I heard yesterday two of my former USC students Sterling Sheehy and Virginia, got married! Congratulations to them! Sing two choruses of the Circle of Life and call me in the morning.
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Birthdays: Scottish King Robert the Bruce, John Quincy Adams,E.B. White, Yul Brynner- real name Tadjhe Khan, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leon Spinks, Tab Hunter, Giorgio Armani, Sela Ward, Kimberly “Little Kim’ Jones

1938- The radio show The Mercury Theater of the Air with Orson Welles and John Houseman premiered.

1962-The Tellstar I satellite transmitted the first television images From Europe to the US.

1969 - Rolling Stones release "Honky Tonk Woman".

1970- “Mama Told Me Not to Come” by Three Dog Night hits #1 in the pop charts. The song was written by young composer Randy Newman. Despite all the success and Oscars nominations Randy Newmans had with songs like Short People and I Love LA, this song was his only one to be #1.

1975- Chinese archaeologists excavating at the ancient site of XIAN discover an entire army of 6,000 terra cotta statues buried in formation with chariots and cavalry. Each statue was an individual portrait. They were buried in 221 BC to protect the tomb of China's first emperor Chi Yuan Zsi, who’s name is where the name China came from.

1979- The world holds it’s breath and covers it’s head as the first U.S. space station SKYLAB falls from orbit. 77 tons of space junk in 500 pieces falling around Australia and the Indian Ocean. Luckily it didn’t hit any one, although chunks got stuck in an office building in Perth.

1991- Disney announced it would enter into a distribution deal with a Bay area digital offshoot of Lucasfilm named Pixar. Lucas had formed it in 1986, then sold it to Steve Jobs of Apple. Toy Story, Monsters Inc.,The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille are the result. At eight hit films in a row, one of the most successful runs in Hollywood History.

I learned today of the death of Dave Hilberman.

image courtesy of Tee Bosustow

Dave Hilberman was an important animator-layout artist at Walt Disney Studios in the 1930s. He spent time in Leningrad in 1930 with the Futurist Theater there and met Maxim Gorky, Mayakovsky and Vertov. He was a leader of artists in the Walt Disney Studio Strike of 1941, and for that earned the lasting animus of Walt Disney. When Walt testified to HUAC in 1947, he personally named Dave as a communist. Dave was one of the central founders of UPA and the UPA style.
He moved to New York and founded Tempo Productions, which was also hounded to extinction by the Commie chasers.
After some time abroad he and his wife Libby settled in Palo ALto where he taught at San Francico State.

Dave was a friend and an inspiration. He and Libby gave unstintingly for my book about the strike, Drawing the Line. I was proud that they could see it before they left. I wish I could have given a copy to Art Babbitt, Bill Hurtz and Selby Kelly.

Dave and Libby were not only great artists and teachers. They were an inspiration to all of us in animation. That our convictions are sometimes more important than temporary material comfort. That a life lived on principal, for the sake of our community, was more valuable than a life spent just seeking wealth. A life lived that way gave them both an inner peace that I found impressive. They knew in the end that they were right, and they had no regrets.

Thank you Dave and Libby Hilberman from all of us in animation, who continue to benefit from your sacrifices. Rest in Peace and I hope we shall all meet again one day.
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Birthdays: John Calvin, Marcel Proust, James McNeill Whistler, Carl Orff, Camille Pissarro, Adolphus Busch the founder of Budweiser beer, George DiChirico, Jacky "Legs" Diamond-a gangster who was shot so many times it was said he could attract a magnet, Arlo Guthrie, Jake “Raging Bull” LaMotta, Joe Shuster- one of the creators of Superman, Fred Gywnne, David Brinkley, Arthur Ashe, Camilla Parker Bowles

1040 - Lady Godiva goes for a ride on horseback in the nude to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes on the poor.

1099- The magical-mystical knight of Spain Rodrigo de Bivar, called El Cid, died at the castle of Valencia. The Cid had taken a loosely written promise from King Alfonso of Castile that he could keep any territory he took from the Moors, and used it to build a private army, capture the city of Valencia and rule it as an independent prince. Nine years after his death his wife Ximena surrendered Valencia to the Almohavid Moors, but the legend of El Cid Campeador, the Conquerer-Champion lived on.

1925- THE SCOPES MONKEY TRIAL-Tennessee school teacher John Thomas Scopes went on trial for violating a state law forbidding the teaching of evolution to children. Scopes was defended by famed lawyer Clarence Darrow sent by the ACLU, the prosecutor was William Jennings Bryan. The trial evolved (forgive the pun) from a small claims misdemeanor to a debate on Charles Darwin’s theory itself. This day the media descended upon the little town of Dayton Tennessee, which had hoped to attract attention for its slumping economy. It was the first trial broadcast live on Chicago radio WGN nationwide. Hundreds of spectators attended from hillbillies with squirrel rifles, a chimpanzee in a suit called Mr. Joe Mendy to famous newspaper columnist H.L. Mencken, packing 4 bottles of bootleg scotch and a typewriter. Darrow humiliated Bryan in the debate but Scopes was found guilty and fined. The ban on teaching evolution remained on the books in Tennessee until 1967. Evolution is still under attack in the U.S. today, now by the issue of Intelligent Design. Even I got some work out of it. www.flockofdodos.com

1950 - "Your Hit Parade" premieres on NBC (later CBS) TV.

1953- NIKITA KHRUSCHEV takes power in Moscow. After the death of Josef Stalin there was the inevitable shuffle of bureaucrats jockeying for top job. Commissars Bulganin, Malenkov and Molotov tried to hold power but the little bald Ukrainian with the big smile had the last laugh. At a secret meeting of the Presidium Khruschev arrested Laventi Beria, Stalin's dreaded chief executioner. Beria, a perv who liked black silk sheets, underage girls and personally torturing prisoners, broke down and wept for his life before he was shot. Khruschev was more merciful with his other rivals: Bulganin was made manager of a Siberian power station, Molotov was made ambassador to Outer Mongolia. Comrade Khruschev held power until 1964. His earthy humor, like taking off his shoe and banging it on the table to get the attention of the United Nations General Assembly was great material for political cartoonists.
As Alan Sherman sang to the Mexican Hat Dance" Some people like to dance the Twist,-Oh Boy! Khruschev that bald Com-une- nist, Hoo Boyy!"

Birthdays: Ottorino Respighi-composer of the Pines of Rome, David Hockney, Samuel Elliot Morrison, Kelly McGillis, John Tesch, Chris Cooper, O.J. Simpson, Courtenay Love is 43, Tom Hanks is 50

1980 - Walt Disney's the "Fox & The Hound," released. The first film Walt Disney had no input on. Although the film has brief screen credits it marks the torch being passed from the Nine Old Men golden age generation to the modern generation of animators. A complete personnel roster would include Tim Burton, John Lassiter, Bill Kroyer, Don Bluth, Lorna Cook, Henry Sellick, Brad, Bird, Steve Hulett, John Musker, Glen Keane and many more. It was the last film project of Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Woolie Reitherman and Ken Anderson. (actually, Reitherman and Anderson continued on a bit longer on a project called Catfish Bend, but it was never made.)

1993-Starting with the film Jurrassic Park, Industrial Light & Magic completes it’s transition to digital technology by shutting down it’s Anderson Optical Printer. The Optical Printer system of mattes had been the way Motion Picture visual effects had been done since Melies in 1909, but the Digital Revolution had changed everything.

Today I learned of the passing of Silas Rhodes. In 1947 Silas teamed up with Burne Hogarth to create the Cartoonists and Illustrators School in New York City. In 1956 they diversified their program and changed their name to THE SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS.

Cartooning and animation instructors included Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, R.O. Blechman, Shamus Culhane, Howard Beckerman, Bill Gallo, Don Duga, Gil Miret, Marty Abrams, Ralph Bakshi, Doug Crane and Yvette Kaplan.

Past alumni in cartooning and animation include Art Speigelman, Drew Friedman, Bill Plympton, Russell Calabrese, Ray Billingsley, Yvette Kaplan, Alex Kuperschmidt, Barry Caldwell, Bat Lash, Maurice Hunt, Keith Haring, Prez Romanillos, Kevin Petrilak, Lenny Graves, Ed Wexler, Rob LaDuca, oh.. and uh....me!
Silas and Milton Glaser. Funny, I don't remember Silas in a suit. I always saw him in the 1970s in a fringed leather jacket and floppy suede cowboy hat. Kind of Kris Kristofferson via Bleecher St.

Silas and Dave Rhodes built SVA into one of the most successful independent colleges in the US.
Silas was 91. A good long life. My condolences to the Rhodes Family.
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B-Dazes: Jean de LaFontaine the creator of Puss & Boots, John D. Rockefeller Sr, Nelson Rockefeller, Kathe Kollwitz, Count Ferdinand Von Zeppelin, Louis Jordan, Billy Eckstine, Steve Lawrence, Percy Grainger, Cynthia Gregory, Phillip Johnson, Kim Darby, Marty Feldman, Roone Arledge, Kevin Bacon, Billy Crudup, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, Angelica Huston, Raffi

951AD- Happy Birthday Paris!. The Roman city of Lutetia-muddy place- was built on the site of a Gaulish village inhabited by a tribe called the Parisi. This date was when the Franks established a castle on the present day site of the Louvre. Despite Viking raids and floods the city slowly began to grow.

1835- The Liberty Bell cracked. It rang for the Declaration of Independence and was being rung for the death of Chief Justice John Marshall.

1889-The Wall Street Journal first published.

1889- The last great bareknuckle championship fight. John L. Sullivan defeated Jack Kilrain in Mississippi for a purse of $20,000. After 60 rounds one of Sullivan’s eyes was shut, he was covered with welts and blood was showing above his shoes. When his manager recommended declaring a draw Sullivan said:" Hell no. I want to kill him!" He won after 75 rounds. Sullivan was one of the first flamboyant prizefighters and the first American fighter to declare himself Champion of the World. He’d travel from town to town building his legend:"I’m John L. Sullivan and I can lick any man in the house!"

1907-The First Ziegfield Follies, staged on the roof of the New York Theater, now called the New Amsterdam Theater.

1911- Burbank incorporated as a city.

1918- A young American ambulance driver serving in Italy during the First World War gets badly wounded by shrapnel fire. His name was Ernest Hemingway. His long recovery and love affair with his nurse he later worked into his novel "A Farewell To Arms".

1922- Horn player Louis Armstrong left his hometown of New Orleans to go to Chicago and play in King Oliver’s Jazz band.

1932- THE DEPRESSION STOCK MARKET HITS ROCK BOTTOM - free falling since the Great Crash of October 1929, and compounded by the Harley-Smoot trade act of 1931, which started a trade war that killed off overseas exports. From a Dow Jones high in the Roaring Twenties of 262, today’s average hit bottom at 58 (today the Dow is routinely over 10,000 ).Only 720,278 shares exchanged. One local club wallpapered the bar with unsold bond certificates. The Bond market lost around ten million in value, Total output of heavy industries like steel production were working at only 12% of capacity. 20% of the U.S. workforce was unemployed, 50% of New York City, 80% of industrial cities like Detroit and Toledo. Top Wall Street securities firms like Morgan and Salomon Brothers encouraged "Apple Days"- one day a week for brokers to go on the street to sell apples to supplement their income. One songwriter wrote a song about the unpopularity of stock traders: " Please Don't Tell Mother I Work on Wall Street, She Thinks I Play Piano in a WhoreHouse. " The just completed Empire State Building was nicknamed the "Empty State Building." because there were no businesses to move into it. Yet President Herbert Hoover could only spout unrealistic slogans like "the economy is fundamentally sound" and "prosperity is just around the corner." Mt. Rushmore sculptor Judson Borglum said: "If you put a flower in Hoover's hand, it would wilt !"

1932- Tod Brownings disturbing movie "Freaks" about a family of circus sideshow performers, premiered. One of Us, One of Us!

1961-YEAH, BABY YEAH!! Upon arriving at Cliveden, Estate of Lord and Lady Astor, Britains Secretary for War Sir John Profumo was introduced to Christine Keilor, a 19 year old party girl swimming nude in the pool. Profumo and Lord Astor chased Christine around the pool trying to pull her towel away while bejeweled guests arrived for a party. It was bad enough that the married Profumo started a hot affair with Christine but also her manager Stephen Ward was connected to an East German Communist spy ring. The Profumo Scandal brought down the MacMillan Tory Government in 1963.

1982- Walt Disney's TRON- the first film claiming to be made chiefly with computer graphics premiered. It only was about 20 minutes of actual CGI and the computer images were still printed onto traditional animation cells and painted, but it was still a significant achievement. Remember in 1981 there were no off the shelf graphics software. Everything written was proprietary. Wavefront wouldn't exist for several years and Parallel processing didn't really get going until '84. Warping or morphing was about 4 years away in the future. The big deal at the time was that MAGI had just solved the "hidden Line" problem. Modern artists making SHREK or FINDING NEMO would shake their heads at this because now this is all so basic that it isn't even thought about anymore. But back then even a slight change in design could take days to compute.

1998- An original 1477 William Caxton copy of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" became the world's most expensive book when it was sold for £4,621,500 to billionaire oil heir Paul Getty.

In case you haven't visited my press section lately, here are a sample of some of the nice things being said about my book DRAWING THE LINE:

“ Anyone with more than a passing interest in the world of animation should consider this book a must-read.”
-- Leonard Maltin -Leonard's Picks

“ Tom Sito is the perfect person to tell the story of the struggles of animators for decent wages and working conditions.” [read more]
-- Mike Neilsen, Wesley College- Pacific Historical Review

“ Tom Sito achieved something of a miracle-- he made a potentially boring "academic" subject fresh, entertaining, and a wonderful read.”
-- Eric Niderost, Chabot College

“ He enriches the book with numerous anecdotes gleaned from conversations with top animators and his own 30 year animation experience.”
-- J.A. Lent, Temple University

“ ...the best account yet of the 1941 Walt Disney strike, with documentation of the union side.”
-- Mark Greif, co-editor The London Review of Books

Top Ten Books Every Animation Student Should have-
-Animation Magazine

“ Essential Cornerstone of Animation History.
This text is a pure labor of love”
-- Dave Mason- Amazon.com

“ The book isn't a valentine to the labour movement and an attack on management. He discusses the involvement of organized crime in unions, the intramural conflict between rival animation unions, and the generation, skills and technology gaps that have alienated union members from each other. He also respects managers like Walt Disney, Max Fleischer, Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera and Jeffrey Katzenberg, acknowledging their contributions to the field.”
-- Mark Mayerson- Frames Per Second Magazine

“ ..a marvelous book......provides a witty, passionate, radical insider's view of the American film industry that is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the cinema."”
-- John Newsinger -International Socialism

“ Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry, Mr. Magoo, Fred Flintstone, the Pink Panther and Bart Simpson, are the biggest stars in the business. But they couldn't make the slightest move or even open their mouths, without the help of the animation worker”
-- Graham Hill, film/TV reviewer

By the way, "Drawing the Line" isn't just a book about the Walt Disney Company. While there are many entertaining stories in here about the various colorful personalities that worked at that studio over the past 75 years, Sito's after bigger game. He's out to tell the story of the impact that unionization had on the entire animation industry in the United States. The battles that were won as well as the jobs that were lost. Which sounds like it could be pretty dry stuff. But not the way that Tom Sito tells this story. "Drawing the Line" gets the balance just right. It mixes large chunks of well-researched animation history with big handfuls of amusing anecdotes.”
-- Jim Hill, Jim Hill Media


Go get your copy now!
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Birthdays: Gustav Mahler, Satchel Page, Ringo Starr, Doc Severinsen, Robert Heinlein, Gian Carlo Menotti, Warner Bros animator Ken Harris, Shelley Duval, Ted Cassidy the voice of Space Ghost and Lurch in the Adams Family , Michelle Kwan, David McCullough, Pierre Cardin, and according to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this is the birthday of Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick Dr. John Watson

1895-THE FIRST SUNDAY COMICS - The first modern comic strip Hogan’s Alley featuring "The Yellow Kid" by Richard Felton Outcault, debuts in the Sunday edition of Pulitzer's New York World. The strip was so popular it gave the name "Yellow Journalism" to the sensationalist tabloid press. Comic strips at this time became the mass media of the day. For people who couldn’t afford a theater ticket and couldn’t yet speak English, the little characters in the penny papers were extremely popular and made celebrities out of cartoonists like Outcault, Bud Selig George McManus and Winsor McCay. Richard Outcault later inventing the backend deal when he asked for a percentage of all sales from his new comic strip "Buster Brown and his dog Tige"

1898-Congress votes to annex the Kingdom of Hawaii.

1900- Warren Earp, the youngest brother of Wyatt Earp, was killed in a gunfight. He had gotten into an argument in a saloon in Wilcox Arizona. Warren Earp was not at the OK Corral in 1881 but he did help his brothers hunt down the killers of Morgan Earp.

1947- SIXTY YEARS AGO- THE ROSSWELL INCIDENT- An official news report from the U.S. Airforce 509th bomber command -the same unit that dropped the Hiroshima bomb- stated they had recovered the wreckage of a UFO in the New Mexico desert near Rosswell and were examining it. The next day the commanding general of the 8th Air Force flew to Rosswell and stated to the press that the earlier report was in error and it was only a downed weather balloon. The wreckage was removed under heavy-armed guard and complete secrecy was then imposed and maintained to this day. The communications officer Major Jesse Marcey who posed for an official photo showing him with the balloon wreckage later told his son it was faked. Marcey, who died in 1967 and his adjutant Lt. Haut still stick to the original version of their story. Lt. Haut also claimed the base commander Col. William Blanchard thought it was UFO debris. This report coming only two weeks after the first modern sighting of "flying saucers" over Mt. Reynier in Oregon sparked the Flying Saucer craze that gripped America throughout the 1950’s. In 1994 and 1997 the Pentagon tried to explain away the story by saying at Rosswell and the base Area 51 they were experimenting with high altitude balloons carrying sniffer devices to detect Russian nuclear tests and the rumored alien remains recovered were test dummies. But then the military just added to the mystery when they still refused any access to the mysterious Area 51. When asked now that the Cold War was over what is done there the Army spokesman said : "Uh, Secret Stuff...."

1949-"I’m Friday"- The program Dragnet first debuted on radio. Jack Webb conceived, wrote, directed and starred in the show. His hardest job was urging actors "not to act" but to speak the lines normally like the average person does.

1960- First demonstration of a practical laser beam. In Russia it had been theorized since 1951. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation or LASER.

1967- Vivien Leigh, the actress who played Scarlet O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, died in a mental institution at age 53.

1967 - Beatles' "All You Need is Love" is released. In 2002 for her Jubilee Queen Elizabeth II requested it because it was one of her favorite songs.

1967 – The Doors' "Light My Fire" hits #1.

2005- Four Al Qaeda terrorist bombs exploded in the London subway Tube and a doubledecker bus, killing 50 and injuring one thousand.