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As the lazy summer days drag on some important dates to remember are coming closer.

On August 21st,to commemorate what would have been the 100th Birthday of Warner Bros cartoon director Isadore Friz Freleng, the website http://www.HellonFriscoBay.blogspot.com is holding a day long Freleng-For-All. People are invited to share their memories of Friz and their favorite Friz cartoons on their blogs and link to his site.

Also remember the Benefit for Cal Arts own Martha Baxton is in full swing. Donate, support, attend the party Sept 9th. Even if you didn't know her, you can check out the cool stuff piling up to auction. Maybe get yourself a bargain. Already listed is an Original Milt Kahl drawing from Disney's Robin Hood, tickets to Penn & Teller in Vegas, a computer, original artwork. HELLO? ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION? I SAID, AN ORIGINAL MILT KAHL SKETCH!!.Try and buy one of those somewhere else and still afford a tank of gas. And the loot is only beginning to pile up! See you on the 9th. http://baxton.mrkurtnielsen.com


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Birthdays: Meriwether Lewis of Lewis & Clark fame , Austrian Emperor Franz Josef II, opera Heldentenor Leo Slezak, Shelly Winters, Caspar Weinburger, Roberto Clemente, Rafer Johnson, Enoch Light, Coco Channel, Roman Polanski is 73, Patrick Swayze, Madeleine Stowe, Christian Slater, Edward Norton is 37, Martin Mull, Egads, Robert Redford is 70!

1503-Pope Alexander VI the Borgia died. Some say he died of malaria , others that he poisoned himself accidentally while trying to poison someone else. The Borgia's enemies then take over the Vatican and end Caesar & Lucretia Borgia's reign of terror. The Pope had had seven children and at the time was sleeping with 16 year old Giulia Farnese whom he had painted as the Virgin Mary. People said the Alexander had sold his soul to the devil because at his death an ape appeared on his windowsill and water boiled in his mouth. Hmmm- proof enough for me. His 300 lb. corpse was so swollen with corruption that it had to be pounded into it's coffin with wooden wine corking mallets.

1937- The Toyota Automobile Company was established as an offshoot of the Toyoda Motorized Loom Works. They changed the name Toyoda to Toyota because a Shinto priest told them the name would be luckier.

1939- The movie the Wizard of Oz released and made a star of Judy Garland. Frank Morgan, ther actor playing the Wizard, needed to wear a shabby old coat so a studio costume designer went through some L.A. thrift stores until she found the good candidate. When Morgan looked in the lining he discovered the coat was previously owned by L.Frank Baum, writer of the Oz stories. Morgan was first president of the Screen Actor's Guild, but stepped down when he was considered 'too left' to work with the Roosevelt administration. Lyricist Yip Harburg ( Somewhere over the Rainbow ) was later blacklisted as a communist. "And yer little dog ,too!!"

1953- The first MacDonalds Franchise restaurant opened in Downey California.

1966- The Ice Slurpee was invented by two Dallas engineers for a failing Oklahoma ice cream store.

1977- The Xerox Company decided not to seriously market the Alto, the pioneering personal computer that had a graphic window interface and mouse long before anyone else. Xerox decided to stick with copying machines and disbanded their Palo Alto development team Xerox PARC. Most of their breakthroughs wound up in other computers like the Mackintosh and the IBM PC.

1977- The rock band the Police make their debut in a Birmingham nightclub. The lead singer Gordon Sumner started to get the nickname Sting from the black and yellow shirt he habitually wore.

1999- TV psychic Kriswell predicted this date would be the End of the World.


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