Saturday, September 9, 2023

Tom Sito's Animation Almanac for Sept. 9, 2023


Birthdays: Antonio Frescobaldi, Captain William Bligh, Jimmy the Greek Snyder, Joe Theismann, Cliff Robertson, Angela Cartwright, Alf Landon, Dee-Dee Sharpe who sang the 60's R&B hit the Mashed Potato, Michael Keaton, Don Mattingly, Otis Redding, Anita Ekberg, Topol, Colonel Lyman Sanders the creator of Kentucky Fried Chicken, James Hilton-writer who created the name for paradise- Shangri-La, in his novel Lost Horizons. Adam Sandler is 57, Michelle Williams is 43, Hugh Grant is 64


1776- The Continental Congress officially changed the name of the United Colonies to the United States of America.


1892 - E E Barnard at Lick discovered Amalthea, the 5th moon of Jupiter.


1908- THE PATENTS TRUST- Thomas Edison, Charles Pathe and Leon Gaumont form the Motion Picture Patents Group. Called the "Trust". Their attempt to monopolize movie production and strangle off the independents had a lot to do with the early filmmakers relocating to Los Angeles. Otherwise the film capitol of the world would have been Ft. Lee, New Jersey.  The only positive result of the trust was they enforced a regular industry standard for film stock of 35 mm running at 24 frames per second. It seems the Mitchell Camera Company was developing a motorized motion picture camera to replace the hand crank variety, but they needed an official speed to set it at. In a contentious meeting of the Trust held at the Waldorf Astoria no one could settle on a single speed. Finally, the compromise was made to make it the number of delegates in the room- 24.


1926 – The National Broadcasting Company or NBC created by the Radio Corporation of America, RCA. Under the direction of David Sarnoff it became the powerhouse network of broadcasting, recording and later television.


1939- The first Andy Panda cartoon.


1939- The first day of shooting on Charlie Chaplin’s film the Great Dictator. The first day was the ghetto street scene. One of his distributors grumbled “By the time Chaplin finishes his movie, people won’t even remember who Hitler ever was.”


1949- “Top of the World, Ma!” White Heat, with James Cagney premiered.


1950 - 1st use of TV laugh track, invented by Hank McCune.


1951 - 1st broadcast of the soap opera" Love of Life " on CBS-TV.


1956- Elvis Presley appeared on nationwide television on the Ed Sullivan Show. Sullivan himself had vowed never to have the kid on his show but caved in to network pressure. 


1965- LA Dodger Pitcher Sandy Koufax struck out 14 Cubs to win his perfect game and 4th shutout in one season. 


1967- Jay Ward’s show George of the Jungle premiered, with Super Chicken and Tom Slick sequences.


1982- Princess Grace of Monaco, the former movie actress Grace Kelly, died in a car accident on the mountainous hill roads of Monaco. She was 52. Twenty years earlier in the film To Catch a Thief, Alfred Hitchcock had her drive her car at dangerous speeds over the exact same hairpin turns.


1985- She-Ra the Princess of Power premiered on TV.



1995- Pinky and the Brain premiered.


2002- Martin Strehl, "the Swimming Slovenian" completed his swim down the entire length of the Mississippi River from Lake Athabasaca Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico in 68 days. To prevent infection from swallowing industrial pollution in the water, he daily gargled with Hydrogen Peroxide.


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