JULY 1962
Nearing the end isn’t quite reflected in these chatty columns from the Warner Club News. The studio is transitioning away from its regular schedule of theatrical shorts – and towards a new direction with commercials and The Incredible Mr. Limpet. People leaving the studio and corporate downsizing is not reflected here… thus more about vacations, baby showers and birthdays. (Note: we are missing the final few paragraphs go the July column).
AUGUST 1962
The studio gets a visit from an actual Road-Runner… and Chuck Jones sends a note from Massachusetts – during his ‘unpaid leave’. This would be the last notice for Chuck here while under Warners employ. Next stop, MGM.
SEPTEMBER 1962
OCTOBER 1962
Lee Mishkin and Alan Zazlove join the studio – prerhaps to begin work on Limpet(??)…
\
NOVEMBER 1962
It’s reported here that Freleng is off on vacation in Europe – He would return next year, as co-owner of DePatie-Freleng. This is last newsletter we have for 1962.
Next Week: the last few from 1963.
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 [
Unless I overlooked it, none of these newsletters mentioned that Bill Lava became the new musical director of WB cartoons?
Also, had no idea that Alan Zaslove worked at WB in its later days. Many know him better for his work on the Disney Afternoon shows Darkwing Duck and Aladdin.
Perhaps because Lava wasn’t solely working on cartoons; he was also busy scoring Warner’s TV shows (and the occasional movie).
Interesting that Bill Butler rejoined in July. He would receive credit in “Hare-Breadth Hurry,” released the following June. That cartoon looks rather rushed for a Chuck Jones, as if he was torn between directing it and clearing out his desk.
Ken Harris’ shoulder injury may have shortened his time on “The Iceman Ducketh.” Greg Duffell sees only six seconds of his work (“Never mind the sales pitch, just skin the rabbit!”) . . . the film’s best animation, though.
Alan Zaslove was fresh off a stint with Jack Kinney, animating Popeye.
I think Zaslove came from Format Films. He worked on the Alvin Show in 1961.
How many times did Ben Washam come and go from the studio? He seems to have left every year for a while.
I guess nothing funny was happening at the studio by then.
Yowp, my understanding is that Kinney produced a lot of (maybe all?) of the Popeye cartoons at Format. Joe Siracusa told me he remembered working on the Popeye cartoons while he was a film editor at Format.
So Zaslove would have worked on the Popeye cartoons at Format Films.
This is best read with screechy, foreboding Bill Lava music playing in the background.
For the last WCN next week, music from “A Message to Gracias” would be most appropriate . . . specifically, the scene in which a bereaved mouse stamps the community Honor Roll.