Although the book won't make its official debut until November 15th at the CTN Animation Expo, you can now pre-order the book at www.artofjayward.com. Local purchasers can be the first to get their hands on this long-awaited book by pre-ordering the book and picking it up at Renegade Animation's Glendale office, see the book's website for more info. If you order it before Oct. 15th and use the code EARLYBIRD, you'll save $10 off the publication price. More page images and order information can be found here.
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Pre-order The Art of Jay Ward Productions!
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IT'S HERE!!!!!
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Jane Kean 1923-2013
She published her memoirs about 10 years ago in a slim book titled A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Honeymooners, I Had a Life! in which she recounted her career in show business along with her romantic dalliances with some of the big names of her era. I had the pleasure of interviewing her for my book as well as sitting with her on panels and signings as we promoted Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special. The times I spent with her were brief but she was always very classy, engaged and willing to help promote the book. May she rest in peace.
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David Weidman 1921-2014
By now, most of you will have heard of the passing of David Weidman, who painted backgrounds on Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, did color styling on numerous Fractured Fairy Tales and also painted for Hanna Barbera in the late 60s. He was even more well-known for his serigraphs from the mid-60s to the 70s, some of which can be seen here. I profiled David about 3 years ago, which you can see here and if you're interested in reading more about David Weidman, check out his book here.
Unfortunately, he passed away while I was out of town, hence this late posting. David died peacefully and in the home he built. His memorial service was yesterday and family members and friends celebrated his life, recounting his sense of humor and unique, iconoclastic approach to life. He lived a long life, long enough that he was around when his work was rediscovered late in life. In fact, some of his serigraphs could be seen in episodes of Mad Men, as you can see here.
I always found my visits with David to be humorous, stimulating and informative. My last big visit with him was during research for the Jay Ward book, when we discussed his work for TV Spots, a Ward subcontractor, on Fractured Fairy Tales. Although that part of his career had been largely overlooked, even by him, he was a font of knowledge about his time there and why he did what he did. It was as if we had opened up a long forgotten closet and the information just came tumbling out. Because the shorts he art directed there are so visually arresting, I ended up devoting several pages to his work. Here's an example below:
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Where have I been?
Marketing, promoting and selling The Art of Jay Ward Productions, that's where! Most of the spring and early summer was spent making the rounds of the various LA animation studios with Ward artist Sam Clayberger in tow as well as several book signings with June Foray.
We even had an evening at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica with Sam and Allan Burns, whom you may remember as the co-creator and co-producer on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. For those who haven't read the book, Allan's writing career really got started at Jay Ward before he moved into live action comedy writing.
If you haven't yet purchased a copy of The Art of Jay Ward Productions and would like to, I have a limited number of artist signed copies. These are signed by the aforementioned Sam Clayberger and Art Diamond, who has declined to make public appearances at signings so his signature on the books is very rare. You can buy them here.
And for those who've wondered what happened to my Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol posts, I stopped because there didn't seem to be any more to say. However, a few weeks ago, some very interesting material surfaced, material that I wish I had had for the 50th anniversary of the book, which you can still buy here for a limited time. Stay tuned for an upcoming post revealing just what was discovered.
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| June Foray at the Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood |
We even had an evening at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica with Sam and Allan Burns, whom you may remember as the co-creator and co-producer on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. For those who haven't read the book, Allan's writing career really got started at Jay Ward before he moved into live action comedy writing.
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| Sam Clayberger and Allan Burns at the Aero Theater |
And for those who've wondered what happened to my Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol posts, I stopped because there didn't seem to be any more to say. However, a few weeks ago, some very interesting material surfaced, material that I wish I had had for the 50th anniversary of the book, which you can still buy here for a limited time. Stay tuned for an upcoming post revealing just what was discovered.
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Lee Orgel and Morey Amsterdam
When you start digging into the history of animation, you never know what you'll find. Lee Orgel's daughter, JoAnn, recently uncovered a few more items from her father's career, including a previously unknown animated pilot produced by Morey Amsterdam's previously unknown animation production company, JKL Productions. Those of you who have read my book will remember that Morey and Lee were good friends, which is why Morey did the French narrator in Lee's animated feature, Gay Purr-ee and a few lines in Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. It appears that Lee produced the pilot for Morey using Depatie-Freleng talent on the side. Mike Kazaleh has more on the short, as well as a transfer of the final film, at Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research. Be sure to check it out to see a rare artifact from a far corner of animation history.
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Happy 65th birthday, Mr. Magoo!
On this day in animation history, the first Mr. Magoo cartoon, a Jolly Frolic called Ragtime Bear, was released by Columbia Pictures. Written by Millard Kaufman, laid out by Bill Hurtz and directed by John Hubley, the short changed the fortunes of the nascent UPA studio and later created a merchandising bonanza for Hank Saperstein. You can see a model sheet from the original production right here on this blog from his birthday a few years ago.
There were dozens of cartoons produced featuring the nearsighted Mr. Magoo, a feature, 1001 Arabian Nights, the first animated Christmas special, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, and three separate animated television series: The Mr. Magoo Show, The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo and What's New, Mr. Magoo?
Few people below the age of forty even know who Mr. Magoo was and it's safe to say that most anyone younger than that has never even seen a Mr. Magoo cartoon. Its unfortunate that Mr. Magoo was retired long before he turned 65 but here's hoping that another generation rediscovers him. Happy Birthday, Mr. Magoo!
There were dozens of cartoons produced featuring the nearsighted Mr. Magoo, a feature, 1001 Arabian Nights, the first animated Christmas special, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, and three separate animated television series: The Mr. Magoo Show, The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo and What's New, Mr. Magoo?
Few people below the age of forty even know who Mr. Magoo was and it's safe to say that most anyone younger than that has never even seen a Mr. Magoo cartoon. Its unfortunate that Mr. Magoo was retired long before he turned 65 but here's hoping that another generation rediscovers him. Happy Birthday, Mr. Magoo!
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| Mr. Magoo enjoying his retirement |
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Lea Orgel, 1925-2014
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| Lea and Lee Orgel shortly after their arrival in California. |
Lea freely gave of her time for a number of interviews and generously allowed me to borrow and scan documents and photos for use in the book. Until then, who knew that the groundbreaking special's song recording sessions had been photographed? It was also through her that I met others who had worked at UPA and who could fill me on some of the studio's back story during the Saperstein years. She was never anything but supportive of my efforts to do the book for which I will be eternally grateful. And when I wanted to tell more of her husband's story than I could fit in the book, she dug deep into her files and memories and shared them with me and ultimately, many others through this blog (Lee's profile can be found here).
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| Lea Orgel and daughter JoAnn at the 45th anniversary party for the Christmas special. |
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Mr. Magoo and The Features That Never Were
Those who read this blog or who are up on their animation history will know that Mr. Magoo starred in an animated feature, the 1959 release, 1001 Arabian Nights. But how many are aware that it was not the only vehicle considered for a Magoo feature? As with most of film production, there are fits, starts and even different directions taken before arriving at the final destination. So it was with Mr. Magoo and his feature career.The UPA studio had built their reputation in animation on three things--contemporary art, contemporary situations and the use of human characters, rather than animals, to tell their stories. It was a deliberate rejection of Walt Disney's approach to the medium but when they began to contemplate producing a feature, they unconsciously followed Disney's lead when it came to subject matter. All of their proposed features involved non-contemporary or mythical settings and several went back to classic literature. The first to be generate much pre-production work was based on James Thurber's 1945 children's fairy tale, The White Deer. Although the story dealt with something that had become Disney's stock-in-trade, the fairy tale, the studio was quite excited about adapting the work of a contemporary artist like James Thurber.
But it was not to be. It wasn't long before Columbia, UPA's distributor, let it be known that they would feel much more comfortable if the studio built a film around the highly popular character of Mr. Magoo. Seeing the Golden Rule in play here--he who has the gold, makes the rules--UPA acquiesced and announced a feature version of Miguel Cervantes' classic novel, Don Quixote of La Mancha with Mr. Magoo in the title role. Although development work was done on the project, Columbia had subsequently entered into an agreement with a Spanish producer to do a live-action film of the novel and sidelined the animated version.
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| Pitch art for Don Quixote, artist unknown. |
To take its place, two other Magoo vehicles were developed, Robin Hood and 1001 Arabian Nights. When it came time to pick between the two, studio head Stephen Bosustow chose 1001. Jim Backus was aware of the Robin Hood project and in an interview promoting 1001, he provided a small peek behind the scenes, saying "We used to talk and we thought Magoo would be funny in ... maybe Don Quixote. He would be wonderful ... because he is tilting (at) windmills and we finally, I think, hit upon the one universal character, the Aladdin theme of the Arabian Nights. So it's the first feature and I hope not the last. We are also toying with doing Robin Hood ... (Magoo) as Robin Hood ... which would be kind of funny, I would think."
However, the box office failure of 1001 Arabian Nights doomed the notion of any future Magoo features and so decimated the studio's finances that shortly thereafter Bosustow sold UPA to Hank Saperstein. The concept of a Magoo/Robin Hood theatrical feature was lost in the mists of time until a few years ago when a few pieces of the pre-production art for the film first surfaced:
Although a theatrical feature was never produced, "Robin Hood" did later see life as a virtual feature length production, covering a span of 4 episodes for The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo just five years later. This time, though, Magoo was no longer playing the role of the title character and was recast as Friar Tuck. Saperstein later edited the four half hours into a complete story and released it theatrically and later the same way on home video. Which leads to an interesting conjecture--was a script written for the proposed feature and did it serve as the basis for the four part TV episode? Saperstein was known for maximizing his return on investment so the idea of recycling an unproduced script would not be far fetched. And innterestingly enough, "Don Quixote" was the only other Famous Adventure to last more than one episode--was this another example of salvaging material from UPA's proposed features? With so little of either the pre- or post-Saperstein UPA archives available, we will probably never know.
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| Lee Mishkin's models for the four part Robin Hood episode |
To read more about UPA's foray into feature films, check out Adam Abraham's essential history of the UPA studio,When Magoo Flew. Special thanks to the Mago0 Admirer for his assistance on this post.
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Pitching The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo
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| Pitch art for Robin Hood, artist unknown |
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| Pitch art for William Tell, possibly drawn by Bob Dranko |
The 1962 broadcast debut of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol had performed well beyond expectations and the network was looking for a followup. The special had featured Magoo playing a role in a piece of classic literature and considering that all of UPA's previous proposed feature vehicles had done the same, Robin Hood, Don Quixote and 1001 Arabian Nights, it was not a big leap to suggest an entire series based around the premise. Hank Saperstein was a consummate salesman but despite his skills, he still needed some visuals to clinch the deal. It was most likely Lee Orgel that put together the art that sold the series, turning to Shirley Silvey, who was on layoff from Jay Ward at the time, and Corny Cole, who had produced the concept art that had previously sold Christmas Carol.
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| Pitch art by Corny Cole |
When I was going through the boxes of her surviving artwork, I found photocopies of a few of her thumbnails; it's possible that some of these were never taken to full-sized color artwork. The quality is poor so click on them to enlarge:
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| Captain Kidd |
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| Don Quixote |
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| Treasure Island |
The final rendering for the left thumbnail for "Treasure Island" is reproduced in the pamphlet image above. Recently discovered in Ray Bradbury's collection, and sold at auction, was the following piece of pitch art for Famous Adventures, also by Shirley Silvey. The background is done with cut paper and colored pencil:
The setup below, which was reproduced in my book, was listed as artist unknown. Looking at the breadth of the art done by Shirley as well as her drawing style and the use of cut-out background elements and color pencil, it appears that this piece can now be attributed to her.
Special thanks once again to the Mago0 Admirer for the idea behind this post.
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Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, revisited
As the Christmas season is upon us, it seems only fitting that I should start out the month of December with a new post sharing some recent discoveries from Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.
I learned many things researching, writing and publishing three editions of my book on the making of the classic special,but perhaps the most salient thing I learned is that no book is ever complete. When I put together the 50th anniversary edition, I did everything I could to make it the most complete version of the book using new information, artwork and photos. After 5 years with the material, it seemed like anything waiting to be discovered had already been found. And for a couple of years I was right.
However, life is never that simple. When Lea Orgel, widow of producer and MMCC creator Lee Orgel, needed to move into an assisted living facility because of declining health, I was asked by her daughter, JoAnn, to help her dig through a lifetime's worth of boxes in Lea's storage unit. We went through all the boxes pertaining to Lee's career in entertainment but found nothing of significance regarding the Christmas special.
Three months ago, JoAnn called me asking me to take a look at several boxes she had discovered that had been marked in such a way as to mislead us as to the nature of their contents. Because we had already gone through so many boxes, I assumed that what was in these boxes was most likely material from Lee Orgel's later career, and my assumption proved to be largely correct. There were stacks of art from the mid-60s to the mid-70s, most of it drawn by Corny Cole, everything from The New Three Stooges to a variety of ABC After School Specials, from unproduced pilots to prime time animated specials. One pilot, the Morey Amsterdam-producedBlack, Cloke and Dagga, was the subject of a previous post on Cartoon Research. (Images from the other projects will be posted in a future blog entry.)
But the most amazing find was hidden in a letter-sized box, which appeared to contain merely a 2" stack of photos from Lee Orgel's Capitol Theater days, signed 8 x 10s from famous and obscure singers and musicians who performed at the theater. The images were fascinating as a time capsule but also interesting to see well-known performers like Doris Day as they were in the 40s. However, in the middle of that stack of photos were fifteen 4 x 4" photos taken during the song recording session for Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol! Photos that hadn't been seen since they were taken and had never before been published, photos that I would have loved to have included in the 50th anniversary edition, photos that gave just a tiny bit more insight into that historic day.
As there are no plans to do another edition of the Magoo book, I have decided to post the photos here. For the first time in 52 years, here are the long lost images:
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| Jule Styne with Jane Kean, the biggest find in the batch. |
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| Production manager Earl Jonas talks with Hank Saperstein while Jim Backus reads the trades. |
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| Lee Orgel confers with Jim Backus. |
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| Jim Backus chats with Hank Saperstein. |
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| Paul Frees with Jule Styne. In the background are Royal Dano, left, and Earl Jonas, right. |
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| Walter Scharf conducts a rehearsal as Backus listens. |
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Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, live
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| Douglas Sills, who will be performing the role of Magoo/Scrooge. |
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A visit by the Ghost of Christmas Past
Followers of this blog will recall the much anticipated re-broadcast of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol for the special's 50th anniversary in December of 2012 and the unanimous disappointment with NBC's editorial skills, hacking 8 random minutes from the film, rendering it completely incomprehensible. It looked like the first animated Christmas special was doomed to the ash heap of television history, a verdict that seemed sure when the show failed to be broadcast last year.
However, I'm told by multiple sources that Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol will be airing this year, this time on The CW on December 19th, with times variously listed as 7 or 8 PM (check your local listings for station and time). I've also been told that it will run in a 90 minute slot, which should mean it will be complete. Not even the most rapacious advertiser should be able to fill up 38 minutes of airtime in 90 minutes. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the slot/run time so caveat emptor. If true, we can hope that a new generation of TV viewers will rediscover Lee Orgel's special, Styne and Merrill's timeless songs and the sincerity and faithfulness of Barbara Chain's adaptation of Dicken's original novel.
UPDATE:
The special will also air on The CW on Christmas Eve so you if you miss this Friday, be sure to catch it on the night before Christmas.
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Lee Orgel and The New Three Stooges
While it couldn't be considered a high point in either Lee Orgel's or The Three Stooges' career, this minor series, which was both developed and produced by Lee, might be the first animated TV series to feature live characters as animated renditions of themselves. To tie the show into the past, the Stooges themselves appeared in live-action wraparounds directed by former Stooge director, Edward Bernds. Lee followed this show up by developing an Abbott and Costello series, which was produced at Hanna-Barbera, and before too long Saturday morning shows abounded with live-action knock-offs--Lassie, Partridge Family 2200 AD, The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Planet, Star Trek, The Addams Family, ad nauseum. Apparently, familiarity was a winning formula with the networks.
Nevertheless, the animated Stooges kept a lot of animation talent employed in the mid-1960s, including such key contributors to Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol as production designer Lee Mishkin, background painters Bob Inman and Gloria Wood and layout artist Corny Cole. The show was produced in West Hollywood at Cambria Productions (the same folks who gave us Clutch Cargo) from 1965-66.
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| Character layouts by Corny Cole |
The model drawings below appear to be drawn by Lee Mishkin.
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Sam Clayberger, designer at UPA
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| Sam Clayberger painting at UPA |
Readers of my book may recall that most of Jay Ward's staff came from UPA after having left the studio as it was collapsing in 1959. While many of the directors at Ward were already old pros by the time they arrived at UPA, most of what would become the design crew at Jay Ward Productions were recent grads of the LA art schools. A prime example of that was Sam Clayberger who, sometime after graduating from Chouinard Art Institute, got a phone call from Chouinard instructor Don Graham informing him of a short term opportunity at UPA moving desks. Sam took the gig and parlayed that "quickie" into a full time job doing layout and later background painting. He left employment at UPA after a few years in order to paint but kept money coming in as a freelancer first at Hanna-Barbera in their early days and later working for Ward as a full-time freelancer so he could continue to paint, later adding teaching at Otis Art Institute into his already full schedule.
Sam recently came across a small stack of his color thumbnails from his brief time at UPA where he worked on a number of Mr. Magoo cartoons, some of which are reproduced here for your enjoyment. First up, Magoo's Cruise from 1958, in which Magoo arrives on a pier for a reunion cruise with old friends but is mistakenly taken on board what appears to be a Soviet submarine. Sam is credited with design and color, which would mean he designed and laid out the backgrounds as well as keying and painting them. (Brief footnote here, one of the animators on each of the shorts listed here was Casey Onaitis, who animated on Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.) The last image is an actual production background of the interior of the submarine.
Next, 1957's Magoo's Private War, in which he is credited for design (layout) and co-credited with Ervin Kaplan for color. The color styling was all Sam's making it likely that Erv followed up on the backgrounds. In the cartoon, Magoo mistakes a theatrical war film for an invasion and tries to calm the audience, telling them that "General Clayberger" will be coming to save them. Most of the beginning shots are painted quite hot in contrast to the bulk of the film which takes place in either a darkened theater or on nighttime city streets. The currently available transfer of this film is on the murky side in comparison to these color keys.
Unfortunately, these cartoons are not available online so if you'd like to see them to compare them to Sam's originals, you'll have to pick up the boxed set from The Shout Factory which is available here on Amazon. Up next will be some of Sam's keys for black & white UPA commercials. On March 23rd, be sure to check out my Jay Ward blog here for some examples of Sam's beautiful color keys for Jay Ward.
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Commercials at UPA
My last post featured Sam Clayberger's color work at UPA for some of the theatrical Magoo cartoons. Concurrent with those shorts, UPA was also producing a high volume of television commercials and in fact, that division was the only one making money for the studio.
Due to the technology of the time, i. e. black & white TV, the spots were executed in shades of gray rather than color. While it might appear simpler to paint in a monochromatic medium, the challenge is in making your values read crisply so items don't blend into the background. Below are few of the thumbnails painted by Sam for some of the myriad commercials done during his time at UPA. Vintage B & W TV ads are difficult to find so none of these have been identified as of yet. If anyone can ID the spots these are from, please let me know.
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Due to the technology of the time, i. e. black & white TV, the spots were executed in shades of gray rather than color. While it might appear simpler to paint in a monochromatic medium, the challenge is in making your values read crisply so items don't blend into the background. Below are few of the thumbnails painted by Sam for some of the myriad commercials done during his time at UPA. Vintage B & W TV ads are difficult to find so none of these have been identified as of yet. If anyone can ID the spots these are from, please let me know.
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D-Day, 71 years later
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| Victor Haboush at Disney, photo courtesy of Amid Amidi |
I was just one of these guys that wouldn't tolerate bullshit. I had gone through World War II. I was at Normandy Beach, I landed troops on Normandy Beach. I got out of the service and I didn't want to take any shit from anybody. It just wasn't worth the kind of crap they pulled, they handed out to you.
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| Soldiers taking cover behind Rommel's hedgehogs |
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| Landing Craft-Infantry, Haboush would have been in the rear conning tower |
My station was up with the old man. I was on earphones with the skipper and he would give the orders. You know, 3 forward, 4 back, reverse, all that stuff. I would repeat it in the phone. Thank God I didn't have to get off, I wouldn't be here today. I was right on the conning tower with the skipper right next to me. I had this huge helmet on and I had these earphones under it. I had that helmet up right down my forehead and I could just see 2 inches out of it. I had a perfect seat for that whole thing. I could watch the whole thing going on.
We pulled (D-Day photographer) Robert Capa off the beach. He wrote (to me), telling me my picture was in Life magazine. You would never know it because you just see a piece of me, my helmet and little bit of my big nose. There was this one kid (in the picture) who died just a few minutes after I was holding a big compress on him. Anyway it was in Life Magazine.
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| This appears to be the photo he describes above. |
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| One of Robert Capa's iconic D-Day invasion photographs |
We lost that one ramp when we got out there. I was just so happy to get off the beach finally, we were there way too long. We got these orders that we were to pick up these 2, a little bigger than an LCP. It was another landing craft. I think it had about 80 guys on there, they were Seabee's [C.B., slang for Construction Battalion] and they were going to put them on the beach so they all came on our ship. My new station was at the front of the ship and we were headed in there again. I got to tell you, this time I was scared shitless. I was up there with my little friend, we called him Murphy, his name was George Weisberg and we were cussing the skipper out and calling him all kinds of names, ‘You glory happy son of a bitch, turn around you are going to get us all killed!' He was steaming in there with only one ramp. Our radio broke down, it was chaos. The only way to communicate with each other, we had these radio boards with all these wires, they would cut us off and so we'd go back. 'Another ship will take it in, we heard you lost your left ramp.' The skipper said 'Yeah.' The skipper was going to go in and boy we were so relieved. So we let the guys off on another ship, a different one. That was like getting a pardon.
Afterwards, when we finally got off the beach, I was the only one on my ship that could clean those guys up. I was picking them up. We put blankets in these wire things you carry people in and I was scraping them up with a scraper and dumping their bones and everything in there. Nobody else could do it. All I did was think about my Dad's meat market and cleaning off the butcher block. It was really quite something, I think it really has affected me for a lot of years after.
Amid Amidi's Cartoon Brew has more on Victor Haboush's life here.
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Gerard Baldwin, a life in animation
Readers of either of my books, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special or The Art of Jay Ward Productions will instantly recognize the name Gerard Baldwin. Baldwin was responsible for directing and animating the highly memorable, show-stopping sequence featuring the Despicables in Christmas Carol. For Jay Ward, he directed and animated many of the best episodes of Fractured Fairy Tales, Aesop & Son and Dudley Do-right at Jay Ward as well as animating several pilots such as Hoppity Hooper, Super Chicken and George of the Jungle. Baldwin had a flair for turning the limitations of low-budget animation into assets while squeezing out the highest possible entertainment value.
Now, you can learn a little bit more about the master himself in his new book, From Mister Magoo to Papa Smurf, A Memoir by Gerard Baldwin, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Beginning at his beginning, Baldwin recounts growing up in New York, his decision to become an artist and his sideways move into the medium that would define his career, animation. You'll read about his early days as an inbetweener at UPA, his military service, his return to UPA and his rise as an animator and director in the TV animation industry, culminating in becoming a producer on Hanna-Barbera's The Smurfs. Between his stories from the animation trenches and his wry observations, there are a number of charming drawings illustrating anecdotes from his life.
During it's baby boomer heyday, television animation was usually looked down upon, especially by those in the industry. Consequently, very few animators and directors from that era put their experiences and thoughts down on paper; this is rare insight into the art and commerce of 1960s animated cartoons that is of interest to not only those that grew up with the cartoons but for anyone who follows pop culture. You can buy it here.
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Activities on the Art of Jay Ward blog
As you may have noticed, updates on this blog are few and far between. As new information or artwork comes in, I will post on this blog but in the meantime, check out my sister blog, artofjayward.blogspot.com where I continue to post new info and art on the Jay Ward studio. Lately, I've been posting regularly on Bill Scott's gag cartoons on life at Ward's and will continue to do so for the next few weeks. Bill Scott, Jay's partner and head writer, producer and all around voice artist (Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-right, Super Chicken, George of the Jungle, etc) came up through the animation ranks and, as a cartoonist armed with biting wit, made humorous observations on their difficulties with ad agencies, networks, their status in the industry, and even each other.
This week, a series on ad agency shenanigans:
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Check out this and previous postings at artofjayward.blogspot.com. And if you haven't bought the book, The Art of Jay Ward Productions, a limited number of copies are available HERE for half off the cover price of $49.95. For those of you without calculators, that means just $25. Christmas is coming, I'm just saying...
This week, a series on ad agency shenanigans:
Check out this and previous postings at artofjayward.blogspot.com. And if you haven't bought the book, The Art of Jay Ward Productions, a limited number of copies are available HERE for half off the cover price of $49.95. For those of you without calculators, that means just $25. Christmas is coming, I'm just saying...
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The making of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol
Welcome to my 100th post on this blog! It's been 6 years since I published the first edition of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol: The Making of the First Animated Special, which recounted the virtually lost story of two Broadway songwriters, Styne and Merrill, and the once cutting-edge animation studio, UPA, both of whom had an outsized impact on all future animated Christmas specials. The book that no publisher would take on went through two sold-out printings and an out-of-print special commemorative 50th anniversary edition because I decided the story was compelling enough to publish it myself.
I'm sorry to say that the limited print runs have ensured that any edition of the book you can find from third party vendors will now likely be both rare and pricey. However, if you're looking for a special Christmas gift or just want to get the book before it's gone forever, I recently discovered a few treasures in storage so here's your last chance. This is a list of the final remaining inventory:
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First printing of the book, signed by the author and 9 of the original cast and crew, #50 of 50: Marie Matthews, Laura Olsher, Jane Kean, Bob Singer, Gloria Wood, David Weidman, Bob Inman, Marty Murphy and Anne Guenther. $199
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50th Anniversary Collector's Edition, signed by the author, #204 of 250, #248 of 250. This edition was revised and expanded from the first edition with 48 new pages and over 200 more images. Includes a separate Blu-ray/DVD with bonus material, which features the lost Overture and one of the song demos played and sung by Styne and Merrill. $175 each.
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If you'd like to purchase any of the above items, send me an email at info@oxberrypress.com. First come, first served.
To all my readers over the years, have a Merry Christmas!
I'm sorry to say that the limited print runs have ensured that any edition of the book you can find from third party vendors will now likely be both rare and pricey. However, if you're looking for a special Christmas gift or just want to get the book before it's gone forever, I recently discovered a few treasures in storage so here's your last chance. This is a list of the final remaining inventory:
First printing of the book, signed by the author and 9 of the original cast and crew, #50 of 50: Marie Matthews, Laura Olsher, Jane Kean, Bob Singer, Gloria Wood, David Weidman, Bob Inman, Marty Murphy and Anne Guenther. $199
50th Anniversary Collector's Edition, signed by the author, #204 of 250, #248 of 250. This edition was revised and expanded from the first edition with 48 new pages and over 200 more images. Includes a separate Blu-ray/DVD with bonus material, which features the lost Overture and one of the song demos played and sung by Styne and Merrill. $175 each.
If you'd like to purchase any of the above items, send me an email at info@oxberrypress.com. First come, first served.
To all my readers over the years, have a Merry Christmas!
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What's new on the Jay Ward blog
This has nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Magoo or Christmas but if you're a fan of Jay Ward you might want to check out the latest post at artofjayward.blogspot.com where I show very rare images from the original Dudley Do-right pilot produced in 1948, 13 years before he first appeared on The Bullwinkle Show. The above image is NOT from the pilot but drawn by UPA and Ward director, Pete Burness.
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Bob Inman, 1927-2016
Bob started at Bob Clampett's Snowball Productions, churned out BGs by the dozen for Hank Saperstein's UPA TV productions of Mr. Magoo and Dick Tracy, painted numerous backgrounds in the manner of various French Impressionists for the stylish feature, Gay Purr-ee and served as one of two main color stylists and painters on Christmas Carol.
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| Stylish yet spartan BG from an unknown Magoo TV short |
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| Moody BG likely from a Magoo GE comercial |
Shortly before retiring, he freelanced for Chuck Jones on his stylishTV special, Mowgli's Brothers, below is one of his color keys for the show. He finally left animation in 1976, tiring of the on again, off again nature of the industry and spent the rest of his time pursuing his passion for fine arts painting.
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| Bob's unorthodox approach to color in Christmas Carol |
Right, one of Bob's more painterly backgrounds from the 4 part Robin Hood episode of The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo. Below, a background from the Cyrano De Bergerac episode from the same series.You can read a little more about Bob and see some more of his work here from a profile I did over 5 years ago here on this blog. 
Bob, like so many of his contemporaries in TV animation (David Weidman, Gloria Wood, Jack Heiter and Sam Clayberger among many others) has remained "in the background" of animation history. I was fortunate to have met and interviewed Bob Inman and, because he saved so many examples of his work, highlight his legacy for future generations. Thanks for the memories, Bob.↧
Rocky & Bullwinkle in Mexico
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| Frank Hursh, head of background dept at Gamma |
Bullwinkle and all the rest of Jay Ward's series. For the next few weeks, my Jay Ward blog takes you behind the scenes at the Mexican studio, Gamma Productions, that actually produced those series. This week, meet the ex-pat American head of the background department, Frank Hursh, and in the ensuing posts see some more rare photos and art from that era. Take a gander here. And if you need a guidebook for your tour, get one here.
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Back in print!
After 8 years of being out of print, I'm pleased to announce that my book on the making of the first animated Christmas special is back in print! But wait, there's more! This edition is softcover but instead of reprinting the 2009 book, this is a reprint of the 2012 deluxe slipcased 50th anniversary edition, which had 48 more pages than the original and over 200 more images. This edition has the added bonus of 2 more pages with 6 more rare photos from the song recording session, photos that were uncovered years after the deluxe edition had sold out.
To sum up, this printing has 180 pages vs the original edition's 128 pages and 439 images vs 232 in the original. Because of the limited print run of the deluxe version (only 250 copies), very few people have seen the extra material. If you only own the first printing, you owe it to yourself to get this version, it's the most complete edition ever printed. Available online only from the usual suspects like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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Marie Matthews 1934-2024
Sad news to report, Marie Matthews, the singing voices of Young Scrooge and the Cratchit daughter in Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, and the last surviving cast member, has passed away after a long illness. She is most well known for her touching rendition of Bob Merrill's heartfelt lyrics in "Alone in the World" from the classic 1962 animated TV special.
Although this was her most famous role, her singing voice can also be heard in a number of films: Julius Caesar (1953), The Egyptian (1954), Bhowani Junction (1956), Counterfeit Traitor (1962) and The Singing Nun (1966). Later she appeared on screen in the TV movie Weekend Nun (1976) and in the series, Angie (1976).
During the research phase on my book on the making of the groundbreaking special, Marie proved to be the most difficult cast or crew member to find. There were numerous Marie Matthews in California and I considered it no small victory when, after numerous dead end letters and calls, I asked the man on the other end of the line if this was the number for the Marie Matthews that had sung in Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. Yes, it is, replied her husband, Wayne, ending a months long search.
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| From L to R, Jack Cassidy, Marie Matthews and Joan Gardner |
Marie had a fascinating story of how she came to be part of the cast, which is recounted in my book. Although it had been 45 years before, she provided key details about the song recording session which helped to flesh out the events of that momentous day.
Shortly after the book was published in 2009, Roberta and Judy Levitow were in New York at The Paley Center for Media and somehow the fact that their father, Abe Levitow, directed Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol came up which quickly led to a request for a presentation and screening of the classic animated special that December at the Paley. I was asked to bring a cast or crew member to participate in the event and I approached Marie about joining me. She readily agreed and ended up performing "Alone in the World" live and on stage for an appreciative audience.
Unbeknownst to me, Marie had never been to New York City. Adding to the specialness of the trip, we visited St Patrick's Cathedral, where her father had once played the organ.
A few years later, and fifty years after the recording session, in 2012, Marie, her daughter Melinda and I were treated to a tour of the Warner Hollywood lot and the soundstage where she sang "Alone in the World" and "Lord's Bright Blessing," which was the subject of a previous blog post here.
Many times over the years, we would get together for a Christmas lunch at The Smokehouse restaurant in Burbank, which once shared a parking lot with the UPA studio, where Marie auditioned for the part and where the special was actually produced. It had become a part of my Christmas tradition.
One of the hardest parts about researching and writing a book isn't the actual process, although that's plenty difficult, it's becoming friends with the interview subjects and then having to say goodbye, sometimes just a few years later. Most everyone who graciously participated in the book has now left us and I'm grateful to have met and spent time with each one of them as well as having been able to tell their stories. Marie will be missed by her children and grandchildren as well as the millions of viewers who were touched by her singing in Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol. It goes without saying that I will miss her, too. Thank you for everything, Marie.
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