October 8 is the birthday of Georgian-American director and screenwriter ROUBEN MAMOULIAN (1897-1987). Among the great films Mamoulian directed are Queen Christina (1933) starring Greta Garbo, Blood and Sand (1941) and DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931) To see Frederic March’s transformation into Mr. Hyde, CLICK HERE.

October 8 is the birthday of German composer HEINRICH SCHUTZ (1585-1672). He combined the grandiose, Italianate, Catholic splendor of his teacher Claudio Monteverdi with the more sober Lutheranism of his native Germany to create a unique sound that greatly influenced Bach and, even later, Brahms. To hear a glorious Alleluja by Schütz, CLICK HERE.

October 8 is the birthday of American writer and artist RICHARD SHARPE SHAVER (1907-1975). Shaver, who was treated for paranoid schizophrenia the 1970s, wrote science fiction stories "in which he claimed that he had had personal experience of a sinister, ancient civilization that harbored fantastic technology in caverns under the earth. The controversy stemmed from the claim by Shaver, and his editor and publisher Ray Palmer, that Shaver's writings, while presented in the guise of fiction, were fundamentally true. Shaver's stories were promoted by Ray Palmer as 'The Shaver Mystery.' To learn more, CLICK HERE.

October 8 is the FEAST OF ST. THAÏS.

The fourth century saint was a repentant courtesan who lived in Roman Egypt. Massenet wrote an opera about her. To hear an excerpt from a Metropolitan Opera production starring Renée Fleming, CLICK HERE.

October 8 is the birthday of the author of "Dune," FRANK HERBERT (1920-1986). Herbert wrote Dune, the best-selling science fiction novel of all time, and a classic of the science-fiction genre. To see scenes from Daivd Lynch’s surrealistic film verson of “Dune,” CLICK HERE.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: On October 8, 1957, Jerry Lee Lewis recorded GREAT BALLS OF FIRE at Sun Studio in Memphis. To hear Jerry Lee belt it out, CLICK HERE.