Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: 2011, Buh-Bye!

Here is your final "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" for 2011.

Stay Tuned & Happy New Year
Tony & Donna Figueroa

TV CONFIDENTIAL Archives: Dec. 21, 2011

Show No. 118 Dec. 21, 2011

First hour: Herbie J Pilato, founder of The Classic TV Preservation Society, producer of The 100 Greatest TV Characters, and author of Bewitched Forever, The Bionic Book: The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman Reconstructed and other books on television, presents his Top 10 List of The Greatest Sitcoms of All Time. Also in this hour: Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen mark the birthday of Steven Spielberg by remembering some of his contributions to television, including Amazing Stories, the TV movie Duel, the "Eyes" segment of the Night Gallery pilot, and the premiere episode of Columbo. Second hour: Ed, Tony and Donna discuss some of their favorite holiday TV specials and Christmas-themed episodes along with Greg Ehrbar (Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records) and Joanna Wilson (The Christmas TV Companion: A Guide to Cult Classics, Strange Specials and Outrageous Oddities, Tis the Season TV: The Encyclopedia of Christmas-Themed Episodes, Specials and Made for TV Movies).

2011: The Year in Review plus New Year’s Eve with Guy Lombardo: Next on TVC

Author, journalist and commentator Paul Green will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing Dec. 28-Jan. 3 at the following times and venues:

WROM Radio
Wednesday 12/28
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 1/1
8pm ET, 5pm PT

Share-a-Vision Radio
KSAV.org
Friday 12/30
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

The Coyote KWTY-FM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Sunday 1/1
9pm PT
Monday 1/2
Midnight ET

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 1/3
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT

Paul Green, Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen will join us in our first hour as we look at some of the stories that helped shape the year in television, including the firing of Charlie Sheen from Two and a Half Men, the TV swan songs of Oprah Winfrey and Regis Philbin, the continuing struggles of the OWN channel, and the passings of James Arness, Harry Morgan and other TV icons.

Phil Gries will join us in our second hour for a special edition of The Sounds of Lost Television that will pay tribute to bandleader Guy Lombardo, who came to be synonymous with New Year’s Eve celebrations for nearly five decades, first on radio, then on television. We’ll play some of “some of the sweetest music this side of Heaven,” as well as hear highlights from some early television coverage of the famous midnight ball drop from New York’s Times Square.

TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Wednesdays and Sundays 8pm ET, 5pm PT
WROM: Realms of Music
Fridays 7pm ET and PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
Sundays 9pm PT, Mondays Midnight ET
The Coyote KWTY-FM (Ridgecrest, Calif.)
Tuesdays 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT
Passionate World Radio
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner
Find us now on Facebook

This Week in Television History: December 2011 Part IV

Listen to me on me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:

Realms of Music
WROM
Wednesday 9/7
9pm ET, 6pm PT 

Share-a-Vision Radio
KSAV.org
Friday 9/9
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

KWDJ 1360-AM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Saturday 9/10
Following Dodgers baseball

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 9/13
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies

 

December 29, 1936

Mary Tyler Moore is born in Brooklyn.  

Moore's family moved to Los Angeles when she was nine. After graduating from high school, Moore married a CBS sales rep and later became interested in television. She appeared in TV commercials and small TV roles until 1961, when she landed the part of Dick Van Dyke's wife, Laura, on The Dick Van Dyke Show. In 1970, Moore landed her own show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which became one of the most popular situation comedies of the 1970s. Running from 1970 to 1977, the show spawned numerous spin-offs, including Rhoda, Phyllis, and Lou Grant, all of which were produced by MTM Productions, Moore's company.

December 30th 1971

Pete Duel was killed by a gunshot which the police determined to be self inflicted, either by accident or suicide.

In the early hours of December 31, 1971, Duel apparently shot himself, after drinking heavily that evening. At the time, his girlfriend, Dianne Ray, was in the house but not in the same room, and did not witness what happened. In October 1970 he had been the driver in a car wreck in which another person was injured, and was facing legal problems; an astrologer had then told him that 1972 was going to be a difficult year for him. After his death, his role in Alias Smith and Jones was taken over by Roger Davis (previously, the series' narrator), but the sudden loss proved too great and fans were slow to accept the dissimilar-looking Davis. The series was cancelled in 1973.

A memorial service was held on January 2nd 1972 at the Self Realization Fellowship Shrine, a place suggested by his friend and manager, John Napier. His family and many of his friends were there, though Ben Murphy was too upsetto attend. Pete Duel was buried, after a private service, in his hometown of Penfield, New York.

Why and exactly how the fatal shooting occurred, no one can say. The press have speculated in dozens of articles. None of that speculation can ease the loss of the talented young man.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was". 

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: It's a Wonderful Life *HD*

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.



Saturday Night Live: Season 12 - Episode 8
Think you know this classic? Think again.


Stay Tuned & Merry Christmas


Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Cartoon voice actors read Twas the Night Before Christmas

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.

Cartoon voice actors read   

Twas the Night Before Christmas 

 

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: BEWITCHED Episode 213: "Sister's at Heart"

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.

This Christmas episode originally aired on December 24, 1970. The episode won the Television Academy's Governor's Award and which was written by the 10 th grade English class at Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles, has been restored with original Network "bumpers" and Oscar Mayer and Company sponsor.

Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Robert Easton the Henry Higgins of Hollywood

Robert Easton has died a the age of 81. His mastery of English dialect has earned him the the title, "The Henry Higgins of Hollywood" and "The Man of a Thousand Voices", For decades Mr. Easton has been the top Hollywood dialogue or accent coach.

Easton was born Robert Easton Burke in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Mary Easton (née Kloes) and John Edward Burke.

By 18, the lanky, 6-foot-4 teenager was winning parts in Hollywood, mainly playing country bumpkins because of his thick Texas drawl. In 1945, he was heard on radio's Quiz Kids. He portrayed Magnus Proudfoot on radio's Gunsmoke and also appeared in other radio programs, including Fibber McGee and Molly, The Fred Allen Show, The Halls of Ivy, Our Miss Brooks, Suspense, William Shakespeare--A Portrait in Sound, The Zero Hour, The Burns and Allen Show, Father Knows Best, The Jack Benny Show, The Red Skelton Show, Wagon Train, Rawhide and Gunsmoke.

On film, one of his earliest appearances was in The Red Badge of Courage. He appeared in the feature film, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as Sparks (a variation on Stingray's "Phones"). One of his more unusual voices was that of a Klingon judge for the movie, Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country. He appeared in Gods and Generals (2003) as John Janney, and he recently starred in Spiritual Warriors (2007). He appeared in the 1987 baseball film Long Gone as Cletis Ramey.

On television, he made many guest appearances and also provided the voices of "Phones" and "X-2-0" in Gerry Anderson's Stingray. During the late 1940s through the 1960s, he was mostly known for his portrayal of a slow-talking, blankfaced hicks (as in The Munsters episode, "All-Star Munster" as Moose Mallory). In the Get Smart episode The Little Black Book, he displayed a crisp German accent as the Maestro. In "Runaway Robot," a 1953 episode of "The Adventures of Superman," Easton played Marvin. On The Beverly Hillbillies he played one of the hill people in the episode titled Luke's Boy.

Fearful of being typecast as the slow-witted deputy or hillbilly cousin, he decided to work on different accents to broaden his opportunities. He discovered he had a facility for mimicking regional speech patterns.

Mr. Easton taught Forest Whitaker the African inflections of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and Ben Kingsley the gruff tones of a New York mobster. He helped Arnold Schwarzenegger turn his Austrian accent into Russian English and Liam Neeson's Irish brogue into a Kentucky drawl. He once coached Heston from a bathtub in Munich, helping the actor pronounce his lines like a Scot.

In 1961, after marrying June Grimstead, he moved with her to her native England and began studying phonetics at University College in London. He had absorbed a number of European accents by the time he returned to Hollywood three years later. Fellow actors, impressed by his new ability, asked him to teach them. Before long, he had a side business as an accent tutor that quickly grew into his main occupation.

He learned over the years to adapt to his clients' different learning styles. He found some actors, such as Robin Williams, had strong auditory ability and could pick up accents by listening and repeating.

Others were more visual and needed to work with phonetic scripts. "He found a way to spell things," said Whitaker, who called Easton an artist who understood the vibration and power of words. "We established our own language."

Still others were more physically inclined, such as Patrick Swayze, who had been trained in dance. For that type of student, Easton told the Chicago Tribune in 1992, "I talk to them about the difference in mouth position, what happens with the vocal cords, how it makes the voice more or less nasal."

He expanded his repertoire during his foreign travels, absorbing the speech rhythms of local cabdrivers, shopkeepers and hotel guests. He often enlisted his wife in his studies, motioning her to continue chatting up an unsuspecting subject while he took notes.

His wife died in 2005 after 44 years of marriage. He is survived by his daughter and a granddaughter.

As a dialect coach, he also worked with non-celebrities, such as the New York lawyer who was losing cases in California because juries, hearing his nasal, rapid speech, judged him slick and impatient. After he learned to speak more slowly and improve his tonal quality, he started winning cases, according to Easton.

To Quote, Robert Easton "I'm a great believer in the principle that there's no wastage in the universe. So when I work with somebody who is foreign who's trying to lose their accent, I can always give their old dialect to somebody else."

Good Night Professor Easton

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Sanford and Son - Ebenezer Sanford

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.




Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

TV CONFIDENTIAL Archives: Dec. 16, 2011

Show No. 117 Dec. 16, 2011

First hour: With the holidays soon upon us, Ed recommends a few recently released books, DVDs and other items that would make great gift ideas for film and TV aficionados. Also in this hour: Phil Gries with Part 3 of our tribute to TV talk show pioneer Joe Franklin, including clips from a rarely discussed documentary produced by Franklin in 1962 on the life of Al Jolson. Plus: Tony Figueroa remembers the death of Walt Disney, the premiere of Dragnet and other events that happened This Week in TV History. Second hour: Ed welcomes Peter Ford, author of Glenn Ford: A Life, an intimate look at the public and private lives of his father, screen legend Glenn Ford. Peter will be appearing at the Hollywood Heritage Museum in the Lasky-DeMille Barn, 2100 N. Highland Avenue in Hollywood, CA on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012. He is also the subject of A Little Prince, a forthcoming documentary by Alexander Roman about Peter’s life as the only son of Glenn Ford and Eleanor Powell.

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Adam Sandler "The Chanukah Song"

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas (& Hanukkah) spirit.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: 'How The Grinch Stole Christmas'

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.

Chuck Jones adapted the story as an animated special in 1966, featuring narration by Boris Karloff, and songs sung (uncredited) by Thurl Ravenscroft. The animated film often appears on American television during the Christmas season.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas

Sneetches | Myspace Video
Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Holiday TV Favorites and The Top 10 TV Sitcoms: Next on TVC

Authors Greg Ehrbar, Joanna Wilson and Herbie J Pilato will join us on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing Dec. 21-27 at the following times and venues:

WROM Radio
Wednesday 12/21
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 12/25
8pm ET, 5pm PT

Share-a-Vision Radio
KSAV.org
Friday 12/23
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

The Coyote KWTY-FM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Sunday 12/25
10pm PT
Monday 12/27
1am ET

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 12/27
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT

With the holiday season upon us, we’ll take a look at some of our favorite holiday-themed episodes, specials and made for TV movies along with Greg Ehrbar and Joanna Wilson. Greg is not only the co-author of Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records, he also worked with Regis Philbin for many years on the annual Disney Parks Christmas Parade TV specials, while Joanna Wilson is the author of The Christmas TV Companion: A Guide to Cult Classics, Strange Specials and Outrageous Oddities, and Tis the Season TV: The Encyclopedia of Christmas-Themed Episodes, Specials and Made for TV Movies. We’ll talk about A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and other timeless classics, as well as some favorite Christmas episodes from classic TV series. All this and more when Greg and Joanna join us in our second hour.

In our first hour, we’ll take a look at The Top 10 Sitcoms of All Time according to Herbie J Pilato, founder of The Classic TV Preservation Society and author of Bewitched Forever, The Bionic Book: The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman Reconstructed and other books on classic TV series. Plus: a brand new edition of This Week in TV History.

TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about television
Wednesdays and Sundays 8pm ET, 5pm PT
WROM: Realms of Music
Fridays 7pm ET and PT
Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
Sundays 10pm PT, Mondays 1am ET
The Coyote KWTY-FM (Ridgecrest, Calif.)
Tuesdays 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT
Passionate World Radio
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner
Find us now on Facebook

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.

The first prime-time animated TV special based upon the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. It was produced and directed by former Warner Bros. and UPA animator Bill Meléndez. The special aired on CBS from its debut in 1965 through 2000, and has aired on ABC since 2001. For many years it aired only annually, but is now telecast at least twice during the Christmas season. The special has been honored with both an Emmy and Peabody Award.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Abominable "Bommi" Snowman | Myspace Video


Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

This Week in Television History: December 2011 Part III

Listen to me on me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:

Realms of Music
WROM
Wednesday 9/7
9pm ET, 6pm PT 

Share-a-Vision Radio
KSAV.org
Friday 9/9
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

KWDJ 1360-AM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Saturday 9/10
Following Dodgers baseball

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 9/13
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies

 

December 23, 1966

How The Grinch Stole Christmas premiered. 

The classic Dr. Seuss Christmas story combined with the animation of Chuck Jones. Horror icon Boris Karloff supplies the voice of the Grinch, who plans on spitefully ruining Christmas for the town of Whoville by stealing all the presents. Watched regularly every holiday season and beloved by children and cynical adults alike, this animated gem is just that and more. The story is from the book by Dr. Seuss. Thurl Ravenscroft (of "Tony the Tiger" breakfast commercial fame) provides the memorable bass singing voice for the tune "You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch."

December 24, 1948

Perry Como Show debuts.

Perry Como launches his long-running TV variety show. At first, the show was simply a TV broadcast of Como's musical-variety radio program and lasted just 15 minutes. Gradually, though, the program grew into its new medium. The show grew to a half-hour, then a full hour in 1955. The show ran until 1963.

Como was born in 1912 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, he worked as a barber but began touring with bands as a young man. By the 1940s, he was releasing a string of hit recordings, starting with "Long Ago and Far Away" in 1944. Between 1940 and 1955, he was second only to Bing Crosby in the number of hits released-including 42 Top 10 hits by 1958. Among his chart-toppers were "Prisoner of Love," "Surrender," and "Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba."

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was". 

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Raging Rudolph

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.




Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Benson Christmas Episode Title Mary and Her Little Lambs 1982

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.
"The Martians kidnap Santa because there is nobody on Mars to give their children presents." One of the worst films ever made, however it can be very funny if you have enough sense of humour.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Bing Crosby & David Bowie - The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.

 Music video by Bing Crosby & David Bowie performing The Little Drummer Boy / Peace On Earth.

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: The Star Wars Holiday Special

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.
 
The infamous Star Wars Holiday Special from 1978. One of the worst holiday specials of all-time. Also features the first screen appearance of Boba Fett. Enjoy (if you can).


Stay Tuned


Tony Figueroa

TV CONFIDENTIAL Archives: Dec. 9, 2011

Show No. 116 Dec. 9, 2011

First hour: Actor and comedian Sid Veda, who plays Chad on the popular "Ranjit and Chad" commercials for mobile phone service provider Metro PCS, talks to Ed, Tony Figueroa and Donna Allen about some of his early influences as a comedian, as well as his work on the NBC comedy series Outsourced. Also in this hour: This Week in TV History celebrates the 50th anniversary of The Dick Van Dyke Show on television. Plus: Phil Gries with Part 2 of our tribute to TV talk show pioneer Joe Franklin, including clips from Joe's conversations with Jim Backus and Myrna Loy. Second hour: Ed, Tony and Donna welcome author, speaker, filmmaker and media consultant Phil Cooke (The Last TV Evangelist, JOLT: Get the Jump on a World That’s Constantly Changing).

Your HOLIDAY SOR-BAY: Benji’s Very Own Christmas Story

Here is a "HOLIDAY SOR-BAY" that we could use to artificially stimulate our Christmas spirit.

While on a publicity tour in Switzerland, Benji, Cindy Smith, and Patsy Garrett convince Kris Kringle that his place on Christmas Eve is delivering presents to all "his" families all over the world.

You’re watching Benji’s Very Own Christmas Story. See the Web's top videos on AOL Video

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa

The Life and Career of Glenn Ford: Next on TVC

The Life and Career of Glenn Ford: Next on TV CONFIDENTIAL

Actor and author Peter Ford will be our special guest on the next edition of TV CONFIDENTIAL, airing Dec. 14-20 at the following times and venues:
WROM RadioWednesday 12/14
8pm ET, 5pm PT
Sunday 12/18
8pm ET, 5pm PT

Share-a-Vision Radio
KSAV.org
Friday 12/16
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

The Coyote KWTY-FM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Sunday 12/18
10pm PT
Monday 12/19
1am ET

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 12/20
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT

One of Hollywood’s most versatile leading men for more than six decades, Glenn Ford was an incredibly gifted actor whose naturalistic style enabled him to conquer virtually every film genre, from romantic comedies to hard-boiled film noir to epic Western stories.

But though he always seemed at ease in front of the camera, Glenn Ford off-camera was a complex, driven man who could be intensely distant to those closest to him, while his serial philandering ― including affairs with the likes of Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe ― led to a string of failed marriages, personal heartache, and long periods in which he estranged himself from his only son, Peter Ford.

That dichotomy is at the heart of Glenn Ford: A Life, an absorbingly written book by Peter Ford that provides a moving, nuanced portrait of the star of Blackboard Jungle, Gilda, 3:10 to Yuma, Ransom, Teahouse of the August Moon, The Courtship of Eddie’s Father and other classic films, as well as Cade’s County, Brotherhood of the Bell and other television productions. Told with the keen insight and unflinching candor that only Ford’s son could provide, the book also interviews with dozens of Glenn Ford’s co-stars, including Ernest Borgnine, Sidney Poitier, Evelyn Keyes, Debbie Reynolds, Shirley Jones, James Whitmore, Carl Reiner, and Angela Lansbury, as well as such directors as Vincent Sherman, Delbert Mann and Richard Donner. We’ll learn what it was like to grow up as the son of Glenn Ford, as well as discuss some of his father’s most famous screen roles, when Peter Ford joins us in our second hour.

Peter Ford will be appearing at the Hollywood Heritage Museum in the Lasky-DeMille Barn, 2100 N. Highland Avenue in Hollywood, CA (right across from the Hollywood Bowl) on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012 beginning at 7:30pm. Tickets are $5 for members, $10 for non-members, and can be purchased online at BrownPaperTickets.com. For more information, call 323-874-2276 or visit www.hollywoodheritage.org.

Peter Ford is also the subject of A Little Prince, a forthcoming documentary by Alexander Roman about Peter’s life as the only son of Glenn Ford and Eleanor Powell. To view the trailer, visit www.alittleprince.net.

Also on tap this week: Holiday gift ideas for film and TV aficionados; the third and final installment of our tribute to TV talk show pioneer Joe Franklin; and This Week in TV History.
TV CONFIDENTIAL: A radio talk show about televisionWednesdays and Sundays 8pm ET, 5pm PT WROM: Realms of Music Fridays 7pm ET and PT Share-a-Vision Radio, KSAV.org
Sundays 10pm PT, Mondays 1am ET The Coyote KWTY-FM (Ridgecrest, Calif.)Tuesdays 11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PTPassionate World Radio
www.tvconfidential.net
blog.tvconfidential.net
Also available as a podcast via iTunes and FeedBurner
Find us now on Facebook

This Week in Television History: December 2011 Part II

Listen to me on me on TV CONFIDENTIAL:

Realms of Music
WROM
Wednesday 9/7
9pm ET, 6pm PT

Share-a-Vision Radio
KSAV.org
Friday 9/9
7pm ET, 4pm PT
10pm ET, 7pm PT

KWDJ 1360-AM
Ridgecrest, Calif.
Saturday 9/10
Following Dodgers baseball

InternetVoicesRadio.com
Tuesday 9/13
11:05pm ET, 8:05pm PT

As always, the further we go back in Hollywood history, the more that fact and legend become intertwined. It's hard to say where the truth really lies.

December 15, 1966

Walt Disney dies. 

 

Born on a Missouri farm, Walt Disney sold his first sketches to neighbors when he was just seven, and he attended the Kansas City Art Institute at night while he was in high school. At age 16, during World War I, Disney went overseas with the Red Cross and drove an ambulance that he decorated with cartoon characters.

Back in Kansas City, Disney started working as an advertising cartoonist. He founded a company called Laugh-O-Gram with his older brother, Roy, but the company went bankrupt and the brothers left Kansas City for Hollywood with $40 and some art supplies. The brothers built a camera stand in their uncle's garage and started their company in the back of a Hollywood real estate office.

Walt Disney began making a series of animated short films called Alice in Cartoonland and began developing various animated characters. In 1928, he introduced Mickey Mouse in two silent movies. Mickey debuted on the big screen in Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon ever made. Walt Disney provided Mickey's squeaky voice himself. The company went on to produce a series of sound cartoons, such as the "Silly Symphony" series, which included The Three Little Pigs (1933) and introduced characters like Donald Duck and Goofy. Meanwhile, the company developed increasingly sophisticated animation technology.

When Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1937, it was the first fully animated movie to date and grossed $8 million, an incredible success during the Depression. During World War II, Disney devoted most of his company's resources to the production of training and propaganda films for the military. In 1965, he designed the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT), which he envisioned as an aid toward improving the quality of life in American cities. He also helped establish the California Institute of the Arts in 1961. His 43-year career earned him nearly 1,000 honors and citations from throughout the world, including 48 Academy Awards and seven Emmys. Harvard, Yale, the University of Southern California, and UCLA all bestowed him with honorary degrees. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, France's Legion of Honor and Officer d'Academie decorations, Thailand's Order of the Crown, Brazil's Order of the Southern Cross, Mexico's Order of the Aztec Eagle, and the Showman of the World Award from the National Association of Theatre Owners. In addition to his films, his legend lives on through Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and EPCOT Center, and generations of children have experienced the joy and magic of The Happiest Place on Earth. Walt Disney was 65 years old when he died.

December 16, 1951

Detective series Dragnet appears on television for the first time, as a sneak preview on the anthology show Chesterfield Sound-Off Time.  

Dragnet had been a popular radio drama since 1949, created by actor-director Jack Webb (who starred in both the radio and the TV series as Sgt. Joe Friday). The TV show debuted as a regular series in January 1952 and ran until 1959.

December 18, 1946

Director Steven Spielberg is born in Cincinnati. 

As a boy, Spielberg moved to New Jersey and then Arizona with his parents, an electrical engineer and a concert pianist. Spielberg was a shy youngster and expressed himself by making home movies. By age 12, he was making scripted movies with actors. He won a contest with a 40-minute home movie at age 13 and made a feature-length amateur film at age 17.

Spielberg studied filmmaking at California State College. In 1969, the Atlanta Film Festival screened his short film Amblin', which landed him a job at Universal Studios. He directed his first feature, The Sugarland Express, in 1974. The following year, he helped make movie history with Jaws, a blockbuster that grossed $260 million (the film cost $8.5 million to make).

Spielberg followed Jaws with a succession of megahits, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), which grossed $128 million; Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), grossing $242 million; and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, which took in nearly $400 million.

Spielberg formed an independent company, Amblin Entertainment, in 1984 and began producing such films as Gremlins (1984) and Back to the Future (1985). He took a turn toward more serious subject matter in 1985, directing the critically acclaimed The Color Purple. In 1987, he won the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award, which recognized his body of work, at the Academy Awards. However, he didn't win the Oscar for Best Director until 1993, for Schindler's List, a black-and-white drama about Jews working in a Polish factory during World War II. In 1998, Spielberg won another Best Director Oscar® for Saving Private Ryan, which also won Best Picture. Band of Brothers, an HBO miniseries produced by Spielberg, won an Emmy® Award for Best Miniseries in 2002.

In 1994, Spielberg teamed up with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen to form Dreamworks SKG. He has been married twice, first to Amy Irving and then to Kate Capshaw, who starred with Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

To quote the Bicentennial Minute, "And that's the way it was". 

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa