Yo-yo

The yo-yo is a toy that falls and rises on an adroitly manipulated string. It is the second oldest known toy in the world (only the doll is older), and has been around fo 3,000 years.

Playing with the yo-yo was one of the favourite pastimes of ancient Greek children. A Greek vase painting from 440 BC shows a boy playing with a yo-yo.

Boy playing with a terracotta yo-yo, Attic kylix, c. 440 BC,

Yo-yos were used as a weapon by hunters during the sixteenth century in the Philippine Islands. They hid in trees with a rock tied to a cord to throw at wild animals beneath them. The cord meant they could get the rock back without having to come down from the tree. These yo-yos weighed 4 pounds and had a 20-foot cord.

Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette were yo-yo enthusiasts. Later, during the French Revolution the dangling toy was associated with aristocratic French families fleeing the guillotine. It was known in those days as a "bandalore".

A 1791 illustration of a woman playing with an early version of the yo-yo, 

They were first introduced to America in 1866 by James L. Haven and Charles Hettrick of Cincinnati but remained in relative obscurity until 1928 when a Filipino American named Pedro Flores opened the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California.

By November 1929, Flores was operating two additional factories in Los Angeles and Hollywood, which altogether employed 600 workers and produced 300,000 units daily.

An entrepreneur named Donald F. Duncan recognized the potential of this new fad and purchased the Flores yo-yo Corporation and all its assets, including the Flores name, which was transferred to the new company in 1932.

The word yo-yo was registered as a trade name in Canada in 1932, and it was then that a sudden craze for the toy spread through the Western world.

The hands of 1932 World Yo-Yo Champion, Harvey Lowe, were insured for $150,000. He travelled through Europe and while in London taught the Prince of Wales how to play the Yo-Yo.

Yo-yos were banned in Syria in 1933, because many locals superstitiously blamed the use of them for a severe drought.

More than half a billion yo-yos have been sold in the United States since Donald F. Duncan introduced the toy in 1930.

There was a female rapper named Yo-Yo (Yolanda Whitaker) who was a protégé of Ice Cube. She cracked the US Top-40 in 1991 with her song "You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo."

Cheap yo-yos can spin approximately 10-20 seconds, with a record of nearly 4 minutes, while professional ball bearing yo-yos can spin for 1-4 minutes, with a record of just over 21 minutes.

Yo-yos can spin around 6,000 revolutions per minute, about as fast as most car engines can turn over.

Due to a yo-yo's gyroscopic stability and the string's friction, the string doesn't even need to be tied to the yo-yo to make it work.

One of the most famous tricks on the yoyo is "walk the dog". This is done by throwing a fast Sleeper and allowing the yoyo to roll across the floor.

Yo-yo balloons are a common type of water balloon found at festivals in Japan. The balloon is tied shut and hung from an elastic string with a finger loop tied at the end. This gives them enough weight and bounce to function as a yo-yo, earning their name.

Source Songfacts

The Wizard of Oz

THE BOOK

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an American children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum originally published on May 17, 1900.

Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion, from the first edition

The full name of the Wizard of Oz in Frank Baum’s book was Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs.

Writer L. Frank Baum chose "Oz" as the name of the fantasy land in his The Wizard of Oz stories while making up the stories for his children and their friends. He spotted a file cabinet marked O-Z, and impulsively named the magical land was "Oz."

In the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Emerald City is not green but is just a regular city, and everyone who enters it is forced to wear green-tinted glasses.

There was a popular 1902 Broadway musical adaptation whose success led Baum to write thirteen additional Oz books that serve as official sequels to the first story.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz sold three million copies by the time it entered the public domain in 1956.

THE FILM

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was famously adapted in the 1939 film starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr. It was considered innovative because of its songs, special effects, and revolutionary use of the new Technicolor.

Theatrical release poster

The Wizard of Oz had its red-carpet premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on August 15, 1939. The premiere was a star-studded event, with many of the film's cast and crew in attendance. Judy Garland, who played Dorothy Gale, arrived at the theater in a white gown and a blue ribbon in her hair. The other stars of the film, including Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr, were also there.

When The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, over ten thousand spectators showed up.

The role of Dorothy Gale, given to Judy Garland, was originally to be played by Shirley Temple or Deanna Durbin. The wizard role was written for W.C. Fields — but he turned it down when MGM Studios refused to pay his asking price.

In the original novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy wore silver shoes. They used Ruby slippers in the movie to take advantage of the new Technicolor film.

The Cowardly Lion, Dorothy, Scarecrow, and the Tin Man

Due to the stubborn nature of French Bulldogs, Toto in The Wizard of Oz had to be recast as a terrier.

A cairn terrier named Terry was paid $125 a week to play the dog Toto in The Wizard Of Oz. Judy Garland, who played Dorothy was paid $500 a week.

A canine double played Toto when Terry was recovering from being stepped on by an actor.

The Cowardly Lion’s costume in The Wizard of Oz was made from a real lion skin.

The Cowardly Lion's facial makeup included a brown paper bag. Bert Lahr couldn't eat without ruining his makeup. Tired of eating soup and milkshakes, he decided to eat lunch and have his makeup redone.

The Wizard of Oz saved the lives of the "munchkins." In 1938, the Nazis plan was "exterminating undesirables," including those born with a physical impairment. Landing their roles allowed them to escape Nazi Germany and come to US. They couldn't speak English; their voices are someone else's.

The snow used in the Wizard of Oz was 100% pure asbestos.

The tornado in The Wizard of Oz is just a 35 foot (10.7 metres) stocking blown by artificial wind and dirt held up by a "gantry" on a set - the gantry cost more than the whole anticipated budget for the entire scene; $218,347.23 in today's money.

"Over the Rainbow" is a ballad composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg for The Wizard of Oz. It was sung by actress Judy Garland in her starring role as Dorothy. Arlen wrote its melody while on a drive with his wife.

"Over the Rainbow" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became Garland's signature song. It was voted song of the century by the Recording Industry Association of America.

"Over the Rainbow" was nearly cut from The Wizard of Oz as it was deemed too long. It isn't even three minutes.

The Wizard of Oz received one negative review, from the New Yorker, whose film critic despised the film's "Vulgarity [of] raw, eye-straining Technicolor" and "Singer Midgets".

While The Wizard of Oz was considered a critical success upon release, it failed to make a profit for MGM until the 1949 re-release, earning only $3,017,000 on a $2,777,000 budget, not including promotional costs, which made it MGM's most expensive production at that time.

 Liza Minelli, daughter of Judy Garland, was once married to Jack Haley, Jr., son of Jack Haley, the actor who played the Tin Man in the same film. He was Minnelli’s second husband.

A blue and white gingham dress worn by 17-year-old Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz sold for $266,000 (£140,000) at an auction in 2005. The dress, which has a 27in waist and Garland's name sewn on the inside hem, was one of six made for the 1939 film.

The Wizard of Oz original camera negatives are stored 650 feet underground in a Kansas salt mine.

THE MUSICAL

Wicked is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz , which premiered on May 28, 2003 at the Curran Theatre, San Francisco. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (published in 1995), itself a retelling of the classic 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Touring cast members in the curtain call at a show in Omaha, Nebraska, By Cornstalker

The writer of Wicked thought of Elphaba's name by using the initials of L. Frank Baum - L.F.B. = El-pha-ba.

In July 2017, Wicked surpassed The Phantom of the Opera as Broadway's second-highest grossing musical, trailing only The Lion King.

Toy Story

Toy Story is a 1995 American computer animated fantasy comedy adventure movie directed by John Lassiter. 

It was the first Disney/Pixar animated movie and the first animated movie to be completely done with computers instead of hand-drawn animation. 

Wikipedia

At Pixar, Lasseter created short, computer-animated films to show off the Pixar Image Computer's capabilities, and the 1988 short Tin Toy – a story told from the perspective of a toy, referencing Lasseter's love of classic toys—would go on to claim the 1988 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, the first computer-generated film to do so.

In the 1990s, Disney approached Lasseter about creating a Christmas special follow-up to Tin Toy, called A Tin Toy Christmas. Originally the film was going to only be six minutes long, but Lasseter asked for 30 minutes. Peter Schneider, former President of Walt Disney Studios, then green-lit a full-length feature instead.

Pixar made the movie while Disney packaged it and sold the reels of the movie to movie theaters. 

Toy Story was released on November 22, 1995. Due to tension between Pixar and Disney over whose film it really was, Toy Story had two premiers, one hosted by Disney and one hosted by Pixar chairman Steve Jobs. Disney invited actors and other Hollywood celebrities, Jobs invited people from the tech industry.

“Toy Story” wasn't the original film title. During production, the crew used the working name “Toy Story” - which they decided to keep - but other titles for the film included "Toyz in the Hood", "The Cowboy & The Spaceman", "I'm With Stupid" and "Did Not, Did Too."

Toy Story had many rejected titles when looking for an official one, some of these including "Toyz in the Hood" and "The Cowboy & The Spaceman", in the end however they went with Toy Story which was originally just a temporary placeholder name during the creation of the project.

Director John Lasseter revealed that his own childhood toys inspired the characters of Woody and Buzz Lightyear. 

John Lasseter (left) holding the action figure of Buzz Lightyear,

In the film's first test, Buzz Lightyear was originally called Tempus From Morph. It was later changed to Lunar Larry and then Buzz Lightyear to honor Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin.

Comic actor Tim Allen is the voice of Buzz Lightyear, but Jim Carrey was one of several people considered for the role. Billy Crystal was originally offered the part of Buzz, but he declined. Crystal later said in an interview that it was the biggest mistake of his career.

Sheriff Woody Pride is voiced by Tom Hanks in the feature-length films and short films. Tom Hanks' brother, Jim Hanks, provides the voice for Woody in the Toy Story video games, short films, toys and basically anything that isn't the Pixar movies.

Woody was based on a pull-string Casper doll Lassiter once owned. He was originally a spooky-looking ventriloquist doll and was mean to the other toys. Disney felt a ventriloquist would be too scary for children, so Lasseter changed him to a pull-string toy. He also gave Woody a different, much nicer personality.

Woody as he appears in Toy Story 3

The Space Ranger took inspiration from the superior GI Joe action figure that the young Lassiter moved on to when he grew bored of his pull-string Casper doll.

Woody’s owner Andy was named after and based on Andy Luckey, the son of legendary animator Bud Luckey, Pixar's fifth employee and the creator of Sheriff Woody Pride. 

In all three Toy Story movies the number 95 is sprinkled throughout several scenes. The number is a reference to 1995, when the first film was released.

In their most productive week, the Pixar team animated 3½ minutes of the film Toy Story.

The toys never blink both eyes at the same time, instead blinking one eye at a time. It's an animation trope called ‘Offset Blink’. 

While Toy Story 2 was in production, an employee accidentally deleted the film. Luckily, a pregnant animator had a copy on her home computer since she wanted to work while taking care of her new baby.

The Etch a Sketch's appearance in Toy Story 2 increased sales of the product by 20% and saved The Ohio Art Company from financial ruin.

Sources NME, IBTimes

Toy

A toy is a plaything, which is usually for children. They can be for adults, and animals too. 

Pixiebay

The earliest toys were made from rocks, sticks or clay. In Ancient Egypt, children played with dolls made of clay and sticks.

Dolls may be the world’s oldest toys. Examples have been found in Egyptian tombs from 2000 BC.

Model soldiers date back 4,000 years to ancient Egypt.

In Ancient Greece children played with dolls made of wax, terracotta or sticks. 

Little horse on wheels, Ancient Greek children's toy. By Sharon Mollerus

The Greeks made charming small terra-cotta figures, known as Tanagra figurines, probably for use as ornaments or as children's toys. 

The yo-yo is the second oldest known toy in the world (only the doll is older), and was born over 3,000 years ago in the days of ancient Greece.

Boy playing with a terracotta yo-yo, Attic kylix, c. 440 BC, 

When Greek children, especially girls became adults, it was required to sacrifice the toys to the gods. On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood.

Toys became more widespread with the changing attitudes towards children as a result of the Enlightenment. Children began to be seen as people rather than just extensions of their household and they had a right to flourish and enjoy their childhood. 

Tin soldiers were first produced in Germany in the 1730s by molding the metal between two pieces of slate. They became widespread midway through the 18th century, inspired by the military exploits of Frederick the Great.

The Jigsaw puzzle was invented by the English mapmaker and geographer John Spilsbury in around 1760. He used a marquetry saw to produce maps cut in pieces to help children learn geography.

John Spilsbury's "Europe divided into its kingdoms, etc." (1766). Wikipedia

The kaleidoscope is an optical toy, where the user sees many beautiful, colorful patterns. It was invented in 1816 by Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster (December 11, 1781 – February 10, 1868). The word "kaleidoscope" is derived from the Ancient Greek kalos, "beautiful, beauty", eidos, "that which is seen: form, shape" and skope, "to look to, to examine." 

A patent was granted for the kaleidoscope in July 1817. Unfortunately the manufacturer originally engaged to produce the product had shown one of the patent instruments to some of the London opticians to see if he could get orders from them. Soon the instrument was copied and marketed before the manufacturer had prepared any number of kaleidoscopes for sale. An estimated 200,000 kaleidoscopes sold in London and Paris in just three months, most of them copies, which did not give a correct impression of Brewster's invention.

A toy kaleidoscope tube. Wikipedia

Stuffed toys are less than 150 years old with the first stuffed toy being a felt elephant originally sold as a pincushion by the German Steiff company in 1880. 

In 1892, the Ithaca Kitty became one of the first mass-produced stuffed animal toys in the United States, started a fad for plush toys that lasted from its introduction until after World War I.

Snow globes were accidentally invented in 1900 by a medical tool repair man. Austrian Erwin Perzy I  was trying to make a brighter light bulb for operating rooms, so he tried using a water filled glass with reflective particles to do this. The effect looked like snow to him which is how he got the idea for snow globes.

Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit was the first soft toy to be patented, in 1903, making Peter the oldest licensed character.

Joshua Lionel Cowen tried to make an electric train at age 7, but it exploded. Years later, in 1910 his efforts were successful and the Lionel train was born. It cost $6 and consisted of an electric flatcar and 30 feet of track.

Three Polish-Jewish brothers, Herman, Hillel, and Henry Hassenfeld started by selling pencils in 1923. When two decades later, they specialized in producing toys, including Mr. Potato Head, the company was renamed "Hasbro."

Silly Putty (originally called nutty putty) is a silicone plastic "clay" with unusual physical properties, that is sold as a toy for children.  It was first created when Scottish-born engineer James Wright, while attempting to develop a substitute for rubber, dropped a lump of gooey stuff on a General Electric laboratory floor and it bounced. Accidentally, he had invented Silly Putty.

Silly Putty was introduced as a toy on March 6, 1950 by Peter C. L. Hodgson, Sr. a marketing consultant, who packaged one-ounce portions of the rubber-like material in plastic eggs.

Silly Putty in the form of a solid cube

In 1952, little Anne Odell's school restricted students to toys no bigger than a matchbox. So her father an engineer, made her a tiny die-cast steamroller—the first ever matchbox car.

The first toy product ever advertised on US television was Mr. Potato Head, which was introduced in 1952.

The original Mr. Potato Head didn't come with a plastic body. The pieces were meant to be put into an actual potato.

The green clay humanoid character Gumby wasn't originally meant as a toy. Illustrator Art Clokey conceived the sweet, supple icon as a character for an animated jazz video, but studio heads quickly recognized his greatest fans would be children.

American children were first introduced to Play-Doh in the mid 1950s. Play-doh was originally designed as wallpaper cleaner two decades earlier by Joe McVicker. It was his sister-in-law, nursery school teacher Kay Zufall, who discovered its potential as a children's toy.

The inventors of Hot Wheels (Elliot Handler) and the Barbie dolls (Ruth Handler) were married for over two decades before either toy was invented. Barbie and Ken were named after their children.

1960 was the year of the Etch-a-Sketch. The Etch A Sketch toy was invented in the late 1950s by André Cassagnes, an electrician with Lincrusta Co, who named the toy L'Écran Magique (The Magic Screen). When The Ohio Art Company saw the product, they decided to take a chance it and renamed the toy Etch A Sketch. The very first Etch A Sketch rolled off of the Ohio Art Co. production line on July 12, 1960 and it quickly became the most popular drawing toy in the business. 

The Etch a Sketch's appearance in Toy Story 2 in a scene used to present sketches related to the investigation of Woody's kidnapping increased sales of the product by 20% and The Ohio Art Company was saved from financial ruin.

The Taj Mahal, complete with ripples in the reflection By Etcha - 

On March 5, 1963, the Hula Hoop was officially patented by Arthur "Spud" Melin, one of the co-founders of Wham-O, the company that popularized the toy. The Hula Hoop quickly became a sensation in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with millions of Americans buying and twirling the colorful plastic hoops around their waists. The Hula Hoop craze even sparked a number of related products and spin-off toys, such as the Super Hoop, the Shoop-Shoop Hula Hoop, and the Hula Hoopla game.

Rubber ducks have been around since at least the 1940s, but they had a popular resurgence when on February 25, 1970 Jim Henson performed the song "Rubber Duckie" as Ernie on Sesame Street. Ernie frequently spoke to his duck and carried it with him in other segments of the show. The rubber duck bath toy has been an iconic American symbol ever since.

Silly String (also known as aerosol string) is a toy of flexible, sometimes brightly colored, plastic string propelled as a stream of liquid from an aerosol can. After being invented in 1972, one of the inventors was trying to sell their idea to Wham-O, when they sprayed the can all over the person who was meeting with them and all over their office. They were asked to leave, however, a day later received a telegram asking them to send 24 cans for a test market.

Young girls playing with Silly String. By Eden Keller from Mechanicsburg 

In 1982, Air Force and NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson was performing experiments in his bathroom for a new type of refrigeration system. Johnson shot a stream of water across the room and thought, "This would make a great gun." The Super Soaker went on to make him some $73 million in royalties.⁠ 

The Rubik's Cube, a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974, is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy.

The stick (yep, the small tree branch) was inducted into the (U.S.) National Toy Hall of Fame in 2008. Organizers called it one of the world's oldest toys and said sticks "promote free play - the freedom to invent and discover."

LEGO is the largest toy company in the world. 

McDonald's is the world's largest distributor of toys.

Here is a list of songs about toys. 

Teddy bear

A teddy bear is a soft toy that looks like a bear. They are usually made from synthetic fabrics.

Pixiebay

HISTORY

The teddy bear was named after Theodore Roosevelt. The American president's childhood nickname was "Teedie," but his adult nickname was "Teddy" (which he despised and considered improper, preferring "T.R."). 

Theodore Roosevelt started the fashion for Teddy bears when during a hunting trip in Mississippi on November 14, 1902, he refused to shoot a defenseless black bear that had been tied to a willow tree. Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman picked up on the story, drawing a cartoon showing President Roosevelt with a bear, which ran in the Washington Post two days later.

The political cartoon in The Washington Post that spawned the teddy bear name.

An alert Brooklyn shop owner Morris Michtom saw the cartoon and created a tiny plush toy bear cub with his wife Rose's help. He sent it to Roosevelt asking the president for permission to use the name "Teddy." Roosevelt replied: "I don't think my name is likely to be worth much in the bear business, but you are welcome to use it."

After receiving permission to use Roosevelt's name, Michtom put a plush bear in the shop window with a sign "Teddy's bear" on February 15, 1903. The sale of the bears was so brisk that Michtom created the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company, which began making dolls in 1907 to complement its line of teddy bears. 

Below is a Teddy bear formerly owned by the president's son Kermit Roosevelt, thought to be made by Michtom in the early 1900s

By Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - https://www.flickr.com

Around the same time in Germany, Richard Steiff, unaware of Michtom's bear, produced "Bear 55 PB", the first toy bear with jointed arms and legs. Steiff exhibited the toy at the Leipzig Toy Fair in March 1903, where it initially attracted little attention, but its fortunes were changed when an American buyer snapped up the entire lot of 100 bears and ordered another 3,000 just before the exhibition finished. 

A replica Steiff model 55PB displayed at the Steiff-Museum, By MatthiasKabel 

The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first use of the term teddy bear to 1906.

1906 also saw the first advertisement for the "teddy bear", in the trade journal Playthings. 

"The Teddy Bears Picnic" was originally called "The Teddy Bear Two Step." The song was composed in 1907 by JK Bratton; and around the same there were several other pieces of music with "Teddy Bear" in the title. The words by by Dublin University graduate Jimmy Kennedy were added in 1932.

At the height of the teddy bear's huge popularity in the 1900s, there is record of one Michigan priest who publicly denounced the teddy as an insidious weapon. He claimed that the stuffed toy would lead to the destruction of the instincts of motherhood and eventual racial suicide. 

Pixiebay

In 1919 British aviators Alcock and Brown make the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight. They took teddy bear mascots with them on their record breaking journey. 

One of the most famous teddy bears was an 18-inch-high one A. A. Milne and his wife brought from Harrods in London. It was a present for their son, Christopher Robin Milne, in honor of his first birthday on August 21, 1921. The bear was later named Winnie the Pooh.

Christopher Robin Milne . Wikipedia

TEDDY BEAR FACTS

A teddy bear in New Hampshire was responsible for killing 2,500 fish. It clogged the drain in a hatchery, preventing the fish from getting oxygen. 

Manuel Noriega ruled Panama from 1983 to 1990. He was known to have dressed his teddy bears as soldiers. He put them on an office shelf between his graduation photo and a bust of Napoleon.

A British teacher in Sudan was arrested because she allowed her primary school class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad".

At 8,026 teddy bears, 68-year-old Jackie Miley broke the record for the largest teddy bear collection. The teddy bears she'd accumulated in her hometown of Rapid City, South Dakota, USA earned the 68-year-old a spot in the 2018 Guinness Book of World Records for the world's largest collection of teddy bears.

Here's a link to some songs about teddy bears. 

Source Daily Express

Sunday school

A young Methodist lady, Hannah Ball, started the first ever Sunday School in 1769 at High Wycombe, England. However the idea didn't catch on until 1780 when a newspaper editor and Anglican layman, Robert Raikes (1735-1811), concerned by the religious ignorance of poor children in his native city of Gloucester who worked all the week in industry, opened a "Sunday school". 

Sunday School. Pentecostal

Raikes had been pondering the fate of the poor children of Gloucester. Visiting the local prisons, he saw how easy it was for the young ruffians to slip into crime as their parents were so steeped in sin themselves they had no intention of training them to do better. He was convinced that the best way to help the poor children was by giving them education and religion.

In 1780 Raikes organised a school that would run on Sunday, the only day the poor children of Gloucester weren't working. He hired four women to teach and with the help of Reverend Thomas Stock, he enrolled one hundred boys, from six to fourteen years old. 

The teachers gave the children reading lessons from ten to two, with an hour break for lunch. Then they marched them to church, after which the boys were taught the catechism until 5:30 P.M. Good behavior was rewarded with small prizes.

Raikes' "Sunday school," which initially met in the home of a Mrs Meredith was originally just for boys. Soon girls were attending and with a few years several Sunday schools had opened in the Gloucester area. 

Robert Raikes Statue , outside Shell Mex House, in Victoria Embankment Gardens. From geograph.org.uk

Impressed by the Sunday school work of Robert Raikes which tallied with ideas he had earlier tried to implement, a Baptist deacon named William Fox called for an association to assist and promote Sunday schools. On September 7, 1785, Fox headed up a meeting at 4 PM at Paul’s Head Tavern in London. Several prominent philanthropists took part. The result was the first Sunday School Society for Britain. Its innovation was to form Sunday schools under volunteer teachers and to focus on Bible studies rather than secular subjects.

In 1805, the interdenominational Stockport Sunday School was built on London Square to accommodate 5000 children. Up until the Education Act of 1870 it would be the only source of education for many children and in the late 19th century it was the largest Sunday school in the world.

By April 5, 1811, the day of Raikes' death around half a million children in England and Wales were attending Sunday school providing basic lessons in literacy alongside religious instruction. Twenty years later Sunday schools in Great Britain were attended weekly by 1,250,000 children, or about 25 per cent of the eligible population. 

The American Sunday School system was first begun by Samuel Slater in the 1790s. After migrating to the United States at the age of 21, Slater designed the first textile mills in the US in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He also brought the Sunday School system from his native England to his Pawtucket textile factory using college students to teach the children reading and writing.

Sunday school, Indians and whites. Indian Territory (Oklahoma), US, c. 1900.

The words for "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear," the first well-known Christmas song to be composed in the United States are based on a poem written by a young Unitarian minister in Massachusetts, Reverend Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810-1876). They were written at the request of his friend and fellow minister, W.P. Lunt and first presented at Lunt's 1849 Sunday School Christmas celebration.

The words and music for "Jingle Bells" were written by James S. Pierpont, a popular American composer in 1857, with the title of "One Horse Open Sleigh." It was originally penned for a local Sunday school entertainment on Thanksgiving Day in Savannah, Georgia. 

The British film production and distribution company, Rank Organisation, was the major force in the British movie industry during the mid 20th century. It had its origins in 1933 when J. Arthur Rank, a prosperous flour-miller and Methodist with no great interest in cinema, thought of showing religious films at his regular Sunday school lessons. Finding few that were any good, he resolved to try making them himself.

William Hoover, founder of the Hoover vacuum cleaner company was a Sunday school teacher for 50 years.

Sunday school at a Baptist church in Kentucky, US, 1946

In the UK, Sunday school attendance saw a gradual decline during the 20th century. It dropped from 55% of the eligible population in 1900 to 4% in 1999. 

Benedict Arnold's tomb is currently embedded in the wall of a Sunday school classroom at St. Mary’s church in the Battersea section of London, next to a tropical fish tank.

Source Christianity 

Snow White

The German fairy tale Snow White was first printed in Giambattista Basile's 1634 Pentamerone. It was later included in J. K. Musäus's German Folktales (1782).

The Brothers Grimm recorded a version called Little Snow White (German: Schneewittchen) in 1812 in the first edition of their Children's and Household Tales.

Schneewittchen; Darstellung von Alexander Zick (1845 - 1907)

Story No 53 in the Grimms' collection, Schneewitchen, is no fairy tale. In it the wicked stepmother, having failed to murder the enviable beauty Snow White is forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she drops dead.

Walt Disney's 1937 animated film of the story won an Oscar. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs was a big favorite of Adolf Hitler, who loved the movie so much that he kept a copy at his home theater.

Walt Disney took out multiple loans to finance Snow White, even mortgaging his own home to pay for it. At the time, insiders in the film industry thought the film would bomb and called it “Disney’s Folly”. Even Walt’s wife, Lillian, thought it would bomb.

19-year-old Adriana Caselotti, was only paid $970 ($16,000 today) to voice Snow White in the 1937 film.

Walt Disney was so keen on maintaining his brand that Adriana Caselotti received no credit. She was also contractually prevented from appearing in anything else, including radio shows, virtually ending her career. Caselotti died in 1978 still trying to cash in on her moment of glory.

Snow White in the trailer of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 

While making Snow White, Walt Disney paid his employees five dollars for every successful sight gag that could be used in the film.

Snow White's dwarfs had no names until Disney came along. Among the over 50 names he rejected were Awful, Baldy, Biggo-Ego, Dirty, Dumpy, Flabby, Gloomy, Hickey, Nifty, Shifty and Scruffy.

Six of the dwarfs have eyebrows based on Disney’s. Only Happy has white bushy eyebrows.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs was the first American movie to have a soundtrack album released with the feature film.

The score was composed by Frank Churchill (1901-42) with lyrics by Larry Morey (1905-71). The most famous song "Heigh-Ho" is sung by all seven dwarfs on their way to work.

The British Board of Film Censors thought Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs scary enough to allow under-16s only accompanied by an adult.

Walt Disney was presented with one normal sized honorary Oscar and seven little Oscars for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1938.

Source Daily Express

Dr. Seuss

The German-American author and illustrator Theodor Seuss "Ted" Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904. He is best known for authoring more than 60 children's books under the pen name Dr. Seuss.

Ted Geisel holding the Cat in the Hat at Desk in 1957

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

Geisel’s family belonged to Springfield’s prosperous German community in Springfield, which became the object of suspicion when World War I broke out.

Ted Geisel attended New Hampshire’s historic Ivy League university, Dartmouth, in 1925. At Dartmouth, Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room (this was the era when the possession and consumption of alcohol was illegal under Prohibition laws). The college banned him from writing for their humor magazine The Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern. To continue work on the Jack-O-Lantern without the administration's knowledge, Geisel adopted the pen name "Seuss."

Geisel was not a doctor. He later added the “Dr.” to his "Seuss" pen name because his father had wanted him to become a professor.

Dr Seuss’ should be pronounced ‘Dr Zoice’ (rhymes 'voice').

Upon graduating from Dartmouth, Geisel entered Lincoln College, Oxford intending to earn a PhD in English literature. He left Oxford University without earning a degree and returned to the United States in February 1927 to begin his career as an illustrator and cartoonist for magazines and newspapers.

Geisel's first nationally published cartoon appeared in the July 16, 1927 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. This single $25 sale encouraged him to move from Springfield to New York City.

Dr. Seuss 1942 cartoon with the caption 'Waiting for the Signal from Home'

Geisel also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for General Electric, NBC and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for the New York newspaper PM.

Dr. Seuss drew anti-Japanese cartoons during World War II. When he met the survivors of Hiroshima, he realized "A person is a person no matter how small". He later created Horton Hears a Who! as an apology, dedicating it to a Japanese friend.

During the 1930s, Geisel used parts of deceased zoo animals shipped from his father to create fake taxidermy mounts of the creatures he would go on to illustrate in his famous children’s books.

Geisel wrote more than 60 books during his lifetime. Though most of them were published as Dr. Seuss, he also wrote 13 books as Theo. LeSieg ("LeSieg" is "Geisel" spelled backward) and one as Rosetta Stone (a pun on the Rosetta Stone).

Dr. Seuss published an adult book in 1939, The Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History's Barest Family. A picture book of the tale of Lady Godiva, it was one of Seuss's few publications written for grown-ups. The book's original 1939 publication by Random House bombed and was eventually remaindered. Its failure caused Seuss to abandon the adult audience and focus on children's books instead.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Dr Seuss published his first children's book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street in 1937. During World War II, he took a brief hiatus from children's literature, but after the war, Seuss focused on writing for kids once again.

Dr Seuss created The Cat In The Hat in response to a debate during the mid-1950s in the United States about literacy in early childhood. The author was challenged by a publisher, William Spaulding, to write a book using the 250 words children use most, to promote literacy. He demanded that it be a story that "first-graders can't put down." Seuss used just 236 words in The Cat In The Hat.

The Cat In The Hat was published on March 12, 1957 and became Dr. Seuss's all-time biggest seller.

Wikipedia

Inspired by the success of The Cat in The Hat, Seuss began the Beginner Books series written in his new simplified-vocabulary manner that continues to the present day, with entertaining, elementary-level stories by Seuss and other authors.

Green Eggs and Ham is one of Seuss's "Beginner Books." It was the result of a bet between Seuss and Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss's publisher, who challenged him to write a story using no more than 50 different words. Seuss won the bet and Green Eggs and Ham was published on August 12, 1960.

The 50 words in Green Eggs and Ham are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is a children's story written by Dr. Seuss in rhymed verse. It first appeared in shortened form as a 32-line illustrated poem called "The Hoobub and the Grinch," published in the May 1955 edition of Redbook magazine.

The story was expanded and published in 1957 as a book by Random House, which debuted in December 1957.

Dr. Seuss working on How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in early 1957.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas was made into an animated television special and shown for the first time on CBS on December 18, 1966. The narrator was the well-known Horror movie star Boris Karloff.

Dr. Seuss wrote all the lyrics to the songs featured in the 1966 animated version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

The Grinch is green because Chuck Jones (the director of the TV special) rented a car that he thought was a very ugly shade of green. The Grinch is black and white in the original book.

The 2003 film adaptation of The Cat in the Hat was so poorly received that Seuss’ widow forbade any further live-action adaptations of her late husband’s work.

Dr. Seuss was once confronted by a feminist who claimed there were no strong female roles in his books. He remarked that most of his characters are animals, and if she could identify their gender, he would remember her in his will.

PERSONAL LIFE

Dr. Seuss first began to collect hats as he was going about his travels in the 1920s and 1930s. He stored them in a secret closet at his home, which were filled with hundreds of fezs, somberos and helmets etc.

When Dr Seuss was penning his Beginner Books for Random House in the 1960s, he’d have his editor in chief, Michael Frith come over to help him. If  Dr Seuss got stuck with his writing, he and his editor would go to the closet filled with hundreds of hats and wear them till the words came.

Geisel first met Helen Palmer, an American children's author, editor, and philanthropist in a class at Oxford. They got married in America on November 29, 1927.

Helen had a long struggle with illnesses, including cancer. Geisel cheated on his wife with Audrey Stone Dimond while she was sick. Helen found out about the affair and committed suicide on October 23, 1967, with an overdose of barbiturates.

Geisel married his mistress Audrey Stone Dimond on June 21, 1968.

Despite being an internationally renowned children's author, Dr. Seuss never had children of his own because he was terrified of them. He said of them: "You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em."

Geisel invented a whole clan of fictional offspring with bizarre talents that he could bring up whenever friends annoyed him by boasting about their own children's' accomplishments. He even got a group of neighborhood kids into posing as them for a fake Christmas card photo.

DEATH AND LEGACY 

Geisel died of oral cancer on September 24, 1991 at his home in La Jolla, California at the age of 87.
He was cremated and his ashes were scattered.

National Read Across America Day is an observance in the United States held on the school day closest to March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. It is part of an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association that began in 1997.

One in four American children receive a work written by Dr. Seuss as their first book.