Once each year, at the Hollywood Studio Museum ( aka the Barn) in Hollywood, the Animation Guild, ASIFA Hollywood and Women In Animation present An Afternoon of Remembrance “a non-denominational celebration of departed friends from our animation community”. We used to do it in a church, but most animators are pagans who get fidgety in such sacred surroundings and want to tell naughty jokes about their friends. So we use the DeMille/Lasky Barn, the first true Hollywood Studio, to meet and share our stories.

This year it takes place this Saturday, Feb 7th, at 1pm. Tributes will be paid to:

1. John Ahern (October 29)layout artist
2. Bob Allen- designer of the Howdy Doody Puppet.
3. Gus Arriola (February 3)creator of the comic strip Gordo
4. Phyllis Barnhart (February 6)ink & paint
5. Gordon Bellamy (January 29)NY animator who taught at Pratt.
6. Harriet Burns (July 25)Designer of the Mickey Mouse TV Clubhouse
7. Greg Burson (July 22)voice actor
8. John W. Burton, Jr.-Warners and Hanna & Barbera's key cameraman.
9. Vivian Byrne (March 11) ink & paint
10. Joyce Carlson (January 2)WED Designer
11. Bob Carr (September 27) animator
12. Rose Di Bucci (May 28) cel services
13. Charlie Downs (July 21)animator
14. Ray Ellis (October 27)composer of the Spider Man theme song.
15. Joni Jones Fitts (November 16) special effects artist
16. Etsuko Fujioka (April 10)ink & paint
17. Steve Gerber (February 10) creator of Howard the Duck
18. Fernando Gonzalez (December 8, 2007)animator
19. Yoo Sik Ham (January 14)xerox processor
20. Larry Harmon- Bozo
21. Margie "Hix" Hermanson (March 12)ink & paint
22. Ollie Johnston (April 14)Legendary Animator and last of the Nine Old Men.
23. Ted Key (May 3)Cartoonist creator of Hazel the Maid, and Peabody & Sherman
24. Eartha Kitt- chantuese, voice on The Emperor's New Groove.
25. Andy Knight (April 10)Canadian Studio director Red Rover.
26. Harvey Korman (May 29)voice actor
27. Lyn Kroeger (March 29) assistant animator

28. Brice Mack (January 2)Disney BG artist
29. Bill Melendez (September 2)animator, director of A Charlie Brown Christmas
30. David Mitton (May 23)director of Thomas the Tank Engine
31. Gary Mooney (August 5) animator
32. Jim Mueller (November 13)layout artist
33. June Nam (February 24) assistant animator
34. Ethan Ormsby (June 12)compositing, lighting TD
35. Bill Perez (August 29)animator
36. Richard Pimm (September 24) Nelvana Cameraman and WD TV producer
37. Oliver Postgate Creator of beloved British childrens shows Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss and the Clangers
38. Denis Rich (November 26, 2007) designer of the opening titles of the 1978 Christopher Reeve Superman movie.
39. Dodie Roberts (February 11)supervisor of the Disney paint lab.
40. Irma Rosien (April 11)layout, assistant anim supervisor
41. Gerard Salvio (June 23)NY Animation union rep Local 841.
42. Dalton Sandifer (April 16)animation writer Loopy De Loop, Atom Ant
43. Don Sheppard (February 21)storyboarder
44. Gina Sheppherd (April 5)ink & paint
45. Robert Smith (October 10)layout artist
46. Jim Snider (January)assistant animator
47. Al Stetter (January 27)animator
48. Dave Stevens (March 10) Creator of the Rocketeer,and re-discovered Betty Page
49. Morris Sullivan (August 24)Co-owner of Sullivan Bluth Studio Ireland
50. Emru Townsend (November 12)Canadian animation historian
51. Pat Raine Webb- president of ASIFA/UK
52. Choyoko Wergles (February 21)ink & paint
53. Bob Winquist (September 10) former Director of Cal Arts
54. Justin Wright (March 18)PIXAR animator

Animators, producers, legends, novices. One was 99, one was 27. Now all are one, as the Greeks would say.

The Afternoon of Remembrance is free of charge and is open to all. No RSVPs necessary. You don't have to be related to anyone to attend. It is about the animation industry remembering our friends and colleagues. Believe it or not, it's not that sad or morbid an occasion. Food and refreshments, and good stories. In previous years Chuck Jones spoke of is friend Friz Freleng, Bob Kurtz recalled Marc Davis. We learned a lot about many artists alternate pursuits like one who invented the game Chutes and Ladders, one was a drummer of the rock band the Turtles, one spent a summer with Picasso and wrote a book- My Summer with Picasso. Laughter, tears, memories, but never dull.

1 pm * Memorial speeches, 2 pm
Hollywood Heritage Museum (Lasky-DeMille Barn)
2100 N. Highland (across from Hollywood Bowl), Hollywood, California. Lots of free parking. Enter the parking lot on Odin St.



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Quiz: Pres. Barack is having a basketball court built in the Whitehouse so he can shoot hoops while thinking. Nixon liked to bowl while thinking, Gerald Ford swam laps. What did Mozart do to think?

Answer to Yesterdays Question below: What are French Fries called in France, English Muffins in England, Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, and American Cheese in America?
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History for 2/3/2009
Birthdays- French King Charles VI the Mad –1380, Happy 200th Felix Mendelson-Bartoldy, Horace Greely, Gideon Mantell 1790-pioneer British fossil hunter that named the Iguanadon, Pretty Boy Floyd, Gertrude Stein, Norman Rockwell, James A. Michener, Joey Bishop, Shelley Berman, Bob Griese, Fran Tarkenton, Victor Buono, Blythe Danner, Morgan Fairchild is 59, Nathan Lane is 53

Today is the Feast of St. Blaise, patron saint of sore throats and sick cattle.

1780- EARLY AMERICAN SERIAL KILLERS- For those who think this kind of crime is a symptom of our sick Secular-Humanist modern society:

In rural Connecticut Revolutionary War veteran Barnett Davenport was rooming at the farm of Mr. Caleb Mallory. This day for no apparent reason Davenport murdered Mr Mallory, his wife, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren using his rifle and farm tools. The incident was widely reported in the young nations press and was quite sensationalized.

At about the same time the Harpe Brothers went about the hills of Kentucky nabbing hapless travelers & farmers. Their favorite prank was to torture their victim with pig sticks, then disembowel the unfortunate, fill the hole with stones & chuck the corpse into the nearest watercourse. Finally the community raised a posse and chased the brothers to some remote place. One of them escaped while a musket ball split the spine of the other, unhorsing him. As he fell to the ground, one of the pursuers leapt onto him and began to saw at the Harpe's neck with his hunting knife; “ you're a damned rough butcher, but cut on and be damned” cried Mr. Harpe. The hunter “wrung off his head as one would a hog”. They put the head in a bag & set off for home, but it was now winter & as hunger set in, they cooked & ate it, nailing the bleached skull to a tree, from where it grinned down on frightened travelers for years after. Our Forefathers.

1862- President Lincoln received a message from the King of Siam offering him Siamese war elephants to help him win the Civil War. He politely passed on the offer.

1863- MARK TWAIN- This day in the Virginia City Territorial Register newspaper was an article authored by someone calling himself - 'Mark Twain', pseudonym of Samuel Clemens. Mark Twain was the Mississippi River pilot's term for when a steamboat is in two fathoms of water or more, in other words, safely enough away from shallows to proceed at full speed.

1889-THE BANDIT QUEEN- Today outlaw Belle Starr was shotgunned out of the saddle by an old boyfriend. She usually shot them first. Originally named Myra Belle Shirley, she pursued a career as an outlaw and had two children, one by Cole Younger, another by a member of the James Gang. Rustler, gunfighter, prostitute, sideshow performer-she said: "Let's just say I'm a woman who's seen a lot of the world."

1912- The rules governing U.S. football are revised. The playing field was shortened to 100 yards; a touchdown counted as six points instead of five; four downs are allowed instead of three and the kickoff point was moved from midfield to the 40 yd. line.

1913- Federal Income Tax Amendment ratified. Booo!

1920- The play Beyond the Horizon premiered. The first hit of a young man who tried to drink himself to death, but instead became a playwright- Eugene O’Neill.

1930- Roy Disney signed a deal with M. George Borgfeldt Co. of New York to sell figurines of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Disney merchandising is born! The first plush doll of Mickey was sewn by the mother of Warner Bros director Bob Clampett.

1945- Walt Disney’s the Three Caballeros premiered.

1948- The first Cadillacs with big rear tail fins were produced.

1953- Jacques Cousteau, inventor of the Aqua Lung published the Silent World, and later made a film version of the book with Louis Malle.

1959-FIFTY YEARS AGO- "The Day the Music Died" The first Rock & Roll tragedy. Top pop stars Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson died in plane crash. They were on tour and Holly chartered the small plane so they could get to Fargo, North Dakota in time to get his shirts cleaned. Waylon Jennings was supposed to join them but he gave up his seat to Richardson because Richardson was running a fever and didn’t want a long cold bus ride. As they left Richardson teased Jennings:” Hope your bus doesn’t freeze.” And Jennings joked:” Hope your plane doesn’t crash.” The plane was called the American Pie, which inspired a Don McClean’s hit song “Bye, Bye Miss American Pie.”



1962- John F. Kennedy signed the trade embargo act against Cuba, banning all trade with Fidel Castro’s regime. White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger recalled how the night before JFK had him go around Washington DC and buy up all the Havana cigars (Monte Cristos) he could for the White House humidor. It’s still in effect today.

1973- Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law.

1989- Swiss firm L'Oreal/Nestle bought animation studio Filmation from Westinghouse and shut it down laying off 229 artists the day before a new federal regulation requiring a company give it's employees 60 day notice before closing went into effect.

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Yesterdays Question: What are French Fries called in France, English Muffins in England, Buffalo Wings in Buffalo, and American Cheese in America?

Answer: Pommes Frites, American Muffins, Hot Wings, and American Cheese. Interesting, American Cheese is not called American Cheese outside America, but Mild Cheddar.