Sunday, November 26, 2006

Briefly Noted...

Another twist/turn in the history of Bud Collyer as Superman. An item or two ago here, I quoted Tony Tollin, who quoted Jackson Beck who said that Collyer had Aphasia when he recorded the Superman cartoons for Filmation and someone feared he wasn't up to the job. Brian Pearce writes the following, which I should have caught...

That strikes me as difficult to believe. Those Filmation cartoons appeared in 1966 while Collyer was still the host of To Tell the Truth on CBS (once a week in prime time through 1967, and five days a week through 1968).

A good point. If Collyer was up to emceeing that show, he was certainly healthy enough to record a cartoon voice. On the other hand, Jackson Beck was the announcer on that animated show, and he was a pretty smart, reliable guy. Collyer died in September of '69 so if he had a period when he was unable to perform, it would have to have been rather brief. I don't think any of the Superman cartoons were produced after '68 but perhaps there was some public service spot or short featurette and the anecdote was in reference to that.

• Posted at 10:51 PM · LINK

About Dave

We're still reeling at the news of Dave Cockrum's passing. In case I didn't make it clear in the earlier item, Dave was one of those folks who was genuinely liked. People liked his work but they also liked the guy who did it. He had an enthusiasm for what he did...or at least, he had it up to the time when taking care of his health became the dominant concern in his life. Earlier this evening at the con here — I'm still in Columbus — a bunch of us were sitting around, lamenting how Dave didn't get to do so many projects that he wanted to do. And how the fact that he wanted to do them made you feel that they would have been really, really good. He and I were going to do a John Carter of Mars graphic novel once but the deal fell through. I don't think you missed anything by not getting my story but he was so excited about doing it that I know it would have been a very nice book.

Neil Gaiman has a nice piece up about Dave. Give it a read.

And I wanted to express my thanks and sympathies to two people who did so much to take care of Dave over the years. One, of course, is his beloved spouse, Paty. I never got to know Paty like I knew Dave but I know she kept him alive for years and years, despite some formidable misfortunes. Thank you, Paty. And then there's Clifford Meth, who was Dave's agent and (even better) his friend...who ran fundraising activities when Dave couldn't afford much-needed medical treatment, and who arranged with Marvel to pay Dave a pension. They didn't do that for very many of the people who gave them their top properties but they did it for Dave, and we have Cliff Meth to thank for that.

Several people have asked me for an address to which they can send condolences. I'm told Paty doesn't want to deal with that flood right now, and I can well understand that.

One quick Dave story. Dave and I did a couple of Blackhawk stories together. I thought he did a fine job but Dave was never satisfied with anything he'd done. We were at some San Diego Con, coming back from lunch when an attendee pounced upon us — and "pounced" isn't a bad way to describe what this guy did. "I've been waiting to get you both to sign this," he exclaimed, thrusting an issue at us. I scribbled my name but Dave took a few minutes with his inscription. He signed the first page of the story and then he flipped to page four or five and drew something in the margin. I couldn't see exactly what it was but it looked like a hand. As we walked off, I asked him what it was he'd drawn.

He said, "I decided I drew Blackhawk's hand wrong in that panel so every time I sign a copy, I draw it right in the margin. I've done that about thirteen times now."

I said, "You can't fix 'em all, Dave. They printed 150,000 copies of that issue."

Dave grinned through that beard of his and said, "Okay, so I've got 149,987 to go." How do you not like a guy like that?

• Posted at 10:37 PM · LINK

This Bud's For You!

Above is a photo of Clayton "Bud" Collyer...looking more like a demented gigolo than a busy radio actor/announcer. Anthony Tollin, who knows more about this kind of thing than I do, writes the following with regard to the Superman cartoon just featured on this here site...

Actually, Bud Collyer only did the early Fleischer cartoons, and departed around the time Famous Studios took over. Collyer reportedly quit voicing the cartoons because he couldn't get a raise that would compensate his traveling time to the New Jersey recording studio. Sounds likely, since he was one of the busiest actors and announcers in NYC radio, and lost time equaled lost money for someone who was sometimes doing a half-dozen radio shows a day. It's clearly not Collyer in most of the Famous Studios Superman cartoons. It's less clear in this cartoon since the Man of Steel has only a couple of lines, but it doesn't sound like Bud to me. I've seen unconfirmed claims in print that Michael Fitzmaurice played Superman in some of the Paramount cartoons. It certainly doesn't sound like Fitzmaurice announcing this cartoon, based on how he sounded in his surviving Adventures of Superman episodes (actually just one and a short fragment of another) and announcing Nick Carter, Master Detective.

It does sound like Joan Alexander as Lois, though I rather doubt that Dan McCulloch did voices in these cartoons. He was a commercial announcer, not an actor, and didn't become involved with radio's The Adventures of Superman until some time after Kellogg's Pep came aboard as sponsor beginning January 31, 1943. Of course, McCulloch only did the Kellogg's Pep commercials while the story narration was handled by Roland Winters (aka Charlie Chan), then scriptwriter and director George Lowther and finally my late friend, Jackson Beck. Most of the early syndicated Superman transcriptions were narrated by writer/director Jack Johnstone, while the final 1950-51 ABC season that starred Michael Fitzmaurice was narrated by Ross Martin (of Wild, Wild West fame).

BTW, Jackson Beck told me that Bud Collyer was suffering from Aphasia when he reprised his famous radio role in the 1960s TV cartoons produced by former Adventures of Superman radio director, Allen "Duke" Ducovny. Jackson couldn't believe that Ducovny would consider using Bud under these circumstances, but Duke correctly insisted that Bud would come through when the Bud could barely get out any words at all in conversations with his fellow actors, but through sheer will power was near letter perfect when performing as Clark Kent and the Man of Steel.

Anthony's probably right. My knowledge of the New York based cartoon voice actors ain't as good as it oughta be. But here's something of a mystery: The voice of Jack "Popeye" Mercer is fairly obvious in this cartoon and since he also worked as a storyman, he was probably living wherever the cartoons were produced...which at this point in time was Florida. Joan Alexander, Bud Collyer, Michael Fitzmaurice and all the other radio actors who have been identified in those cartoons were working — sometimes, seven days a week — in New York.

I can't imagine them being flown down to Miami to record — as Tony notes, Collyer couldn't even spare the time to get to New Jersey — nor would they have flown Mercer up to New York to record a voice that a thousand other actors there could have handled. So where were the voice tracks for these recorded? And were they, like the concurrent Popeye cartoons, post-dubbed — meaning that the voices were recorded after the animation was completed? There's virtually no precise lip-sync so I suspect the latter...but for that, they really had to get all the actors together in the same session. They wouldn't have recorded some in New York and some in Florida.

Anyone know what the deal was there?

• Posted at 8:15 PM · LINK

Goodbye, Columbus!

I've been going to comic book and s-f conventions since 1970...shortly after they cancelled Star Trek and a lot of us were happy to see the last of it. I have been to good conventions and bad conventions, big conventions and small conventions. I've even been to cons that were supposed to be big but turned out small. There was one where I agreed to be one of eight judges for the Masquerade...and only four people showed up in costume.

Some of my favorites have been mid-sized and some of my favorite mid-sized conventions have been Mid-Ohio Cons. Every year, on the Saturday and Sunday following Thanksgiving, Roger Price throws one in Columbus, Ohio — and whenever I can get there, I'm there. In fact, I'm there now. This year's ended this afternoon and, apart from the bummer news about Dave Cockrum, a good time was had by all.

I did two panels — one with former Marvel talents Dick Ayers, Herb Trimpe, Gary Friedrich and Tony Isabella...and one with the longtime editor of Mad, and therefore one of my personal heroes, Al Feldstein. To answer a question I always get when I write here about panels I've done: No, neither was recorded...but I suspect you'll be able to enjoy a close replay of the Feldstein interrogation at next year's Wondercon in San Francisco. Al is scheduled to be a guest and I'm scheduled to subject him to more of my relentless prying. (Remind me to get him to repeat the tale of how he tried to get Bill Gaines to hire Harvey Kurtzman, years after Kurtzman had left Mad, to come back and edit a companion magazine.) Glenn Haumann was in the audience and he "liveblogged" a few choice comments.

Here's the obligatory Namedropping Section. In addition to the folks on the panels I just mentioned, I talked with Dan Mishkin, Roger Stern, Joe Edkin, William Messner-Loebs, Craig Boldman, Matt Haley, Beau Smith, Dennis Mallonee, Brian Kane, Matt Feazell, Bob Schreck, Don Rosa, Thom Zahler, Michael Davis, Bob Ingersoll, Mark Wheatley...and I know I'm leaving a whole bunch of people out. Also had a nice reunion with Joyce DeWitt, who most of you will recall from Three's Company. Joyce was on a special I produced many years ago which also starred Ted Knight, Howie Mandel and the voice of half of Western Civilization, Frank Welker. She was a real trooper throughout a grueling tape session that went into the wee, expensive hours of the morning and I never got to thank her properly for her total professionalism. I had to come to Columbus, Ohio to thank her. Also had a nice talk with her Three's Company co-star Richard Kline, who was so good in that production of Company (the Sondheim one) I reviewed here many moons ago.

One other thing I liked about the con is worth a mention: The facilities. The hotel, which is the Hyatt Regency in downtown Columbus, is quite pleasant. It's not plush, it's not fancy but our room is nice and the staff is friendly and the hotel/convention center layout is ever so convenient. From our hotel room to the convention was about a three minute jaunt...close enough that you could dash back and forth to pick up or drop off things, far enough away that you were removed from the con when you wanted to be. There's a food court on the lower level, a friendly restaurant and bar on the second — plus the rooms for panels — and the convention is on the third floor. (The hotel sleeping rooms start on the fifth floor. For reasons no one seems to know, the hotel has no fourth floor. Maybe one of those people who likes to steal towels decided to graduate to bigger things and made off with it.)

Anything I didn't like? Yeah. Across the street is a restaurant called Max & Erma's where we — Tony Isabella, Bob Ingersoll, Carolyn Kelly and Yours Truly — had a dinner this evening that could make you yearn for a Denny's. It was all stuff that wasn't food to begin with, dipped in kerosene and fried to the consistency of linoleum...and that was just the salad. When we got back to the con and joined folks gathered at the bar, everyone told us they'd dined there on one of the two previous nights and hated it. Gee, everyone...thanks for keeping it a secret. Next con I go to, I want a big Local Restaurant Review Board posted in the lobby. And even if it's in another city, I'm going to warn everyone away from the Max & Erma's in Columbus. You can't be too careful about these things.

If you can make it to Mid-Ohio Con next year, do. Just stay away from you-know-where.

• Posted at 8:09 PM · LINK

Dave Cockrum, R.I.P.

A fine friend and a fine artist, Dave Cockrum, died this morning from complications relating to Diabetes. Dave had been ill for some time and undergoing dialysis treatments. Still, here at Mid-Ohio Con (that's where I am), his friends and fans are shocked to hear that we've lost him.

Dave was one of the first people I knew to make the transition from drawing for free for fanzines to drawing for pay for the comics those fanzines were about. Years later, that would become a fairly common segue but in the early seventies, fans were fans and pros were pros and the former rarely became the latter. Dave did, starting first as an assistant to established artists, especially Murphy Anderson. When Murphy was asked to draw a Legion of Super-Heroes back-up story one day, he begged off — "too many characters" — and recommended Dave. Cockrum not only got that job but became the feature's steady artist and creative heart, helping to redesign the Legion and create new characters. Among his many strengths, he was a superb inventor of new costumes. Later, he did the same thing — only with greater success — when he and Len Wein revamped the old, cancelled X-Men strip into the new, highly-successful X-Men franchise at Marvel.

I had the pleasure of knowing Dave during his fanzine days, back when everyone knew that if anyone could move from the fan ranks to professional status, it would be that Cockrum guy. Just because he was so good. We later collaborated on several projects and it was always a joy to work with him...and sad that his health didn't allow him to do more. Very sad.

• Posted at 12:23 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Let's journey back to the days when this nation was at war with Japan and those folks made dandy villains in our animated cartoons. "The Eleventh Hour" was released on November 20, 1942. It was a Superman cartoon in the series that everyone always describes as a Max and Dave Fleischer cartoon but if you check the credits, you'll see no mention of anyone named Fleischer. Paramount Pictures had taken the studio away from Max and Dave not long before.

Bud Collyer, as always, was the voice of Superman with Joan Alexander as Lois Lane. Dan McCulloch and Jack Mercer provided additional voices and the announcer was Michael Fitzmaurice, who would later replace Collyer as the voice of Superman on the radio program. And that's about all I have to impart about this one. Go click.

• Posted at 9:45 AM · LINK

November 27, 2006 • Current • November 25, 2006