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.