The Animator, January 1938

 

The second issue of The Animator is missing as of this writing, so here is the third edition from the start of January 1938. Snow White had its Carthay Circle premiere and would have its general release the following month.

The Animator provided an avenue for sharing industry news with Guild members, outside of the usual trade journals such as Variety, The Film Daily, et. al., chiefly Ub Iwerks’s upcoming series of “Gran’Pop Monkey” cartoons based on the illustrations by Lawson Wood. Contrary to what the newsletter persists, twenty-four cartoons - not fifty - were planned, but according to The Film Daily, only three were completed by the end of 1938, with no more produced. 

The newsletter also proudly declares its objective: “The Screen Cartoon Guild is the only bonafide organization representing all of the studios in the animated cartoon industry.”

Though she is unnamed in the newsletter, the home address of Schlesinger employee/Guild secretary Charlotte Darling, appears again at the bottom of the document. 

Courtesy of Mark Kausler. 

_______

 

Now, here’s issue number 4, from January 21, 1938. 

“Looney Tunes” in color? Charles McKimson joins MGM! New model sheets for Scrappy! By then, the Screen Cartoon Guild’s membership expanded, mainly from artists at Walter Lantz.

 

As you'll see on the left hand column, the writer heavily criticizes the anti-union organization The Neutral Thousands (initialized as TNT), established in 1937, and Harman-Ising's "sudden and inconvenient" shutdowns, which laid off many of its artists. 

 

In their “Exposure Sheet” column, the Guild newsletter offers exclusive tidbits otherwise undocumented in the trades, frequently providing the only clue as to one’s career path in animation. We’ve previously seen that Charles (“Chuck”), the youngest McKimson brother, started in animation as early as 1933 at Harman-Ising; now, we see that Charles joined MGM’s cartoon department (which opened months earlier in August 1937.) It is uncertain how long Charles worked at MGM and in what capacity—assistant or full animator is my educated guess. At any rate, Chuck joined Leon Schlesinger as a full-fledged animator in Tex Avery’s unit, receiving his first on-screen credit in Land of the Midnight Fun (1939).

The name “Peter Paige” escapes me, but it might be Peter Page, who became a Disney storyman by 1939. (David Gerstein and JB Kaufman, Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History, pp. 321-322.)

The newsletter references Boy Meets Dog, Walter Lantz’s commercial film for Ipana Toothpaste, the “nationally known molar grease company” in question. Like Disney borrowed Harman-Ising’s inkers and painters for Snow White, Leon Schlesinger allowed Walter to use his ink-and-paint staff to meet the sponsored cartoon’s deadline.

 

 

Background painter John Waltz, a name brought to my attention by Steven Hartley years ago, was profiled on Tralfaz. Perhaps Waltz was hired at MGM to do background paintings, as well? 

 

As many animation fans are aware, the Looney Tunes continued in black-and-white until 1942’s The Hep Cat, directed by Bob Clampett. An original release print of the series’ color debut has not survived, more commonly seen in its 1949 “Blue Ribbon” reissue.

Lew Landsman’s departure from Schlesinger’s is worthy of note. A storyman for Schlesinger, Landsman received only one screen credit there (see left). Later, Lew returned to Leon Schlesinger’s—the studio’s internal house organ, also named The Exposure Sheet, announced his second departure in approximately February 1939. In fact, a September 1945 issue of Top Cel shares that Lew found a job at Famous Studios in New York (no occupation is specified.) 

 

For its final anecdote, the newsletter proclaims 1938 as a “banner year” for Mickey Mouse, who Donald Duck eclipsed, and Walt knew it. On January 10, 1938, renowned musical conductor Leopold Stokowski recorded an orchestration of Paul Dukas’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” for a “special” Mickey Mouse comeback vehicle; its development began as early as May 1937. (Barrier, Hollywood Cartoons)  

 

 

Courtesy of CSUN Northridge Archives, Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Guild, Local 839 Collection. Special thanks to David Sigler for providing this document.

Harman-Ising Employees, Late 1937/Early 1938

[Author’s note: this blog will profile a few of the Harman-Ising employees listed on the roster below in future posts.]

Following the 1933 Harman-Ising payroll records, we jump forward to 1937, during the arduous period when Hugh and Rudy’s distributor, MGM, terminated its contract with their studio in February after a three-year arrangement.

Here is a handwritten employee sheet, dated approximately September 1937, when the studio closed after a legal dispute with Metro over cartoons that had yet to be delivered. Meanwhile, Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was in an urgent rush to meet its December premiere, so Walt borrowed all thirty of Harman-Ising’s inkers and painters, along with background artists Don Schaffer and Art Riley. In return, Disney outsourced a Silly Symphony, Merbabies, to Harman and Ising, keeping them financially afloat. 

 

 

An annotated guide listing the artists on the sheet, including the top margins of the first page. (The "IB" signifies an in-betweener, and the "A" close to Anthony "Tony" Pabian's name implies an assistant animator, but the "C" label next to Bill Tracy and Sandy Walker's names puzzles me.)

Story Department
Jonathan “Mo” Caldwell
Jack Cosgriff
Charles McGirl
Jerry Brewer

Music
Scott Bradley
Barbara Wirth [exposure sheets]
Clarence Wheeler

Backgrounds
Don Schaffer [loaned by Disney until November 1, 1937]
Art Riley [loaned by Disney until November 1, 1937]
Bob Gentle

Layout
John Niendorff
Don Smith
Maurice “Jake” Day
Lee Blair [color stylist]
Martin Provensen

Animation
Jim Pabian

Mel Shaw
Carl Urbano
Pete Burness
Rollin Hamilton
Tom McKimson
Lee Blair
Manuel Moreno
Tony Pabian

Frank Tipper
Merle Gilson
George Grandpre
Paul Murphy
Dick Marion
Thomas Byrne

 

Assistant Animators

Casey Onaitis
Mike Lah
William Smith
Al Coe
Francis Smith
Bill Tracy
Sandy Walker
Edwin Fourcher
Ernest Lynch

In-Between Dept.
Jack Miller
Thurston Harper
Al Pabian
Dick Kinney
Thomas Barnes
George Miller
Pepe Ruiz
Tom Armstrong
Frank Scheidenberger
Al Bertino
Alden Bicheno

Camera
Herman F. Ising
Max Ising
Paul Sprunck [effects]

 

Misc.
Walter Elliott [sound technician]
L. R. Weckerly [office accountant]
H. McLemore [secretary]
Lenore Cady [office]
Gwendolyn Wells
Harry Binder [maintenance]
James Cook [photography]
Howard Hanson
Jerry Baldwin 

A. H. Pickett 

F. S. Patterson

 

________

  

Here is a Harman-Ising employees' contract list, which also lists staffers not under contract "to whom notices were sent on 9-30-37." 

 

________

 

Harman-Ising’s business manager, Gordon Wilson, issued this notice to the animation department. The two columns are divided between animator and assistant animator. Note that animators Frank Tipper, Merle Gilson, George Grandpre, Paul Murphy, Dick Marion, Thomas Byrne are not present in the document, indicating that they were laid off from H-I. Surviving studio production papers imply that Frank, Merle, and George quickly found jobs at Walter Lantz.

Thanks to Mark Kausler for lending the production materials for this post.

Harman-Ising Staff, Autumn 1933

In early 1933, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising split their business relationship with Leon Schlesinger. Leon decided to open a new studio that summer, leaving Harman and Ising without work. Hugh and Rudy subcontracted work from the Van Beuren Corporation on a trio of cartoons with Cubby Bear. Harman-Ising then commissioned an animated sequence of the Walrus and the Carpenter in Paramount’s all-star adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.

For this post, Mark Kausler provided an essential document from Harman’s papers: a typewritten list of Harman-Ising employees on the studio payroll during the hiatus between the end of Hugh and Rudy’s contract with Schlesinger and the start of their MGM release in early 1934. Bob Clampett, the first recruit in Leon’s new studio, is absent from the personnel sheet. Also, note that Hugh, Rudy, and animators Rollin “Ham” Hamilton and Carmen “Max” Maxwell had relatives on staff at H-I.

Notably, the payroll records specify that Hugh and Rudy highly valued Isadore “Friz” Freleng and Ham Hamilton—Freleng at $225 a week and Hamilton at $200 a week. [In 2024 US currency, Friz: $5,457.13; Ham: $4,850.78.]

In future posts, this blog will profile a few of the Harman-Ising employees listed on the roster below.

An annotated guide that lists when various H-I staffers left the payroll:

September 14
Paul Conlon

September 19
Herman F. Ising

September 24
Frank Marsales [received a check for Cubby Bear #3 (Mischievous Mice) on November 6, 1933]

September 27
Jonathan “Mo” Caldwell
Otto Englander
Friz Freleng
Rita Gulick
Walker Harman

September 28
Don Smith

September 29
Rollin Hamilton
Larry Martin
Bob McKimson
Larry Silverman

September 30
Sandy Walker

October 2
Tom McKimson
Bob Stokes

October 3
Norm Blackburn

October 4
Bob Allen
Tom Byrne
Hugh Harman
Murray Hudson
Rudolf Ising
Charles McKimson
Mel Shaw
Francis Smith
Paul Smith
Gladys Stout
Elmer Wait
James Williams

October 5
Idelle G. Berkson 
Lillian Freleng
Dale Lemon
Carman Maxwell
Jack Maxwell
Irene Urban (née Hamilton, Rollin Hamilton’s sister)

October 7
Marie Coffey 
Lawrence "Art" Goble
Howard Hanson
James Hazell 
Anna McCaskill
Melvin Millar
Irene “Pee-Wee” Wyman

October 9
Bill Hanna

October 11
Max Ising

Special thanks to Mark Kausler for providing the rare production materials for this post.

Pegbar Profile: Emery Hawkins

Much of the information in this profile uses John Canemaker's interview with Emery Hawkins, intended to research his book The Animated Raggedy Ann & Andy, as a primary source, unless otherwise noted. This is part one in a series of three posts. 

Emery Otis Hawkins was born April 30, 1912, in Jerome, Arizona, to Charles Thomas Hawkins and Frances Elizabeth Bruce.1 Hawkins remembered that his hometown of Jerome “was on the side of a mountain, and it was honey-combed with mining shafts.” He and his family moved from Jerome to Cottonwood, then to Camp Verde, before settling in Stonewood Lake. For two years, Emery’s father, Charles, was “the all-around cowboy” of Arizona. “Roping, riding, throwing, everything, all of it,” Hawkins explained. “Trick roping, everything. He could play a fiddle and jig and call a dance all at once. He had been a dairyman and a cattleman, done all that.”2

1910s postcard of Jerome, Arizona. 

Hawkins began drawing at two years old, like many young children his age. His mother, Frances, shared his artistic nature, being a painter herself. The other side of his family— ”aunts and things”—also immersed themselves in music and painting. Frances separated from her husband, taking her young son out West to California. On October 11, 1919, Frances remarried to Fred E. Taylor in Los Angeles, relocating to San Diego by 1920.3  A cabinetmaker by trade, Fred “made everything of his own in the days when you couldn’t go out and buy all-electric tools...made all his own, put his motors up, made babbitt bearings for the shafts.”

Hawkins’s love for drawing continued, with his first published work appearing in the Los Angeles Times cartoon section at age 14.4  Hawkins received an education at Fremont “some of the time,” then transferred to North Hollywood High. Meanwhile, the monumental success of Walt Disney’s new sound picture Steamboat Willie inspired many budding artists nationwide to pursue a career working in animated cartoons. The young Hawkins had already dabbled in animation on notebooks and flipbooks. “I had a desk before I ever saw the inside of a studio,” he said. The sixteen-year-old had animated a scene of a clown walking and dancing to prove his capabilities to Disney. “I couldn’t get past the door. They said, ‘We don’t want copy work.’ They didn’t think I did it.”

After graduating high school, Hawkins took his first animation job, starting at Walter Lantz’s studio as an inker. This stint only lasted a couple of months. “I changed all the cels because I didn’t like the way it was animated, so they canned me.” Rearranging the animation during the ink-and-paint process launched a series of mildly subversive acts that would become characteristic of Hawkins throughout his career. Hawkins was aware of this side of his behavior, stating frankly, “Actually, I’ve always been kind of a renegade in the business.”

When Hawkins took his first job in the animation business in the early thirties, he would have worked on cartoons featuring Walter Lantz's flagship character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. 

Image courtesy: Heritage Auctions.

Charles Mintz’s studio produced cartoons featuring Krazy Kat and Scrappy, distributed by Columbia Pictures. Hawkins entered there as early as 1932, working alongside veteran animator Dick Huemer on the Scrappys.5 The timing was fortunate since Hawkins could bypass the position of in-betweener and assistant. “[Huemer] supposedly was going to have me work on stuff, but he wanted to leave. So, he’d come in the morning and make some drawings and give them to me and he’d put one drawing on the board, turn the light out and kill the day, and I’d animate. After a couple of months, I was a regular animator.”

Farewell drawing addressed to Philip Davis (older brother of Arthur Davis), dated March 15, 1933. Hawkins is caricatured and labeled among the group of artists on the far right. 

Image courtesy: Steven Marshall and Sharon Davis.

Shortly after, the studio went into a state of turmoil. The chief animator-directors Huemer, Sid Marcus, Ben Harrison, and Manny Gould participated in a walkout over a salary dispute between Mintz and Columbia.6  Mintz disregarded their demands and granted the remaining artists a promotion in their absence. “[He] turned to all the young guys that were there and said, ‘Look, you’re animators.’ So we all started animating.” After a failed negotiation with Columbia, Huemer left Mintz to work for Disney while Marcus, Harrison, and Gould returned back. Many newly promoted animators returned to assisting, but Hawkins’s status remained intact—he officially became a full-fledged animator.

A short time later, Hawkins left Charles Mintz, regaining his chance to work for Walt Disney. Upon his entrance, he sat next to a young artist named Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman.7  However, Mintz contacted Disney and threatened to raid Disney’s animators if they kept Hawkins. Ben Sharpsteen, supervisor of a unit of trainee Disney animators during the early 1930s, informed Hawkins that Mintz was “raising hell.” Emery was forced to leave Disney after only a few days and returned to Mintz. In later years, Hawkins strikingly did not resent Mintz for the maneuver: “[Mintz was] actually a nice person. I mean they broke me in, gave me the opportunity and I owed them something.”

Hawkins continued to sharpen his skills at Mintz, animating on cartoons directed by Art Davis and others by Sid Marcus. Then, in 1934, Mintz decided to bring color into his cartoons, introducing a series of Color Rhapsodies. (Due to Disney’s exclusive rights to three-strip Technicolor, the early Rhapsodies were filmed in the two-color process; two-color used red and green color separations, not allowing a full spectrum of hues, compared to Disney’s Silly Symphonies. However, by 1936, Disney’s contract with Technicolor had expired, and the Rhapsodies were permitted to use the full three-strip color process.) 

Hawkins also animated on a series of Technicolor cartoons featuring Billy De Beck’s popular comic strip character Barney Google, each directed by Marcus, released in 1935 and 1936. Today, these cartoons only survive in black-and-white home movie extracts and redrawn colorizations, without sound, due to King Features’ decree for the film studios to destroy any adaptation of their properties after a ten-year period. One of the most notable Color Rhapsodies with Hawkins’s involvement was Art Davis’s The Little Match Girl (released November 1937); its daring retelling of the story earned the film an Academy Award nomination.

Model sheet of The Little Match Girl, attributed to Emery Hawkins. 

Image courtesy: Howard Lowery Auctions.

 

Compilation of scenes animated by Hawkins at Charles Mintz’s studio. Clips from: LET’S RING DOORBELLS (Art Davis/1935), SCRAPPY’S BOY SCOUTS (Art Davis/1936), A BOY AND HIS DOG (Sid Marcus/1936), MOTHER HEN’S HOLIDAY (Sid Marcus/1937), SCARY CROWS (Sid Marcus/1937), THE AIR HOSTESS (Sid Marcus/1937), THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL (Sid Marcus/1937), THE FOOLISH BUNNY (Sid Marcus/1938), WINDOW SHOPPING (Sid Marcus/1938). Also included are excerpts from three Barney Google cartoons, each directed by Sid Marcus: TETCHED IN THE HEAD (1935), PATCH MAH BRITCHES (1935), and SPARK PLUG (1936). Since these cartoons only survive in silent versions, an instrumental piano cover (by Marion Abbott) of the hit 1920s tune “Barney Google” plays as accompaniment. Thanks to Mark Kausler for his input.

In the summer of 1937, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) terminated its contract with producer-directors Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising, and constructed an animation department of their own. Metro arranged plans to produce a series of 13 cartoons based on Rudolf Dirks’ comic strip, The Captain and the Kids.8  By October 15, MGM had hired a large staff of directors, storymen, animators, layout, and background artists for their new animation division.9  A few days later, The Film Daily announced Hawkins’s arrival, along with two other animators, Ray Abrams and Leonard Sebring.10

Model sheet of Der Captain, drawn by Charlie Thorson. 

In the Captain and the Kids cartoons, MGM initiated three directorial units headed by Bill Hanna, Bob Allen, and Friz Freleng. Freleng’s first cartoon for MGM, Poultry Pirates (released April 1938), required Hawkins to animate a small six-foot scene of a baby chick carrying a large tomato. As Freleng recounted, “Well, by the time he got through, it was up to thirty feet of the most gorgeous animation. He had that little bird going up hills and losing his balance and trying to hold on to the tomato—everything—and no repeats. It was so beautiful I cut some other scenes to keep it in the picture!”11

While at MGM, Hawkins married Mary Angeline Felton on March 8, 1938. Lovell Norman, another MGM artist, is listed as a witness in their marriage certificate. The two had previously worked together at Mintz—Hawkins personally recommended Lovell Norman for a job in animation there earlier in 1934, giving him his start in the business.12  Norman later became the chief sound editor at MGM in the forties and fifties. (Three months later, Hawkins returned the favor, listed as a witness in his friend’s marriage certificate in June 1938.13)

Freleng’s sixth cartoon in production, Honduras' Hurricane (released October 1938), showcased frenetic energy that greatly surpassed Hawkins's previous work. Emery animated a sequence with a pugnacious baby eagle whirling around, throwing a flurry of punches at the titular prize rooster. He also handled the following scene of the rooster dragging his glove with a large anvil stuffed inside, conveying different expressions of sheer delight, ready to defeat his opponent before he is delivered another punch. Hawkins continued working with Freleng at MGM, but also animated for another supervisor during his brief tenure there: the notable comic strip artist Milt Gross. Gross took over as head of the MGM story department by April 1938, creating cartoons featuring his characters Count Screwloose and J. R. the Wonder Dog.14  However, Gross clashed with various staffers at MGM—especially producer Fred Quimby, which led to Gross’ departure.15  Only two Count Screwloose titles were completed—Jitterbug Follies and Wanted: No Master (both released 1939.)

Meanwhile, Hawkins dealt with confrontations of his own at MGM. While he enjoyed working with Freleng, he “got into a fight over his way of doing things.” Rather than supervising animators’ scenes by having them flip through their drawings—the traditional method for many—Freleng often insisted on shooting rough pencil tests and asking for revisions after viewing them.16  This working method aggravated many animators at MGM since it interfered with their deadlines and footage quotas. Displeased with Freleng’s approach to directing, Hawkins quit MGM, leaving to work for Walt Disney once again.

Scenes animated by Hawkins at MGM, in production order. Clips excerpted from POULTRY PIRATES (Freleng/1938 – prod. 5), A DAY AT THE BEACH (Freleng/1938 – prod. 10), HONDURAS’ HURRICANE (Freleng/1938 – prod. 14), PETUNIA NATIONAL PARK (Freleng/1939 – prod. 15), JITTERBUG FOLLIES (Gross/1939 – prod. 18).

____________________________________________________________________________

1 Arizona, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1880-1935. Courtesy: Ancestry. Charles and Frances’s marriage certificate, dated November 10, 1910, lists his mother as “Frances E. Bruce.”. Arizona, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1865-1972. Courtesy: Ancestry. She is otherwise listed as “Elizabeth Bruce” in Emery’s marriage certificate, dated March 6, 1938. California, County Marriages, 1850-1952. Courtesy: FamilySearch.

2  Emery's birth certificate lists Charles's occupation as a cowboy. Arizona, U.S., Birth Certificates, 1880-1935. Courtesy: Ancestry. His draft registration card, dated September 12, 1918, mentions his residence at Camp Verde in Yavapai County, Arizona, working as a “cattle manger [sic].” U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Courtesy: Ancestry.

3  California, U.S., County Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1849-1980; 1920 US Federal Census, San Diego, District 0251, lines 14-16. Emery and Frances’s surnames are listed as “Taylor” in the census.

4 “Taos Cartoonist Animates Life.” The Taos News, January 7, 1982. Hawkins possibly submitted his first cartoon to “The Junior Times,” a Sunday supplement in The Los Angeles Times that encouraged young children to submit fiction, poetry, and artwork. Future animators like Bob Clampett and Fred Moore regularly drew illustrations for "The Junior Times." However, in researching the “Junior Times” pages issued in 1926 (and early 1927), when Emery was fourteen years old, there is no evidence of any artwork with his signature, regardless if Emery used both Hawkins or Taylor as surnames. The 1930 census lists Hawkins’s family in Los Angeles, with a Herman C. Platt as an occupant living in their residence. Again, Emery’s last name is noted as “Taylor.” 1930 US Federal Census, Los Angeles, San Antonio, District 1372, lines 26-29.

5 The 1932 Graham city directory lists his occupation as a cartoonist, though it does not list his place of employment. It is plausible that Hawkins started at Mintz that year.

6 Joe Adamson, interview with Dick Huemer, July 28, 1968, transcription in Recollections of Richard Huemer Oral History Transcript, p. 45.

7 John Canemaker, Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation, p. 33. In his interview, Hawkins did not clarify his status as an artist working for Disney. Reitherman was hired at the studio on May 21, 1933, so this event might have occurred after.

8 The Film Daily, June 24, 1937, pp. 1 and 3.

9 The Film Daily, October 15, 1937, p. 12.

10 The Film Daily, October 22, 1937, p. 7.

11 John Canemaker, The Animated Raggedy Ann and Andy, p. 85.

12 Kingman Daily Miner, September 2, 1992, pp. 1 and 3.

13 Marriage license of Lovell Burch Norman and Marguerite Estelle Reese, dated June 26, 1938. California, County Marriages, 1850-1952. Courtesy: FamilySearch.

14 The Film Daily, April 30, 1938, p. 2.

15 Milton Gray, interview with George Gordon, January 4, 1977; quoted in Michael Barrier, Hollywood Cartoons, p. 290.

16 Michael Barrier, Hollywood Cartoons, pg. 472.

An Insight into the Research Process

When researching a specific artist, one can look at an artist's career and notice gaps within a particular period. As I shared in my introductory post, one of the primary sources for these biographies are in-studio house organs from places such as Disney's, Fleischer, Schlesinger's/WB, and MGM. In addition, union newsletters, such as The Animator, The Peg-Board, and Top Cel, were cited. In some cases, these publications are the only surviving record of the many career moves these artists have taken in their professional lives - almost like a lost history. 

The Exposure Sheet (Leon Schlesinger, 1939-40)

The Bulletin (Disney, 1939-41)

Fleischer's Animated News (1934-37)

Warners Club News (studio house organ; 1944-64 for Warners cartoons)

MGM Studio Club News (studio house organ; 1937-57 [?] for its cartoons)

West Coast animation union newsletter, which evolved to The Peg-Board. 

West Coast animation union publication rebranded as The Peg-Board around the 1950s. 

East Coast animation union publication. Cover by Howard Beckerman.

I am deeply grateful for the folks who have shared these rare periodicals with me or shared them on a public forum. Correspondence with archives in obtaining copies of studio house organs (particularly MGM Studio Club News) is currently in progress. Incidentally, if anyone owns or knows someone who has issues of The Animator or The Peg-Board in their collection, feel free to email me at pegbarprofiles@gmail.com. The search for many of them continues!