La Verne Harding: Hollywood in a ’54 Red Mercury
Harding was the first female animator in Hollywood and she exerted a strong design influence on the Walter Lantz characters, including Woody Woodpecker.
Category Archives: WALTER LANTZ ARCHIVE
The Lantz Legacy
Psst, a secret. After fifty columns looking at so many facets and anecdotes of Walter’s life, here is how his legacy resonates today.
Wild and Woody
Long before ‘infinity and beyond’, there was an original Sheriff Woody and a rival named Buzz.
Dreamers Draw Big Eyes
Virgil Ross remembered some fascinating details of his time working with Tex Avery and Ray Abrams at the Universal Cartoon Dept.
The Once and Universal King, 1930
A restoration of Universal’s “King of Jazz” brings back a storied gem from the studio vaults, including the animated prologue produced by Walter Lantz and Bill Nolan.
Signed by Walt? Drawn to a D
When Pinto Colvig switched from Lantz to Disney, his looping signature may have played a small role in leading to something iconic and happily everlasting.
The Mouse Strikes Back
Ben Clopton was a rugged cowpoke from Montana before he came to Hollywood. After he among others left Walt Disney to sign with Winkler Studios, it was The Mouse that got the last laugh.
The Mouse and Sennett: Chasing a Lost Cootie
Mack Sennett envisioned a gag seen through binoculars for a 1928 feature film. The resulting effort became a legend of a story that saw Walter Lantz getting his first big break as an animator in Hollywood.
Bolivar, the Ostrich Unspoken
How a St. Bernard from a 1936 cartoon and his subsequent Disney comics appearances may trace a path back to a forgotten character created by Pinto Colvig and Walter Lantz.
Pinto Colvig Got that Oswald Habit, 1930
Before he was the voice of Goofy, Pinto Colvig was the voice of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit for Universal and had a big part in the studio’s transition to sound cartoons.
