Monday 22 November 2010

Now, These Follow-Ups to Earlier Stories

It’s constantly amazing to me that people actually come here to read what I have to say. Or maybe they’re just looking at the pictures. Actually, some of them are. The blog has been getting over 300 individual hits a day in the last week. Many of them are from people who see an image file during a web search and click here. Others come here while on the hunt for something else (I don’t think people entering “daddy bear” in a search engine are trying to find a Yogi cartoon). But there are those who have apparently bookmarked the site and arrive directly without doing a search.

Last weekend, there were ten hits in a row, each from a different country—Canada, Finland, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy, Holland, the U.S., Mexico and Spain. Not too many hours before and after, readers peered in from computers in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Kuwait and England. And Macedonia. I didn’t even know they showed Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw there, but I guess they did. Or do.

Even more of a surprise to me is the number of animators and professional writers who visit, especially considering I can’t draw and I’m not altogether a writer by trade. And, even better, they send me stuff they’ve collected they think I’d enjoy. And I do. So let me share with you some things I received via e-mail in response to several recent posts.

Tim Hollis is the co-author of ‘Mouse Tracks, The Story of Walt Disney Records.’ He sent this note:


When you covered the H-B theme park business a few days ago, I meant to send you this page from a magazine article when King's Island first opened. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of their earliest photos... it looks like Yogi was badly in need of a shave!


Click on the article to enlarge it.

Animator Mark Kausler wrote after the Yowp Story post. He re-sent the Yowp model sheet and some other stuff. Yes, the Huck drawings are signed by Ed Benedict! Mark knew Ed Benedict. And Tex Avery. If I go any further, I’ll sound like Stan Freberg doing Chester in ‘Tree For Two,’ so let me post these. Thanks a lot George, Mark.




The Yowp drawings are by Bick Bickenbach (see his initials in the right-hand corner).

It seems there were several variations of the “cast picture” from the Huck show. You’ve probably seen one posted here that has just the stars, leaving out secondary characters like Li’l Tom Tom, Cousin Tex and (sniff) everyone’s favourite cartoon dog that isn’t named Snuffles or Astro.

And reader Billie Towzer has a collection of photos of H-B stuff. Where they come from, I don’t know, but Billie e-mails me some fun discoveries. Below is a Yogi Bear napkin. Perfect for pic-a-nics, I suspect.


You could use the napkin when you dug into officially-licensed candy.



I was going to write a really bad Candy/Granny Sweet joke, but remember, I’m not a writer. I’m a cartoon dog.

So thanks to all of you who have dropped me a line via e-mail and especially those who have sent me links or jpgs or information/thoughts about the cartoons featured here. I really appreciate it. And I’d like think others who come here do, too.

13 comments:

  1. No Jim..Thank you. This page has been a dream come true for so many of us who grew up on these cartoons. You cover it all. The Studio heads, writers, animators, voice actors, music cues, and the composers of this rare music we have been hearing for close to fifty years. Any piece of memorabilia you have received as a gift from people connected with the biz, or otherwise, you deserve. Happy for your success. You've worked hard, and it looks like it's paying off.

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  2. Agree with Errol -- You've put a lot of research work into your posts, which is what makes them more interesting than, say, a simple "Cartoon of the Week" synopsis of one of the early H-B shorts.

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  3. Hi, I enjoy the blog and write in from Ecuador, where I am now. Probably all those hits from foreign countries are from homesick Americans who have fled the worstening situation there.

    You do get homesick for food and media like TV and songs, etc.

    Also your blog connects with other boomer nostalgia sites out there. One of them was a guy listing every great restaurant in Los Angeles that is now closed forever. I loved that. Also I found all the kids daytime TV hosts from the Sixties on a link of yours.

    So it is all very cool. Thanks.
    Bill
    Quito, Ecuador

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  4. Your blog is a real encyclopedia for those of us who grow up watching this cartoons. I being more familiar by the writers, musicians, actors, animators and gagmans behind those cartoons. Where i live, they aired some of the Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw cartoons segments but mostly because everyone is familiar more than their animation history. Thanks for sharing with us!

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  5. Hi Yowp,
    I just want to let you know I visit your blog daily (many times more than once a day) and it is one of my favorites. I enjoy reading everything you have posted and re-read many of the entries as I learn something new each time. Also, as an animator and composer, I particularly enjoy the great musical cues you have been posting from the pens of truly gifted composers. Keep up the good work! I am one of your "regulars."

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  6. Being not just a cartoon fan, but a webcomic artist, I really enjoy reading about the early HB cartoons. Huckleberry Hound, Yogi, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinx and the rest are some of the most fun cartoons I've seen, and to a degree they've influenced my own cartoons.
    And if you're interested in seeing my work, check out http://www.fluffyandmervin.com (End of commercial.)

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  7. You have covered areas here that I never would have imagined to research. For example, the music libraries that H-B used in their early cartoons. You not only know what music was used, but also have covered their time cues for the different cartoons. This is an area that fascinates me because I worked in radio broadcasting for 20 years and used production libraries extensively. Thank you for covering this vital aspect of H-B that still has repercussions on these cartoons still to this day.

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  8. Every station I know of has chucked out all their vinyl (production music is downloaded these days). I'd sure like to find discs with cues I'm missing.
    KING used the Hi-Q library; KARI had either Hi-Q or Capitol Media Music.

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  9. Regarding Kings Islad---I'd rather have the Brady Bunch over the Nickelodeon cartoon gang, including ESPECIALLY rather than RUGRATS!!]. How kids tastes have sadly changed--NICKELODEON?? Yeah I know that Viacom/Paramount had them but I wished that they hadn't had the Rugrats, thank god THEIR time passed...THe Bunch, whi had that King's Island episode, may not be a certain cartoon dog's show---it's from a certain Great Dane's show, and I AIN'T talking ASstro, as in the Jetsons---but the Brady Bunch certainly was more enjoyable than Scooby---though today somehow, if you'll forgive the rose colored glasses---I'd have any of thsoe before the Nick Gang,..a[pologies for being hypocytical regarding my usual reviling of 1970sdcarotons, but I'd take the 9LIVE only) Brady Bunch at ANY Paramount Pictures-themed place over the Nick characters. But you know what I wish King's Island really would have, and same studio owns---_Airplane or Naked GUn characters..


    You know, when you wrote ".....and (sniff!)
    " everyone's favorite cartoon dog that ISN'T named Snuffles or Astro I thought that it meant that the cast picture had Scooby-Doo, and "leaving out' a certain loved dog not named Snuffles or Astro, till I read again there and noticed that it said that this had every early HB star or something BUT a certain dog not Snuffles or Astro, meaning of course yourself, Yowp.

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  10. Hi Yowp,

    Yes, they used to show Hucklebery Hound and Quick Draw McGraw here in Macedonia. I couldn't tell whether they do now. The HB cartoons are not only eye candies and good models to improve my draftsmanship, but they also radiate a sense of goodwill which I find therapeutic.

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  11. Thanks for the information, Ivan. I never would have guessed that.

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  12. Great post as usual. Just my two cents: I do believe the Yogi napkin came from the factory tours that the Kellogg's plant used to conduct way back when. I remember going there when I was a kid, and they served Froot Loops sundaes at the conclusion of the tour.

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