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Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Illustration: Mabel Lucie Attwell's Peter Pan and Wendy

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 children's book illustrators.

Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and WendyMabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and WendyThere often seems to be a disconnect between the illustrators Walt Disney hired to do inspirational artwork for his films and the designs he actually ended up using. On Snow White, Disney hired the amazing painter, Gustaf Tenggren; but his instructions to him were to paint in the style of Arthur Rackham. For Peter Pan, he hired the illustrator David Hall, but the film itself doesn't resemble his work at all. Instead, it seems to be a "Disneyfication" of Mabel Lucie Attwell's illustrations for the 1921 edition of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan & Wendy.

Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and WendyMabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and WendyAttwell was born in 1879 and received some education at the Regent School of Art and Heatherley's School of Art in London, but she grew bored with her academic studies and dropped out to focus on her own interests... painting cherubic children and fairies. Her work wasn't very warmly received at first by galleries and agents, but when her first batch of paintings sold out in three days, they became much more enthusiastic. Attwell illustrated greeting cards and children's books, the most famous of which we are featuring today, Peter Pan & Wendy.

Disney didn't appropriate Attwell's baby faced characters, but he did use some of the same details of costume and setting, and placed the emphasis of his visual storytelling on many of the same elements. Attwell's designs lean a bit too heavily on formula, but there is a distinctive delicate appeal to her style. Enjoy.

Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Mabel Lucie Attwell Peter Pan and Wendy
Please let me know in the comments if you found this post to be useful.

If you enjoyed this article, see also... Little Verses Part One and Part Two and The New Golden Song Book Part One, Part Two and Part Three, Felix Lorioux's Tom Thumb, Puss in Boots, Fables De La Fontaine Part One and Part Two, Le Buffon des Enfants, Rojankovsky's Frog Went A-Courtin', Tibor Gergely's A Day In The Jungle, Gustaf Tenggren's The Little Trapper, Uncle Remus Stories Part One and Part Two.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Illustration: Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books and magazines.

Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Illustration by Harper Goff

Harper Goff in Coronet MagazineHarper Goff in Coronet MagazineToday, in honor of Presidents Day, we present another batch of illustration from late 40s Coronet magazines. This group of images isn't interesting so much for their style as much as their authenticity. With a clarity of staging reminiscent of production designs for classic motion pictures, these paintings vividly show the value of careful research into period costume, props and decor. The first batch is a history of medicine by Leslie Saalburg. The last is a review of classic children's literature by Douglass Crockwell. But the most interesting is the middle feature, Carl Sandberg's "Blood on the Moon" illustrated by Disney imagineer, Harper Goff.

Harper Goff was born in 1911, and studied art at Chouinard Art Institute. He was an accomplished illustrator, working for Colliers, Esquire and Coronet. Goff was employed as a set designer for Warner Bros on classic films like Sergeant York, Casablanca and Captain Blood. He met Walt Disney in a model train store in London, and was invited on the spot to join the Disney staff.

Harper Goff Nautilus
Goff's first assignment was to storyboard a True Life Adventure story dealing with undersea life, but expanded the idea into a feature film adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Goff's designs for the submarine and its plush interiors were the most striking part of the film, resulting in an Oscar for Art Direction and Special Effects. Goff played banjo in the Disney studio Dixieland jazz band, "The Firehouse Five" and was the designer of the World Showcase at Epcot. He passed away in 1993.

MEDICINE ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
by Leslie Saalburg

Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine

SANDBURG'S BLOOD ON THE MOON
By Harper Goff

Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine

A TREASURY OF LITERARY CLASSICS
by Douglass Crockwell

Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Harper Goff in Coronet Magazine
Thanks to Rich Borowy for donating these great vintage magazines to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Casey Strikes Out In Coronet, Bugs Bunny in Coronet Magazine December 1945, Milton Caniff in Coronet Magazine, Dispatch From Disney's Part One and Part Two, Mid 30s Colliers Illustrations, Mid 30s Advertisements, Late 40s Colliers, Lawson Wood: The Monkey Artist, John Held Jr, Ward Kimball in Escapade, Complete Guide To Cartooning On Magazine Cartoons Part One and Part Two, and Rube Goldberg's Side Show.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Update: John Sutherland's Rhapsody of Steel

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 7 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great cartoons to study.

John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
We received a surprise in the mail today from Archive supporter, Kevin Kidney- a DVD of John Sutherland's landmark industrial film, Rhapsody of Steel. For more information about this great film, see our previous post.

Rhapsody of Steel
This is a very large file, so allow yourself some time before clicking on the link.

Rhapsody of Steel (Sutherland/1959)
(Quicktime 7 / 22 minutes / 50.5 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.

If you found this article to be interesting, see also... John Sutherland's Rhapsody of Steel, Artzybasheff's Machinalia, The Alvin Show Pilot Storyboard, Jules Engel's Alvin Show Color Keys, UPA Done Right, Early 50s UPA Model Sheets, Herb Klynn The Shrimp, and Grim Natwick's Post UPA Commercials.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Cartoons: Casey Strikes Out In Coronet Magazine

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books and magazines.

Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Today, we present another batch of illustration from late 40s Coronet magazines, including work by Douglass Crockett and Vera Bock. Last time, we featured Bugs Bunny. Today, it's Casey At The Bat. Enjoy!

Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine

CASEY AT THE BAT

Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Illustration in Coronet Magazine
Thanks to Rich Borowy for donating these great vintage magazines to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Bugs Bunny in Coronet Magazine December 1945, Milton Caniff in Coronet Magazine, Dispatch From Disney's Part One and Part Two, Mid 30s Colliers Illustrations, Mid 30s Advertisements, Late 40s Colliers, Lawson Wood: The Monkey Artist, John Held Jr, Ward Kimball in Escapade, Complete Guide To Cartooning On Magazine Cartoons Part One and Part Two, and Rube Goldberg's Side Show.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Friday, January 11, 2008

Filmography: John Sutherland's Rhapsody of Steel

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

John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
Today we scanned a read-along storybook adaptation of John Sutherland's industrial film, Rhapsody of Steel (1959). Sutherland's studio was very influential in the mid-1950s, employing some of the best designers in the business. This film is no exception. Legendary stylists Eyvind Earle (Sleeping Beauty, Pigs is Pigs) and Maurice Noble (Duck Dodgers, How The Grinch Stole Christmas) collaborated on Rhapsody of Steel, and you can see evidence of both their hands everywhere in these pages. (Earle in the landscapes and textures, Noble in the bold primary and secondary colors...)

Time Magazine said of this film...
Rhapsody of Steel, a 23-minute animated cartoon that cost $300,000, is one of those rare industrial films with enough specific quality and general interest to play the commercial circuits. In the next few months it will be shown as an added attraction in several thousand U.S. movie houses. Made by former Disney Staffer John Sutherland, Rhapsody sets out to tell a sort of child's history of steel from the first meteor that ever hit the earth to the first manned rocket that leaves it, and most of the time Moviemaker Sutherland proves a slick entertainer and a painless pedagogue. Unhappily, the music of Oscar-Winning Dmitri Tiomkin, who is probably the world's loudest composer, bangs away on the sound track like a trip hammer. But the picture's pace is brisk, its tricks of animation are better than cute, and the plug, when the sponsor slips it in on the final frame, is modestly understated: "A presentation of U.S. Steel."
I have included a Quicktime of Rhapsody of Steel at the bottom of this post, and you can find many other John Sutherland fIlms at Archive.org. This book suffers from little tiny pictures and oceans of white space, so I've enlarged a bunch of the pictures so you can see them better.

John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
John Sutherland Rhapsody of Steel
Courtesy of Archive supporter, Kevin Kidney, here is a video of the film for you to view...

Rhapsody of Steel (Sutherland/1959)
(Quicktime 7 / 22 minutes / 50.5 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's a great post by Michael Sporn on Eyvind Earle.

If you found this article to be interesting, see also... Artzybasheff's Machinalia, The Alvin Show Pilot Storyboard, Jules Engel's Alvin Show Color Keys, UPA Done Right, Early 50s UPA Model Sheets, Herb Klynn The Shrimp, and Grim Natwick's Post UPA Commercials.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Friday, December 28, 2007

2007 Review: 2 Grim Natwick

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.

Grim Natwick

NUMBER 2: GRIM NATWICK

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is pleased to present an exhibit of material from the collection of legendary animator, Grim Natwick. If you are in the area, stop by to see the exhibit.

Grim NatwickGrim Natwick is undoubtedly one of the most influential animators who ever lived. His career spanned the entire history of animation- from its earliest days in New York to Richard Williams' Cobbler and the Thief in recent times. Grim worked at many of the major studios- Hearst, Fleicher, Iwerks, Disney, Lantz, UPA, Jay Ward, Melendez and Richard WIlliams. He animated in every style, but was able to maintain his own personal flavor, regardless of whether he was animating for modern studios like UPA or cartoony ones like Fleischer. If one had to define the single element that set his animation apart, it would have to be that his characters always seemed to have a genuine spark of life.

Grim NatwickGrim NatwickGrim was a friend of mine. I spent many entertaining afternoons with him on his porch, listening to his memories of "the old days". Grim remembered everything. I once mentioned the name of an assistant animator he worked with at Fleischer. Grim not only recalled working with him more than half a century before, he remembered his bowling scores! When Grim passed away at the ripe old age of 100, his family asked me to organize his artwork. Whenever Grim left a studio, the contents of his desk was emptied into boxes and sent off to his storage locker in Missouri. When all of the boxes arrived for sorting at his apartment in Santa Monica, I was astonished to find thousands and thousands of drawings- amazing examples from a career that spanned more than 75 years.

Grim Natwick
The drawings that were most precious were the gag drawings and caricatures that grew on the walls of the studios like leaves on a tree. There were also many important sketches documenting Grim's thought process- the roughs that were usually thrown in the trash after a job was completed. These are the drawings that make up this exhibit. I hope this exhibit gives you a clear idea of who Grim Natwick was as an artist and as a person. -Stephen Worth



THE ONLINE EXHIBIT CATALOG


Grim Natwick Exhibit
Assistant Archivist, Joseph Baptista views the exhibit.

GRIM NATWICK'S SCRAPBOOK
An Exhibit Presented By The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
2114 W Burbank Bl
Burbank, CA 91506
Now Showing, Tuesday through Friday 1pm to 9pm

Follow this series of posts over the course of this coming week. I think you'll be amazed at the versitility and creativity of this great artist. Stop by and see the exhibit soon.

Many thanks to the Walter Lantz Foundation for providing the facilities for this exhibit, and to the Walt Disney Animation Research Library for providing the mattes.

Go To Number 1 on the list of Top Ten Subjects of 2007

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
,

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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.

Clair Weeks
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...

Clair Weeks
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...

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
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...

Building of the Disney Studios
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...

Clair 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...

Clair Weeks Animal Studies
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...

Clair Weeks Animal Studies
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...

Clair Weeks Animal Studies
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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Friday, December 21, 2007

Another Christmas Gift: Snow White Scrapbook

Clair Weeks 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.

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
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.

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

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
Good Housekeeping article
illustrated by Tenggren.

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
Life Magazine
Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
Esquire Magazine review by Gilbert Seldes,
along with the 1937 and 1938 studio Christmas cards.

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
Popular Science focuses on the mechanics
of the animation production process.

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
One of Time Magazine's most famous covers.
Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
Liberty Magazine along with a scrap
of Snow White fabric.

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

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
Stage Magazine
Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
Great two page spread on the people
behind the scenes from Movie Pix.

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
Hirschfeld's scathing pan from
the New York TImes is flanked by
a mask of Grumpy!

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

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
Hollywood Magazine for a nickle
and a Snow White ham!

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook
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.

Clair Weeks Snow White Scrapbook

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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Friday, November 09, 2007

Exhibit: Grim Natwick's Scrapbook Index

Grim Natwick
Feel free to bookmark this page as a "jump page" to read the articles on Grim Natwick in order.

Please help us spread the word about this exhibit. Tell your friends. Post about it to your blogs. Thanks!
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Thursday, November 08, 2007

Exhibit: Grim Natwick's Caricatures And Gag Drawings

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.

Grim Natwick
Grim Natwick with his "kid assistant",
Chuck Jones (Iwerks/1933)


PART FOUR: THE GREATEST ANIMATOR
WHO EVER LIVED

Like most animators, Grim Natwick had a unique sense of humor. He was famous for his limericks, scribbled in on the margins of his animation drawings. Here are a couple of doozies by Grim...

CaricatureCaricatureI've broken my friendship with Babbitt
Because of his slovenly habit
Of eating out loud
And I've never been proud
Of his nibbling bones like a rabbit!

"It's true!" said the painter to the prude
"I sketch all my ladies in the nude
A dress is OK
For a window display
But on my girls, it wouldn't improve."

A nail sitting Hindoo said "I
Have perched here and gazed at the sky
Till I've punctured my hide
Fillagreed my back side
I'm damned if I've ever known why!"

Grim Natwick
Grim prized his studio gag drawings above all the others in his collection. He described how they came to be for me one day...

Grim Self CaricatureGrim Self Caricature"At Lantz, we all worked very hard. But occasionally, we would need to take a break and have fun. One of us would draw a quick caricature of one of the other animators, or do a cartoon on a funny situation that had taken place. He'd tiptoe out into the hallway and pin it up on the board and sneak back to his desk. Pretty soon, someone else would come along and see the drawing and run back to his desk to answer the gag, pinning up their sketch on the board alongside the other one. By the end of the day, the board would be covered with funny drawings. We'd pull them all down and start all over again the next day."

THE ANIMATOR & HIS ASSISTANT
A Series Of Studio Gag Drawings From UPA NY (ca. 1955)

As an "animation historian", I've never been as interested in the dates and figures related to animation as much as the process- and how it felt to be a part of a golden age studio. These sketches give a clear indication of that, better than words could ever tell...

Animator and Assistant UPA NY
Animator and Assistant UPA NYAnimator and Assistant UPA NY
Animator and Assistant UPA NYAnimator and Assistant UPA NY
Animator and Assistant UPA NYAnimator and Assistant UPA NY
Animator and Assistant UPA NYAnimator and Assistant UPA NY
Animator and Assistant UPA NYAnimator and Assistant UPA NY
Animator and Assistant UPA NYAnimator and Assistant UPA NY
Animator and Assistant UPA NYAnimator and Assistant UPA NY
Animator and Assistant UPA NYAnimator and Assistant UPA NY

CONCLUSION

CaricatureCaricatureWell... It says "conclusion" up there, so I better get to telling you why Grim Natwick was the greatest animator who ever lived. I don't know how many readers of this blog have had a chance to digest all of my articles from this week. It certainly has been very difficult to summarize a career as long and varied as Grim Natwick's. I had always intended to write a book on Grim, but the weblog may actually be the best format for telling his story.

Books on animation history are usually organized by studio. If you read Leonard Maltin's great book, Of Mice & Magic, Grim Natwick's name is sprinkled throughout six chapters. That might give you the idea that Grim was a marginal figure who moved around a lot. But when you read his life story chronologically- not inserted into six separate chapters- you realize that Grim's life story IS the story of the history of animation. The history of animation isn't the story of studios and characters- it's the story of the artists whose talents created the magic up there on the screen.

Grim Natwick was the greatest animator who ever lived. But I still haven't told you why yet!

CaricatureCaricatureGrim loved to tell long, convoluted stories that would inevitably ramble back around to his point. Here's a story like that...

ASIFA-Hollywood heard that Grim was in town and was celebrating a birthday, so we threw a party for him. As he was blowing out the candles, Grim announced that he was pleased to spend his 100th birthday in such fine company. Everyone in the room gasped. No one had any idea that it was Grim's 100th birthday. The room burst into applause. Antran Manoogian, the president of ASIFA-Hollywood drove Grim home after the party. In the car, Grim was uncharacteristically quiet and sheepish. He finally said, "Young man, I have a confession to make... I told everyone that I was 100, but I'm only 97." Antran laughed and promised Grim that ASIFA would throw him an even better party in three years- the best birthday party ever.

Antran kept that promise. when Grim turned 100, ASIFA threw a huge celebration at the Sportsman's Lodge in Studio City. Hundreds of people attended, including co-workers from every studio Grim ever worked with. Grim described it as "the most illustrious gathering of animators since Winsor McCay's testimonial dinner in the late 1920s". At the end of the evening an announcement was made for all of Grim's former coworkers and assistants to gather on the stage for a photo. Animator, Michael Sporn recently posted this photo...

Grim Natwick's Birthday Party
Grim Natwick's Birthday Party
Grim By ChuckGrim By ChuckThree of Grim's former assistants were chosen to address the audience that evening... Walter Lantz (Hearst), Chuck Jones (Iwerks) and Marc Davis (Disney). All three spoke of Grim's generosity and friendship. They credited Grim with teaching them their trade and inspiring them to become better artists. Those three men weren't alone in that. Dozens of other great animators... Bill Littlejohn, Irv Spence, Willard Bowsky, Berny Wolf, Tissa David, Shamus Culhane- too many to mention- all traced their own accomplishments back to Grim's example when they were just starting out. Grim's "kid assistants" went on to form the artistic core of every major animation studio in the United States.

Grim is the greatest animator who ever lived, not just for his own accomplishments, but for what he shared with the people he worked with. Animation was never just a job to him. It was his passion. He instilled that passion in his assistants, and those assistants went out into the world and became great themselves. Grim Natwick was the catalyst who made the entire history of animation possible. That's why he is the greatest animator who ever lived.



EXHIBIT CATALOG: GRIM NATWICK'S CARICATURES & GAG DRAWINGS

Grim Natwick
Top Row: Caricatures of Grim (left to right) Self caricature* (ca.1926/Hearst) / Self caricature with assistant, Chuck Jones* (1933/Iwerks) / Caricature of Grim on studio outing to Catalina by Chuck Jones (1933/Iwerks) / Caricature of Grim in his fancy suit (ca. 1942/Lantz) / Caricature of Grim at his "studies in Vienna" possibly by Art Heinemann (UPA ca.1955)

Middle Row: (left to right) Two sketches depicting the love/hate relationship between Emery Hawkins and Grim Natwick* (ca. 1944/Lantz) / Bill Nolan at the Krazy Kat Studio* (ca. 1926) / Studio gag drawing (ca. 1959/Robert Lawrence) / Studio gag drawing* (ca. 1936/Disney)

Bottom Row: Tony Sgroi and "Bugs" Hardaway (ca. 1947/Lantz) / Manny Gould* & Sammy Stimpson* (ca. 1926/Krazy Kat Studio) / Bill Nolan with a cold* (ca. 1919/Hearst) / top: Dick Lundy* (ca. 1936/Disney) bottom: Freddie Moore* (ca. 1936/Disney) / Studio gag drawings* (ca. 1929/Fleischer) / Caricatures of Jack Carr* (ca.1923/Krazy Kat Studio)

* denotes a drawing by Grim Natwick




Grim Natwick Exhibit
Assistant Archivist, Joseph Baptista views the exhibit.

GRIM NATWICK'S SCRAPBOOK
An Exhibit Presented By The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive
2114 W Burbank Bl
Burbank, CA 91506
Now Showing, Tuesday through Friday 1pm to 9pm

Many thanks to the Walter Lantz Foundation for providing the facilities for this exhibit, and to the Walt Disney Animation Research Library for providing the mattes.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
,

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