Thursday, February 8, 2007

Another Quick Comment

Some people in this world are famous. Some people are famous for being famous. And Anna Nicole Smith was one of those who are famous for being famous for being famous.

• Posted at 6:04 PM · LINK

A Quick Comment

There are many sad things about the death today of Anna Nicole Smith. One of them is that we're now in for a bunch of really crappy movies about the life and death of Anna Nicole Smith.

• Posted at 2:21 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

It's been a while since I linked to one of these Fleischer Superman cartoons. We had the first one in the series back here and the second back here. This was the third entry and it was entitled "Billion Dollar Limited." It was released to theaters on January 9, 1942 and seems to have the voices of Bud Collyer as Superman and Joan Alexander as Lois Lane. Here you go...

In the credits, you'll notice the name of Myron Waldman. Mr. Waldman, who passed away at the age of 97, spent his life working in animation, bringing us some of the most memorable characters ever drawn on film. Last Saturday, I was among the speakers at an event called The Afternoon of Remembrance, which is an annual salute to folks in the animation community who've passed away in the previous year. Mr. Waldman was touchingly remembered by his sons, Robert and Steven Waldman. All the speeches that day were brief but theirs was probably the most memorable and there's a video of it, with not the best sound quality alas, over on this page of the ASIFA blog.

• Posted at 12:34 AM · LINK

Jim Backus

Folks are writing to remind me of a couple of other animation voices that Jim Backus performed in his career. He was in a Disney short called Plutopia that was made in 1951 and while doing the Magoo cartoons for U.P.A., he also appeared in a couple of that studio's non-Magoo cartoons. I still find his employment record in the field rather unusual. From the forties through the sixties, the "talent pool" for cartoon voicing in Hollywood was pretty small and anyone who was good enough to get repeat work from one studio was routinely working for many studios. Paul Frees reportedly once remarked that Mel Blanc's exclusive contract with Warner Brothers was a good thing for other voice actors...because if Mel hadn't had that deal, he would have had all the jobs in town.

They don't seem to be anywhere on the Internet but there are some hysterical audio recordings floating about of Mr. Backus doing his Mr. Magoo recordings. Reportedly, his deal called for pretty low money but Jerry Hausner, who directed the sessions, had it in his budget to take Backus out before and fill him with liquor. If you factored that in, Backus was apparently pretty expensive talent. Sometimes, Hausner overfilled and his star would require dozens of takes, venturing deep into filthy terrain. The joke around U.P.A. was that if business ever got bad, they could stop making cartoons and just release the voice session tapes as "party records." They'd have made a fortune.

For a while, the official Jim Backus filling station seems to have been a restaurant called The Smoke House that's still in business over in Burbank, right across from Warner Brothers. Someone should write an article about the role this place has played in the history of comic books and animation. U.P.A. was right next door and many other animation studios were close enough that it became a major lunch spot and watering hole for cartoonists. In fact, the editors from Western Publishing (Dell Comics, Gold Key) would frequently lunch there because some of the artists drawing their comics were working days at the studios and editorial business could be transacted there — scripts or checks handed out, artwork turned in, etc. — over a meal. Also of course, everyone liked the food there...especially the garlic bread, which is still quite wonderful.

Hanna-Barbera was not far away and when I was working there, I'd lunch at least once a week at the Smoke House. I always ran into other folks in the cartoon business there — often, Bill Hanna or Walter Lantz — and sometimes saw Jim Backus. He wasn't doing Magoos at the time but he'd be at the bar, tossing back a cocktail and joking with everyone. You'd hear the distinctive laugh of the Nearsighted One cackling throughout the restaurant and I always meant to go over, buy him a beverage and just thank him for being Jim Backus. Somehow, I never felt it was the right moment. Years later, when we started Garfield and Friends, I tried to hire him for a voice job but his agent said the man's health was just not up to it. Another one of the many "waited too long" experiences that we all have and regret so.

• Posted at 12:24 AM · LINK

February 9, 2007 • Current • February 7, 2007