So,
you might be noticing that November's been a dry month in this blog. Part of the reason is that I'm taking a
break for a bit so I can prepare for the Advent Calendar next month. And, part of the reason is that I've been
experiencing a bit of seasonal depression this year. Maybe it has to do with Christmas coming earlier and earlier, or
maybe it's all the negative vibes surrounding the 2016 Election results...I
can't really say for sure. It's just
been an off month.
Fortunately,
I do have a Tuesday Timeline prepared. Before we look at today's topic, let's have
a look at the other historical events that took place on November 15.
1791 - Georgetown University opens
1806 - Zebulon Pike spots a distant mountain peak
while near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado - that peak would
come to be known as Pikes Peak
1864 - Atlanta, Georgia is burned to the ground
by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman during the American Civil War
1887 - Artist Georgia O'Keeffe (d. 1986) is born
in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
1914 - Harry Turner becomes the first player to
die from game related injuries in the "Ohio League"
1915 - Winston Churchill resigns from the Liberal
government; later goes on to command the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots
Fusiliers on the Western Front
1920 - The Free City of Danzig is established
1926 - NBC Radio debuts on 24 individual stations
1937 - Singer Little Willie John (d. 1968) is
born in Cullendale, Arkansas
1939 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays down
the cornerstone of what would come to be the Jefferson Memorial
1942 - The Battle of Guadalcanal ends
1952 - Wrestler Randy "Macho Man"
Savage (d. 2011) is born in Columbus, Ohio
1959 - The Clutter family is murdered in Holcomb,
Kansas; the event is the inspiration behind Truman Capote's "In Cold
Blood"
1968 - Rapper Russell Tyrone Jones - otherwise
known as Ol' Dirty Bastard - (d. 2004) is born in Brooklyn, New York
1969 - The Moratorium March takes place in
Washington D.C., where an estimated half a million protesters gathered to
protest America's involvement in the Vietnam War
1971 - Intel releases the first commercial
single-chip microprocessor
1979 - A flight enroute from Chicago to
Washington D.C. is forced to make an emergency landing due to a package in the
cargo hold beginning to smoke; it is later revealed that the package was sent
by Ted Kaczynski (a.k.a. The Unabomber) - and six years later...
1985 - A research assistant is seriously wounded
when a package sent by the Unabomber that was addressed to a professor at the
University of Michigan explodes
1990 - Space Shuttle Atlantis launches
2003 - The first day of the 2003 Istanbul
bombings; 25 are killed and another 300 injured after two car bombs explode
outside of two synagogues in the area
2007 - Parts of the Sundarbans (the world's
largest mangrove forest located in Bangladesh) are destroyed when a cyclone
strikes the nation; 5,000 people would lose their lives in the storm
And
celebrating a birthday today are the following people - C.W. McCall, Ed Asner, Petula Clark, Joanna Barnes, Terry Bradbury, Roberto Cavalli, Sam Waterston, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Beverly D'Angelo, James Widdoes, Kevin S. Bright, Randy Thomas, Kevin Eubanks, Judy Gold, Kevin J. O'Connor, Rachel True, Jennifer Charles, Jack Ingram, Jay Harrington, Jessica Hynes, Jonny Lee Miller, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Chad Kroeger, Brandon DiCamillo, Virginie Ledoyen, Sean Murray, Ace Young, and Shailene Woodley.
So,
what dat are we going back in time this week?
I know last week we went back to the year...2016. Not much of a trip, I admit.
Fear not. This time around, we're going
to go back a hundred years to November 15, 1916! And while you might not know it now, today's subject was a huge
part of many people's childhoods, and continues to be heard today even though
he passed away eight years ago.
In
fact, I have a feeling that within the next month or so, I'll be hearing his
voice quite a bit. After all, he was a
huge part of "A Charlie Brown Christmas". He directed that special, as well as almost every other one
featuring the Peanuts crew. And he also
voiced two very important characters in every single Peanuts project -
including the 2015 film "The Peanuts Movie", which was released seven
years after his death! I guess it was a
good thing that archival footage from over fifty years of production existed!
Okay,
so the characters he voiced were Snoopy and Woodstock. And, yes, they did talk in unintelligible
gibberish that was sped up at two different speeds. He still voiced them.
And
today, Jose Cuauhtemoc Melendez would have turned one hundred years old! Of course, most people probably knew him as Bill Melendez.
Now,
Bill Melendez had a career that most people dream of having. And he spent almost his whole life creating
entertainment for children of all ages.
Would you believe that he got his start at Walt Disney Productions? He served on the production team on
"Pinocchio", "Fantasia", "Dumbo", and
"Bambi"! And for those of you
who are Disney fans like myself, you know that those four movies were
essentially the cornerstone for which all future Disney films were built
on. That's quite an impressive start
for any resume, but his story didn't end there. Not by a long shot.
When
Disney went on strike in the early 1940s, Melendez moved on to Warner Brothers,
where he assisted many famous animators in their own projects including Bob
Clampett, Robert McKimson, and Arthur Davis.
From there, he would join the staff of United Productions of America,
and eventually would form his own studio in 1963 - located in the basement of
his own home!
With
having built a solid reputation for himself in the animation industry, it's no
secret that he attracted the attention of Peanuts creator Charles M.
Schulz. Schulz was looking for somebody
to assist him in bringing his very first Peanuts special, "A Charlie Brown
Christmas", to life. And having
seen first hand how good his previous works were, Schulz gave Melendez the job. And when "A Charlie Brown
Christmas" became a huge holiday success, Schulz trusted him with all
future Peanuts projects. These included
all of the prime time specials, four feature films, television commercials for
A&W and MetLife, the 1985 Saturday morning cartoon series, and several
other projects that included the Peanuts gang.
He would continue to work on the Peanuts projects right up until 2006,
with "He's A Bully, Charlie Brown".
And
teaming up with Lee Mendelson, he would also bring another comic strip to life
when he served on the animation team of the first two primetime Garfield
specials. And he'd also add a little
bit of Rankin-Bass to the mix by working on the 1992 television special
"Frosty Returns".
Sadly,
Bill Melendez passed away on September 2, 2008 at the age of 91. But even though he's been gone for almost eight
years, he continues to make a mark on pop culture. Any time you see a Charlie Brown special on television, he's a
part of it. Any time you hear Snoopy
speak, that's his voice! And, one thing
you can't deny...he's definitely been a part of almost every single person's
childhood and will probably continue to be for generations to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment