Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Tom Sito's animation almanac for May 15, 2024


Birthdays: Lyman Frank Baum, Claudio Monteverdi, Richard Avedon, James Mason, Joseph Cotten, George Brett, Jasper Johns, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Jean Renoir, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Trini Lopez, Charles Lamont, director of Abbott & Costello Go to Mars, country singer Eddy Arnold, Chaz Palmintieri is 71, Lainie Kazan, Joe Grant


1703- Charles Perrault died. Perrault 1628-1703 was a retired minister to French King Louis XIV, who wrote stories for children under the pseudonym Mother Goose. He created Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Puss in Boots. 



1863- Edouard Manet first displayed his Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe (Luncheon on the Grass)  at the Salon des Refuses in Paris. It was his modern interpretation of The Judgement of Paris by Renaissance master Marcantonio Raimondi. The painting is of two modern clothed men having a picnic with two nude women by a riverbank. The women aren’t portrayed as mythical goddesses or muses, but just bare, naked ladies. That shocked Paris society. Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugene called it “Immodest and obscene”. It heralded the rise of Impressionism and had been called the first masterpiece of modern art.


1903- While on a tour of Yosemite, President Teddy Roosevelt slipped away from his entourage to camp out alone under the stars with naturalist John Muir. 


1905- From a public auction of railroad land, the town of Las Vegas Nevada founded. 


1927- The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel opened for business. Named in honor of Teddy Roosevelt.


1928- Walt Disney held a private sneak preview screening of his completed cartoon Plane Crazy, featuring his new star Mickey Mouse, imitating hero Charles Lindbergh. But it was a silent cartoon, and Walt had recently been impressed by the new Talking Pictures. So, he decided to hold back the release of this cartoon and push ahead with his first sound cartoon Steamboat Willie. After the wild success of Steamboat Willie, Plane Crazy was refitted with a soundtrack and released as the 4th Mickey Mouse cartoon in 1929.


1935- The Moscow Subway system opens.


1940- The first Nylon stockings go on sale in the US.


1941- Yankee centerfielder Joe DiMaggio had been in a dry spell hitting lately. This day he got a safe hit and began a hitting streak that ran for 56 straight games, an unparalleled feat. He became America’s most famous baseball player since Babe Ruth. He was variously nicknamed Joltin’Joe, the Yankee Clipper but his teammates called him affectionately the Big Dago.


1942- The U.S. initiated a program of wartime gas rationing. Slogans like “Is this Trip Really Necessary?” and a system of ratings vehicles with A, B & C cards pop up in a lot of gas stations for the duration. C meant a war-essential worker and you went to the head of the line to get gas. B was for police, firemen and municipal workers. A cards was the lowest status i.e. the rest of us. 


1946- The first Tommy’s Burger stand opened in Los Angeles.


1952- A big fire destroyed several stages on the Warner Bros studio lot.


1953- Rocky Marciano defeated Jersey Joe Walcott for the Heavyweight Championship.


1963 – Folk group Peter, Paul & Mary won their first Grammy for, “If I Had a Hammer”.


1967- Paul McCartney first met his first wife Linda Eastman.


1968 - Paul McCartney & John Lennon appear on the Johnny Carson Show to promote

Apple records, Joe Garagiola was the substitute host. 


1970 – A month after their breakup, The Beatles' last album, "Let It Be," is released in US.




2019- The Sci-Fi animated series Love, Death and Robots premiered




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