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Hey Boys & Girls, have you begun to start looking for Christmas gifts for that animator in your family? Don't know what to get them? Why my Shucky-Buckaroos, get them some of the new cool books available these days!

Don Hahn, Producer of classics like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Beauty and the Beast, is now set upon becoming the Xenophon or Pepys of our time. His book is a wonderful collection of Disney anecdotes and behind the scenes images from Snow White to PIXAR's Ratatouille.
Top animator Eric Goldberg has also put the dark secrets of his technique into written form for the first time.

OF COURSE, if your are really stuck for what to get, there's always my favorite author....



Stay tooned next year for my update of the Halas & Whittaker classic, TIMING FOR ANIMATION.
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Quiz: Of the Apostles, Simon, John, Andrew, why is Judas Iscariot the only one with a last name?

Yesterday’s Quiz answered below: Actor Lloyd Bridges’ sons, Jeff and Beau Bridges, both became actors, likewise Martin Sheen’s boys Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez. Debbie Reynold’s daughter is Carrie Fisher. Are there such dynasties in animation?
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History for 12/16/2008


Birthdays: TA-TA-TA-TUMMMMMM!!! Ludwig Van Beethoven, Catherine of Aragon (Henry VIII's wife number one), Marshal Gerbhard von Blucher, Lenoid Brezhnev, Jane Austen, Margaret Mead, Noel Coward, George Santayanna, Liv Ullmann is 67, Steve Bochco, Leslie Stahl. Quentin Blake- dean of British illustrators favored by Roald Dahl, William 'Refrigerator' Perry, Arthur C. Clarke

1773- THE BOSTON TEA PARTY- The British Parliament had angered the colonists of New England by disallowing any tea to be imported except by British vessels and then a heavy tax to the Crown was to be paid on it's purchase. As New England women began to develop alternatives from grass and dandelions-what we now call Herbal Teas- the men of Boston threatened violence on any merchant who dared sell English tea.
On Nov 28th the good ship Dartmouth anchored at Griffith's Wharf with 144 tons of tea to be cleared of customs by December 17th. A mob gathered at the Old South Meeting House to discuss what to do. The call was made for 'The Mohawks!" In the crowd were Paul Revere and artist Jonathan Trumbull. At 6:00 p.m. men disguised as Indians boarded the Dartmouth overpowered the crew and tossed crates of loose tea into the harbor. British Admiral Montague watched the proceedings from his warship across the harbor, but didn't take any action "for fear of civilian casualties." He well remembered the political repercussions a few years earlier, when His Majesties troops fired into a snowball throwing crowd and the radical Yankees called it the Boston Massacre.
Next morning all of Boston developed mass amnesia. No one knew who did the deed. One man waited until he was ninety-three years old and the Revolution long over before he named who was there that night.

1824- PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED! - Was the response of the Duke of Wellington to a Mr.John Stockdale, who wrote him that he intended to publish the reminiscences of one of London's most notorious courtesans named Harriet Wilson. The beautiful Miss Wilson had bedded most of the leading men of London society. She intended to name Wellington as one of her frequent flyers during the period 1805-1808, unless of course he chose to have his name removed- for 200 pounds. But such was the Iron Duke's famous answer.

1835- THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION FORMED- After numerous revolts in Paris streets since 1789, Napoleon’s old friend Marshal Soult came up with a novel idea: Take all those street ruffians who made "Le Miserables" so colorful, put them in uniform and send them to the Sahara and hopefully they'll all get killed. To this day the Legion Etrangere' takes anyone from any nation from 16 to 40, no questions asked, and sends them to do the French army's toughest jobs. There motto- "March or Die”.

1900 -EARLY ANIMATED FILM "ENCHANTED DRAWINGS', James Stuart Blackton was a New York World cartoonist who used to do a vaudeville act in drag. He came to do an article on Thomas Edison then Edison put him on the payroll. He created this and several other trickfilms. It doesn’t move much more than his vaudeville lightning drawing act, His 1906 film Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is considered the first animated cartoon.

1905- Variety magazine born.

1907- THE WHITE FLEET- Pres. Teddy Roosevelt sent a big badass fleet of US Navy battleships all painted white on a round-the-world cruise. It was billed as a goodwill tour, but in an age when battleships were the viewed like nukes are today, the message to other world powers was obvious. That the US was now a serious player in world affairs.

1913- Young English music hall actor named Charlie Chaplin got a job at Keystone Studios in Hollywood. His first film he would play a villain.

1935- Hollywood movie star Thelma Todd found dead in her car in her garage in Malibu She was 30. She was a sexy comedienne who starred with Laurel & Hardy, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers and loved to party so much she was nicknamed "Hot Toddy". She knew New York mobster Lucky Lucciano. Was she done in by the mob, her jealous director boyfriend, was it a suicide or did she just pass out drunk in her car garage with the motor running? The mystery’s never been answered.

Thelma and Groucho Marx

Interestingly enough, her roadside restaurant in Malibu is still there. Although no longer serving coffee, crullers and bootleg gin, it is just like it was in her time. It is one of the best preserved 1930's restaurant exteriors in Los Angeles.

1944- Big Band Leader Glen Miller's plane disappeared over the English Channel. In 1988 ,a retired RAF engineer admitted he may have jettisoned some leftover bombs on top of the entertainer's plane while returning home from a bombing run.

1944- THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE- In his last gamble Hitler scraped together his remaining army reserves armed with new King Tiger tanks and launched them in an attack through the center of the allied armies. The Nazis panzers were spearheaded by a group of commandos in G.I. uniforms trained by one eyed Otto Skorzeny in American slang and baseball scores to confuse communications. They calculated to launch their offensive during a heavy snowstorm when the superior Allied air forces would have to be grounded.
After chasing the Germans across France to the Rhine, the Americans had come to consider the Krauts a defeated enemy. So they were taken completely by surprise. One US POW noted as he was brought to the rear, seeing hundreds or Germans in fresh uniforms and new tanks. General Eisenhower had just gotten his fifth general's star and was attending the wedding of his orderly Rickie in Versailles when he got the news. Rickies bride was Pearlie.
The German attack was so successful that Franklin Roosevelt wanted to drop the first Atomic Bomb on them. The offensive eventually stalled and was beaten back at the cost of 70,000 U.S. casualties; the most Americans killed and wounded in any single battle in history.

1948- A top Truman Presidential aide named Alger Hiss was indicted for perjury for lying to a Federal Grand Jury about passing secrets to a Communist turncoat agent named Whittaker Chambers. Chambers told so many lies that he was discredited as a witness but Hiss was convicted on circumstantial evidence like microfilm found hidden in a pumpkin- The Pumpkin Papers. The case of such a high ranking US official being a spy stoked the anti-commie paranoia of the 1950’s.

1966- New York Police raid the offices of Bernard Spindle, a freelance surveillance expert who bugged the phones of the rich and powerful. They carted off all his tapes and records; including tapes -he claimed- proving Marilyn Monroe’s sexual trysts with President John Kennedy. He was later told by the feds all his tapes were lost. Spindle’s career was the inspiration for the movie The Conversation.

1966- The Jimi Hendrix Experience released the song ‘Hey Joe’, in the UK.

1971- Don McClean released the long version of the song ‘American Pie’.

1973- O.J. Simpson became the first NFL player to rush for 2000 yards in a season.

1980- Colonel Harland Sanders, the Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, died.

1988- Shockjock Howard Stern is fined $100,000 by the FCC for having on his radio show a man who could play the piano with his penis.

1993- Aaron Spelling fired Shannon Dougherty off of Beverly Hills 90210.

1999- Julie Andrews, star of Mary Poppins and the Sound of Music, sued New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital for destroying her singing voice during a routine throat operation.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Actor Lloyd Bridges’ sons, Jeff and Beau Bridges, both became actors, likewise Martin Sheen’s boys Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez. Debbie Reynold’s daughter is Carrie Fisher. Are there such dynasties in animation?

Answer: Yes, there are a number of ToonTown dynasties. The most famous is probably Preston Blair, Lee Blair & Mary Blair; Ward Kimball’s two children John and Kelly were in the business, as was his granddaughter Laurie and her husband Geefwee. MGM animators Don and Ray Patterson and Rays’ daughter Kim. Bernie Wolf, Fred Wolf, Bill Wolf. The brothers Izzie and Phil Klein, who’s daughter Naomi Klein is a best selling progressive political writer. Phil Eastman and son Tony Eastman. Bill Melendez son Steve Melendez now runs the family business. Harry Holt, wife Marcia and daughter Renee Holt were all in the Biz. Recently Richard Williams two offspring Alex and Claire are both animation professionals. Glen Keane, who’s father and brother Bill and Jeff Keane are top cartoonists, has his daughter Claire on his crew.


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