Tom Sito's animation almanac for Sept. 30, 2024

Birthdays: William Wrigley the Chewing Gum king 1868, Truman Capote, Eli Weisel, Lester Maddox, Buddy Rich, David Oistrach, Deborah Kerr, Angie Dickinson, Marylin McCoo, Len Cariou, Johnny Mathis, Rula Lenska, Eric Stolz, Monica Bellucci is 60, Jenna Elfman is 53, Fran Drescher is 67, Marion Cotillard is 49, Hollywood stuntman Al Leong (Al KaBong) is 72

 

 

1791- Mozart's opera "Die Zauberflotte, The Magic Flute" premiered at Emanuel Schiknader's theater in Vienna. 

 

1846- Dr. William Morton first pulled a tooth using ether as an anesthetic.

 

1868- Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women first published in installments.

 

 

1919- The Fleischer Brother's first Out of the Inkwell cartoon featuring Koko the Clown. Koko was rotoscoped- meaning traced from live action like Motion Capture does today. Dave Fleischer put on the clown suit and was filmed by his brother Max.

 

1928- In New York, Walt Disney and his crew re-recorded the final music for the first Mickey Mouse short, Steamboat Willie. Walt was unhappy with the sync on first version of the track, and pawned his car for the money to pay for this second session. Ub Iwerks rigged up special print of the film with a bouncing ball on screen for the musicians to follow.

 

1930- Death Valley Days Show premiered on radio, sponsored by Twenty Mule Team Borax powder. When it moved to television in the 50’s the host was Ronald Reagan.

 

1935- George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess premiered at the Colonial Theater in Boston. It flopped originally, but after some rewrites it became a major hit.

 

1939- With war breaking out across the world, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky moved to the USA. After living in Boston and New York he settled in LA for the next 25 years.

 

 

1947- The first World Series Game on Television- New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-3. Gillette and Ford paid $65,000 to sponsor the entire series.

 

1952- This Is Cinerama, showcasing the widescreen film process, opened in theaters.

 

1955- James Dean (24) was killed when his Porsche 550 Spyder crashed head on into a pickup truck driven by college student Donald Turnipseed on Highway 41 outside of Paso Robles, California. Dean was driving 85 mph at dusk without his headlights on, and two hours earlier had been given a ticket for speeding. 

1960- On a Friday night on ABC, Hanna & Barbera's "The Flintstones" debuted. For six seasons the inhabitants of 301 Cobblestone Lane, Bedrock, was one of the most successful TV series ever. Originally going to be named the Flagstones, then Gladstones, before Flintstones. Ed Benedicts' designs with Alan Reed as the voice of Fred, Jean Van Der Pyl the voice of Wilma, Mel Blanc doing Barney and Bea Benaderet doing Betty. 

  

 

1965- The British show Thunderbirds premiered on ITV TV. Thunderbirds are go.

 

 

1975- Disney animator Les Clark, one of the Nine Old Men, retired.

 

1982- The TV comedy Cheers premiered. The Beacon Street Bar in Boston where everybody knows your name. It made stars of Ted Danson, Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley and Kelsey Grammar.

 

1988- “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin went to #1 in the pop charts. The first a-carpella song to ever do that.

 

2021- The Academy Museum of the Motion Picture opened to the public. 

Tom Sito's animation almanac for Sept. 29, 2024

Birthdays: Roman general Pompey Magnus, Miguel de Cervantes, Admiral Horatio Nelson, Rudolph Diesel (inventor of the engine), Enrico Fermi, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gene Autrey, Lech Walesa, Stanley Kramer, Bryant Gumbel, Greer Garson, Michelangelo Antonioni, Ian McShane, Anita Ekberg, Russ Heath, Tom Sizemore, Emily Lloyd is 55, Silvio Berlusconi

1930- Ninety-year-old writer George Bernard Shaw refused the offer of a Peerage.

1930- First day of shooting on the Tod Browning horror classic Dracula. Hungarian actor and morphine addict Bela Lugosi played the lead role he had already made famous on stage. Lugosi was identified with the character Dracula for the rest of his life. When he died, he was buried in the Dracula cape.

1933- The movie A Bill of Divorcement introduced the star Katherine Hepburn.

1936- Leaders of the Spanish Fascist Phalange forces vote Gen. Francisco Franco "Il Caudillo- the Leopard", their overall leader, or Generalissimo.

1938- Walt Disney brought 60 of his lead artists to a soundstage and told them of his plans for an animated concert feature, to be called Fantasia. He finished by running the work reel for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, originally begun as a Mickey Mouse short. 

1953- The television show “Make Room for Daddy” premiered, making a star out of big nosed nightclub entertainer Danny Thomas. The Lebanese Thomas had tried to break into films like other nightclub stars, but with no luck.  He burst into tears after Columbia studio chief Harry Cohn suggested he get a nose job and forget about it. Danny Thomas at one time was the richest man in Beverly Hills. 

1959- Hanna Barbera's "Quick Draw McGraw" TV show. Baba Louie, Snooper and Blabb and Augie-Doggie and Doggie-Daddy.

1961- Russian ballet star Rudolph Nureyev, acclaimed as the greatest dancer of his age, defected to the west in Paris and was granted asylum. 

1967- The cult TV series The Prisoner premiered. 

1969- The TV series Love American Style premiered.

1969- Country singer Merle Haggard released the song “I’m Proud to be an Oakie from Muskogee”. It was a huge hit on the country charts, but more than that, it was a conservative declaration of cultural war of against the urban-hippy, liberal rock & roll counterculture that dominated American media at the time. It focused rural anger into an already polarized American public debate. 

1975- The legendary R&B singer Jackie Wilson, collapsed of a heart attack while performing on stage for Dick Clark’s ‘Good Ol’ Rock and Roll Revue’ at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, N.J. He lingered in an out of a coma for 8 years, dying in 1984. He was only 49. All the time he was comatose, Dick Clark paid all his medical bills, and kept it a secret.  This wasn’t revealed until Clark himself died in 2012.

1976- At his birthday party musician Jerry Lee Lewis accidentally shot his bass player Norman Owens in the chest with his 357 magnum. He said he was using the gun to try and open a soft drink bottle and it accidentally went off. Owens survived and sued Lewis.

1996- The first Nintendo 64-bit game system, The NES, debuted in the US. It sold 500,000 units the first day. .

Tom Sito's Animation Almanac for Sept. 28, 2024

 Birthdays: Michel Caravaggio, Georges Clemenceau, Al Kapp, William Paley, Max Schmelling, Frederic Engels, Marcello Mastroianni, Moon Unit Zappa, Ed Sullivan, Sylvia Kristel, John Sayles, Arnold Stang, J.T. Walsh, Seymour Cray, Janeane Garofalo is 60, Mira Sorvino is 57, Hillary Duff is 37, Naomi Watts is 56, George Scribner, Bridgette Bardot is 90

  

1924 -the first airplane flight around the world landed back at its point of departure. Commander Leslie Arnold took off from Seattle with 5 converted torpedo bomber seaplanes. One crashed, another sank but the remaining three circumnavigated the globe. They completed the journey in 175 days, making 74 stops and covering 27,550 miles.

 

1928- For his birthday, William Paley, son of a cigar manufacturer, was given control of a little radio company called the Columbia Broadcasting System. He turned CBS into a corporate broadcasting giant and threw his support behind developing television and long-playing records.

 

1929- USC first played UCLA in a football game. USC won 76-0. Play was suspended for a few years because of UCLA revamping its program, but resumed regularly in 1935. A sportswriter at the time wrote: "In years to come, this game will probably be one of the top football spectacles of the West"

 

1935- Mickey Mouse short On Ice, premiered.

 

 

1958- HB’s The Huckleberry Hound Show premiered. 

 

1960- Ted Williams hit a home run at his last at-bat. Number 521.

 

1961- Richard Chamberlain made a name for himself by playing the handsome Dr. Kildare on TV, Raymond Massey co-starred.

 

1961-The Hazel TV show with Shirley Booth premiered.

 

1961- Tennessee Tuxedo and his Friends Show premiered. Don Adams (Get Smart) did the lead voice.

 

1967- Speed Racer premiered in the U.S. 

 

1976- Stevie Wonder released his album Songs in the Key of Life.

 

1987- Star Trek the Next Generation premiered.

 

1994- Michael Eisner cancelled plans for a theme park called Disney’s America in Northern Virginia. The idea was dropped after much resistance from local homeowners in Northern Virginia. Many of them were retired Washington D.C. power brokers, who didn’t want a huge noisy theme park next to their quiet estates.

 

1996- The Ambiguously Gay Duo premiered on the Dana Carvey Show. Created by SNL writer Robert Smigel. J.J. Sedelmier created the animation, Steve Carrell and Stephen Colbert did the voices.

 

2015- Scientists discovered liquid water on the planet Mars.

  

Tom Sito's animation almanac for Sept 27,2024

 Birthdays: King Stefan Bathory of Poland, Thomas Nast, Arthur Penn, Mike Schmidt, Meatloaf, William Conrad, Dick Schapp, Samuel Adams, George Cruikshank, Jayne Meadows, Wilford Brimley, Shaun Cassidy, Greg Morris, Amanda Detmer, Avril Lavigne is 40, Gwyneth Paltrow is 52

                                                                                                                                    .

 

1771-Young artist Francisco Goya entered a scholarship competition sponsored by the Art Academy of Parma.  He lost to an artist named Bettino. Judges said about Goya’s work: "Crude and ugly colors".

 

 

1934- The character of Oliver “ Daddy” Warbucks first appeared in Harold Gray’s comic strip Little Orphan Annie.

 

1935- 13-year-old singer Frances Gumm of the singing Gumm Sisters signed an exclusive contract with MGM Pictures. Louis B. Mayer changed Frances’ name to Judy Garland.

 

1937- J R Tolkien’s’ The Hobbit first appeared in bookshops.

 

1938- Bob Hope first sang his signature tune “Thanks For the Memory” on his NBC radio show. It became a hit in his movie appearance in “The Big Broadcast of 1938.”

 

 

1947- Disney’s film Fun and Fancy Free, featuring Mickey and the Beanstalk.

 

 

1954- The Tonight Show premiered. Steve Allen was the first host.

 

1961- Hanna Barbera's "Top Cat" show premiered. Do you remember the words to the theme song..?  "Top Cat, the most effectual- Top Cat, who's intellectual: Close friends get to call him T.C., Providing it's with dignity. Top Cat, the indisputable leader of the gang... He's the Boss. He's a pip. he's the championship, He's the most tip-top, Top Cat !"

 

1962- Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring was published. The best seller first brought to the public’s eye how indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides, particularly DDT, was damaging the environment and killing off wildlife.

 

 

1977- Bob McKimson, Warner animation, director of many Looney Tune shorts, collapsed and died of heart failure in front of Friz Freleng and Yosemite Sam animator Gerry Chiniquy while having lunch. He was 66. Fellow animator Art Leonardi had asked Bob for a souvenir drawing that morning, Bob drew him a Bugs Bunny but as he was leaving Art reminded him that he neglected to sign it. Bob said as he walked out "Oh, I'll get to it after lunch..."

 

1989- The Japanese corporate giant Sony purchased Columbia Pictures.

 

 

2003- Hours after the season’s final concert, in the dead the night, the historic bandshell at the Hollywood Bowl was demolished. After a long legal fight with preservationists, the historic 1929 structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, that Gershwin and Stokowski played in, was replaced with a new shell with better acoustics. 

 

 

 

tom sito's animation almanac for sept 25, 2024

Birthdays: George Gershwin, T.S. Elliot, John Chapman (also known as Johnny Appleseed)-1774, Winsor McCay-1869, Theodore Gericault -1791, Olivia Newton-John, Cheryl Tiegs is 76, Marty Robbins, Pope Paul VI, Jack Lalanne, Melissa Sue Andersen, Phillip Bosco, James Cavaziel, Surena Williams, Linda Hamilton is 68.

 

 

1820- In Defiance, Missouri, 85 year old frontier scout Daniel Boone died of acute fever and indigestion after eating too many yams. He did all of his exploring without a compass. Someone once asked him - Didn't you ever get lost? He replied, No, but I was bewildered once for three days...

 

1835- Donizetti’s opera Lucia De Lammermoor premiered.

 

1887- Emile Berliner patented the gramophone, rejecting Thomas Edison's cylinder recording in favor of a flat disc record on a turntable.

 

1892- The John Philip Sousa Band makes its first public appearance.

 

1920- The NFL, National Football League, created.

 

1926- Bullock's Wilshire department store opened. Their Tea Room quickly became the in-place for Hollywood Society to see and be seen in.

 

1937- "Queen of the Blues" Singer Bessie Smith died after a car accident in Mississippi. She crashed her Packard into a parked car. She was 43. One account said she died because she was refused treatment in a segregated hospital, but the truth was she was treated by a white doctor at the scene and sent to the nearest hospital, which was a black one.

 

1941- Max Fleischer's first Superman cartoon “ The Mad Scientist” debuts. The first animated action-adventure short. There had not been a serious cartoon since Winsor McCay’s Sinking of the Lusitania in 1918. The Superman’s were much more expensive that the usual short cartoons- $90,000 to the usual $40,000, but Paramount wanted them. It was nominated for an Academy Award.

 

 

1955- Eddie Fisher married Debbie Reynolds.

 

1957- The musical West Side Story opened. The legend goes composer Leonard Bernstein was in the hospital to be operated on for a deviated septum. While recuperating he ran into lyricist Steven Sondheim, who was also recovering from an operation. To pass the time while convalescing they started talking about the idea of an updated Romeo and Juliet set to music in the slums. One early idea for the title was Gang Way!

 

1961-Nineteen year old folk singer Bob Dylan made his debut in a Greenwich Village coffee house Gerde’s Folk City.

 

 

1962- The Beverly Hillbillies debuts. The story goes that CBS mogul William Paley disliked farm-humor type shows, and this project was greenlit behind his back, while he was on vacation. “ Well, Dawgies!”

 

1964- The premiere of Gilligan’s Island. The good ship Minnow was named for Newton  Minnow, the FCC Chairman who first called television “A Vast Wasteland”. Actress Natalie Schafer, who played the wife of millionaire Thurston Howell III, really was a millionaire. She took the role just for the free trip to Hawaii.

 

 

1987- A market research group called Q-5 tried to use a bank of computers number-crunching demographic surveys to design the ultimate safe, wholesome, politically-correct children's show.  They came up with "The Little Clowns of Happytown"-. Of the 26 children's series in syndication it remained dead last in ratings, He-Man, Jem and G.I. Joe on top. The people had spoken.

 

1990- The Motion Picture Association changed the rating for the naughtiest movies from X to NC-17.

  

 

2004- Florida gets hit with its fourth hurricane in six weeks. Hurricane Jean killed 6 and caused billions in damage. The last time Florida was hit by that many hurricanes was in 1886. 

 

 

tom sito's animation almanac for sept. 25, 2024

Birthdays: William Faulkner, Jean Phillipe Rameau, Mark Rothko, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Bondarchuk, Phil Rizzutto the Scooter, Bob MacAdoo, Christopher Reeve, Glen Gould, Barbera Walters, Red Smith, Aldo Ray, Heather Locklear is 62, Will Smith, Michael Douglas 80 & Catherine Zeta-Jones-56, Mark Hamill is 73

1690- The first American newspaper published in Boston; " Publick Occurances Both Foreign and Domestick, Issue Number One" There was no number two because the Royal Governor of Massachusetts colony promptly closed it down.

1849- Johann Strauss Sr. was found naked and dead in his apartment. He was 45. The Waltz King had abandoned his wife and three sons and moved in with his mistress. He caught scarlet fever from one of his illegitimate children and quickly succumbed. As soon as he was cold his girlfriend stripped him of his possessions and fled. Despite this, Johann Strauss was given a grand funeral through Vienna. 100,000 people attended. It was said “Strauss died like a dog and was buried like a king.” His estranged son Johann Strauss Jr. went on to even greater success.

1887- The first Sears Catalog published.

1888- The beginning of the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Hound of the Baskervilles.

1890- Spurred on by the writings of John Muir and John Wesley Powell, Congress created Yosemite National Park in California. 

1911- Groundbreaking in Boston for Fenway Park.

1926- Henry Ford announced a 40 hour, 5 day work week for his employees. Willingly!

1928- Walt Disney wrote to his brother Roy and lead animator Ub Iwerks, “Carl’s (Stalling) idea of a Skeleton Dance as a musical novelty has been growing on me…” 

1953- Alfred Hitchcock wrapped filming on his only 3D film, Dial M for Murder.

1961- Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color debuted on NBC TV today. Moved over from ABC. This episode introduced the character Ludwig von Drake.

1965- The Beatles animated cartoon show premiered. 

1975- The Rocky Horror Picture Show opened. The movie version of the successful cult stage musical. Let’s Do the Time Warp Again.

1980- John Bonham of Led Zeppelin was found dead of alcohol poisoning.

1984- THE RUBBERHEAD STRIKE- Disneyland workers including the actors who stroll the park in big Mickey and Goofy heads went on strike.

1992- Michael Mann’s epic film, “The Last of the Mohicans” premiered. “I will find you!”

Tom Sito's animation almanac for Sept. 24, 2024

Birthdays: Roman Emperor Vitellius, Duke Albrecht Wallenstein, Chief Justice John Marshall, Francis Scott Key, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Raft, Chief Joseph, Sheila MacCrae, Anthony Newley. Phil Hartman, Mean Joe Greene, Billy Bletcher the voice of Pegleg Pete, Jim Henson, Pedro Almodovar is 74, Brad Bird is 67.

 

 

1906- Teddy Roosevelt designated Devils Tower Wyoming as our first national monument. Teddy’s desire to preserve natural resources was blocked by Congressmen bribed by rich developers. So, he circumvented Congress and by Presidential Executive order declared the entire mountain a national monument. 

 

1934- Stanford graduate Frank Thomas was rooming in LA and taking extra classes Chouinard when another Stanford grad Ollie Johnston told him the Walt Disney studio was hiring. This was Franks first day at the Walt Disney studio. An uninterrupted record of success until his retirement in 1978.

 

1936- Babe Ruth's last appearance in a baseball game. 

Yankees lost to Boston 5-0.

 

1936- Noel Coward's play 'Private Lives' opened.

 

1937- Mickey short Hawaiian Holiday.

 

1938- Bob Clampett's cartoon "Porky in Wackyland" ( Foo!)

 

1938- Tennis champion Dan Budge won the US Open in Forrest Hills. Budge became the first person to win a Grand Slam, all four major tennis meets in one year- Wimbledon, French Open now called Roland Garros, Australian Open and Forrest Hills, now called the US Open.

 

 

 

1953-UPA's "Unicorn in the Garden" directed by Bill Hurtz, based on the cartoon style and story by James Thurber.

 

1953- The movie "The Robe" premiered, the first movie in CinemaScope. It's success was part of a wave of 'Sword & Sandal" epics and fostered many variations on wide screen processes- Superama,VistaVision, Dynarama, WarnerVision, TotalScope-etc.

Fox had actually finished an earlier picture Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, but studio chief Darryl Zanuck held it for The Robe, because a costume spectacular was a better way to showcase the technique.

 There had been earlier experiments with wide screen - Abel Gance's 1925 Napoleon, which used three 35mm images shown simultaneously, and The Big Trail 1930, which was a true wide screen 70mm film starring a very young John Wayne. It was superseded by 1967 by the more advanced Panavision lens. For many years in Hollywood, we called a wide screen formatted picture a "Scope" picture.

 

1960- The "Howdy Doody Time" children's show ended after thirteen years. The show remains a pivotal memory in the minds of thousands of American baby-boomers who grew up in the fifties. As the last song and the last credits rolled by, just before the cameras switched off, Clarabell the mute clown goes up to the lens and in a haunting voice said; "Goodbye, Kids."

 

1964- The Munsters TV comedy starring Fred Gwynne, Yvonne DeCarlo and Al Lewis premiered.

 

1968- CBS T.V. show "60 Minutes" debuted. Mike Wallace was pared with Harry Reasoner. The show was originally aired Tuesday nights at 10PM and fared poorly in the ratings. When it was moved to Sundays at 7:00PM it became a weekly institution.

 

1970- The Odd Couple TV show with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman premiered.

 

1977- The TV series “The Love Boat “debuted.

 

Tom Sito's Animation Almanac for Sept 23, 2024

Birthdays: Euripides-484BC, Zheng Hu (Chinese Explorer)1371,  Victoria Woodhull, Walter Lippmann, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Mickey Rooney, Julio Inglesias, Walter Pidgeon, Louise Nevelson, Jason Alexander, Mary Kay Place, Harry Connick Jr, Bruce Springsteen is 75, William Holmes McGuffey

 

1846- The planet Neptune discovered by Johann Gottleib Gala. We did not know it had rings like Saturn until the Voyager 2 space probe visited in 1989.

 

1862- writer Leo Tolstoy married Sophie Behrs.

 

 

1889- The Nintendo Company started in Kyoto, They began by making hand-painted playing cards, very popular with the Yakuza. In 1956 they transitioned to electronics, and invented Donkey-Kong, Gameboys, Pokemon and The Legend of Zelda.

 

 

1912- "Cohen Collects a Debt" Max Sennett's first film comedy featuring the Keystone Kops.

 

 

1937- Mickey Mouse cartoon The Brave Littler Tailor premiered.

 

1939- At the World’s Fair in New York a time capsule was buried not to be opened until the year 6,939. It contains a Bible, a mail order catalog and newsreels of President Franklin Roosevelt. I hope they include an explanation of what film was, and how to use it.

 

1962- H& B's show The Jetsons premiered. It was the first ABC show to be presented in color. It went for only one season, but reruns on Saturday mornings kept it in the memory of millions of children. 

 

1964- Marc Chagall painting on the ceiling of the Paris Opera House unveiled.

 

1969- the film "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" premiered. Written by William Goldman and directed by George Roy Hill. It made fortunes for stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who later started and independent film festival called Sundance.

 

1984- Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Frank Wells met the Disney Animation Dept. and were pitched storyboards for the film Basil of Baker Street, later called the Great Mouse Detective. Up to now their thinking had been to close the animation department and earn income from the licensing the existing library. Roy Disney was instrumental in insisting the animation division remain. They found the story pitch interesting, but they were really impressed when they saw the filmed story reels. (Leica Reels) That evening Eisner dictated memos to start the Disney television animation division, stagnant for over a decade.  

 

1990- Ken Burns landmark TV series The Civil War premiered. It redefined American documentary filmmaking for a generation.

 

1994- Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction premiered.

 

Tom Sito's Animation Almanac for Sept 22, 2024

Birthdays: Anne of Cleves 1515- Henry VIII’s fourth wife. Bilbo Baggins and Frodo Baggins, Mafioso Joe Valachi, Michael Farraday, Meryl Streep is 74, John Houseman, Joanie Jett, Erich Von Stronheim, Tom Lasorda, Paul Muni, Debbie Boone, John Woo is 78

Happy Fall.

3001-Bilbo Baggins left the Shire, having entrusted the one true ring to the custody of his nephew Frodo.

1925- Lon Chaney’s horror classic film The Phantom of the Opera premiered.

 1927- The Dempsey-Tunney championship fight. Tunney won in the famous 'long count', meaning the referee delayed the count because Dempsey wouldn’t return to his neutral corner. The extra time allowed Tunney to recover his wits and continue the fight to victory. Jack Dempsey had been world heavyweight champion for ten years but retired a year later.

1944- Disney short First Aiders, the first short of Minnie Mouse without Mickey.

1964- The T.V. series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. premiered. “Open Channel D, Please..”

1964- Jerome Robbins’ “The Fiddler on the Roof “ opened on Broadway. Based on the story “Tevye and His Daughters” by Sholom Aleichem in 1894. In 1953 Jerome Robbins had named names to the HUAC committee to save his career. Now on Fiddler he had to use blacklisted actors like Zero Mostel and Beatrice Arthur, who all despised him. 

1967- Farewell voyage of the Queen Mary, in service since 1936.

1976- TV show Charlie’s Angels premiered. It made a star out of Farrah Fawcett.

1979- Hanna Barbera's Super Globetrotter's Show, featuring Multi-Man, Sphere Man, Gizmo-Man, Spaghetti-Man and Fluid-Man.

1984- Michael Eisner named CEO of the Walt Disney Corporation.

1994- Friends TV show premiered.

1996- Seymour Cray, the genius engineer who designed the most powerful supercomputers for the Control Data Corporation and Cray Computers, was in a bad car accident in Colorado Springs. He died two weeks later on Oct. 5th. He was 71.

    

2011- Scientists at the CERN accelerator claimed to make a particle go faster than the speed of light, something Einstein said could not be done.

Tom Sito's animation almanac for Sept. 21, 2024

 Question: The capitol city of the Roman empire was Rome. The capitol city of the Parthian/Sassanid empire was Ctesiphon. What city was the capitol of the Kingdom of Macedon? 

 

Question Answered below: At the end of the movie Casablanca, Capt Renault tells Rick of his cousin in Brazzaville who could arrange their letters of transport. What is Brazzaville today?

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History for 9/21/2024

Birthdays: Louis Joliet of the explorers Marquette & Joliet, Chuck Jones, Gustav Holst, H.G. Wells, Stephen King, Cecil Fielder, Rob Morrow, Jay Ward, Larry Hagman, Ricky Lake, Fanny Flagg, Ethan Coen of the Coen Brothers, Leonard Cohen- not one of the Coen Brothers, Ron Cobb, Faith Hill, Jerry Bruckheimer, Nicole Richie is 44, Bill Murray is 74

Happy Birthday Chuck Jones (1912-2003)

 

 

1897- The famous column by Frank Church in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World first appeared with the answer to 8 year old Virginia O’Hanlon’s question:  "...and yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus..."

 

1915- The archaeological treasure Stonehenge was sold at auction to a barrister named Sir Cecil Chubb, who promptly donated it to the British nation. His wife thought he had gone to that auction to buy some chairs.

 

1917- The Gulf Between, the first film shot in Technicolor.

 

 

1938- This day the Long Island Express- A force 3 Hurricane slammed into New England killing 600. The Boston area was hit with 120 mile an hour winds and downtown Providence was flooded under 13 feet of water. 

1945- Disney short "Hockey Homicide" the first Sport-Goofy directed by Jack Kinney.

 

1948- the first Texaco Star Theater television show featuring a nightclub comedian named Milton Berle. Berle’s antics make him a major star and with Arthur Godfrey’s show help grow television from a scientific curiosity to the entertainment every household had to have. For ten years the U.S. public never missed Uncle Miltie on TV.

 

1957- The Perry Mason TV show with Raymond Burr premiered.

 

1961- The Washington Senators baseball club played its last game before moving to Texas to become The Texas Rangers. They lost. The US capitol would not have a hometown team again until the Nationals in 2005. Pundits would say,” Washington! First in War. First in Peace. Last in the American League.”

 

1970-first ABC Monday Night Football - Cleveland Browns defeated the NY Jets led by Broadway Joe Namath, 24-21. Announcers- Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell and retired Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dandy Don Meredith. 

 

1970- On his birthday 20 year old Bill Murray was at O’Hare Airport waiting for a plane, when he joking told another passenger he had two bombs in his suitcase. An airline attendant overheard him and called the police. They didn’t find any bombs, but they did find a bag of marijuana. He was charged a misdemeanor. Dropped out of college, His older brother got him a tryout at Chicago’s Second City Improv comedy club.

 

 

1985- “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straights hit #1 in the Billboard charts. Writer Mark Knopfler overheard two workmen in an electronics store making fun of celebrities on MTV and wrote the conversation down. The early CG animation done by London company Mainframe for the video was groundbreaking. It was done on a Bosch FGS 4000, described by one of the artists as “ A huge expensive beast designed to do weather graphics.”

 

Tom Sito's Animation Almanac for Sept 20, 2024

Birthdays: Alexander the Great -357 BC, Upton Sinclair, Jelly Roll Morton, Jay Ward, Red Auerbach, Guy Lafluer, Fernando Rey, Ann Meara, Rachel Roberts, Jonathan Hardy, Pia Lindstrom, Gary Cole, Fran Drescher, George R.R. Martin is 76, Sophia Loren is 90

1839- The SS British Queen first brought news of the invention of Photography and the Daguerreotype process to the U.S. Soon everyone is happily snapping away.

 

1853- Elisha Otis revolutionized tall building construction by demonstrating his elevator that didn’t fall when the cable was cut.

 

1947- Tex Avery’s MGM cartoon Slap Happy Lion.

 

1952- CBS premiered the Jackie Gleason Show- The Honeymooners".

 

1952- Chuck Jones’ short Rabbit Seasoning, second of his Bugs-Daffy hunting trilogy.

 

1955- The Phil Silvers Show, originally entitled You’ll Never Get Rich debuted on CBS. Silvers played con-man soldier Sgt. Bilko. It has been speculated that Hanna & Barbera based the cartoon Top Cat on this show.

 

1973- Musician Jim Croce (30) died in a charter plane crash near Natchitoches Louisiana.

 

1977- During the premiere episode of the 5^th season of the show Happy Days, Henry Winkler’s Fonzi character water-skis in his trademark black leather jacket and jumps a ramp over a live shark. This caused writer Jon Hein to coin the term Jumping the Shark. It has come to mean pinpointing the moment a quality program or person descends into banal silliness.

 

 

1984- The Cosby Show premiered.

 

2001- Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away released in the US. The first Japanese anime film to win an Oscar.

 

 

 

 

TOM SITO'S ANIMATION ALMANAC FOR SEPT 19, 2024

Birthdays: Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, Saladin, Hungarian nationalist Leopold Kossuth, Brian Epstein, "Momma" Cass Elliot, Frank Tashlin, Dr. Ferry Porsche- inventor of the Porsche race car, Twiggy– real name Leslie Hornby, William Golding author of The Lord of the Flies, Paul Williams, Adam West, Frances Farmer, David McCallum, Duke Snyder, Ernie Sabella (Pumbaa), Jeremy Irons is 76, Jimmy Fallon is 50.

 

1876- Melvin Bissell of Grand Rapids Michigan invented the carpet sweeper.

 

1926- THE BIG ONE- This day Miami, Florida was destroyed by a huge hurricane. They didn’t have names then. The storm stopped a real estate boom in South Florida. Snowbirds from up north invested millions in land that turned out to be under water. The Marx Brothers poked fun at the craze in their stage comedy The Cocoanuts. As Groucho said:” Florida Folks. Sunshine, Sunshine, now let’s get the auction started before there is a tornado.”

 

1931- The Marx Brothers comedy “Monkey Business” premiered.

 

 

1936- Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald record “Indian Love Call”. When I’m Calling You, Oooh-ohhoohhh, Ohhhh-ohhh-oohhhhhhh”, etc.

 

1942- Chuck Jones cartoon The Dover Boys released. 

 

1945- Little Shirley Temple, now all grown up, married actor John Agar, who she met on the set of John Ford's film Fort Apache. The RKO studio turned the marriage into a media circus by inviting 12,000 people. John Ford teased Agar mercilessly, calling him Mr. Temple. John and Shirley divorced five years later. Shirley Temple remarried and became a career diplomat, and John Agar went on to star in sci-fi flicks like 'Tarantula", The Brain from Planet Aurous".  Eventually he built his own theme dinosaur park by an Arkansas freeway, "John Agar's House of Kong'. 

 

1952- The TV show The Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves debuted.

 

1955- Juan Peron, the President of Argentina, was overthrown in a military coup.

 

1961- This is the night Betty and Barney Hill claimed they were picked up by a flying saucer and experimented on. It is one of the more famous abduction stories because it was one of the first, and it holds up under hypnosis. Hey little guy, what are you planning to do with that anal probe?

 

1968 - "Funny Girl" opened in theaters, starring a young singer named Barbra Streisand. Hello Gorgeous!

 

1970- The Mary Tyler Moore TV Show premiered.

 

1984- Milos Forman’s movie of the play Amadeus opened.

 

1985- Mexico City devastated by a large earthquake 8.1 on the Richter scale. The next day the city was rocked again by a 7.5 earthquake. 10,000 people died. Curiously enough 80% of the cities ancient landmarks were undamaged, only modern buildings collapsed. People camped out in Aztec ruins, figuring they’ve stood for centuries and would probably stand now.

 

1990- Martin Scorcese’s movie Goodfellas opened. “You think I’m funny? What? Am I here to amuse you?” 

 

1991- UTZI- Two German tourists hiking in the Austrian Alps discovered the remains of an Ice Age man, killed with an arrow over 5,000 years ago. The body, exposed from the ice by global warming, was in such an excellent state of preservation, that they thought it was a modern homicide. Called Utzi, or Frozen Fritz, he was 42. He had 50 tattoos, a copper axe, a full stomach, and Lime Disease.

 

1995- Orville Reddenbacher 'the Popcorn king' died.

 

tom sito's animation almanac for sept.18, 2024

Birthdays: Roman Emperor Marcus Ulpius Trajan 53AD, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Frankie Avalon, Greta Garbo, Claudette Colbert, Leon Foucault (Foucault's Pendulum), Jack Warden, Canadian PM John Diefenbaker, Eddie “Rochester”Anderson,  Rossano Brazzi, Joe Kubert, Debbie Fields founder of Mrs. Field's Cookies, Jada Pinkett-Smith, James Gandolfini, June Foray

1804- Napoleon inspected Baron Gros’ painting The Plague Victims of Jaffa and liked it. Nappy considered paintings part of state propaganda and commissioned artists to project his image.

1811- A Portuguese 'Projectionist' (experimenter with lenses and Magic Lanterns) offered the Duke of Wellington to burn up Napoleon's army with a series of convex lenses and mirrors. The Iron Duke said thanks, but no thanks...

1851-First issue of the New York Daily Times, later just the New York Times.

1895- In Davenport Iowa, Daniel David Palmer performed the first chiropractic adjustment session. Crack!

1917-Writer Aldous Huxley got a job teaching at Eton. One of his students was Eric Blair, who would write under the name George Orwell.

1927-The Columbia Broadcasting System-CBS, broadcast its first program, an opera called the King’s Henchman.

1932-Frustrated movie actress Peggy Enwhistle jumped off the Hollywood Sign. In case you are curious she jumped off the “H”. She also didn’t hit the ground immediately but hit a cactus patch, dying slowly later in great pain.  Ironically in her mailbox that day was a script and a job offer. The role was of a woman who commits suicide.

1951- The Day the Earth Stood Still, with Michael Rennie premiered. Klaatu, barrata, nicto!

1961- United Nations General Secretary Dag Hammerskjold was killed in a plane crash in Africa. He left behind a book of philosophical musings called Markings that became a best seller. Today the central plaza in front of the United Nations Building is named for him.

60th Anniv 1964- H&B’s Johnny Quest Show premiered.

60th Anniv 1964- The Addams Family TV show premiered. Lurch, Thing and Uncle Fester. You Rang?

1965- I Dream of Genie debuted on television. Network Standards & Practices said Barbara Eden could wear the harem outfit so long as her belly-button didn’t show. At first the reviews were not good. The Variety TV critic said: “The only thing that stands out in this show is Barbara Eden’s cleavage.”

1970- Jimmy Hendrix (27) was found dead of drug and alcohol abuse. He had passed out and choked on his own vomit. Janis Joplin's reaction was"G-ddammit! He beat me to it !" Joplin herself died three weeks later. Hendrix fame was made in about 4 years. 

1986- At Disneyland Anaheim Captain EO opened. An adventure ride starring Michael Jackson, directed by Francis Ford-Coppola and produced by George Lucas.

1987- Disney’s TV show Ducktales premiered.

1994- Tennis star Vitus Gerulaitis was found in his home dead from carbon monoxide poisoning.

2003- In Scotland, paleontologists discover the world’s oldest fossilized genitals. From a dinosaur era insect, an ancestor of the praying mantis. Great Giant Mantis Balls!”

tom sito's animation almanac for set 17, 2024

Birthdays: Hank Williams, Spiro Agnew, Ken Kesey, Jerry Colonna, Roddy MacDowell, George Blanda, Wendy Carlos Williams, Elvira- real name Cassandra Peterson, Anne Bancroft, Jeff MacNelly, John Ritter, Sir Frederick Ashton, Rita Rudner, animator Tim Walker, Baz Luhrmann is 62

 

1179- Death of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, the medieval female composer and mystic.

 

 

1857- James Pierpont, an uncle of banker J.P. Morgan, had moved from Massachusetts to Savannah Georgia to be organist in a local church. There he missed the snowy winters of home. So, this day he published a song he wrote about what fun it was to ride in a sleigh. He called it The One-Horse Open Sleigh, but we know it by its popular chorus- Jingle Bells.

 

 

1925- In Mexico City, a streetcar crashed into a schoolbus carrying 14 year old Frida Kahlo. It fractured her pelvis when she had already been dealing with polio. The difficulty she suffered recovering had a great impact on her painting.

 

1932- Mickey Mouse short The Whoopee Party premiered.

 

1965- If you ever wondered whatever could be funny about being held in a German prison camp during WW2 you could watch the TV sitcom HOGANS HEROES, which debuted this day. Commandant Colonel Klink was acted by Werner Klemperer, whose father was the famous orchestra conductor Otto Klemperer. They had to flee Germany because they were Jewish. Sargent Schulz and the Frenchman LeBeau were also played by actors who were Holocaust survivors- John Banner and Robert Clary. 

 

1966- The original TV series of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE premiered this night. Starring Peter Graves, Martin Landau, Barbera Bain, Greg Morris and Peter Lupus.

 

1971- RCA gave up and pulled out of the retail computer market.

 

1972- Filmation’s The Groovie Ghoulies" debuts.

 

 

1991- The TV show Home Improvement debuted, making a star out of comedian Tim Allen.

 

 

Tom Sito's Animation Almanac for Sept. 16, 2024

Birthdays: J.C. Penney (James Cash Penney), B.B. King, Gen. Mikhail Kutuzov, Anne Francis, Linda Darnel, Nadia Boulanger, Alan Funt, George Chakiris, Peter Falk, Ed Begley Jr, Jennifer Tilly, Molly Shannon, Marvin P. Middlemark 1919-the inventor of the rabbit ears TV antenna, Lauren Bacall, Mickey Rourke is 69

1920- Enrico Caruso made his last recordings for the Victor Recording Company.

1941- After the settlement in the Walt Disney Animators Strike was announced, today was the first day everybody went back to work. From 1,200 employees in May, a little under 700 reported for work. Bad feelings between pro-unionists and loyalists caused more to quit, then Pearl Harbor caused more to leave. 

1941- CBS radio premiered the Arkansas Traveler Show. In it, bandleader Bob Burns played a strange instrument made out of a stovepipe he called a Bazooka. Later, when the US Army issued the first hand-held rocket launchers to their infantry, the GI’s called the things bazookas because it resembled Burn’s instrument.

1949- Chuck Jones "Fast and Furrious" the First Road Runner-Coyote cartoon.

1953- The St. Louis Browns baseball team moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles.

1963- The Beatles released “She Loves You-Yeah,Yeah,Yeah.” in the U.S. on the Swan Records label.

1963- The sci-fi thriller series The Outer Limits premiered- Do not attempt to adjust your television- We control the horizontal, We control the vertical, etc.

1964- The Peter Potamus Show debuted. Time for my hippo-hurricane-holler.

1965- The Dean Martin Show premiered on NBC. “Everybody loves somebody, sometime…”

1966- the last LOOK magazine published.

1966- The new Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center had its opening night. A performance of Samuel Barbers Anthony & Cleopatra sung by Leontyne Price and Justino Diaz. It was a near disastrous night because Ms Price got locked in a pyramid for a while and couldn’t get out.

1968- Presidential candidate Richard Nixon appears on the TV comedy "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" and says:" Sock it to Me?"

1983- Arnold Schwarzenegger became a US citizen.

1984- “Miami Vice” TV show debuted.

1985- Steve Jobs was kicked out of the chairmanship of Apple. CEO John Scully denies he actually fired Jobs. He just stripped him of all his authority and this day Jobs quit. Steve Jobs always claimed he had been fired. Jobs went on to run his new company Next and Pixar. In Dec 1996, after failing revenue, Steve Jobs was invited back to take over Apple. At the time of his death in 2007, Apple was the richest company on earth. 

2003- Sheb Wooley, the composer of the 1951 hit “One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater” and the theme song of the TV show Hee Haw and the originator of the Wilhelm Scream, died in Henderson Tennessee at age 82.

Tom, Sito's Animation Almanac for Sept 15, 2024

Birthdays: James Fennimore Cooper, William Howard Taft, Porfirio Diaz- Mexican President 1884-1911, Agatha Christie, Cannonball Adderly, Bruno Walter, Yuri Noorstein, Merlin Olsen, Oliver Stone, Jean Renoir (film director and son of painter August Renoir), Alexander Korda, Jesse Norman, Robert Benchley, Albert Whitlock, Ron Shelton, Tommy Lee Jones is 78, Britain’s Prince Harry is 40

 

In Japan, this is Respect for the Aged Day.

1858- The Butterfield Overland Mail service started up, driving stagecoaches throughout the Old West.

 

 

1928- Walt Disney staged the first recording session for the music for Steamboat Willie. He was unhappy with the results, so he pawned his car to raise the cash to make a second recording session happen. Steamboat Willie premiered on Nov. 18^th.

 

1930- The first Blondie comic strip. 

 

1930- Hoagy Carmichael first recorded “Georgia on My Mind”.

 

 

1936- MGM producer Irving Thallberg, the "Boy Genius" of Hollywood, died of a pneumonia at age 37. He was the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Last Tycoon". His boss Louis B. Mayer was beginning to resent his popularity. When actress Gloria Swanson asked Mayer how he felt about Thallberg's death, Mayer replied:" God has been very kind to me."  

 

 

1945- In occupied Berlin, composer Anton Webern was shot and killed by an American sentry when he went outside for a smoke in violation citywide night curfew orders.  

 

 

1954- The day of shooting on the film The Seven Year Itch, when Marilyn Monroe stood over the subway grate and let the breeze blow her dress up, much to the annoyance of her husband, baseball star Joe DiMaggio. They did it live in NYC, but director Billy Wilder was unhappy with the results, so he had it reshot back in Hollywood on set. Her little white halter dress was thereafter known as a Marilyn Dress.

 

 

1957-The TV series Bachelor Father starring John Forsythe premiered.”

 

1960- The Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse cartoon show premiered.

 

 

1965- "Green Acres" TV show debuted. Arnold Ziffel the pig gains national prominence.

 

1971 –The environmental political movement Greenpeace founded in Vancouver by twelve members of the Don’t Make a Wave Committee..

 

2009- Waking Sleeping Beauty documentary by Don Hahn premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.

 

Tom Sito's animation almanac for Sept. 14, 2024

Birthdays: Lao Tzu -604 BC, Caliph Al Mansur -the founder of Bagdhad-711AD, Dr. Ivan Pavlov, Charles Dana Gibson, Margaret Sanger the founder of Planned Parenthood, Clayton Moore-TV’s Lone Ranger, Luigi Cherubini, Hollywood Producer Hal Wallis, Joey Heatherton, Bowser from Sha-Na-Na., Walter Koenig-Star Trek’s Mr. Chekov, Nicole Williamson, Sam Neill is 77

1927- Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in freak car accident when her long scarf tangled in the spokes of her Bugatti sportscar and snapped her neck. She was 50. The scarf was a gift from the mother of future movie director Preston Sturges. When she heard the news, writer Gertrude Stein said, “Affectations can sometimes prove dangerous.”

1927- Gene Austin recorded “My Blue Heaven”. 

1955- Little Richard recorded the song, “Tutti Fruitti. 

1957- TV show “Have Gun Will Travel” with Richard Boone as Paladin, premiered.

The head writer of this show was Gene Roddenberry, who would later create Star Trek.

1959- The Russians reached the moon first. Two years after launching Sputnik, the first satellite, the Soviet probe Lunik 2 crashed on the surface of the moon.

1960- Roger Corman’s cult classic Little Shop of Horrors opened. Feed Me!

1967- The first appearance of Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) on the Batman TV show.

1968- Filmation's "the Archies" Show. "Sugar...ah, honey honey...."

1972- Premiere of the TV show The Waltons. “Goodnight John-Boy.”

1978- The Mork & Mindy Show with a young Robin Williams. “Na-Nuu, Na-Nuu.”

1985- Disney's TV shows "Gummi Bears and Wuzzles premiered."

1987- Filmation’s Bravestarr debuted.

2002- Millennium Actress by director Saytoshi Kon premiered.