Iwao, a Happy 100

Iwao Takamoto would have turned 100 today. While this blog isn’t much on birthdays, Iwao’s career at Hanna-Barbera began at the tail-end of The Yogi Bear Show (he laid out Bear Foot Soldiers) and, as you likely know, carried on for a number of years. He deserves a tribute.

When Iwao arrived at the studio the senior layout artist was Dick Bickenbach, who was part of Hanna-Barbera on Day One (July 7, 1957), and had worked with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera at MGM starting in the mid-1940s. Iwao became the head designer in the mid-1960s at the time the studio focused on Saturday mornings. He is known for designing Astro on The Jetsons, Mugger (the Muttley-esque circus dog) in the feature Hey There, It's Yogi Bear, The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones and a Great Dane who needs no introduction.

Iwao (I don’t understand why his name is pronounced EE-WOE) penned an autobiography with Mike Mallory. He talks of his time at Disney and, before that, life in an internment camp where Japanese living in California were forcibly moved after Pearl Harbor lest any of them be secretly in cahoots with Tojo.

This is a thoroughly lazy post as I’ve clipped short segments from the book for those of you would haven’t read it. About his arrival, he writes:

At the time I signed on in 1961, Hanna-Barbera's chief designers were Bick Bickenbach [left], Gene Hazelton, and the artist who really seemed to set the style for the studio, Ed Benedict. Ed had also come from the MGM short cartoon department, but there he had worked mostly in Tex Avery's unit instead of Bill and Joes. I did not have much of a chance to know or work directly with Ed, but I learned a lot just from looking at the work that he did, not so much in regard to his character designs, but his backgrounds. I loved his thinking process, and the simplicity in which he got across his ideas in shows like “The Flintstones.” Ed's designs made the homes really look like they were dug out of a boulder, with a flat granite slab on top, looking like it had just been lowered down there on the head of a dinosaur. The result was almost cave-like, but at the same time strangely modern; a real primitive but fun environment which set the pattern for visual stylings that are still being used today in animation.

One of the originals at H-B was Dan Gordon, who had worked with Joe Barbera at the Van Beuren studio. Both then moved to Terrytoons in 1936 and later did side-work in comics on the West Coast. Dan lost a son in an accidental house fire and his last years were far removed from Hollywood and anything to do with animation. Here are Iwao's stories about Gordon:

Among the hugely creative people who were there in the early years was Dan Gordon, who was a designer, an animator, a storyman, an all-around talent. He had been in the business for decades and was a great gag man, but he also suffered from the affliction that affected so many others in the industry: alcoholism. I don’t really know why drinking was so prevalent within the business, but I've often wondered if it had carried over into film from the newspaper trade. Quite a few of those who went into animation in the early years were cartoonists out of New York, and newspapermen of that era were known for their thirst. Perhaps they carried their drinking from the periodical end of the business into he animation end of it. At Disney’s, a large percentage of the fellows drank quite a bit because of the pressure that they felt. I might run into a group of them at an establishment called Alphonse’s, which was a favorite watering hole, but they would also have open bottles of vodka in their desk drawers in the office.

Back in the 1930s, Dan had been one of the artists who moved with Max Fleischer down to a new studio in Florida to produce the feature film Gulliver's Travels. Stan Green, my assistant at Disney’s, had also been down there at that time. Stan used to drive Dan to and from the studio, because Dan was usually too inebriated to drive himself. One time, Stan said, Dan had not bothered to close the car door after getting in, and when Stan took a sharp turn, the door flew open, and in a flash there was no more Dan. He had fallen out onto the road. But he was so “protected” by alcohol that he was not even hurt.

At the time I was working with him, Dan used to hang out in the Cinegrill, which was a famous club attached to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, on Hollywood Boulevard. Sometimes after a late evening at the studio, I would go to the Cinegrill with Harvey Eisenberg’s son Jerry, who also worked as a layout artist at the studio, for dinner, and invariably Dan would be there, hanging out. We would go over and buy him a drink—Dan’s refreshment of choice was the boilermaker—and on one occasion I remember sitting with him and conducting an impromptu story meeting about how some project we were working on lacked a script. Dan always communicated with little drawings, rather than try to describe what he was thinking, and I remember that his hands were constantly shaking. I wondered, “How the devil is he going to draw anything with his hands shaking like crazy?” But he picked up a pencil, and brought his quivering hand down toward the paper, and as soon as the point of the pencil touched it, everything solidified. His shaking stopped and very quickly a little idea sketch emerged. Despite his drinking, Dan remained full of ideas.

I'm a little disappointed Iwao didn't have anything about Mike Maltese in the book, but he did say this about another former Warner Bros. writer who migrated to H-B after working for John Sutherland Productions:

Warren Foster was technically considered a writer, but like all cartoon writers from the old days, he drew his scripts. Warren had been on the staff of the Warner Bros. cartoon studio for decades, but once he moved over to Hanna-Barbera, he all but took over “The Flintstones” for its first season, and I believe his influence was one of the key factors for its success. I say this because one time Bill Hanna told me: “Joe and I wrote the first episode and Warren wrote all the rest of them.” He put it as simply as that. I remember Joe describing Warren sitting at his desk, working like crazy, drawing and writing a sequence down, and periodically breaking out in laughter. Warren just couldn’t contain himself, he was having such a good time, and Joe used to love to stand around outside his door and just watch him.

Hanna-Barbera took some knocks for its limited animation, the only kind practical for television at the time, though it looked an awful lot better than the almost static series for TV that came before. Iwao made this comparison:

Some people have suggested over the years that one did not have to be as good an artist for this style of animation than the full, elaborate Disney style, but that is not the case. Because many of the drawings had to be held on screen for a long time, as opposed to one-twenty-fourth or one-twelfth of a second, the poses had to be extremely accomplished and funny in and of themselves. That takes a lot of talent, and the Hanna-Barbera studio had it, with Bill and Joe themselves right at the top of the list.

Iwao passed away in Los Angeles on January 8, 2007.

You can read his book at Archive.org.

Not So Magical Bear

Yogi Bear tries a magic trick in one of those cartoons-between-the-cartoons on the Huckleberry Hound Show.

Alakazam, Alagazoom
Come out, little bear, wherever you ere, are.



“Hiya, Yogi,” says Boo Boo, after popping out of the hat. He then jumps off stage. “Hello, there, Boo Boo,” Yogi responds, waving at him.



But that’s not the end of it. Yogi’s magic has conjured up another Boo Boo. And another. And another (in recycled animation).



“I goofed somewheres,” he says to the TV viewing audience. But he writes it off when the director cuts to a closer shot. “But you’ve gotta admit, it’s a pretty slick trick.” Iris out.



Yeah, it’s not hilarious, but it’s a pleasant enough interlude. Kids probably liked the idea of multiple Boo Boos just popping up (with assistance from the Hanna-Barbera sound effects library).

Then it’s on to a commercial for Kellogg’s, the Best to You Each Morning....

Yogi Bear is On the Air. Hey, Hey, Hee!

“MeTV is running old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. What do you think, Yowp?” I have been asked by blog readers. I’m not really sure why anyone is all that interested; like anything else I’ve written about cartoons, you can take my opinion or it leave it.

I’m happy the old cartoons are getting some exposure, and may attract new viewers. It’s no secret there are some series that leave me cold (sorry, Magilla) but there’s nothing wrong with watching the original Huck Hound and Yogi Bear shows, especially in higher definition versions than anyone has seen before. To think that 60-plus years ago, our antenna was pulling in these same cartoons on a black-and-white Philco on channels that were, in some cases, about 120 miles away. (I confess I have not owned a set in almost 30 years so I am not watching MeTV or any TV. Sorry, Philco).

Long-time readers here know my favourite of all the H-B series is The Quick Draw McGraw Show, which MeTV is not airing. I have no inside knowledge about the situation. Perhaps Jerry Beck has some insight. To speculate, it could be a case, like the late Earl Kress told me when he tried to assemble a DVD set of the show years ago, some elements are missing or are in poor shape. And the first two seasons use the Langlois Filmusic library, which could not be cleared for home video use. I suspect Warners would like to recoup some restoration costs through BluRay sales. (The cartoons also feature the Capitol Hi-Q library, but most of the cues are by Phil Green which, the way Earl put it, could be cleared through EMI. Other ones by Bill Loose were a problem).

Like Yogi in hibernation, this poor old blog is supposed to be slumbering peacefully, but Strummer Petersen sent me some of the in-between cartoons that are airing on the Yogi show on MeTV, and I felt obliged to post some frames from one of them.

Long before “universes” based on who owns a cartoon, Quick Draw, Yogi and Huck interacted with other characters who appeared on their programme in little vignettes between the cartoons. This makes perfect sense, unlike mushing Jonny Quest and the Snorks in some kind of warped cross-breeding that you’d find in Tex Avery’s Farm of Tomorrow.

In one of the in-between shorts, Yogi is a waiter in a Brown Derby-like restaurant (at least, judging by the Hanna-Barbera star pictures on the wall). His customer is Yakky Doodle (played by Jimmy Weldon).



“What is the speciality of the house?” enquires the duck.



“Roast duck. What else?” replies Yogi. We get a stretch take out of Yakky, who flies away in horror.



I love Yogi’s quick expression as he realises punking Yakky has been a success. Take that, you annoying duck!



“I can understand his sensitivity,” Yogi confides in us. I feel the same way about bear claws.” He does his Yogi laugh as he swings his head from side to side.



But Yogi, ducks can be eaten. No one eats bear claws. Oh, well.

Ed Love is the animator of this little piece.

MeTV viewers, I hope you enjoy the old cartoons on television once again. Maybe El Kabong will swing onto the small screen in high-def some day.

Update: Reader Matt Hunter tells me a bear claw is like a Danish pastry. I've never heard of it. But now the gag makes sense.

Jerry Eisenberg

The saddening news has come in that Jerry Eisenberg has died. He was 87.

Jerry was one of the crew at MGM under Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera. He was a second-generation animation artist as his dad Harvey had worked with Barbera at Van Beuren in New York. Harvey later laid out cartoons for the Hanna-Barbera unit at Metro (Harvey is on the right of the photo) and was also responsible for the storyboard for Yogi's Birthday Party and the Top Cat opening animation.

After leaving MGM, Jerry worked under Ken Harris in the Chuck Jones unit at Warner Bros.

His name first shows up on the Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw shows in the 1961-62 season, providing layouts for Magician Jinks, Chilly Chiller and Person to Prison (both with Snooper and Blabber). He laid out the half-hour prime time shows in the 1960s and there are other credits you can find on-line.

Our sympathies go to Jerry’s wife, who is from the Maillardville area near Vancouver.

Jerry was kind enough to spend two and a half hours with me on the phone some years back. The interview has been transcribed in six parts. You can read part one here. He has a lot of fun stories because he was a fun guy, liked by everyone in the animation business, as best as I can tell. I'm sorry we never got a chance (due to technical issues on my end) to do another interview as there was so much more of his career we never discussed.

Bear For Punishment Backgrounds

One way of getting into a Yogi Bear cartoon was a pan over a long background while Don Messick, as narrator, sets up the plot.

One of those cartoons was Bear For Punishment, which first aired on the Huckleberry Hound Show on the week of November 30, 1959. The studio added background painters that year, as it added the Quick Draw McGraw Show to its workload. Fernando Montealegre, Bob Gentle and Art Lozzi were joined by Dick Thomas and Joe Montell. Thomas had originally been Bob Clampett’s background man at Warners and eventually left the studio in the mid-1950s to work for Disney. Montell’s first job was with Tex Avery at MGM and, when the unit was disbanded, he ended up (with Warren Foster, who wrote this cartoon) at John Sutherland Productions.

Montell is responsible for the backgrounds in this cartoon. After a shot of cars (on a cel being moved to the left) over a woodsy, repeating background, he came up with this for the second scene.



Bill Hanna then cuts to another background drawing, which is panned to the right. There has been no animation yet. That begins when the shot stops on Yogi and Boo Boo, and they begin snoring. The heads are the only things that are animated.



The next cut is to a long, repeating background. Notice how the bare pine and right-leaning whatever-it-is tree on the left of the painting are the same as on the right.



This background gets a good workout as cel overlays with cabins (as well as the animation) are placed on top. Here’s an example, just after Hanna cuts away from Yogi and Boo Boo. The cave is placed over top of the tree slanting to the left and the fir next to it. There are two overlays, one of the left half of the cave entrance and the other of the right, allowing the two bears to leave the cave. Below, you can pretty much see where the right overlay is placed.



Montell’s style is pretty easy to spot. He loved dots. See the dots he has next to branches or on top of stems? And dots he uses for rocks? That’s Montell. You can see the same thing in some of his cartoons for Avery and at Sutherland.

The animator of this cartoon is Gerard Baldwin in his first go-around at Hanna-Barbera. He started his animation career at UPA in the 1950s, and moved to Sutherland where he has an animation screen credit on that studio’s magnum opus, Rhapsody of Steel (1959). He has an odd way of drawing the bear, with two roundish parts to his muzzle in certain views, a little loop for a mouth, and sometimes with a stretched neck with his nose up. We’ve shown some examples in this post about the cartoon.

Here’s a bit of Baldwin dialogue animation. When Boo Boo (in one of many close-ups in this cartoon) asks “Why don’t we eat nuts and berries like other bears?”, Yogi responds with “Nuts and berries? Yechhh.” The drawings below are on twos.



My wild guess is the studio would not have used this many drawings in later years. It would go from profile, two in-betweens, front view, then the mouth-only animated to say “Nuts and berries? Yechhh.”

Both Baldwin and Montell left the studio for Jay Ward Productions before the season was finished. Montell ended up in Mexico supervising the work of Gamma Productions. Baldwin returned to H-B some years later and garnered some Emmys. He (and a number of others) never got screen credit on the end titles of the Huck show in the 1959-60 season but Montell did.

The blog profiled Montell some time ago and you can read that post here.