Royalty of big screen and small

October 23, 1925 -- Johnny Carson (pictured as Carnac the Magnificent) was born.

"Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand." -- Anonymous.

October 22 -- Actress Joan Fontaine was born in 1917. She won the Oscar (for Suspicion) on her birthday in 1941.

"Nothing would disgust me more, morally, than to receive an Oscar." -- (Director) Luis Bunuel.

Her book was the talk of the town

Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, was born on this day in 1797. She said:

"I like a man who talks me to death, provided he is amusing; it saves so much trouble."

August 12-14

This week's milestones:

August 12, 1881: Movie director Cecil B. DeMille was born.

"It is my indignant opinion that 90 percent of the moving pictures exhibited in America are so vulgar, witless and dull that it preposterous to write about them in any publication not intended to be read while chewing gum." -- Woolcott Gibbs (1902-1958).



August 13, 1899: Movie director Alfred Hitchcock was born.

"Conversation is the enemy of good wine and food," Hitchcock said.



August 14, 1867: Birthdate of English author John Galsworthy, who wrote:

"Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem."

Orator or bore-ator?

The Roman orator Cicero was born on this day in 106 B.C.

"What orators lack in depth they make up to you in length." -- Montesquieu.




Cicero is still known today, for his pithy comments such as "Honor is the reward of virtue" and "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." But he could also be something of a cynic at times. "For a tear is quickly dried," he wrote, "especially when shed for the misfortunes of others."

He also said: "There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it."

He doesn't have to write any more g.d. stupid useless books

Birthday of author J. D.. Salinger, born in 1935. This is from The Catcher in the Rye.

"What I'd do, I figured, I'd go out west where it was very pretty and sunny and where nobody knew me and I'd get a job...I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn't have to have any goddamn stupid useless conversations with anybody."