Animation Fun Facts for Nov 30, 2012

Birthdays: Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, Jonathan Swift author of Gulliver's Travels, Gordon Parks, Alan Sherman, Abbie Hoffman, Virginia Mayo, Ephram Zimbalist Jr, Richard Crenna, Robert Guiliame the voice of Rafiki in the Lion King, Rex Reason, Mandy Patinkin, Luther Ingram, Ridley Scott is 75, David Mamet, Shuggie Otis, Billy Idol, Joan Ganz Cooney the creator of Sesame Street, Dick Clark, Ben Stiller is 47, Elizabeth Cuthbert is 3o, Henry Sellick 1924- The first fax message sent. A photo of the Prince of Wales was wired across the Atlantic by radio transmission. 1940-Actress Lucille Ball married Cuban band leader Dezi Arnez. Together they pioneered the new art of Television. They divorced in 1960. 1968- “Love Child” by Diana Ross and the Supremes hit #1 in the pop charts. 1970- First day shooting on William Freidkin’s film The French Connection. 1982- Nova Pictures is founded, but due to conflict with a PBS TV show of the same name they change theirs to TriStar Pictures. In 1994 TriStar was merged into SONY Pictures. 2003- Roy Disney Jr, the last serving member of the Disney family, was forced to resign from the Walt Disney Company. It was claimed to be the mandatory retirement policy, but more likely he was forced out by the exec he hired to run the company in 1984- Michael Eisner. So Roy built a successful grass roots stockholders campaign SaveDisney.com. In 2005 Eisner was compelled to retire. Roy Disney kept an emeritus board position until his death in 2009.