Animation Fun Facts for May 27, 2013

Birthdays: James 'Wild Bill' Hickock, Julia Ward Howe, Aemelia Jenks-Bloomer, Dashell Hammett, Vincent Price, Henry Kissinger is 88, Leopold Goldowsky (the inventor of Kodachrome film), Hubert H. Humphrey, Herman Wouk, Harlan Ellison, Joseph Feinnes, Richard Schiff is 58, Peri Gilpin, Paul Bettany is 42, Sir Christopher Lee is 91 Memorial Day in the USA. 1895 - British inventor Burt Acres patented a film camera/projector 1933- Disney’s cartoon“The Three Little Pigs” premiered, whose song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf” became a national anthem of recovery from the Depression. Director of the short Burt Gillette left Disney afterward to run the Van Beuren Studio in New York. He had a diminished career and several animators accused him of mental instability and alcoholism. 1935- The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Franklin Roosevelt’s National Recovery Act (The NRA) program. Roosevelt responds by trying to stack the court with judges more to his liking. He referred to them as 'The Nine Old Men', a sobriquet Walt Disney would borrow in 1949 for his animators. 1948- Walt Disney feature Melody Time released, featuring Pecos Bill. 1961 – The first black light is sold 1969 – Construction on Walt Disney World Florida began. 1995- Actor Christopher Reeve was left paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in an equestrian event in Charlottesville, Va. He became a spokesman for stem-cel research, but his effort in the US was frustrated by powerful religious lobbyists. Christopher Reeves died in 2004.