Tom Sito's animation almanac for June 2, 2023

Birthdays: John Randolph, The Marquis DeSade, Martha Custis Washington, Thomas Hardy, Ludwig Roselius the inventor of decaf coffee 1874, Hedda Hopper, Sir Edward Elgar, Johnny Weismuller, Charlie Watts, Disney 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 is 75, Dennis Haysbert is 69, Lasse Halstrom is 77

1896- Guglielmo Marconi took out a patent on wireless broadcasting - radio.

 At the time his device could be heard from almost 12 miles away!

1920- Eugene O’Neill won a Pulitzer Prize for his first play Beyond the Horizon.

1918 -In Monroe NY, Velveeta Cheese was invented by Swiss immigrant Emil Frey as a way to recycle damaged and partially used cheese wheels. 

1932- The Screen Publicists Guild formed

1940- Will Eisner's "The Spirit" comic first appears.

1952 - Maurice Olley of General Motors began designing the Corvette.

1956- Elvis Presley introduced his hit song “You Ain’t Nothin But a Hound Dog” on the Milton Berle TV show.

1958- An L.A. referendum allowed the county to buy Chavez Ravine from its inhabitants to build Dodger Baseball Stadium.

1961-Pulitzer Prize winning writer George S. Kaufman died. Playwright, humorist and critic who wrote Dinner at Eight, You Can’t Take it With You, and Stage Door.  He was 71.  He requested the epitaph on his headstone read:  "Over My Dead Body!"

50th Anniv 1973- London animator Richard Williams closed down his Soho studio for one month so his staff could be tutored by old Hollywood animation legends Art Babbitt, Chuck Jones, Grim Natwick, and Ken Harris. 

1991- MTV’s nighttime show Liquid Television premiered with Peter Chung’s Aeon Flux.

1996- Ray Combs took over the job as host of the TV game show Family Feud after Richard Dawson, hanged himself with his bed sheets at Glendale Adventist Hospital. Richard Dawson was the British POW in the popular TV show Hogan’s Heroes.

2017- Wonder Woman, directed by Patti Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot, premiered.