Alvin & the Chipmunks

Possibly the most popular TV and musical cartoon of all time, Alvin & the Chipmunks enjoyed several periods of prosperity -- beginning with '60s-era adolescent Baby Boomers, cresting in the '80s, when the Boomers' children were growing up, and riding the wave clear into the new millennium. The man who brought the Chipmunks to life, Ross Bagdasarian, was born on January 27, 1919, in Fresno, California. He came to Los Angeles in 1950, and appeared in the films Viva Zapata, Stalag 17, and Rear Window. Bagdasarian also worked as a songwriter, reaching the charts first in 1956, as...