Thinking of the gifted writers from the Algonquin Round Table, while also thinking of vintage animated cartoons, so Robert Benchley and Walt Disney share the spotlight today.
One of the very best among that band of scintillating and seething scribes who quaffed, socialized and collaborated at the midtown Manhattan Algonquin Hotel was the great humorist Robert Benchley.
Benchley, columnist, New Yorker/Vanity Fair essayist and prolific reviewer of 1920's Broadway shows, was born on this day, September 15, in 1889. The Harvard Lampoon writer had no intention of going into show business, but to some extent was drafted by friends and colleagues at university into performing as an actor and comedian, due to his specialty of hilariously spoofing dreadful after-dinner speakers. Benchley would contribute a distinctively witty presence to stage and screen until his untimely passing in 1945.
Robert Benchley was one of the comedy performers who exemplified the transition to talkies - and actually preceded the reigning silver screen comedy mega-stars Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd in doing so.
Here's his brilliant sendup of corporate-speak in the 1928 Fox film The Treasurer's Report, which was based on the monologue Benchley first performed at the April 30, 1922 Algonquin Round Table stage presentation No Sirree.
In The Sex Life Of The Polyp, another early talkie produced by Fox in 1928, he cheerfully skewers inept lecturers.
In a film that still rings true in 2024, Robert Benchley lambasts arrogant financiers and "prosperity gospel" hucksters as he evaluates how the heck we ended up with the Great Depression.
The rather unexpected success of the Fox Movietone short subjects led to an even more unexpected movie career.
This included starring in short comedies for MGM and Paramount, as well as periodic stints as a character actor in such films as Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent.
He is yet another of the 1000 reasons the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog loves the 1943 film The Sky's The Limit.
Now, as we are also - as always - thinking of vintage animated cartoons here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, we note that not only did the Knight Of The Algonquin Round Table work with Walt Disney, Benchley played a role as himself in the entertaining 1941 Disney feature The Reluctant Dragon. As far as we know, he didn't know the other Uncle Walt, Mr. Walter Lantz. . . and that is too bad, as Lantz Studio director Shamus Culhane may well have jumped at the chance to collaborate with Robert Benchley.
In The Reluctant Dragon, Mr. Benchley tours the Disney Studio and learns how cartoons are made, so the 1941 film presents a most worthy addition to historian Charles Gardner's Cartoons About Cartoons articles from Cartoon Research's Animation Trails series.
It's tempting to wonder which was the more interesting first time meeting, Robert Benchley and Alfred Hitchcock or Benchley and Walt Disney!
Love the following paint-mixing segment (which, for some reason, reminds me of segments from Hugh Harman's 1936 MGM cartoon Bottles), although the YouTube poster's tampering with it via voice-over, frankly, leaves a lot to be desired.
That said, this sequence reminds us all these decades later, well into the 21st century, how outstanding the hard working Walt Disney Productions ink and paint staffers who meticulously painted countless cels were.
Not surprisingly, Benchley gets The Reluctant Dragon's closing laugh line, with an assist from Clarence "Ducky" Nash (note: don't know who plays the insufferable and verbally abusive wife).
For more, check out the Robert Benchley Society. Also recommend that readers get some Benchley books, especially Benchley At The Theatre, in the (not nearly as fun) 21st century way, purchasing them online - or by visiting your friends at the local public or university library, bearing an Algonquin Round Table book list. Way back in the halcyon 20th century days when sellers of used books and records were everywhere, especially college towns, this blogger and many other unrepentant bookworms sought out print copies of Benchley's excellent writings.
It dawns on us, stuck for a topic as usual, that today, March 22, is International Goof Off Day. Yes, the experienced goof-offs at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog here are not kidding - there actually is a International Goof Off Day. Thank you, Sandra Boynton, for the following apt International Goof Off Day illustration!
Shall devote International Goof Off Day to weapons-grade goofing off by a certain favorite character from Walt Disney Productions, not Mickey Mouse. Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Clarabelle Cow or even the 1920's version of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit but (drum roll). . . Goofy.
The Goof debuted in the 1932 Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Revue as the chortling "Dippy Dawg."
We'll kick this International Goof Off Day tribute off with one of Disney's best short cartoons, Tiger Trouble!
There are three names I associate with The Goof. First and foremost, need to pay tribute to the artist responsible for designing the character's angular style and specific movements: the brilliant and gifted animator Art Babbitt. While it is difficult to determine where to begin, given Art Babbitt's many contributions to Disney animation history, Michael Barrier's interview with Art is a fantastic place to start.
Jack had a knack for directing the best of the best Goofy cartoons, starting with Goofy’s Glider. Kinney's direction, splendid animation and the always florid and sternly stentorian narration of the Jack Barrymore-esque John McLeish equals laughs.
Goofy then became, after the hilarious How To Ride A Horse segment in The Reluctant Dragon, the ultimate sports champion. Such classic "Sport Goofy" cartoons as The Art Of Skiing, Art Of Self Defense, How To Fish, How To Play Baseball, How To Play Football, The Olympic Champ, Tennis Racquet and Goofy Gymnastics followed.
Last but not least, the third name we associate with the Goof is the one, the only, the incomparable voice of the Goof, vaudeville and circus performer Pinto Colvig.
Very few in animation excelled as storyman, gag writer, musician, songwriter and voice artist. Colvig was all of the above with Disney, Lantz and Fleischer Studios.
Pinto's distinctive voice even turns up in a few Warner Brothers and Tex Avery MGM cartoons.
The Southern Oregon Historical Society devoted a one hour episode of The Southern Oregon History Show to Pinto Colvig
Big time thanks for the laughs, all of you, from Walt to Art to Fred Moore to Jack's brother Dick and pal Roy Williams to Pinto to Jack Kinney's crew of ace animators (John Sibley, Ed Aardal, Hugh Fraser and Jack Boyd, sometimes supplemented by "Nine Old Men" luminaries Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball and Woolie Reitherman)!
Who was the man, the Big Kahuna in the field of music for animated cartoons? Well, there were several - Scott Bradley (MGM), Darrell Calker (Walter Lantz Productions/Universal), Leigh Harline at Disney's and the team of Sammy Timberg and Lou Fleischer - but in general, the first name in the "Password" answer is the incomparable Carl W. Stalling (November 10, 1891 - November 29, 1972).
Warner Bros. cartoon-meister elaborates on the greatness of Carl Stalling.
Carl W. Stalling, composer-conductor-arranger extraordinaire with Walt Disney Productions, the Ub Iwerks Studio and Warner Bros. (pre and post Leon Schlesinger), had a way of improving the films' quality wherever he went.
The Skeleton Dance (1929) in particular was innovative and a groundbreaking film by the Disney studio.
Carl Stalling contributed many wonderful scores to the cartoons produced by the studio of ace Disney animator and special effects inventor Ub Iwerks in 1930-1935.
Leon Schlesinger hired Carl to succeed Norman Spencer as the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies music man and the improvement in the cartoons was immediate.
It's a tough call as to which individual Looney Tune or Merrie Melodie features my favorite Carl Stalling soundtrack. In addition to PORKY IN WACKYLAND, PORKY PIG'S FEAT directed by Frank Tashlin and THE GREAT PIGGY BANK ROBBERY directed by Bob Clampett immediately come to mind.
In addition, note that the new Flip The Frog Blu-ray from Thunderbean is officially available. If you don't have it yet, this set is chock full of excellent Carl Stalling scores and animated goodness from the talented likes of Grim Natwick, Berny Wolf, Al Eugster and Shamus Culhane.
We're thrilled and delighted to have lived long enough to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio opening in Hollywood, after an early stretch making Newman's Laugh-O-Grams in Kansas City. We're glad we got to see Leslie Iwerks, Ub's granddaughter and author (with John Kenworthy) of The Hand Behind the Mouse: An Intimate Biography of Ub Iwerks, do a presentation on Ub and Walt many moons ago:
We are saddened that two of the best cartoonologists and Walt Disney Productions historians, Jim Korkis and Russell Merritt, have passed and presumably found the drawing board and screening room in the Happy Hunting Ground. Have a hunch that Russell knows where the pristine 35mm nitrate prints in the next world are!
Today's post pays tribute to the early days of the Disney Brothers studio.
Walt and Roy moved with the Disney family to Kansas City, Missouri in 1911. The first Disney Brothers studio was located at 31st and First Avenue in Kansas City.
This is where Walt began his illustrious career as an animation producer.
The Disney Brothers studio relocated to the West Coast and began making cartoons in Walt and Roy's uncle Robert's garage at 4406 Kingswell Avenue in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles . . . on October 16, 1923.
In the same year in which Buster Keaton's Three Ages, Charlie Chaplin's The Pilgrim, Harold Lloyd's Why Worry and the Otto Messmer cartoon classic Felix in Hollywood were released to movie theaters, the Disney brothers studio, now in Los Feliz, began following Alice's Wonderland with 56 Alice comedies, combining animation with live-action. Alice's Wonderland, the unreleased Newmans Laugh-O-Gram, turned out to be the series pilot.
Alice comedies ran until the Disney studio started making Oswald The Lucky Rabbit cartoons for Universal Pictures in 1927.
Alice Comedies - several very entertaining entries poste don the YouTube Channel of Craig Davison, who has posted numerous animation rarities from the silent era.
Wikipedia elaborates: Kingswell Avenue in Los Feliz was home to the studio from 1923 to 1926. Kansas City, Missouri natives Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney founded Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Los Angeles in 1923 and got their start producing a series of silent Alice Comedies short films featuring a live-action child actress in an animated world. The Alice Comedies were distributed by Margaret J. Winkler's Winkler Pictures, which later also distributed a second Disney short subject series, the all-animated Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, through Universal Pictures starting in 1927.
Upon relocating to California, the Disney brothers initially started working in their uncle Robert Disney's garage at 4406 Kingswell Avenue, then, in October 1923, formally launched their studio in a small office on the rear side of a real estate agency's office at 4651 Kingswell Avenue. In February 1924, the studio moved next door to office space of its own at 4649 Kingswell Avenue. In 1925, Disney put down a deposit on a new location at 2719 Hyperion Avenue in the nearby Silver Lake neighborhood, which came to be known as the Hyperion Studio to distinguish it from the studio's other locations, and, in January 1926, the studio moved
there and took on the name Walt Disney Studio.
Meanwhile, after the first year's worth of Oswalds, Walt Disney attempted to renew his contract with Winkler Pictures, but Charles Mintz, who had taken over Margaret Winkler's business after marrying her,
wanted to force Disney to accept a lower advance payment for each Oswald short. Disney refused and, as Universal owned the rights to Oswald rather than Disney, Mintz set up his own animation studio to produce Oswald cartoons.
Ultimately, the joke would be on Mintz, who was subsequently informed that he didn't actually own the lucky rabbit. Ozzie was actually owned by Universal Pictures and the character would continue well into the sound era, thanks to the Walter Lantz studio.
Walt Disney's pre-Mickey Mouse cartoons from the 1920's are covered in depth in Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman's superlative and highly recommended Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney book.
As far as that lucky rabbit goes, well, what can the Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog gang say other than we LOVE Ozzie!
The following video of Oswald cartoons feature excellent commentary tracks by Mark Kausler, who knows more about animation history and the technique/practice of animation than anybody.
The Ozzie cartoons, notable for stellar work by such animation legends as Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising, Friz Freleng and Rollin "Ham" Hamilton are both enjoyable and fascinating, with early examples of what would turn up a couple of years later with Disney's Mickey Mouse and the early WB Looney Tunes cartoons.
Am partial to the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series over the Alice Comedies, partly due to the more advanced animation in the 1927-1928 series. David A. Bossert, J.B. Kaufman (Foreword) and David Gerstein (Archival Support) wrote a terrific book devoted to the Disney Oswalds.
It's still available and a tad pricey, but well worth it for those who love animation history, silent cartoons and the evolution of Disney.
For the Disney Studio, it would be on to the successful Mickey and Silly Symphonies from here. Former Disney animators such as Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising formed their own studios.
Surprised that I have not seen, in writing this post, a lot more on T. Hee, or a biography of the animator, storyboard artist, caricaturist and director. The breadth and length of his work in and out of animation is something I was not quite aware of, even after consulting such sources as Michael Barrier's website. I do remember hearing about T. Hee's work for the UPA studio via Bill Scott, but did not think to follow up on this way back in the early 1980's; alas, it's usually the things one doesn't do rather than what one does that causes regret down the road.
While today's post shall primarily be devoted to a few "greatest hits" from Mr. Hee's lengthy and varied career, we note that T. Hee was a gifted caricaturist. His prolific work is frequently up for auction at Van Eaton Galleries, Heritage Auctions and Mutual Art.
The following panorama of Leon Schlesinger studio staff from Thornton Hee's inspired imagination, circa 1936, was spotlighted in a memorable 2006 blog post from the late great animator Michael Sporn.
T. Hee was hired by the Leon Schlesinger Studio as a character designer in 1935, and got to work overtime creating Hollywood star caricatures in The Coo Coo Nut Grove, directed by Friz Freleng.
It's likely Walt Disney saw these Merrie Melodies, as he hired T. Hee, who subsequently worked on Mother Goose Goes Hollywood, the 1938 Silly Symphony designed and intended as the last word in movie star caricatures.
At the Disney Studio, T. Hee branched out as an animation director, notably Sequence 7 of Pinocchio - the Red Lobster Inn sequence.
He also directed the Dance Of The Hours in Fantasia.
T. Hee was one of the storyboard artists who contributed The Reluctant Dragon segment from the 1941 film of the same name.
Where T worked between his last 1940's stint for Disney and his joining UPA and the crew of director Robert "Bobe" Cannon is one of the many mysteries I found putting today's post together. An informative Cartoon Research post noted his work at UPA on the animated titles for the Life Of Riley TV show.
Now where T worked between leaving Disney in 1946 and joining UPA is one of many questions about his career I could not answer.
It would appear that T had the task of injecting comedy into the Jolly Frolics cartoons of director Bobe Cannon. Bobe worked for Chuck Jones at Warner Bros. and Tex Avery at MGM but, as a director at UPA, absolutely abhorred conflict and anything that could remotely resemble slapstick. That made things a bit of a challenge for the UPA story department. I personally find the Bobe Cannon cartoons enjoyable and charming, but not exactly laugh riots. That's okay - laughs aplenty mark John Hubley's brilliant work at UPA, and later, the Mr. Magoos directed by Pete Burness.
Here are quintessential "T and Bobe" cartoons, some of which (Christopher Crumpet) received Oscars, as well as critical acclaim.
For this cartoon buff, the graphic design work of T. Hee, the color schemes by Jules Engel and the music and voice work throughout the Bobe Cannon UPAs carry the day. Some T and Bobe efforts, such as Fudget's Budget, while in the "dated but enjoyable" department, exemplify the specific 1950's graphic style that author Amid Amidi called "Cartoon Modern" and influenced later generations of animators.
Not surprisingly, Michael Barrier had the last word on UPA and its history in his scholarly articles about the studio.
T. Hee returned to Disney in the late 1950's and created yet more original and intriguing work in his third or fourth stint there.
These would include the stylish animated titles of the feature film THE PARENT TRAP.
After an early 1960's stretch working for Terrytoons - another mystery, as one needs studio records to determine who worked on what film there, as the cartoons lack screen credits - T. Hee founded, with Jack Hannah, the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts, where he would be chairman of the Film Arts Department. He ended up contributing to the next generations of animators - from John Lasseter to Tim Burton to the late Joe Ranft - with his teaching at CalArts.
It's pretty clear that T. Hee deserves a book! For more on his work at The Mouse Factory, read John Canemaker’s Paper Dreams: The Art and Artists of Disney’s Story Boards and delve into the fine work of such authors and Disney historians as Jim Korkis, Didier Ghez, Greg Ehrbar, Greg Ford and the aforementioned Michael Barrier - not to mention many other excellent writers among the gang at Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research website.
94 years ago today, Steamboat Willie, the first Walt Disney Productions sound cartoon and the second starring vehicle for Mickey Mouse, premiered at Universal's Colony Theater in New York City. Walt elaborates, in an appearance on his television show.
Steamboat Willie wasn't the first cartoon with sound - Max Fleischer's studio had already made a bunch of Screen Songs a.k.a. Sound Car-tunes.
Fleischer Studios also produced a documentary about the introduction of sound to movies.
What's new and different about Steamboat Willie is the way sound was synchronized and how the music by Carl W. Stalling and sound effects were as much the star of the show as Mickey. Contemporaneous efforts from other studios just slapped a music track on a silent cartoon. Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks and Carl Stalling asked the questions "what can we do with sound?" and "what can we do that nobody else is doing?"
Who could be attributed with the animation style of Steamboat Willie and its predecessor Plane Crazy? Ub Iwerks!
Charles Mintz had hired away much of the staff from Disney and (at least briefly) took possession of flagship character Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, leaving the extremely talented Ub Iwerks as Walt Disney Productions' top animator.
Steamboat Willie was followed by the first Silly Symphony, The Skeleton Dance, which extends and further develops the creative use of music (Carl W. Stalling!) and sound effects.
Ub and Stalling would leave the Disney Studio in 1930 and then produce the first sound cartoon in color, Flip the Frog in Fiddlesticks.
And the also terrific book by David A. Bossert, J.B. Kaufman (Foreword) and David Gerstein (Archival Support) devoted to the Disney Oswalds. David Gerstein's
In addition, it is highly likely that a search for articles about Walt Disney, the early sound era and Ub Iwerks by such terrific authors and historians as John Canemaker and Jim Korkis will turn up something interesting on these topics.
