Prof. Sito's July History in Animation

As Mr. Hulett is steeped in delegate responsibilities at the IATSE District 2 convention, he's asked that I share an excerpt from President Emeritus (and USC School of Cinematic Arts Department of Animation Chair) Tom Sito's monthly animation history column. As I take pride in publishing the column in the Pegboard, I'll share an excerpt of the extensive list Tom provided and encourage you to read the July edition for what made it to print:

July 1, 1933 - Mickey’s Gala Premiere debuts. A Mickey Mouse short with Joe Grant’s caricatures of famous Hollywood celebrities.

July 1, 1941 - Animation director Tex Avery walks out of the Looney Tunes Studio when Jack Warner ordered cuts in his Bugs Bunny cartoon, A Wild Hare. Boss Leon Schlesinger puts him on a four-week suspension without pay, but Avery had already lined up a new gig at MGM.

July 1, 1970 - The Xerox Company of Connecticut opens a new computer science lab on the west coast near Stanford University called Palo Alto Research Center, or Xerox PARC. In 9 years PARC will develop laser-printing, color graphics, the Graphic User Interface (GUI), cursor point and click and the Ethernet.

July 2, 1946 - The Peace Treaty of Beverly Hills - SAG president Ronald Reagan brokers a labor settlement between the two rival Hollywood Unions: IATSE and the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU), temporarily ending a violent Hollywood strike. During this time, Reagan went to work every day with a .32 caliber Smith & Wesson revolver under his coat.

July 5, 1935 - The Wagner Act passes congress, decreeing all American workers have the right to collective bargaining and to form unions.

July 8, 1982 - Disney’s TRON premieres.

July 9, 1980 - Disney’s The Fox & the Hound, Frank and Ollies’ last movie, debuts. Other artists who worked on it include Glen Keane, Tim Burton, Brad Bird and John Musker.

July 9, 1993 - Industrial Light & Magic completes its transition to digital technology by shutting down its Anderson Optical Printer. The Optical Printer system, and it’s use of hold-out mattes, had been the way VFX had been done since 1909. The Digital Revolution changes everything.

July 13, 1930 – David Sarnoff, head of the NBC radio network, says in the NY Times "The new invention of Television would be a theater in every home". Critics say it would require one room of the house be darkened, and they doubt people would sit still that long.

July 17, 1955 - Disneyland opens.

July 24, 1985 - Disney’s The Black Cauldron premiers.

July 25, 1943 - The Birth of L.A. Smog! A newspaper headline from this date mentions a 'gas-attack' of exhaust and haze that reduced visibility to three short blocks.

July 25, 1984 - The Lucasfilm Graphics Group (later Pixar) releases The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. 


July 29, 1948 - Former Disney animation assistant Hank Ketcham’s comic strip Dennis the Menace, first appears.

July 30, 1954 - Elvis Presley joins Local 71, the Memphis Federation of Musicians.

July 31, 1995 - The Walt Disney Company buys the ABC Network, the Discovery Channel and ESPN.