Biographic - Sunday November 26, 2017 Comic Strip Licensing and Permissions

Transcript

One of the most beloved movies in the history of American cinema debuted 75 years ago this weekend. "Casablanca" premiered at the Hollywood theater in New York City on November 26, 1942, to coincide with the allied invasion of North Africa and the capture of Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Paul Henreid, the movie garnered three Oscars from eight nominations. A romantic drama, "Casablanca" centers around Rick Blaine, an expatriate American bar owner who must choose between his love of a woman and helping her and her resistance leader husband escape Vichy-controlled Casablanca to continue the fight against the Nazis. The strong supporting cast included Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre. Nazi Major Strasser was played by Conrad Veidt, one of the Third Reich's staunchest enemies. Married to a Jewish woman, Veidt had fled his native Germany in the 1930s and helped the allied war effort from Hollywood. Sadly, the 50-year-old died just five months after the movie's release. "Casablanca" famously features Dooley Wilson as piano player Sam, Performing the classic "As Time Goes By" Dooley was actually a drummer in real life and couldn't' play piano at all. The piano he "played" in Rick's Cafe American bar sold at auction in 2014 for $3.4 million!

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