March 20 in NYC
Posted: Mar 20, 2013 | 6:52 PM
by Jared Goldstein
1691: Mayoral politics in the post New Amsterdam era gets bloody. The aptly named Henry Sloughter wins. The loser, Jacob Leisler was hanged for treason. Leisler is later cleared.
1922: Happy Birthday to funnyman Carl Reiner. He will be a 2000 Year Old Man in 1,909 years
1931: Happy Birthday to Broadway star and "Barney Miller" Hal Linden.
1950: William Hurt, the award-winning Julliard-trained actor, born.
Hurt's Julliard classmate was Christopher Reeves. We see Julliard on Upper West Side tours.
1957: Director, Brooklyn native and NYU Tisch grad Spike Lee born.
In the early 1990s I was on a line just ahead of him to see Malcolm X documentaries, and I broke the New York Code: "SPIKE LEEEE!! I looooove your movies!" He was annoyed and buried himself in the NY Post Sports section. A couple of years later his Malcolm X film debuted.
1988: M. Butterfly opened on Broadway, garnering the Tony Award, playing 777 times.