My old Kamerade, Don Hahn, has begun a series of works documenting the Great 2D Renaissance of 1988-2003. Being producer of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Lion King and more, he should know.

courtesy of spock.com

His first salvo in this fusillade of research is THE ALCHEMY OF ANIMATION, available now in bookstores like Amazon.

It is a delightful confection that features a lot of never seen production drawings and images from Disney classics like Pinocchio, 101 Dalmations, Ratatouille, Jungle Book, there is even a section that looks behind the scenes of 3D films like Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. It would be a great gift for the Disney fan in your life this Xmas, of course, after you finish reading DRAWING THE LINE!



Congrats, Le Grande Mustacheoux, on a great new work!
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I just heard of the passing of former IATSE NY union rep Gerald Salvio at age 82. Gerald was originally a assistant effects cameraman before heading MPSC local #841 for 14 years. Gerald was a tough labor rep, in a tough part of the business. He once told me when I was a young beardless youth:" Eh, youse animators act like children! Ya'd sell yerselves fer peanuts if I let ya!" I was offended at the time, but Sometimes I don't wonder if he wasn't right.

My condolences to his family.
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Quiz: Okay Disney fans, which one of these men was NOT one of the Nine Old Men?
A) Frank Thomas, B) Milt Kahl,C) Bill Tytla, D)Marc Davis, E)Eric Larson?

Yesterday’s Question Answered Below: Presidential wannabe John McCain is constantly referring to himself as a Maverick. So, what is a Maverick?
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History for 10/8/2008
Birthdays: Eddie Rickenbacker, Rev Jesse Jackson, Juan Peron, David Carradine, Art Babbitt -the creator of Goofy, Chevy Chase, Paul Hogan, Rona Barrett, Ruben Mamoulian, Edward Zwick, Johnny Ramone, Sigourney Weaver is 59, Matt Damon is 38

Today is the feast day of Saint Demetrius of Thesalonikki

1777- British General Clinton tried to get a message through to Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne and his army trapped at Saratoga. He sent a Tory-Loyalist scout with a message rolled up and hidden in a solid silver capsule. When he was intercepted by the Americans, the loyalist swallowed the capsule before he was searched. He was given a heavy emetic "whereupon he soon produced the capsule, which he proceeded to grab and swallow again. Another emetic was administered and he produced the capsule again." The message was opened and read, then the man hanged as a spy." Euww! Just hang me.

1846- Battle of Old Woman's Gun. In 1846 as part of the Mexican War, United States forces had taken the pueblo of Los Angeles. But after a few weeks, the first Yankee mayor, a Lt. Gillespie, was such as a-hole that the Mexican citizens drove them out of town. On this day the US forces came up from their fleet anchored in San Pedro Harbor and tried to re-take the city. Mexican forces led by a rancher named Carillo routed the Yankees in part with an old 4 pound signal cannon that an old lady had buried in her front yard. She had hid the old gun when Gillespie ordered the poplulation disarmed. The Californios had no gun carriage so they lashed the old gun to a wagon rig. Six months later, the US forces finally overcame LA resistance and the town stayed in Yankee control.

1862-THE BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE- Union forces defeat General Baxton Bragg's Confederates and prevent Kentucky from joining the Confederacy. Abe Lincoln said: " I hope I have God on my side but I Must have Kentucky." The Confederates had actually pushed the Yankees off the field and were at the edge of victory, but Bragg overestimated the enemies strength the next day and ordered a general retreat, wasting everything they gained. His second in command General Kirby Smith resigned in disgust. The commander of the Union Army Gen. Don Carlos Buell, was so distracted with other business that he was hardly aware that his men had fought a battle. He was soon replaced.

1871- THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE- Legend said in a shed behind 137 DeKoven St, Old Mrs. O'Leary's cow knocks over a lantern and starts a fire that burns down 17,500 buildings and kills 300 including the Mayor. The fire jumped the Chicago River and people rode their carriages into Lake Michigan and even jumped into open graves to escape. Eventually the firemen’s pumpers ran out of water and the Northside kept burning past Fullerton until it burned itself out when it hit open prairie. 300,000 were left homeless. One of the only downtown buildings to survive the inferno was Chicago’s beloved old water tower. The slaughter houses and grain elevators also survived so business could go on. Ironically the O'Leary house stayed intact, just the barn burned. Two journalists later admitted inventing the O’Leary cow story to sell newspapers.

1871-THE GREAT PESHTIGO FIRE- The most deadly fire in North American history occurred on the exact same day as the Chicago Fire, but this one was in Peshtigo Wisconsin. A forest fire started by loggers burning debris built into a firestorm (actually a flaming tornado) and destroyed a wooden town killing 1,200 in a town of 1,750, five times as many as the Chicago Fire. The tornado caught dozens of people during church services. Three hundred died trying to escape across a wooden bridge that caught fire and burned from both ends. Survivors saw "people and cows stagger a few feet and go down burning brightly, like so many pieces of pitch pine." A heavy rain fell the next day. One day late.

1907- Charles Frederick Dow, one of the founders of the Wall Street Journal, started his system of charting the average performance of industrial stocks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

1915- The Battle of Loos. British troops release poison gas at the German lines. The wind changes and blows it back on their own men. Doh!

1918- SERGANT YORK- simple Tennessee hillbilly Alvin York was drafted into the U.S. Army where his crack shot talents enabled him this day to shoot up an entire German regiment. He captured 300 prisoners alone with only his single shot Springfield rifle. He got the Medal of Honor and a tickertape parade. Then went back to the Ozarks where he resumed his life of making moonshine, hog calling and other rustic pursuits.

1929- British Imperial Airways shows the first in-flight movie.

1933- HOLLYWOOD ACTOR'S FIRST MASS PROTEST- When Franklin Roosevelt created the NRA to fix wages and prices to try and solve the Depression, he even went as far as to try to regulate Motion Picture rates and fees. The catch was the rates were drafted with the advice of friends of the studio heads in Washington. The actors went ballistic when they saw new rules such as a ceiling cap on actors salaries of $100,000 a year (the producers had no such cap), restriction of actors independant agents, and terms of an old salary contract would stay in effect even after the contract expired until it was renegotiated.
This night at the El Capitan theater on Hollywood Blvd. hundreds of moviestars met to draft a petition calling for rewriting of the codes. The activists included Paul Muni, Frederic March, Jeanette MacDonald, Groucho Marx and Boris Karloff. SAG president Frank Morgan (the Wizard of Oz) was considered politically too far left to face Roosevelt, so he stepped down in favor of comedian Eddie Cantor, who had helped Vaudeville acts unionize. In previous meetings at the El Capitan the earth tremors from the Great Long Beach Earthquake the previous March made actors reconvene in the Grauman's Chinese parking lot across the street. Cantor went to the president's retreat at Warm Springs Georgia with the petition and had the hated articles taken out of the code.

1935- Ozzie Nelson married Harriet. Ask your parents if you don't know.

1957- Walter O'Malley announced the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles.

1957- Jerry Lee Lewis recorded his hit Great Balls of Fire.

1967- In Bolivia guerrilla leader Ernesto Che' Guevara was taken and shot. Che' started as an Argentine doctor and was wracked with asthma most of his life. He had gone to Bolivia after quarreling with Fidel Castro about whether it was more important to export Cuban revolution the rest of Latin America or concentrate on building Cuba's economy. Thirty years later in 1997 his remains were identified and returned to Cuba for burial. Even today his legend remains powerful among poorer parts of the Spanish speaking world. It’s not uncommon to be walking the streets of Lima, Cartagena or even Madrid and see the familiar grafitti on a wall- " El Che’Vive ! "
Stephen Soderbergh has completed a bio film of Che with Benicio De Toro entitled the Argentine, but so far can not get an American studio to distribute it.

1970- Dissident Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsin was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Soviet State kept him in internal exile and refused to let him travel to accept his prize. He was exiled to America in 1974 and returned to Russia after the fall of communism.

1971- John Lennon first released the song Imagine.

2004- Home decorating guru Martha Stewart began serving her 5 month prison term for perjury and insider trading.
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Yesterday’s Question: Presidential wannabe John McCain is constantly referring to himself as a Maverick. So, what is a Maverick?

Answer: In Texas in the 1800s Samuel Maverick had a large herd of cattle that he didn’t brand. So when cowboys came upon stray cattle without a brand, they called them Mavericks. Ironically, the great granddaughter of Sam Maverick, 82 year old Terrelitta Maverick says her family are and always have been progressive Liberals. Terrelitta said of John McCain: “ He’s a Republican, he’s branded.”

Sam Maverick

You don't have to live in Alaska to know by now that this election is going to affect your life and mine for years to come. Regardless of your political affinity, there are growing reports of voter tampering around the country. Many young people and new citizens may be having their voter registration messed with.

As me dear granmudda used ta say- Don't be screwed out of your chance to get back at all those b*stards!

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Gregg Palast and cartoonist Russell Burlingame have come up with a novel way to get the word out to those feeling confused and angry... A comic book!

Download it now for free from this website - www.stealbackyourvote.com

courtesy stealbackyourvote.com


" I can handle the bad newspaper articles, mosta my voters can't read. But stop those damn pictures!"
- William Marcy Tweed, aka Boss Tweed, about Thomas Nast's political cartoons (1871)

Years ago I was talking with Ed Jones, who was then head of opticals at ILM when we did WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT. Ed was telling me about working with famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa on his film DREAMS.

Ed said "When we get our marching orders for effects shots we were used to getting some storyboards and notes from a director. But for this film, Kurosawa gave us his own personal oil paintings!



This fall in the Motion Picture Academy’s lobby gallery is a selection of the production paintings of famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.

In addition the exhibit will show photographs, scripts, props, posters and painted costumes from such famous films as 1951-RASHOMON, 1954 The SEVEN SAMURAI, 1985 RAN, 1961 YOJIMBO and HIDDEN FORTRESS- which Lucas fans would recognize as one of the inspirations for the original STAR WARS (1977)

Admission is free, the exhibit will stand until December 14th. Check out the AMPAS website for more info www.oscars.org

courtesy of sense of cinema .com
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Question: Presidential wannabe John McCain is constantly referring to himself as a Maverick. So, what is a Maverick?

Quiz: How many capitol cities has the U.S. had?
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History for 10/7/2008
Birthdays: Hans Holbein, Heinrich Himmler, Caesar Rodney, Joe Hill, Andy Devine, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Henry Wallace, June Allyson, Oliver North, Al Martino, Jose Cardenal, Neils Bohr, Ameil Buraka, Johnny Cougar Mellencamp, Toni Braxton, Yo Yo Ma

312BC- THE SUCCESSORS- Seleucus Nicator(pronounced Sele-u-kos)- conquered Babylon and set up his Syrian-Greek kingdom. One of the generals of the recently dead Alexander the Great, he divided up Alexander's Empire along with fellow generals like Ptolomey, who became Pharoah of Egypt, Perdiccas, Antigonus One-Eye, who controlled mainland Greece and Demetrius Poliocretes-the Destroyer of Cities. Called the Successors, they and their descendants warred and conspired with each other until the Roman Empire rose up and knocked them all off.

1337- King Edward III of England decides he's not only King of England but King of France as well- the HUNDRED YEARS WAR begins. It was actually 111 years, until 1446. Ironically it was around this time that the English language began to emerge as the common mother tongue of Britain, melding the Norman French of the nobility with the Anglo Saxon of the common folks.

1571- BATTLE OF LEPANTO- Great naval engagement in which the ships of Venice, Spain, Genoa and the Papacy defeat the Grand Turks navy led by Ali Pasha. The last battle fought with war galleys rowed by teams of rowers. The admiral in charge was the bastard brother of Phillip II, Don John of Austria, a military hero who would have later led the Spanish Armada against England had he not succumbed to an early fever. Had he lived Shakespeare might have had to learn to write in Spanish. The Sultan at the time was Mustapha the Sot, so named because his immoderate love of wine caused the Commander of the Faithful to die by drunkenly slipping on the tile floor of his bathroom. The battle raged from ship to ship until Don Johns ship overran Ali Pasha’s flagship and hoisted his severed head to the top of their mainmast. Among the common sailors in the battle were future writers like Lope De Vega and Miguel de Cervantes, who lost his right hand:" For the greater glory of my left" he joked.

1763- THE ROYAL PROCLAMATION TO NORTH AMERICA- The British Colonial Ministry, trying to reward it's Indian allies in the French and Indian War and kill two birds with one stone, told the Americans that any further western colonization to the Mississippi was forbidden, but they were invited to go north and colonize Quebec. This would hopefully mean the outnumbering and eventual assimilation of the French Canadians. Neither happens and it only angered the Americans who were never asked about this idea. The British even toyed with making the Illinois and Michigan territories part of Canada. Could you imagine it:" How' bout dem Cubs,-eh?"

1777-SECOND BATTLE OF BEMIS HEIGHTS-British General Johnny Burgoyne trying to break out of a trap, smashed his army against the American defenses in a heavy rain. The defense works were engineered by Polish patriot Thaddeus Kosciuszko. Washington spelled his name 11 different ways in dispatches, the men just called him " Colonel Koz". Burgoyne had snubbed his superior officers since his arrival in America, saying he answered directly to the War office in London. Now surrounded in the forest by overwhelming odds he snuck out a message to General Guy Carleton in Canada "I await your Lordship's orders." Carelton recognized this weenie attempt to shift blame and ignored him. The hero of this battle was Benedict Arnold. Arnold was everywhere, rallying minutemen brigades and crashing them into the enemy without waiting for his commanders orders. The U.S. commander Horatio Gates spent most of the battle in the rear entertaining captured British officers and discussing the futility of the American cause. The battle ended when someone shot Arnold in the leg.

1780- BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN- In the later stages of the American Revolution the British Army command shifted from a strategy of using overwhelming conventional force in New England to going South and encouraging American Loyalists to fight a civil war. At Kings Mountain in North Carolina The “Over the Mountain Men”, an army of Scots-Irish frontiersmen under Issac Shelby defeated a Loyalist militia under the command of Col. Patrick Ferguson. Ferguson, who was killed in the fight, was an unconventional Scots Highlander who taught his men to fight American Indian style.

1783- The Virginia House of Burgesses votes to grant freedom to all slaves who fought in the continental army during the American Revolution.

1799- Napoleon returns from his Egyptian Campaign without his army but with a new appreciation for antiquities.

1851- THE OXFORD MOVEMENT.- Several top bishops of the Church of England stunned Victorian High Society by announcing their conversion to Roman Catholicism. Bishop John Newman was the first, followed today by the Archbishop Manning of Chichester. Manning eventually became the Catholic cardinal primate of England and was listed in Lytton Straychey’s book the Eminent Victorians.

1855-THE BORDER WAR- John Brown arrived in Kansas help organize anti-slave men to fight pro-slavers, called the Border-Ruffians. For several years before the Civil War broke out Missouri and Kansas were torn by private gangs of militias murdering each other. The Southern extremists were called Bushwhackers, the pro-Unionists called Jayhawkers or Redlegs.

1861- In the Indian Territory –near what will one day be Tulsa Oklahoma the councils of the Chickasaw, Cherokee and Choctaw Indian Nations sign an alliance with the Confederate States, smoke the war pipe and renounce any ties to the United States. The Commanche people announced they would stop raids on Texas. Pro-Northern Indians then broke with their tribal brothers and there were mini-Civil Wars among Indians.

1864- General Sherman in Atlanta revealed in a letter to Grant that he intended not to worry about his supply lines but cut his lines of communication and march through Georgia totally living off the land.

1868- After a season of raids by hostile Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors on Kansas settlers U.S. Generals Sherman and Sheridan met to draft a 'final solution' for the American Indian. They would no longer chase scattered bands of braves but introduce their brand of ruthless "Total War". These tactics burned Atlanta and the Shenandoah Valley to end the Civil War. They ordered the US Army to attack villages, kill women & children, burn crops and shoot ponies. Sherman openly described it as a 'Race War". He said." a few savages must no longer be allowed to impede the March of Anglo Saxon Civilization!" They made a policy of attacking villages in winter, just before dawn, because then Indian war parties stayed close to home and were less mobile.

1870- Writer Edgar Allen Poe was found sprawled over a barrel in a Baltimore street, dressed in someone else's clothing. He was taken to a hospital where he died raving at the walls. It was thought he died from heavy alcohol abuse but recently scholars theorize he may have died from a brain tumor or diabetes impacted by alcohol sensitivity, which would explain the violent mood swings, and that he drank heavily to deaden the pain. Another scholar also theorized that the symptoms strongly point to rabies. Poe loved cats and as we all know there was no rabies shot or test at the time. How or why the cats changed his clothes, is another puzzle.

1897-A group of Russian Jews, disgusted by the state sanctioned anti-Semitism of the Czar, formed the Jewish Socialist Bund. They broke with Theodore Herzel and the mainstream Zionist movement who wanted all Jews to go to Palestine. The Socialist Bund advocated political action to reform within Russia. Communist Leon Trotsky, himself a Jew, belittled the Bund, calling them “Zionists who are afraid of getting sea-sick”.

1915- President Woodrow Wilson reversed his position and announced he was now in favor of giving women the vote.

1918- The Polish army contingents of the crumbling Russian, Austrian and German empires band together in Warsaw and set up a native government, declaring themselves the Republic of Poland. The Polish State that had disappeared in 1799 was now reborn. World famous concert pianist Jan Paderewski as their first president..

1923- Baseball pitching legend Christy Matthewson died of complications from inhaling poison gas in World War One.

1927- Sam Warner, the Warner Brother most responsible for committing the studio to gambling on a talking picture process, died just as the 'Jazz Singer 'opened and made Warner-Vitaphone a major Hollywood Studio. Jack Warner had earlier said "Who the heck wants to hear actors talk?"

1939-Benito Mussolini's Fascist government adopts anti-Semitic laws in line with the Nazis. All Jews were excluded from public office, banking, teaching and the military.

1941- Two months before Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt announced that in view of stepped up activity by Nazi U-boats the United States Navy and Coast Guard had been issued a shoot-on-sight order against any hostile craft.

1947 "Hey Stella !!" The Actor's Studio opened, teaching the Stanislavski Method, sometimes called Method Acting. The group later suffered a feud between it’s two top teachers-Lee Strassberg and Sandy Meisner. Ask any old actor if they were with Lee or Sandy, odds were they sided with one and hated the other.

1957-Dick Clark’s T.V. show American Bandstand debuts.

1959-MARIO LANZA.- Philadelphia born Italian–American Lanza was the pop icon opera singer long before there were three tenors in concert. With moviestar good looks and a velvety voice his records and movies sold millions. But he was temperamental and had angered most of the powers that be in Hollywood, climaxing with skipping a $250,000 promise to perform in Las Vegas. This day in Italy he was found dead of a heart attack at age 38. For years there were rumors that he was actually done in by the Mafia for offending Lucky Lucciano, but in the 1990s a forensic investigation by his son proved his brutal regimen of binge eating and furious dieting wore out his heart. He literally dieted himself to death.

1959- Young assassins sent by the dissident Ba’ath Party made an attempt on the life of the Prime Minister of Iraq Sherif Al Kassim. The plotters failed but they sneaked back into the country later. One of them would be one day the ruler of Iraq- Saddam Hussein.

1960- The movie Spartacus opened. Producer/star Kirk Douglas had been using blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo for the script , smuggling him in and out of the lot for story meetings. Finally Douglas got fed up and ordered Trumbo to be brought out in the open as the movie's true author. This was considered the official end of the Hollywood Blacklist era, which had lasted since 1947. After director Anthony Mann left the project Douglas hired Stanley Kubrick, who had such a hard time he afterwards left Hollywood never to return.

1964- ITS FUN TO PLAY AT THE Y-M-C-A! The only big sex scandal of the Lyndon Johnson administration. Walter Jenkins was a top LBJ aide and confidant. Johnson called Jenkins “My vice president of almost everything.” This day Walter Jenkins was busted for lewd behavior with a Turkish diplomat in a pay toilet at the YMCA just two blocks from the White House. Jenkins claimed he was just dehydrated.

1974- THE TIDAL BASIN BOMBSHELL- At 2:00 AM Washington DC police stopped a car driving near the White House with its lights off. Inside police discovered powerful Congressman Wilbur Mills, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, drunk as a skunk with an Argentine stripper named Fanne Fox. Mills broke away from the cops and he and Fanne began to cavort in the Tidal Basin pool near the Jefferson Memorial. They were fished out by police. Mills’ sexual escapades had been hushed up by politicos before but this was just too much. The subsequent publicity brought about hearings and Mills resignation.

1982- London musical 'Cats' opened on Broadway.

1985- Palestinian terrorists hijack the Italian Mediterranean cruise ship Achille Lauro. They murder an elderly Jewish American tourist named Leon Klinghoffer and dump his wheelchair and body into the sea. Composer John Adams wrote an opera about the incident called the Death of Klinghoffer.

1993- Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" earned $ 712 million dollars just in North American box office.

2001- U.S, British, Australian, Turkish and NATO allied forces began attacking Afghanistan in retaliation for the terror attack on New York and Washington on Sept. 11th. The war led to the destruction of the Taliban Regime ruling in Kabul and the suppressing of the Al Qaeda terrorist network led by rogue Saudi millionaire Osama ben Laden.

2003- The state of California had an unpopular Democratic Governor named Grey Davis. A Republican congressman named Daryl Issa who made a fortune making annoying car alarms “step away from the car..” found an obscure codicil in the State constitution calling for a recall election. The recall election soon had 154 candidates including a porn star, former child star Gary Coleman, Porn publisher Larry Flynt,, a woman who financed her campaign by selling autographed thongs, and Grey Davis’ own lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante who couldn’t stand him either. This night, after a comical election, the people elected Austrian-born body builder-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: How many capitol cities has the U.S. had?

Answer: Five. Philadelphia 1775-1789, Harrisburg PA after the British Army chased them out of Philadelphia for a time., New York City- 1789-1795, Philadelphia again 1795-1799. Baltimore 1800 until the Federal City was built up enough to move into. Then Washington D.C,. from Nov 1800 on.

Today marks the 2nd Anniversary of the debut of my first history book- DRAWING THE LINE.

Edouard Meissonier


It was a labor of love over 5 years of writing, and I am grateful for all the help and good advice I got from other animation historians.

Although it never became a best seller ( and what animation labor-history ever does?), I expected by now DRAWING THE LINE would be out of print, or at least on the Books-for-a-Buck remainder table. But after two years it's still selling strong. I am honored by the reactions its received from the public and the critics.

The stories he tells are alternately heartbreaking and hilarious, infused with the irreverence that''s always characterized this field. Anyone with more than a passing interest in the world of animation should consider this book a must-read. -- Leonard Maltin (Leonard Maltin )

Drawing the Line contains the best account yet of the 1941 Walt Disney strike, with documentation of the union side. --London Review of Books (London Review of Books )

"Sito is at his best sorting through the issues arising from [the arrival of computers]. given that in a sense all cinema is animation, the demarcation and jurisdictional lines between special affects, digital artists (no more inkers and painters), various managers and supervisors became very complex indeed." (Rick Thompson Screening the Past)

"This is one of the most extraordinary 'insider' books ever written about Hollywood."-- Paul Buhle, Brown Univ

It was also selected for the prestigious List of Recommended Books by the Firestone School of Economics of Princeton University. And most importantly, I've been deeply moved by the thanks of families of many great animators like John Hubley, Dave Hilberman, Selby Kelly and more, for restoring a lost part of their ancestors story.

I am also happy that many understand the book's underlying message is that the battle between employee & employer in Hollywood is the same now, as it was in the era of Silent films. Workers rights and a living wage are as much a part of the film industries' story as the Hollywood Sign.

Thanks again for enjoying it. And if you haven't read it yet, you can still order from the links listed here. For anyone in animation, or a fan or serious about animation, it's not just stories about old artists. It's Your Story. It's Our Story.

Oh, and uh...I have two new book projects in the works, so you can expect to hear me annoying you about them in the near future.

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Quiz: How many capitol cities has the U.S. had?

Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: Sara Palin, Keith Olberman, Bill O’ Reilly have been called demagogues. What is a demagogue?
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History for 10/6/2008
Birthdays: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Jenny Lind the Swedish Nightingale, George Westinghouse, Janet Gaynor, Carol Lombard, Karol Szymanowski, Thor Heyderthal, Bruno Sammartino, late Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad, Britt Eckland is 66, Le Corbusier, Elizabeth Shue is 45, Sean William Scott, Jeremy Sisto is 34, Ioan Gruffud

In Ireland this is Ivy Day, when Irish folk commemorate the death of the great statesman Charles Stuart Parnell with a sprig of ivy in their buttonholes.

1600- THE BIRTH OF OPERA. This day as part of the celebrations of the marriage of French King Henry IV to Marie de Medici composers Rinconcini and Caecini premiered a new kind of musical drama where soloists sang without the heavy polphony of madrigals but more directly in imitation of ancient dramas. It was “Eurydice” and it was the first true opera. The form was taken up by many composers including Claudio Monteverdi. But remember it ain’t over until the Fat Lady sings.

1802- The Heiligenstadt Testament- Composer Ludwig van Beethoven left behind a note found among his papers after his death in 1827. Dated this day it was addressed to his brother Karl and another unspecified relative. It was more of a spiritual Last Will than anything else. In the note Beethoven poured out of his heart confessing his faults and his fears of going deaf. It is an amazing insight into the great man’s soul.

1847- Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre first published.

1863- The first Turkish Bath House is opened in Brooklyn.

1863- The BAXTER SPRINGS MASSACRE- Quantrill’s Raiders bushwhacked Union General Blount’s personal entourage on the road and killed 86. It’s called a massacre rather than a battle, because most of the slain were noncombatant office staff trying to surrender. The heartless guerrillas even shot the regimental band. One union soldier with five bullets in him recalled before he lost consciousness, a large horseman standing over him gloating:” When you meet God, tell him the last thing you saw on Earth was Ol’ Billy Quantrill!”

1880- First classes at University of Southern California or USC. In 1921 the Trojans started the earliest university film school with endowments from Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Alumni include George Lucas, Ron Howard, Will Ferrel and Robert Zemeckis.

1889- Paris' naughty nightclub the Moulin Rouge opened.

1903-Dr Horatio Nelson Jackson, the Great Automobilist, first man to cross the United States by car, was given a speeding ticket in his home town of Burlington, Vermont. He was accused of going at reckless speeds of up to six miles an hour!

1927-"THE JAZZ SINGER"with Al Jolson debuts. Okay, Okay, Somebody made a sound picture in 1924 and also something called "Footlights of New York" from 1926 but hey, you know what?- who cares! THIS was the movie that made "Talkies" a reality. The premiere was also the occasion for Sid Grauman to throw the first big Hollywood premiere at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater with limos and red carpets and spotlights.

1942-THE BIRTHDAY OF WONDER WOMAN. William Moulton Marston was an educational consultant in 1940 for Detective Comics wondered why there was not a female hero. Max Gaines, then head of DC Comics, was intrigued by the concept and told Marston that he could create a female comic book hero - a "Wonder Woman." In a 1943 issue of The American Scholar, Marston said: 'Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power, Not wanting to be girls, they don't want to be tender, submissive, peace-loving as good women are. Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.'

1959- “Pillow Talk”premiered, the first romantic comedy pairing Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Stanley Shapiro won a best screenplay Oscar for it. The film typified the wink-wink attitude about sex before the 1960’s Sexual Revolution and defined Doris Day’s reputation as the wholesome, girl-next-door archetype. Oscar Levant quipped: “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.”

1966- California became the first state to officially declare LSD illegal. Hippies in San Francisco celebrate by rallying in Golden Gate Park in the thousands, and all taking a tab together.

1971- William Freidkin’s gritty cop movie the FRENCH CONNECTION premiered. The film won best picture, director and actor Oscars, made a major star out of Gene Hackman. One unforeseen result was the movie stimulated interest in pursuing the investigation of the real French-Corsican Mafia heroin trafficking in the US. That mob was soon broken up. The two real life detectives the film was based on- Eddie Egan and Sonny Corso, booth retired from the NYPD and pursued careers in show biz.

1973- THE OCTOBER WAR or THE YOM KIPPUR WAR. Egypt and Syria surprised attacked Israel on the holiest religious holiday of the Jewish calendar. They also achieved surprise by attacking at 2:00 in the afternoon instead of dawn. The Sinai and Golan Heights saw some of the largest tank battles since World War Two.

1981- Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat was assassinated while viewing parade marking Yom Kippur War anniversary. Commandos hopped out of the back of a troop carrier and blew him away with machine guns. Almost killed next to him was the current President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak. One of those arrested was Alman Al Zawahiri, who today is the little guy with the glasses standing next to Osama Ben Laden.

1991- University of Oklahoma Professor Anita Hill testified at the Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She alleged that when she was his aide she was subject to constant sexual harassment. Her testimony was labeled by Judge Thomas a "symbolic lynching". Thomas' conservative backers countered with a furious media campaign. Despite her impeccable credentials as a Christian scholar, they portrayed Prof Hill as a paranoid slut. Those involved in the smear campaign admitted later most of it was fabricated. Clarence Thomas was confirmed, but the controversy made Sexual Harassment a national issue.

2002- The Mayor of Paris Deloune was stabbed in the stomach at an all night rock concert.
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Yesterday’s Quiz: Sara Palin, Keith Olberman, Bill O’ Reilly have been called demagogues. What is a demagogue?

Answer: A speaker who manipulates the passions of the mob using his charisma and appealing to their fears and prejudices. From the Greek Demos, people and gogue- leader.

Quiz: Sara Palin, Keith Olberman, and Bill O’ Reilly have at times been called demagogues. What is a demagogue?

Yesterday’s Quiz Answered below: Which city is the oldest? New York, Boston, Colonial Williamsburg, or Philadelphia?
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History for 10/5/2008
Birthdays: Wendel Wilkie, President.Chester Allen Arthur, Ray Kroc the founder of MacDonalds, Louis Lumiere, Vaslav Havel, Larry Fine of the Three Stooges" , Bob Geldorf, Mario Lemieux, Josh Logan, Bill Dana "my name Jose Jimenez", Bill Keane- Glen's dad and creator of the Family Circus, Clive Barker, Glynis Johns, Donald Pleasance, Maya Lin, Karen Allen is 57 ,Kate Winslet is 35, Bernie Mac

1759- Col. Robert Rogers led his Roger’s Rangers on a forced march to surprise the Abeknackie Indians who had been raiding Maine homesteads. At 4:00 am near present day Saint Francis Maine the Rangers burned the Abeknackie village and killed so many people that the Abeknackies ceased to be a force in the area. Years later Rogers wrote down his principles of irregular warfare- his maxims like "Move Fast and Hit Hard" are the basis of Special Forces training today.

1813- BATTLE OF THE THAMES RIVER. Indiana - Tecumseh, an Indian visionary who foresaw that only by united action could native peoples hope to drive the White invasion back to Europe, spent his life convincing tribes to put away their tribal differences and fight as one people. He assembled a huge force of but was defeated and killed by Gen. William Henry Harrison.

1877- After a lightning campaign across 1,200 miles Nez Perce Chief Joseph found himself surrounded by U.S. armies just 150 miles from the Canadian border. At Bear’s Paw near Chinook Montana Chief Joseph surrendered to General Nelson Miles.."From where the Sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

1880- Alonzo T. Cross patented the first ball point pen.

1882- Outlaw Frank James surrendered to authorities six months after his brother Jesse was killed. After doing some prison time, Frank went straight.

1892-THE DALTON BOYS RAID COFFEEVILLE, Kansas and try to rob two banks at once. One quick thinking bank clerk told them the bank vault was on a time lock and would open shortly. There was no such timelock but while the badmen waited the townspeople broke into the hardware store and armed themselves to the teeth. As the Datlons emerged they were shot to pieces by the locals, much the same way the Jesse James Gang was wiped out at Northfield Minnesota ten years earlier. 8 were killed. Only Emmet Dalton survived despite 25 gunshot wounds. After getting our of jail in 1907 he also wisely went straight.

1904- According to comedian and playwright Steve Martin, this is the day Pablo Picasso met Albert Einstein at the Cafe Lapin Agile. There was a Cafe in Paris called Lapin Agile that Picasso did like to go to but he never actually met Einstein.

1905- Happy Birthday T-Rex! Prof. Henry Osborne published a paper on the new bones found in Montana of a sleek hunter- dinosaur. He originally called it Dynamosaurus Imperiosis, but changed it to Tyrannosaurus Rex.

1932- MGM Studios fired famed comic Buster Keaton.

1945- The BATTLE OF BURBANK.- Three thousand striking union filmworkers (and a few animators) battled the Burbank police in front of Gate 2 of the Warner Bros. Studio lot. chains, bricks, tear gas, firehoses, burning cars. Jack Warner placed sharpshooters behind those large movie billboards on Barham and Pass. One of the strikeleaders arrested was a background painter for Tex Avery cartoons. Herb Sorrel, the union leader, was pulled into a car and beaten up by gangsters, then arrested for incitement to riot.

1947-President Harry Truman gives the first speech broadcast nationwide on television.

1961- The film Breakfast at Tiffany’s opened, with Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, the song Moon River.

1969- Monty Python's Flying Circus debuted on British television BBC-1.

1969- A Cuban Colonel who wanted to defect to America flew his advanced Mig-21 to Miami and landed it at Homestead Airforce Base. But what was embarrassing to the US was he flew completely through all US advanced warning defenses undetected and landed his plane next to Air Force One carrying President Nixon! Doh !

2003- Timothy Treadwell was an author and advocate for the wild grizzly bears of North America. This day near Khalifa Bay Alaska, those bears attacked Treadwell and his girlfriend Anne Huguenard, and tore them to pieces. When he had appeared on the David Letterman TV Show the previous year, Letterman had joked:" Is it going to happen that one day we read a news article about you being eaten by one of these bears?" When authorities brought down the bear in question, after being shot 21 times, human remains were found in his stomach. Werner Herzog did a film about his life. Grizzly Man.
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Quiz: Which city is the oldest? New York, Boston, Colonial Williamsburg, or Philadelphia?

Answer: New York City. It was founded Pieter Minuit in 1624. Boston was founded in 1630, Williamsburg in 1632, Philadelphia in 1682.
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