More Animator Buddies

Front row, left to right: Dick Hall, Edwin Rehberg, unknown, Larry Silverman. Back row, left to right: Otto Feuer, Morey Zukor, Reuben Timmins, Ralph Somerville, George Weiss, Jack Ozark, and Ben Shenkman.

This photo was taken at the side of Filmation's Sherman Way and Lindley Avenue main studio in Reseda. The building stands today, housing medical offices. All the artists, to my knowledge, worked at one time at for the Fleischer or Famous Studios. (some both)

Thanks to Tim Walker and Tom Minton for help with the IDs.

Inside Joke

This post was prompted by a comment left by blog reader J Lee:

Tendlar also has a unique way of showing the fight at the end of "Fowl Play", where Popeye punches Bluto into the side of the house, but hit outline silhouette remains motionless while the rest of the body bounces back into place.

The action that J Lee described is actually an animation inside joke. Before computer technology, the animation drawings would be traced in ink onto clear celluloid sheets then flipped over and the characters painted in on the back before going to camera. So here's where the in-joke comes into play - when Popeye hits Bluto he is literally punching the paint off him, leaving Bluto's ink outline in place.

Another great use of the cartoon medium courtesy of the Fleischer Studio.





Watch it in action...

Faux Camera Shake

Here's a technique that you'd only find in a Fleischer cartoon. In Organ Grinder's Swing, de facto director Dave Tendlar chose to simulate a camera shake by flashing 2 different backgrounds - one normal and one distorted - shot on alternating exposures.

This was a smart move on Tendlar's part. (assuming it was his idea) Why you say?? Generally speaking, overlapping the actions of a camera shake and character animation would have weakened the action of the punches and lessened their impact. And for sure the action of Olive in the distance would have been lost.
Clever.







See it in motion...

Happy Fourth of July...

... to all my readers and friends in the US.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Aversion to Knee Caps??

For whatever reason, it seems Dave Tendlar did not like to draw Popeye's knee caps. Many drawings do have them, but generally speaking, most of them are missing that part of the anatomy. Unlike his fellow animators, Tendlar would streamline the shapes of the legs instead of drawing them like the model in segmented sections. The following clip of his animation from The Man on the Flying Trapeze is a great example of this particular drawing earmark.

Some other examples from posted clips -