Hello,
everybody! I hope you're ready for
another edition of the Tuesday Timeline - the very first one for
September 2014! And, I'll have to admit
that September 2 isn't exactly the most exciting day that I've ever flashed
back to.
(Yes, I had a hard time picking a suitable topic for today.)
That said, I think that you will like this one. Although the Tuesday Timeline blog will once again focus on the last day of a famous person's life, what that person did in the world of animation will forever be immortalized. You might not know the name when we first begin this blog, but by the conclusion, you'll understand exactly who he was.
(Yes, I had a hard time picking a suitable topic for today.)
That said, I think that you will like this one. Although the Tuesday Timeline blog will once again focus on the last day of a famous person's life, what that person did in the world of animation will forever be immortalized. You might not know the name when we first begin this blog, but by the conclusion, you'll understand exactly who he was.
For
now, let's take a look at the other events that took place on the second of
September. And, this time around, we'll
be focusing on quite a bit of history in the BC years!
47 BC - Cleopatra declares her son, Ptolemy XV Caesarion, co-ruler of Egypt
47 BC - Cleopatra declares her son, Ptolemy XV Caesarion, co-ruler of Egypt
44 BC - Cicero launches the first of his Philippics
attacks on Mark Antony
31 BC - Forces of Octavian defeat troops under Mark
Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium
1666 - Ten thousand buildings are destroyed when the
Great Fire of London breaks out
1752 - The Gregorian Calendar is adopted by Great
Britain two centuries after most of Western Europe did the same
1789 - The United States Treasury is established
1792 - The "September Massacre" begins during
the French Revolution
1859 - Electrical telegraph service is disabled due to a
solar super storm
1862 - After the defeat of General John Pope at the
Second Battle of Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union
General George B. McClellan to full command
1885 - The Rock Springs Massacre takes place in Rock
Springs, Wyoming, killing twenty-eight Chinese miners
1901 - "Speak softly, and carry a big stick"
is uttered by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt
1912 - Arthur Rose Eldred is awarded the first Eagle
Scout award of the Boy Scouts of America
1935 - A massive hurricane strikes the Florida Keys,
killing 423 people
1939 - The Free City of Danzig is annexed by Nazi
Germany following the beginning of the invasion of Poland
1963 - CBS Evening News expands from 15 minutes to half
an hour
1973 - "Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R.
Tolkien passes away at the age of 81
1987 - Sonny Bono announces his plan to run for Mayor of
Palm Springs, California
1998 - Swissair Flight 111 crashes near Peggy's Cove,
Nova Scotia, killing everyone on board
2005 - "Gilligan's Island" actor Bob Denver
passes away at the age of 70
And,
we have some celebrity birthdays to share today as well. A very happy birthday to Marge
Champion, Milo
Hamilton, Chuck
McCann, Mary
Jo Catlett, Rosalind
Ashford, Walt
Simonson, Terry
Bradshaw, Rosanna
DeSoto, Mark
Harmon, Jimmy
Connors, Mario
Tremblay, Keanu
Reeves, Lennox
Lewis, Salma
Hayek, Tuc
Watkins, Cynthia
Watros, Cedric
"K-Ci" Hailey, Shauna Sand, Erin Hershey Presley, Jason
Hammel, Rob
Ramsay, Shayla
Worley, Xenia
Knoll, and Montana
Cox.
Okay,
so what is the date that we will be revisiting this week?
Well, it's not that far away. We're
only going back six years in time to September 2, 2008. And, as I mentioned before, this date marked the last day that
our Tuesday Timeline subject lived. But
don't grieve his loss too hard. He
lived a good long life. In fact, had he
lived, he would be celebrating birthday number 98 in November!
Yes, his passing on September 2, 2008 at the age of 91 was a sad moment in the world of animation - particularly in the world of Peanuts cartoons. As many people were well aware, the creator of Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz had died eight years prior to this man's death, on February 12, 2000. But when this man passed on, it truly marked the end of an era in the world of Snoopy and his friends.
Yes, his passing on September 2, 2008 at the age of 91 was a sad moment in the world of animation - particularly in the world of Peanuts cartoons. As many people were well aware, the creator of Peanuts, Charles M. Schulz had died eight years prior to this man's death, on February 12, 2000. But when this man passed on, it truly marked the end of an era in the world of Snoopy and his friends.
You
see, it was this man that helped bring Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Woodstock, Lucy,
Linus, Sally, Schroeder, Pig Pen, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and Rerun onto the
small screen. Through the dozens of
television specials, the Saturday Morning cartoon "The Charlie Brown and
Snoopy Show", and many, many commercials for A&W Root Beer and
MetLife. Charles M. Schulz trusted him
and ONLY him to bring his animation magic to the cartoon. And in the cases of Snoopy and Woodstock,
this man literally gave both characters their voices.
Oh, but that's just a small piece of what this man did.
Oh, but that's just a small piece of what this man did.
And today, we're going to learn more about legendary animator, film director,
and voice artist Bill Melendez.
Born
in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico with the given birth name of Jose Cuauhtemoc
Melendez on November 15, 1916. I'm not
entirely sure how he shortened that to Bill, but that's a different tale for
another day.
(Well, that, plus I couldn't find any sort of information on the name change.)
Anyway, Bill grew up attending American schools, and he developed his love of art rather early in life. He was talented enough to attend the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California (which has since been renamed the California Institute of the Arts). And some of his earliest animation projects were based out of a couple of well known animation studios. Would you believe that he worked for both Walt Disney Productions and Warner Brothers Cartoons? Not many people can claim that they have worked with Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, but certainly Bill Melendez could make that claim...or at least, he could claim that he worked alongside both iconic mascots.
Of course, his work with Disney dried up right around the time that Disney went on strike in 1941, which was when Melendez shifted over to Warner Brothers, working with famed animators Robert McKimson, Arthur Davis, and Bob Clampett. By the time the 1940s ended, Melendez began working for United Productions of America, where he helped out in the animation process behind such UPA shows as "Gerald McBoing-Boing", as well as further supplementing his income by filming over a thousand television commercials.
By 1963, Melendez had enough money to start up his own company - in the basement of his house! And it was right around that time that Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz was making huge plans to bring his creations to television. Schulz had seen his work from prior projects and was absolutely intrigued by the man.
So, Schulz hired Melendez to work on the animation for the very first Peanuts special to air on television, the 1965 classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
And so began a working relationship with the Peanuts gang that lasted forty-one years.
(Well, that, plus I couldn't find any sort of information on the name change.)
Anyway, Bill grew up attending American schools, and he developed his love of art rather early in life. He was talented enough to attend the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California (which has since been renamed the California Institute of the Arts). And some of his earliest animation projects were based out of a couple of well known animation studios. Would you believe that he worked for both Walt Disney Productions and Warner Brothers Cartoons? Not many people can claim that they have worked with Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, but certainly Bill Melendez could make that claim...or at least, he could claim that he worked alongside both iconic mascots.
Of course, his work with Disney dried up right around the time that Disney went on strike in 1941, which was when Melendez shifted over to Warner Brothers, working with famed animators Robert McKimson, Arthur Davis, and Bob Clampett. By the time the 1940s ended, Melendez began working for United Productions of America, where he helped out in the animation process behind such UPA shows as "Gerald McBoing-Boing", as well as further supplementing his income by filming over a thousand television commercials.
By 1963, Melendez had enough money to start up his own company - in the basement of his house! And it was right around that time that Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz was making huge plans to bring his creations to television. Schulz had seen his work from prior projects and was absolutely intrigued by the man.
So, Schulz hired Melendez to work on the animation for the very first Peanuts special to air on television, the 1965 classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas".
And so began a working relationship with the Peanuts gang that lasted forty-one years.
Believe
me when I say that I have seen nearly every single Peanuts special ever
made. I have seen all the holiday
ones. I've seen the ones where Charlie
Brown gets his heart broken by the little red haired girl. I've even seen the one where Snoopy becomes
Flashbeagle! And to think that none of
those specials would have been possible without the talent of Bill
Melendez.
Oh,
by the way...remember how I mentioned that Melendez did the voices for both
Snoopy and Woodstock? It wasn't planned
that way. In fact, Melendez was quite
content leaving Snoopy and Woodstock speechless. But he relented, and he decided to give both characters a voice
after all.
Would you like to know how he did it? He would speak a lot of unintelligible gibberish into a tape recorder, and changed the speed of the recording depending on the character. For Snoopy, he slowed it down. For Woodstock, he sped it up.
And I should also note that Snoopy wasn't the only comic strip character that Melendez worked with. He also produced the first two Garfield television specials that aired in the early 1980s.
Would you like to know how he did it? He would speak a lot of unintelligible gibberish into a tape recorder, and changed the speed of the recording depending on the character. For Snoopy, he slowed it down. For Woodstock, he sped it up.
And I should also note that Snoopy wasn't the only comic strip character that Melendez worked with. He also produced the first two Garfield television specials that aired in the early 1980s.
And,
Melendez continued working well into his eighties, with his last credited
Peanuts special being "He's a Bully, Charlie Brown", which aired in
2006.
Thank you for the childhood memories, Mr. Melendez. Say hello to Charles for us.
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