February

FEBRUARY 1ST
1887- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TINSELTOWN! - Henry Wilcox filed a deed for his new ranch he calls "Hollywood". His wife Daeida heared the name on a trip she had recently taken when a fellow passenger described her east coast estate.
1893 - THE FIRST MOTION PICTURE STUDIO- Thomas Edison and his engineer W. K. Dickson build the first movie studio in New Jersey. It was covered with black tar paper and nicknamed"The Black Mariah" because that was the nickname of police paddy wagons that it resembled. It's debateable how much of the inventing effort was more Dickson than Edison. Edison was only marginally interested in the movie company, at the time he was more concerned with how to extract iron ore from rocks using magnets. Dickson worked himself into the hospital to make the studio work, and later in disgust started experimenting on his own. When Edison found out he fired him and considered him a traitor thereafter.
1905- George Pal, animator and director, born. Best remembered for his "Puppetoon" creations and films like "The Time Machine".

FEBRUARY 2ND
1922-Walt Disney founds Newman's Laff-O-Grams in Kansas City.
1989- L'Oreal/Nestle company shuts down Filmation Studios in Canoga Park, the last L.A. Saturday morning animation studio doing all its work in town.

FEBRUARY 3RD
1930- Roy Disney signed a deal with M. George Borgfeldt Co. of New York to sell figurines of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Disney merchandising is born!

FEBRUARY 5TH
1953- Walt Disney's "Peter Pan" premiered.

FEBRUARY 10TH
1940- MGM's "Puss Gets the Boot" premiered. It was the first Tom & Jerry cartoon, and the first cartoon directed by the team of Hanna & Barbera.

FEBRUARY 15
1984- Touchstone Pictures created, so Disney could release non-"G" rated films.

FEBRUARY 18
1953- "B'wana Devil" starring Robert Stack, the first 3-d movie.