Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Mar. 20, 2012

Birthday: Carl Reiner is 90, Blue Sky director Chris Wedge is 54.


1841- Edgar Allen Poe's The Murder's in the Rue Morgue first published in Graham’s Magazine. Called the first true detective novel, Poe's detective C. Auguste Dupin was inspired by a real French sleuth named Jules Vinquoc who used disguises and science to solve crimes the Paris police could not handle. The character was also the inspirations for Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Inspector Poirot.

1943-MGM's "Dumb Hounded" the first Droopy Cartoon.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Thursday Mar. 15, 2012

Birthdays: David Silverman director of the Simpsons.

1915- Universal Studios formed. Carl Laemmele bought a huge track of Burbank farmland and set up his studio. Laemmele had wooden bleachers built next to the movie sets where he charged people a nickel to come watch the filming. He was the chief sponsor of Walter Lantz Studio. Universal actually had been operating as a film company since 1912 but the company counts today as it’s birthday.

1933- Young animator Chuck Jones first hired at Leon Schlesingers Looney Tunes cartoon studio.

1950- Walt Disney’s "Cinderella" opens. Their first animated fairy tale hit since 1942.

1985- Symbolic.com is assigned the first registered domain site on the Internet.

2002- Blue Sky’s hit animated film Ice Age premiered.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Wednesday Mar. 14, 2012

Cartoonist and former animator Hank Ketcham born.

1932-Inventor GEORGE EASTMAN shot himself- The inventor of the Roll-film camera, who named his celluloid strips 'film' and founded Eastman/Kodak. He had been suffering from a long illness and left the note: " To my friends: The End is near, why wait? "

1943- Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" premieres. George Szell conducting. Young Leonard Bernstein once asked Copland how he could write more "American" sounding music. The maestro answered:" Lenny, just shuttup and write. You're American. It's all going to sound that way anyway!"


1991- Lyricist Howard Ashman ( Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) died of HIV/AIDS.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Mar. 04,2012

1946- Alex Raymond's comic strip 'Rip Kirby" premiered.

1994- 375 pound comedian John Candy died of heart failure in his sleep. He was 43.

2000- The Japanese launch of Sony Playstation 2. The most anticipated videogame launch in history. 600,000 units were sold. One store in Tokyo’s Ginza had 4,000 people lined up at their door.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Mar 3,2012

George Miller born, director of Happy Feet.

1950-Paramount's "Quack-a-Doodle-Doo" The first Baby Huey cartoon.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Mach. 2, 2012

Birthdays:Ted Geisel aka Dr.Suess, Willis O'Brian

1922- A 21 year old veteran named Walt Disney after getting out of the army began studying in the public library Edwin Lutz's book "Motion Picture Animation and How it is Made". In Kansas City he and his brother Roy persuaded the owner of a small chain of vaudeville theaters to fund some cartoons. Today the Newman's Laff-O-Grams Company was formed. A year later the Disney brothers would move to Hollywood and start a new enterprise called the Walt Disney Company.

1933- Movie "KING KONG" premiered at the new Radio City Music Hall in New York and the Roxy. Twas Beauty killed the Beast. Beautiful stop motion animation by Willis O'Brian based on designs of Charles Stuart King. No CGI around.

1947- Crusading Hollywood labor union organizer Herb Sorrell is plucked off the street in Glendale by gangsters posing as police. They may not have been just posing, many studios at the time hired off-duty LAPD at doubletime rates to rough up problem employees. They drive Herb up to Mulholland and work him over, leaving him by the side of the road. Shortly after leaving the hospital Sorrell was jailed for disturbing public peace.

1973- The Women in Film organization founded.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Animation Fun Facts for Thursday March 1, 2012

Director Ron Howard, who produced the animated film Ant Bully is 57.

1930-Disney animator Ub Iwerks, the animator/designer of Mickey Mouse, quits the studio to set up his own place. Walt was stunned by the defection of one of his first employees and closest friends. Iwerks studio producing Flip the Frog Cartoons, will eventually fail and he'll return to Disneys to invent the xerox process. Iwerks partner was Pat Powers, who’s PowersCinephone was the process used to put sound on “Steamboat Willie”.Powers engineered the break when Disney refused to let him buy in to a co-partnership in Disney Studio.

1933- Max Fleischer's short cartoon"Snow White" (starring Betty Boop). Cab Calloway singing the "St. James Infirmary Blues" is a highlight.

1946-The National Cartoonists Society formed.

1988- Apple introduced the first commercially available CD-ROM drive for your personal computer.