2007 Review: 3 Clair Weeks

As the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive completes its second year in operation, it's time to review the accomplishments of the past year. Here's a countdown of the ten most important subjects we've covered in 2007. See if your list matches mine. (View the complete list.) Click on the links to read more on this topic.


From Clair Weeks' Goodbye Book 1952 February 1st, 2007
NUMBER 3: CLAIR WEEKS

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the family of Disney animator, Clair Weeks. Weeks was a missionary's son, born in India, who moved to America in the early 30s and ended up working as an assistant animator on Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Here is the book Weeks was given when he applied for work as an artist at Disney...


From the Disney Artist Tryout Book February 6th, 2007
Weeks' wife made a scrapbook of material related to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the family recently donated it to the permanent collection of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive...


From Clair Weeks' Snow White Scrapbook December 21st, 2007
After the success of Snow White, Disney relocated his studio to a newly built facility in Burbank. Here is a magazine from Clair Weeks' scrapbook detailing the building of the studio...


From History: The Building of the Disney Studio April 27th, 2007
Weeks was Marc Davis's assistant on Bambi, working closely with him on the animation of the animals in the forest. During the production of the film, Disney instituted a training program where the artists studied animals from life. Here is a collection of Weeks' animal studies...


From Instruction: Clair Weeks Animal Studies March 2nd, 2007
During WWII, Weeks took a leave from the Disney Studios to serve in the military. To keep him informed about the activities at the studio in his absence, Disney sent him this pamphlet...


From Dispatch From Disney's 1943 Part One
July 11th, 2007 and Part Two July 26th, 2007
Weeks returned to the studio after the War and was soon promoted to animator. He worked on Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, but decided to leave the studio to travel the world in 1952. Upon his departure, he was presented with this book, containing autographs and sketches from the entire staff...


From Clair Weeks' Goodbye Book 1952 February 1st, 2007
In 1956, Weeks was invited by Information Films of Bombay, India to set up the country's first animation studio as part of the American Technical Cooperation Mission. Weeks' pioneering influence is still felt in the burgeoning animation business in India...


From Clair Weeks- Pioneer of Indian Animation August 17th, 2007
Many thanks to the family of Clair Weeks for sharing his fascinating story with us.

Go To Number 2 on the list of Top Ten Subjects of 2007

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Another Christmas Gift: Snow White Scrapbook

The 1937 Disney Studios Christmas card
Today is the 70th Anniversary of the premiere of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. So it's fitting that today the family of Disney animator, Clair Weeks donated a scrapbook of material related to the picture. I apologize for the quality of the photos. I'll be digitizing this material properly after the holidays. We all owe a huge debt of thanks to the family of Clair Weeks for donating this treasure to the collection of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.



The ticket envelope and program for the
premiere, Carthay Circle and Radio City Music Hall
runs, and the invitation to "Walt's Field Day",
the wrap party for Snow White.


Feature on the voice actors of Snow White
from Screen Guide Magazine.

Good Housekeeping article
illustrated by Tenggren.

Life Magazine

Esquire Magazine review by Gilbert Seldes,
along with the 1937 and 1938 studio Christmas cards.

Popular Science focuses on the mechanics
of the animation production process.

One of Time Magazine's most famous covers.

Liberty Magazine along with a scrap
of Snow White fabric.

Life Magazine profiles Marjorie Belcher,
the rotoscope model for Snow White.

Stage Magazine

Great two page spread on the people
behind the scenes from Movie Pix.

Hirschfeld's scathing pan from
the New York TImes is flanked by
a mask of Grumpy!

Ann Miller and Lucille Ball
model hats inspired by the dwarfs.
I doubt any women actually wore these!

Hollywood Magazine for a nickle
and a Snow White ham!

Post Toasties, Tek Toothpaste premium
and a wildly off model paper doll book.
There's a lot more in this book that I didn't have time to photograph. Check back after the New Year for more posts on this topic. Many thanks to the family of Clair Weeks for contributing this important material to our musuem.



If you found this interesting, you'll want to check out our previous posts about material from the collection of Clair Weeks... Clair Weeks: Pioneer of Indian Animation, Dispatch From Disney's Part One and Part Two, The Building Of The Disney Studios, Clair Weeks Goodbye Book, the 1938 Disney Artists Tryout Book and Clair Week's Animal Studies.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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History: Clair Weeks- Pioneer of Indian Animation

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.


Bambi II?
Today I am presenting an interesting bit of history from the collection of Disney animator, Clair Weeks along with an exciting update since we last featured this topic. Read on for details...

Weeks was born in India, the son of a Methodist missionary- a source of humor for his co-workers at Disney. (See caricature, right.) He spent 16 years at the Disney Studios, working on Snow White, Bambi and Peter Pan. In 1956, Weeks travelled to Bombay, India on the invitation of Information Films of India to set up and train the country's first animation studio as part of the American Technical Co-Operation Mission. What started as a one year project expanded into almost a decade of service abroad working for the US Agency for International Development. Weeks toured Southeast Asia and headed up a communitactions office in Katmandu, Nepal. He made films and audio-visual programs that aided in the social development and economic growth of third world countries.

I know very little about Weeks' work in India, but a scrapbook donated to the archive by his family provides some tantilizing clues. I contacted the chapter of ASIFA in India asking if they had any information on Weeks, and the Vice President of ASIFA-India, Prasad responded...

The studio Weeks helped to train some animators for was the Films Division of India (FDI). The stint of Clair's there apparently lasted for about 18 months, during which they made a film called The Banyan Deer. I spoke to Rammohan, who was one of the students in 1956, and is generally acknowledged as one of the father figures of Indian animation to get these details. Clair apparently also taught in the late sixties or early seventies at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad. One of the students at that point, Nina Sabnani heads the Animation Department there now.

Since this article was last posted, ASIFA-Hollywood has transferred a rare 16mm film showing Weeks at work at FDI in India. It's fascinating to see behind the scenes in the earliest days of Indian animation.


Cartoon Division of FDI (FDI/1956)
(Quicktime 7 / 13.8 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Here are some scans from Weeks' Indian scrapbook. If anyone has any information on the film or the people in the photos, let me know in the comments below and I will add it to this post.

THE BANYAN DEER (1957) STORYBOARD






TREND MAGAZINE ARTICLE




PRODUCTION PHOTOS

19 April, 1958: Sitting: S.L. Badami (Deputy Chief Producer), Ezra Mir (Chief Producer), Clair Weeks (Key Animator Instructor), Dr. B.V. Keskar (Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting), D.L. Kothari (Controller of Administration). Standing behind: G.K. Maharesh (Production Manager), G.K. Gokhale (Animator), S.M. Junnarkar (Editor), G.H. Saraiya (in dark pants, Director)





19 April, 1958: D.L. Kothari, Clair Weeks, Dr. B.V. Keskar, Ezra Mir. Behind: H.R. Doraiswamy (Camera Assistant), S.S. Varma (Animation Cameraman)





Many thanks to the family of Clair Weeks for sharing this important material with us, and thanks to Steve Stanchfield of Thunderbean Animation for transferring the film footage.

If you found this interesting, you'll want to check out our previous posts about material from the collection of Clair Weeks... Dispatch From Disney's Part One and Part Two, The Building Of The Disney Studios, Clair Weeks Goodbye Book, the 1938 Disney Artists Tryout Book and Clair Week's Animal Studies. Also, see... Walt Disney Goes To War, John Canemaker on Bill Tytla and Musical Timing Rediscovered.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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History: Dispatch From Disney's Part Two

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.



Here is the last part of a pamphlet that was part of the Clair Weeks collection. Titled "Dispatch From Disney's", this 1943 publication was distributed to Disney employees who were serving in the war effort. This half contains an article from Oliver Wallace describing how he was inspired to write "Der Fuhrer's Face", some doodles by Roy Williams on life as an Air Raid Warden, a feature on the Disney Studio exercise coach Carl Johnson, news on the South American tour, and detailed information on the Disney wartime training films. If you missed it, check out part one of Dispatch From Disney's.


























Many thanks to the family of Clair Weeks for sharing this important material with us.

Make sure to check out the first part of this booklet... Dispatch From Disney's Part One

If you found this interesting, you'll want to check out our previous posts about material from the collection of Clair Weeks... The Building Of The Disney Studios, Clair Weeks Goodbye Book, the 1938 Disney Artists Tryout Book and Clair Week's Animal Studies. Also, see... Walt Disney Goes To War, John Canemaker on Bill Tytla and Musical Timing Rediscovered.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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History: Dispatch From Disney's 1943

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.


Here's a fascinating pamphlet that was part of the Clair Weeks collection. Titled "Dispatch From Disney's", this 1943 publication was distributed to Disney employees who were serving in the war effort. The first section includes an introduction by Walt, an article on the power of animation to educate by Major Alexander P. de Seversky (author of Victory Through Air Power), a cartoon feature by Roy Williams, and newsy info on Disney artists T. Hee, Freddie Moore, Frank Thomas and Woolie Reitherman.


The last part contains an article from Oliver Wallace describing how he was inspired to write "Der Fuhrer's Face", some doodles by Roy Williams on life as an Air Raid Warden, a feature on the Disney Studio exercise coach Carl Johnson, news on the South American tour, and detailed information on the Disney wartime training films.







































Many thanks to the family of Clair Weeks for sharing this important material with us.

If you found this interesting, you'll want to check out our previous posts about material from the collection of Clair Weeks... The Building Of The Disney Studios, Clair Weeks Goodbye Book, the 1938 Disney Artists Tryout Book and Clair Week's Animal Studies. Also, see... Walt Disney Goes To War, John Canemaker on Bill Tytla and Musical Timing Rediscovered.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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History: The Building Of The Disney Studio

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.



Normally, I only do three articles a week, but a posting at Hans Perk's AFilm LA spurred me to digitize a magazine I've been meaning to scan for a while. Here it is, along with links to Hans' postings on the subject.

Among the collection of Clair Weeks was a publication from 1939 dealing with the construction of Disney's studio in Burbank. It's a fascinating look at the way the Disney operation was structured at the peak of its success. The end of the article is taken up with a detailed description of the production process at Disney. (Note: There's an error in the order of the steps in the section on story- the script was transcribed from the storyboard, not the other way around. And they discuss voice recording out of sequence as well.)






Now that you've read the article, click on these images to see Hans Perk's images of the Burbank lot...


Aerial view of Burbank before Disney's studio is built.


Aerial view of the Disney studio.


Helen Jordan's photos of the studio under construction.


The newly completed animation building in 1939.
If you found this interesting, you'll want to check out our previous posts about material from the collection of Clair Weeks... Clair Weeks Goodbye Book, the 1938 Disney Artists Tryout Book and Clair Week's Animal Studies. Also, see... Walt Disney Goes To War, John Canemaker on Bill Tytla and Musical Timing Rediscovered.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.19.09
.

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Instruction: Clair Weeks Animal Studies 1940

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great art instruction posts.


Today, I'm proud to present more amazing treasures from the Clair Weeks collection. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Weeks was born the son of a missionary in India. At DIsney, he was often teased about his resemblence to a village parson or pilgrim. (See caricature to the right.)

Around 1940, Disney Studios was at its peak. Several animated feature films were in production at once, and the staff numbered at an all time high. Disney instituted a comprehensive training program for the artists at his studio, which included life drawing, animal studies and action analysis classes under the direction of Don Graham. Today, we scanned animal drawings by Clair Weeks from these classes.


Archive supporter, Mike Fontanelli was in last night when I was scanning these beautiful sketches, and he expressed his admiration for Weeks' skill. It's difficult to draw animals and capture any kind of natural pose because they are always moving. Weeks not only exhibited mastery of construction and posing, but also the ability to embed the spark of life that makes a drawing come alive. His technique allowed for both analytically realistic depiction and cartoony stylized caricature.

Aspiring cartoonists and animators should look over these drawings carefully and make a trip to the zoo to study the animals themselves the way the artists did at Disney in 1940.
















If you found this interesting, you'll want to check out our previous posts about material from the collection of Clair Weeks... Clair Weeks Goodbye Book and the 1938 Disney Artists Tryout Book. Also, see... Willard Mullen on Animals.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.14.08
.

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Illustration: Early 50s Disney Christmas Cards

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.

1948


No, you're not suffering from some sort of holiday flashback... It's almost Valentine's Day, not Christmas! Today, we digitized a batch of wonderful 1950s Christmas cards from the Disney studio from 1948 through the mid-1950s. The designs on these cards are so much fun, it makes you wish the films themselves looked this cartoony.

You might wonder why I chose today to post Christmas images. This illustrates a point that I need to make every once in a while... The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog is NOT the archive itself. It is only a forum for us to report the progress of the project and show examples of the sorts of things we were working on that particular day. Today, we digitized Christmas cards... tomorrow it might be an illustrated children's book from the 1920s... the next day a clip from an animated cartoon by Paul Terry... there is no order implied or intended. The order comes in the way keyword searches link material within the database itself.

The other thing to keep in mind is that for every image you see here on this blog, there are dozens and dozens that we don't post. Our database has grown into the terabytes. There's no way that we will ever be able to post all of it online. My hope is to eventually syndicate the archive as kiosks at university libraries, studios and ASIFA chapters all over the world. But that's quite a ways in the future!

I want to thank the family of Clair Weeks for sharing these great cards with us. See the bottom of this post for links to more treasures from the Weeks collection.




1949





1950





1951





1952





1953





1954





1955





1956




Many thanks again to the family of Clair Weeks for sharing these with us.

For more treasures from the collection of Clair Weeks, see... History: Clair Weeks' Goodbye Book and History: 1938 Disney Artists' Tryout Book

See you at the Annies!
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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History: Disney's Artist Tryout Book

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.


Today, we scanned another fascinating document from the collection of Clair Weeks. This is the "Disney Studios Artist's Tryout Book" from 1938. It provides a valuable overview of the production process and description of the various job categories. You will definitely want to print this out and study it carefully.

Here are some quotes from this booklet that you might find interesting...

STORY MEN must be able to draw. The stories are not written but are visualized in sketch form.

The value of an animator is dependent upon his ability to dramatize and caricature life, and to time and stage his characters' actions in an unusual and interesting way. An animator must be a showman- he must know how to entertain an audience, to present a gag, to picture dramatically an ordinary incident. Above all, he must be a sure and skillful draftsman.

THE DIRECTOR must have complete knowledge of every phase of animation, have executive ability and outstanding dramatic talent. He must be familiar with practically all of the Arts... To date, all directors have arisen from the ranks of the Studio, sometimes through story work, but more often through animation. Because of the complexity of animation it seems that this will continue to be the case.

All inking and painting of celluloids, and all tracing done in the Studio is perfomed exclusively by a large staff of girls known as Inkers and Painters... This is the only department in the Disney Studio open to women artists.

The original brochure was in very poor condition, with tears and waterstains throughout. I'm sure that this was carried around in Weeks' back pocket for quite a while. But Photoshop can work miracles, so these scans ended up looking better than the original.

In case you haven't noticed, the Archive has become "an embarassment of riches". We are doing very important work here. I hope you will support our project any way you can.


















If you found this useful, you'll also want to check out... Walt Disney Goes To War, John Canemaker on Bill Tytla and Musical Timing Rediscovered.

Jerry Beck posted a related booklet at Cartoon Brew... Titled "The Ropes At Disney", it outlines the rules and regulations governing the employees of the studio and the organizational hierarchy of the various departments.



If you haven't seen it yet, make a point of checking it out.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

12.11.08
.

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Biography: Clair Weeks' Goodbye Book 1952

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 4 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great biographies of important artists.


Today, we had a visit from the family of Clair Weeks. They brought along several portfolios full of beautiful drawings, mostly from Bambi. Over the next few weeks, they will be allowing the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive to digitize the material for inclusion in our database. They also promise to write a Biopedia Page for Weeks. Here is the "Readers' Digest version" of Weeks' career...

A missionary's son, Clair Weeks was born in 1912 in India. He lived there until the early 1930s, when he relocated to America. In 1936, he joined the staff of the Walt Disney Studio and set to work as an assistant on Snow White. He went on to assist Marc Davis on Bambi, CInderella and Peter Pan, taking a brief break from animation to serve in the military during WW2.

In the early 50s, Weeks left the studio travel the world. He eventually settled in Bombay, India, where he headed up a government owned studio that produced animated shorts. Weeks' impact on Indian animation was immense. The people he trained were the pioneers who established the Indian animation industry.


The treasure I'm presenting today dates to August of 1952... It's the scrapbook given to Weeks upon his departure from Disney. I won't spoil the fun by telling you what's in it. Click on the images and prepare to be amazed! (Thanks to Hans Perk for the identifications!)



Members of the "9 Old Men": Marc Davis (Weeks was his assistant), Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, Milt Kahl, Eric Larson / Assistant Animators: Bob McCrea, Clarke Mallery, Iwao Takamoto, Julius Svendsen, Bill Eigle (?)


Ben Sharpsteen (Director) / Hazel George (Studio Nurse) / Hal Adelquist (Asst. Director) / Oliver Wallace (Music) / Koneta Roxby (Library) / Bob Gibeaut (Cutting) / Jo Sears (Ink & Paint / Production)


Layout Artists: Lance Nolley, Al Zinnen, Don Griffith, Ken Anderson, Ken O'Connor, Mike Holoboff, MacLaren Stewart, Basil Davidovich, Tom Codrick, Charles Philippi / Background Artists: Jimi Trout, Hugh Hennesy, Ray Huffine, Art Riley, Dick Anthony, Ralph Hulett, Al Dempster, Claude Coats, Art Landy / Art Directors: Thor Putnam, John Hench / Directors: Jack Kinney, Charles "Nick" Nichols, Gerry Geronimi, Wilfred "Jaxon" Jackson / Asst Directors: Bee Selck, Lou Debney, Toby Tobelman (?) / Directors' Secretary: Marie Dasnoit / The Man: Walt Disney / Tom Jekel (?)


Animators: Bob Youngquist, Jack Campbell, Les Clark (9 Old Men), Hugh Fraser, John Lounsbery (9 Old Men), Harry Holt, Art Stevens, George Nicholas / Asst Animators: Walt Stanchfield, Lou Appet, Bob Ogle, Dale Barnhart


Don DaGradi (Art Director)



Animators / Assistants: Dick Lucas / Al Wilson / Jim Steele / Eric Cleworth / Ambrozy Paliwoda / Jerry Hathcock / Charlie "Chuck" Downs / Bob Carlson / Woolie Reitherman (9 Old Men) / Ed Soloman / Wathel Rogers


Bonar Dyer (Personnel) / Mary Flanigan (Notary) / Bunny Venable (Production or Legal)



Mostly Effects Animators: Retta Davidson, Dwight Carlisle, Joe Nunez, Sandy Strother, Dan MacManus, Al Severns, George Rowley, Marion Mahnken, Jack "Buck" Buckley, Frank Onaitis, Ed Parks, Jane Fowler


Ed Aardal (Animator) / Harvey Orr (Print Shop) / Johnny Bond (Head of Clean Up)




Ken Peterson (Animator / Prod. Mgr. / Scheduling) / Andy Engman (Effects Animator / Prod. Mgr.) / Esther "Esta" Haight (Front Office File Room / Western Union) / Anne Meyer (Production?)


Thanks to the family of Clair Weeks for sharing this with us!

If you enjoyed this post, you'll also want to check out... Art Babbitt's Best Scene / Canemaker on Tytla Part One and Part Two and Carlo Vinci, Pioneer Animator

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

11.26.08
.

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