Animation Fun Facts for June 30, 2013

Birthdays: Buddy Rich, Lena Horne, Czeslaw Milosz, Susan Hayward, Mike Tyson is 47, Deanna Durbin, Howard Hawks, William Goldman, Martin Landau, Essa-Pekka Salonen, David Alan Grier, Vincent D’Onofrio, Monica Potter, Rupert Graves 1933- A group of actors meet in secret at Frank (the Wizard of Oz) Morgan and form the Screen Actors Guild. The secrecy was because studios threatened to blacklist anyone who so much as breathed the word union. Among the founding members that night are James Cagney, Groucho Marx, Joan Crawford, Franchot Tone, Frederic March, Robert Montgomery and Boris Karloff. 1936- Margaret Mitchell's bestseller 'Gone With the Wind" first published. 1936- the 40 hour work week was made a federal law. 1937- Congress voted to shut down the Federal Theater Program, the division of the government funded WPA that produced plays for Depression wracked poor people. The FTP produced cutting edge works of Orson Welles, Clifford Odets and Eugene O’Neill and at it’s height reached 25 million people. But conservative senators thought it had become too radicalized by lefties. Theater actors working in L.A. on a hit production of Pinocchio held a mock funeral for the puppet. Over it’s casket was the headstone FTP: Born 1934, Killed by an Act of Congress, June 30th 1937. 1940- Female Cartoonist Dale Messick takes over the Brenda Star comic strip and adds the trademark sparkles. 1948- Bell Laboratories announced the Transistor, a possible substitute for radio-vacuum tubes. So early computers can shrink from the size of a building to the size of a bus. In 1980 the silicon chip reduced the same computing power to the size of your fingernail. 1975- Just 4 days after divorcing Sonny Bono, Cher married rocker Gregg Allman. 1996 - Margaux Hemingway, considered the first modern Supermodel, committed suicide at 41. Her grandfather Ernest Hemingway committed suicide, and his father before him.

Animation Fun Facts for June 29, 2013

Birthdays: Bernard Hermann, Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, Slim Pickens, Nelson Eddy, Gary Busey, John Hench, Little Eva, Harmon Killabrew, Antoine de Saint Exupery, Anna Sophie-Mutter, Leroy Anderson, Maria Conchita Alonso, Robert Evans is 83, Matthew Weiner, Roger Allers, Ray Harryhausen 1940 – ROBIN THE BOY WONDER- According to Batman Comics, this day mobsters rubbed out a circus highwire team known as the Flying Graysons, leaving their son Dick an orphan. He was taken in by millionaire Bruce Wayne so Batman could have his Robin. 1940- First day shooting on the film Citizen Kane. 1950- The Hollywood Ten are given jail sentences for contempt of Congress. 1956- Marilyn Monroe married author Arthur Miller. 1967-Actress Jane Mansfield and her dog are decapitated in a car crash when their car slammed into a parked tractor-trailer. Her children including Marisa Hargitay were in the back seat. 1968 - "Tip-Toe Thru' The Tulips With Me" by Tiny Tim peaks at #17. 1978- Actor Bob Crane, best known as the star in the television series Hogan’s Heroes, was found beaten to death with an electric cord around his neck in a Scottsdale Arizona hotel room. Around his body were pornographic literature and a large library of home made porn tapes. 2007- Pixar’s Ratatouille premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for June 28, 2013

Birthdays: King Henry VIII, Luigi Pirandello, Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Dillinger, Richard Rogers, Gilda Radner, Cartoonist George Booth, Secty of Defense Leon Panetta, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kathy Bates is 64, John Cusack is 46, Mel Brooks is 86 1868- Artist Claude Monet was broke and so depressed he jumped in the Seine River. After splashing around for a while, he decided its silly to drown himself so he swam to the riverbank and went for a drink. He outlived all the Impressionist painters of his generation, dying in 1926. 1928- Louis Armstrong & Earl Hines recorded West End Blues. 1969- THE STONEWALL UPRISING- New York City Police got a false tip about a stabbing in a mob-owned Stonewall gaybar in Greenwich Village. Others claim the cops were there to get their kickback, and when it wasn’t paid, they started arresting patrons. But for once the patrons didn’t go quietly but began to fight back. In the 60’s era of social revolution, the incident caused three days of urban rioting and the Gay Pride Movement was born. 1970 -On the one year anniv of the Stonewall Uprising, today marked the first Gay Pride Marches in New York, SF, Chicago and Los Angeles. 1975- Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling died during open heart surgery. He was 50. His last movie script was called The Man, about the first black president of the United States.

Animation Fun Facts for June 27, 2013 thurs

Birthdays: Swedish King Charles XII "the Madman of the North", Helen Keller, Norma Kamali, Charles Stuart Parnell, Bob" Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan, Emma Goldman, Walter Johnson, Ross Perot, Isabella Adjani is 58, Lauren Hill, Alice McDermott, J.J. Abrams is 47, Tony Leung Chu Wai is 51, Toby McGuire is 38. Katherine Beaumont the voice of Alice in Alice in Wonderland and Wendy in Peter Pan. 1922 - Newberry Medal 1st presented for kids literature, the first winner was Hendrik Van Loon. 1949 - "Captain Video & His Video Rangers," debut on DUMONT-TV. 1966- TV soap opera Dark Shadows premiered. Barnabas Collins was the first vampire to have issues with his job, and so became the ancestor of the modern romantic vampires of True Blood and Twilight. 1984- Hollywood introduced the PG-13 rating to indicate graphic violence, invented for the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Animation Fun Facts for June 26, 2013 wed

Birthdays: Peter Lorre- born Laszlo Lowenstein, Pearl Buck, Abner Doubleday, Babe Deidrickson-Zacharias, Willy Messerschmidt, Claudio Abbado, Disney Nine Old Man Woolie Reitherman, Gregg LeMond, Vittorio Storaro, Colonel Tom Parker, Pat Morita, Chris Isaak, Derek Jeter, Chris O’Donnell, Sean Hayes is 43 1924 - The Ziegfeld Follies opens on Broadway. 1925- Charlie Chaplin has a lavish Hollywood premiere for his new film the Gold Rush. He had edited the film in secret in an upstairs hotel room in Salt Lake City to keep away from the public and his wife’s bill collectors. 1926- From his London flat John Logie Baird invented television. The Boob Tube has no one single Tom Edison-like inventor but many claimants. The Englishman joined the ranks of others who claimed to have invented TV first, including Richard Farnsworth, Vladimir Zworkin, Dr. Lee DeForrest and Deutsches Kino. 1964 - Beatles release "A Hard Day's Night" album. 1965-"Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man " by the Byrds hits number one on the US pop charts. Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics. William Shatners version became the most well known. 1977 - Elvis Presley does his last performance, in Indianapolis.

Animation Fun Facts for June 25, 2013 tues.

Birthday: George Orwell, Marc Charpentier, Lord Louis Mountbatten, General Hap Arnold, Cajun musician Clifton Chenier, Sidney Lumet, Walter Brennan, Willis Reed, George Abbott, Carly Simon, June Lockhart, Alex Toth, Jimmy Dyne-o-Mite Walker, George Michaels, Mike Myers the voice of Shrek is 50, Ricky Gervais is 52. 1835- Antoine Baron Gros was a celebrated painter under Napoleon and a friend of David and Ingres. But politics and tastes change. In a royalist postwar France dominated by Delacroix and Gericault Baron Gros lived on forgotten and melancholy. This day the 64 year old artist drowned himself in the Seine. 1857- Writer Gustav Flaubert goes on trial for pornography in his first novel Madame Bovary. He escaped conviction and went on to his next book Salambo the Carthaginian princess who strangled herself with her own hair. Don’t try this at home girls! 1910- First performance of Stravinsky's ballet "Firebird" by Diagheilev and his Ballet Russe. Stravinsky used to refer to the dancers as "A bunch of knock-kneed Lolitas". 1934- Young artist Milt Kahl's first day at Walt Disney Studios. It was said he was the first artist to ever show Walt a real portfolio of drawings to get hired. 1940- Young actor, and liberal labor activist Ronald Reagan married his first wife, actress Jane Wyman. 1951- After losing a power struggle to Dory Schary, Louis B. Mayer announced he was stepping down as head of MGM. Mayer in his time was the most powerful man in Hollywood. He kept an all white office modeled after Mussolini’s in Rome. 1951 - 1st color TV broadcast-CBS' Arthur Godfrey from NYC to 4 cities 1967- The "Our World" Beatles concert, the first television event to try a worldwide satellite linkup. They sing and record "All You Need is Love" live in front of an audience of 400. 1968- Pierre Elliot Trudeau elected Prime Minister of Canada. For the next twenty five years he and his flower-child wife Margaret will be one of Canada’s most colorful leaders. 1982- Ridley Scott’s sci-fi film Blade Runner opened. 1980- Disney’s film Herbie Goes Bananas, premiered. 1997- Disney's animated film Hercules released. 2009- Michael Jackson, called the King of Pop, died after his personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray administered a powerful sedative named Propofol to help him sleep and stopped his heart instead. He was 50 and been performing on stage since the age of 5.

Animation Fun Facts for June 24, 2013

Birthdays: Earl Kitchener, the Sirdar of Omdurman, E.I.Dupont, Ambrose Bierce, Jack Dempsey, John Ciardi, Mick Fleetwood, Phil Harris- singer and voice of Baloo in Disney’s Jungle Book, Billy Casper, Michelle Lee, Claude Chabrol, Chief Dan George, Pete Hamill, Peter Weller, Sherry Springfield 1901- The first exhibit in a Paris salon on the Rue Lafitte of a Spanish artist named Pablo Picasso. 1945- Meet the Press debuted on radio. Two years later it moved to television and it remains t.v.’s longest running program. 1949 - "Hopalong Cassidy" becomes the1st network western on television-NBC. 1963 - 1st demonstration of a home video recorder, at BBC Studios, London 1970 – The movie "Catch 22" opens in movie theaters. 1997 - Brian Keith, actor (Family Affair, Dirty Dingus McGee), shot himself at 75. He was suffering from incurable cancer and tired of the pain fighting the disease.

Animation Fun Facts for June 23, 2013

Birthdays: Roman Emperor Augustus, Josephine Bonaparte, Alan Turing, Bob Fosse, James Levine, Dan Ogilvy of Ogilvy & Meyers, Joss Whedon, Dr Alfred Kinsey the sex researcher, The Duke of Windsor, Selma Blair, Justice Clarence Thomas, Frances MacDormand is 56 1979- The Knack released the single My Sharona. 1989- Tim Burton’s film " Batman" opened. 1995- Pocahontas went into General Release. 1993- Lorena Bobbit had tired of her abusive husband John Wayne Bobbit. So this night while he was drunk, she severed his penis and drove off, casually tossing it into a nearby field. Doctors recovered the free willy and reattached it, starting a media sensation. They divorced and John Bobbitt became a porn star. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Animation Fun Facts for June 22, 2013

Birthdays: Captain George Vancouver, Eric Maria Remarque, John Dillinger, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Mike Todd, Billy Wilder, Joe Papp, Oskar Fischinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer is 69, Ed Bradley, Emmanuelle Seigner, Prunella Scales, Meryl Streep is 64, Konrad Zuse, Kris Kristofferson is 77, Matt Doherty, Disney animator Floyd Norman is 78 1955- Walt Disney’s Lady and the Tramp released. 1966 – The film "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" opened. Based on the play by Edward Albee and starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. It was the first to use four letter words. Just a year before comedian Lenny Bruce had gone to jail for saying the same words, although everyone including President Johnson swore in everyday parlance. 1969- Singer actress Judy Garland OD’s on sleeping pills. She was 46. Whether it was an accident or a suicide we will never know. A pillhead from early age, she had gotten hooked when MGM chief Louis B. Mayer ordered studio nurses to put her on amphetamines so she would have the energy to finish the Wizard of Oz. 1977- Walt Disney’s The Rescuers opened in theaters.

Animation Fun Facts for June 21, 2013

Birthdays: Martha Washington, Alexander Pope, Berke Breathed, Al Hirschfeld, Al Martinez, Jean-Paul Sartre, Judy Holliday, Benazir Bhutto, Jane Russell, Mariette Hartley, Bernie Koppel, Rick Sutcliffe, Maureen Stapleton, Joe Flagherty, Juliet Lewis, Tony Scott, Prince William the Duke of York is 31. 1948- At the University of Manchester, John McCauley created the first modern computer, the Manchester Mark I, that could store a program in it’s memory and reopen it. 1978 - Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice's musical "Evita," premieres in London. 1988- Who Framed Roger Rabbit premiered at Radio City Music Hall. 2002- Lilo & Stitch premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for June 20, 2013

Birthdays: Wolf Tone, Jacques Offenbach, Lillian Hellman, Errol Flynn, Audie Murphy, Andre Watts, Cyndee Lauper, Bob Vila, Chet Atkins, Stephen Frears, Brian Wilson, Robert Rodriquez, John Goodman, Martin Landau is 85, John Mahoney is 73, Nicole Kidman is 46 1940- Artist Alberto Vargas signs a contract with Esquire Magazine to paint the ‘Vargas Girls’ pin ups that made the magazine famous. He replaced artist Richard Petty who was demanding $1500 a week. Vargas was paid $75 a week. Today an original Vargas goes for $200,000. 1941-Walt Disney's "the Reluctant Dragon" premiered, with cartoonist's pickets around the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. Police actually have to close part of Hollywood Blvd. out of concern for what the rampaging animators might do. Future UPA producer Steve Bosustow drove up in a limo and picketed in tuxedo and top hat. His chauffeur was Maurice Noble, the designer of the RoadRunner cartoons. Ironically the movie was part documentary about how wonderful life was working at the Disney studio.

Animation Fun Facts for June 19, 2013

Birthdays: Euclid, Blaise Pascal, King James Ist Stuart, Wallis Simpson Duchess of Windsor, Moe Howard, Kathleen Turner, Lou Gehrig, Guy Lombardo, Gena Rowlands is 83, Mildred Natwick, Charles Coburn, Louis Jourdan, Pauline Kael, Salman Rushdie, Dame Mae Whitty, Lucie Sloane, Ang Sung Soo Chi, Paula Abdul is 51, Zoe Saldana is 35 1889- Beginning of the Sherlock Holmes adventure, the Man with the Twisted Lip. 1921- Distributer AmadeeVan Beuren announced production of a new series of "Aesop’s Fables" cartoons to be done by former Bray director Paul Terry. Terrytoons studio is born. 1923 - "Moon Mullins," a Comic Strip, debuts. 1934-The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, created. 1941 - Cheerios Cereal invented. The name Cheerios comes from a town in Italy called Cheerigalia, where grain and cereals had been grown since Roman times. 1952 - "I've Got A Secret" debuts on CBS-TV with Garry Moore as host. 1956- The comedy team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis announce their breakup. 1963- The Ray Harryhausen fantasy film Jason and the Argonauts premiered. 1973 The Rocky Horror Picture Show stage show opened in London. The film version became a midnight cult classic. Writer Richard O’Brien himself plays the bald doorman Riff-Raff. Let’s do the Time Warp Again. 1978 – Garfield the Cat, created by Jim Davis, 1st appears as a comic strip 1987 - Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream & Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia announce new Ice Cream flavor, Cherry Garcia. 1987 –David Geffen Records signed their 1st artist -Donna Summer. 1998 Disney’s Muhlan premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for June 18, 2013

Birthdays: M C Escher, Charles Gounod, James Montgomery Flagg, Kay Kayser, William Lassell 1799- English astronomer who discovered Neptune's moon Triton, Richard Boone, Jeanette MacDonald, Key Luke, Isabella Rosselini, E.G. Marshall, Roger Ebert, Eduard Daladier, Carol Kane, Sammy Kahn, The Quay Brothers, Paul McCartney is 72 1967- At the Monterey Pop Rock festival Jimi Hendrix electrified the audience then finished his set by burning and smashing his guitar on stage. Until then musicians didn’t behave in such a way towards their instruments. Ravi Shankar was particularly shocked. 1980 –"We are on a mission from God." John Landis movie of " The Blues Brothers" with Dan Ackroyd & John Belushi premiered. 2010- Pixar’s Toy Story III premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for June 17, 2013

Birthdays: King Edward Ist "Longshanks", John Wesley the founder of the Methodists, , Wally Wood, Ralph Bellamy, Dean Martin, Barry Manilow, Joe Piscopo is 63, Newt Gingrich, Martin Bormann, Jason Patric, Ken Loach, Greg Kinnear is 50, Venus Williams, Thomas Haden Church is 53 1893- Cracker Jacks invented by RW Reuckheim. Their name came from Teddy Roosevelt sampling the caramel corn, and exclaimed “These are Crackerjack!”- popular slang back then for something very good. 1919 - "Barney Google" cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premiered. 1964- The first Universal Studios tram car tour. Carl Laemmle had been inviting tourists in for a nickel to watch movies be filmed as early as 1915. 1968- Ohio Express’ single “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy I got love in my Tummy” went gold. 1994- THE WHITE BRONCO CHASE- Movie actor and Hall of Fame football player O.J. Simpson was wanted for questioning about the grisly murder of his second wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her boyfriend Ron Goldman. This day OJ tried to escape. He and his football friend Al Cowlings led police on a strange slow-speed pursuit for two hours around the freeways of Los Angeles as the world watched amazed on live television. He eventually was convinced to surrender. OJ Simpson was acquitted of murder in a controversial trial, but found guilty in a civil wrongful death suit.

Animation Fun Facts for June 16, 2013

Birthdays: Stan Laurel, Willy Boskovsky, Joyce Carol Oates, Nelson Doubleday, Brian Eno, animator Pete Burness, Martha Graham, Erich Segal, Jack Albertson, Helen Traubel, Ron LeFlore, Laurie Metcalf, Sonia Braga is 63, John Cho is 41. 1939- Bandleader Chick Webb died at age 30. Webb was an unlikely pop star, a hunchbacked, tuberculant little person who played drums, but his band the Chick Webb Orchestra pioneered the new Jazz form called Swing Music and inspired the Big Band Sound. One of Webb’s last actions before succumbing to his debilitating health problems was to make a star out of 19-year-old street singer named Ella Fitzgerald. 1943- 54 year old actor Charlie Chaplin married his fourth wife, 18 year old Oona O’Neill. In Hollywood Chaplin’s nickname was “Chickenhawk Charlie” for his fondness for women of barely legal age. Oona did remain his wife until the end of his life in 1971. 1947 –The 1st regular broadcast network news show began-Dumont's "News from Washington". 1952- The CBS television comedy My Little Margie premiered. It starred Gale Storm and Charlie Farrell. 1955- Disney’s Lady and the Tramp premiered. 1959- Actor George Reeves, who played the 1950s television Superman, went upstairs during a dinner party and shot himself with a Luger pistol. Actor Gig Young, who was a friend of Reeves, said the actor 's career was going well and his love life was fine. He never believed the actor would shoot himself. Gig Young shot himself in 1981. Many of Reeves friends also wonder if it was a suicide because Reeves had been dating a socialite named Toni Mannix who’s husband Eddie Mannix of MGM had mob connections. The bullet entrance wound didn’t have the customary powder burns of a suicide and there were other bullet holes in the floor and ceiling. Also the gun in Reeves hands had been wiped clean of fingerprints. 1960- Alfred Hitchcock's thriller "Psycho" premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for June 15, 2013

Birthdays: Edward the Black Prince of England, Rachael Donelson Jackson- Andy Jackson’s First Lady, Edvard Grieg, Saul Steinburg, Mario Cuomo, Jim Varney, Wade Boggs, Waylon Jennings, Xaviera Hollander the Happy Hooker, Jim Belushi, Ice Cube is 44, Neil Patrick Harris is 40, Courtenay Cox is 49, Helen Hunt is 50 1938-The Fair Labor Standards Act passed. 1945- Judy Garland married director Vincente Minnelli. Lisa Minnelli was one result. 1994- The Lion King opened. 1998 Disney's Atlantis premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for June 14, 2013

Birthdays: Tomaso Albinioni, Fighting Bob LaFollette,, Margaret Bourke-White, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sam Wanamaker, Cliff Edwards the voice of Jiminy Cricket, Dorothy McGuire, Burl Ives, Gene Barry, Jerzy Kosinski, Diablo Cody is 35, Donald Trump is 67. 1816- Writers Percy Shelley, Lord Byron and Mary Shelley were spending the summer at the Villa Deodati on Lake Geneva. This day among the revels, drinking, partner swapping and opium taking Byron suggested they all write a ghost story. They all tried but failed except for 19 year old Mary who invented the tale of a Swiss scientist who created an artificial man. She called it Frankenstein. 1822- Charles Babbage presented a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society in London proposing to build a "Difference Engine" a machine that could calculate equations and print the results-i.e. a computer. His early machine required 8,000 moving parts. After ten years and a small fortune it never quite comes off. 1995, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MP3. The researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits decided to use ".mp3" as the file name extension for their new audio coding technology. Development on this technology started in 1987. By 1992 it was considered far ahead of its times. MP3 became the generally accepted acronym as the popular standard for digital music on the on the Internet." 2001- The Oxford English Dictionary admitted the slang expletive of Homer Simpson "DOH!" into its august pages.

Animation Fun Facts for June 13, 2013

Birthdays: Harriet Beecher Stowe, W.B.Yeats, Red Grange, Basil Rathbone, Dorothy Sayers, Ralph Edwards, Paul Lynde, Tim Allen the voice of Buzz Lightyear, Darla Hood, Ally Sheedy, Simon Callow, Christo, Malcom McDowell is 70 1920-The US Government rules Americans cannot mail their children through the Parcel Post System. 1958- Frank Zappa graduated Antelope Valley High School.

Animation Fun Facts for June 12, 2013

Birthdays: Egon Scheile, John Roebling the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, Uta Hagen, Chick Corea, Sir Anthony Eden, Jim Nabors, Vic Damone, David Rockefeller, Irwin Allen, Marv Albert, Arthur Fellig-better known as Weegee, Sherry Stringfield, Former President George Herbert Walker Bush or George Ist is 87, if Anne Frank had survived she would be 84 today, Gerry Geronimi, Richard Sherman of the Sherman Bros is 84 1962- In Modesto California a teenage film student named George Lucas was almost killed in a car accident. Fifty Years Ago- 1963- Twentieth Century Fox released the Elizabeth Taylor -Richard Burton epic CLEOPATRA. Costing $44 million,- $400 million in modern money, four times more than the average film – the next most expensive Ben Hur cost $15 million , it remains in comparable dollars the costliest flop in film history. The cast was put up at the swankiest hotels in Rome for months of shooting, and La Taylor had to have her chili from Chasens restaurant in Beverly Hills flown in. Director Joe Mankewicz said "Cleopatra was the toughest three pictures I ever made!" When Liz Taylor saw the finished film, she threw up. Fox had to cut 2,000 jobs and almost went bankrupt. The area of LA known as Century City with its huge shopping mall used to be Fox ‘s backlot before Cleopatra. On the plus side Andy Warhol said Cleopatra was the most influential movie of the 1960s because suddenly every woman had to have heavy black eyeliner, light lipstick and Egyptian style straight bobbed hair. 1999- Disney’s Tarzan premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for June 11, 2013

Birthdays: Ben Johnson, Richard Strauss, Jacques Cousteau, Nelson Mandela, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Joe Montana, John Constable, Gustav Courbet, Vince Lombardi, Adrienne Barbeau, William Styron, Chad Everett, race car driver Jackie Stewart, Gene Wilder is 80, Hugh Laurie is 54, Shia LeBoeuf is 27, Peter Dinklage is 44. 1928 - Alfred Hitchcock's 1st film, "The Case Of Jonathan Drew," is released 1934- the first Mandrake the Magician comic strip. 1936- Shy, quiet, 30 year old Texas writer Robert E. Howard had created the macho warriors Conan the Barbarian, Kull and single handedly defined the genre we call Sword & Sorcery. This day after he learned his mother was dying and would never regain consciousness, he went into his garage and blew his brains out. Some say he had an Oedipal fixation, others that he always intended to end his life and was waiting to spare his mother the pain. On his typewriter he left a short message: "All fled, all done, so lift me upon the pyre. The feast is over and let the lamps expire." 1937 –" Getta’ yu tutsie-frutsie Ice-a Creem!" the Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races" premiered. 1964 - Manfred Mann recorded Do Wah Diddy Diddy. 1977 - Main Street Electrical Parade premiered at Disneyland. 1979- John Wayne died after a long struggle with cancer. Many believed his condition began as a result of filming the movie "The Conqueror" near the Nevada Atomic Test site. Half the crew of that film including all the stars and director died of cancer. When Wayne made a final appearance at the Academy Awards two months earlier he had purchased a small size tuxedo to hide his emaciated frame, but he was still too thin even then so he filled it out by wearing a scuba wetsuit underneath 1984- In the freewheeling economy of the 1980’s tycoons conducted hostile takeovers of companies by buying a majority of their stock on margin. When Wall Street corporate raider Saul Steinberg announced he intended to target the ailing Walt Disney Company for takeover CEO Ron Miller paid him $23 million just to make him go away. The Disney shareholders are outraged at this payment of "greenmail’ and demanded Miller’s resignation, which some say was exactly as Roy Disney had planned. 1993 –Steven Spielberg’s "Jurassic Park" opened. The film set a box office record of $931 million. It was begun with modelers and puppeteers about to do the dinosaurs with clay and beeswax. But after seeing tests using the new 3D CGI –computer graphic animation software, Steven ordered all of ILM to do it digitally. Jurassic Park clinched the digital takeover of Hollywood and set the standard for future special effects. 2002- Fox TV’s show American Idol premiered.

Animation Fun Facts for June 10, 2013

Birthdays: Charles James Stuart the Old Pretender, Yamaoka Tesshu (1832- Japanese swordsman), Saul Bellow, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel, Frederick Loew (of Lerner & Loew) Howlin’ Wolf, Maurice Sendak, Gina Gershon is 51, Leilee Sobieski is 30, Jean Triplehorn is 50, Britain’s Prince Phillip, Jurgen Prochnow, John Edwards, Elizabeth Hurley is 48 1910- The first Krazy Kat comic strip- Cartoonist George Herriman was doing a strip for Hearst called "The Family Upstairs". He was amused at the idea of a friendship between a cat and a mouse. So Herriman put them in the corner playing marbles while the family quarreled. First an office boy and later editor Arthur Brisbane suggested they have their own strip. The immortality of the denizens of Coconino County follows, loved by the likes of H.L.Mencken, e.e.cummings and Jacques Kerouac. Krazy herself explains:"It's wot's behind me that I am." 1926- Artist Antonio Gaudi was run over by a streetcar while crossing in front of his famous cathedral in Barcelona. Begun in 1886 The Cathedral Sacreda Familia is still scheduled for completion- in the year 2035. 1957- “Tom Terrific and Manfred the Wonder Dog” cartoon debuts on the Captain Kangaroo show. 1980- Comedian Richard Pryor had been doing so much cocaine even his dealers were worried about him. This day, while trying to freebase he exploded in flame, and ran screaming down his street. Another version of the story said he tried to commit suicide by pouring tequila on himself and setting it alight. During his long recovery in the Sherman Oaks burn unit, his nurse once put on the news and he watched CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite report his death. `He thought to himself: "If Walter Cronkite said I died, it must be true! Arghhh!" He recovered but developed Muscular Dystrophy in the late 1990s. 1995-110,000 people jam Central Park in New York to see Disney's Pocahontas, the largest audience ever to attend a single movie premiere.

Animation Fun Facts for June 9, 2013

Birthdays: Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Cole Porter, John Bartlett of Bartletts Familiar Quotations, Boy George O’Dowd, Les Paul, Burl Ives, Lash LaRue, Happy Rockefeller, Robert MacNamara, Major Bowes, Carl Neilsen, Donald Trump, Jerzy Kosinski, Pierre Salinger, Steffy Graff, Marvin Kalb, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, physicist who formulated Coulomb's Law, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, Michael J. Fox is 52, Johnny Depp is 50, Natalie Portman is 32 1860- DIME NOVELS & PULP FICTION. Mr. Erastus Beadle (don’t you love 19th century names?) published the first dime novel, Maleska, Indian Wife of the White Hunter by Anna Stephens. Sometimes called the Penny Dreadfulls, pocket-sized stories printed on cheap pulp paper became popular reading. They fantasized the West, extolling two-gun chivalry and virtuous maidens, roaring desperadoes and wild savages. This early form of mass media made celebrities out of characters like Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid and Belle Starr. 1918- Louella Parsons began her Hollywood Gossip column. Louella became one of the most powerful and widely read columnists in Hollywood’s golden age. Stories say Louella got as much pull as she did in the Hearst newspaper empire for helping cover up the killing of director Thomas Ince and also trying to stifle the release of Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane. 1934- Happy Birthday Donald Duck! Walt Disney's short cartoon"The Little Wise Hen". 1934- The film the Thin Man with William Powell. Myrna Loy and Asta the dog premiered. 1941- First day shooting on the film, the Maltese Falcon. It was John Huston’s first directorial effort. The studio budget was so low, Humphrey Bogart had to wear his own suits. 1950- After all appeals fail the first of the Hollywood Ten, screenwriters Dalton Trumbo, Philip Dunne, Alvah Bessie, Waldo Salt, Edward Dymtytrk, David Ogden Stewart, Ring Lardner and John Howard Lawson are sentenced to prison. In the L.A. Municipal Jail one felon greeted the leftist writers with a smile and said: "Hi Ya, Hollywood Kids!” 1976 – Chuck Barris’ the" Gong Show" premiered. Where’s Jean-Jean the Dancing Machine? 1992- Congress passed the Internet Communications Act, opening up the Internet to the public. At this time, when only defense contractors used it, the Internet had 50 websites; by 2000, it had 77 million websites, now in the hundreds of millions. 2006- Pixar film Cars released. 2160 - Montgomery Edward Scott, called Scotty or Mr. Scott, born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the engineer of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek. “ Cap’n, Ah dunno know how much more the engines can take!”

Animation Fun FActs for June 7, 2013

Birthdays: Pope Gregory XIII, Beau Brummel, Paul Gauguin, Chick Corea, George Szell, Watergate congressman Peter Rodino, Tom Jones, Jessica Tandy, James Ivory, Virginia McKenna, Liam Neeson is 61, Prince is 55 The First Friday in June is commemorated as DONUT DAY, when we reflect on the origins of the portable cake. It’s birth in 1847 is credited to a Maine sea captain Hanson Crockett Gregory. Out at sea, the old salt had his breakfast interrupted by a New England squall. So he stuck his cake onto the spoke of his ship’s wheel, while he steered out of danger, thereby creating the legendary hole. 1955- The TV quiz show The $64,000 Question premiered. 1975- This day Sony announced the first home videotape playing system, the Betamax. They were about $25,000 each, but we were promised as they became more popular the price would come down. 2002 –Kim Possible premiered on TV.

Animation Fun Facts for June 6, 2013

Birthdays: Diego Velasquez, Pierre Corneille. Alexandre Pushkin, Nathan Hale, John Trumbull, Thomas Mann, The Dalai Lama, Klaus Tennestedt, Bjorn Borg, Richard Crane, Dr. Karl Braun, Walter Chrysler, Isaiah Berlin, Aram Kharachaturian, Jason Issacs, Sandra Bernhard is 58, Paul Giamatti is 46, Aran Sorkin is 52 1939- Playright Eugene O’Neill had hit a dry spell of no writing and fears of impending Parkinsons disease. This day he got the inspiration to sketch out two outlines for two potential plays- The Iceman Cometh, and Long Days Journey into Night. 1941- Actor George Raft wrote a memo to studio head Jack Warner reminding him of his contractual commitment to send Raft only good quality scripts. The latest he got: " The Maltese Falcon" he thought was a lousy substandard idea that has no chance." Humphrey Bogart did the film instead. 1944 D-DAY, the NORMANDY INVASION- General Dwight Eisenhower launched 4,000 ships, 11,000 planes and 150,000 troops on the shores of Nazi occupied France with the order: "Okay. Let's go.". In the assault from Animation were Disney key assistant Dale Oliver as a glider pilot and Layout artist Victor Haboush. In the second wave was pvt Charles Schulz (Peanuts). Max Fleischer animator Willie Bowski was killed by enemy tank fire. 1949-Comic strip character Joe Palooka gets married to Ann Howe. 1949-BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING- George Orwell's book about technological tyranny -1984 was first published. Orwell's working title was "The Last Free Man", but the publisher thought it too depressing to sell. So Orwell picked the date 1984, who's only significance was that it was the year he was writing 1948- reversed 1955 - Bill Haley & Comets, "Rock Around the Clock" hits #1. 1972 - David Bowie releases "Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust" 1982- The film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, premiered. Besides Ricardo Montalban as the badguy with the great plastic pectorals, it features the Genesis Effect. This one minute sequence was a landmark of computer graphics effects. Done by the Lucas Graphics Group, who four years later would break off and become Pixar. 1984-In Moscow, 29 year old Mathematics Professor Alexey Pajitnov invented the game Tetris. 1991 - NBC announced Jay Leno would replace retiring Johnny Carson, winning out over David Letterman. Letterman moved to CBS.

Animation Fun Facts for June 5, 2013

Birthdays: Socrates, Pancho Villa, Thomas Chippendale -furniture maker, not male strip club owner, Igor Stravinsky, Archduchess Anastasia Romanov, Frederico Garcia Lorca, Dean Acheson, Bill Moyers is 80, Hopalong Cassidy, Tony Richardson, Kenny G., Lancelot Ware the founder of Mensa, Spaulding Gray, Ron Livingston is 46, Mark Wahlberg is 42 1964 - Davie Jones & King Bees debut "I Can't Help Thinking About Me," The group disbanded but Davie Jones went on to success after changing his name to David Bowie. 1998- Walt Disney’s Muhlan premiered. 1998- Reuters and ABC News erroneously reported the death of 96 year old Bob Hope. Arizona Congressman Robert Stump announced the comedian’s death on the floor of the House, to the great surprise of Bob Hope who was eating breakfast while watching TV at the time. Bob Hope lived four more years, dying at age 100.

Animation Fun Facts for June 4, 2013

Birthdays: King George III, Alvah Bessie, Rosalind Russell, Gene Barry, Dennis Weaver, Robert Merrill, Bruce Dern, Andrea Jaeger, Dr Ruth Westheimer, Freddy Fender, Rachael Griffiths, Noah Wylie is 42, Russell Brand is 38, Angela Jolie is 38 1938- Date of the infamous Walt Disney Studio crew party to celebrate the success of Snow White. The young artists, released of tension and filled with booze, swapped bedrooms and galloped horses through the Hotel Norconian sending Walt and Roy fleeing the scene for fear of bad publicity. 1947- The film "A Miracle on 34th St." opened. Starring Maureen O’Hara, Edmund Gwen and 8 year old Natalie Wood. 1951- Tony Curtis married Janet Leigh. The result was to produce Jamie Leigh-Curtis. 1965- The Rolling Stones release the single "Satisfaction". 1967- The television show "The Monkees" win the Emmy award for Best Comedy. go figure... The producers of the Pre-Fab Four raise enough money and clout to fund later projects like the hit movie Easy Rider. This same ceremony saw Bill Cosby become the first African-American to win an Emmy, this for his role in the series I-Spy.

Animation Fun Facts for June 3, 2013

Birthdays: John Paul Jones, Jefferson Davis, Josephine Baker, King George V, Henry Shrapnel, Allen Ginsburg, Collen Dewhurst, Alain Renais, Curtis Mayfield, Paulette Goddard, Maurice Evans, Jack Oakey, Jan Peerce, Zoltan Korda, John Dykstra, Tom Arnold, Hale Irwin, Chuck Barris, Tony Curtis 1946- A consumer study finds there are only 10,000 television sets in America. A follow up study five years later finds the number at 12 million. 1949 - Dragnet is 1st broadcast on radio ( KFI in Los Angeles ). Creator Jack Webb wanted to capture the dry, non-theatrical delivery he heard real cops use. He ordered his actors to “stop acting, just read the lines”. Webb wrote the scripts from real LAPD cases and starred as well. One of the editors on the show was Roy Disney Jr. 1967 - Aretha Franklin's "Respect" reaches #1. Sockittome, sockittome, sockittome. 1968- Artist Andy Warhol was shot in the gut three times by Valerie Solanas, author of the "SCUM Manifesto". Warhol barely lived. Solanas was institutionalized. 1976 –Galileo-Galileo Fig-a-ro! Queen's single "Bohemian Rhapsody" goes gold. 1980- President Jimmy Carter announced the United States would boycott the 1980 summer Olympic Games in Moscow because of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. The Russians boycotted the LA Olympics in 1984. This made NBC drop programing like Steve Lissbergers animated Animalympics.

Animation Fun Facts for June 2, 2013

Birthdays: John Randolph, The Marquis DeSade, Martha Washington, Thomas Hardy, Hedda Hopper, Sir Edward Elgar, Johnny Weismuller, Charlie Watts, Disney animation story artist Dick Heumer, Lotte Reinniger Marvin Hamlisch, Barry Levinson, Jon Peters, Dana Carvey, Garo Yepremian, Jerry Mathers the Beaver of the old TV show Leave it to Beaver, Dayvid Haysbert is 59, Lasse Halstrom is 67 1896- Gugielmo Marconi took out a patent on wireless broadcasting - radio. At the time his device could be heard from almost 12 miles away ! 1940-Will Eisner's "The Spirit" comic first appears. 1956- Elvis Presley introduced his song “ You Ain’t Nothin But a Hound Dog” on the Milton Berle TV show. 1961- Humorist writer George F. Kaufman died. He wanted on his headstone: "Over My Dead Body!" 1973- London animator Richard Williams closed down his Soho studio for a month so his staff could be lectured by Hollywood animation legends Art Babbitt, Chuck Jones and Ken Harris.

Animation Fun Facts for June 1, 2013

Birthdays: Brigham Young, Marilyn Monroe would be 87, Pat Boone, Mikhail Glinka, Red Grooms, Karl Von Clausewitz, Andy Griffith, Morgan Freeman is 76, Nelson Riddle, Lisa Hartman, Cleavon Little, Frederica Von Stade, Powers Booth, Rene Aubergjenois, Lisa Hartman, Brian Cox is 67, Heidi Klum is 40 1931- 48 year old Swiss artist Albert Hurter joined the Disney staff, giving the look of cartoons like Snow White a more Germanic storybook look. His hiring created a new type of job at the studio, an Inspirational Sketch Artist, what we call today a Vis-Dev artist. 1933 - Charlie Chaplin wed actress Paulette Goddard 1936 - "Lux Radio Theater" moved from NYC to Hollywood. 1939- SUPERMAN- Joe Seigel and Jerry Shuster, two aspiring cartoonists in High School create a character called “Superman”. Jewish kids, they had read about the Nazis racial concept of the Aryan Superman. They wanted to show a Superman could be on the American side. On this day they sell all the rights to their characters to Detective Comics (D.C.) for $130. When the first megabudget Superman movie was being made in the 1976, the National Cartoonist's Society pointed out that Seigel and Schuster were now poverty stricken. They never shared a nickel of the multi-millions their creation had generated. Seigel was blind and Schuster delivered sandwiches from a local deli. The publicity forced Warner Bros and DC Comics to award them and their families pensions for life. 1967 –Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the US and it immediately goes gold. 1968 - Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" hits #1 1979- Gannett News Services began USA Today, called by some critic's- 'MacPaper'. 1980- Ted Turner started CNN news channel.