Today the Van Eaton Gallery in Sherman Oaks hosted a wonderful party for the Creative Talent Network, called Disney Heroes of the Imagination, displaying the artwork of the legendary designers Joe Grant, Mel Shaw, Rowland Wilson and Walt Stanchfield.

Joe Grant's drawings of his cockerspaniel Lady was the inspiration for the film Lady and the Tramp

Many of their families were there, as well as Mel Shaw himself. Mel is now in his 90s, and I had not seen him since we hung out in London in 1989 when working on the first designs for Beauty and the Beast.
He lives in the Napa area now, and has his own vineyard that produces high quality altar wine. We had a fine time catching up.

Also seen at the event was John Musker, Don Hahn, Mike Gabriel, George Scribner, Tina Price, Steve and Jeanette Hulett, Mark Kirkland, Lorna Cook, Ed Ghertner, Joe Campana, Thom Enriquez and many more. I wish I had more pictures to share, but the batteries in my camera were feschutz!

Bravo to Mike Van Eaton and his crew for a great time!

for more on the event- http://creativetalentnetwork.com


--------------------------------------------------
Birthdays: J.C.Penny (James Cash Penny), B.B. King is 82 (originally Rydell King, when a DJ in Memphis his name was Beale St. Blues Boy or B.B.King), Marvin Middlemark 1919-the inventor of the rabbit ears TV antenna; Lauren Bacall is 83, Anne Francis is 77, Linda Darnell, Nadia Boulanger, Alan Funt, George Chakiris is 73, Peter Falk is 80, Mickey Rourke, Ed Begley Jr, Jennifer Tilly is 49, Molly Shannon is 43.

218BC -Estimated date that Hannibal and his Carthaginian army completed their crossing of the Alps and descended into the Po River Valley of Italy. Of 32 elephants only 2 survived the journey.

1498-The Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada died peacefully. He presided over the torture and execution of up to 17,000 people during the Spanish Inquisition. He also oversaw the expulsion of Jews and Christian Arabs from Spain. Even the Borgias asked him to cool it. The name Torquemada became a synonym for judicial cruelty.

1859- In Old San Francisco California State Senator David Broderick called California Supreme Court Justice David Terry a “pro-slavery crook, knave and poltroon”. The chief justice in a rage challenged Broderick to a duel. They had to reschedule their meeting several times to elude the police but finally met on this date on site near present day Stinson Beach. Broderick's gun discharged prematurely near Terry's feet. Terry, instead of considering honor satisfied and firing wide, took aim and drilled Broderick through the chest, killing him instantly.

1908- General Motors Car Company formed. Calvin Coolidge had once said:" What's good for General Motors is good for the Nation."

1917- TANKS make their first appearance on the Somme battlefield. The inventors wanted them to be called “Land-Battleships” but the British had shipped their secret weapon across the Channel in crates marked "water-Tanks" to fool spies, so the name Tank stuck.

1919- An Austrian ex-corporal named Hitler drifting through Munich today joined a new right wing political party called the German Workers Party, later the National Socialists or Nazis. He also attended meetings of the ultra-nationalist Thule Society. It was a group that espoused racial supremacy and hated of Jews.

1920- FOR THOSE WHO THINK TERRORISM IS A MODERN PROBLEM- On this day anarchists planted a time bomb in a wagonload of scrap iron and parked it in the middle of Wall Street on a busy business lunch hour. The blast killed 38 and injured hundreds, blowing out the ground floor of J.P. Morgan's bank. Bankers described nightmarish scenes like a woman's decapitated head with her stylish bonnet still on, imbedded like a cannonball in a marble inlaid wall by the force of the blast. One of the victims was a sailor named Watson who had survived the explosion of the U.S.S. Maine. He survived this one as well but had to get a steel plate in his head. He eventually went mad. Another man knocked senseless and almost killed was young bank executive Joseph Kennedy Sr., father of the Kennedy Dynasty. The perpetrators were never caught. On 9.11. 2001 the headquarters of Morgan/Stanley were destroyed in the World Trade Center.

1941- CBS Radio premiered the Arkansas Traveler Show. In it bandleader Bob Burns played a strange instrument he called a Bazooka. Later when the US Army issued the first hand-held anti-tank rocket launchers (RPG) to their infantry, the GI’s called the things Bazookas because it resembled Burns instrument.

1949-Happy Birthday Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote! Chuck Jones "Fast and Furrious" the First Road Runner-Coyote cartoon.

1953- The St. Louis Browns Baseball team moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles.

1963- The Beatles record “She Loves You- Yeah,Yeah,Yeah.”on the Swan Records label.

1964- The Peter Potamus Show debuted.

1965- The Dean Martin Show premiered on NBC. “Well, Ah think I’m gonna go to da couch now..”

1966- the last LOOK magazine published.

1966- The new Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center had its opening night. A performance of Samuel Barbers Anthony & Cleopatra sung by Leontyne Price and Justino Diaz. It was a near disastrous night because Ms Price got locked in a pyramid for awhile and couldn’t get out.

1969- President Nixon appears on the t.v. comedy "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" and says:"Sock it to Me?"

1983- Arnold Schwarzenegger became a US citizen.

1984- “Miami Vice” tv show debuted.

2003- Sheb Wooley, the composer of the 1951 hit “One Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater” and the theme song of the TV show Hee Haw, died in Henderson Tennessee at age 82.

Birthdays: James Fennimore Cooper, William Howard Taft America's fattest president, Agatha Christie, Julian Cannonball Adderly, Bruno Walter, Russian animator Yuri Noorstein, Oliver Stone, Jean Renoir (film director and son of painter August Renoir), Alexander Korda, Robert Benchley the author of Jaws, Tommy Lee Jones is 61, Prince Henry the second son of Charles and Di is 22, Fay Wray (1907-2004) who played King Kong's girlfriend, would have been 100 today.

happy birthday Fay!

1858- The Butterfield Overland Mail service started up- driving stage coaches throughout the Old West.

1901- After the funeral of assassinated President McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt strode into the White House for his first day as President. Supposedly he was the man who named the famous caramel corn snack. After he tried it, he exclaimed to the inventor "These caramel dipped popcorns are Crackerjack!"

1925- The Grand Order of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan take out a copyright on their logo – the white cross on the red circle with the black square in the center. After all, some other racist hate group might try to copy their cool duds!

1930- The first Blondie comic strip.

1930- Hoagy Carmichael first recorded “Georgia on My Mind”.

1936- Irving Thalberg, the "Boy Genius" MGM producer, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at 31. He was the inspiration for F.Scott Fitzgerald's "The Last Tycoon". His boss Louis B. Mayer was beginning to resent his popularity. When actress Gloria Swanson asked Mayer how he felt about Thalberg's death Mayer replied:" God has been very kind to me."

1954- The day of shooting on the film the Seven Year Itch. Marylin Monroe in her little white dress stood over the subway grate and let the breeze blow her dress up, much to the annoyance of her husband, baseball star Joe Dimaggio. Her white halter outfit was thereafter known as a Marylin Dress.

1957-The tv series Bachelor Father starring John Forsythe premiered.

1959- Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev arrived in the U.S. for a good will tour that included farms and factories. Americans found the earthy bald peasant with the broad smile charming, and not at all the bogeyman everyone feared. At one point Khruschev requested to visit Disneyland, the “workers playground” but Walt Disney refused:” In 1942 we lent those Commie bastards a print of Snow White and they released in their theaters with their own credits on it!” Khruschev also praised American white bread. “Russian Bread is made one day and goes stale. American bread can stay on shelf for weeks and still be soft!”He also enjoyed the fried chicken of the man Sanders that the state of Kentucky had made a Colonel- KFC. He called the little striped box with fork,salt and wetnap the perfect workers meal.

1965- "Green Acres" t.v. show debuts. Arnold Ziffel the pig gains national prominence.


1971 –The environmental political movement Greenpeace founded in Vancouver by twelve members of the Don’t Make a Wave Committee.

1973- Star Trek animated series by Filmation premiered. This was the first time Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Uhura were united again with a Roddenberry script since the original series was cancelled in 1967.

Just heard this from Stuart Ng-

From Typepad.com

The J.C. Leyendecker exhibition is coming to Southern California! It starts September 21 and runs through November 18 at the Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave., Fullerton. 60 paintings will be on display making this the largest Leyendecker exhibition since the Norman Rockwell Museum show in 1998. This travelling exhibition is not to be missed.

Sweet!

Birthdays: Lao Tzu -604 b.c., Caliph Al Mansur -the founder of Bagdhad-711 A.D., Dr. Ivan Pavlov, illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, Margaret Sanger the founder of Planned Parenthood, Clayton Moore t.v.'s Lone Ranger, Luigi Cherubini, Joey Heatherton, Bowser from Sha-Na-Na., Walter Koenig- proton torpedoes armed and ready, Captain..., Nicol Williamson, Sam Neill, Hal Wallis

1224- Followers of Saint Francis of Assisi noted that on this day after a lengthy vigil of prayer in the mountains a Seraph came down out of the sky bearing an image of the Crucified Christ. After the angel left St Francis noticed his hands and feet began bleeding with the same nail marks as Jesus. This is called Stigmata.

1324- In Ravenna a few hours after he put the finishing touches on the last part of his epic poem The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri died of malaria fever.

1502-Battle of Lake Smolina- Grand Master Waltur von Plattenburg of the Holy Order of Livonian Sword Brothers (no, they weren't a rap group) fights his way out of the surrounding Russian army of Czar Ivan the Great, outnumbered ten to one.

1523- Pope Adrian VI died. He was a Dutchman who thought he had been selected to be a true shepherd to his Christian flock. But when he entered Rome he was hurled into a hurricane of Vatican power politics and intrigue. It was said he died of shock. He was the last non-Italian pope until John Paul II in 1978. Romans hated killjoy Adrian so much, that when he died they sent flowers to his doctor. This was in thanks for losing the patient.

1812-NAPOLEON ENTERS MOSCOW- Napoleon entered the great Russian city and expected to be met by a delegation to surrender the keys of the city, and discuss peace terms. This happened in Berlin, Rome, Milan, Vienna and Madrid. Instead, the civilian population had fled. The lord mayor of Moscow, Count Theodore Rostopchin ( nicknamed "Crazy Theo" by Catherine the Great ), had opened up all the prisons and lunatic asylums on a promise from the inmates that they would do no less than burn the city down around the Frenchman's ears. The GREAT FIRE OF MOSCOW would last for four days and leave Napoleon thousands of miles from home with no winter shelter

1814- BRITISH NAVY BOMBARDS FT. McHENRY – Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key was sent to the British to negotiate the release of a local Maryland doctor named Beanes. The British had accused Scottish born Dr. Beanes of mistreating their POW’s but relented when Key brought with him a letter written by men saying they were being well taken care of. Still, Key came at an awkward moment because they were about to attack Baltimore. So Admiral Cochrane invited him to stay and watch the show. Francis Scott Key watched the Rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air all night. Colonel Armistead the American commander at Ft. McHenry flew a big ass American flag to show everyone his fort was still fine and dandy. Dr Beane’s eyesight wasn’t very good and in the Dawns Early Light he asked Key:”If the flag was still there?” This question inspired Key to start writing down stanzas for a poem. After 25 hours of bombardment the British gave up firing on the fort and sailed away to save their resources for the attack on New Orleans. Key wrote a neat little poem and showed it to his brother-in-law Judge Nicholson. He thought it would sound good matched to a British pub song called "To Anacreon in Heaven". The song had a few difficult final high notes that enabled the bartender or publican to tell if you had too much to drink. It became the U.S. national anthem in 1931. Despite Jimmy Hendrix s’ rendition at Woodstock there has been occasional calls to replace it with America the Beautiful.

1837- Charles Tiffany with two partners set up their first store- Tiffany & Young. Tiffany stressed upscale merchandise from Europe to the best of New York society. In 1848 Charles Tiffany was on vacation in Europe when a revolution in France broke out and he wound up buying loads of cut-rate diamonds from aristocrats trying to flee. This moved his business exclusively into Jewelry and he soon bought out his partners and it became simply Tiffany’s. His son Louis Tiffany was the artist in stain glass creating Tiffany windows and lamps.

1847- THE HALLS OF MONTEZUEMA- The U.S. army under Gen.Winfield Scott captured Mexico City. As the army fanned out mopping up resistance the Marines were sent to take the National Palace. Marine Lieutenant A.S. Nicholson cut down the Mexican tricolor and ran up the Stars and Stripes over the Halls of Montezuma , unwittingly giving the first line to his Corps stirring battle hymn. For the first time the US flag flew over a foreign capitol. After this success President Polk started to dream of not just annexing California but making all of Mexico down to Panama part of the United States! Luckily cooler heads prevailed, and the French under Maximillian discovered twenty years later the folly of trying to control Mexico with foreign troops.

1901- After lingering two weeks with an assassins bullet in him, President William McKinley died. Teddy Roosevelt became the nations youngest president at 42. Republican party boss Marc Hanna groaned:”Oh, no! Now that crazy cowboy is President!”

1918- 63 year old union leader and one time Socialist presidential candidate Eugene Debs is sentenced to ten years in prison for making Anti-war speeches. Many large unions in the U.S. were against U.S. participation in World War One. In The election of 1913 Debs got 1 million votes to Woodrow Wilson's slim victory of 6 million.

1927-Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan died in freak car accident when her scarf tangled in the spokes of her Bugatti sportscar and snapped her neck. The scarf was a gift from the mother of famed Hollywood director Preston Sturges.

1927- Gene Austin recorded “My Blue Heaven”.

1957- TV show “Have Gun Will Travel” with Richard Boone as Paladin, premiered. The head writer of this show was Gene Roddenberry, who would later create Star Trek.

1968-Filmation's "the Archies" "Sugar...ah, honey honey...."

1972- Premiere of the TV show The Waltons. “ Goodnight John-Boy, Goodnight Jim-Bob..”

1978- The Mork & Mindy show with young comic Robin Williams debuted. “Na-Nuu, Na-Nuu.”.

1982- During the Israeli invasion and siege of Beirut this day Yassir Arafat and his remaining PLO fighters were evacuated to Tunis under a UN truce.

1985- Disney's "Gummi Bears"

1993- Former Simpson’s writer Conan O’Brien takes over David Letterman’s old spot at the Late Show.

NY based animator Michael Sporn's Blog as had some great postings recently on the work of Eyvind Earle and the animated endcredits done by Richard William's London Studio for the film A FUNNY THING HAPPENED TO ME ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM( 196-?)

A caller also made us aware that someone on U-Tube has posted the Thames Television documentary done about Dick's Studio in 1981. Great footage from the Thief, and of Art Babbitt and Ken Harris teaching the crew. For those who've never seen footage of the Thief, when watching all these madly turning M.C Escher-like structures, remember there is no computer animation anywhere there. It was all done painstakingly by eye by some wonderful draftspeople.

Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQN0YQOwcg0