Louis Zukor

The most information I could find about Louis Zukor was in an animation union newsletter obituary on him.

From the April 2004 Peg-Board

'LOU ZUKOR died on March 16, 2004 at the age of ninety. From 1930 until his retirement in 1984 he worked for Romer Grey, Mintz, Screen Gems, Iwerks, Lantz, Fleischer, Famous, Hanna-Barbera, Animation Associates and Filmation.

We have lost an icon of the animation industry. Lou was a close friend of mine. He was a veteran who went from the days of Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes To Town, to more recent TV cartoons such as Archie and He-Man. Lou aslo worked on hundreds of TV commercials, and on titles for The Carol Burnett Show, The Sonny and Cher Show and others. Lou was a producer of a cartoon called Q. T. Hush, that showed on the Sheriff John TV show in the late 'sixties. Producing, animating, directing, painting backgrounds ... Lou did it all.'


I assume that Zukor made the trek to New York in 1938 to work on Gulliver's Travel's and continued on working for the Famous Studio until sometime in 1946. His work at the Fleischers was primarily for Orestes Calpini's crew and when the switchover was made to Famous, he animated primarily for Graham Place's crew.


'Females is Fickle' - 1940


'Me Feelins is Hurt' - 1940


'Nurse Mates' - 1940


'Wimmin Hadn't Oughta drive' - 1940


'I'll Never Crow Again' - 1940


'Mess Production' - 1946


'House Tricks?' - 1946


'The Fistic Mystic' - 1946


Lou Zukor animation from 'Me Feelins is Hurt' - 1940

Roland (Doc) Crandall - Part 2

'The Adventures of Popeye' - 1935 (re-use animation clip)


'The Adventures of Popeye' - 1935 (re-use animation clip)


'The Spinach Overature' - 1935


'Vim, Vigor and Vitaliky' - 1936


'A Clean Shaven Man' - 1936


'Brotherly Love' - 1936


'Bridge Ahoy' - 1936


'What - No Spinach?' - 1936


'Never Kick a Woman' - 1936


'Little Swee'pea' - 1936

Sometime around mid 1936 Crandall was promoted to head animator/de facto director and given his own unit. He vacated that position sometime in 1940 resuming a position as animator - his last work on a Popeye cartoon appeared in 'Popeye Presents Eugene the Jeep' in 1940.


'Shakespearian Spinach' - 1940


'Popeye Presents Eugene the Jeep' - 1940

Roland (Doc) Crandall - Part 1

ID for Roland Crandall's animation should be a no-brainer for those of you into the Fleischer Studio Popeye cartoons. (and I admit easy for me to blog) His style is the most identifiable to fans of the early Popeye animators. Crandall drew the first model sheet for Popeye and you can see a copy of it in Leslie Cabarga's book 'The Fleischer Story'. Before exiting the Fleischer Studio, Crandall de facto directed only one Popeye cartoon - 'Shakespearian Spinach', released in 1940. Up until that time he animated exclusively on the Popeye series for Seymour Kneitel's crew.




Costume model for 'Shakespearian Spinach'

Better said by this published biography, here are some facts about Roland Crandall. (click on image to enlarge)


From Fleischer's Animated News Vol.2 #7, June 1936

I will be posting frame grabs from all of the Popeye cartoons with Crandall's animation. Check back soon for part 2.


'Popeye The Sailor' - 1933


'I Yam What I Yam' - 1933


'Blow Me Down' - 1933 (re-use animation from Popeye the Sailor)


'I Eats My Spinach' - 1933


'Seasin's Greetinks!' - 1933


'Sock-A-Bye Baby' - 1934


'Strong to the Finich' - 1934


'Axe Me Another' - 1934


'A Dream Walking' - 1934


'The Hyp-Nut-Tist' - 1935


'For Better or Worser' - 1935

Sexual Tension Via Jim Tyer - The Island Fling

The animation in the clip below has to be one of the most funny sexually tense scenes ever in a golden age cartoon. You can really feel Bluto burning with frustration as Olive ignores his advances, the action stopping just short of a dry hump. I love the subtleties in Bluto's animation, his body language, and his lecherous expression. It's a great piece of business that gives us a taste of Tyer's range and the possibilities of what he could have done had he stayed at Famous. The animation following Tyer's scenes was done by William Henning.

Unfortunately the animation in the clip really suffers due to the compression of Youtube. You'll have to wait for Popeye DVD Vol.3 to see just how great this cartoon really is!!


'The Island Fling' clip - 1946