Peter Lorre was born today in 1904 in Hungary. He starred hysterically in the German film 'M', loosely based on the career of the serial killer Peter Kurten and went on to be decidedly creepy in B-feature horror flicks. His family were well known in showbiz; his mother Annie, was a Scottish tap dancer; his sone John was a star of Dad's Army on the telly; and his grandson Hugh used to be a comedian but has turned into a really curmudgeonly American doctor.
For extra points, dear reader - do you know the name of the cartoon character based on Lorre, a feature of several Bugs Bunny shorts? Well, I'll tell you, I don't want you to get too excited or despondent (depending on whether you know or not). It was Hugo, and the other one was Rocky, based on Edward G Robinson. Ah, film trivia - don't you just love it?
In other news ...
This was the day when JFK did his bit for US-German relations with the famous 'binliner' speech - 'All free men,' he said, 'wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin' - which is of course, patent nonsense. As was an earlier part of the speech - 'Civis Romanus sumi' (he meant 'sum' which means 'I am') and again, the parallel is nonsense. 'I am a Roman citizen' was a proud boast because half the 'civilized' world had been 'integrated' into the Roman Empire. Much of Europe had been 'integrated' by Berlin, too, in a little thing called World War Two. So what was JFK saying? Nazi domination is a good thing? Remember, he was chummy with that good old SS Sturmbannfuhrer, Wernher von Braun.
