Black comics use to joke that February was chosen for Black History Month because it was the shortest month of the year. Okay, so it’s not that funny. Anyway, it seems appropriate that during this time of focusing on people of color, we might take a look at the color of my favorite business, the world of animation.
America has always been unique in its perception of color. Perhaps it’s because of our slave heritage. Although all nations around the world have their own racial and ethnic hang ups, we, as Americans, have always been to a greater or lesser degree, hung up on color. Lest one think I’m out to bash white America, think again. I want to point out that I first became aware of the problems of skin color, in of all places, the black community. It seems Blacks were more freaked out by color than white people. Today, these “color problems” are falling by the wayside as society becomes more and more multicultural. This “rainbow connection,” as Jim Henson might have called it, is becoming more the norm everyday.
When I was a kid, the world was filled with misconceptions. When I expressed interest in working for Walt Disney, I was often told, Disney does not hire black people. Such rumors persisted for years. I can’t tell you how many stories I heard about Disney being this closed minded, racist studio. “Disney does not hire Blacks, Jews, Women, or Gays,” it was said. All these rumors have proven to be false, with the notable exception of Women. Indeed, women were relegated to the Ink and Paint Department in Disney’s early days. There were exceptions of course. Talented young women such as Mary Blair and Retta Scott, broke the gender barrier.
But Disney and other studios have gotten a bum rap when it comes to race relations. One of the nice things about the animation industry is that people are judged on their abilities, not their skin color or ethnic background. I’ll bet a lot of people wouldn’t even know that Walt Disney had a Mexican American on his staff back in the thirties. Animator Rudy Zamora used to argue with Walt at the cartoon preview screenings over at the Alex Theater in Glendale. When I broke into the business back in the nineteen fifties, my trainee group included a Black, an Asian, and a Latino. This was the unenlightened fifties, when minorities were supposedly denied jobs based on their skin color. Such was not the case at Disney.
This was not a Utopian era by any means. This is not to say that no studio ever discriminated against an artist because of his or her ethic background, or held back a promotion because of race. This was the real world where such slights were probably more frequent than they should have been. Having said that, I visited many a studio back in those days, where I saw animation artists of all colors working together as a collective unit. All collaborating, and sharing the same passion for this wonderful business. I remember Warner Bros. Animation in the fifties, with young animator Frank Braxton working away at his desk, and background artist Bill Butler filling the walls of his office with wonderful paintings. Both men were Black, but I don’t think anybody noticed or cared. The work was what mattered.
When my business partner, Leo Sullivan and I launched Vignette Films back in the sixties, we were often referred to as the “Black studio.” I found this annoying, because we were no more a Black studio than Bill Melendez was a Latino studio, or Filmation a Jewish studio. We were in business to make movies, and the color of our staff was irrelevant. But, as I said earlier, people were often preoccupied with color. During the eighties, we were producing animated commercials for the Caribbean market. It was refreshing to walk into an advertising agency in Kingston, and for the first time be introduced as producers — not “Black producers.” In Kingston Jamaica’s multicultural community, color was a non issue.
However, we don’t live in a perfect world, and even Walt’s magic Kingdom had its problems. While working at Disney in the fifties and sixties, there were times when I overheard rude ethnic jokes and unflattering remarks made about Asians, Latinos and Blacks. During the 1965 Watts riot, several Disney artists came to me with questions, because they had no idea why crowds had taken to the streets to loot and burn. Many had become so cloistered in the magic kingdom, they seem to be totally oblivious to the problems of the real world. Finally, I was once denied the opportunity to work in Disney’s layout department because some artists were uncomfortable working with a Black man. Let me hasten to add that this was not the sentiment of the majority of the staff. It was certainly not the opinion of Walt Disney in particular. The stories about Walt being an anti-semite and racist are stories that should be buried, and — as my old mentor, Joe Grant might add — “buried deep.”
I’ve often been criticized for painting too rosy a picture of animation’s early days. Young Black artists with chips on their shoulders, feel that somehow I’ve “sold out” for not calling the animation industry on its many shortcomings. They dredge up the same old rhetoric that animation was anti Black, anti Female and the like. They have no idea what I’ve experienced, or the jobs where the artists on a film were — in no particular order — White, Black, Asian, Latino, Arabic, Male, Female, Gay, Straight, young and old. If a group like this can come together, make an animated cartoon, and have a ball doing it — it doesn’t get much better than that.
Talented color stylists working in animation can tell you the importance of a good color mix. The palette of an animated film is no small part of the movie’s success. The colors we see on screen will impact us as much as the story. Pulling these colors together — making them work in harmony — can be a masterful job. Animation may not be a perfect business, but it deserves a fair amount of credit for creating a myriad of colors both on screen and off.
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To learn more about the many other interesting things that Floyd has observed in his colorful career, Jim suggests that you pick up a copy of Norman’s original collection of cartoons and stories — “Faster! Cheaper! The Flip Side of the Art of Animation” — for sale over at John Cawley’s excellent www.cataroo.com web site. Or pick up Floyd’s newest book — “Son of Faster, Cheaper” — by clicking the image to the right to head on over to Afrokids.com, where this latest collection of cartoons is available for purchase. Still not satisfied? Then why not meet the man himself by attending “An Evening with Floyd Norman,” the special event that ASIFA-Hollywood will be presenting at the Glendale Public Library on Tuesday, April 13th. For further information on this sure-to-be-fun evening, head over to the ASIFA-Hollywood web site. |