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Miró, Matisse, Picasso, and...Woody Woodpecker?

The post Must-See Los Angeles Art Show: ‘Woody Woodpecker & The Avant-Garde’ appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

At a flea market in Paris, I discovered this irresistibly awful set of dead-stock pins featuring Walter Lantz characters.

Randy Riddle has uncovered an extremely rare bit of Hollywood cartoon history: an an audition for a children’s radio series based on Walter Lantz’s creations like Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda.

The half-hour pilot, titled "Sally in Hollywoodland," was recorded June 3, 1947, but apparently never went beyond this single test episode. Highlights include a creepy-sounding Woody at noraml recording speed, as well as performances by Billy Bletcher and a young June Foray. Had the show gone into production, it would have been the first time the Lantz characters appeared on air.

The show features Norma Jean Nilsson voicing the human protagonist Sally, Theodore Von Eltz as Woody Woodpecker, Billy Bletcher as Wilbur the Wolf, June Foray as Oswald the Rabbit, Sarah Brenner as Andy Panda, and Herb Lytton as Wally Walrus.

(Thanks, Eric Wilson)

Posting random classic photos has become the raison d’être of Facebook, but I just couldn’t resist sharing this vintage 1948 photo of pioneering animation producer Walter Lantz and his characters. There is so much goodness here – that zany painting of Woody Woodpecker, those cool off-model Woody stuffed dolls – not to mention Lantz himself holding an Oswald Rabbit plushie, and that scary Andy Panda doll giving him the evil eye.

This publicity still was released in August 1948 by the “World Wide Photo” news service. This was a period when Lantz had broken with Universal and his studio was about to close (temporarily). The caption on the back reads:

ANIMATED CARTOON MAKING

In his office in Hollywood, animated cartoon motion picture producer Walter Lantz sits with dolls inspired by some of his cartoon stars. He holds Woody Woodpecker and Oswald Rabbit. Alongside of him are Andy pada and another Woody Woodpecker. The last named is also shown in the painting hanging on the wall. Lantz, a graduate of the Arts Students League in New York City, began in the animated cartoon field in 1916.

(Thank you, Jim Engel)

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Tis the season… to post another batch of 60s era in-house studio Christmas Cards from the staff of Walter Lantz Productions to their beloved bosses, Walter and Gracie Lantz. We posted several of these from 1964-1971 back in May, courtesy of animation art collector Martin Almeyra. Martin was kind enough to provide a few more (click thumbnails below to enlarge) from 1965, 1967 and 1968. Look close and you can see the signatures of Lantz mainstays Paul Smith, Cal Howard, Les Kline, Sid Marcus, Al Coe and others. Click the image above for the card from 1963, when Art Davis was there between gigs at Warner Bros. and DePatie-Freleng.

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Question for my fellow historians: When was the last time you saw a letter from Paul Terry or Fred Quimby? Today is your lucky day! Animation collector Martin Almeyra has been sharing with me some material from his collection of cartoon correspondence, and I thought these pieces were particularly delightful. First (click thumbnails below to enlarge) is a letter from Walter Lantz (Universal), who apparently didn’t approve the hideous cover to Gerald and Danny Peary’s 1980 book, The American Animated Cartoon (at left, click cover to enlarge). Next is note from Fred Quimby on his MGM stationary – note the cute images of Tom & Jerry at the bottom – to MGM musical director Johnny Green. Finally, a Paul Terry letter to radio broadcaster Mary Margaret McBride displaying more wit than any ten (make that twenty) Terrytoons combined! Is he coming on to her?

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Must-read article for today: The New York Times on animator Shamus Culhane’s secret art, hidden in Walter Lantz Cartoons of the 1940s.

The article examines the theory – discussed by Tom Klein in an article in the acedemic publication Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal – that Culhane worked experimental art into his Woody Woodpecker and Swing Symphony cartoons, produced by Walter Lantz, in the 1940s.

Be sure to click the video to see the slowed-down track Klein made of the “hidden images” in Culhane’s The Loose Nut (1945).

(Thanks to Tom Klein for the two images, above, from The Greatest Man in Siam (1944) with not-so-subtle suggested imagery, courtesy of Culhane and background designer Art Heinemann)

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Shamus Culhane, Walter Lantz