On this day in 1984, the first MTV Video Music Awards were held at Radio City Music Hall. Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler hosted, Madonna performed “Like a Virgin,” wearing her iconic bustier/wedding gown with a belt buckle that read “BOY TOY,” and Michael Jackson”s “Thriller” lost Video of the Year to The Cars” “You Might Think.” The video for “Thriller” did, however, win Best Choreography and Viewers” Choice.
WATCH MADONNA PERFORM “LIKE A VIRGIN” AT BOTTOM
Among the night”s other winners were David Bowie”s “China Girl” video, Van Halen”s “Jump,” Eurythmics” “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” and two videos for ZZ Top songs: “Legs” and “Sharp Dressed Man.”
Other notable Sept. 14 happenings in pop culture history:
• 1964: The short-lived sitcom “The Bing Crosby Show” premiered on ABC.
• 1974: Eric Clapton”s cover of Bob Marley”s “I Shot the Sheriff” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• 1978: The Grateful Dead performed the first of three shows at the Sound and Light Theater in Egypt, in the shadow of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids.
• 1985: “The Golden Girls” premiered on NBC.
• 1990: “Tiny Toon Adventures” premiered on CBS with the prime-time special airing of the pilot episode, “The Looney Beginning.”
• 2001: Media reports came out of a the memo distributed by Clear Channel Communications (now known as iHeartMedia, Inc.) to radio stations, listing songs that Clear Channel suggested DJs not play in the time following the 9/11 attacks. Among the songs on the reported list were Queen”s “Another One Bites the Dust,” The Bangles” “Walk Like an Egyptian,” Louis Armstrong”s “What a Wonderful World,” Oingo Boingo”s “Dead Man”s Party” and seven AC/DC, including “Highway to Hell.”
Birthdays: Andrew Lincoln (turns 42 today), Jessica Brown Findlay (26), Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Ed King (66), Melissa Leo (55), Sam Neill (68), Callum Keith Rennie (55)