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The 30th anniversary reunion of the Raggedy Ann crew was a great success. We had a screening of a Mark Kausler's 35mm scope print of the film, non-digital scratches and all. Check out my gallery section for details and more photos.



Thanks to ASIFA/Hollywood and their Animation Archives,the American Film Institute and historian Jerry Beck for all their help. Thanks to Art Bininger for taking the photos, which are here with his permission. Thanks also to the blogs of Michael Sporn (head of cleanup back then), Cartoon Brew and Jim Hill Media for giving the event a plug. Our love and regards go out to all our Raggedy Brothers and Sisters who couldn't make the event, but were with us in spirit.

Coming Next year- the 20TH Anniversary of the 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and the dawn of the Animation Renaissance.

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Quiz: Today Queen Elizabeth celebrates her 60th wedding anniversary. Is she the longest reigning English monarch?

Answer to yesterday’s question- One of the reasons Beowulf is taught in schools is it is considered the oldest secular work of English literature. What is the oldest song? Answer below
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History for 11/20/2007
Birthdays: Robert F. Kennedy, Maya Plisetskaya, Gene Tierney, Dick Smothers, Richard Dawson, Estelle Parsons, Barbera Hendricks, Duane Allman, Joe Walsh, Chester Gould the creator of Dick Tracy, Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis the first baseball commissioner, Alastair Cooke, Senator Robert Byrd is 90, Hu Yao Bang, Bo Derek is 51, Sean Young is 48, Ming Na

866 A.D.- Saint Edmund the Martyr, King of the East Angles since being proclaimed by the Kingdoms of Norfolk and Suffolk, was killed in battle with the Vikings. They said he ruled wisely and patterned his court after that of King David. His story may be another feeder root for the legend of King Arthur.

1272- King Edward Ist crowned king of England. Sometimes called the Great Plantagenet, the Hammer of the Scots or simply Edward Longshanks- long legs.

1601-THE GOLDEN SPEECH- Elderly Queen Elizabeth Ist had ruled England for 42 years, a time of unparalleled prosperity and peace. This day the old queen gave her farewell speech to parliament: "Though God has raised Us to the Throne, the Glory of Our reign was ruling with the love of my people…… You may have had and may yet have mightier and wiser princes in this seat, but you will never have one who loved you more, than I do." Elizabeth died two years later.

1620- Shortly before coming ashore in the New World The Mayflower Compact was drawn up and signed by the 24 male Pilgrim settlers "To covenant and combine ourselves into a civile body-politick". Governor John Bradford wrote: "We shall be a bright City upon a Hill."

1718- " Fifteen men on a Dead Man’s Chest, Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum!" Even though he knew the British Navy was going to attack him tomorrow, violent buccaneer Blackbeard spent this night drinking and partying with his crew. Someone asked Blackbeard that if he died did his wife know where he had buried his treasure? Blackbeard laughed" No one but me and the Devil himself knows where it is, and the longest liver can have it all !" It was said Blackbeard actually enjoyed being a pirate. In the thickest of hand-to-hand fighting amidst the blood and mayhem he could be seen smiling. Ultimate job satisfaction. Another time he made his officers sit with him in a locked cabin with smoldering pots of choking, sulphurous brimstone. He told them as they were all going to Hell ,they might as well get used to it now..

1777- In an amazing speech in the House of Lords elderly William Pitt the Elder, Lord Chatham denounced the governments policy of trying to put down the American Revolution with military mercenaries bought in Germany."My Lords, you cannot conquer America! If I were an American as I am an Englishman, while foreign troops were landed on my soil I would never lay down my arms- never, never, never!"

1783-In Paris Benjamin Franklin is in the crowd watching the first humans go aloft in a balloon designed by the Montgolfier Brothers. For 25 minutes Piastre de Rosier and the Marquis d'Arland flew 500 feet over the Seine, sipping champagne.

1895- Beethoven’s opera Fidelio premiered. He rewrote the overture four times and still wasn’t happy with it. So he rewrote it once more and published the other four as the Leonora Overtures.

1820- In the Pacific Ocean the Nantucket whaling ship Essex was sunk by an enraged sperm whale. The whale's nickname was Mocha-Dick. Only six men survived floating on driftwood for ninety days, resorting to cannibalism before being rescued. This incident is thought to have been one of the inspirations for Herman Melville to write his novel Moby Dick.

1912- Carl Warr walked into Los Angeles City Hall with 60 sticks of dynamite strapped to him. Police grab him he sets off his detonator but nothing happened. He then begged police to kill him. Warr was sensationalized in the press as the Mad Bomber.

1947-Princess Elizabeth the future Queen Elizabeth II married her cousin Prince Phillip Mountbatten of the exiled royal family of Greece. At 60 year of marriage, they have had the longest lasting marriage of any British monarch.

1947- The longest running television show in history- Meet the Press, premiered. And it is still on today.

1963- Attorney General Robert Kennedy had a birthday party up at his house Washington D.C. suburbs called Hillsborough. There his brother President John F. Kennedy and he discussed the coming 1964 election. The President said he was looking forward to doing a campaign swing through Dallas Texas that weekend. Then JFK left the house. It was the last time Bobby Kennedy would ever see his brother alive.

1969- The U.S. Dept of Agriculture bans the use of the insecticide DDT.

1975- Spanish Fascist dictator Francisco Franco died at age 89, despite sleeping with the mummified arm of St. Theresa of Avila for a cure. Patriotic Spaniards start partying. Stores sold out of champagne by 10 a.m. As planned King Juan Carlos takes over and Spain converts to a constitutional monarchy.

1994- Rock & Roll star David Crosby received a new liver.

1995- During and interview on a BBC television show Panorama, Diana Princess of Wales admitted to having a love affair with an officer named James Hewitt. This was after Prince Charles admitted to his long affair with Lady Camilla Parker-Bowles. After the Princesses death Hewitt sold a juicy tell-all story to the London tabloids for half a million pounds.

1998- Several state governments and the US tobacco industry reach a landmark settlement arising from lawsuits over smoking illnesses. The trial also killed off once and for all ads featuring The Marlboro Cowboy and Joe Camel, a cartoon character that at one point was as recognizable to children as Donald Duck.
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QUESTION: One of the reasons Beowulf is taught in schools is it is considered the oldest secular work of English literature. What is the oldest song?

ANSWER: Greensleeves. Richard the Lionhearted’s Crusaders sang a song that became For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow (the Bear Went over the Mountain) but that was in Norman French. Greensleeves is the oldest non-religious song in the English language. No one is sure just how old it is. Some say it was written by King Henry VIII (1491-1547) for Anne Boleyn, but that is apocryphal.


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