tom sito's animation almanac for march 27, 2025

Birthdays: French King Louis XVII –the boy during the Revolution who died in prison after his Royal parents were guillotined, Patty Smith Hill, Edward Steichen, Gloria Swanson, Sarah Vaughn, Maria Schneider, Mies Van der Rohe, Snooky Lanson, Wilhelm Roentgen the discoverer of X-Rays, Nathaniel Currier of Currier & Ives, Donald Duck artist Carl Barks, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, Michael York is 82, Quentin Tarantino is 62, Mariah Carey is 56

 

 

1790- The invention of modern shoelaces. Lacing up footwear goes back to the Greeks, Romans and Chinese, but this is our modern version.

 

1855- Canadian doctor and part time scientist Abraham Gesner patented Kerosene. As a source of light, it burned brighter and was cheaper than whale oil. The first product made from crude oil. Before this no one really knew what to do with the oozing stuff. Some native tribes used it as warpaint. Locals called it Indian Oil

 

1866- Andrew Rankin received the first patent for the upright porcelain urinal.

 

1908- Bud Fisher's comic strip Mutt & Jeff debuted.

 

1912- Washington DC received its famous cherry trees, 3,020 in number, a gift from the Japanese government.

 

1940- “Rebecca,” the first Hollywood movie by Alfred Hitchcock opened.

 

1948- WB cartoon “ Back Alley Oproar” directed by Friz Freleng.

 

1952- U.P.A.’s cartoon “Rooty-Toot-Toot” premiered. Its music score was by jazzman Phil Moore, the first African American to receive a screen credit for scoring a movie.

 

1952- “Singing in the Rain” starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor premiered.

 

1957- California Reverend Robert Schuller opened the first Drive-In Church in Santa Ana Cal.

 

1958- At the 30th Academy Awards, the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay went to Pierre Boule for The Bridge on the River Kwai. But Boule was not there. He wrote the novel it was based on, but the actual screenplay was written by two Blacklisted writers in exile- Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson. Boulle’s name was entered as a cover.

 

1973- In one of the more celebrated stunts in Hollywood history, when Marlon Brando won an Oscar for his role in The Godfather, he sent a buckskin clad model named Sashin Littlefeather to refuse the award and delivered a protest about treatment of Indigenous Americans. 

 

1978- The first draft script of the film Norma Rae completed. The film dramatized the life of Christa Lee Jordan, a mill worker who was blackballed by the J.P. Stevens millworks for wanting a union. 

 

1989- Who Framed Roger Rabbit earned four Oscars at the Academy Awards. Sound Effects, Visual Effects, Film Editing and a special one for Richard Williams for the animation. At that same ceremony, Pixar’s Tin Toy won best animated short. The first Pixar short to win.

 

1996- Fearful of mad cow disease, The European Community banned the export of beef from Britain for one year. 

 

2022- At the Academy Awards, Best Actor winner Will Smith slapped and cursed out comedian Chris Rock on camera in front of the whole world for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinket Smith.