On Oct. 21, 1957, Elvis Presley’s song “Jailhouse Rock” hit number one in the United States on the Billboard Charts, according to Music History Events. It stayed there for seven weeks and was used for the film “Elvis,” released on June 24, 2022.
In 1964, the film version of the musical “My Fair Lady” premiered in New York. In the movie, a professor Henry Higgins played by Rex Harrison believes he can turn a working class girl played by Audrey Hepburn into a woman of high society. The movie would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Picture in the following year.
In 2016, Leonard Cohen, singer, songwriter and poet released his fourteenth studio album “You Want it Darker” 17 days before his death.
On Oct. 22, 1926, Harry Houdini suffered a sucker punch to the stomach. Jocelyn Gordon Whitehead, a boxer, walked into Houdini’s dressing room in the Princess Theater in Montreal and struck the magician in the abdomen. The punch allegedly gave Houdini appendicitis and he died nine days later.
On Oct. 23, 1941, the movie “Dumbo” was released. Adapted from the book “Dumbo, the Flying Elephant” by Helen Aberson-Mayer and illustrated by her then husband Harold Pearl, the film later went on to win an Academy Award. The movie portrays a little elephant with big ears who dreams of flying. He has to face adversity from attendees at the circus where he and his mother lived and performed. After the release, “Dumbo” generated $1 million at the box office.
On Oct. 24, 2006, Taylor Swift released her debut self-titled album. The first track, “Tim McGraw” peaked at number five on the Albums charts in the U.S. and stayed there for 157 weeks by 2009. This feat became one of the longest-charted albums of the 2000s.
Billy Joel made his Broadway debut with “Movin’ Out” on Oct. 24, 2002 featuring songs from his discography. “Movin’ Out” is about three friends experiencing the Vietnam War. The musical won Tony Awards for the director Twyla Tharp and Joel, Best Choreography for Tharp and Best Orchestrations for Joel.