For those readers who enjoyed last week’s revival of my “Animation Anecdotes” column, here’s another column loaded with oddball animation related stories. I will try to include a couple of these columns in between some of the other articles that I write for JimHillMedia.com. Feel free to submit your own anecdotes to be included in future installments.
JUST THE FACTS, MA’AM
The late Jack Webb is perhaps best remembered as the tough cop, Joe Friday on the television series DRAGNET. (Although I always preferred Webb’s work in movies like the newspaper drama, -30-, which he also directed.) Amazingly, in his youth, Webb wanted to be an animator! “I was convinced that Walt Disney was combing the country for a fellow like me. I made up a portfolio, took it to the Disney studios and sat back to wait for the big offer,” stated Webb in an interview shortly before his death. This took place in the 1930s and the offer never came. Later, Webb did become a friend of Walt Disney’s and even shot some DRAGNET episodes on the Disney lot (but moved out when Walt started building things for Disneyland on the back lot and it got too noisy).
MICHAEL JACKSON TAKE THREE
There are just too many Michael Jackson stories related to animation. Associated Press writer Bob Thomas had a close encounter with singer Michael Jackson many years ago. “He’s a Disney freak,” stated Thomas. “One night a few years ago I went down to his place and he interviewed me, everything I knew about Walt Disney—which is considerable because I wrote four books about him and the studio. And then he wanted to locate the studio nurse, Hazel George, who was Walt’s confidant over the years. He wanted to interview her … so he pulled up in front with his limo and we went over to Burbank, talked to Hazel, but he was so shy, I had to ask all the questions. And Hazel was in her 80s and I had to keep reminding her of things. So finally when we finished … she said, ‘Well, thank you for coming, Michael … come back and visit me again. And don’t bring him.'” Thomas pointed at himself, grinning, “He talks too much!”
MICHAEL JACKSON TAKE FOUR
Back in 1984, singer Michael Jackson persuaded the studio top brass to give him a private advance screening of the then-unfinished animated feature, THE BLACK CAULDRON. Michael cheered all the way through the film. (And there is a good story in here somewhere about how Disney tried to remarket the film as THE DARK CAULDRON and then later TARAN AND THE MAGIC CAULDRON.)
DISNEY IS AN EASY TARGET
Disney has always been a target for special interest groups. In 1994, the National Stuttering Project complained about the video release of Disney’s THE FOX AND THE HOUND. They objected to what they saw as a negative stereotype manifested in the character of a woodpecker who stutters. The bird, according to the NSP, is a “bumbling fool who perpetuates the media’s negative portrayal of stutterers.” A Disney Home Video spokesperson maintained that the character named Boomer was not intended to be drawn that way and noted that he helps to rescue a baby fox. Committee chairperson for the NSP, Ira Zimmerman said he wished Disney had issued a disclaimer at the beginning of the video proclaiming that the woodpecker was not representative of people who stutter. (Maybe in a future installment I’ll mention the controversy surrounding Porky Pig and how country singer Mel Tillis — who is a stutterer — rose to Porky’s defense by claiming Porky was his hero growing up.)
JACK KIRBY AND THE FLEISCHER CONNECTION
Jack Kirby is perhaps best known for the many comic book characters he co-created from Captain America to the X-Men to the Hulk but he also worked in animation at Ruby-Spears and DePatie-Freleng. Early in his career, he got his start working as an inbetweener at the Fleischer Studios in New York. “I left Fleischer’s still with no idea how they made the drawings move,” he told Mark Evanier. What did Kirby feel was the main benefit of working at Fleischer’s besides learning to draw faster? Apparently, he smuggled out large quantities of pencils and erasers, which he used for many years drawing newspaper strips and comic books. (Maybe that explains why some studios even keep their light bulbs under lock and key from the animators.)
SPIDER-MAN’S REAL SECRET IDENTITY
Did you know that in the book WIRED about the life and death of John Belushi, author Bob Woodward revealed that actress/director Penny Marshall called Jeffrey Katzenberg “Spiderman” because of “his looks, his intensity and efficiency?”
CHARITY WORK
John Cleese did the voice of the villainous cat in AN AMERICAN TALE 2: FIEVEL GOES WEST and he was shocked by the size of his paycheck which he described as “the smallest fee I’ve been paid in ten years.” When they kept pushing him to do publicity for the film, he finally sent back a note that said: “Tell Mr. Spielberg that I always make a point not to publicize my charitable activities.”
THE ORIGINAL DAME EDNA
When famous voice artist Daws Butler (Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and many more) was directing the live action play, NIGHT MUST FALL, in Hollywood, the actress playing the part of Mrs. Ramson was let go. Daws took over the role and at the end of the performance each evening ripped off his wig to reveal to an astonished audience that a man had played the part of an elderly woman.
WATERMELON TEST
Back in the early days of the Disney Studio, Walt was observing during lunch how each of the animators ate their watermelon differently. One man ate by carefully starting at one end and working his way to the other end. Another started in the middle and ate haphazardly. One ate with a knife and fork and so on. Finally, the wise and wonderful Walt proclaimed, “You guys all eat your watermelon in different way. This must reveal your characters … but I don’t know exactly how!”
HE-MAN’S SECRET ORIGIN
Arthur Nadel, at one time Executive Vice President of Filmation, revealed the secret story behind their popular He-Man character. “The He-Man toys existed but there was no story about who He-Man was,” claimed Nadel. “We created the story that He-Man was a child of an American woman astronaut and a king who lived on another planet. She landed there, met the king, fell in love and was married. Prince Adam was their child.” (If Filmation had animated that story as a feature film instead of their versions of PINOCCHIO and SNOW WHITE, they might still be in business today. And remind me sometime to tell you the story of the live action game show pilot filmed at Filmation called ORIGINS because I was a participant on that pilot.)
WHERE DO ARTISTS GET THEIR IDEAS?
In late 1969, Walt Kelly introduced a new cat into the Sunday POGO comic strip. The feline was modeled after a cat belonging to the executive manager of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where Walt Kelly was staying while he was working on the animated tv special POGO’S SPECIAL BIRTHDAY SPECIAL.
CRY FOR CASPER
Tennis star Chris Evert once stated: “My favorite cartoon was Casper the Friendly Ghost but it used to make me cry because everyone always treated him so badly.”