FUNNY FREE SPEECH AND FAME

The 3^rd December saw the release of the first film to give feature billing to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Putting Pants on Philip was released in 1927. Produced by Hal Roach, directed by Clyde Bruckman and written by Harley M. "Beanie" Walker.

Putting Pants On Philip is a landmark Hal Roach two-reel silent film from 1927. It ran 19 minutes. Here’s a bit of the South Bank Show from January 1991, about the pair.

Aptheker

On the 3^rd December 1964 at the University of California, Berkeley campus, the police were sent in to arrest students who had organized a sit-ion of the administration building.  Some 800 arrests were made. The protest was part of the Free Speech Movement (FSM), which took place during the 1964–1965 academic year under the informal leadership of students Mario Savio, Brian Turner, Bettina Aptheker, Steve Weissman, Art Goldberg, Jackie Goldberg, and others. In protests unprecedented in this scope at the time, students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students' right to free speech and academic freedom. It was probably the first and last success of a sit it.

Savio

Goldberg

1st edition (New Directions)

It was also on the 3^rd December 1947 that a play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway . Williams received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play in 1948. It ran for two years until the 17th December 17, 1949, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was directed by Elia Kazan and starred Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter and Karl Malden. It put Brando on his rocket to stardom.

24 year old Brando as
Stanley Kowalski

Williams