
               2. Great music
            3. Tree of life
               1. A great Terrance Malik film with Sean Penn.
            4. Seven
            5. Fight Club
            6. Interview with a Vampire