Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

Here is the next installment of Top Cel issues. These are all that I have for 1966. Vince Cafarelli saved most of the collection of papers that were edited by Ed Smith for Local 841 of the MP Screen Cartoonists Guild. These all come from that collection.
As for who illustrated the covers, I only have the signatures to go by; they don’t seem to have identified them elsewhere.

January 1966 pgs A & F
Designed & drawn by ?????

b c

d e

February 1966 pgs A & F
Designed & drawn by Pose Ziditech

b c

d e

March 1966 pgs A & F
Designed & drawn by Karl Fischer

b c

d e

April 1966 pgs A & F
Designed & drawn by Pose Ziditech

b c

May 1966 pg A
Designed & drawn by Ed Smith

b c

d

July 1966 pg A
Designed & drawn by Ed Smith

b c

d

September 1966 pg A
Designed & drawn by Tom Jurkoski

b c

d

October 1966 pg A
Designed & drawn by Irene Trivas

b c

November 1966 pg A
Designed & drawn by ????

b c

d e

f g

- Dabbing back into the folder of Top Cel issues, I’m posting the next year’s worth (minus a month or two). Vince Cafarelli saved these issues from the period in which Ed Smith edited the newsletter. I’m glad he held onto them; there’s a lot to be learned and some great drawings from some very good artists.

February 1964
Drawing by George Cannata

23

March 1964
Designed by Bill Feigenbaum

23

23

May 1964
Designed by Karl Fischer

23

June 1964
Designed by BillFeigenbaum

34

5

23

August 1964
Unk Illustrated “C.C.” ?

45

6

1

23

October 1964
Designed by Ken Kimmelman & Howard Basis

23

November 1964
Drawing by Karl Fischer

23

45

Dec 1964
Designed by ?

23

3

6.1-6

This is our third installment of Vince Cafarelli‘s collection of the Ed Smith edited issues of Top Cel the u-nion organ. Local 841 of the MPScreen Cartoonists had Pepe Ruiz as their Business Rep., Izzy Klein as the President and Howard Beckerman as VP.

Feb 1963

2 3

4

5
Pages 1 & 4 wrap around 2&3
March 1963
Cover unsigned but it looks like Ed Smith drew it

67

Pages 1 & 4 wrap around 2&3
April 1963
Drawn by Ken Kimmelman

9 10

11

12
Pages 1 & 4 wrap around 2&3
May 1963
Designed by Bill Feigenbaum & Karl Fischer

1314

Pages 1 & 4 wrap around 2&3
July 1963
Drawn by George Cannata

1617

Pages 1 & 4 wrap around 2&3
August 1963
Desiged by Ed Smith

1920

Pages 1 & 4 wrap around 2&3
September 1963
Desiged by Ed Smith & Karl Fischer

2223

Pages 1 & 4 wrap around 2&3
October 1963
Drawn by Gloria Graves Kougal

2526

2829

This cover was probably the most famous Top Cel cover.
It was originally printed in two colors – red & black and
was 8½ x 14 in size. Ed Smith did justice to it in this reprint.

3132

33

- Still left in the Vince Cafarelli collection of drawings from commercials he did, most probably, at Goulding-Elliott-Graham (for the moa part) are the drawings below. We know through some small bits and pieces of information what a couple of the sponsors were. (The wording of dialogue the professor speaks that the sponsor is Nabisco Shredded Wheat; the lion and the mouse ad is obviously for Vicks – drops or vap-o-rub.) However, too many other bits leave us empty handed. I can recognize cartoonist, Lou Myers‘ work anywhere, but no clue what they’re for. Candy Kugel and I were also able to delineate Lu Guarnier‘s drawing style (Vinnie was his assistant for years), and I know Jack Schnerk‘s great work. I recognize the brilliant and great hand of George Cannata from similar work that Bill Peckmann had recognized (see here) in a past post. So it is great to learn as much as we can, even though there’s a lot of guesswork in it.

The following are three storyboard drawings by cartoonist Lou Myers for some spot:

1

2

3

The following drawings are for Nabisco Shredded Wheat. They’re animation drawings/ruffs by Lu Guarnier. The delicate pencil lines of these years turned into dark rougher ones in his later years. The timing charts were always the same right out early wB years. You’ll notice a lot of quarters and thirds in the breakdowns. This is something you’d never see from Disney. There, everything is broken into halves and halves again and again.

1A

1B

1C

1D

1E

1F

1G

1H

- The following lion is designed and animated for a Vick’s commercial. (Note the second model sheet.) There were quite a few commercials during the period that reworked this great Aesop tale for the sponsor’s use. The lion obviously has a cold. Rather than pulling out the thorn, the mouse introduces him to Vicks’ cough drops and the lion feels a whole lot better.

What has been left behind of this ad includes a couple of model sheets of the lion as well as a couple of animation drawings. I don’t know who the designer is, but the animation drawings are most definitely the work of Jack Schnerk. I suspect all the drawings here are by Jack. He probably kept reworking the model sheet until he got the character in his hand. I can remember him lecturing me on the quality of my drawings. Unless my drawings became roughs, rather than tight clean ups, he was convinced I couldn’t get good animation in my pencil. Jack’s work was rough. and it became much more rough than this, certainly by the time I knew him and was assisting him. He also had a peculiar style of roughness; very choppy angular lines chiseling out the fine drawings. You can get a good example of that with drawing labeled “2D”.

The last four drawings are all animation drawings. “2D” is a rough, “2E” is a clean-up by Jack. The last drawing is a beauty and probably the final look he hit upon.

2A

2B

2C

2D

2E

2F

Here we have some drawings by a designer. I suspect that it’s the work of George Cannata. I did a couple of posts on a designer at Robert Lawrence Studio a few weeks back. Bill Peckmann identified the primary designer whose work screamed out to me. Since then, I’d recognize that line anywhere, and it’s most definitely below.

The Groundhog below is obviously a character with a southern drawl. The first step was to try the obvious making him a cowboy (“3A”). But that soon changed. and the character got plenty more sophisticated (“3B & C”). After that the line got juicy and the color got bold. There’s really so much to a character like this who just about animates himself.

3A

3B

3C

3D

3E

The following five drawings are for a WISK commercial. There are two model drawings and three animation ruffs. The primary model indicates that the spot is done for Screen Gems which was a viable studio in the early 60s and 70s. However, I don’t know who the animator was. Neither Lu Guarnier nor Jack Schnerk fill the bill.I know that Irv Dressler was at Screen gems for many years, but am not sure about this time especially since IMDB has him free lancing for King Features and other entertainment studios. The drawswing style of these animation drawings is right out of the Paramount/Terrytoons mold. Many animators’ work looked like these. People such as Johnny Gentilella, Marty Taras et alworked in a very similar style, though these are a little harder lines than either of those two.

A
This is the primary model for the entire family. It’s a
beautiful drawing, and the characters have a lot of play
in them despite being connected so obviously.
Just look at the father’s hair. Beautifully done

B
Here’s a secondary model. I suspect this is the animator
tracing off the characters and seeing what he can do with them.

C
Animation drawing #105. Those breakdown charts are something.

D

E

The Buffalo Bee for Honey Nut Oats is also a model sheet from Screen Gems. With it come an animation model sheet for the walk cycle of the character. These drawings look like Lu Guarnier’s to me, but there’s no official way I could confirm that, of course.

Model sheet

1

2

3

4

- Over the years I’ve found that a number of animation personnel saved their copies of Top Cel, the u-nion newspaper. However, we’re not talking every copy of Top Cel, we’re focused on the Ed Smith years. Ed was the editor for a number of years, and his issues were filled with great graphics done by local members.

I have a complete collection from the late forties up to the final years. That collection has been in storage for the entire run of this Splog, or I would have been posting these sooner. However, there among the Vince Cafarelli collection was a couple of the Ed Smith years’ papers. Starting with July 1960 and running through May 1968, there are a lot of papers. I hope to post the graphics from these and wil pick out particular stories or images within to give an idea of what was happening in the business. I don’t want to post the entire thing, since many of the articles pertain specifically to u-nion business, and it seems pointless in its outdated nature.

We’ll start with the first 10 issues:

1
July 1960
Artwork by Mordi Gerstein

1a 1b
(Click any of these frames to enlarge to a more legible size.)

2
August 1960
This issue, like many others, has to be turned clockwise to properly read.
For the sake of these covers, I am turning the image 90° c/w
for you to read and will do this for all subsequent covers.
Artwork by Ed Friedman

2a 2b

2c

3
Sept 1960
This cover was also turned 90° c/w.
Artwork by Spipol (? I have difficulty reading the name ?)

3a 3b

3b CU
This cartoon, by Ed Smith, makes fun of the fact that the fashionably popular
HuckleberrynHound and Yogi Bear were being advertised as “Adult” cartoons.

3c

Within this larger issue, there were two pages of photos taken at
the Annecy Animation Festival to which a number of members went.
The left page is posted above, the right page is posted below.

3d 3e
Reports about the Festival by two members, Dick Rauh and Hal Silvermintz.

4
October 1960
The front cover of this issue.
Artwork by Karl Fischer

4a 4b

The back cover

5
Nov 1960
Artwork by Mordi Gerstein

5a 5b

6
Jan 1961
Artwork by Len Glasser

6a 6b

6c
This back page had the contacts of all contracted studios in NY.
I love that P.Kim & L.Gifford have
different contact info from Gifford-Kim.

7
February 1961
Turned 90° c/w.
Art by Edwin R. Smith J.R. (Ed’s son?)

7a 7b

7c

8
March 1961
Turned 90° c/w.
Art by Hal Silvermintz

8a 8b

8c

9
April 1961

9a 9b

9c

10
May 1961
I think the artwork is by Arnie Levin
Front cover

Back cover is an extension of the front.

Attached they look like this.

Inside is a 2-page promotion for the Hubley show at the
Beekman Theater. This was the premiere of their feature, Of Stars & Men.

This was the 2nd page of the promo.

There also must have been a middle page of text which is lost from this copy of the issue.

Attached the program looked like this.

This was my first viewing of the Hubley works. I had never seen a Hubley short
prior to this program. I was a Sophomore High School student at the time.
I went back a couple more times, and my world was changed forever.

To see some copies of Top Cel which were issued in 1945 and 1946, Richard O’Connor and his company’s blog Ace and Son has ostd quite a few of these issues. By going here, you’ll find 8 or 10 documents.

Tip-Top Bread Repeat

- Originally, after Vince Cafarelli had died, I was shown the boxes and portfolios full of artwork that Vince had very briefly and casually discussed with me for years. What I thought were a couple of drawings, ended up being a lot of brilliant work beautifully contained by Vinnie and his partner Candy Kugel, over the many ears they had their studio. It was work – meaning drawings, sketches, layouts and animation – that Vinnie had held on to and in some cases preserved because he knew it was valuable (not financially, but historically).

In the not-too-distant past (6/27/12 and 10/24/12), I posted material about an Emily Tipp commercial for Tip Top Bread. This spot, like all of those of the series, was well designed and animated and stood out among other spots on TV. It was commercial cartoon animation at its best during the 60s. Margaret Hamilton, memorably, the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, provided the voice for Emily!

The problem for me was the disorganization. So little of it was labelled or attached to any others that were gathered in those boxes. So I started digging in and organizing while at the same time pulling art for display on this blog. What happened was pretty much what I expected. Some things got mislabeled and other items were separated from art which they should have been attached to. Here we have a prime example. Emily Tipp.

Gathered in one group/box were some of the layouts for this typical TipTop Bread spot. We’d already assembled some of the drawings that belonged together despite the fact that the were found in separate boxes representing different studios. It turns out that some work that was credited to Kim-Gifford Studio (the laouts below) actually were done by Elliot-Graham-Goulding.

So here, we have some story boards to connect with some layouts. Compare and contrast and enjoy.

1

2

To see some of the Emily Tipp spots go here
at the Buzzco website.

1

2

3

4

5

6

- When you run a studio in New York, and you’re an animator, there’s a good likelihood that at the quiet moments when work is slow, you’ll be working on your own bit of animation. Whether it’s a short film or a test of something you’ve always imagined animating, it’s hard not to keep pencil to paper (or stylus from the Cintiq.) Vinnie Cafarelli was just such a creature. After seeing a show of Picasso’s works he took the flier and started animating the image Picasso had done. It never got to completion; those were the days of the expensive cameraman and laborious cel process. But I can take Vinnie’s work and finish it in AfterEffects and Photoshop. Here’s my exosure of his basic animation. No X-Sheets were left behind. Here’s the art; here’s the QT movie.

This is the original flyer that got Vinnie going.
He built all his animation up from this printed piece.

The Background

The “character” drawings follow:

b1

b2

c1

c2

c3

c4

d1

d2

d3

d4

d5

d6

d7

d8

d9

d10

d11

d12

e1

e2

e3

e4

e5

e6

e7

e8

The following QT movie was made of the
drawings above. Since there were no X-Sheets
For better or worse, I came up with the timing, myself.

- Len Glasser had designed a number of pieces for Perpetual Motion Pictures. I wrote last week about two pieces that were designed and work was done on a job for CBS and their weather division. Ed Smith animated the originals which were killed and never aired. At some point a couple of years back, Vince Cafarelli built a miini-film out of what they had done. He animated anything they needed to complete this one flm. It’s built on a snowman that comes to life; the film was taken to its conclusion, but nothing was done with it beyond that. (I’ve suggested that they make an animated Christmas card out of it and send it out to everyone. It’s certainly entertaining enough.)

I’ll post every other one of the animated drawings here so you can see the animation and accompany them with the final QT movie of the piece. It should make a nice little post.

Here are the drawings predominantly animated by Ed Smith directly in pen onto paper. The drawings were xeroxed and/or inked onto cel, colored and shot traditionally. Here are the paper drawings with one or two odd comments added. Rick Broas helped Vince complete it.

The Background to scene 1

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19
This is part of a cycle of the snowman banging
on the door of the house. (see the QT movie)

21

23

25

27

29
This is the best look we get (on this animation level)
of the character the Snowman terrorizes.

31

33

35

37
Wth this drawing the kicked guy moves
to another level as he fles into the distance.

39

41

43

Background 2

44
This even-numbered drawing is where the second scene,
the interior, begins. So I included it to the group.

45

47

49

51

53

54

55

57

59

61

63

65

67

69
I like how the snowman, having fallen in front of
the fireplace begins to melt on the floor.

71
He falls back, naturally, and then comes up toward us as he
starts to melt. This little accent by Vince, in animating him . . .

73
. . . seems to signal that, for the first time, the snowman
has found a release and can now be happy.

74

.

The End

_________________________

The final mini-movie
(I looped it. It could have used a hold at the end before starting over.)

- In 1976 at Perpetual Motion Pictures, Len Glasser designed a series of spots for CBS and their weather service. Models and animation was done (Ed Smith did the original animation.) These short spots were obviously funny, but they were killed, just the same. Never completed and never aired. Two segments of these have remained. One, the “Snowman” spot was picked up by Vince Cafarelli a couple of years back and, reworked with Rick Broas assisting him. They extended the piece a bit and made a short short film. The film was colored on cels and a quick soundtrack was put together. There was also another film which didn’t make it quite as far; it dealt with rain. I’ve finished up the art that exists for that one as best I could and have run it through the AfterEffects mill.

This week features that second spot, the one I’ve been calling “Rainman” – really it’s just a short gag that was never completed. Most of it is on cel, though I had to force a Bg out of a layout that I discovered, and I colored it. I’m sure this is not how Mr. Glasser would have seen the color, but I just wanted to highlight the limited bit of animation that is there. The same is true of the rain which he probably would have left black line with black, inked drops. I put some white into the rain to give a bit less of a focus on it.

Two of the animation cels weren’t painted, so I took the drawings that were there, they look like Ed Smith’s drawings, done in ink on animation bond. I painted them for the final QT I produced. As I say this is just an animation fragment with barely a beginning and no end. It’s all middle. However, I thought it interesting.

Even more interesting and very much more complete, is the “Snowman” spot which I will feature next week.

Here are the “Rainman” cels & drawings:

Early model sheet by Len Glasser

Background sketch

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

____________________

The following QT movie was made reworking the art a bit,
coloring some of the artwork that wasn’t completed and
exposing it as I saw fit. There was nothing to go by.

This is just a fragment of a scene.
The rain colors and the BG colors are my choices.
I can’t say Len Glasser would approve. My only
concern was getting all the animation to read – rain & guy.

Next week’s spot is better. It has a laugh to it.

- There’s no way to know who animated this walk cycle. Perhaps it’s a commercial by Lu Guarnier. Vince Cafarelli was Lu’s assistant; so if I had to guess, I’d say that Lu animated it and Vince did the cleanup.

For the QT movie of it, I moved the character into place so that we could run it on a cycle.

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

____________________

The following QT movie was made reworking the positioning
of the character on the pages. This enables us to see a repeated
cycle without Magoo bouncing back to the starting position.

It’s certainly a fast walk.
You figure a natural walk is 12 frames per foot hit / 24 frames for both.
This cycle takes just 18 frames. Presumably it’s part of the overall timing.