July 14 Birthdays

Periodically, like the McKenzie brothers on Great White North, we get stuck for a topic here.



Luckily, it turns out that a plethora of important and innovative individuals from music, acting, animation and photography made their entry into this world on July 14. One was Bill Hanna (July 14, 1910 - March 22, 2001), a creative force on numerous cartoons much enjoyed by the gang here. The MGM Happy Harmonies cartoon about underground dwarves who control the world's weather systems, To Spring (1936), produced by Rudy Ising and directed by Bill Hanna, remains an all-time favorite and devastatingly cool when seen on the big screen on glorious 35mm film.

From Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera's piece-de-resistance series, MGM's Tom & Jerry, the 1945 opus Tee For Two, IMHO, remains a standout. The "bees" gag is a moment to behold.

The frequently hilarious Jerry Hausner was responsible for brief but memorable character roles in movies and TV, along with memorable and very funny voice work in animated cartoons, especially those of UPA.

Since Jerry played Magoo's eternally clueless nephew Waldo, this is as good an excuse as any to post the first cartoon in the Mr. Magoo series, RAGTIME BEAR, directed by John Hubley.



Jerry Hausner, among show business gigs too numerous to go into here, is all over the UPA cartoons, especially those directed by Pete Burness.

The Jolly Frolics DVD Collection, originally produced for Turner Classic Movies, is worth the price of admission for the two cartoons featuring the accurately named Pete Hothead.

Both cartoons are a tour-de-force for Jerry Hausner the voice artist, who inhabits the irascible character like a method actor.

For more info about the UPA studio, read When Magoo Flew: The Rise And Fall Of Animation Studio UPA by Adam Abrahams.



Also recommend an outstanding Cartoon Research article about the studio, UPA Advertising, penned by animator and historian Mike Kazaleh.





Today, we also doff our battered gray fedora to Bob Casale (July 14, 1952 - February 17, 2014), co-founder of DEVO.

Forming a Cleveland/Akron-based trifecta of experimental rock music, along with Pere Ubu and Tin Huey (which featured one of our old friends, the late great multi-instrumentalist Ralph Carney), DEVO - Bob on guitar and keyboards, with his brother Gerald on electric bass, Mark Mothersbaugh on vocal and keyboards, with his brother Bob Mothersbaugh on guitar - captured imaginations. Here they are on Saturday Night Live; all these decades later, this most original band from Akron still sounds great.



DEVO also appeared on ABC-TV's Fridays, along with SCTV (Second City Television) and Eddie Murphy-era SNL a key part of the early 1980's late-night comedy landscape - and eventually known for its many tie-ins to Seinfeld (among them Larry David, Michael Richards and Larry Charles) a decade later.



An excellent tribute to the guitar wizard noted as "Bob #2", Remembering Bob Casale Of DEVO, was posted in Cleveland.com.



Alas, as confirmed card-carrying guitar geeks, we love hearing both Bobs from DEVO, Bob Mothersbaugh & Bob Casale, discuss musical gear.



The guitar-slinging duo created atmospheric noir-ish music for the following hard-boiled video, certainly In A Noir Place, as part of what must have been an exceedingly entertaining stage presentation. The two Bobs were definitely noiristas!




Last but not least, as our next post on Way Too Damn Lazy To Write a Blog shall shine the spotlight on one of America's finest jazz guitarists and guitar builders, we'll end this post with a nod to the incredible photography and chronicling of 20th century musicians by Lee Friedlander, born on July 14, 1934 - and still living among us as of this writing. The 2018 exhibition of Mr. Freelander's photos by the New Orleans Museum of Art is stunning.