Mel Blanc (born Melvin Jerome Blank) was born in San Francisco and grew up
in Portland, Oregon where he attended Lincoln High School. He changed is last
name to ‘Blanc’ at the age of 16. While still in his teens, Blanc started his career
as a voice actor on KGW radio in 1927 and produced and hosted his own show
on KEX radio beginning in 1933. Blanc moved to Southern California in 1935, 
eventually working on CBS and NBC radio programs, including Jack Benny in
the late 1930s and later on Benny’s TV show. Blanc is best known for providing
voices for classic Warner Brothers cartoons beginning in 1936. Many of his
characters included Bugs Bunny, porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and Tweety Bird just
to name a few. 

Walt Disney’s first ever 3-D cartoon “Melody” premiered at
the Paramount Theater in Hollywood. It was a short (10-min)
distributed by RKO. The film was the first in a proposed series
of shorts teaching the principles of music.

The first newspaper cartoon in America was political in nature (above) and was
drawn and originally published by Benjamin Franklin in The Pennsylvania Gazette. It
appeared as part of an editorial by Franklin commenting on ‘the present disunited
state of the British Colonies. The woodcut drawing entitled ‘Join or Die’ pictures a
divided snake in eight pieces representing as many colonial governments.The
drawing was based on the popular superstition that a snake that had been cut in
two would come to life if the pieces were joined before sunset. The drawing was
soon reproduced in other newspapers.  

Benjamin Franklin

A page from The Pennsylvania Gazette

Don Adams (April 13, 1923 – September 25, 2005)  In his five decades on
television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) in the NBC- TV
sitcom Get Smart (1965–1970, 1995), which he also sometimes directed
and wrote. Adams won three consecutive Emmy Awards for his portrayal of
Smart (1967–1969). He provided the voices for the animated CBS-TV series
Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (1963–1966) and the syndicated series
Inspector Gadget (1983–1986) as their title characters.

Inspector Gadget