Posted May 26, 2020 by Jeffrey Totey This Day in Pop Culture

This Day in Pop Culture for May 26

2006: Disney/Pixar’s ‘Cars’ Hits the Roadway

It was on this day that Disney/Pixar’s film, Cars premiered at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. (The movie came to theaters on June 9.) A number of racing stars including Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip were there. They also voiced roles in the animated film as well. Directed by John Lasseter, the movie was set in a fictional world where everything revolves around cars and is only populated by automobiles. Cars was the last Pixar film made before the company was purchased by Disney. It also has the distinction of being Paul Newman’s last acting role. Other voice talents in Cars included Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, Michael Wallis, George Carlin, Paul Dooley, Jenifer Lewis, Guido Quaroni, Michael Keaton, Katherine Helmond and John Ratzenberger. Cars was nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Animated Feature, but it lost to Happy Feet. The film led to two sequels and its own “land” at Disney’s California Adventure theme park in Anaheim, California.

1977: ‘Spiderman’ Climbs the World Trade Center

On this day in 1977, about two and half years after Philippe Petite used a tightrope to travel between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, George Willig thought it would be a good time to climb the south tower. It took the toymaker and mountain climber about three and half hours to scale the tower which at the time was world’s third tallest. When he made it to the top, Willig was arrested. At the time, New York City threatened to fine “The Human Fly” $250,000 for the stunt but on the next day, Mayor Abraham Beame only fined the man one cent for every one of the skyscraper’s stories. After making numerous TV talk show appearances, Willig changed careers to work as a stuntman for a number of TV series including the Six Million Dollar Man, Trauma Center and Hollywood Beat.