Tom Sito's Animation Almanac for Dec 7, 2023

 Question: Which comedian was not born Jewish? Gary Shandling, Larry David, Danny Thomas, Woody Allen.

Yesterday’s Question Answered below: Who were not a famous comedy team of the 1930s? The Marx Bros. Abbott and Costello, The Smothers Brothers, Olsen & Johnson.

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History for 12/7/2023

Birthdays: Willa Cather, Larry Bird, Piero Mascagni, Madame Tussaud-1761, Johnny Bench, Louis Prima, Ted Knight –born Wladsyslaw Konopka, Victor Kiam II, Noam Chomsky, Ellen Burstyn-real name Edna Mae Gilhooley, Harry Chapin, Clarence Nash the original voice of Donald Duck, Eli Wallach, Tom Waits is 74, Jeffrey Wright is 59

HAPPY HANUKKAH - Tonight begins the Hebrew Festival of Lights commemorating the victories in 164BCE of the priest-general Judas Maccabeus (Maccabeus means The Hammer) against the Syrian Greeks. When the re-lit lamp in the purified Temple of Solomon burned for eight days on one day’s oil. Hanukah or Chanukah means Rededication.  

The ancient state of Israel had been conquered by Babylon then Persia and finally by Alexander the Great. After Alexander's death his Greek generals divided up his empire and Israel found itself on the border between the Kingdom of Seleucus and Ptolomey's Egypt. This power struggle enabled the Jewish state to reassert its independence by playing one side against the other until the Romans kicked everyone's butt. The Greek descendant of Seleucus, Antiochus IV Theos Epiphanes- “God Made Manifest” thought this one-God stuff weird and Jews should be praying to Hercules and Apollo like every other self-respecting ancient citizen. He plundered the Temple of Solomon for gold and even tried to command Jews to eat Pork on pain of death. 

The Jews reasserted their faith with such vigor that even when they fell under Roman rule Julius Caesar left specific instructions that Jewish customs and Sabbath be protected.  So, spin a dradle, light the candle, have some Hanukah gelt and enjoy! 

1842- The New York Philharmonic, the oldest symphony orchestra in the U.S., gave its first concert, performing works of Beethoven under the baton of Ureli Corelli Hill.

1872- The Los Angeles Library Association formed.

1919- “Blind Husbands” premiered, the first film by Erich Von Stroheim. Originally a Viennese hat salesman, Stroheim cultivated his Germanic aristocratic image on the silver screen. The premiere issue of the New Yorker in 1923 glibly noted how “Mr. Stroheim has grown himself a very stylish “Von” in the Southern California Sun”.

1927- Olympic swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 150-meter freestyle, one minute 25 and 2/5th seconds. He competed in two Olympics and was never beaten. He later went to Hollywood and was the star of the Tarzan movies.

1942- An RAF bomber pilot named Lumsden filed a report about seeing a UFO following his plane in the night skies over the English Channel. British pilots nicknamed the unexplained lights Foo Fighters, then a popular phrase in a comic strip Smokey Stover.

1972- The astronauts of Apollo 17 took the first detailed photograph of Earth from space. Today we call it The Blue Marble photo. It helped energize the environmental movement.

1974- The disco song “Kung Fu Fighting” by Carl Douglas hit #1 in the pop charts.

1995- The Galileo space probe went into an orbit around Jupiter.