1969 in animation

The year 1969 in animation involved some animation-related events.

Years in animation:	1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972
Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
Years:	1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972

Events

April

• April 14: 41st Academy Awards: The Walt Disney Company production Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day by Wolfgang Reitherman wins the Academy Award for Best Animated Short.[1][2]

May

• May 24: Sugar, Sugar, a song from the animated TV series The Archies is released as a single and manages to become a surprise number one-hit in many countries.[3]

July

• June 1: The Woody Woodpecker cartoon Tumble Weed Greed by Paul J. Smith is released.[4]
• July 26: The last Looney Tunes theatrical animated short, Bugged by a Bee by Bob McKimson, is released.[5]

September

• September 6: The first episode of The Pink Panther Show airs.[6]
• September 13:
  • The first episode of Hanna-Barbera's Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines airs.[7]
  • The first episode of Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premiers on CBS Saturday Morning (1969-1970). The Scooby-Doo franchise will go on to become a major pop cultural icon, with numerous spin-offs, direct-to-video films, and two live-action films.[8]
• September 20: The last Merrie Melodies animated short, Injun Trouble, is released. Afterwards Warner Bros. Cartoons closes down.

October

• October 5:
  • The first episode of Moomin, an anime TV series adaptation of Tove Jansson's novel series Moomins is broadcast in Japan.[9]
  • The first episode of the British sketch TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus airs, which features surreal animated intermezzos, created by Terry Gilliam.[10]
  • The first episode of Sazae-San airs and becomes the longest running animated TV series in the world. As of 2019 it's still on the air.[11]

November

• November 10: The first episode of Sesame Street airs on television, a live-action children's TV show with nevertheless a lot of animated intermezzos as well.
• November 12: Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert, an animated special based on the standup routines of Bill Cosby airs on NBC, it would later inspire long-running animated series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
• November 16: Fyodor Khitruk's Winnie-the-Pooh is released.[12]

December

• December 4: Bill Melendez's A Boy Named Charlie Brown is released, the first animated feature based on Peanuts.[13]
• December 7: Rankin/Bass Productions releases their Christmas Special Frosty the Snowman, which becomes an annual tradition.
• December 10: The Walt Disney Company releases It's Tough to Be a Bird, directed by Ward Kimball.[14]
• December 13: Belvision releases Tintin and the Temple of the Sun by Eddie Lateste, an animated feature based on The Adventures of Tintin comic albums The Seven Crystal Balls (serialised 1943–1944, 1946–1948) and Prisoners of the Sun (serialised 1946-1948).[15]

Specific date unknown

• David Cherkasskiy releases the animated film Mystery-Bouffe, which is banned by the Russian government outside of the Ukrainian SSR.[16]
• In the Soviet Union that year, the most popular Soviet cartoon, Nu, pogodi! was released with its first episode.
• Marv Newland's Bambi Meets Godzilla is released.[17]
• Whitney Lee Savage's underground animated short Mickey Mouse in Vietnam is released.
• Jan Švankmajer's Don Juan and A Quiet Week in the House are released.
• Valentin Karavaev's Ded Moroz and Summer is released.
• Roman Davydov releases Adventures of Mowgli.

Films released

Main article: List of animated feature films of the 1960s

Television series debuts

Main article: List of animated television series of the 1960s § 1969

Television series endings

Births

• October 19: Trey Parker, American animator, film director, voice actor and television producer (South Park).

Deaths

January

• January 7: Earl Duvall, American animator, gag writer, lay-out artist, director and comics artist (Walt Disney Company, Warner Brothers Animation, Ub Iwerks, directed the first Warners colour cartoon Honeymoon Hotel), dies at age 70.[18]

February

• February 2: Boris Karloff, British actor (narrator of How the Grinch Stole Christmas), dies at age 81.
• February 14: Charles Judels, Dutch-American actor (voice of the chicken farmer in Porky's Garden and Stromboli in Pinocchio), dies at age 86.
• February 19: Madge Blake, American actress (model for Fauna in Sleeping Beauty), dies at age 69.

June

• June 1: Frank Braxton, American animator (Warner Bros. Animation, Jay Ward, UPA, Peanuts specials), dies at age 40 from cancer.

July

• July 4: Ted Eshbaugh, Canadian animator and film director (Goofy Goat Antics, The Wizard of Oz, The Sunshine Makers, The White Guard), dies at age 63.
• July 21: Pete Burness, American animator and animation director (Romer Grey, Van Beuren Studios, Warner Brothers Animation, MGM, UPA, Jay Ward Productions), dies from cancer at age 65.[19]

September

• September 8: Bud Collyer, American actor (voice of Superman in Superman), dies at age 61.[20]
• September 19: Rex Ingram, American actor (narrator in John Henry and the Inky-Poo), dies at age 73.[21][22]

December

• December 10: Leigh Harline, American songwriter and composer (co-wrote the soundtrack of The Goddess of Spring, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio), dies at age 62 from throat cancer.
• December 19: Sara Berner, American actress (original voice of Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Red in Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood and Swing Shift Cinderella, the canary in King-Size Canary and the mother of WB's Beaky Buzzard, Nancy in the Tom & Jerry cartoon Baby Puss, Toots in the Tom & Jerry cartoons The Zoot Cat and The Mouse Comes to Dinner, did celebrity voice impressions in several Disney and Warner Bros. Cartoons), dies at age 57.
• December 30: Jiří Trnka, Czech puppeteer, illustrator, animator and film director (The Czech Year, The Emperor's Nightingale, Prince Bayaya, Old Czech Legends, The Good Soldier Schweik, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Cybernetic Grandma), dies at age 57.

Specific date unknown

• Dan Gordon, American animator and storyboard artist (Van Beuren Studios, Terrytoons, Fleischer Studios, Famous Studios, MGM, Hanna-Barbera) and comics artist, dies at an unknown age.[23]

See also

• 1969 in anime

Sources

1. "The Official Acadademy Awards® Database". Archived from the original on 2013-04-15. Retrieved 2011-10-15.
2. "The 41st Academy Awards (1969) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on 2014-12-21. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
3. "Sugar Sugar: The Birth of Bubblegum Pop – Various Artists – Songs, Reviews, Credits – AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved December 23, 2017.
4. "Tumble Weed Greed". Retrieved May 27, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
5. "Bugged by a Bee". Retrieved May 27, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
6. "The Pink Panther Show". Retrieved May 27, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
7. "Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines". Retrieved May 27, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
8. "Scooby Doo, Where Are You!". Retrieved May 27, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
9. "Moomin (TV) - Anime News Network". www.animenewsnetwork.com. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
10. "Terry Gilliam". lambiek.net. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
11. "Guinness Certifies Sazae-san as Longest Running Animated Show - News". Anime News Network. 2013-09-05. Retrieved 2013-12-01.
12. "Winnie-the-Pooh". Retrieved May 27, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
13. "A Boy Named Charlie Brown". Retrieved May 27, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
14. "It's Tough to Be a Bird". Retrieved May 27, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
15. "Tintin and the Temple of the Sun". Retrieved May 27, 2020 – via www.imdb.com.
16. Collection of Russian articles about the 1969 film, translated to English. Accessed on: Jan. 30, 2009.
17. Amazon.com: Bambi Meets Godzilla & Other Weird Cartoons VHS
18. "Earl Duvall". lambiek.net. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
19. Lenburg, Jeff (2006), Who's Who in Animated Cartoons, Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard CorporationCS1 maint: ref=harv (link).
20. "Bud Collyer Dies; Host Of TV Shows; Ran 'Beat the Clock,' 'To Tell the Truth,' 'Break the Bank'", The New York Times (September 9, 1969)
21. "Rex Ingrain, the Actor, Dies in Hollywood at 73. His Portrayal of De Lawd in 'Green Pastures' Hailed. Medical School Graduate". The New York Times. September 20, 1969. Retrieved 2012-11-17.
22. "Veteran Actor Rex Ingram Died of Heart Attack". Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. 36 (26): 56. 1969-10-02.
23. "Dan Gordon". lambiek.net. Retrieved May 27, 2020.