Articles on Animation &Commentary &Illustration 17 Sep 2011 06:52 am
Tributes
- This past week, Yowp, the excellent site devoted to Hanna-Barbera’s early product, offered a fine piece on Arnold Stang. After reading it, I thought it worth telling about my one contact with Mr. Stang.
I was about to do my first half-hour show for HBO. It was a musical version of the Bernard Waber children’s book, LYLE LYLE CROCODILE. Charles Strouse had written some fine songs, and I cast them with auditions. The two people who made it through without auditions were: Charles Strouse, himself, in the bit singing role as a moving man. He had a small part of the chorus in the opening song. _____________Arnold and Charles’ characters sing together.
Arnold Stang was cast as a bird
owned by the family. I couldn’t help myself; I had to bring in the guy who was a key part of 50 & 60s animation history – at least for my own amusement.
Arnold had to squawk a number of times, speak a few scratchy lines, and sing a couple of lines in the opening song as he, the bird, is moved into the House on East 88th Street. When we recorded Arnold singing, it was to a temp track of the music. The engineer, Strouse and I sat in the control booth with Arnold in the large recording booth.
He sang the lines. I was excited and pleased and felt he’d gotten it on the first take.
Charles Strouse said otherwise and asked for them to be redone.
The same results; I knew they were great, Charles was annoyed about them, and he made the mistake of going over me, the director, to punching the button to talk to Arnold in the booth. The two of them got into a shouting match over the ridiculous. Charles wanted Arnold to sound more like a bird. Arnold kept pointing out that he wasn’t a bird and such birds don’t talk, never mind sing. He also pointed out that he played a cat and dog and many other types of animals, but he was always a human, not an animal.
With every jab, Charles Strouse came back with another. The two of them were screaming, and I finally had to stop it. I took the button from Charles’ hand and asked Arnold to excuse us while we discussed it in the control room. From that point on, Arnold couldn’t hear us as I told Charles that he was being ridiculous and Arnold had been doing a good job. He backed off (hopefully realizing what a jerk he’d become.) However, now Charles had gotten the talent upset and he was supposed to perform under such stressful conditions. It was very unprofessional of Charles, and equally so that he thought he could take charge of the recording session. I was the director and would make all decisions from then on, and only I was allowed to speak to the performer, Arnold.
Charles yielded. What else could he do. I asked Arnold if he could step back to the beginning and try to smooth his feathers and do it one more time for me. He agreed, did a great job, and I thanked him for his help.
In fact, it did turn out great. Arnold brought a nice and funny character to the bird. Which was a minor part and not worth an argument.
Years later, for a special Birthday I had coming up, Heidi wanted to throw a surprise party. She invited Arnold, and he left a wonderful message on her machine thanking her but not able to attend. She still has that recording and it’s pretty cute. Arnold speaking in his natural voice sounding so positive and lovely.
- J.J. Sedelmaier has started a new column for Imprint Magazine. Imprint is, basically, the blog for Print Magazine. You’ll remember that John Canemaker had a year’s worth of excellent and diverse columns there, and Steven Heller continues to write some very smart pieces. Just look at the announcement about Pablo Ferro which leads to this great, recent bio of the designer.
But, back to J.J. Sedelmaier’s piece on Gary Baseman. It’s a wonderfully illustrated piece with lots of artwork from Mr. Baseman. A wonderful illustrator, he has been working for years in animation thanks to both R.O.Blechman and J.J.’s studios. He also did a fine series for Disney with “Teacher’s Pet.”
J.J. shows how they achieved his painterly style, in a commercial his studio produced, using the cels. It’s a good article and something to look forward to monthly.
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- Illostribute is a blog devoted to the art of Illustration. They currently have a tribute to Mary Blair, which seems to have pulled many of her gorgeous illustrations from the Canemaker book, The Art and Flair of Mary Blair. (This book is a beauty and should be owned by everyone in animation.)
It’s a curious site in that they seem to post illustrations inspired by the featured artist; this they do on the Mary Blair feature. There are several older posts I found interesting. It was nice, for example, to see some paintings by Jack Levine and be reminded of his great work.
on 17 Sep 2011 at 12:04 pm 1.Oscar Solis said …
Great story about the recording on Lyle the Crocodile.
I remember my oldest daughter used to see the VHS video almost everyday. She loved it. So much that I had to ban it for a while
I still have the video in the garage as a memento of her childhood
on 17 Sep 2011 at 5:58 pm 2.The Gee said …
Stang: Nothing I could say about his voice would mean much to anyone who might read what I write. But, thanks for sharing that anecdote. And, for respecting the man. Not that you wouldn’t from what I can tell.
The films he acted in:
1) wotta melon! That pompadour he had going on makes the shape of his head just downright delightful to look at and to want to draw.
2) wotta character actor! The few films I can think of that he was in are fun movies. Not all I remember watching are great but good enough to pass the time, ya know.
I put him the category with Zazu Pitts as one of those actors who did watchable to good flicks. And, knowing little else about the movie, I’d watch something he was in…beyond his voice acting for cartoons…
Gary Baseman:
He, and the cartoonist Dave Cooper, grabbed a piece of Koko the Clown and some other Fleischer elements and went to town establishing their thing.
The column is a good read. Thanks.
Not that it matters much, but currently, I’m at a crossroads on whether should more illustration become the basis for animation. But, I think what was done with Baseman is alright stuff. And, if adapting someone’s works or style means more work for animators, domestically: yay! Keep on keeping on. Just hold off on wanting to mo-cap it, please.