In case you haven't visited my press section lately, here are a sample of some of the nice things being said about my book DRAWING THE LINE:

“ Anyone with more than a passing interest in the world of animation should consider this book a must-read.”
-- Leonard Maltin -Leonard's Picks

“ Tom Sito is the perfect person to tell the story of the struggles of animators for decent wages and working conditions.” [read more]
-- Mike Neilsen, Wesley College- Pacific Historical Review

“ Tom Sito achieved something of a miracle-- he made a potentially boring "academic" subject fresh, entertaining, and a wonderful read.”
-- Eric Niderost, Chabot College

“ He enriches the book with numerous anecdotes gleaned from conversations with top animators and his own 30 year animation experience.”
-- J.A. Lent, Temple University

“ ...the best account yet of the 1941 Walt Disney strike, with documentation of the union side.”
-- Mark Greif, co-editor The London Review of Books

Top Ten Books Every Animation Student Should have-
-Animation Magazine

“ Essential Cornerstone of Animation History.
This text is a pure labor of love”
-- Dave Mason- Amazon.com

“ The book isn't a valentine to the labour movement and an attack on management. He discusses the involvement of organized crime in unions, the intramural conflict between rival animation unions, and the generation, skills and technology gaps that have alienated union members from each other. He also respects managers like Walt Disney, Max Fleischer, Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera and Jeffrey Katzenberg, acknowledging their contributions to the field.”
-- Mark Mayerson- Frames Per Second Magazine

“ ..a marvelous book......provides a witty, passionate, radical insider's view of the American film industry that is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the cinema."”
-- John Newsinger -International Socialism

“ Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry, Mr. Magoo, Fred Flintstone, the Pink Panther and Bart Simpson, are the biggest stars in the business. But they couldn't make the slightest move or even open their mouths, without the help of the animation worker”
-- Graham Hill, film/TV reviewer

By the way, "Drawing the Line" isn't just a book about the Walt Disney Company. While there are many entertaining stories in here about the various colorful personalities that worked at that studio over the past 75 years, Sito's after bigger game. He's out to tell the story of the impact that unionization had on the entire animation industry in the United States. The battles that were won as well as the jobs that were lost. Which sounds like it could be pretty dry stuff. But not the way that Tom Sito tells this story. "Drawing the Line" gets the balance just right. It mixes large chunks of well-researched animation history with big handfuls of amusing anecdotes.”
-- Jim Hill, Jim Hill Media


Go get your copy now!
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Birthdays: Gustav Mahler, Satchel Page, Ringo Starr, Doc Severinsen, Robert Heinlein, Gian Carlo Menotti, Warner Bros animator Ken Harris, Shelley Duval, Ted Cassidy the voice of Space Ghost and Lurch in the Adams Family , Michelle Kwan, David McCullough, Pierre Cardin, and according to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this is the birthday of Sherlock Holmes’ sidekick Dr. John Watson

1895-THE FIRST SUNDAY COMICS - The first modern comic strip Hogan’s Alley featuring "The Yellow Kid" by Richard Felton Outcault, debuts in the Sunday edition of Pulitzer's New York World. The strip was so popular it gave the name "Yellow Journalism" to the sensationalist tabloid press. Comic strips at this time became the mass media of the day. For people who couldn’t afford a theater ticket and couldn’t yet speak English, the little characters in the penny papers were extremely popular and made celebrities out of cartoonists like Outcault, Bud Selig George McManus and Winsor McCay. Richard Outcault later inventing the backend deal when he asked for a percentage of all sales from his new comic strip "Buster Brown and his dog Tige"

1898-Congress votes to annex the Kingdom of Hawaii.

1900- Warren Earp, the youngest brother of Wyatt Earp, was killed in a gunfight. He had gotten into an argument in a saloon in Wilcox Arizona. Warren Earp was not at the OK Corral in 1881 but he did help his brothers hunt down the killers of Morgan Earp.

1947- SIXTY YEARS AGO- THE ROSSWELL INCIDENT- An official news report from the U.S. Airforce 509th bomber command -the same unit that dropped the Hiroshima bomb- stated they had recovered the wreckage of a UFO in the New Mexico desert near Rosswell and were examining it. The next day the commanding general of the 8th Air Force flew to Rosswell and stated to the press that the earlier report was in error and it was only a downed weather balloon. The wreckage was removed under heavy-armed guard and complete secrecy was then imposed and maintained to this day. The communications officer Major Jesse Marcey who posed for an official photo showing him with the balloon wreckage later told his son it was faked. Marcey, who died in 1967 and his adjutant Lt. Haut still stick to the original version of their story. Lt. Haut also claimed the base commander Col. William Blanchard thought it was UFO debris. This report coming only two weeks after the first modern sighting of "flying saucers" over Mt. Reynier in Oregon sparked the Flying Saucer craze that gripped America throughout the 1950’s. In 1994 and 1997 the Pentagon tried to explain away the story by saying at Rosswell and the base Area 51 they were experimenting with high altitude balloons carrying sniffer devices to detect Russian nuclear tests and the rumored alien remains recovered were test dummies. But then the military just added to the mystery when they still refused any access to the mysterious Area 51. When asked now that the Cold War was over what is done there the Army spokesman said : "Uh, Secret Stuff...."

1949-"I’m Friday"- The program Dragnet first debuted on radio. Jack Webb conceived, wrote, directed and starred in the show. His hardest job was urging actors "not to act" but to speak the lines normally like the average person does.

1960- First demonstration of a practical laser beam. In Russia it had been theorized since 1951. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation or LASER.

1967- Vivien Leigh, the actress who played Scarlet O’Hara in Gone with the Wind and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, died in a mental institution at age 53.

1967 - Beatles' "All You Need is Love" is released. In 2002 for her Jubilee Queen Elizabeth II requested it because it was one of her favorite songs.

1967 – The Doors' "Light My Fire" hits #1.

2005- Four Al Qaeda terrorist bombs exploded in the London subway Tube and a doubledecker bus, killing 50 and injuring one thousand.