This Month (October) 1954
World Champions! The New York Giants defeated the Cleveland Indians on October 2nd to win the World Series! They swept the Indians, winning the last game by a score of 7-4.
Also on the second, two new shows debuted on NBC:
– The Imogene Coca Show, a half-hour situation comedy/variety show. It stars Imogene Coca, and precedes…
– The Jummy Durante Show, also a comedy/variety program, starring none other than Jimmy Durante.
Sitting Bull debuted on October 6th, starring DAle Robertson and J Carrol Naish (as sitting Bull). This Sidney Salkow and Rene Cardona Western depicts the war between Chief Sitting Bull and the Americans leading up to Custer’s Last Stand.
Five days later, in Vietnam the Viet Minh took control of North Vietnam, and Hurricane Hazel crossed over Haiti killing at least a thousand people.
Hazel continued her path of destruction by making landfall in North Carolina as a Category 4. The damage is still being assessed.
Also on that same day, the Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, a children’s program, debuted on ABC. Set at the US Cavalry post Fort Apache, this show stars Lee Aaker as Rusty, along side his German shepherd, Rin Tin Tin.
Texas Instruments announced a commercially viable transistor radio on October 18th. It is expected to go on sale in the coming weeks.
Also on the 18th, the Flagstons from Beetle Bailey got their own spin-off strip: Hi and Louis.
October 28th saw a pair of films hit the theaters:
The Black Knight, starring Alan Ladd as the blacksmith John. He is tutored at Camelot, where he falls for Lady Linet. Due to his common birth he is unable to marry her — so he creates an alternate identity as the titular Black Knight to help King Arthur.
Carmen Jones, starring Dorothy Dandridge as Carmen and Harry Belafonte as Joe, is a musical producted and directed by none other than Otto Preminger, based on a 1943 stage production. Carmen Jones is a vixen who works in a parachute factory during World War 2. She gets in a fight with a coworker and it all goes crazy from there!