What Do You Get for the Woman Who Has Everything? - November 20, 2007

 

It's not every marriage that can last 60 years, but Elizabeth and Philip Windsor-Mountbatten aren't exactly the folks next door. 

The Royal Couple celebrates their Diamond Anniversary on November 20 with a surprising lack of fanfare: no parades, no fireworks, no celebrity gala. Instead, the (presumably still) happy couple will revisit Westminster Abbey and then spend the evening bowling with friends, followed by a stop at the local for boilermakers and crisps (with the first round on Liz and Phil, of course), then it's back to the Palace for a quick round of Pictionary. 

Everything stops at 9:00, though, when it's time for I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! Those close pals lucky enough to be invited to the sleepover that follows might be stumped on what to get the Royals; after all, with a personal fortune of $500 million (not to mention that £10 billion art collection), there's not much they don't already have. 

But we think we've found the perfect gift for a storybook couple -- and one we're almost positive they don't own -- yet. Happy Anniversary, Your Highnesses!

Suggested Sites...

• Getty Images: The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh's Diamond Wedding Anniversary - Liz and Phil's photo album.
• Royal Collection - A Royal Wedding - a look back at 60 years of wedded bliss.
• Behind the Scenes at the Royal Wedding of 1947 - wedding recap and information about some of the thousands of presents received.
• The role of the Monarchy - all about the British Royal Family, from Elizabeth II to Victoria de Silva. 
• The Royal Family - everything you want to know about the Monarchy.

A Mouse in the Movie House - November 18, 2006

When Mickey Mouse made his screen debut in Steamboat Willie on November 18, 1928, the world went mad for the mouse. 

Never before had audiences seen animated characters who could talk and sing, and the effects of the cartoon created and directed by Walt Disney were electrifying. 

It's a great American success story, except little of it is true. Steamboat Willie wasn't the first Mickey cartoon made (he'd already appeared in two other cartoons), he didn't talk, and Disney turned most of the directing duties over to Ub Iwerks. 

As for sound, Max Fleischer and Paul Terry had already produced cartoons with either spoken dialogue or synchronized sound effects. 

Regardless of the facts, there's no disputing something was in the combination of Mickey's personality and those sound effects that soon made him an international superstar. 

By 1932, more than one million children had joined the Mickey Mouse Club and his grown-up fans ranged from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Benito Mussolini. Maybe Mickey was just a heck of a whistler.

Suggested Sites...

• Steamboat Willie - watch the film that made Mickey Mouse a star.
• Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse - the complete run of the comic strip that was far better than the cartoons.
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Mickey Mouse - biography of the world's favorite rodent.
• Wikipedia: Steamboat Willie - traces the history and influence of the groundbreaking cartoon. 
• Nat Falk's How to Make Animated Cartoons - scans of a 1941 how-to classic.