Monday, January 17, 2022

Tom Sito's Animation Almanac for Jan 17, 2022


Birthdays: Benjamin Franklin, Max Sennett-1880, Al Capone, Ethan G. Hodell 1883- the inventor of the Tow-Truck, Constantin Stanislavsky, Moira Shearer, Shari Lewis, Vidal Sassoon, Claude Coats, Denny Doyle, Kevin Reynolds, Muhammad Ali, Jim Carrey is 60, Michelle Obama is 58, Zooey Deschanel is 42, James Earl Jones is 91, animator Genndy Tartakovsky, Betty White would have been 100 today.


1775- Sheridan's Restoration comedy The Rivals premiered at Covent Garden Theater, London. 

1904- Chekov's The Cherry Orchard opened in St. Petersburg.

1926- George Burns married Gracie Allen.

1929- Elzie Segar was drawing a comic strip for Hearst’s NY Journal called The Thimble Theatre. It featured Olive Oyl, her brother Castor Oyl, and her boyfriend Ham Gravy. In this day’s strip, Ham meets an odd-looking sailor. He based on a neighbor of Segar’s, Frank Fiegel, a funny little man who liked to get into fights. Popeye the Sailor was born. 

1949- The first Volkswagen beetle automobiles arrived in North America. 

1949- The Goldbergs, a radio comedy show about a Jewish family in the Bronx, moved to television and became the first true sitcom. The show ended when Mrs. Goldberg was accused by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee of being a Communist.


1994-The Great Northridge Earthquake rocked Los Angeles. 72 deaths and 20 billion dollars in damage.  It was officially listed as 6.8 on the Richter Scale, although many persist that in some areas it was as high as 7.2. The epicenter was in the San Fernando Valley, so the valleys two major industries, animated cartoons and pornography, were temporarily disrupted.

1995- One year to the day after the Los Angeles earthquake, a massive earthquake struck Kobe Japan. The Japanese place great resources and time in earthquake preparedness, yet this 7.2 quake toppled whole freeways, killed 5,000 and left 1 1/2 million people homeless. It was the worst natural disaster in Japan since the 1923 Tokyo quake.


2000- A Complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton was offered for sale on E-Bay.



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