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.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 29, 2012

Birthdays: Gaetano Donizetti, Busby Berkeley, C.S. Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, Chuck Mangione, Vin Scully, Gary Shandling is 63, Cathy Moriarity, Don Cheadle, Joel Coen is 58, Jacques Chirac, Howie Mandell, Susee “Chapstick” Chafee, Anna Faris is 36 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. 1942- U.S. declared coffee would be rationed along with sugar, gasoline and rubber. And lots more. People put their cars up on blocks "for the duration". Gas Ration cards were listed as C, B & A. The C card meant essential defense worker, police & fire, so they had unlimited access to gasoline. A cards were the least important.Lots of Looney Tunes and Popeye 1940s jokes are about A-cards and rationing. 1963- After the Kennedy assassination, comic Vaughn Meader announced he was giving up his act impersonating the dead president. Meader’s comedy album The First Family sold 7.5 million copies in 1962, but now it wasn’t funny anymore and Meaders career collapsed. He died of emphysema in 2004. When Lenny Bruce first took the stage after the Kennedy assassination, he opened with a long drag on his cigarette and sighed:” ….Man…. Vaughn Meader is really screwed!” 1969- Atari announced Pong, the first mass-marketed interactive game.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 28, 2012 weds

Birthdays: Jean Baptiste Lully, William Blake, Frederich Engels, Stefan Zweig, Ernst Roehm, Brooks Atkinson, Berry Gordy the founder of Motown Records, Randy Newman, Anton Rubinstein, Gary Hart, Vern Den Herder, Paul Warfield, Hope Lange, Ed Harris is 62, Paul Schaefer, director Joe Dante, Michael Ritchie, Anna Nicole-Smith, John Stewart is 50 1947- Disney's cartoon "Chip and Dale". 1948- Hopalong Cassidy premiered on television. 1953- Cartoonist & writer Milt Gross died. 1981 - Moviestar Natalie Wood drunkenly toppled off her yacht near Catalina Island and drowned. Her husband Robert Wagner friend Christopher Walken, were onboard having an argument and unaware of her predicament. Wood had once confessed to a friend that she had a horror of drowning.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 27, 2012

Birthdays: Cornelius Vanderbuilt, Jimi Hendrix would have been 72, Bruce Lee-original name Lee Jun Fan would have been 72, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg is 56, James Agee, Chaim Weizmann, Mafia Don Vito Genovese, Alexander Dubcheck, David Merrick, Marshal Thompson, Robin Givens, Judd Nelson, Buffalo Bob Smith, William Fichtner is 57, Katherine Bigelow is 61 1924- The First Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. The marvel of the parade were large displays that moved down the street thanks to small automobiles concealed under them. They seemed to "float",so they are called parade floats today. The huge balloons were added in 1927. Originally after the parade the balloons were let go to float away into the sky. Macy’s offered a bounty to people who found them after they landed, sometimes in rural New Jersey. 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". 1967- The Beatles release Magical Mystery Tour. 1973- According to the X-Files this was the night Fox Mulder’s sister Samantha was abducted by aliens. 1985- Steven Speilberg married Amy Irving. They divorced a few years later. 2002- Disney’s animated feature Treasure Planet opened in theaters. 2009-Tiger Woods was the greatest golfer of his time and potentially the greatest in history. While other sports tainted with drugs and scandal, he had a squeaky clean image. This night at 2:30AM Tiger Woods crashed his SUV into a tree as a result of an argument with his Swedish bikini model wife. This incident revealed Woods as a big-time skirt chaser. More than a dozen women, cocktail waitresses, bimbos and porn stars came forward.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 26, 2012

Birthdays: John Harvard 1607(founder of Harvard University), Bat Masterson, Eugene Ionesco, Marian Mercer, Tina Turner is 73, Charles Schulz, Cyril Cusak, Eric Severaid, Rich Little is 74, Wendy Turnbull, Robert Goulet. 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. 1939- The first Woody Woodpecker Cartoon, "Knock-Knock.’

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 25, 2012

Birthdays: Lope de Vega, Pope John XXIII, Andrew Carnegie, Tina Turner, Joe Dimaggio, Carl Benz of Mercedes Benz, Virgil Thompson, Jeffrey Hunter, John Kennedy,Jr., Percy Sledge, Ben Stein, Ricardo Montalban, Bob Matheson, John Larroquette, Gloria Steinem, Christina Applegate, Bucky Dent, animator Bill Kroyer 1869- Ned Buntline was a hack dime novelist who understood that selling stories about gunfighters of the west would be easier if you could occasionally produce one in the flesh. So on a trip to Nebraska he found among the cavalry scouts an accommodatingly colorful rogue named William Cody, who everybody called Buffalo Bill. This day Ned Buntline announced in the New York Weekly the first installment of a serial series “Buffalo Bill King of the Bordermen”. Buntline and Cody collaborated to make Buffalo Bill the first true American media star, entertaining millions including crowned heads until 1916. 1929- Alfred Hitchcock’s film Blackmail opened in London. It was the first full length talkie in Britain. 1949- Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer sung by Gene Autry hit number one on the musical charts. 1960- CBS canceled it’s remaining five radio soap operas, most of them now on television. 1975- According to the first movie Rocky, this was the date of the first prizefight portrayed in the film where we meet Rocky Balboa. 1992- Walt Disney's Aladdin opened in theaters. 1995- Legendary Corporate CEO Akio Morita resigned as the leader of Sony. Under his guidance Sony went from a little postwar maker of cheap electric rice cookers to the largest electronics giant in the world. His official reason was health problems but insiders said the real problem was his headaches with Sony's Hollywood studios -MGM, Columbia, TriStar losing $2 billion. By the time he died in 1999 the Sony movie studios had pulled out of their slump and were on top with movies like Men in Black. 2009 Disney’s Princess and the Frog released.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 24, 2012

Birthdays: Spinoza, Toulouse-Lautrec, Scott Joplin, President Zachary Taylor “Old Rough & Ready”, Carrie Nation, Dick Powell, Garson Kanin, Cass Gilbert-the architect of the first skyscraper, Alban Barkley-Truman’s VP, William F. Buckley, John Lindsay, Dale Carnegie- author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, Steve Yeager, Denise Crosby, Billy Connolly is 70 1933- The RKO movie Flying Down to Rio, originally meant as a starring vehicle for Dolores Del Rio, but what we remember is it is the first pairing of the famous dance team of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. 1937- The Andrew Sisters record their Boogie-Woogie version of “Bei Mir Bist Du Schon”, an old Yiddish song that was updated by Bennie Goodman. 1938- LENI DOES TINSELTOWN -Hitler's top filmmaker Leni Reifenstahl arrived in Hollywood to meet the film community and show off her new documentary 'Olympia". Nazis charges de’ affaires in L.A. Gerhard Gyssling had bragged to the press that all Hollywood was dying to meet Germany’s top film artist. But Hollywood had different ideas. Paramount, Warner Bros., Columbia, Fox and Goldwyn refused to speak to her and picketers hounded her every step. Well known Conservatives like Louis B. Mayer and Gary Cooper were polite but begged off the bad publicity. The only studio heads who would meet Leni Reifenstahl were Hal Roach and Walt Disney. Uncle Walt gave her a tour of the studio but begged off running her film, saying the IATSE union projectionist would make trouble. ( uh-huh....) Years later Disney said he didn't really know who she was. ( uh-huh......) Leni told an LA historian years later that she thought Walt met her because his professional curiosity got the better of him. That he wanted to see Olympia, because it was the only film to beat his Snow White at the Venice Film Festival, then the world’s most prestigious. 1941- After suffering a strike and declining revenue because of the war in Europe Walt Disney’s studio was in trouble. Disney animator Ward Kimball noted in his diary for this day: “ 100 layoffs announced. Studio personnel from 1600 down to a Hyperion level of 300. Geez, It this the writing on the wall?” Disney saved itself with doing Defense films for the Army and after limping through the 1940’s with Cinderella was back on top.. 1947- THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST- 50 Hollywood moguls like Harry Cohn, Jack Warner and Dori Charey meet at the Waldorf Astoria in New York to formulate a group response to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee anti-commie hearings that were targeting Hollywood. Besides the heat from the feds their stockholders were clamoring for them to get the Reds out! They agreed to enforce an industry-wide blacklisting of anyone refusing to cooperate with the HUAC Committee. Nothing was ever officially written down or published, if you were blacklisted you suddenly were unable to find any work. Out of an estimated 15,000 entertainment workers only around 300 were ever actually proven to be Communists. Famous blacklist victims included Zero Mostel, Lillian Hellman, Lloyd Bridges, Dashell Hammett, Gale Sondergaard, Edward G. Robinson, Sterling Hayden & Dalton Trumbo. 1950- The musical Guys & Dolls opened. “ I got da horse right here, his name is Paul Revere, I know a jock who tells me Never Fear, Can Do- Can Do..The Jock sez da horse can –do ” 1958- The musical film Gigi opened, music by Lerner & Lowe. Based on the writings of French author Collette, Collette herself had insisted young unknown Dutch actress Audrey Hepburn play the lead. 1968- Hey Jude by the Beatles topped the pop charts while Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man headed the Country & Western listing. 1991- Freddy Mercury, lead singer of the rock group Queen, died of HIV/AIDS. 1998- America On Line bought their chief competitor Netscape. 1999- Pixars Toy Story 2. in theaters. 2000- Catherine Zeta-Jones married Michael Douglas. 2010- Disney’s Tangled released.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 23, 2012

Birthdays: German Emperor Otto Ist 972AD, Edward Rutledge –Declaration of Ind signer, President Franklin Pierce, Krystoff Penderecki, Manuel DeFalla, William Henry Pratt better known as Boris Karloff, William Bonney better known as Billy the Kid, Susan Anspach, Victor Jory, Vincent Cassel is 46, Joe Esterhas is 70, Miley Cyrus is 20. 1889- The first Juke Box installed at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco. Created by Louis T. Glass it used Edison cylinders instead of records and cost 5 cents a play. Juke comes from Juke Joint, a slang term then for a dance hall. 1897-First Royal performance for Queen Victoria of a Cinematograph moving picture, at Windsor Castle. Also on the program was Monsieur Taffary's Calculating Dogs. 1938- Bob Hope recorded his signature tune “Thanks for the Memory” for the movie The Big Broadcast.. 1942- PLAY IT AGAIN SAM- The movie CASABLANCA premiered. Based on an never produced musical, “Everybody Comes to Ricks’, Howard Koch and the Epstein Brothers adapted the play into one of the most memorable Hollywood movies ever. It was never expected to be more than a rehash of the popular Charles Boyer film Algiers. Humphrey Bogart acted opposite Ingrid Bergman, although he had to stand on boxes to appear taller than his Swedish leading lady. 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. He was 41. 1960- The Hollywood Walk of Fame is dedicated, featuring over 1,500 names- but not Charlie Chaplin, who was banned until 1972 because of his alleged lefty political views. 1963- The first episode of Dr. Who premiered on the BBC. 1966-The film “ Spinout “ premiered. Elvis Presley pioneered the genre movie of bored male movie stars who use their studio muscle to make us watch movies of them in racing cars. James Garner in Grand Prix-arguably the best one, Steve McQueen in LeMans, Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder, Sly Stallone in Driven, etc.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 22, 2012

Birthdays: French explorer Sieur de LaSalle, George Elliot- pen name for Mary Anne Evans, Benjamin Britten, Charles DeGaulle, Andre Gide, Wiley Post, Billy Jean King, Geraldine Page, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodney Dangerfield, animator/ director Terry Gilliam is 72, Robert Vaughn, Tom Conti, Mark Ruffalo, Jamie Lee Curtis is 54, Scarlett Johanssen is 28, Stevie Van Zandt is 61 1888- According to Edgar Rice Burroughs this is the birthday of the boy who would become Tarzan. 1980- Screen goddess Mae West died at 87. He apartment suite at the Ravenswood in the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles has been lovingly restored, since the owner claims her ghost nagged him to put her furniture back! 1993- Sir Anthony Burgess died. The author of A Clockwork Orange had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and told he had one year to live, back in 1959. 1995- Pixar’s Toy Story opened, the first all CG movie, and the first CG hit.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 21, 2012

Birthdays: Francios Arouet called Voltaire, Marlo Thomas is 75, Adolphe Marx called Harpo, Colman Hawkins, Stan ' The Man' Musial, Tom Horn, Pope Benedict XlV, Earl the Pearl Monroe, Goldie Hawn is 67, Harold Ramis is 68, Rene Magritte, Dr. John, Mariel Hemingway, Troy Aikman, Bjork is 47 1933- Film director Frank Capra went to Claudette Colbert’s home to talk her into delaying her holiday vacation long enough to star with Clark Gable in “It Happened One Night”. Colbert said she would only do it for double her normal salary and if they would be done by Dec 23rd so she could spend Christmas with friends at Squaw Valley Idaho. They made the picture on a rush, and Colbert later told her friends:” I just finished the worst picture in the world!” It Happened One Night” became a big hit for Capra, Columbia and is one of Colbert’s most memorable performances. 1934- Cole Porter's musical 'Anything Goes!' opened on Broadway. Ethel Merman starring, In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked upon as somewhat shocking. Now Heaven knows- Anything Goes!” 1942- Warner's "A Tale of Two Kitties" the first Tweety Pie. I tawt I taw a puddy cat ! 1980- “The Who Shot J.R.?” episode of the TV show Dallas. 1980- Australian Olivia Newton John’s disco anthem to aerobic exercise “Let’s Get Physical ” goes to number one of the pop charts and stays there for ten weeks.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 20, 2012

Birthdays: Robert F. Kennedy, Maya Plisetskaya, Gene Tierney, Dick Smothers, Bo Derek is 57, Sean Young is 47, Richard Dawson, Estelle Parsons, Barbera Hendricks, Duane Allman, Joe Walsh, Chester Gould the creator of Dick Tracy, Alastair Cooke, Ming Na the voice of Muhlan, Sam Wright the voice of Sebastian in Little Mermaid 1994- Rock & Roll star David Crosby received a new liver. 1998- Several state governments and the US tobacco industry reach a landmark settlement arising from lawsuits over smoking illnesses. The trial also killed off once and for all ads featuring The Marlboro Cowboy and Joe Camel, a cartoon character that at one point was as recognizable to children as Donald Duck. 1998- Pixar’s film A Bugs Life was generally released.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 19, 2012

Birthdays: King Charles Ist of England, President James Garfield, Roy Campanella, Tommy Dorsey, Ted Turner, Calvin Klein, Dick Cavett, Larry King is 8,000 Years old, Kathleen Quinlan, Alan Young -Mr. Ed’s friend, Allison Janey, Meg Ryan is 51, Jodie Foster is 50, Terry Farrell 1942- In a concentration camp in Poland author-artist Bruno Schulz was executed. The author of “Street of Crocodiles” last act was being forced by a Gestapo officer to paint images from Brothers Grimm fairytales on his sons bedroom wall before he was shot 1959- Jay Ward's television show 'Rocky and his Friends' debuts. 2007- Disney film The Enchanted premiered.

Animation Fun Facts Nove 18, 2012

Birthdays: Armelita Galli-Curci, Karl Maria Von Weber, W.S. Gilbert, Johnny Mercer, Astronaut Alan Shepard, Louis Daguerre, Brenda Vaccarro, Eugene Ormandy, George Gallup, Warren Moon, Pam Dawber, Rocket Ishmail, Delroy Lindo, Kevin Nealon is 59, Owen Wilson is 44, Chloe Servigny is 38 1602- In Transylvania, 22 year old English soldier of fortune John Smith killed three Turkish warriors in single combat. Such single matches were normal before a large battle. The Voivode or Duke of Transylvania, Sigmund Bathory, granted the commoner Smith his own coat of arms, with three Turkish heads. This is the same John Smith who will go to Virginia and meet Pocahontas in 1607 and sing Broadway tunes. 1865 Mark Twain's first story "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County' published. 1902- THE TEDDY BEAR BORN-The Washington Evening Star published a story of how President Teddy Roosevelt while hunting couldn't bring himself to shoot a grizzly bear cub. Cartoonist Cliff Berryman illustrated the incident with one of his signature “dingbat” bear cubs in a gesture of “oh no!” Brooklyn toymaker Morris Mitchcom sewed a doll from the illustration in the newspaper and sent the first one to the White House. 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. 1985- Bill Watterson’s comic strip Calvin & Hobbs debuted. 1988- Disney’s Oliver & Company released.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 17, 2012

Birthdays: Roman Emperor Vespasian 9 A.D, Il Bronzino, August Ferdinand Moebius-1790 the inventor of the Moebius Strip. General Bernard Montgomery, Rock Hudson, Peter Cook, Lorne Michaels, Isamu Noguchi, Lauren Hutton, Tom Seaver, Gordon Lightfoot, Les Clark, Lee Strassberg, Shelby Foote, Sophie Marceau, Martin Scorcese is 70, Danny deVito is 68 1978- Our world was rocked by a disturbance in The Force more calamitous than the destruction of Alderon, It was "The Star Wars Holiday Special", a two-hour variety show on CBS, with Harrison Ford, Beatrice Arthur and Nelvana’s animated cartoon. 1989- Don Bluth's animated film "All Dogs Go to Heaven." premiered. 1994- The Sony Corporation posted a $2.7 billion dollar loss from it’s first year owning a Hollywood movie studio. Yet despite a lot of industry jokes ( “What’s the difference between Sony Pictures and the Titanic?-answer: The Titanic had entertainment.”) By 1996 the studio was on top with blockbusters like “Men in Black”

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 16, 2012

Birthdays: George S. Kaufmann, W.C. Handy, Burgess Meredith, Daws Butler the voice of Yogi Bear, Zina Garrison, Dwight Gooden, Maggie Gylenhall is 35 Gene Amdahl who designed the IBM 360 computer. 1946- The Television Academy of Arts and Sciences founded. Fred Allen once said: "We call television a Medium because nothing on it is Rare or Well Done." 1960- CLARK GABLE DIED- The 59 year old star had just completed the film the Misfits, a film in which director John Huston demanded a great deal of physical exertion. He had told his agent that the unprofessional antics of his moody co-star Marilyn Monroe had driven him so nuts they were going to give him a heart attack. Gable had one after shooting, and on this day while convalescing in Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital reading a magazine, a second heart attack killed him. He wrote his own epitaph, but it was never used- " Oh Well, Back to Silents." 1981- Actor William Holden died. The star of such classics as Sunset Blvd, Stalag 17 and Network, was told as a young actor to take a few drinks to calm the pre-camera jitters. But by now he was a hopeless alcoholic. This night at home alone and drunk, he fell and hit his head on a table edge. Too inebriated to call for help, he dabbed his forehead with bunches of Kleenex tissues until he bled to death. 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. 2001- The film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone premiered to great fanfare and massive box office. Harry Potter’s creator J.K. Rowling had been so poor she at one time had been on the dole, now she was one of the richest women in the world. In England second only to Madonna and the Queen.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 15, 2012

B-Days: Georgia O'Keefe, Bill Melendez- director of A Charlie Brown Xmas, Irvin Rommel the "Desert Fox", Avrial Harriman, Daniel Barenboim, George Bolet, William Pitt the Elder, Veronica Lake, Beverly D'Angelo- actress and former animation painter, Mantovanni, Ed Asner the voice of Carl in UP is 83, Sam Waterson is 72 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. 1926- FIRST NETWORK BROADCAST- NBC hooks up 20 cities across America and Canada for a radio program "The Steinway Hour" with Arthur Rubinstein. It came from the Steinway building penthouse on 57th St. in Manhattan. 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. 1958- Movie star Tyrone Power was filming a sword duel with George Sanders on the film Solomon and Sheba. He paused and told the director “ I have to stop, I don’t feel well”. He then died of a heart attack. He was 44. His father Tyrone Power Sr had also died on a Hollywood movie set in 1931 of a heart attack, 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 Nov 12, 2012

Birthdays: Auguste Rodin, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, Bahi-ullah 1817 founder of the Bahii faith, Elizabeth Cadie -Stanton, Cecil B. DeMille, Grace Kelly, Edward G. Robinson, Jack Oakie, Kim Hunter, animator Shamus Culhane, Charles Manson, Neil Young, Edvard Munch, Nadia Comenici, Tanya Harding, Megan Mullally is 54, Anne Hathaway is 30 1946- Disney's "Song of the South" with James Baskett as Uncle Remus. 1955- This is the date Marty McFly returns to in the film Back to the Future .

Animation fun facts for Nov 11, 2012

Birthdays: Abigail Adams, Alexander Borodin, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gen. George Patton, Pat O’Brien, Kurt Vonnegut, Rene Clair, Carlos Fuentes, Jonathan Winters, Stubby Kay, Demi Moore is 50, Leonard DiCaprio is 38 Happy Veterans Day in the U.S., Memorial Day in many European countries. 1937- Animation wrapped in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. 1938- The first day of shooting on the film 'The Wizard of Oz". Judy Garland met 125 little people hired to be the Munchkins. Judy's energy was fading under the heavy work schedule so L.B. Mayer ordered her put on Benzadrine (speed) every morning and Valium pills to sleep. June Alysson, another young MGM actress at the time said: "The studio nurse would give it to you and tell you it was vitamins." Judy Garland became a heavy drug addict and died of an overdose in 1969 at 47 years old. 1940- The Birth of the Jeep. The army introduces its first General Purpose vehicle-G.P. or Jeep, a name coinciding with a character in E.C. Segar's Popeye cartoons. 1953- Disney short Ben and Me premiered. 1954- Tolkein’s second book of the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, first published. 1980- 'Heaven's Gate" Michael Cimino's $44 million dollar flop opened. Cimino originally said he could do the film for $8 million. Critic Pauline Kael said: "It's the kind of movie you want to deface. You want to draw mustaches all over it."

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 10, 2012

Birthdays: Martin Luther, William Hogarth, Charles the Bold of Burgundy, Francois Couperin, King George II of England, Frederick Schiller, Claude Rains, Looney Tunes composer Carl Stalling, Lion King lyricist Tim Rice, Richard Burton, Roy Scheider, Ann Reinking, MacKenzie Phillips, Russell Means, Sinbad, Brittany Murphy, George Fenneman-Groucho Marx’s TV announcer, animator educator Sue Kroyer, Tracey Morgan is 44 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. 1995- Carolco, the Hollywood studio that produced many Arnold Schwarzenegger hits like "Total Recall" declared bankruptcy after producing $115 million dollar megaflop "Cutthroat Island".

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 9, 2012

Birthdays: English King Edward VII, architect Stanford White, Marie Dressler, Ed Wynn, Claude Rains, Ann Sexton, Tommy Dorsey, Dr. Carl Sagan, Dorothy Dandridge, Dr. Herbert Kalmus the inventor of Technicolor film, Lou Ferrigno is 61, Sisqo 1964- First "Wizard of Id" comic strip published. 1966- In London Beatle John Lennon went to an art exhibit and first met a Japanese avant garde photographer named Yoko Ono. 2004- The Jones Soda Pop Company of Seattle announced its new creation – Mashed Potato Flavored Soda. This was to follow up on their success last year of Roast Turkey and Gravy Soda. 2004- Mozilla-Firefox started up.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 8, 2012

Birthdays: Roman Emperor Nerva, Bram Stoker is 165, Sir Edmund Halley, June Havoc, Margaret Mitchell, Joe Flynn- the cranky Captain Binghampton in the 60’s TV McHales Navy, Ricky Lee Jones, Bonny Raitt, Ester Rolle, Katherine Hepburn, Parker Posey is 44, Gretchen Mol is 40, John Musker- co director of the Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Treasure PLanet. 1793- In one of the positive results of the Reign of Terror, the French Revolutionary Government opens the royal art collection of the Louvre to the public as a museum. 1929- New York’s Museum of Modern Art opened. 1943- The first one man show of American abstract painter named Jackson Pollock. Pollock later created his brushless dripping form of painting that earned him the nickname:” Jack the Dripper”. 1966- Former actor and SAG president Ronald Reagan elected Governor of California trouncing two-term incumbent Pat Brown. Uber-Conservative Reagan declared a tough line with the Hippies of Haight Ashbury and Berkeley.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 7, 2012

Birthdays: Francesco Zubaran, Madame Curie, Rev. Billy Graham is 94, Leon Trotsky –real name Lev Bronstein, Albert Camus, Al Hurt, Joni Mitchell, Joan Sutherland, Judy Tenuda, Clive Barnes, Morgan Spurlock is 42 1963- The movie “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” premiered at Hollywood’s new Cinerama Dome theater. 1965- the first Pillsbury Doughboy commercial debuted. ‘Tee-hee-hee!” 1997- Someone published a stolen home video of Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and rock star Tommy Lee having graphic sex on their honeymoon, not to mention how Tommy steered his boat. The Pamela-Tommy video became the most downloaded file on the Internet and rented video in history. In 1998 Pamela Anderson Lee was the subject of 1% of the Total Traffic on the entire World Wide Web!

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 6, 2012

Please Go Vote! As Adlai Stevenson said " In America, anyone can become president. That is the risk we take." Birthdays: Sophocles 495BC., Joanna La Loca (the Mad- 1479), John Phillip Sousa, Joseph Smith the founder of Mormonism, Ignacz Paderewski, Charles Dow of Dow Jones, Adolphus Sax inventor of the Saxophone, James Naismith the inventor of Basketball, Mike Nichols, Edsel Ford, Ed Rehberg, Sally Field is 65, Ray Coniff, John Olsen of the comedy duo Olsen & Johnson, Harold Ross the founder of the New Yorker magazine, Maria Shriver is 56, Rebecca Romjin 2009- Disney released Robert Zemeckis mo-cap movie A Christmas Carol, with Jim Carrey.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 5, 2012

Birthdays: Eugene V. Debs, Art Garfunkel is 71, Roy Rogers, Tatum O'Neill, Elke Sommer- born Baroness Elke Von Shletz is 72, Ike Turner, Vivien Leigh. Will Durant, Joel McCrea, Sam Shepard is 69, John Berger, Robert Patrick is 54, Tilda Swinton is 52 1937- Disney's silly symphony The Old Mill debuted. The first film featuring the multiplane camera technique. 2004- Pixar's The Incredibles premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 4, 2012

Birthdays: Will Rogers, Art Carney, Loretta Swit, Martin Balsam, Gig Young, Darla Hood, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ralph Maccio, Andrea McArdle, Walter Cronkite, Matthew McConnaughy is 43 1913- William Mulholland's great aqueduct starts bringing water 200 miles from Northern California to L.A. by the force of gravity alone. Without the extra water L.A. would never have grown any larger than 140,000 people. ( L.A. Times estimate.) 1952- UNIVAC, the first all electronic business computer, accurately predicted Dwight Eisenhower would win in a landslide. The first computer projected results for an election. 1955- In Arizona, Willie Bioff, former IATSE union official, who tried to hijack the Hollywood unions (Including the Disney cartoonists) for Frank Nitti's gang, turns the key in his Ford pickup and explodes. He had turned informer and was in the Witness Protection plan.

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 3, 2012

Birthdays: The Roman writer Lucan 39AD, John Montague the Earl of Sandwich, Walker Evans, William Cullen Bryant, Stephen Austin, Bronco Nagurski, Andre' Malraux, Vincenzo Bellini, Bob Feller, Karl Baedeker author of the guidebooks, Lulu, Roseanne Barr, Osamu Tezuka creator of Astro Boy 1503- MONA LISA- Leonardo Da Vinci was hired by a Florentine senator Francesco del Giocondo to paint a portrait of his third wife Madonna Elizabetha or Lisa. He fussed over the painting for four years and never gave it to Francesco, he said it was still unfinished and kept it for himself. Eventually he needed money so he sold it to the King of France and today it sits in the Louvre. 1836- California ranchero Juan de Alvarado rallies local ranchers to overthrow Governor Juan de Michaltorena sent from Mexico City. This story may have been an early inspiration for Zorro. 1948 -The Chicago Daily Tribune prints the famous premature headline “Dewey Defeats Truman” based on early poll returns. Truman himself was so sure he’d lost the election he went to bed early. When he awoke he discovered he had won and he had a ball mocking the newspapers and doing nasal imitations of hostile correspondent H.B. Kaltenborn. 1971- The first UNIX manual released. 1977- Disney's Pete's Dragon starring Helen Reddy and Red Buttons. 1981- WALLY WOOD was one of the most influential cartoonists of the 1950’s and 60’s. His amazing versatility enabled him to draw everything from superhero comics to very cartoony to playfully naughty girls like Sally Forth. He drew EC Comics, the Mars Attacks series, Mad Magazine, Weird Science, THUNDER Agents and much more. He had done an infamous drawing of the Disney characters having sex that brought down upon him the wrath of the Disney legal dept. But hard living and deadlines took their toll. Suffering from a stroke, and failing kidneys Wally Wood put a 44 cal pistol to his right temple and pulled the trigger. Today police found his remains.

Animaiton Fun Facts for Nov 2, 2012

Birthdays: Daniel Boone, Pres. James Knox Polk, Jean Chardin, Luchino Visconti, Giusseppi Sinopoli, Burt Lancaster, Ray Walston, Pat Buchanan, Steve Ditko, Ray Walston, Stephanie Powers, k.d.lang, David Schwimmer is 46, cartoonist Steve Ditko Today is Dio de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. It derives from the Aztecs, who believed the life you are living now is a dream, when you die, you awake to your real life. 1920- The first US Radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, began the nation’s first broadcasting with news of election results. 1950- Writer George Bernard Shaw died at 94. His last words were:" Oh well, it will be a new experience anyway." 2001- Pixar’s Monsters Inc opened. .

Animation Fun Facts for Nov 1, 2012

Birthdays: Marie Antoinette, President Warren Harding, Stephen Crane, Marcel Ophuls, Benevenuto Cellini, Larry Flynt, Walter Matthau, Fernando Valenzuela, Lyle Lovett, Willie D, Rick Allen of Def Leppard, Jenny McCarthy is 40, Toni Collette is 40 1512- Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling was open to the public for the first time. 1835- Davey Crockett, after losing his bid for re-election to Congress tells his Tennessee voters:" You can all go to Hell, I'm going to Texas!" 1895- Emil and Max Skladowsky set up a Bioscope Projector in Berlin's Wintergarden. Birth of German Cinema. 1920- The first issue of American Cinematographer. 1968- To replace the outmoded Hays Production Code, the Motion Picture Ratings System introduced-"G, M, R, and X"- Later PG, PG-13, R and NC-17".