HOW I MET MY WIFE

Folks are always are always asking how my wife and I met. Well, it was in New York City. I was an idealistic young animator, wandering the streets, lost in thought.

 I wasn't paying much attention to what was around me...

...or "who" was around me. I didn't notice the girl up ahead who'd stopped to light up a cigarette.

I stopped to light up myself, not realizing that I was muttering out loud.

EDDIE: "I could start the walk with an antic but it'll be funnier if the guy just goes into it...but then it'll look like I don't know what I'm doing."

DAISY: "What a dilemma!"

EDDIE: "Huh? Oh, sorry! I have an animation problem, but you wouldn't know anything about that."

DAISY: "Well, Mr. bigshot, it so happens that I DO know something about animation. I take it that you are familiar with the famous Chick Jones? He was the best director, you know."

EDDIE: "Chick Jones!? You mean CHUCK Jones? Yeah, he was great, but the real genius at that studio was Bob Clampett. Geez, when they directed at the same time Jones couldn't hold a candle..."

DAISY: "Well, there's an animation exhibit down the street. If you play your cards right I will permit you to take me there and show me this Bill Crumpet of yours.

THE NEXT DAY: AT THE MUSEUM OF COMIC ART:

EDDIE (VO): "Well, whaddaya think?"

DAISY: "I don't get it. That's what you like? Feet?"

EDDIE (VO): "That's from a storyboard done at Spumco, the best modern animation studio. It's a very funny drawing."

DAISY: "Hmmm...I'm learning something about you."

EDDIE: "Huh? About me?"

DAISY: "And what is this?"

EDDIE (VO): "That's a Chuck Jones character: Sniffles the Mouse."

DAISY (VO): "And this?  This is your Bill Crumpet?"

EDDIE (VO): "CLAMPETT,  Bob CLAMPETT! Yeah, that's from one of his cartoons. It's a lot funnier than Sniffles, I think."

DAISY: "Mmmm...I like Sniffles better."

EDDIE: "Well, maybe that's 'cause you're a girl. I mean, guys and girls like different things."

DAISY: "Oh, so now you don't like that I'm a girl?"

  

**************

Well, that's how it went down...well, er...sort of. In a way. Most of these pictures are from a film called "5 to 7."

THE OPENING OF "CLEAN SHAVEN MAN"

How 'bout a post about the opening of Dave Fleischer's "Clean Shavin' Man?" I love this film (above) because it's so cartoony and the plot is so simple.

Take a look at the background painting. It seems like the diner wall is right up to Bluto's back. And how did they ever manage to squeeze through that tiny door? No matter. The perspective is deliberately off and it works fine.

Olive Oyl walks through scene (above) singing "Clean Shavin' Man" and Popeye and Bluto ogle her. And no wonder...Olive is clearly the most sexy woman in all of classical full animation. I'm tired of beautiful women in classic cartoons. Beautiful girls just aren't funny....okay, Coal Black is, but she's the exception that proves the rule.

Anyway, Olive does a sexy strut back and forth through the scene and Popeye and Bluto go bananas. I love the look on Bluto's face which is simultaneously lecherous and completely innocent.

Geez, what does Popeye's chin remind you of? I can't believe the Fleischers got away with that!

I love the the fact that Olive is so close to them. The counter separating them is really only as wide as a plank, and the dishes on the counter are drawn as ovals to fit them in. That's the way cartoon characters should be sometimes...real close...violating each others space.

To save blog space I eliminated the closeups where Popeye and Bluto resolve to go to a barber shop. Here they get up together, which is funny. Look at the position of their arms, and how massive Bluto is.  

Bluto completely covers Popeye for an instant...

...and the two shrink in order to fit through the door. The way they walk out is treated as a gag, and it is...in fact, gags like this are some of the most important gags a film can have.

Olive Oyl is huge in the foreground. I love it when characters do something simple in the foreground while other characters do something more complex in the background.

Man. all this space and we've only covered the start of the cartoon!

19TH CENTURY FRENCH CARTOONS AND CARICATURES

I'm ashamed to say that I don't know enough about 19th Century French history to comment on the exact political context of these prints. Evidently Napoleon III met a lot of resistance from republican artists,  and that worked its way into the cartoons of the time.

The print above derives from republican sympathies but it would be a mistake to think that republicans were united in support of the new trends in art. An awful lot of them, including some of the funniest caricaturists, were against them.  Caricature magazines roasted Courbet, Manet, and even Rodin.

Lithography created a whole new market for cartoons like the one above. Most of the prints I've seen were relatively small. I guess that made them cheaper and easier to hide if need be. It's too bad because poster size reproductions would have been so much more appealing.

What's being sold here (above) is a lifestyle, a way of seeing the world. The anti-establishment reader is encouraged to imagine himself as artistically and culturally sophisticated and the defenders of the establishment are served up to him as boobs. It's argument by ridicule, which is not a very good way to get at the truth, but its appeal to artists and readers alike is irresistible.

A commenter wondered if this was the era that pioneered caricature with big heads (above) and little bodies. Is it? Who's responsible for that?  BTW, click to enlarge.

Here's a color lithograph by Daumier. Was a different stone used for each major color? It sounds expensive. Maybe silk screen or hand coloring would have been cheaper. I'm not sure.

According to Alberto's comment, even Monet did caricatures (above) for the humor magazines. It looks like he was pretty good at it.

MY HERO, BOB CLAMPETT

I just re-read John K's two excellent posts about "Kitty Kornered" and they left me so excited that I feel I have to get invoved and say something about Clampett too. The problem is that I am sooooo sleepy! As soon as I dot the last "i" I'm outta here. Forget spell check! Forget making sense!

Anyway that's the young Clampett above. That was the first of his three major "looks."

Here's (above) the second. It's the Gabe Swaar Clampett, the 50s Madison Avenue ad man Clampett. Man, I'd kill to have a pair of glasses like that!

Here's (above) the Clampett I knew, the Roy Orbinson Clampett. That's Daws Butler standing beside him.


Here's (above) a publicity shot showing Clampett with Cecil looking very, very phallic behind him. Is that Beany looking like a wino on the ground? Maybe the mop is a reference to the "Rag Mopp" song that Cecil used to sing.

Bob was a hero for all cartoonists because he believed in funny cartoons. In his best cartoons he even went beyond funny, making cartoons that were uniquely cinematic and musical without sacrificing any of the humor. Look at "Coal Black", "Great Piggy Bank Robbery" "Kitty Kornered" and "Book Review". These are visceral films. They're musical even with the sound turned low. They're pure cinema. If you liked Eisenstein's "Odessa Steps" sequence you'll have no trouble appreciating Clampett.

Clampett seems to have been the only Warners director who genuinely liked music. Bob had a collection of Boogie Woogie, swing, jazz and classical and it was intended for use. You get the feeling the other directors considered music to be an afterthought. They worked with Carl Stalling (pictured above) and the Warner Brothers Orchestra... and they wasted them!!!!! Leon was even willing to foot the bill for occasional visiting musicians like Ellington's "Jump for Joy" musicians who worked on Coal Black. Only Clampett took advantage of the situation.

I know, some body's saying "What about 'What's opera Doc' ? Jones and Freleng took plenty of advantage!" No they didn't, not really. I love Jones' opera films but they were almost literal interpretations of the music they were associated with. Clampett egged Stalling on to blend musical styles in the same cartoon. Look at Coal Black where Boogie Woogie blends with Mozart. Even rhythmic dialogue voices and effects become part of the music.

But Bob went even further than that. He paced the films themselves as if they were music! You know the feeling you get when you watch Eisenstein's "Odessa steps" sequence? You feel like you're hearing music even though the film is silent. Bob could do that with funny cartoons! He had a feeling for film, something like the way Tito Puente had a feel for orchestral arrangements. It put his best work miles ahead of the competition!

Bob liked broad action and I'm always afraid that detractors will say about him, "Sure, he was good, if you like big takes and stretched bodies, but cartoons should be about more than that. You get tired of that stuff after a while." My answer is "yes, you would get tired of it and that's why there's tons of subtle action in most of Clampett's cartoons!"

But let's suppose Bob was mistaken and put in too much over-the-top stuff. For Pete's Sake, don't let your distaste for that blind you to the million other innovations in the films. Don't hate Odessa Steps just because you hate to see a baby get hurt!

As a closing shot I thought I'd put up a picture (above) of Bob with Daws Butler and Stan Freberg. Poor Bob! The shutter probably got him in one of those wincing "inbetween" poses I was talking about a couple of posts ago. It's not a flattering picture and Bob was probably crest-fallen when he saw it, but it's funny that he got caught that way. I like to think that Bob laughed when he saw it, even if he had to threaten the photographer with death a minute later.

Now beautiful, beautiful sleep....!