Hipstre's History
September 7, 2010

84 - Ready for More Jello:

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September 7, 1926 - Don Messick was born in the silent film era. Animated characters of the time still whistled and played the ukulele, but they produced no sound, only floating musical notes. But no one knew better, and talkies were just around the corner. The nation was in the midst of unparalleled prosperity. Silent Cal was sailing the ship of state through the placid waters of prosperity, especially for stock brokers and rum-runners. Fraternity brothers wearing full length beaver coats roamed the country side in automobiles singing songs about how “gay” they were through megaphones with no sense of irony.

People were pressed for entertainment. There was nothing like Jackass, so people had to read of adventures in the newspaper. A variety of daredevils dotted the landscape. They walked on the wings of biplanes, swallowed goldfish whole, and shot cannonballs into their stomachs (among other activities). Alfred “Al” Faussett was an unassuming fellow with a logging business in Monroe, Washington. In his spare time he had a great love of building dugout canoes to “jump” down rapids (they called them “falls”, though now we tend to reserve the term “falls” for things like Niagara Falls). On the day Don Messick was being born, Al jumped the Eagle Falls on the Skykomish River. The water was so low, that at about the halfway point, several fellows had to wade out and push the boat off of a rock. It somehow doesn’t seem so dangerous if guys can wade out in the middle of the “falls” to push your boat around.

image “Water? At thee I scoff!”

Al Faussett went on to jump five other falls in the Northwest before the Depression hit. Little Don Messick, meanwhile, weathered the Depression learning the then recession-proof trade of ventriloquism. He found his way into animation when the original voice of Droopy Dog was unavailable. Perhaps he was depressed at having to play such a morbid character. We have no way of knowing, as, at the time (World War Two) debilitating depression was merely a quirky character trait, and nothing to get bothered about. Don dropped out of the animation game for quite awhile. He resurfaced in 1957 doing a variety of animal and narration voices. His greatest success was voicing Scooby Doo.


60 - Gettin’ Up There:

September 7, 1950 - Julie Kavner, the voice of Marge Simpson made her debut on this day. Remember, kids, voice-over work: nothing beats it. You work one day a week, no one has to see you. There’s no makeup, and no costume. And they get paid out the wazoo, or at least they used to. There seems to be room for about a dozen voice actors at any given time, and once you are in the game, nothing but nothing can get you out, apparently.


33 - The Jesus Year:

September 7, 1977 - There are at least two kinds of people in the world. One looks at water and says, “Damn you contemptible water, I will pour rocks in you until you are dry land!” The other looks at dry land and says, “Ye accursed soil, I shall dig in you until the waters come.” The builders of the Panama Canal were the second, for sure. And it was on this day that Jimmy Carter and Omar Torrijos signed the Panama Canal Treaty. The treaty relinquished American control of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama on December 31, 1999, just in time for the terrors of the Y2K bug.

You will only ever need to know a few things about the Carter Presidency. Here the are in order of volume of my Dad yelling at the television:

1) The definition of the word “malaise”.

2) He “felt lust in his heart.”

3) He “gave away the god-damn Panama Canal.”

4) He was a “peanut farming moron”.

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Celebrating her improbable and in fact, impossible 477th birthday today is Queen Elizabeth I. 



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