New On Our Blogroll

"Spectorphile" (http://irvspector.blogspot.com/) is a new blog devoted to the life and works of animator and comics artist Irv Spector, featuring artifacts from a collection of his artwork curated by his son Paul. Irv Spector was most prominent in animation at the Fleischer and Famous/Paramount cartoon studios first as a writer and story sketch artist, then, in the 1960's, as an animator. He also has some twists, turns and anomalies in his career, such as the one cartoon he directed at DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, "Corn on the Cop" (a Warner Bros. release which, interestingly enough, was written by Friz Freleng). He also worked for Hal Seeger on comic books published under Seeger's Stanhall banner.

Time Out For A Popeye Cartoon

This is a 1945 Popeye cartoon called "Mess Production" directed by Seymour Kneitel. It's got an unbelievable (and unbelievably uncredited) music score by Winston Sharples, who by this time had totally supplanted Sammy Timberg as the musical director for the studio. The last minute has some great music cues including Popeye's romantic stupor and his final walk through the factory, a faster reprise of cues already heard in the cartoon.

It also benefits from the three regular performers of Popeye, Bluto and Olive - Jack Mercer, Jackson Beck and Mae Questel - at a time when various other performers were temporarily doing the Popeye voice like Harry Welch and even Mae Questel.

We haven't the foggiest idea what they're making in this factory, all full of dangerous gadgets which could kill any character at any time. The various scenes of Olive walking on suspended girders (and what are they doing in an already built factory?) call to mind one of the earliest Popeye cartoons, "A Dream Walking" (which was animated in part by Seymour Kneitel).

More Boop

Here's one from the period where Betty Boop was reduced to cameo appearances in cartoons starring other characters like Pudgy, Wiffle Piffle, and Grampy. Those characters were each the invention of a specific Fleischer staff animator; respectively, Myron Waldman, Tom Johnson, and Dave Tendlar. This 1938 example, produced shortly before Fleischer moved to Miami, is called "Riding The Rails" and features Pudgy, here animated by Myron Waldman and Hicks Lokey (later a fixture at Hanna-Barbera). This one has a sprightly music score featuring lighter instruments. (There was a Popeye a few years earlier that used similar instrumentation... I think it was "Let's Get Movin'" "Cops Is Always Right".) So you see, the later Boops aren't entirely worthless.

Myron Waldman 1908-2006

Myron Waldman was an animator of extreme durability throughout the classic era of cartoons and well into the television era. He has died in a Long Island hospital months short of his 98th birthday.

Waldman was one of the last living links to the Fleischer Studios, with many credits on Betty Boop and Color Classic cartoons. He was one of the few men who believed in that era that women could animate as well as men and promoted Lillian Friedman to an animator's position in his unit, at the parallel time that Walter Lantz was opening the same sort of door for La Verne Harding on the West Coast.

G. Michael Dobbs has more information on his blog.

Cartoon Pages Update

We have made updates to some of the Cartoon Filmographies, specifically those of Fleischer, Famous, and DePatie-Freleng. In quite a few cases we have corrected credits and have added some cartoons that previously had only directors listed.

Now for even better news: we will soon be hosting a listing of Walter Lantz cartoons, in the style of our other filmographies.