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Monday, November 29th, 2010

Biography: Maurice Noble

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Birth/Death

Bith: 1 May 1910
Death: Friday, May 18, 2001

Occupation/Title

Bio Summary

Maurice Noble started his outstanding career at the Disney Studio. He would work for many Hollywood studios from 1931 on, as an art director, production designer, and creative sketch artist.
During WWII Noble enlisted and was eventually assigned to the unit based at Fox Studios under Col. Frank Capra. Headed by Ted Geisel (Dr. Seuss) , the unit worked on posters, booklets, and the Privatte Snafu series.
In 1952 Noble went to work for Warner Bros. doing layouts for Chuck Jones. Here he would work on over 60 cartoons, working for Jones for over a decade.
Noble withdrew from working in the animation industry to pursue his interests in fine art and silkscreen prints. But he would rejoin Jones in the mid-1990s at Chuck Jones Film Productions. Here, he would start training younger artists, called the Noble Boys (and girls).

Early Life/Family

Education/Training

Maurice Noble was born in Spooner, Minnesota and growing up in New Mexico and Southern California. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in the early 1930s until he had to leave for financial reasons.

Career Outline

1934 Recruited for job at Disney
1941 Joins Disney Animator’s Strike
laid off soon after the end of strike
WWII Noble enlists in Army Signal Corps
Assigned to unit of Col. Frank Capra
1952 Warner Brothers to work on Layouts for Chuck Jones
1963 Leaves Warner Brothers and joins Tower 12 Productions (would
become the MGM animation unit).
Late 1970s-1980s Noble pulls away from working in the animation industry
Creating fine art and hand pulled silkscreen prints.
1989 Development work on Steven Spielberg’s Tiny Toon Adventures
Mid-1990s Works with Chuck Jones again at Chuck Jones Film Productions
Art director and color consultant
Mentors younger artists (known as the ‘Noble Boys and Girls’)

Comments On Style

Influences

Personality

Anecdotes

Miscellaneous

Filmography

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) (background artist)
Dumbo (1941) (character designer) ?
Rabbit Seasoning (1952) (layout artist) ?
From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1953) (layout artist)
Forward March Hare (1953) (layout artist)
Kiss Me Cat (1953) (layout artist)
Duck Amuck (1953) (layout artist)
Much Ado About Nutting (1953) (layout artist)
Wild Over You (1953) (layout artist)
Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953) (layout artist)
Bully for Bugs (1953) (layout artist)
Zipping Along (1953) (layout artist)
Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (1953) (layout artist)
Punch Trunk (1953) (layout artist)
Feline Frame-Up (1954) (layout artist)
No Barking (1954) (layout artist)
The Cats Bah (1954) (layout artist)
Claws for Alarm (1954) (layout artist)
Bewitched Bunny (1954) (layout artist)
Stop! Look! and Hasten! (1954) (layout artist)
Lumber Jack-Rabbit (1954) (layout artist)
My Little Duckaroo (1954) (layout artist)
Sheep Ahoy (1954) (layout artist)
Ready.. Set.. Zoom! (1955) (layout artist)
Two Scent’s Worth (1955) (layout artist)
90 Day Wondering (1956) (layout artist)
Deduce, You Say (1956) (layout artist)
To Hare Is Human (1956) (layout artist)
Drafty, Isn’t It? (1957) (layout artist)
Scrambled Aches (1957) (layout artist)
Ali Baba Bunny (1957) (layout artist)
Go Fly a Kit (1957) (layout artist)
Boyhood Daze (1957) (layout artist)
Steal Wool (1957) (layout artist)
What’s Opera, Doc? (1957) (layout artist)
Zoom and Bored (1957) (layout artist)
Touché and Go (1957) (layout artist)
Gateways to the Mind (1958) (TV) (animation designer)
Robin Hood Daffy (1958) (layout artist)
Hare-Way to the Stars (1958) (layout artist)
Whoa, Be-Gone! (1958) (layout artist)
To Itch His Own (1958) (layout artist)
Hip Hip-Hurry! (1958) (layout artist)
Cat Feud (1958) (layout artist)
Baton Bunny (1959) (layout artist)
Who Scent You? (1960) (layout artist) ?
Ready, Woolen and Able (1960) (layout artist)
Hopalong Casualty (1960) (layout artist)
“The Bugs Bunny Show” (1960) TV Series (layout artist)
High Note (1960) (layout artist)
Zip ‘N Snort (1961) (layout artist)
The Mouse on 57th Street (1961) (layout artist)
A Scent of the Matterhorn (1961) (layout artist) (as M. Maurice Nobelle)
Woolen Under Where (1963) (layout artist)
Zip Zip Hooray! (1965) (layout artist)
Roadrunner a Go-Go (1965) (layout artist)
“The Road Runner Show” (1966) TV Series (layout artist)
“The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour” (1968) TV Series (layout artist)
Bunny’s 1001 Rabbit Tales (USA: short title) ?
Bugs Bunny’s 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982) (layout artist) ?… aka Bugs
Fantastic Island (USA: short title
Daffy Duck’s Movie: Fantastic Island (1983) (layout artist) ?… aka Daffy Duck’s
“The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour” (1985) TV Series (layout artist)
“The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show” (1986) TV Series (layout artist)
Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters (1988) (layout artist)
“Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends” (1990) TV Series (layout artist)
“That’s Warner Bros.!” (1995) TV Series (layout artist)
From Hare to Eternity (1996) (color consultant)
Father of the Bird (1997) (color consultant)
Pullet Surprise (1997) (color consultant)
Now Hear This (1962) (co-director)
A Sheep in the Deep (1962) (co-director)
Nelly’s Folly (1961) (co-director)
Beep Prepared (1961) (co-director)
The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961) (co-director)
Compressed Hare (1961) (co-director)

Director – filmography:?

“The Bugs n’ Daffy Show” (1996) TV Series ?
Bugs Bunny’s Howl-Oween Special (1978) (TV) ?
“The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour” (1968) TV Series
The Bear That Wasn’t (1967) (co-director)
Cannery Rodent (1967) (co-director)
Cat and Dupli-cat (1967) (co-director)
Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary (1966) (co-director)
The Dot and the Line (1965) (co-director) ?… aka The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics
Ah, Sweet Mouse-Story of Life (1965) (co-director)
Bad Day at Cat Rock (1965) (co-director)
The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off (1965) (co-director)
The Cat’s Me-Ouch (1965) (co-director)
Duel Personality (1965) (co-director)
Haunted Mouse (1965) (co-director)
I’m Just Wild About Jerry (1965) (co-director)
Of Feline Bondage (1965) (co-director)
Tom-ic Energy (1965) (co-director)
The Year of the Mouse (1965) (co-director) ?… aka Tom Thump
War and Pieces (1964) (co-director)
The Iceman Ducketh (1964) (co-director)
The Cat Above and the Mouse Below (1964) (co-director)
Is There a Doctor in the Mouse? (1964) (co-director)
Much Ado About Mousing (1964) (co-director)
Snowbody Loves Me (1964) (co-director)
The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse (1964) (co-director)
To Beep or Not to Beep (1963) (co-director)
Transylvania 6-5000 (1963) (co-director)
Mad as a Mars Hare (1963) (co-director)
Hare-Breadth Hurry (1963) (co-director)
I Was a Teenage Thumb (1963) (co-director)
Pent-House Mouse (1963) (co-director)
Martian Through Georgia (1962) (co-director)
Louvre Come Back to Me! (1962) (co-director)
Zoom at the Top (1962) (co-director)
Adventures of the Road-Runner (1962) (co-director)

Production Designer:

It’s Everybody’s Business (1954) ?
The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) (animation) ?
Jerry-Go-Round (1965)
The Dot and the Line (1965) ?… aka The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics
Puss ‘n’ Boats (1966)

Art Director:

Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century (1980) (TV) ?The Great American Chase (1979) ?… aka The Bugs Bunny/RoadRunner Movie (USA: video title)
Dr. Seuss on the Loose (1973) (TV)
The Lorax (1972) (TV)
The Cat in the Hat (1971) (TV)
The Phantom Tollbooth (1970) ?… aka The Adventures of Milo in the Phantom Tollbooth
Horton Hears a Who! (1970) (TV) ?
The Bear That Wasn’t (1967)
Advance and Be Mechanized (1967)
Guided Mouse-ille (1967) ?… aka Guided Mouse-ille or Science On a Wet Afternoon
The Mouse from H.U.N.G.E.R. (1967)
O-Solar-Meow (1967)
Purr-Chance to Dream (1967)
Rock ‘n’ Rodent (1967)
Surf-Bored Cat (1967)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) (TV) ?… aka Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (USA: complete title)
The A-Tom-inable Snowman (1966)
Catty-Cornered (1966)
Filet Meow (1966)
Love Me, Love My Mouse (1966)
Chariots of Fur (1994) ?
Timber Wolf (2001) (V) (co-art director) ?… aka Chuck Jones’ Timber Wolf (USA: complete title)
?

Actor:
Al Tudi Tuhak (1999) (voice) …. Narrator?

Writer:
“Tiny Toon Adventures” (1990) TV Series (writer) ?… aka Steven Spielberg Presents… Tiny Toon Adventures (USA) ?

Art Department:

Adventures of the Road-Runner (1962) (designer) ?

Honors

Annie Award: Winsor McCay Award 1987

Bibliographic References

http://www.nobletales.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0633637/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Noble
“Chuck Amuck” by Chuck Jones

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Contributors To This Listing

Cassandra Siemon

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Monday, November 29th, 2010

Biography: John Sutherland

Birth/Death

Birth 1910, Williston, N.D.
Death: Feb. 17, 2001, Van Nuys, CA

Occupation/Title

Writer-producer

Bio Summary

John Sutherland produced a variety of animated films under the studio which bore his name, although his studio focused primarily on documentaries and industrial films sponsored by the large American corporations of his time. A graduate of UCLA, Sutherland began his career as a writer on Walt Disney’s Bambi, and later produced live-action military training films during WWII. He produced what is considered to be his most lavish animated production, Rhapsody of Steel, for U.S. Steel under his own company in 1959.

Early Life/Family

John Elliot Sutherland was born in 1910 in Williston, N.D., and raised in Montana. As an adult, he was once married to Paula Winslow, who voiced Bambi’s mother in the 1942 film. He is survived by three sons: Eric of Chicago, John of Midlothian, Va., Ronald of Coral Gables, Fla.; and a daughter, Diane Leggett of Elkins Lake, Texas.

Education/Training

Sutherland graduated from UCLA in 1937 with a degree in politics and economics.

Career Outline

Sutherland met Walt Disney while working as director of UCLA’s drama and debate department. This meeting led Sutherland to a brief career at the Disney Studios as an assistant director and story director from 1938 to 1940. He is also credited as a writer on Bambi (1942). During WWII, Sutherland produced live-action training films for the military, a successful commission that led to the formation of John Sutherland Productions in Los Angeles in 1945. Sutherland produced the Daffy Ditties shorts for United Artists before moving into corporate and industrial films, a lucrative field that became the studio’s primary source of output during the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. ?Sutherland produced about 20 films a year, and had a pool of sponsors that included General Electric, Kaiser Aluminum, DuPont, U.S. Steel, and the New York Stock Exchange, to name a few. Some of the studio’s more notable films include A Is for Atom (1953), It’s Everybody’s Business (1954), Destination Earth (1956), and Working Dollars (1957). Sutherland’s epic, Rhapsody of Steel (1959), was produced in Technicolor and set to a score by composer Dmitri Tiomkin and performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In 1972, he produced a series of 50 short films for the Captain Kangaroo show.

Comments On Style

The style of the Sutherland studio films differ from one another in degrees, depending on the particular director or layout artists who worked on a given film. John Sutherland tended to distance himself from the artistic process of his films, rather focusing his efforts on the story and script. Having said that, several notable stylists worked at the Sutherland studio at one point or another: Eyvind Earle, of Sleeping Beauty fame, art directed Rhapsody of Steel; Maurice Noble provided styling for It’s Everybody’s Business; and Bernard Gruver created layouts and characters for Working Dollars.

Influences

John Sutherland Productions, along with many of the other major animation studios of the 1950s, were heavily inspired by the fine artists, illustrators, and graphic designers of the day. Some of these artists include Ronald Searle, Stuart Davis, Saul Steinberg, and Martin and Alice Provensen.

Personality

Sutherland was financially generous to his employees. The studio offered some of the highest paying salaries in the industry.

Anecdotes

John Sutherland provided the voice of the adult Bambi in the 1942 film of the same name.

Miscellaneous

Animator Bill Melendez once worked at the Sutherland studio, earning up to $250 a week.

Filmography

The Cross-Eyed Bull (1945)
The Lady Said No (1946)
Daffy Ditties: Pepito’s Serenade (1946)
Choo Choo Amigo (1946)
The Flying Jeep (1946)
The Fatal Kiss (1946)
Secrecy of American Prosperity (1947)
Little Boy And His Dog (1947)
Chiquita Banana (1947)
Chiquita Banana Convinces The Cannibals (1947)
Chiquita Banana Helps The Pieman (1947)
Chiquita Banana Goes North (1947)
Chiquita Banana’s Star Attraction (1947)
Chiquita Banana’s Fan (1947)
Chiquita Banana On The Air (1947)
Chiquita Banana’s Reception (1947)
The Counterfeiters (1948)
The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948) ?Make Mine Freedom (1948)
Lady at Midnight (1948)
Going Places (1948)
Chiquita Banana’s School For Brides (1948)
Chiquita Banana’s Beauty Treatment (1948)
Chiquita Banana Makes A Better Breakfast (1948)
Chiquita Banana Tells A Fortune (1948)
Chiquita Banana Wins A Medal (1948)
Why Play Leap Frog? (1949)
Meet King Joe (1949)
The Butcher, The Baker and The Ice Cream Maker (1950’s)
Employee Relations (1950’s)
Albert In Blunderland (1950)?Inside Cackle Corners (1951)
Fresh Laid Plains (1951)
What Makes Us Tick (1952)
A Is for Atom (1953)
The Atom Goes To Sea (1954)
It’s Everybody’s Business (1954)
The Littlest Giant (1955)
Your Safety First (1956)
Destination Earth (1956)
Working Dollars (1957)
Rhapsody of Steel (1959)
The Wise Use of Credit (1960)
A Way Out of the Wilderness (1968) ?
Honors

Time Magazine once praised Sutherland as “a slick entertainer and a painless pedagogue.”

Related Links

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=john%20sutherland%20AND%20collection%3Aprelinger (Public Domain Examples of the Sutherland Studio’s Films)?

Bibliographic References

Amidi, Amid. Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation. San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC, 2006.

Internet Movie Database (IMDB). Accessed 02 November 2008.

http://www.imdb.com?

?Tad and Andrew. “Episode 7: John Sutherland.“ 07 June 2006. Podcast.

“Animation Station Podcast.” Accessed 01 November 2008.??

Woo, Elaine. “John Sutherland; Acclaimed for Artistry of His Industrial Films.”

Los Angeles Times. 27 February 2001. Accessed 01 November 2008.

?http://articles.latimes.com/2001/feb/27/local/me-30915

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Contributors To This Listing

Chris

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Monday, November 29th, 2010

Biography: George Pal

Birth/Death

February 1, 1908 Ceglad, Hungary
Death May 2, 1980 Beverly Hills, California (at home; heart attack)

Occupation/Title

Bio Summary

Early Life/Family

Parents, Maria and George, Sr. (theater performers)
Wife, Zsoka Grandjean

Education/Training

George Pal trained at Budapest Academy intending for architecture study but a mistake of the Academy’s registrar placed Pal into an anatomy course instead. Despite this, Pal studied both. However, upon graduation, Pal was unable to find work in either field.

Career Outline

After finally securing work as an unpaid apprentice animator at Budapest’s Hunnia Films, Pal found paying work in Berlin at the UFA studio. Shortly thereafter, Pal was in charge of UFA’s cartoon division despite the fact he spoke no German.

As an immigrant, Pal and his wife, Zsoka, were suddenly on the Gestapo radar. Sensing a dark horizon in Germany, the Pals fled to Prague and established an independent cartoon studio. Supposedly, the lack of a camera made specifically for filming drawings prompted Pal to utilize puppets which broadened the choices of cameras available for Pal. Now equipped with a camera, Pal tried his hand at animated advertising.

Utilizing puppets combined with stop-motion animation for advertising was a success. This led Pal from Prague to France where his animated cigarettes were subsidized by Paris tobacco firms.

A Dutch promoter named Sies Numann convinced Pal to move to Einhover, Holland. Soon, Pal secured his most lucrative client of Philips Radio, the American-based radio manufacturer. These were so successful that Pal’s animated puppet advertisings were seen beyond Europe and into over twenty-five other countries. Outside of the United States, Pal’s animation studio was considered the largest in the world.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 the Pals decided their future and very existence faced better odds in the United States. In response to the invasion Pal later produced the Puppetoon Tulips Shall Grow.

Paramount signed Pal to produce a series of seven to ten minute shorts called Madcap Models featuring his stop-motion Puppetoons. In its heyday, the Puppetoons cost $25,000 each with a production crew of 45 people working in a converted garage. Compared to the Disney juggernaut of hundreds of studio employees, Pal’s studio was relatively small in terms of staff. Animators included Willis O’Brien, Wah Chang and Ray Harryhausen.

The Pal method of production can best be described as painstaking. Using a type of stop-motion technique called replacement animation, a typical Puppetoon required 9,000 individually carved and machined wooden figures (or sometimes parts of figures). The nearly 12,000 exposures were made on a single negative using a color wheel with successive rotation of red, green and blue filters. Combined with deliberate lighting the Puppetoons were unsurpassed in their day for use of color in animated films.

Music was another signature of the Puppetoons. William Edison, Pal’s musical director, scored music ranging from the classical to jazz to the ghetto-influenced styles. Many cartoons, such as Philips Calvacade, featured characters moving, dancing, swaying and jiving in stylistic sync to the music.

His most popular character, Jasper, was a gullible black boy who bumped heads with a scheming scarecrow. Despite current PC cries of racism, it should be noted that Pal also produced John Henry and the Inky-Poo, a tasteful and respectful Puppetoon adaptation of African-American folklore.

In 1949 Pal moved onto feature films produced by Paramount beginning with Destination Moon and The Great Rupert. Pal focused on fantasy and science-fiction themes. A trademark of his films were ground-breaking special effects, some of which were awarded well-earned Oscars.

Comments On Style

Strong uses of color and music in the animated films. A strong element of faith is also evident (i.e. Tulips Shall Grow, War of the Worlds, Conquest of Space)

Influences

Personality

Optimistic, soft-spoken, kind

Anecdotes

Pal was friends with George Lantz. As an homage to his friend, it is said that a woodpecker can be found somewhere in Pal’s films. Andy Panda appeared in Doc Savage.

Miscellaneous

Filmography

Animated

Midnight (1932) Dancing cigarettes! The first Puppetoon!
Radio Valve Revolution (1934) for Philips
Ether Ship (1934) for Philips, glass models!
Philips Calvacade (1934-9?) for Philips Radio
Sleeping Beauty (1935) for Philips
The Little Broadcast (1935?)
The Magic Atlas (1935) for Philips
World’s Greatest Show (1935) for Philips
In Lamp Light Land (1935) for Philips
Sinbad (1935-6)
Ether Symphony (1936)
Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1936)
Ali Baba (1936)
On Parade! (1936) for Horlick’s
What Ho, She Bumps (1937) for Horlick’s
The Reddingbrigade (1937)
The Big Broadcast of ’38 (1937) for Philips
Southseas Sweethearts (1938) for Horlick’s
Hoola Boola (1938?)
The Ballet of Red Radio Valves (1938) Philips
Sky Pirates (1938)
Love on the Range (1939)
Dipsy Gypsy (1940)
Captain Kidding (194?)
Date with Duke (1940-7?)
Gooseberry Pie (1940-9?)
Friend in Need (1940) 2-D animation
Rhythm in the Ranks (1941)
Western Daze (1941)
Tulips Shall Grow (1942)
The Sky Princess (1942)
Jasper and the Haunted House (1942)
Jasper and the Watermelons (1942)
Bravo, Mr. Strauss (1943)
Goodnight Rusty (1943)
500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins (1943) Dr. Seuss story!
Jasper and the Choo Choo (1943)
Jasper Goes Fishing (1943)
Jasper’s Music Lesson (1943)
Jasper in a Jam (194?)
And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1944) Dr. Seuss story!
A Hatful of Dreams (1944)
Jasper Goes Hunting (1944)
Jasper’s Paradise (1944)
Package for Jasper (1944)
Two-Gun Rusty (1944)
Little Black Sambo (1944?)
Wilber the Lion (1944)
Jasper and the Beanstalk (1945)
Jasper’s Booby Trap (1945)
Jasper’s Close Shave (1945)
Jasper’s Minstrels (1945)
Jasper Tell (1945)
Jasper’s Derby (1946)
Together in the Weather (?) Punchy and Judy
John Henry and the Inky Poo (1946)
Tubby the Tuba (1947) The last Puppetoon short.
Variety Girl (1947) Pal appears with Puppetoons in one sequence

Feature Films

The Great Rupert (1950) PRODUCER
Destination Moon (1950) PRODUCER
When Worlds Collide (1951) PRODUCER
Houdini (1953) PRODUCER
War of the Worlds (1953) PRODUCER
The Naked Jungle (1954) PRODUCER
Conquest of Space (1955) PRODUCER
tom thumb (1958) DIRECTOR, PRODUCER
The Time Machine (1960) DIRECTOR, PRODUCER
Atlantis, The Lost Continent (1961) DIRECTOR, PRODUCER
The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) DIRECTOR (FAIRY TALE SEQUENCES), PRODUCER
7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) DIRECTOR, PRODUCER
The Power (1968) PRODUCER
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975) PRODUCER

Honors

Annie Award: Winsor McCay Award 1978
Academy Award for special effects: Destination Moon (1950), War of the Worlds (1953)
Academy Award for Make-up: 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) ,
nominated for Effects: 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

Bibliographic References

Mechanix Illustrated November, 1944 Oden and Olivia Meeker

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Contributors To This Listing

Brian Olson

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