Saturday, April 9, 2005

More on Gene Hazelton

Here's a newspaper obit for Gene Hazelton. From it, we learn his real name was Wesley Hazelton Sr., that he was born in Fresno on June 3, 1919 and that he died on Wednesday. Services are next Tuesday in San Diego.

• Posted at 9:30 PM · LINK

Gene Hazelton, R.I.P.

Sorry to report the recent passing (I don't know precisely when) of the great cartoonist, Gene Hazelton, whose career stretched from Fantasia to Flintstones. Gene was born in 1919 and by his teenage years, he was a good enough cartoonist to get a job assisting Jimmy Hatlo on the popular newspaper panel, They'll Do It Every Time. In 1939, he took a low-level job at Disney and set some sort of record for working his way up to gag man and animator. He animated the goat kids and cherabims in Fantasia and a number of sequences in Pinocchio.

When a strike was called at Disney in 1941, Gene moved on to other studios, including Warner Brothers where he did the main designs for the legendary short cartoon, Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs, directed by Bob Clampett. He also began doing a lot of magazine gag cartoons and commercial art assignments. Here's a link to a piece by his friend, Scott Shaw!, reporting on the one comic book Gene drew.

Gene spent many years working with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera at MGM on their Tom & Jerry cartoons and with Tex Avery on his highly-acclaimed shorts. When Gene Kelly wanted an animated sequence for his feature, Invitation to the Dance, Hazelton designed the "Sindbad the Sailor" sequence. There were also commercials and commercial jobs: The animated titles for the I Love Lucy TV show were also designed by Gene Hazelton — one of many such projects he handled for the studio.

When Hanna and Barbera started their own studio, Gene was a key artist in the establishment of its style and the development of the early H-B programs. He is often credited with the main design work of certain important characters, including Pebbles and Bamm Bamm. (It is said he based the image of Bamm Bamm on his own son.) Beginning in 1961, one of his main duties was to supervise the production of — and occasionally write or draw — the syndicated newspaper features of The Flintstones and Yogi Bear. Around 1974, he took over the writing and drawing of both strips full-time, doing them until 1988. (The distinctive inking on them was usually the work of Lee Hooper.) Following his retirement, he drew many of the Hanna-Barbera "sericels" that were sold through animation art galleries and also did some teaching, but his main interest became his golf game, which he honed until illness forced him to quit.

Gene was enormously well-respected by his peers and by many younger cartoonists who cite him as a personal and professional inspiration. I'm sure there will be more obits and tributes that will list his many other impressive credits. I'll try to link to them as they appear.

• Posted at 5:53 PM · LINK

Onna White, R.I.P.

The great choreographer, Onna White, has died at age 83. She won an Oscar for her fine (and much-imitated) work in the movie, Oliver, and probably deserved them for Bye Bye Birdie, Mame, 1776 and The Music Man. She was also the choreographer of the last three of these when they first appeared on Broadway, plus she also staged the terpsichore for many other shows, including Finian's Rainbow, Half a Sixpence and Take Me Along. Her list of credits says it all, so I'll just add that I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. White on two occasions and I found her just as delightful as her choreography. Which was always pretty delightful. Here's a link to an obit.

• Posted at 9:38 AM · LINK

Recommended Viewing

Hey, if you get a chance to catch this week's installment of Real Time with Bill Maher, catch this week's installment of Real Time with Bill Maher. It reruns a number of times on HBO, and it has two good interviews — one with former New York governor Mario Cuomo and another with former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle. Mr. Maher dares to ask tough questions of both and the answers — or evasions, in Perle's case — are quite interesting.

• Posted at 1:41 AM · LINK

Host Roulette

Here's a silly article — silly because it's way premature — discussing who might be asked to host the Academy Awards next year. But hey, I'm in a silly mood tonight so I'll join in. The names mentioned in the article are Chris Rock, Billy Crystal, Mike Myers, Ellen DeGeneres, Robin Williams, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Steve Martin, Whoopi Goldberg, Conan O'Brien and the idea of multiple hosts.

You can start by eliminating the multiple hosts concept. It hasn't worked well in the past. I think every time they tried it, they went scurrying back to a single host the following year. Besides, the way the show has evolved the last few years, you don't need more than one host. After about the first half hour, he or she has very little to do.

Cross off Chris Rock. I liked him but he wasn't an earth-shaking success in any particular sense. He brought a certain suspense to the proceedings because there was the possibility that he'd say something outrageous. But that trick won't work again, and the folks who run the show will probably write him off due to the slightly weak performance of this year's show in urban states. (Actually, I think it's ridiculous to credit or fault the host too much for the tune-in numbers. That kind of thinking presumes that there aren't a lot of other variables that contribute to the ratings. Maybe the interest in this year's nominees was so low that the broadcast would have done much poorer with any host besides Rock. But that's not how the people who make this kind of decision think.)

Cross off Ellen DeGeneres, David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien because they aren't movie stars. The Oscars ought to be hosted by a movie star. Mr. Carson was the only TV personality who was a big enough celebrity to transcend that rule. True, they had Letterman host in '95 but none of those four talk show talkers, including Dave, is currently "hot" the way he was at the time. (Rumor has it that Leno's name appeared on a list of hosts under consideration around 2000 but that he heard about it and let the Academy know he was not interested.)

And you can probably cross off Whoopi Goldberg because it's been a long time since she was big in a movie, and her last hosting was not well received. And strike Robin Williams from the short list because he doesn't seem like the "host" type. He's the guy you slot as a presenter at whatever time you think the broadcast will need a jolt of energy.

That leaves Myers, who's never done it, and Crystal and Martin, who have. Everyone seems to have liked Steve Martin's stints in 2001 and 2003, and I would guess he'd be at the top of the list. Myers is a possibility, but he's really only a star when he's deep in a character, not when he's Mike Myers. Crystal is a safe choice, and I'd figure his name will be not far below Martin's on that list, though there may be a few others above or between them. One would be Tom Hanks.

He's really the perfect choice: Huge movie star. Loved by everyone. Can deliver a funny line. No, he probably wouldn't do a monologue but that would save time on a broadcast that's looking for every way to chop its running time. I'm guessing the only reason he hasn't hosted is that he's been asked and turned it down.

How about Jamie Foxx...especially if he isn't in contention for an Oscar next year? How about Ben Affleck? Does anyone think Albert Brooks wouldn't be terrific? And if the movie version of The Producers musical is a success, Nathan Lane will be a big enough movie star to be considered for Oscar host. I think he'll do it and he'll be wonderful, but that's probably some time in the future.

For now, don't believe rumors that the host has already been picked. They don't need to decide until August or September, and since things can change so rapidly in show business, you don't want to decide too much before you have to. There's still time for Regis Philbin to make a movie and walk off with the gig.

• Posted at 1:26 AM · LINK

April 10, 2005 • Current • April 8, 2005