Alan Alexander Milne (Author)

Alan Milne spent his childhood in London, where his father was a preparatory schoolmaster. His early education owed much to the skills of a young teacher and mentor -- H.G. Wells -- years later, Milne described Wells as "a great writer and a great friend." He continued his education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He bequethed his original handwritten manuscripts of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner to the College Library. While an undergraduate at Cambridge he edited Granta for a year -- his first literary efforts were published in the humourous magazine Punch, where a month after his twenty-fourth birthday he started work as Assistant Editor, remaining there until the outbreak of the First World War.

A.A. Milne always acknowledged that it was his wife, Daphne, and his young son, Christopher Robin, who inspired him to write the poems and stories. History has a strange way of mixing fact and fiction, but, whatever the origins, the four Pooh books printed in over twenty-five languages have taken their rightful place in the hearts and on the bookshelves of many millions of people.

In Which We are Introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin was first printed in the London Evening News on December 24th, 1925 and broadcast by the BBC on Christmas Day by Donald Calthrop.

Winnie-the-Pooh was published by Methuen on October 14th, 1926; but for too long, Milne's four classics have been relegated to children's bookshelves and Disney children's cartoons.

The Pooh books are firm favourites with old and young alike and have been translated into almost every known language -- in a national reader's poll carried out in England by England premier booksellers, Waterstone's, and Channel 4 Television during 1996, Winnie-the-Pooh was placed number 17 in the list of the 100 most-popular books published during the 20th century.

The Pooh books are favourites with old and young alike and have been translated into almost every language. In 1985, the Russian translation, Vinnie Pookh, sold more than three and a half million copies in the Soviet Union and, in the same year, the Latin version, Winnie Ille Pu, became the first book in a foreign language to be included in the bestseller list in the United States. There is now a companion volume, A. A. Milnei Domus Anguli Puensis, Librum exornavit E. H. Shepard, Liber alter de Urso Puo de anglico sermone in Latinum conversus auctore Briano Staplesio, Londinii: Sumptibus Methueni, MCMLXXX.

Before the success of the Pooh books, Alan Milne was a popular dramatist, novelist, and humourist and many of his plays were performed to great critical acclaim in both Europe and America. Today, his plays are rarely performed in the professional theatre, although amateur productions are playing in almost every English-speaking country throughout the world where they still attract large and eager audiences.

Milne's plays include:
Worzel-Flummery, The Lucky One, The Boy Comes Home, Belinda, The Red Feathers, Make-Believe, Mr. Pim Passes By, The Camberley Triangle, The Romantic Age, The Stepmother, The Dover Road, The Truth about Blayds, The Great Broxopp Success, The Man in the Bowler Hat, To Have the Honour -- or Meet the Prince, Ariadne, Portrait of a Gentleman in Slippers, Miss Marlow at Play, The Ivory Door, Toad of Toad Hall, The Fourth Wall -- or The Perfect Alibi, Michael and Mary, Portrait of a Gentleman in Slippers, Other People's Lives, Miss Elizabeth Bennett, The Ugly Duckling and Before the Flood.

Soon after the publication of Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne wrote in the Nation: "I suppose that every one of us hopes secretly for immortality; to leave, I mean, a name behind him which will live forever in this world, whatever he may be doing, himself, in the next." When he died, thirty years later, there was already no doubt at all that A. A. Milne had achieved more than the ordinary mortal's fifteen minutes of fame -- he had achieved an immortality equalled by few others, though not as he would have wished based on his huge literary output of plays and novels, but rather on the adventures of a Bear of Very Little Brain.

Allen Jay Friedman (Music)

Allan Jay Friedman is an Award Winning Producer-Writer-Composer-Lyricist, who The New York Daily News said is known for his innovation in new art forms. Some of the art forms it credits him for having originated include: the first entertainment documentary where he combined entertainment with the documentary format. (“The Young Man From Boston”) For this, he won an Emmy Award as a Producer, Writer and Composer. He also created the first full length theatrical musical for young people, for which he gets several hundred productions a year. (“Winnie The Pooh”).

His theatrical career began when he wrote a modern day adaptation of the fairytale, “Rapunzel.” This was optioned by Roger L. Stevens, the Founder of The Kennedy Center and the Producer of “West Side Story."   

Soon thereafter, he was commissioned by The Dramatic Publishing Company to do the score for the only authorized J.R.R. Tolkien musical stage adaptation of “The Hobbit.”

It was Jackie Kennedy who gave Friedman's career a jump-start when she approved him as the Producer-Creator and Composer of the Emmy Award winning Television Special based on the life of JFK, “The Young Man From Boston.”      

Following its success, Robert Kennedy approved him as the producer-creator and composer for the TV series based upon JFK's 1000 Days.      

Through a collaboration with Frank Sinatra, he was introduced to Gene Kelly who became one of Friedman's first producing partners. Over the years, Mr. Friedman has enjoyed collaborations and partnerships with David Wolper (Producer of the 1984 Olympics Opening Ceremony, LA Confidential and Roots), Robert Stigwood (Producer of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Grease and Saturday Night Fever who built Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Beattles), Multi-Academy Award-Tony Winners, Paul Francis Webster, Eddie Heyman, and Broadway legends: Leslie Bricusse (“Victor, Victoria,” Jeckyll and Hyde,” “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factor,” “Scooge,” “Dr. Doolittle,” “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”), Dorothy Parker, Dale Wasserman (“Man of La Mancha,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”), Steve Allen, Bob Merrill (“Funny Girl,” “Breakfast At Tiffany's,” “Some Like It Hot,” “Carnival”) and Jonathan Tunick. Two of Mr. Friedman's productions were featured at New York City's Lincoln Center and Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center.   Friedman has written over 5000 pieces of music from songs to musicals, ballets, rhapsodies, symphonies, etc. that have been recorded by some of the most well known and distinguished people in the musical world   

He is in pre-production on a new style motion pictures with music: “In Love Again;” and, three Broadway Musicals, “Kennedy” and “Sleepless In Seattle” ( in collaboration with Leslie Bricusse) and “Dulcinea” (in collaboration with Dale Wasserman). He has recently completed writing the lyrics and composing the music for another Broadway musical, "The Working Girl's Guide To Finding A Mate." He is currently composing the score for two major Ballets, one to open in London.     

He has recently completed several books: “Timothy Bolt and The Dream of What Could Be,” “Trust Your Goosebumps, Cornelius Puck,” “Pinocchio and Mounette” and “The Mystical J.F.K.” along with a series of entertainment-health books for children, “Think and Bea's Adventures Through the Human Body.” This is being written with major doctors in the world who specialize in each specific organ.      

Mr. Friedman attended the University of Texas in El Paso, where he studied medicine-history and law and was President of the Student Body and elected to Who's Who In American Colleges and Universities.   He won the Distinguished Military Award and was an Officer in the US Military. Friedman attended Law School at the University of Texas and New York University Law School and received a Master Degree at UCLA in Public Health. He also won a Doctoral Scholarship to Harvard University to further pursue his interest in elevating the minds and hearts of people everywhere through entertainment; and, to bring good physical, mental and environmental health to the world through entertainment.

Mr. Friedman is Founder and President of AJAY Productions and President of The Center for Top Performance, whose Board of Advisors include Nobel Prize Laureates, Olympic and Professional Athletes and Celebrities. He is the Founder and Chairman of Picture Book Productions, LLC, which presents a revolutionary new Art Form that combines Hollywood with Broadway, which is currently producing its first Musical with this New Art Form starring Tony Award Winner, Bobby Morse, and directed by Joel Zwick ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding.").

.