This Day in Pop Culture for June 22

1988: Roger Rabbit was Framed

Loosely based on Gary K. Wolf’s novel, Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a hybrid film of live-action and animation with real actors interacting with animated ones. Disney began working on the movie as early as 1981 with the studio filming a lot of test footage to make the various gags look seamless on the big screen.

Robert Zemeckis was hired to direct the movie after Terry Gilliam declined. Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy of Amblin Entertainment came on to produce the movie alongside Disney.

Spielberg gets the credit for talking to rival studios asking permission to use their competitors’ characters in the movie. This included Warner Bros who required Disney to feature their I.P’s the same amount of screen time as the Disney counterparts. That’s how the dueling duck piano players (Donald Duck and Daffy Duck) came about. Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny also share a scene together.

As for the casting, Disney considered everyone from Harrison Ford to Sylvester Stallone to play the part of detective Eddie Valiant before setting on Bob Hoskins.

Paul Reubens auditioned to be the voice of Roger, but Disney went with Charles Fleischer instead. Kathleen Turner voiced Jessica Rabbit. Famous voice actors played the cartoon characters including Fred Newman, June Foray, Mel Blanc, Wayne Allwine, Tony Anselmo, Tony Pope, Mae Questel, Russi Taylor, Jim Cummings, Nancy Cartwright, Frank Welker and Jack Angel.

Many actors were considered for the role of Judge Doom as well including Tim Curry (who lost out because he was too scary), Christopher Lee and Sting. They landed with Christopher Lloyd because Spielberg and Zemeckis worked with him on Back to the Future.

When the movie was completed, Michael Eisner and Roy E. Disney felt that the movie was too risqué with its adult themes and sexual references, but Zemeckis had final cut privilege, so no alterations were made. Jeffrey Katzenberg agreed with Roy E. Disney that the movie needed to be released under the Touchstone Pictures Banner instead of the family-friendly Walt Disney Pictures banner.

Disney had their biggest opening ever at that time. Roger Rabbit movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four for Best Film Editing, Sound Effects Editing, Visual Effects and a Special Achievement Award.

1847: The First Ring Doughnut

Apparently, doughnuts didn’t always come with a hole. While working on a lime-trading ship when he was 16 years old, Hanson Gregory “invented” the ring-shaped doughnut. Here’s why: solid doughnuts often run the risk of being over-cooked or having a raw center. By punching the center dough out with a tin pepper box, Gregory was able to successfully produce the perfect doughnut.

2009: Kodak Discontinues Sales of Kodachrome Color Film

Simon and Garfunkel may have sung, “mama don’t take my Kodachrome away,” but Kodak did.

Since 1888, Eastman Kodak Company has been best known for its photographic film products.

By 1976, Kodak had a 90% market share in film sales. However, by the 1990’s Kodak struggled to keep up with the times as more people were turning to digital photography and buying less of photographic film. Ironically, it was Kodak that came up with the main technology used in most digital cameras used today.

On this day in 2009, the company announced that they would discontinue sales of its famous Kodachrome color film. In January 2012, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Today, Kodak is still with us but now focuses on imaging solutions for businesses.