To the left, you can look at a really attractive drawing that was the cover of the TV sections of the Long Beach Independent-Press-Telegram from 1960. It isn’t promoting any of the cartoons (since Huck, Yogi and Quick Draw never appeared together back then). The caption refers to Fourth of July celebrations that were marked on various channels in the area. I wish I could tell you the artist.
Of course, there was art promoting the series as well that papers could use with accompanying articles. Below is one from 1959. In this case, there was no article. There was only a caption below it. This piece may have been in colour, judging by the shading in the photocopy.
The characters got together in a little logo that was printed on game boxes and elsewhere. In later years, they showed up on the final title card on the TV cartoons themselves. The Huck cast is from after 1961, when Yogi left and Hokey Wolf was added. The Flintstones cast is from 1964 when Hoppy was added to the cast in yet another publicity gimmick. This copy was with an article in a trade magazine. I’ve never understood why the women are posed with their left arm extended. If anyone has an idea, let me know.
We’ve posted other H-B publicity art elsewhere (there seems to have been all kinds of it); this is the last that’s sitting in our hard drive.
It looks to me like the ones they did by the late sixties were copied from a "relative sizes" model sheet. If that's the case with the Flintstones SM then the extended arms might be for anatomical reference. Of course, smaller characters would be magnified... like Atom Ant.
ReplyDeleteMy theory on these is that it was an alternative graphic means of legally stating "The Flintstones, and all associated characters, are copyright protected." Double insurance to discourage piracy.
YES ! the H-B box as i mentally referred to it since childhood. i love 'em ! what were the last ones used ? past 1965 ?
ReplyDeleteThey kept it going into the late 80's I recall.
DeleteYou would've easily thought that the 1959 promotional ad would be for CKLW (which was on channel 9) if it weren't for explicitly listing the time slot as 6 PM-a half-hour earlier than it's timeslot on CKLW.
ReplyDeleteThe legalities are intriguing. "Service Mark of Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc." and not a Hanna-Barbera copyright notice. CPI didn't come into existence until late December 1968 (Screen Gems was fully merged back into its parent, probably because it was SG that was making the money) so this would be I'm guessing anywhere from 1969-1974, when SG became Columbia Pictures Television. Until when did Columbia get a cut of the merchandising royalties and when did they lose the TV distribution rights? Seems like they had those for at least 20-25 years.
ReplyDeleteJim, I understood it was 25 years but I'd have to look it up. There was a biography on Google Books at one time that went into all this.
DeleteMy impression is Taft didn't realise until after the purchase that Columbia still had the marketing rights to the old characters tied up.
So much for due diligence...while Ed Justin snickers like Muttley.
DeleteHanna/Barbera SI! *Rankin/Bass NO!*It's nothing more than a sound and design company that don't even make it's own animation. so what if Hanna-barbera's animation is"cheesy"at least it's honest and original not made by a group of people that brought us DECEMBER 7 1941.
ReplyDelete