This Week in Showbiz History: King Kong, John Belushi & More!

3/2/04: THEODOR SEUSS GEISEL A.K.A. DR. SEUSS, BORN IN SPRINGFIELD, MA
• If you make a shit-ton of cash (admittedly, that's probably not how he would refer to it) and even more people laugh, and the worse thing they say about you is you started a stupid hat craze, well, that's not a bad life.

3/2/33: KING KONG OPENS AT RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL
• Let's see, an ape kidnaps a white lady gets chased halfway around the world for his troubles. Nah, nothing racist about that!

3/4/94: JOHN CANDY DIES IN DURANGO, MEXICO
• One of the comedy G.O.A.T.s passed 16 years ago this week, the victim of a heart attack at the age of 43, perhaps a victim of all the aggression he swallowed.

3/5/82: JOHN BELUSHI DIES IN L.A.
• Only 33, Belushi bought the farm at the Chateau Marmont on the Sunset Strip after injecting a speedball during a night of partying with Robin Williams. Cathy Smith, the woman seen in this clip, was subsequently charged with first degree murder for administering the fatal dose of cocaine and heroin, and served 15 months on a reduced manslaughter charge.

3/6/17: WILL EISNER BORN IN BROOKLYN
• The legendary comic book innovator behind The Spirit (the original comic) who was thankfully dead when The Spirit (the gawdawful movie) was released, but during his lifetime he did as much to forward the medium as anybody, from working on one of the first graphic novels (A Contract With God, And Other Tenement Stories) to forming the Eisner and Iger Studio. The "Eisner" behind the Eisner Awards that you miss while waiting in line to get Eliza Dushku's autograph at Comic-Con.