Tom Sito's Animation Almanac for June 4, 2023

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 52, Russell Brand is 48, Angelina Jolie is 48

1666- Moliere’s play "Le Misanthrope" premiered.

1896- Henry Ford tests out his automobile with headlights in a nighttime drive around Detroit.

1916 - Mildred J Hill, one of the two Hill sisters who composed the song Happy Birthday To You, died at 56.

1938- Date of the famous Walt Disney Studio Hotel Norconian crew party to celebrate the success of Snow White. Walt picked the resort because when he first held a party at the studio, the crew trashed the place. One animator drunkenly fell out of a window. It was a first floor window, so he was unhurt. This party, billed Walt’s Field Day, featured golf, horse riding and swimming. But the young, mostly single artists (average age 26), released of stress and filled with booze, swapped bedrooms and galloped horses through the hotel corridors. After a while  Walt and Roy fled the scene for fear of bad publicity. 

1942- Capitol Records opened for business.

1947- The film "A Miracle on 34th St." opened. Starring Maureen O’Hara, Edmund Gwen and 8 year old Natalie Wood.

1951- The Supreme Court upholds the anti-Communist Smith Act. This act stated you could be fired from your job or jailed even on a suspicion that you were a communist, no proof required.

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 raised enough money 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.

1977- The Apple II went on sale. 

1982- The film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, premiered. Besides Ricardo Montalban as the badguy with the great 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- Bruce Springsteen released “Born in the USA.”