souvenir photo from the evening, with a cover drawing by Mad artist Sergio Aragones.

Last Saturday I attended a tribute to the legendary cartoonist Jack Davis. The California Chapter of CAPS, the Cartoon Art Professionals Society hosted the dinner and presented Jack with a lifetime achievement award. It is called the SERGIO, after Sergio Aragones, who by interesting cooincidence won the second lifetime award that evening. Jack is a Georgia native but he flew out for the event. It was a stellar night, cartoonists like Daryl Cagle, Dean Yeagle, Gregg Evans, Scott Shaw, Mike Kazaleh, Tony Bancroft, Nik Ranieri and Bruce Morris. Best wishes came in from Stan Sakai, Arnold Roth, Mort Drucker, LA Mayor Villarigosa, Jay Leno and former US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

A number of people were encouraged to display their Jack Davis originals in their collection. It made for a pretty impressive retrospective. It included famous TV Guide covers, posters like the original artwork for Woody Allen's film Bananas and a 6 foot stand up poster of Frankenstein that was an order through the classic magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Thanks and congratulations to President Chad Frye for a great evening.
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Birthdays; Johnny Carson, Adlai Stevenson, famous soccer player Pele, not so famous Bolshevik Zioniev, Weird Al Yankovic, Dwight Yoakham, Gore Vidal, Michael Crichton-author of Jurassic Park, Chi-Chi Rodriquez, Sam Raimi,director Ang Lee, director Phillip Kaufman, porn actress Jasmine St. Claire, Gummo Marx- the unfunnny Marx Brother

42 BC- Battle of Phillipi- The forces of Marc Anthony and Octavian defeated the Republican legions of Brutus and Cassius in Greece. Marcus Brutus and Cassius Longinus, who had assassinated Julius Caesar two years earlier, committed suicide on the battlefield.

1928- A financial consortium led by Wall Street banker Joseph Kennedy Sr. buys the Keith Albee theater circuit and merged it with the Radio Company and the Orpheum theaters to form Radio-Keith-Orpheum or RKO pictures. After Joe Kennedy met with the other Hollywood moguls he told a friend-”They’re just a bunch of Austrian Pants Pressers! I can take their businesses away from them!” Kennedy made a quick killing then got out of the picture business in 1930, just before the Depression dropped his studios stock value. RKO made films like King Kong, Fort Apache and Citizen Kane before merging into Desilu in 1957.

1930- The first Miniature Golf tournament held in Chattanooga Tenn.

1935- New York gangster Dutch Schultz was rubbed out. The erratic Schultz (real name Arthur Fleigenheimer ) had announced to the other mob bosses that Federal prosecutor Thomas Dewey was getting too close so he would kill him. To the syndicate killing such a high profile fed was going too far and would bring the wrath of Washington down on them, so Lucky Luciano decided it was easier to take care of the Dutchman. Schultz was having dinner at the Bob Treat Porkchop House in Newark with his crooked accountant "Abadaba" ( a corruption of Abracadabra ) when he excused himself to go to the mens room. Hitmen followed him and pumped 6 slugs into him while at the urinal. Gee, I hope he zipped up.....

1940- Shooting on the film Citizen Kane wrapped.

1971-Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida opened.

1983- Jessica Savitch was one of the first women journalists to break the barrier for women getting the top anchor jobs in network news broadcasting. This day she died in a car accident.