Rochester and “The Mouse That Jack Built”
The Mouse That Jack Built is a landmark of animated African American caricature, because it shows the promise of African American imaging in mainstream American animation.
Category Archives: Christopher P. Lehman
A Letter from Myron Waldman
I’m going back to how my postings began–with letters from animators. Today, from 1997, I’m offering up the reply Myron Waldman sent to my question about Bimbo.
“Dog Gone South” (1950)
An especially unique aspect of Chuck Jones’s Dog Gone South is its complete absence of African American characters.
Chuck Jones’ Inki
The Warner Brothers cartoon character Inki is unique in that he was a recurring African character, as opposed to African Americans like Bosko, L’il Eightball or the maid in “Tom and Jerry”.
Castle Films – Of Color
Castle Film’s distribution of cartoons to the home-viewer market helped African American parents to entertain their children in comfort for years.
The Voice Above The Apron: Lillian Randolph
Ever since the 1930s African American vocal artist Lillian Randolph sang when performing for animated cartoons as a domestic servant.
“Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat” (1941)
This year marks the seventieth anniversary of Universal Pictures withdrawing Walter Lantz’s cartoon Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat from distribution.
The Bronze Age 2
By looking at 1972 month by month, it becomes clear just how transitional the year was in moving animation from the Silver Age to the Bronze Age.
Rankin-Bass “The Jackson 5ive”
The Jackson Five tried to attract viewers to music as well as to the half-hour stories. Each episode of the 1971-72 season featured two recordings from the group’s albums.
Jasper and The Puppetoons – Part 5
Paramount Pictures released the last of the “Puppetoons” in 1947. Of the five releases, only one stars Jasper – and another featured Duke Ellington.
