Animation Fun Facts for Aug 31, 2012 Friday.

Birthdays: Caligula 12AD, Amilcare Ponchielli, Buddy Hackett, James Coburn, Itshak Perleman is 67, Van Morrison, Arthur Godfrey, Richard Baseheart, Rocky Marciano. Alan J. Lerner, Hugh Harman,, Maria Montressori (of the Montressori Method of education), William Saroyan, Richard Gere is 63, Chris Tucker is 40. 1928- In Berlin the ThreePenny Opera premiered, music by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Bertholdt Brecht with Lotte Lenya as Pirate Jenny. Mackie Messer or Mack the Knife is born 1935- Disney cartoon Plutos’ Judgement Day. 1938- Walt Disney puts ten thousand down to buy 51 acres on Buena Vista Street in Burbank. He will build his modern studio there. 1941 –The Great Gildersleeve, a spin-off of Fibber McGee & Molly debuts on NBC radio. 1946- Looney Toon short 'Walky Talky Hawky' the first Foghorn Leghorn. The character was based on a Fred Allen radio character Senator Clayton Langhorn, that poked fun at bombastic Southern conservative politicians. 1948- Disney's 'Melody Time' premiered. 1948- Movie star Robert Mitchum was busted for smoking pot with a blonde in the Hollywood Hills. This would have normally smoked his career but the new postwar outlaw, noir attitude was in vogue. So bad-boy Mitchum emerged from county jail more popular than ever.