Well, it’s 1962 – and we know that its the beginning of the end. Jones and Freleng would depart before the year’s end.
JANUARY 1962
FEBRUARY 1962
Fan mail from a family who love The Three Little Bops; Mel Blanc is spotted at the studio without his wheelchair (but still on crutches); and Nelly’s Folly is screened…
MARCH 1962
Irv Spector returns, Kin Platt, Charlie Downs (story) and David Rose (layout) join up; Harry Love and Robert Givens have new cars…
APRIL 1962
Warner Bros. has three cartoons nominated for an Academy Award (this was the year Ersatz wins); Joe Finck and Hank Chisolm relate their recent visit with comedy legend Stan Laurel!
MAY 1962
JUNE 1962
Milt Franklyn passes away on April 24th from a heart attack. With the studio since 1947.
NEXT WEEK: 1962 – part 2
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 [
It’s odd to see hirings for layout and story people who never got any screen credit. One has to wonder how long they were there or what they did.
I thought Franklyn’s time at the studio dated back to the ’30s.
Could they have been hires for the commercial unit?
Milt Franklyn maintained the high standards his predecessor Carl Stalling had set more than a quarter-century earlier.
I previously knew this Dude thru his work on “Soul Train” and with SIB/Tower 12 Productions.
Is Sam Pal still alive?
The first cartoon with Bill Lava replacing Franklyn was released five months after Franklyn’s death. I thought the music scores were composed (if not arranged or recorded) as the directors were planning the layouts and timing sheets, which would have been much earlier in the process.