The Paramount Cartoon Studio and the Press, 1968
Paramount Pictures closed its cartoon studio in December 1967. The studio’s last cartoons were distributed well into 1968, and most of them came and went without any notice in newspapers.
Animation Anecdotes #312
The lady of the house in the classic MGM Tom & Jerry cartoons — did you ever want to see her face? Well now you can!
Putting the Texaco Billboard back into Fleischer’s ‘Hurry Doctor!’ (1931), “Screen Songs” Special Set and ‘The Fatal Note’ (1933)
And a handful of Paramount Screen Songs frame grabs!
Bugs Bunny in “Devil May Hare” (1954)
It’s the first of “All-Warners Wednesday” which means we breakdown a Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies short each Wednesday this month. Today: the debut of the Tasmanian Devil!
Rankin/Bass’ “New Adventures of Pinocchio” on Records
It’s no lie: this is the obscure soundtrack to the first TV show to use the stop-motion “Animagic” process, years before Rudolph, Frosty, the Snow Miser and the Heat Miser.
Hanna Barbera Prime-Time Production Notes (Part 2)
More material from the Hal Humphrey file at USC. This week a few things relating to the first Hanna Barbera prime time series, The Flintstones, Top Cat and The Jetsons.
Quiz Show Cartoons – Part 2
Catch-phrases from radio, commercial jingles and slogans –all were grist for the Warners’ mill. So why should the newly-arisen format of the quiz show be any different?
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.
Animation Anecdotes #311
Rapper Ice-T told SPY magazine in 1994 that as a kid, “I watched cartoons like Winky Dink. Winky Dink, man! Winky Dink was some O.G. (Original Gangster).”
Jerry Beck is a writer, animation producer, college professor and author of more than 15 books on animation history. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon Movies and Disney, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He has curated cartoons for DVD and Blu-ray compilations and has lent his expertise to dozens of bonus documentaries and audio commentaries on such. Beck is currently on the faculty of CalArts in Valencia, UCLA in Westwood and Woodbury University in Burbank – teaching animation history. More about Jerry Beck [Click Here]
