Animation - Who & Where

Fred Moore's 100th Birthday!

2011-09-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

I have a great post coming, but it will appear here tomorrow...

Happy Birthday Fred!

Disney Bulletin - January 17, 1939

2011-01-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

Turn the Clock Back 72 Years

Another Disney Bulletin offering a peek into the goings-on at Disney's Hyperion Avenue studio. There is a mention of Mary Flanigan, jokingly listed as "Apple Mary" who was officially a stenographer or receptionist, but also ran a small side-business within the studio selling cigarettes, gum and other treats. Lower on the first page is a brief but informative biography of Joe Grant apparently written by Dorothy Ann Blank who had earlier worked on Snow White in the story department.

In column two is a list of artists who were there for animation tryouts. The only name here which stands out is Hawley Pratt, a who later went on to fame as a layout artist with Warner Bros. cartoons and director with DePatie-Freleng. Readers may find one or more names they recognize.

Further down is the mention of a Conrad Buff art exhibit at the Colonial Tea Room nearby. This Conrad Buff is not the Academy Award winning editor, nor his father the architect, but his grandfather the artist. Also below are listings for screenings and club meetings and a short list of artists whose gags were accepted for use in upcoming Donald Duck strips.

An outline for submissions to The Bulletin starts off the second and final page. Notable cost-cutting measures arise in a section titled, "Is Your Number Here?," where employees are asked to point out phone numbers they have called and step forward to pay for the charges. Beyond that is a list of new books in the studio library. Rounding out the issue is one simple classified ad from the great Roy Williams who is attempting to sell a brown suede jacket.

Rollin "Ham" Hamilton's 110th Birthday!

2008-10-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

Rollin Clare* Hamilton was born 110 years ago today in South Dakota. His parents were William Clarence Hamilton and the former Ella Stevens, both natives of Iowa.

Two years earlier his older brother, Louis had been born in Iowa, but shortly after that, the young family was on the move to South Dakota where William worked as a druggist. His work had the family on the move every few years throughout the area.

In the first two decades of the new century they lived in Edgeley, Grafton and Grand Forks, North Dakota as well as Casper, Wyoming. In 1906 the family grew once again when they welcomed Irene Martha. By 1922 the family had made the move to Los Angeles, California.

In February, 1924, the twenty-five year old Hamilton was the first outside animator hired at the Disney Bros. Studio. He immediately began working on what would be the fifth of the Alice Comedies, Alice's Spooky Adventure. Later in 1924 Disney hired his younger sister Irene as an inker.

Rollin would remain animating with Disney throughout the remaining Alice shorts and all of the Oswald The Lucky Rabbit cartoons until early May 1928 when he was among those who exited the studio when Charles Mintz took over physical production of the Oswald cartoons.

Mintz, with the studio headed by his brother-in-law George Winkler would only produce the Oswalds for about a year. In April 1929 Universal who distributed the shorts and owned the character took over production themselves. Their new cartoon studio was on the lot and run by New York transplant, Walter Lantz.

Hamilton, who had become close with Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising during the years they spent together at Disney's and the Winkler studio, joined them when they struck out on their own after earlier failed attempts. Success came when they sold the idea of a cartoon series to Warner Bros. The series, starring a new character Bosko, would be produced by Leon Schlesinger.

Rollin stayed animating for the Warner Bros. cartoons even after Harman and Ising ended their production of the shorts a few years later. Schlesinger took over and physical production was moved to a Looney Tunes studio on a corner of Warner Bros. Sunset Blvd. lot.

Hamilton's last known credits were on some Looney Tunes shorts directed by Tex Avery in 1938.

On June 1, 1952 Rollin Hamilton suffered a heart attack and passed away two days later at the age of fifty-two. He was laid to rest at Forest Lawn in Glendale.

* Most records have his middle name spelled as "Clare," but has also been found listed as "Claire."

Tyrus Wong is 98 today!

2008-10-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to point out that a major force responsible for the look of Disney's Bambi celebrates his birthday today. He was born in China and moved with his father to Southern California before he was ten years old.

An accomplished artist, he was an art director for live action films for the greater part of his career. Wong also worked designing greeting cards for a time as well.

In recent years he can be found on the beach in Santa Monica the fourth Saturday of most any month flying his amazing handmade kites. He is generally accompanied by a crowd of family and friends. The photo at right was taken two years ago on his birthday weekend kite flying trip.

He didn't seem to have made it there this weekend.

Sound Finds Steamboat Willie

2008-09-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

Eighty years ago today Walt Disney supervised the recording of the soundtrack for the Mickey Mouse short, Steamboat Willie. The recording took place in New York City under the baton of conductor Carl Edouarde.

Today is the anniversary of the successful second recording. The first had occurred two weeks earlier in a late-night session the result of which would ultimately be deemed unusable.

The recording system used was Pat Powers' Cinephone System. Cinephone was a not-so-subtle copy of the Phonofilm system that had been developed by Lee DeForest.

Steamboat Willie would premiere to the world six weeks hence at the Colony Theater in New York. This sound cartoon would go on to solidify Mickey Mouse in the popular culture and boost the fortunes of Walt Disney and his studio.

Century Birthday - Mel Blanc

2008-05-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

The legendary Man of 1000 Voices was born 100 years ago today. Mel Blanc was born Melvin Jerome Blank to Frederick and Eva (Katz) Blank in San Francisco, California. Mel arrived four years after an older brother, Henry Charles.

By 1910 the family was living comfortably at 3332 Twenty First Street* in the Mission District of San Francisco and for at least a while there, they had a live-in servant. The two story house still stands today having survived the past 108 years, including 1906 when the Great Quake and subsequent fire leveled much of the city.

Shortly after Mel turned six, the family had moved to Portland, Oregon. For a few years the family made their home at 225-1/2 Sherman Street. By 1920 they has moved to another home at 543 SW Fifth Avenue. A decade later April of 1930 they would be listed next door at 541. While growing up Mel developed a good singing voice and he also learned the violin. After he graduated from Lincoln High school he found work at the local radio station KGW as whatever was needed; singer, announcer, musician. He would eventually become part of the station's orchestra, though at this point playing the tuba. He moved for a brief time back to San Francisco when he found work with the much larger KPO radio orchestra. In 1930 he was offered the job of pit conductor at the Orpheum Theater back in Portland. Mel jumped at the opportunity.

During this period however, the vaudeville circuit was beginning to cool down with most of the major acts migrating to radio. Mel would soon find himself working in radio, and again back in San Francisco at station KGO. He was emcee of "The Road Show," a variety program, but the position also afforded him the chance to do a fair amount of acting -- often using his growing library of different dialects. In 1932 he succumbed to his urge to seek his fortunes in Hollywood and he soon packed his car and headed south.

MORE SOON...

* I have several sources that confirm the family at this address from 1910 through late 1914. Mel specifically noted in his wonderful 1988 autobiography, That's Not All Folks! that they lived at Bush and Divisadero streets; where they may have been prior to 1910.

Century Birthday - Joe Grant

2008-05-15T05:35:00.000-07:00

Disney artist Joe Grant was born a century ago today in New York City. His parents Eva and George Albert Grant made their home at at 611 W. 136th Street in Manhattan, where George worked as an art director at the New York Journal. Eva was a native New Yorker whose parents immigrated from Russia and George arrived with his parents from Poland (or Russia) at the age of five and settled in Philadelphia.

Joseph Clarence Grant* was born in the spring of 1908 and before he was three years old, the family had relocated to Los Angeles when his father was hired as art director on the Los Angeles Examiner. After a couple years they had returned to New York and soon Joe was joined by a sister, Geraldine.

For Eva and the children the bounce from Los Angeles and back to New York would be repeated over the years as George had issues with alcohol and frequently lived apart from his wife and children, even when they were in the same city.

When he was ten, Joe, Geraldine and their mother were back in Los Angeles living with her father, Abe Green. Two years later they had returned to New York, but lived with aunt Sophia, (his mother's sister) at 105 113th Street. His father was a short walk away on 110th Street. By the time he was in high school in 1924 they had returned to Los Angeles where they lived at #28 Avenue 24 in Venice, just a few doors from the beach.

Following high school, Joe would further his art studies at Chouinard near downtown Los Angeles, where a decade later he would return as an instructor. He soon after got a job as an artist for the Los Angeles Record (with a little help from his father) and in a short time he was asked to create caricatures for the paper's Drama section. His illustrations here would eventually catch the eye of Walt Disney. The newspaper clipping at left is an example of Joe's caricature work for the L.A. Record in August, 1932.
(click for a larger view)

In 1929 Joe had married and was living at 1224 S. Norton Avenue. A year later they had moved up the street to 1337½ S. Norton Avenue.

He was hired at the Disney Studio in 1933 based partly on his ability to caricature celebrities -- a talent needed for Mickey's Gala Premiere, a short being made at the time. Pictured here is an early gag drawing he drew later that year for the Silly Symphonies short, Funny Little Bunnies. In time he would come to head the Character Model Department at the studio.

By the mid 1930s Grant had moved to 4930 La Roda Avenue** near Eagle Rock, a much shorter drive to the Hyperion Avenue studio.

By 1938 Jennie and Joe had settled in the Verdugo Woodlands neighborhood above Glendale. The house at 1346 Opechee Way would be home they would share for more than half a century. They would raise their two daughters, Carol and Joann in this house.

Grant's first association with the Disney Studio ended in 1949 when the Character Model Department was broken up. He would return to work at the studio in the late 1980s. In the four decades in between Joe continued his artwork and formed Castle Ltd. (for the creation of greeting cards) and along with his wife, Opechee Designs a ceramics studio. Some of the tiles he created are shown below.

Sadly his wife Jennie passed away in June, 1991

Joe passed away on May 6, 2005 in his studio doing what he loved. He was a few days shy of his 97th birthday.

* When I asked Joe what the "C" in his name stood for he laughed and said Clarence, and he added that it was the kind of name that could get you beat up when you're a kid!

** In the 1935 city directory he is listed at 3950 La Roda -- an address that today doesn't exist. The addresses may have been re-numbered that year, in which case it is probably the same house.

Century Birthday - Godfrey Bjork

2007-12-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

Iwerks animator Godfrey Bjork would have been 100 years old today.

Please see the earlier post from last May for more about this almost forgotten figure.

In the months since then, I have found that he was married at the time to a woman named Lydia. They apparently did not have any children.

Noted in the earlier post was information that Bjork is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The exact plot location is shown on the map below.

View Larger Map

Time Magazine December 27, 1937

2007-12-05T07:15:00.000-08:00

Nearly seventy years ago a 36 year old Walt Disney (his 106th birthday is today) and some stars from his new movie were featured on the cover of Time Magazine.

The cover and article within are shown below:
(as usual, click on each for larger images)

Snow White at The Carthay

2007-10-25T06:26:00.000-07:00

There has been plenty of buzz recently regarding the Carthay Circle Theater, with a reproduction coming soon to Disney's California Adventure. The original theater once stood in the mid-Wilshire District of Los Angeles and was host to many film premieres including the west coast premiere of Gone With the Wind and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Here are a few snapshots of the diorama scenes that were on display for the premiere run of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. While the photographs certainly aren't professional, they do offer a rare peek at the theater grounds at the time.

Though these displays don't necessarily depict scenes from the film, they appear to have been well constructed and there are dwarfs (in the form of garden gnomes) placed throughout.

The inclusion of monsters however, seems a bit out of place and begs the question, who thought those were a good idea?

I don't imagine that anyone from the Disney Studio was involved, but who knows.

(click on each for a larger image)

Joe Grant at Chouinard

2007-10-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

The clipping below is from a catalog for prospective students of the Chouinard Art Institute, School of Motion Picture Arts. Although undated, I believe this to be from the late 1930s, probably 1937 or 1938.

The School of Motion Picture Arts was established in September 1936 and headed by Harold Miles, a long-time educator, an art director for live-action films and also a credited art director on Walt Disney's Snow White. The school taught in the fields of set design, drafting, costume design, advertising art, and animation. The head instructor in Animation was Eugene Fleury, who also was an instructor at the Disney Studio.

Within the curriculum for Animation was a class in Caricature, taught by Joe Grant. The clipping contains a brief description, with an example drawing and a photo of a Grant in a dashing pose with a pipe and a sculpted caricature of Oliver Hardy.

(click for larger image)

When I have some time in the future I will post other excerpts and eventually the entire catalog.

Neighbors - chapter II

2007-10-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

Fred, ...Meet Fred

While doing research several years ago in the depths of the Main Library in downtown Los Angeles, I came across the interesting fact that during the mid-1940s, Robert Fred "Freddie" Moore and Fred "Tex" Avery, two of the biggest names in the industry, were next-door neighbors!

In a part of Los Angeles now know as Valley Village, between Moorpark Street and the 101 Freeway, Freddie Moore lived at 4437 and Tex Avery lived at 4445 Carpenter Avenue.

Former home of Freddie Moore
4437 Carpenter Avenue
(click on it for a larger image)

Former home of Tex Avery
4445 Carpenter Avenue
(click on it for a larger image)

View Larger Map

Fred Moore's family included his wife Virginia and during the summer months daughters Suzanne and Melinda from his earlier marriage. Tex and Patricia Avery didn't have children until son Tim and daughter Nancy were born in the later 1940s.

Although there doesn't appear to be evidence of any cross-pollination in their work during this time, I often wonder how friendly the two might have been -- how many conversations they had over the fence.

NOTE: While I'm sure it doesn't need to be said to any reader here, please remember that these are private residences.
Do not disturb the people living in or near these homes.

Century Birthday - Art Babbitt

2007-10-08T10:50:00.000-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Arthur Harold Babitzky entered the world in the unlikely city of Omaha, Nebraska, at the eastern edge of the state on the Missouri River.

His parents Solomon* and Zelda were married in 1898 in their native Russia. His father first came to the United States in 1903 and his mother arrived in 1906. Solomon worked in the clothing/textile industry, in dying and cleaning.

Arthur was the first of four children to survive beyond infancy. A sister, Louise, born a year after him, also did not live more than a few years. It wasn't long before he was joined by brothers Issie and William. The family home was at 1436 S. 13th Street, just south of downtown Omaha.

In 1913 the family moved a hundred miles up the Missouri River to Sioux City, Iowa. In a short time the family had grown again with the birth of Arthur's sister, Fannie (or Hannah) in 1914. Their first home there was at 705 W. Seventh Street but after a few years they had moved across the street to 822 W. Seventh.

When Art was in his late teens the family relocated once again to the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York and Art soon moved out and went to work in the field of animation. In 1929 he went to work for Paul Terry and Frank Moser where he animated on the Aesop's Fables cartoons and later on TerryToons.

Frustrated with the low pay, Babbitt moved west to Hollywood hoping to find work with the Walt Disney Studio. He succeeded and was hired in July of 1932. There he would animate on Mickey Mouse cartoons and Silly Symphonies; notable among them, the award-winning Three Little Pigs.

In the summer of 1934, Art embarked on a trip to New York along with some other studio employees including Frank Churchill, Les Clark and Dick and Juanita Lundy. After sailing on the Santa Elena through the Panama Canal they arrived back in Los Angeles on September 3.

Babbitt was continually trying to convince Vladimir "Bill" Tytla, his friend from Terrytoons, to come west to Disney's and by mid-November 1934 he had started at the studio. Babbitt invited Tytla to move in with him at his home in the Hollywood Hills at 5600 Tuxedo Terrace. In this home they began offering life drawing classes in the evenings after work.

Art grew to become on of the top animators at the studio during the 1930s and is credited with creating the character of Goofy (initally known as "The Goof.") He was a directing animator on the feature films, known for the characters of the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the stork in Dumbo. Perhaps his most well known is the scene of the the dancing mushrooms in the Nutcracker Suite segment of Fantasia.

In 1936 Babbitt and Tytla moved to another home they shared just a short distance away at 5700 Hill Oak Drive. It wasn't long though, before Art had married Marge Belcher, a dancer (and Snow White reference model.) Tytla moved out and soon was married himself.

In May of 1941 Babbitt was the primary figure behind the artists strike of the Disney Studio. This action would help lead to the establishment of what is now The Animation Guild, Local 839. Much more has been written about this incident elsewhere.

Art would go on to work at other studios including UPA and the studio of a former Disney co-worker, Shamus Culhane. He was also a co-founder of Quartet Films where he would be involved in the production of numerous commercials.

With an apparent fondness for homes in the Hollywood Hills, he and his second wife, Annamarie lived in the hills above the Hollywood Bowl at 6902 Los Tilos Road during the 1950s. During this decade they had two daughters, Linda and Karen.

When Art married again in the 1960s to Barbara Perry, they lived in a home just up the road in the same neighborhood. They remained there for many years including the time that Art was animating on the Raggedy Ann and Andy feature for Richard Williams.

Art Babbitt passed away at the age of 84 on March 4, 1992.

During his lifetime Art had been honored with dozens of awards for his work, and this week he will be among those honored by The Walt Disney Company as a Disney Legend.

* Solomon would later change his name to Samuel.

Century Birthday - Dick Lundy

2007-08-14T08:07:00.000-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Richard James Lundy, an only child, was born to parents James and Minnie Lundy a century ago today. He was born in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan on the eastern tip of Lake Superior at the Canadian border. The family would soon move south to Detriot where James began work as an inspector for the Burroughs Adding Machine Company.

By the time Richard was ten years old, his parents were separated and he and his mother had moved north to Port Huron, Michigan. A short time later he and his mother were back in Detroit where she, now divorced, was employed as a waitress at a nearby restaurant. The home they lived in was on Tillman Street very near where highways 96 and 94 intersect today.

Late in the 1920s Dick was in Los Angeles and by the middle of summer,1929 he had arrived at the Disney Studio on Hyperion where he began in the ink & paint department. That September he was moved up and began inbetweening. With the departure of Ub Iwerks the following January, production began to slip behind. Lundy was soon promoted to animator to help with getting production deliveries back on track. He animated on several classic shorts including Three Little Pigs and Orphans Benefit, the film that would begin his association animating "the duck" later to become known as Donald.

Dick had several residences throughout the area during the 1930s, his first was an apartment at 1740 N. Gramercy Place, just north of Hollywood Boulevard. He moved closer to the studio by 1931 when he lived at 4637 Melbourne Avenue**. Lundy had moved again the next year to an apartment at 6514 Cerritos Place, near Cahuenga Boulevard.

Soon he would be married and he and his new wife, Juanita would settle into an apartment at 3335 Rowena Avenue. In 1934 they were on the move again, to a home at 4115 Greenbush Avenue in Sherman Oaks. Following his work on the landmark feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Lundy was given to opportunity to direct some of the cartoon shorts beginning in 1939. By this time Dick was divorced from Juanita and he and his second wife, Anne, were living at 4615 Strohm Avenue in North Hollywood where they would stay until the late 1940s.

He remained a director at Disney's until fall,1943 when he departed to work for Walter Lantz. Dick started as an animator, but quickly moved back to directing on shorts starring Andy Panda and Woody Woodpecker as well as the musical Swing Symphonies. When the Lantz studio closed down in 1948, Lundy moved into making commercials at Wolff Productions.

In the spring of 1950, an offer for more money and directing work landed him at MGM where he briefly took over Tex Avery's unit and directed Caballero Droopy and several Barney Bear shorts. Throughout most of the1950s and 1960s, Lundy lived in Glendale, tucked up against the hills near the Brand Library at 1553 Western Avenue.

He returned to animating when he arrived at Hanna-Barbera in early 1959 where he worked on The Flintstones, Yogi Bear and Scooby Doo shows among many others. Aside from a period when he animated on Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat, Lundy remained at H-B until his retirement in late 1973. He continued to stay busy with freelance work for several years following that 'official' retirement.

Dick Lundy later moved south to beautiful San Diego County. He passed away there on April 7, 1990 at the age of 82.

**Note: Lundy's boss, Walt Disney, had lived next door to this house (at 4639 Melbourne) six years earlier, a short fifty yard walk from his studio at the time on Kingswell Avenue.

Century Birthday - Virgil Ross

2007-08-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Virgil Walter Ross was born a century ago today in Watertown, New York. His parents, Bertha Mary (Hart) and Ellwood Burdsoll Ross, both natives of New York state, married in 1901 and made their home at 142 Washington Street. Their first son, Ellwood Hart Ross, (known by his middle name as a child) arrived in late April in 1906 and Virgil followed about 15 months later.

By the time Virgil was ten, the family had moved to 41 Auburn Street in the Detroit suburb of Highland Park, Michigan where the his father worked as a tool-making foreman at the Ford Motor Company.

By 1920 the family had relocated to 2857 E. Theresa Street in Long Beach, California and Ellwood continued his trade, but was now working in the nearby shipyards. They had settled further north in the late 1920s at 211 W. 126th Street in Compton a home currently in the shadow of the 110/105 freeway interchange. While in high school he picked up a pencil and signed up for a class in cartooning.

Shortly after he graduated Virgil began working as a commercial illustrator with an office on Figueora in downtown Los Angeles. Having been turned down when he brought his portfolio to the Disney Studio, he did find work at the Mintz Studio.

His stay at Mintz did not last long and he soon found himself inbetweening at Ub Iwerks' Studio. A short time later he had moved on to Walter Lantz where he eventually became an animator. There he worked with many rising stars of the industry including a young (six months younger than himself) man known by the nickname of Tex.

When Tex Avery was hired in 1936 by Leon Schlesinger to direct cartoons at his studio, he brought along a few of his Lantz co-workers including Sid Sutherland and Ross. He animated in Avery's unit until Tex departed the studio in 1941. Then after a short stint with director Bob Clampett he settled in with Friz Freleng beginning an association that would last nearly three decades!

While at Schlesinger's he met an inker at the studio, miss Frances J. Ewing. They were later married and made their home at 5933 Carlton Way. By 1945 they had moved to 3337 Bennett Drive in the hills above the Cahuenga Pass. They would live on Bennett Drive for more than fifty years!

Following the closing of Warner Bros. cartoon studio in the early 1960s, Ross worked at Filmation, Hanna-Barbera, DePatie-Freleng and Marvel, among others.

Virgil Ross passed away at his home on May 15, 1996 at the age of 88. He had lived long enough to receive the recognition of his peers in the industry and cartoon fans around the world.

Century Birthdays - Al Coe and Roy Williams

2007-07-30T11:03:00.000-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Al Coe, and animator known for his work on shorts at Disney and Lantz and Roy Williams, long time story man at Disney were both born a century ago today!

Sorry everyone, but I lost the articles I wrote on these two (and for Dick Bickenbach which should have been up on August 9th) with the crash of my computer. This was made worse by the fact that my internet connection was down for several days and even now is sometimes on, sometimes off (thank you Verizon!) To add to the confusion, I have family in town for the next week or so.

I apologize for missing these posts, but they WILL be up as soon as I can get them finished and posted.

Neighbors - chapter I

2007-07-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

Santa Barbara

Like many seaside communities, Santa Barbara has been home to quite a number of artists. A handful of them would move to Los Angeles and ply their profession in the field of animation. Others from the industry would eventually retire in this picturesque community.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, two men who would later have significant careers in the field, were neighbors here on the same street!

These two were Erni Nordli and Paul Julian. They were separated in age by just two years and likely attended the same schools, though history doesn't record if they actually knew each other while they were neighbors.

By 1930, seventeen year old Ernest Nordli and his family had recently relocated here from Salt Lake City, his birth place. His parents, Hans and Hattie moved the family into a modest home at 901 Valerio Street just southwest of the town's business district.

Ernest had five siblings; one older brother, Philip; two younger brothers, William and Douglas and two younger sisters, Ruth and Genevieve. The family of eight squeezed into this three bedroom home where they all shared one bathroom.

A career in the arts was not an unlikely pursuit for Ernest. His father was a lino-typist at a nearby publishing house and his mother taught music at their home. Within the next few years, Ernest would be among the artists working at the Disney Studio on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Later he would be an art director on Dumbo and Fantasia then moved into layout at both Warner Bros. and Disney's.

A few houses up the street, beyond a dog-leg in the road, was the Julian family who had moved west from South Bend, Indiana a decade earlier.

Paul Julian was born Paul Hull Husted on June 25, 1914 in Illinois. His brother Harry was born two years later in Indiana. By 1920 their mother, Esther, had married a second time to a gentleman by the name of Frank Julian.

While it is not clear what became of their father, (He may have been killed while serving in WWI) it is known that within the next few years the boys would take the name of their stepfather.

The Julian family would grow to six with the arrival of two more boys, Frank Jr. and Daniel, born after they arrived in Santa Barbara. Their three bedroom home, similar to many in the area, can be found at 814 W. Valerio Street.

Between Frank, a barber and Esther, an art school instructor, the family was well-off enough to have a live-in servant, Margaret Johnson, who was from Scotland.

Paul Julian would go on to become a prolific watercolorist and a well respected background artist at several studios including Warner Bros. and UPA, where his paintings were the essence of the Oscar-nominated short, The Tell-Tale Heart.

(click on the addresses listed above for a map to the homes)

Note: This is the first of what will certainly be many posts on this subject. Over the past fifteen years I have done a tremendous amount of research on where the luminaries of the industry lived and worked. Along the way I discovered that quite a few lived near one another and in some cases were even roommates. Some of the names you'd expect (Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, for example,) while others are quite surprising! If you liked this post, there is a lot to look forward to in the coming months!

Ghosts of the Charles Mintz Studio

2007-06-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

A BIT MORE OF THE WHERE...

On a nondescript street just a short walk from the busy intersection of Western Avenue and Santa Monica Blvd. stands a building that's been there for more than eighty years. In those years it's been painted and painted over again. Its large arched windows, once complete with a decorative wrought iron fence have been sealed over.

(click on the images below for larger versions)

This building, not at all different from many others scattered across this city, sits in a state of quiet decay. Weeds, chewing gum, spray paint and goodness-knows-what-else are evident on the walls and sidewalk. One might wonder what things this building has witnessed in its eight decades....

Upon closer inspection it becomes clear....

In 1930 the staff of the nearby Charles Mintz Studio gathered there for a few group photographs.

Here are composer Joe DeNat, Manny Gould, Harry Love, Charles Mintz, George Winkler, Al Rose, Ben Harrison and Jack Carr.

In this photo are DeNat, Art Davis, Charles Mintz, Sid Marcus and Dick Huemer. The building is located at 5454 Virginia Avenue just around the corner from the Mintz Studio at 1154 N. Western Avenue.

Much of the 1920s era stucco work on the building is intact as shown in the photos below. It's a miracle these details exist, considering the amount of renovation (and layers of paint) this place has been subject to!

(click for larger image)

I experienced a mildly chilling moment when it confirmed without question that this is the exact location where these legends of the industry stood to be photographed over 75 years ago.

A few steps away at 5437 Virginia is the apartment building where George Winkler, Manny Gould, Joe DeNat and production manager James Bronis were living at the time. It is apparent that this building too has seen better days.

I'd like to thank Harry McCracken at Scrappyland.com for having posted the original photos of the Mintz Staff. If you haven't visited Scrappyland yet, I suggest you take a look -- it's a terrific retrospective on an often forgotten cartoon series and the people that created it! The middle group photo is from Leonard Maltin's Of Mice and Magic.

Century Birthday - Edward Plumb

2007-06-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Disney composer and orchestrator Edward Holcomb Plumb was born and raised in Streator, Illinois, a town on the Vermilion River 100 miles southwest of Chicago. His parents Samuel and Anna already had two sons by the time Edward was born. Along with his older brothers Samuel Walter, Jr. and Gordon, his grandmother, Levancia Plumb lived with them at 206 Wilson Street.

Plumb arrived in California in the early 1930s and found work as a composer and orchestrator in the movies. His first work for Disney was for the memorable short, Mother Goose Goes Hollywood.

He married Louise Mason and they welcomed a daughter, Susan in May of 1938. They made their home on a winding street in the hills near Silver Lake. With the addition of two more daughters Anne and Elisabeth in the early 1940s, the family was complete.

While Frank Churchill wrote the songs for Bambi, the poetic score for the film was executed by Ed Plumb. His work on Bambi would earn him the first of his four Academy Award nominations.

Although Disney seemed like home base for Ed, he frequently worked on projects beyond Walt's Studio during the 1940s and early 1950s. He worked on titles for Republic, Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox. At one point he even lent his talents to MGM for the Tom & Jerry short, The Missing Mouse (1953.) It is unclear where Scott Bradley may have been for this one!

By the early 1940s Plumb had moved his family to 12203 Laurel Terrace in the hills of Studio City. Here he was a neighbor of other Disney composers Charles Wolcott, whose home was at 12185 and Joe Dubin who was later at 12373 Laurel Terrace.

Edward worked as orchestrator at the nearby new location of the Disney Studio on the animated features The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Song of the South, So Dear to My Heart, Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp.

When Disney entered the field of television, Edward was tapped to work on The Disneyland TV show, notably Ward Kimball's "Man in Space" show. He orchestrated on the Davy Crockett films and on Westward Ho The Wagons, that also starred Fess Parker. His final film project, also for Disney, was Johnny Tremain in 1957.

Edward Plumb passed away on Friday April 18, 1958.

(If you haven't already clicked on the location links above, check out the Google Maps Locations for Ed Plumb.)

Memorial Day Tribute - Willard Bowsky

2007-05-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

After the United States entered World War II in December 1941 the service from the animation community was considerable. Most people continued to work at the studios, albeit on far different projects than what they were used to. A good number joined the military where many of them would work producing training films as members of the Signal Corps and others would serve in various capacities at locations throughout the country. There was a small handful however, who enlisted in the military and saw combat.

Willard Bowsky was one of them.

Willard G. Bowsky was born in 1907, the second son to parents Herman and Emma Bowsky. The Bowskys were married in the spring of 1898 and welcomed their first son, Merle on Christmas Day 1904.

During Willard's childhood the family lived on both sides of the Hudson River, jumping between homes in New Jersey and Manhattan. Shortly after Willard was born the Bowsky's moved in with his recently widowed grandfather, Gustav Cimiotti at 881 West End Avenue in Manhattan. At the time the home was filled with several of Willard's aunts and uncles as well.

By the time of Willard's tenth birthday they were living at 132 Sherman Avenue and his father was working as a lawyer with the American Railway Express Company. In the early 1920s the Bowskys had moved to 559 W 188th Street near northern tip of Manhattan. It is from this home that Willard would commute as he started work in the field of animation.

Bowsky began his work at the Fleischer Studios in the late 1920s and by 1930 had elevated to the level of a credited animator. His animation work can be seen in the Talkartoon, Color Classics and Screen Song (Bouncing Ball) films, but he is well known for animation on dozens of Betty Boop and Popeye cartoon shorts.

In later work on the Popeye films his work has been described as that of director, a credit generally reserved for Dave Fleischer. In any case, Bowsky was at least a supervising or directing animator, though he never received a credit beyond that of animator.

In the fall of 1938 Bowsky had relocated to Florida to the beautiful new home of the Fleischer Studios in Miami. There he would continue to be a lead animator on the Popeye shorts and also on the animated feature films, Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes to Town.

Early in 1942 Max and Dave Fleischer were gone and the studio was under control of Paramount and was renamed Famous Studios. The last films that Bowsky was involved with were the Superman cartoon shorts.

Motivated by a personal sense of duty (coupled with a possible disenchantment with the direction of the studio,) Willard Bowsky, unmarried at the time, enlisted in the Army on October 14, 1942. His older brother Merle had enlisted some time earlier.

Following training, Willard was assigned to the 14th Armored Division. He was a platoon leader with 50 men under his command in the 94th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron. He also made an artistic contribution to his squadron by designing the unit’s insignia (at left.)

The 14th Armored Division arrived at Marseille, France on October 30, 1944. Within a couple weeks Bowsky's unit was among those mobilized to join the Seventh Army in the Southern Vosges Mountains (due east of Paris, near the German border.)

Willard’s was among the squadrons that comprised The Division’s Combat Command A (CCA). They were soon ordered to advance into an area southwest of Strasbourg, just west of the Rhine. CCA’s mission was to clear German forces from the area and fight its way south to the town of Selestat. Cavalry squadrons were used for reconnaissance and were deployed in front of and along the flanks of advancing armored columns. Bowsky's unit encountered a German column withdrawing eastward to cross the Rhine. A night time fire-fight erupted and Second Lieutenant Willard Bowsky was killed in action on November 27, 1944. Willard and the men of his platoon were good soldiers who fought bravely. In the end the fight was won. Willard was a genuine war hero.

He was awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart and is interred at the Lorraine American Cemetery in St. Avold, France .

We remember Willard Bowsky today and honor his service to his county, his contributions to the field of animation and celebrate the centennial of his birth.

REFERENCES and CONTRIBUTIONS

The Short Life of Godfrey Bjork

2007-05-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

If the name of animator Godfrey Bjork comes up in conversation, it is most often accompanied by the name of Emile Offeman. The story, as told by Shamus Culhane in his autobiography, Talking Animals and Other People, describes how Offeman, the production manager at the Ub Iwerks Studio, badgered Bjork incessantly for his footage -- this in spite of the fact that Godfrey had a declining heart condition.

Even when Bjork's condition kept him bed-ridden, Offeman (a would-be stand-in for Bela Lugosi) sent work to his home. He also made a point of calling several times a day to make sure Godfrey hadn't run off to the beach and pushed for him to get the work done. This soon lead to Bjork suffering a fatal heart attack. The saddest fact (apparently lost in the fog of the past 74 years) is that Godfrey Bjork was a mere 25 years old!

Godfrey Waldemar Bjork was born in New York, December 12, 1907, the second of four sons to Alfred and Hilda Bjork who had emmigrated from Finland in 1896. Throughout his youth he showed quite a talent for drawing, which enabled him to begin a career in animation before he reached the age of 19.

By 1930 he was listed as an artist in motion pictures and lived with his parents at 924 Summit Avenue in the Bronx -- just a half mile from home plate at Yankee Stadium. When he relocated to California shortly thereafter he work at the Ub Iwerks Studio and made his home at 740 North Stanley Avenue, up the street from what is now trendy Melrose Avenue.

Godfrey Bjork is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Disney Bulletin - May 3, 1940

2007-05-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Flashback to 1940

Along with stories about birthdays and weddings being celebrated, an insight on a studio in transition; a note about the Ink & Paint Department moving from Hyperion to Burbank -- with a good humored shot aimed at Woolie Reitherman. There's also a funny note about editor Norman Palmer and his previously unknown contribution to Fantasia (somebody should update his IMDB listing!)

Page two contains the classic caricature of Dick Huemer by T. Hee. The last page is full of classifieds -- almost idyllic from a perspective of 67 years later!

Finding Jay Ward

2007-04-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

Jay Ward, the joyfully irreverent pioneer of TV animation, has a personal background that is very elusive. Even to long-time friends, co-workers and biographers some aspects of his life have been very tough to nail down. His birth date, September 20, 1920, seems to be well known, but I have found that his accepted birth name is in question.

Having searched through state birth records, I found that there was no Jay Troplong Ward born in California on that date -- or any other date for that matter! There was however, a birth recorded on that date, in the County of San Francisco; the birth of a Joseph W. Cohen, Jr. Interesting, but not necessarily confirmed until it was revealed that the mother's maiden name is Troplong! I think that nails it. His mother was Juanita M. Troplong and he was named for his father, Joseph W. (presumably Ward) Cohen. And apparently there is at least one occurrence of Ward being credited on a show as Joseph W. Cohen.

For those of you keeping track, I also found that at the time of the 1920 census (January 1920) his parents were living in San Francisco at 440 Post Street around the corner from the famous St. Francis Hotel.

Century Birthday - Cecil Surry

2007-04-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Cecil Hays Surry was born in the state of Washington and raised on a fruit farm in Chelan County in the center of the state. His parents, Bert and Eliza (who went by Lydia) were from Ohio and Kentucky respectively. Following the death of Lydia in the mid 1920s, Bert moved Cecil and younger brother Paul south to San Diego, California.

Cecil moved to Hollywood in 1929 when he went to work for Walt Disney where he worked on the Silly Symphonies. After a short time with Disney, he migrated to Walter Lantz where he animated beside Sid Sutherland and Tex Avery. In 1936 Avery was offered an opportunity to direct at Leon Schlesinger's Studio. Surry and Sutherland joined him as animators in his unit a couple of months later.

In the mid 1930s Cecil met and married Constance Berry and they had three children, Kathleen, Sheila and John.

In the mid 1940s Cecil began doing comic book work for Western Publishing. By 1950s Cecil had a home on Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Woodland Hills and was animating at United Pictures of America, know better as UPA. At UPA he primarily worked on Mr. Magoo cartoons including the Oscar-winning shorts "When Magoo Flew" and "Magoo's Puddle Jumper."

Cecil Surry died suddenly on September 19, 1956 at the age of 49, the result of a heart condition.

Century Birthday - Hardie Gramatky

2007-04-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Hardie Gramatky, perhaps best known for his classic childrens book, Little Toot, was born 100 years ago today in Dallas, Texas. He was also a prolific illustrator, watercolorist and, in the early 1930s, an animator at the Disney Studio.

Named for his father, Bernhard August Gramatky, Jr. was the middle of three sons born to Bernhard and Blanche Gramatky. The family's early home on San Jacinto Street in downtown Dallas was at a site now occupied by the J.P. Morgan-Chase Tower. Following the death of his father from tuberculosis, Blanche moved the family in with her sister, Minnie Ott, in Southern California. They lived around the corner from the Paramount Studio at 5433 Romaine Street for a short time before settling in the nearby suburb of San Gabriel.

Hardie gained early recognition for his art in the Junior Times, an insert in Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times. Among the many other young artists who had their work published in the Junior Times were future Disney co-workers, Fred Moore and Ed Benedict.

Gramatky moved north to attended Stanford University in the mid 1920s and later enrolled at the Chouinard Art Institute back in Los Angeles. At Chouinard he would meet and fall in love with another artist, Dorothea Cooke. They dated while at school and were married in 1932.

He was hired at the Disney Studio in 1929 to work on the Mickey Mouse comics and in short order moved into animation. The smiling and energetic Gramatky can be seen in action throughout the softball game footage released on the DVD set More Silly Symphonies and detailed here in recent posts. He spent six years at Disney and in mid-1936 he and Dorothea moved to New York where he found work with various magazines including Fortune.

Inspired by the tugboats he saw from the window of his studio, he painted and penned the story of Little Toot, published in 1939 by Putnam. A restored classic edition of Little Toot is slated to be published this spring by Penguin Putnam.

Nine years after it was first published, the story of Little Toot was animated by the Disney Studio and included as one of the seven musical segments in the feature Melody Time.

For a couple of years during World War II, Hardie was back in Los Angeles supervising the production of training films for the Army Air Corps. Shortly after their return to the east coast, he and his family settled in Westport, Connecticut. Their home was at 60 Roseville Road, just a short walk from the Boston Post Road, the colonial-era route between New York City and Boston.

Hardie remained a resident of Westport for the remainder of his life. He and Dorothea continued their work for many magazines and Hardie also had several more books published. Beyond what grew to become a series of Little Toot books, he also wrote and illustrated a list of charming childrens literature including Loopy, Sparky, Creeper's Jeep and Hercules.

Hardie Gramatky passed away from cancer at the age of 72 in late April 1979 and although he died too soon, his work continues to be enjoyed by the world.

I encourage you to visit gramatky.com, a website maintained by his daughter, Linda Gramatky Smith. Here you can read many more stories and see dozens of examples of his wonderful artwork. This is a prime example of what so many other artists should have and unfortunately don't!

The Softball Game - part 2

2007-04-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

1:26 - 4:12

Picking up the softball game from where we left off last week, here is the remainder of the game section of the footage:

The house (in the upper left of the frame) is the only house in the immediate neighborhood that is still standing today. Below is a late 1930s photograph of the Disney Studio on Hyperion showing the former lot where this softball game was played (in green) and the same house circled in red.

Carlos Manriquez, seen running here, is mis-identified in the audio commentary as Carlos "Enriquez."

At this point in the audio commentary Hardie Gramatky is mistakenly identified as John Cannon.

Directors Jack King and Burton (Burt) Gillett were hired early by Disney from studios in New York, the hub of animation at that time.

Batting is George Drake, head of the the inbetweening department. Inbetweening was the first rung on the ladder at the studio in the 1930s. Most artists moved up and out of his department and based on stories told in recent years, he was greatly disliked.

Studio comptroller, George Morris, is watching the game at left.

Below is a breakdown of the game footage and the players as they appear on the film. Most are identified as in the images above. If you have additional identifications please let me know.

pitcher: Hardie Gramatky
catcher: Chuck Couch
second base: Roy Williams
third base: Fred Moore
batter #1: Walt Disney
batter #2: David Hand
- (teams switch sides) -
pitcher: __________
catcher: Walt Disney
first base: Tom Palmer
second base: __________
short stop: Norm Ferguson
third base: David Hand
batter #1: Hardie Gramatky
batter #2: Carlos Manriquez
batter #3: Johnny Cannon
batter #4: Jack Cutting / runner: Hardie Gramatky
batter #5: Roy Williams
batter #6: Les Clark
- (teams switch sides/cut/camera move) -
catcher: Chuck Couch
first base: Carlos Manriquez
batter #1: Floyd Gottfredson
batter #2: George Drake
- (cut) -
batter #3: Walt Disney
batter #4: David Hand
batter #5: Norm Ferguson
- (cut to post-game) -

The post-game features director Jack King and animator Johnny Cannon in a mock fight over a bat with a large group of other studio personnel gathered around. Those images will be posted in the next couple of days.

Disney Studio Directory - April 3, 1957

2007-04-03T06:41:00.000-07:00

50 YEARS AGO, TODAY

Here today is a copy of the Disney Studio Directory from April 3, 1957. It includes all your favorites (even Walt) with their telephone and room numbers listed. There is also a separate list for the Ink and Paint Department. Most of the studio at this point was hard at work on Sleeping Beauty and the group involved with Disneyland was in the midst of a major redesign for Tomorrowland that would be unveiled two years later.

I do not know who this directory belonged to, but there is one unique aspect to this copy -- it has been hand annotated (in pencil) throughout with defining notes about the people listed. And as people left the studio or in some cases passed away, their names were crossed out. Additionally, judging by these departures, this directory seems to have been in use for more than a decade. Here are fifteen pages that offer an informative glance into the Disney Studio. Enjoy.

(CLICK to view or download a full-size image)

Right away, beside Tom Adair is the quote "shut up and drink" and just down the
column is a stunner -- the word "suicide" next to the name of Dick Anthony.
He did die in January 1960. A young Don Bluth is described as "renegade."

Floyd Gottfredson's work is described with "strip"
and Ub Iwerks could be found in the Process Lab.

Gunther Lessing can be found as "ATT" and Clarence Nash is noted with "Duck."
"Penthouse" is beside the name of Disney's childhood friend Walf Pfeiffer.

Joe Reddy is listed as "publicity" and Al Teeter is listed as "P.R." Dolores Voght
is "Walt's Secretary" and Madeline Wheeler is Roy's secretary

Here's a listing for the Ink and Paint Department and
on the final page a note of "approximately 760 - 800 people."

Thanks to Hans Perk for inspiring me with his post of the
1967 Disney Studio Directory he began on February 13.

For those of you waiting, I will wrap up the Softball Game tomorrow.

Just a Bit o' News

2007-03-30T04:13:00.000-07:00

Pacific Title & Art Studio, the company founded in 1919 by Leon Schlesinger has been sold. The original business of the company was to supply motion picture studios with title cards. In the era of silent films this was very profitable because every film released required dozens (perhaps hundreds) of inter-title cards to display the dialog to the audience.

When talking pictures became all the rage in the late 1920s, the need for inter-title cards began to decline. With the establishment of his cartoon studio, Schlesinger was able to shift some of his focus to supplying Warner Bros. with sound cartoons. Beyond the fact that they now had entertaining cartoon shorts to show before the feature films, it also enabled Warner Bros. to capitalize on their growing music catalog with the Looney TUNES and Merrie MELODIES shorts that Schlesinger produced for them!

Pacific Title remained in the business of titles and end credits -- supplying the titles for thousands of films, including Gone with the Wind and Ben Hur. In the early 1990s their scope was expanded with the establishment of Pacific Title Digital. Their business now includes digital compositing, visual effects and film restoration.

Around the Corner

2007-03-27T23:38:00.000-07:00

In the coming days I will have three additional posts to complete the identities in the "Animators at Play" Disney softball game.

For the remainder of the year we'll have several Centennial Birthdays to celebrate, including Virgil Ross, Dick Lundy, Roy Williams, Volney White, Art Babbitt, Al Coe and Les Clark. Hardie Gramatky, Dick Rickard and Cecil Surry are coming up in April. I have to admit March was an unusually busy month for 100th birthdays!

On April 3rd I will have a very special post -- a fifty year old multi-page document.

Disney Softball Game - part 1

2007-03-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

0:15 - 0:59

In case you're not aware, Disney released a fantastic bit of historical film footage on the Disney Treasures DVD, "More Silly Symphonies." The segment is titled "Animators at Play," and it is a few minutes of film shot in the winter of 1930/31 during a lunchtime softball game in the lot adjacent to the old Disney Studio on Hyperion Avenue. This segment can be found under the bonus features on disc two of the set.

On this piece a cursory attempt was made at identifying the people on the film. Unfortunately this is near impossible to do as a commentary while film is running and Leonard Maltin does a good job, but the information is spotty and in a couple cases, incorrect.

While viewing this with friends, I was able to point out other people I recognized in the footage and began to made some notes. With some frame grabs I'm able to identify most of the people in these stills. If you can identify anyone who isn't named (or an error in mine) please let me know. Below are the first few. More in coming days.

(click on the images for a larger view)

Century Birthday - Leigh Harline

2007-03-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Leigh Adrian Harline, the youngest of Carl and Matilda Harline's thirteen children, was born March 26, 1907 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received music training from J. Spencer Cornwall, conductor of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and following his graduation from the University of Utah, he began working for a string of radio stations.

His radio work sent him to San Francisco and, by 1929, to Los Angeles where he was music director and announcer at KHJ radio. He went to work at the Walt Disney Studio in 1932 arranging and scoring animated shorts. As Disney began production of his features, Harline was enlisted to write songs along with Frank Churchill and Paul J. Smith. His most famous composition, When You Wish Upon a Star, was written for Pinocchio and the following year he received an Academy Award for it and another for the film's memorable score.

By this point Leigh had started also working for Columbia Pictures, scoring several features a year, among them the films of the "Blondie" series with Penny Singleton and Arthur Lake. He did his last work for Disney in 1941 with his music for the Pluto short, The Sleepwalker. Over the next twenty years Harline was recognized by the Academy with five more nominations for the Best Music Oscar. In 1947 he was commissioned to write an orchestral work for the centennial of the settlement of Utah. He later wrote the musical scores for two well-known films for the Church, Man's Search for Happiness, and In This Holy Place.

From the late 1940s he worked almost exclusively for 20th Century Fox but he also composed for Paramount and later MGM. In the mid 1960s he worked on several television shows and he even was involved with music for a New York World's Fair film.

Leigh Harline passed away on December 10, 1969 from complications of throat cancer.

Century Birthday - Johnny Cannon

2007-03-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

John William Cannon was born on March 17, 1907 in Terre Haute, Indiana. At the time, his father was working as a switchman for the railroad.

His parents, John and Maybelle, had married in 1906, and they had three sons; Johnny, Guy and Maurice. By the time Johnny was eleven, his parents had divorced. His brothers were taken by their father to live with their grandmother in Decatur, Illinois and Johnny stayed with his mother.

While in his late teens he moved to California and lived just a few steps from the beach on Ozone Avenue in Ocean Park near Santa Monica.

He was hired at the Disney Studio in 1927 to work on the Oswald cartoons. In 1928 Charles Mintz pulled the Oswald contract and a majority of the artists departed, Johnny was among the few who stuck with Walt. He wouldn’t have know that Mickey Mouse was about to make his appearance.

He was promoted to animator on the Mickey Mouse shorts and it seems that he remained on shorts throughout his time at Disney’s.

Following his departure from the Disney Studio in 1940, it is not known where he worked, but he was an artist at one of the studios when, sadly, he suffered a fatal heart attack on December 6, 1946.

Note: Cannon is among those featured playing softball in the rare footage recently released on the DVD set, “More Silly Symphonies” In Leonard Maltin's commentary he is said to have been thrown out at second base (although it is clearly not Cannon! -- it is in fact, Hardie Gramatky.) Cannon can be seen later in a challenge for a bat with director Jack King.) In a few days I will be posting a detailed listing of the softball players.

Century Birthday - Tom Johnson

2007-03-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Thomas A. Johnson was born on March 14, 1907 in New York to parents Calvin and Daisy Johnson. He had an older brother, Richard and a younger sister, Rose. He lived in the Bronx until he migrated to Miami when the Fleischer Studio headed south.

Johnson seems to have spent his career on the east coast. He began as a newspaper cartoonist and made the jump to animation in late 1930 when he took a job with Max Fleischer. His work started with the "bouncing ball" short subjects, but eventually graduated to work on Betty Boop and later Popeye shorts. He animated on the features Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes to Town and stuck around when Fleischer's was transformed into Famous Studios when Paramount took over production.

He remained animating for Famous until is death in September, 1960.

UPDATE! (Aug, 26, 2007)
Michael Sporn has posted some late-era Johnson artwork and a lengthy biography for him on his blog (err, Spolg) from a 1939 Fleischer Animated News. It can be reached by clicking HERE and scrolling down to the bottom of the post.

Century Birthday - Robert Bentley

2007-03-11T11:10:00.001-07:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Robert J. Bentley was born on March 11, 1907 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He entered the New York animation scene in the late 1920s as an assistant, by the mid 1930s he was a full-fledged animator in Hollywood working in Frank Tashlin’s unit at Leon Schlesinger’s studio. Bentley moved to Miami in 1938 (along with several others from California) to work on the Fleischer feature Gulliver’s Travels. He returned by 1941 to work at Walter Lantz’ Studio.

In the mid 1940s he jumped to MGM where he worked under directors Tex Avery and Dick Lundy. By the early 1950s he was bouncing between Paul Smith’s unit at Lantz and MGM. He settled back at Lantz in mid 1954 and remained there until late 1959. The 1960s and 1970s saw him at Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, Ed Graham and DePatie-Freleng.

He passed away at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills on November 28, 2000 at the age of 93.

There is an interesting branch in Bentley’s family tree that may have had some influence in his career choice; his mother, Hannah, married early animator Les Elton (Leslie Elton Brownley) after his father’s death. This may have raised a few eyebrows because she was about the same age as Les’ own mother when they married in 1922. Moreover, Elton’s two sisters were also married to animators! His sister Dorothy was married to Vaughan Kaufman and his sister Charlotte to John McManus, later an animator at Disney.

Century Birthday - Tom McKimson

2007-03-05T17:51:00.000-08:00

BORN 100 YEARS AGO TODAY

Thomas Jacob McKimson was the eldest of the three McKimson brothers and was followed into the animation business by brothers Robert and Charles, Jr. His family moved from Colorado to Los Angeles in the mid 1920s and he began his career at the Walt Disney Studio in 1928. While there, he worked as an assistant to animator Norm Ferguson, but departed in mid 1930 to animate at the fledgling studio of Romer Grey in Altadena. When Grey could no keep work coming in, Tom left to work with Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising at their studio. He remained until MGM took over production of their own cartoons.

McKimson worked as an animator and layout artist in Bob Clampett's unit at the Leon Schlesinger "Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies" Studio and is credited with the original design of Tweetie Pie. Tom's contributions there ended in 1947 when he left to take the position of art director for Western Publishing, the parent company of Golden Books. The coloring books and comic books he oversaw featured many of the cartoon characters he was familiar with from his years in animation. He retired after twenty-five successful years in 1972.

Tom was married for over fifty-five years to the former Ernestine Belle Lackey. They had three children Wendy, Vicky and Timothy.

His wife Ernestine died in October of 1993, and Tom passed away on Valentine's Day, 1998 in West Los Angeles.