Animation Artifacts &Articles on Animation &Bill Peckmann 11 Dec 2008 08:33 am
Ads for Ad Companies
- Flipping through some old film and animation magazines, I couldn’t help but look at all the old ads for the many animation companies that were ever present and are now gone. In a way, back then, you were pleased to see the small companies that promoted themselves regularly in all the film mags.
You have to remember that animation wasn’t all present back then. It wasn’t easy to find a lot about the medium. Now you just turn on the computer, but back in the ’70s you bought a magazine and cherished the few articles. And when you found something like the Film Comment issue of 1975 (though there were no ads for animation companies in that issue), you kept the magazine close and read and reread the articles. Then you looked at all the ads for the boutique commercial companies.
The following ads all came out of three issues of Millimeter one from 1976 two from 1977.
Zander’s Animation Parlour was the largest commercial company
in NY in the 70′s and their ads were the biggest and most entertaining.
They often appeared on the back cover of these magazine issues.
Ads changed from issue to issue, so someone in the studio
kept designing them. Jack Produced the spots with animators
Doug Crane, Dean Yeagle and Bill Railey on staff.
Phil Kimmelman’s studio, PK&A, was also a dominating advertiser.
Though their ads changed, as well, this one appeared often enough
to be recognizable.
Phil Kimmelman ran the studio with Bill Peckman supervising and
doing layout. Jack Schnerk, Sal Faillace and Dante Barbetta were
regularly used animators.
Perpetual Motion was another large studio run by Buzz Potamkin.
Their ads weren’t as obviously frequent as the other two, but
they did focus on their art.
Buzz ran the studio in NY with animators Vinnie Cafarelli and Jan Svochak
on staff. Candy Kugel was the up and coming star to emerge.
Bill Melendez, on the west coast, did the Charlie Brown shows, but
his studio also did commercials (often featuring Charlie Brown.)
Kurtz and Friends, in California, was hot.
Herb Stott’s Spungbuggy Works certainly caught my eye.
That name for a studio was genius.
Murakami Wolf, Swensen was a diverse animation studio that seemed to do everything from “The Point” to “Biker Mice From Mars” to commercials.
Mort and Millie Goldscholl ran the largest studio in Chicago, Goldscholl Ass.
Their focus seemed to be graphic animation.
IF Studio was run by cameraman, Carlos Sanchez. They filmed animation
and produced a lot of graphic animation.
Bajus Jones was a hip studio operating out of Minneapolis. They caught a lot of attention and did excellent character animation.
Ray Seti was an animator who opened his own one-man studio. He did a
lot of animatics for commercials and thrived for quite some time.
I have a funny story about meeting him that I’ll hold for another time.
George McGuinnes and Mark Howard ran The Image Factory. They did
dynamic graphic animation. I think I did the only drawn animation for
them – which they used for a graphic spot.
on 13 Dec 2008 at 10:15 pm 1.Kellie Strøm said …
Here’s another Phil Kimmelman & Associates ad from the back of Funnyworld no. 20. I didn’t know anything about the company, but I loved the ad.
on 14 Dec 2008 at 9:21 am 2.Michael said …
You’re right, Kellie, that ad is a nice one that I’d forgotten about. PK&A advertised in FUNNYWORLD several times, usually using the portrait ad (the first shown above.)
on 14 Dec 2008 at 10:49 pm 3.Dave Mackey said …
Who are the caricatures in the PK&A ad – outstandingly rendered by the great Jack Davis – supposed to be of?
on 15 Dec 2008 at 9:56 am 4.Michael said …
I know that Bill Peckman is standing up to the far left, and that Phil Kimmelman is the one sitting lowest center. I’d guess that it might be Mordi Gerstein sitting in Phil’s lap and maybe Hal Hoffer standing to the right. I’m not sure of the last two; it’s a guess.
If anyone IS sure, please leave a comment to set the record straight.
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on 16 May 2009 at 9:00 am 6.Tony Franqueira said …
Michael, do you know where George Mcguinnes is at now. I freelanced at Image Factory a little, and was also a student of his at SVA in the 80′s. Just curious, it’s been a long time.
on 16 May 2009 at 9:08 am 7.Michael said …
Actually, I don’t know where George McGuinnes is today, though I would like to know. He was certainly an ardent supporter way back then, and he really seemed to believe in animation and film.
on 18 May 2009 at 9:55 am 8.Tony Franqueira said …
Thanks Michael. I’d love to know where George is today. He was a huge influence in my early years. What I learned from George enabled me to get work right out of SVA.
on 27 Jun 2009 at 11:52 am 9.BILL PECKMANN said …
Michael,
Re: Jack Davis ad for PK&A.
You’re correct about Phil, Mordi ‘n myself, the 4th associate is Sid Horn: producer. Mordi was striped, into the original trio, by Jack when Mordi joined us a few years after the studio had opened.
Michael, since you are a keeper of the NYC animation flame, I’ve got some old ads/flyers from that time period, if you’re interested I’d be happy to mail ‘em to you.
Best, Bill
PS- Your site is outta sight!
on 17 Jan 2010 at 11:39 pm 10.Jon said …
Would love to hear the story about when you met Ray Seti
on 18 Jan 2010 at 10:57 am 11.Michael said …
Jon, you’re right. I forgot that I promised to tell that trivial little story. Maybe later this week (Jan 18, 2010)
on 22 Jan 2010 at 5:34 pm 12.Charles Vaughn said …
Michael,
I’m doing a history piece on Cinetron (Computer Systems) on my website and came across this in my researching for IF studios, Image Factory, Edstan studios, The Optical House, EFX, Computer Opticals and some of the other folks in NY who were using the Cinetron systems for animation (there were over 50 in NY). Right now I just have the first part of it done so far and anything that your readers could contribute will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Charlie
http://www.Charles-Vaughn-Images.com look under about us and Cinetron
on 03 Aug 2014 at 7:51 pm 13.Jonas Soltero said …
great man! Thank you