Jul 05 2026
Born on this day, July 5, 1889, in Maisons-Laffitte, France, Jean Cocteau spent his life moving between artistic worlds. He was a poet, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, draftsman, designer, critic, and collaborator whose work crossed many of the boundaries that normally separate literature, theater, visual art, music, and cinema. Trying to describe Cocteau with a single …
Jul 02 2026
Every July 2, World UFO Day offers a fitting excuse to revisit one of the strangest and most entertaining records to emerge from the first great explosion of rock and roll. In 1957, Arkansas-born rockabilly singer Billy Lee Riley released “Flyin’ Saucers Rock and Roll” on Sun Records. The record brought together two subjects that …
Jun 28 2026
Born on this day, June 28, 1915, at Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico, José Rey Toledo became an important 20th-century Pueblo artist whose paintings combined artistic skill with an unusually close knowledge of the communities, traditions, clothing, dances, and landscapes he depicted. Known by the Towa name Sho-bah-won-hon, or Morning Star, Toledo worked primarily in …
Jun 10 2026
On June 10, 1922, Frances Ethel Gumm was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Within less than two decades, the world would know her as Judy Garland, the young woman in ruby slippers singing about a place somewhere over the rainbow. Dorothy Gale made Garland immortal, but The Wizard of Oz represents only one chapter in …
Jun 09 2026
Born on this day, June 9, 1915, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Les Paul spent much of his life asking a wonderfully simple question: What if this could sound better? Sometimes “this” was a guitar that was not loud enough. Sometimes it was a recording that could capture only one performance at a time. Sometimes it was …
Jun 07 2026
Born on this day, June 7, 1917, in Steubenville, Ohio, Dean Martin became one of the defining entertainers of mid-century America. He could walk onto a nightclub stage holding a microphone, deliver a song as though singing required almost no effort at all, toss away a joke, raise an eyebrow, and somehow make everyone else …
Jun 06 2026
Born on this day, June 6, 1950, in Brussels, Belgium, Chantal Akerman became one of the most influential filmmakers to emerge from European cinema after the 1960s. She made films about apartments, hotel rooms, train stations, city streets, kitchens, borders, mothers and daughters, people waiting, people traveling, and people carrying histories that could never be …
Jun 05 2026
Born on this day, June 5, 1931, in Pontchâteau, France, Jacques Demy became one of the most distinctive filmmakers associated with the French New Wave. His movies could be bright enough to resemble candy-colored dreams, filled with music, dancing, elaborate costumes, seaside towns, chance meetings, and people convinced that perfect love might be waiting just …
Jun 04 2026
Born on this day, June 4, 1907, in Waterbury, Connecticut, Rosalind Russell became one of Hollywood’s most distinctive leading ladies—a performer who could fire dialogue at breathtaking speed, command a newsroom opposite Cary Grant, hold her own among the formidable ensemble of The Women, tackle serious dramatic roles, conquer Broadway, and ultimately create one of …
Jun 03 2026
Born on this day, June 3, 1877, in Le Havre, France, Raoul Dufy became one of the great colorists of 20th-century French art. Sailboats move across brilliant blue harbors. Flags flutter above crowded streets. Racehorses circle paddocks beneath open skies. Musicians perform under chandeliers while fashionable spectators gather at regattas, casinos, concerts, and seaside resorts. …
