Animation Educator's Forum Blog

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Feb 6, 2012

2012-02-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Elias Disney- Walt’s dad, Looney Tune writer Mike Maltese, Thurl Ravenscroft the voice of Tony the Tiger

1937- John Steinbecks novel “Of Mice and Men” published. In a result Mr Steinbeck probably didn’t anticipate was the stereotype image of a mildly retarded man as the big dumb sidekick Lenny, cartoonists used so often. “Duh, tell me about da rabbits, George.” used in a lot of cartoons.

Animation Fun Facts for Friday 3, 2012

2012-02-03T00:51:00.000-08:00

Birthdays- Nathan Lane is 56

1930- Roy Disney signed a deal with M. George Borgfeldt Co. of New York to sell figurines of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Disney merchandising is born!

1945- Walt Disney’s the Three Caballeros premiered.

1986- Steve Jobs bought the George Lucas Film Graphics Division, now under their new name Pixar Inc.

1989- Swiss firm L'Oreal/Nestle bought animation studio Filmation from Westinghouse and shut it down laying off 229 artists the day before a new federal regulation requiring a company give it's employees 60 day notice before closing went into effect.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Jan. 31,2012

2012-01-31T00:35:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: actors who did animation voices Susanne Pleshette, Minnie Driver is 42, Carol Channing is 91.

1999- The first episode of Seth McFarlane’s show Family Guy premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for Mon Jan 30,2011

2012-01-30T00:19:00.000-08:00

1931- Hollywood Premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. Later at a dance at the Biltmore Hotel writer Herman Mankewicz (Citizen Kane, Duck Soup) got into a drunken fistfight with producer David O. Selznick (Gone With the Wind, Rebecca). You’ll never eat turtle-soup in this town again!

1933- HI-YO SILVER!! The Lone Ranger debuts on Radio. The Masked man was invented by the WXYZ station owner George Trendle and writer Fran Striker with absolutely no experience of cowboys or Indians. They just wanted a hero like Zorro with a strict moral code. He was later voiced by actor William Conrad who did the Rocky & Bullwinkle narration and the TV series Cannon.

1934- Artist Salvador Dali married Gala.

1960- For years after the making of Fantasia, critics had pondered Igor Stravinsky's cryptic reaction to Disney's portrayal of his "Rite of Spring". Disney publicity said he was "speechless with admiration!" Today in a Saturday Review article, Stravinsky said Stokowski's editing of his music was 'execrable' and the visuals "an unresisting imbecility". His opinion still didn't stop him from selling the studio film rights to several other of his pieces including "The Firebird' in 1942. He needed the cash.

1961-H-B's the Yogi Bear Show.

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Jan 28 ,2012

2012-01-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: animator Connie Rasinski

1930- Warner Brothers Cartoons Born. Leon Schlesinger, the head of Pacific Art and Title, signed a deal with several unemployed Disney animators who had left Walt to form their own studio to draw Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but had been stiffed by their contacts. Schlesinger had connections with the Warner Bros. since he helped them get funding for the 'Jazz Singer'. They create Leon Schlesinger's Studio Looney Tunes, in imitation of Disney's Silly Symphonies. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and more result.

1978- Premiere of Hanna Barbera's the Three Robonic Stooges.

Animation Fun Facts for Fri Jan 27, 2012

2012-01-27T00:30:00.000-08:00

Birthdays Charles Dodgson-better known as Lewis Carroll, Ross Bagdasarian a.k.a. David Seville- creator of Alvin and the Chipmunks, Patton Oswalt the voice of Remi in Ratatoulle is 43.

1918- Warner Bros. Pictures incorporated. The Brothers Warner- Sam Albert, Harry and Jack were the sons of Jewish immigrants who had moved from Poland in 1882 and set up a bicycle repair shop in Ohio. Their first movie was Five Years in Germany. Throughout the 1920’s their little studio survived making pictures with dog star Rin Tin Tin. They called him the Mortgage Lifter, because the profits from his pictures paid their bills. Later they bought Vitagraph and gambled with the new Sound technology. When they made the Jazz Singer with Jolson, Warner Bros became a major studio.

1944- WAS WALT A RED? Walt Disney donated money and may have attended a tribute to leftist cartoonist Art Young in New York. Art Young was a close friend of John Reed and Louise Bryant, founders of the American Communist Party. The F.B.I. noted the event was sponsored by the radical socialist newspaper The New Masses and other attendees included progressives like Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemingway and Carl Sandburg.

Disney was already a founding member of the Hollywood Society for the Preservation of American Ideals, a grouping of conservative Hollywood celebrities meant to counteract the rampant Hollywood Liberals. Disney later became an F.B.I. informant, but like Reagan, it may have been after the F.B.I. reminded him of his attendance at this little soiree'...

Animation Fun Facts for Thursday Jan 26, 2011

2012-01-26T00:25:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Paul Newman, Roger Vadim, Jules Feiffer, Ellen DeGeneres is 54

1934- Hollywood producer Sam Goldwyn bought the rights to L. Frank Baum’s book the Wonderful Wizard of Oz to develop into a movie.

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Jan 25,2012

2012-01-25T00:44:00.000-08:00

1824- Artist Theodore Gericault was famous for his paintings of horses. This day he died, from a fall off a horse.

1959- Disney's " SLEEPING BEAUTY " opened. Despite earning the fifth highest box office for that year, it finished $5 million behind what it cost to make. The animation staff had swollen to it's largest to finish the production. It’s disappointing box office soured Walt Disney on feature animation. After the film was finished the studio had a massive layoff, dropping from 551 to just 75. Staff level will not return to these same levels until 1990.

Trivia Question: What do Gary Cooper, Enrico Caruso, John Barrymore, Roger Moore and Robert Redford all have in common? ( Besides being actors and celebrities.)

Answer: They could all draw cartoons.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Jan. 24,2012

2012-01-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: John Belushi, Walt Disney's first animation director Wilfred Jackson

1961- Warner Bros. cartoon voice actor Mel Blanc had a terrible auto crash. He lingered in a coma for several weeks. The way the doctor brought him around was to say: “Hey Bugs Bunny! How are we today?” Blanc replied in character:” Ehhh…fine,doc!”

2006- The Walt Disney Company acquired CG animation studio PIXAR. Apple and PIXAR head Steve Jobs got a seat on Disney Board, Ed Catmull was named head of the studio and director John Lasseter became it’s creative head.

Animation Fun Facts for Mon Jan 23,2011

2012-01-23T00:53:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Ernie Kovacs, Warner Bros animator Manny Davis, Disney animation director Dave Hand, cartoonist Phil Mendez

1957- The Disneyland TV show premiered” Our Friend, the Atom.”

1989- Artist Salvador Dali’ died. Rushing to leave as much money as possible for
his family his agents had the ancient artist autograph reams of blank paper they intended to print Dali’ lithographs on later.

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Jan. 22,2011

2012-01-22T00:24:00.000-08:00

St. Vincents Day- "If Vincents Day be Rainy Weather, shall rain then 30 days together.”

Birthdays: D.W. Griffith, Jim Jarmusch is 59

1930 Ub Iwerks the creator of Mickey Mouse quit Walt Disney. Composer Carl Stalling also quit and went on to a much better career creating music for Warner Bros Looney Tunes.

1949-Tex Avery’s cartoon "Bad Luck Blackie".

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Jan. 21,2011

2012-01-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Robby Benson the voice of Beast

1938 -Max Fleischer tells his New York cartoon studio they are relocating to Florida.

1938- George Melies, the father of Motion Picture Special Effects, died selling chocolates in a Paris train station -Gare du Norde to be exact.

1992- Disney's Beauty and the Beast becomes the first animated film ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Jan 20, 2012

2012-01-20T01:29:00.000-08:00

1779- The English dramatic actor David Garrick died. Supposedly his last words were when asked “Is it hard to die?” Garrick replied:” Dying is not Hard. Comedy is Hard.”

1938-The first true animator, Emile Cohl, died while headed for the Paris premiere of Disney's"Snow White and the Seven Dwarves". Cohl was so poor that the electricity in his flat had been turned off and the candles had ignited his beard. Angry he was never recognized in his time, he once said: "the French prefer their artists with marble and flowers on top.".

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Jan. 18, 2011

2012-01-18T00:07:00.001-08:00

1953-The Hollywood Animation Guild chartered. Originally the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Local 839, signatories included Disney legends Milt Kahl, Les Clark, John Hench and Ken Anderson.

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Jan. 16, 2011

2012-01-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

Edna Disney born, the wife of Roy O. Disney, and mother of Roy E. Disney Jr.

1954-THE WAR ON COMICS- Senator Estes Kevfhauer chaired a U.S. Senate subcommittee to study juvenile delinquency. They conclude that one of the contributing factors to adolescent moral decay was four-color comic books. The probe was sparked by the publication of a book called The Seduction of the Innocent. It charged among other things that Batman & Robin were gay because when not fighting crime, Bruce Wayne & Dick Grayson lounged around all day in silk pajamas! Despite testimony by Walt Kelly, Milt Caniff, Al Capp and Bill Gaines 350 comic book companies including the EC "Tales from the Crypt" label were driven out of business. The strict comics-code was established. The comic book industry, which had been selling one million books a month, never regained that level of prosperity in the US again.

1995- The UPN Network (Universal-Paramount Network) began telecasting.

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Jan. 14,2011

2012-01-14T00:11:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Hal Roach, and Richard F. Outcault the cartoonist creator of The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown

1964- Hanna & Barbera's ' The Magilla Gorilla' cartoon show.

1990- Matt Groenings the Simpsons, which had been run as a series of blackout vignettes on the Tracey Ullman Show, now debuted as its own regular prime time series. Cowabunga!

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Jan 13, 2011

2012-01-13T00:08:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Orlando Bloom is 35

1930- The Mickey Mouse comic strip first appeared in US newspapers.

Animation Fun Facts for Thursday Jan 12, 2011

2012-01-12T00:39:00.000-08:00

John Lasseter born, 1957.

1995- Steven Speilberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen announced the name of their new partnership would be 'Dreamworks SKG'.

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Jan. 9, 2011

2012-01-09T00:15:00.000-08:00

History for 1/9/2012
Birthdays: Woody Guthrie, Ray Bolger, Roy Disney Jr.

1914 -John Randolph Bray takes out patents on the principles of film animation: cycles, arcs, keys and inbetweens. He even tried to sue Winsor McCay, who had already been using them for years.

1939- Top Looney Tunes director Frank Tashlin was hired by Walt Disney. He quit after two fruitless years, and left so angry he wrote a children’s book called the "Bear that Wasn’t" about his experiences. An early vice president of the Cartoonists Guild, he also joined the Mouse House to help unionize the studio. After a stint at Screen Gems, in 1945 Frank Tashlin went to Paramount’s live action division and became the director of the Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis comedies.

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Jan. 7,2012

2012-01-07T00:14:00.000-08:00

Birthdays:Adolph Zukor, cartoonist Charles Adams,

1894-" The Sneeze" The first motion picture film to be copyrighted by Thomas Edison and his engineer W.K.L. Dickson

1929-With the approval of Edgar Rice Burroughs, artist Hal Foster began drawing the Tarzan comic strip.

1934 –The First Buck Rogers adventures.

1963- MIT graduate Ivan Sutherland introduced his PhD project SKETCHPAD. It was the first software that allowed a computer to draw a line, instead of crunching numbers. All the developments in Computer Graphics including ToyStory and Avatar result,

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Jan 6, 2011

2012-01-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

1945- First Pepe Le Pew cartoon, "Odorable Kitty". When the Warners producer who replaced Leon Schlesinger, Eddie Selzer, heard the plans to do a short about a skunk he thundered: "Absolutely Not! Nobody will like a cartoon skunk!" Chuck Jones recalled: "As soon as he said no, I knew we just had to do it." Selzer's final opinion:" Nobody'll laugh at that sh*t!" The short won an Oscar. Selzer later went on into network T.V.

1962- Bob Clampett's Beany and Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent. This was the animated version of his popular puppet show.“So Long Kids, Wind Up Your Lids, We’ll look for You Real Soooooon.”

Animation Fun Facts for Thursday Jan. 5, 2012

2012-01-05T00:02:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: James Stuart Blackton (the first American animator, born in Lincolnshire, England ), Hiyao Miyazaki is 71, Robert Duval is 82, Dianne Keaton is 66

1896- Josef Pulitzers’ New York World began printing the Sunday Yellow Kid comic strip with a yellow color on his shirt. The strip gave the name to the sensationalist tabloid press 'Yellow Journalism".

1959- The first Bozo the Clown TV show premiered on TV. Larry Harmon played the famous children¹s clown.

1980- The first Hewlett Packard Personal Computer or PC goes on the market.

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Jan. 04,2012

2012-01-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Emile Cohl, Jacob Grimm of the Brothers Grimm, Sterling Holloway the voice of Winnie the Pooh and Kaa.

1946- Terrytoons "The Talking Magpies" the first Heckle and Jeckyl cartoons.

1956- In the Peanuts comic strip Charles Schulz first had Snoopy stand up on two legs.

1956- Walt Disney had lunch with his old nemesis Max Fleischer, now retired. The meeting was arranged by Max’s son Richard Fleischer, who was working for Disney directing Twenty Thousand Leagues. Although everyone had a nice time, Richard later admitted he found the event depressing. Seeing his dad humbled:” It was like seeing David vanquished by Goliath..”

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Jan 3, 2012

2012-01-03T00:00:00.000-08:00

J.R.R. Tolkein born

1977- Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne file papers to form the Apple Computer Company. Within two weeks Wayne sold his third of the company to Jobs and Woz for $800.

Animation Fun Facts for New Years Day Jan 1st, 2012

2012-01-01T01:56:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: The cat cartoonist Kliban

1943- Walt Disney's Donald Duck cartoon Der Fuehrer's Face premiered.

1959- The Chipmunk Song by David Seville (aka Ross Bagdassarian) tops the pop charts..

1963- Tetsuwan Atomu or Atom Boy, an animated television show by Osamu Tezuka premiered on Japanese TV. As Astro Boy it became the first Japanese anime show to break into the mainstream American market.

1966- An ailing Walt Disney served as Grand Marshal for the Tournament of Roses Parade. Standing in the crowd on the curb with his mother was young John Lasseter.

Animation Fun Facts for New Years Eve Dec. 31,2011

2011-12-31T01:29:00.000-08:00

Pixar Storyboard Artist Ronnie Del Carmen born.

1995- The final Calvin & Hobbs comic strip published.

FROM ALL OF US WHO TEACH ANIMATION, HAVE A HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Dec. 30, 2011

2011-12-30T01:02:00.000-08:00

Birthdays- Rudyad Kipling, the author of The Jungle Book, and Douglas Engelbart the inventor of the computer mouse.

1988 the Pixar short Tin Toy released. The first CG short to win an Oscar.

Animation Fun Facts for Thursday Dec. 29, 2011

2011-12-29T00:40:00.000-08:00

1913- Cecil B.DeMille telegraphed his partners back in New York:” Flagstaff no good for our purpose. Have proceeded to California. Want authority to rent a barn in a place called Hollywood for $75 a month.” His partner Sam Goldwyn cabled back: “ Rent barn on month to month basis. Do not make long commitment.” DeMille began shooting the Squaw Man, the first Hollywood Film.

1941- Disney animator Bill Tytla tells Time Magazine in an interview about creating "Dumbo": "I don't know a damn thing about elephants!"

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Dec 28,2011

2011-12-28T01:13:00.000-08:00

birthdays: Stan “The Man” Lee is 89, Martin Branner the creator of Winnie Winkle, Disney animator Rick Farmiloe

1895- THE BIRTHDAY OF CINEMA- In Paris at the Grande Cafe des Capuchines the Lumiere brothers combined Edison's kinetoscope using George Eastman’s roll film with a magic lantern projector and showed a motion picture to an audience in a theater. Back in the U.S. Thomas Edison thought the idea of projecting film in a theater was foolish and would never catch on. They called their device a Cinematograph, hence the word Cinema is born. The screening included dancers and people leaving a factory but the biggest reaction out of the audience was from shots of waves crashing on a rocky beach. The audience jumped for fear of getting wet.

1914- THE FIRST TRUE CHARACTER ANIMATION- Windsor McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur" premieres as part of a vaudeville act. Up to then most U.S. animations were attempts to bring popular newspaper comic characters to life, but Gertie was a new character never before seen. Some critics had wondered if animated characters weren’t some kind of man in a special suit, so McCay drew a dinosaur, a character that couldn’t possibly be impersonated by a living thing. The brilliant draftsmanship and timing of this film would inspire the generation of Animation artists of the Golden Age of the 1930's-40s.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Dec.27,2011

2011-12-27T00:05:00.000-08:00

1904- PETER PAN, OR, THE BOY WHO WOULDN’T GROW UP, a play by James Barrie, opened at the Duke of York Theatre in London. Barrie reserved seats in the opening night performance for orphaned children who laughed and cheered all night. Peter llewlyn Davies, the little boy Barrie befriended who was the basis for Pan, used to say:” I am not Peter Pan. Mr Barrie is.”, He committed suicide in 1960. James Barrie once said to H.G. Wells:” It’s all right and good to write books, but can you wiggle your ears?”

1947- The "Howdy-Doody Show” debuted on NBC. Buffalo Bob, Howdy and Clarabell the Clown, also known as the Puppet Playhouse.

1954- The" Disneyland" television show premieres. Up until then the major Hollywood Studios were all boycotting the new upstart medium of television, then mostly done in New York by blacklisted stage actors and writers. Walt Disney is the first to break ranks with the major film studios and get into television production and even films the show in Technicolor, figuring television will develop color broadcasting eventually.

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Dec. 25,2011 Xmas

2011-12-25T00:46:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Birthdays: Cab Calloway, cartoonist teacher Burne Hogarth, Animator and teacher Howard Beckerman,

1955- Chuck Jone's 'One Froggy Evening' premiered. Director Steven Spielberg called it the "Citizen Kane of Cartoons." If you wonder why you never heard the old time ditty 'The Michigan Rag' anywhere else but here, was because Chuck Jones & Mike Maltese wrote it specifically for the cartoon.

1963- Walt Disney’s The Sword in the Stone released. First animated feature directed by Wolfgang,” Woolie” Reitherman.

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Dec. 23,2011

2011-12-23T00:59:00.000-08:00

Birthdays; Otto Soglow -cartoonist of 'the Little King', Frank Morgan (the Wizard of Oz actor), Simpsons voice actor Harry Shearer is 68

1893- Humperdinck's opera "Hansel und Gretel" debuts in Weimar Germany.

1935- Walt Disney sent a detailed memo to art teacher Don Graham outlining his plans for retraining his animators to do realistic feature films.

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Dec. 21,2011

2011-12-21T00:15:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Animator Phil Roman, voice actor Paul Winchell, Keifer Samuel L. Jackson is 63, Ray Romano is 54, Jeffrey Katzenberg is 63

1937-Walt Disney's " Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" had it’s grand premiere. The first feature length American cartoon, it becomes the box office champ of 1938-earning 4 times more than any other film that year.

1971- Richard William's animated TV special "A Christmas Carol" with Alastair Sim reprising his scrooge.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Dec. 20,2011

2011-12-20T00:56:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Amby Paliwoda, voice actor Charlie Callas,

1937- Nazis Josef Goebbels noted in his diary that this day he sent his boss Adolph Hitler a Christmas present of a dozen Mickey Mouse Cartoons from America. Officially der Fuehrer called Mickey ‘vermin’ but privately enjoyed his animated antics.

1968- Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Dec. 19,2011

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

1914- Earl Hurd patented animation 'cels' (celluloids) and backgrounds. Before this cartoonists tried drawing the background settings over and over again hundreds of times or slashed the paper around the character and tried not to have it walk in front of anything. By the late 1990’s, most cels & cel paint had been replaced by digital imaging.

1974- The first personal computer went on sale. The Altair 8800, named for the planet in the 1955 sci-fi movie classic Forbidden Planet. The computer came in a kit that you had to build and it cost $397. The next year, two kids at Harvard named Bill Gates and Paul Allen created a programming language for it called BASIC.

2001- Peter Jackson’s film ‘The Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring’ first opened.

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Dec. 18, 2011

2011-12-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Diane Disney-Miller,Paul Klee, Leonard Maltin, Steven Spielberg is 65

1939-Max Fleischer's animated classic “Gulliver's Travels”.

1961-" In the Jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps to-night…a winoweh, etc. " this song by the Tokens goes to #1 in pop charts. Later used in Disney's The Lion King.

1964- DePatie-Freleng’s The Pink Phink, the first Pink Panther cartoon short.

1966- Chuck Jone's 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' premiered.

1997- Saturday Night Live Comedian Chris Farley was found dead in his Chicago apartment in the John Hancock Tower, surrounded by empty food containers and porn magazines. The chubby 31-year-old had been partying for 17 straight hours doing cocaine, heroin, vodka and crystal-meth. he was working on the animated film Shrek as the voice of Shrek. He was replaced by Mike Myers.

1998- Dreamworks feature cartoon the “Prince of Egypt”, or, as it was known in Hollywood,"The Zion King".

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Dec. 17,2011

2011-12-17T00:00:00.001-08:00

1843- Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story for Christmas" first published. In the 18th century and earlier the Christmas celebration was a more rowdy affair with public drinking, marching around in costumes “mummery” and mayhem more like today’s Mardi Gras. This is why the Pilgrims tried to ban it. The popularity of Dickens story of Scrooge, Marley and Tiny Tim did much to help Victorians change the nature of the Christmas celebration to a more intimate and pious observance among centered on the family. Dickens said he wrote the story to make some money capitalizing on the new fashions for family Christmas celebrations around the tree. American business tycoon J.P. Morgan had a family custom every Christmas Eve of reading A Christmas Carol to his kids, from the original manuscript.

1989- The Simpsons, first debuted.

1999- The film Stuart Little premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Dec. 17,2011

2011-12-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Dec. 16,2011

2011-12-16T00:15:00.000-08:00

Arthur C. Clarke born

1871- BOSS TWEED INDICTED- William Marcy Tweed as New York City Commissioner of Public Works was behind one of the most corrupt city governments in U.S. history. Tweed mobilized poor and immigrant voters into political power and bought and sold Mayoral building projects. The cost overruns to build a simple courthouse cost more than the total cost to build the British Parliament in London- $13 million dollars. For example He billed the city $14,000 for 11 thermometers.

The press tried to expose him, but it was really Thomas Nast’s cartoons in Harper’s Weekly who helped bring the Tweed Ring down. Boss Tweed said: "I don’t mind the newspaper articles since most of my voters can’t read, but those damn pictures!" Tweed once offered Nast half a million dollars to go to Europe and "study art". Nast refused. Boss Tweed ended his life in the Ludlow Street Jail, which he himself built.

1900 -EARLY ANIMATED FILM "ENCHANTED DRAWINGS', James Stuart Blackton was a New York World cartoonist who used to do a vaudeville act in drag. He came to do an article on Thomas Edison then Edison put him on the payroll. He created this and several other trickfilms. It doesn’t move much more than his vaudeville lightning drawing act, His 1906 film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is considered the first animated cartoon.

Animation Fun Facts for Thursday Dec. 15,2011

2011-12-15T00:13:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Ernie Pintoff, the director of the Violinist, and the Critic.

1815- Giacomo Rossini received the commission to write a new opera based on Beaumarchais the Marriage of Figaro- The Barber of Seville. Bugs Bunny to come.

1966-Walt Disney died at age 65. He was alone in the room at Saint Joseph's when he died. A heavy cigarette smoker- his favorites were Malboro and French Gitanes- he suffered from lung cancer and respiratory failure. Contrary to the legend that he's cryogenically frozen in a room in the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland, he was cremated and interred at Forest Lawn. Or maybe that’s what he WANTS us to think?!

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Dec 14,2011

2011-12-14T00:00:00.000-08:00

1913- Cartoonist Johnny Gruelle entertained his dying daughter by making up stories involving her rag dollies. After her passing friends urged Gruelle to publish them. The RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY stories are born.

1957- Hanna Barbera's first TV cartoon "Ruff and Ready" premieres.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Dec.13,2011

2011-12-13T00:07:00.001-08:00

1940- Fleischer Popeye cartoon "Eugene the Jeep" .The Thimble Theater character would give its name to the new army General Purpose vehicle- G.P. or "Jeep".

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Dec. 11,2011

2011-12-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

1970- Walt Disney's The Aristocats opened.

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Dec. 9,2011

2011-12-09T00:01:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Elzie Segar the creator of Popeye

1965- Bill Melendez's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" the first half hour
animated t.v. special featuring the music of Vince Guaraldi. Producer Lee Mendelson
had heard Guaraldi's jazz combo perform in San Francisco. He never scored a
film before:" How many yards of music do you want?" A Charlie Brown Christmas has run every year for 46 years.

1994- Disney Animators in California move into their new Animation building designed
by Robert Stern.

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Dec 7, 2011

2011-12-07T00:44:00.001-08:00

Clarence Nash born, the creator of the voice of Donald Duck.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Dec. 6,2011

2011-12-06T00:02:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: British Aardmann animation director Nick Park.

1877- First edition of the Washington Post.

1915- MAX FLEISCHER PATENTS THE ROTOSCOPE TECHNIQUE- This system enables you to film an actor then draw the cartoons over the still frames of the live action to achieve a realistic motion. (an early form of Motion Capture) Max would film his brother Dave in a clown suit then draw Koko the Clown over him. Dave had already owned the clown suit because he had been seriously considering a change in careers. The Fleischer's New York studio would be Disney's chief rival for most of the 1920's-30's.

1964- Rankin Bass' t.v. special 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' first broadcast.
.

Animation Fun Facts for Mon Dec 5th ,2011

2011-12-05T00:24:00.000-08:00

Walt Disney born 1901

Animation Fun Facts for Sun Dec. 4,2011

2011-12-04T00:12:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Jeff Bridges from TRON is 62, Fred Armisen is 45

1875- William Marcy “Boss Tweed” escaped Ludlow Street jail and fled to Cuba. He had been the corrupt boss of New York City politics throughout the 1860s and 70s. He was rearrested in Spain by a Spanish policeman who spoke no English. When asked by American diplomats the Spaniard said he saw newspaper cartoons by Thomas Nast of Tweed in prison garb with his hands on two young boys, so he thought he was a kidnapper! Tweed was brought to justice by the one crime he probably never did.

1941- film "Mr. Bug Goes to Town"-opened. Max Fleischer's last gamble to keep up with Disney and keep his studio alive. However the events of Pearl Harbor three days later not only sink the American Navy, but also Hoppity's box office and puts Max out of business.

1961- Someone at the Museum of Modern Art in NY noticed that they had hung Henri Matisse’s painting Le Bateau upside down. It had been that way for two months and until now nobody had noticed.

Animation Fun Facts for Sat Dec. 3,2011

2011-12-03T00:48:00.000-08:00

Andrew Stanton is 46, Pixar Director of Finding Nemo and Wall-E.

1934- Lee Blair, Disney artist and brother of Preston Blair, Disney artist, married Mary Browne Robinson, Disney artist. She became the most famous of them as Mary Blair.

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Dec. 2,2011

2011-12-02T00:19:00.000-08:00

Lucy Liu is 43, she did a voice in Dreamworks Kung Fu Panda 1 and II.

1935- Animator Marc Davis first day at Walt Disney Studios. He animated Cruella Da Ville, Malificent and designed Pirates of the Caribbean. He retired in 1978.

Animation Fun Facts for Thurs Dec. 1,2011

2011-12-01T01:05:00.001-08:00

1835- Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of stories.

1887- The first Sherlock Holmes story " A Study in Scarlett" first published.

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Nov. 30,2011

2011-11-30T00:01:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, Joan Ganz Cooney the creator of Sesame Street

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.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Nov. 29,2011

2011-11-29T00:12:00.000-08:00

1915- In the first years of animated films, one artist like Winsor McCay drew everything. This day John Randolph Bray's "Colonel Heeza Liar in Africa" cartoon debuted. Bray adapted Henry Ford's assembly line system to making animation, creating positions of layout, background painters, inkers, cel painters, checkers and camera. After 1919 Bray shifted his studio’s focus from entertainment to technical and training films. Paul Terry, Walter Lantz, Max & Dave Fleischer and Shamus Culhane all got their start at Bray's.

Bray's production line model remained unchanged for the rest of the XX century, until the new digital categories.

Animation Fun Facts for Mon Nov. 28, 2011

2011-11-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

Pixar composer Randy Newman born.

1947- Disney's first Chip & Dale cartoon.

Animation Fun Facts for Sun Nov. 27,2011

2011-11-27T00:34:00.000-08:00

1933- Former Terrytoons animator Art Babbitt, now at Disney's, writes to fellow animator Bill Tytla encouraging him to move to California. "Terry owes you a lot and Disney has plans for a full length color cartoon!"

1936- Max Fleischer's cartoon featurette, "Popeye meets Sinbad the Sailor".

2002- Disney's Treasure Planet premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for Sat Nov. 26,2011

2011-11-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

Charles Schulz born, the cartoonist creator of Peanuts.

1865- Lewis Carroll sent a copy of the completed manuscript of his fantasy Alice in Wonderland to his12 year old friend and inspiration Alice Liddell. Carroll later published the book with his own money. This is one of the first books written solely to amuse children, and not to educate or discipline them.

Animation Fun Facts for Fri Nov. 25,2011

2011-11-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

Animator Bill Kroyer born

1992 Disney's Aladdin released

2009 Disney's Princess and the Frog released.

Animation Fun Facts for Thanksgiving Nov. 24,2011

2011-11-24T01:11:00.000-08:00

Billy Connolly born, Scottish comedian who did voices on Disney's Pocahontas and Little Nessie.

2010 Disney's Tangled released.

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Nov. 23,2011

2011-11-23T00:00:00.002-08:00

Boris Karloff born, the narrator of Chuck Jones' The Grinch who Stole Christmas.

1952- Animator Fred Moore, who drew Mickey Mouse in Fantasia and the Brave Little Tailor, died from injuries incurred in an auto accident in the Big Tujunga Canyon area of Los Angeles.

Animation Fun Facts for Tues Nov. 22, 2011

2011-11-22T00:00:00.000-08:00

Geraldine Page born, the voice of Madame Medusa in Disney's The Rescuers 1977

Animator/Director Terry Gilliam is 71.

1952 Animator Fred Moore fatally injured in a car crash in Big Tujunga Canyon

1995- Pixar’s Toy Story opened, the first all CG animated movie, and the first CG hit.

Animation Fun Facts for Mon Nov. 21,2011

2011-11-21T00:22:00.001-08:00

1942- Warner's "A Tale of Two Kitties" the first Tweety Pie. I tawt I taw a puddy cat !

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Nov 20, 2011

2011-11-20T00:18:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Sam Wright,the voice of Sebastian in The Little Mermaid and Ming Na, the voice of Muhlan.

1998- Pixar's A Bug's Life is released.

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Nov 19, 2011

2011-11-19T00:00:00.000-08:00

1959- the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show debuted!

See you all at the CTN Educators roundtable at 10 in the Exec Board Room!

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Nov 18,2011

2011-11-18T00:40:00.000-08:00

See you at the CTN Expo in Burbank California this weekend!

Owen Wilson, the voice of Rocket McQueen in Cars and Cars II, is 43,

1928- HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICKEY MOUSE- At the Colony Theater in New York Walt Disney’s cartoon "Steamboat Willie" debuted- The first major sound cartoon success and the official birth of Mickey Mouse. Two earlier silent Mickey's had been done, but they were held back when the sound experiment went ahead.

1970- At the Lakeside School in Seattle, a young kid named Bill Gates got his start in computer programming.

1985- Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin & Hobbs debuted.

1988- Disney’s Oliver & Company released.
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Animation Fun Facts for Thursday Nov 17,2011

2011-11-17T00:14:00.000-08:00

Birthdays: Disney Nine Old Man animator Les Clark, Martin Scorcese is 69

1989- Don Bluth's animated film "All Dogs Go to Heaven." premiered.
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Animation Fun Facts for Weds Nov. 16,2011

2011-11-16T00:00:00.000-08:00

1990- Disney’s feature film the Rescuers Down Under premiered. The first traditionally animated film to be painted digitally on computer instead of acetate cels and paints.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Nov. 15,2011

2011-11-15T01:04:00.000-08:00

Birthdays Bill Melendez- director of A Charlie Brown Xmas, Beverly D'Angelo- actress who began as a cell painter on Scooby Doo. Ed Asner the voice of Karl Fredrichs in Pixar's UP is 82,

1907- The comic strip Mutt & Jeff debuted. The strip was so popular that it’s creator Harry “Bud “ Fisher became a celebrity and negotiated the first large backend deals.

1934- Animator Bill Tytla starts at Disney's on a trial basis for $150 a week. He would create Grumpy the Dwarf, The Devil in Fantasia and Dumbo.

1965- Walt Disney announced he planned to build a second Disneyland, this time in Orlando Florida.

1989- Disney's The Little Mermaid debuted. When it opened in Copenhagen, director John Musker and Ron Clements attended a gala and sat next to the Queen of Denmark. They agonized over what would be her reaction to the reworking of the unhappy ending in this great Danish work, but the Queen's reaction was "It's beautiful! Hans Christian Andersen never could write a decent ending..."

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Nov 13, 2011

2011-11-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

1940- Walt Disney's 'Fantasia' opened. as Walt put it, "this'll make Beethoven!"
Frank Lloyd Wright's opinion was 'I love the visuals, but why did you use all that old music?"

1978- Mickey Mouse got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1991- Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast opened, the first animated film ever nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Nov 12, 2011

2011-11-12T00:26:00.000-08:00

Animator James "Shamus" Culhane born.

1946- Disney's "Song of the South" with William Baskett as Uncle Remus. Premiered. Zippity-Doo Dah, Zippty Yeay!

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Nov 11,2011

2011-11-11T00:00:00.000-08:00

1940- The F.B.I. enlisted Walt Disney as an informant. His mission was to inform on lefties like Union Leaders and Pinko actors in Hollywood. Most of the other studio heads were likewise cooperating with the Feds.

Animation Fun Facts for Thursday Nov 10,2011

2011-11-10T00:13:00.000-08:00

Looney Tunes composer Carl Stalling born

Lion King lyricist Tim Rice born

1950- Paramount's "Mice Meeting You" The first Herman and Katnip cartoon.

1953- Disney’s short “ Toot Whistle, Plunk and Boom” released.

1969- The children’s education show SESAME STREET premiered on PBS TV. The world is introduced to Bert & Ernie, Cookie Monster, Grover, Big Bird and Mr Hooper.

Animation Fun Facts for Thurs. Nov 3, 2011

2011-11-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

The Birthday of Osamu Tezuka, 1928-1989. Called " The God of Manga" Tezuka, the first internationally known anime animator created AstroBoy, Speed Racer and Gigantor.

Disney Designer Gustav Tennegren born.

Voice actor Jim Cummings born.

1977- Disney's Pete's Dragon premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Nov. 1,2011

2011-11-01T00:11:00.001-07:00

Retta Davidson born in 1921, one of the first women to become a Disney Animator.

2003 Disney's feature Brother Bear opened.

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Oct 31,2011

2011-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Famed Disney animator Ollie Johnston born 99 years ago.

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Oct 29 ,2011

2011-10-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Ralph Bakshi born.

Animation Fun Facts for Thurs. Oct 27,2011

2011-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Cartoonist Berni Wrightson born.

1966 TV Special "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!" debuted. Last score by jazzman Vince Guaraldi.

Animation Fun Facts for Weds. Oct 26,2011

2011-10-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

Bill Tytla born, Seth McFarlane is 38, and Bob Hoskins, Eddie Valiant in Roger Rabbit, is 69.

1971- The First Doonesbury Comic Strip.

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Oct 24,2011

2011-10-24T00:14:00.000-07:00

1908- animator Preston Blair born

1947 Walt Disney testified to the HUAC Congressional Committee. He named the leaders of the 1941 labor strike against his studio as "probably" communists.

1994- TV series Gargoyles premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Oct 23 ,2011

2011-10-23T00:48:00.000-07:00

1928- A financial consortium led by banker-bootlegger Joseph Kennedy Sr. buys the Keith Albee theater circuit and merged it with the Radio Company and the Orpheum theaters to form Radio-Keith-Orpheum or RKO pictures. Kennedy made a quick killing then got out of the picture business in 1930, just before the Depression dropped his studios stock value. RKO made films like King Kong, Fort Apache and Citizen Kane before merging into Desilu in 1957

1941 Walt Disney's Dumbo premiered.

1971 Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida opened.

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Oct 21,2011

2011-10-21T01:23:00.000-07:00

100th Anniversary of the birth of Disney art director Mary Blair. 1911-1976.

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Oct 19,2011

2011-10-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Trey Parker, one of the creators of SouthPark is 41.

1999 The stage version of Disney's The Lion King premiered in London.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Oct 18,2011

2011-10-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

1896- Joseph Pulitzer's N.Y. Journal American created the first Sunday Color Comics supplement.

1967- Walt Disney's last cartoon done under his supervision "the Jungle Book." premiered. Disney had died the previous December. If you remember the film the end sequence Mowgli meets four vultures who talk like the Beatles but sing barbershop quartet. That’s because the characters were supposed to sing a Beatles parody song but the directors felt the group would soon be forgotten so they didn't want to date the film.

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Oct 17,2011

2011-10-17T00:38:00.000-07:00

Birthdays: Jerry Seigel (Superman co-creator), Disney animator Virgil 'Vip' Partch, Mike Judge the creator of Beavis & Butthead and King of the Hill,

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Oct 16 ,2011

2011-10-16T00:10:00.000-07:00

Early Disney director Hamilton Ham Luske born and Angela Landsbury, the voice of Mrs Potts in Beauty & The Beast.

Abstract animation filmmaker David Ehrlich born.

1923- Walt Disney Studios Born. 22 year old Walt and his older brother Roy sign a deal with M.J.Winkler for six "Alice in Cartoonland" short cartoons. Budget-$1,500 each.

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Oct 15 ,2011

2011-10-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Burt Gillett was born, the director of Walt Disney's short 1934 The Three Little Pigs

1905- First Little Nemo comic strip by Winsor McCay premiered.

1946- Walt Disney's feature Make Mine Music premiered, featuring Willie the Operatic Whale.

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Oct 14,2011

2011-10-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

1873-MY NAME IS MUYBRIDGE. One night a carriage drove up from San Francisco to the Yellow Jacket Mine near Calistoga in the north Napa Valley. A man asked for the foreman Major Harry Larkyns. When Larkyns answered the door the man quietly said to him: ”Good Evening, Major. My name is Muybridge. Here is the answer to the message you sent my wife earlier. “ He pulled out a pistol and shot Larkyns through the heart, killing him instantly.

The killer was the famous Photographer and Motion Picture Pioneer Edweard Muybridge. Muybridges’ young wife Flora had been having an affair with Larkyns while he was working on his Motion Studies Series in Palo Alto. Muybridge discovered the son she bore him was not his. They were even calling him Little Harry behind his back. The jury that convened in Napa did not hang the artist-inventor. In the Code of the Old West proven adultery was considered a justifiable homicide. Cal Govenor Leyland Stanford paid his lawyer bills. He still wanted to win his bet with Joseph Pullman about a horses legs leaving the ground during a gallop.

Muybridge was acquitted. Flora Muybridge divorced him in 1875 and after her early death two years later, he gave Little Harry to a San Francisco Orphans Asylum and refused to pay for his upkeep.

1926- Happy Birthday Winnie the Pooh! A.A. Milne’s first book of Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet and Christopher Robin debuted this day.

Animation Fun Facts for Weds. Oct 12,2011

2011-10-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

animator Izzy Klein born, 1930s animator who's grandniece Naomi Klein wrote The Shock Doctrine

Hugh Jackman is 43

1928- The Winnie the Pooh stories featuring Tigger are first published.

1937- Under pressure from parent Paramount Studio, Max Fleischer signed the first animation union contract and settled the Cartoonist strike begun May 8th. The following year Fleischer tried to escape unions by moving his studio to Right-To-Work State Florida, but the additional expenses and poor box office ruined his studio.

1994-Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg announce the partnership that would be named Dreamworks SKG.

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Oct 10,2011

2011-10-10T00:00:00.000-07:00

Bithdays- Mary Blair, Louis Lumiere, animator Rod Scribner, early female Hollywood animator LaVerne Harding, Jodi Benson the voice of Disney's Little Mermaid

1469- Renaissance master artist Fra Filippo Lippi died, probably poisoned by the family of a girl he seduced. The great painter was a major influence on Leonardo daVinci and Massaccio, but for a Carmalite monk he had an immoderate lust for women. He left one son, the artist Fillipino Lippi, by his wife Lucrezia Buti, a nun he had carried off from the convent of Santa Margherita promising to use her as a model for the Madonna.

1953- "Winky Dink and You" show. Children were invited to place a piece of celluloid acetate on their t.v. screens from a kit and help Winky Dink through numerous adventures by drawing on their t.v. screens. Of course many kids didn’t wait for the acetate but just drew on their family TVs with indelible markers. The birth of Interactive T.V. -?

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Oct 7,2011

2011-10-07T01:05:00.000-07:00

1971- Disney's film Bedknobs and Broomsticks premiered.

1990 After a huge party in august celebrating his 100th birthday, animator Myron "Grim" Natwick died. Grim illustrated W.C. Handys St Louis Blues songsheet, created Betty Boop, lead animator of Disney's Snow White and Nellie Bly for UPA's Rooty Toot-Toot. When his protege Dwayne Crowther wept at his bedside, Grim responded" Well, what do you want? TWO hundred?!"

Cornelius Cole Life Celebration

2011-10-05T00:21:00.001-07:00

Plans are complete for the Corny Cole Celebration. Cornelius Cole III (1930-2011) was an animation artist who taught drawing extensively throughout the Los Angeles Area. Trained at Chiounard Art Institute, for three decades he taught at Cal Arts, UCLA, USC, LMU and the American Animation Institute.

The Gallery Show of his work opens this Friday, and the Life Celebration will commence at noon that Sunday Oct 9th, and go all day to 6:00pm. Come and reminisce, share pictures and videos. The Animation Guild, 4729 Hollywood Way, North Hollywood. for more info 818-845-7500.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Oct 4,2011

2011-10-04T01:10:00.000-07:00

Actress Susan Sarandon born- she did the voice of the spider in James and the Giant Peach, and Queen Narissa in the comedy Enchanted.

1950- Snoopy first appears in a Charlie Brown comic strip.

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Oct 01,2011

2011-10-01T00:55:00.001-07:00

1945- Looney Tunes director Frank Tashlin left the cartoon business to work full time at Paramount doing live action movies. He wrote for the Marx Brothers and later directed the Dean Martin Jerry Lewis comedies.

Animation Fun Facts for Thursday Sept 29,2011

2011-09-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Birthdays: cartoonist Russ Heath

1959-Hanna Barbera's "Quick Draw McGraw" tv show. Ba ba Louie and El Kabong!

1976- At his birthday party musician Jerry Lee Lewis accidentally shot his bass player Norman Owens in the chest with s 357 magnum. He said he was using the gun to try and open a soft drink bottle and it accidentally went off. Owens survived and sued Lewis.

1996- The first Nintendo Game system, NES the first 64 bit game system, debuted in the US. It sold 500,000 the first day.

Animation Fun Facts for Tuesday Sept 27,2011

2011-09-27T00:23:00.000-07:00

Birthdays: Thomas Nast, XIX centuy cartoonist who defined the image of Santa Claus, and created the Democratic Donkey and Republican Elephant.

1771-Young artist Francisco Goya enters a scholarship competition sponsored by the Academy of Parma. He loses to some obscure artist named Bettino. Judges say about his work: "Crude and ugly colors".

1961- Hanna Barbera's "Top Cat" show premiered. Do you remember the words to the theme song..? "Top Cat, the most effectual- Top Cat, who's intellectual: Close friends get to call him T.C., Providing it's with dignity. Top Cat, the indisputable leader of the gang... He's the Boss he's a pip, he's the championship, He's the most tip-top, Top Cat !"

1977- Bob McKimson, Warner director of countless Foghorn Leghorn shorts, falls dead of heart failure in front of Friz Freleng and Yosemite Sam animator Gerry Chiniquy while having lunch. Fellow artist Art Leonardi had asked Bob for a souvenir drawing that morning, Bob did him a Bugs Bunny but as he was leaving Art reminded him that he neglected to sign it. Bob said as he walked out "Oh, I'll get to it after lunch..."

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Sept 26,2011

2011-09-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Birthdays: Winsor McKay-1869, Theodore Gericault -1791,

1941- Max Fleischer's "Superman" cartoon debuts. They were much more expensive that the usual short cartoons- $90,000 to the usual $40,000, but Paramount wanted them.

1983- Filmation's "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe".

1987- A market research group called Q-5 tried to use a bank of computers to design the ultimate safe, wholesome, politically-correct children's show. They came up with "The Little Clowns of Happytown"-. Of the 26 children's series in syndication it remained dead last in ratings, He-Man, Jem and G.I. Joe on top. The people have spoken.

1990- The Motion Picture Association changed the rating for the naughtiest movies from X to NC-17.

Animation Fun Facts for Sunday Sept 25th

2011-09-25T00:24:00.000-07:00

Will Smith is 43 ( he did a voice in the cartoon Sharktale)

1965- The Beatles cartoon show premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for Saturday Sept 24,2011

2011-09-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Birthdays, Pedro Almodovar, Jim Henson, Brad Bird is 54.

1934- Frank Thomas’s first day as a Walt Disney Animator.

1938- Bob Clampett's cartoon "Porky in Wackyland" ( Foo!)

1953-UPA's "Unicorn in the Garden" directed by Bill Hurtz, based on the cartoon style and story by James Thurber.

Animation Fun Facts for Friday Sept 23,2011

2011-09-23T00:28:00.001-07:00

1962- H& B's show The Jetsons' premiered. It was the first ABC show to be presented in color. Jane! Stop this Crazy Thing! Jane!

1984-Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Frank Wells met the Disney Animation Dept. and are pitched storyboards for the film Basil of Baker Street, later called the Great Mouse Detective. Eisner dictates memos to start the television animation division. Up to now their thinking had been to dismantle the animation department and earn income from the licensees of the existing library. Roy Disney was instrumental in insisting the animation division remain.

Animation Fun Facts for Weds Sept 21,2011

2011-09-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Chuck Jones was born.

Sept 21st, 1945, Hockey Homicide, directed by Jack Kinney. The first of the Sport-Goofy Disney shorts.

Animation Fun Facts for Monday Sept 19,2011

2011-09-19T00:22:00.000-07:00

Looney Tunes director Frank Tashlin born.

Actor Jeremy Irons The voice of Scar in The Lion King , is 63.

2005- British independent animated feature Valiant released under the Disney logo.