Little-known directors

[Frizfrelengfan]

Everyone knows Jones, Freleng, Clampett, Tashlin, Hanna & Barbera, etc. Most people here also know Davis, McCabe, Deitch, etc. I am interested in some of the unknown directors. Where did they come from, what else did they do, and what happened to them?

Especially:

Earl Duval (Duvall?) - He directed Buddy cartoons for WB.

Robert Allen - He directed Captain and the Kids cartoons for MGM.

[Sogturtle]

Everyone knows Jones, Freleng, Clampett, Tashlin, Hanna & Barbera, etc. Most people here also know Davis, McCabe, Deitch, etc. I am interested in some of the unknown directors. Where did they come from, what else did they do, and what happened to them?

Especially:

Earl Duval (Duvall?) - He directed Buddy cartoons for WB.

Robert Allen - He directed Captain and the Kids cartoons for MGM.


Friz Freleng~

Earl Duvall was originally a Los Angeles newspaper artist, and was hired away from there by Walt Disney in the very early Thirties (June 1931). At Disney he was one of the first two men assigned to doing background layouts. He then worked in the Disney story department till the fortuitious moment when Harman and Ising fell out with Schlesinger. Duvall had the fine distinction of being the only director to be out-and-out fired by Leon (for drunkenly screaming out a demand for a raise in Schesinger's face)... He then bounded (or reeled) to Ub Iwerks studio.

Bob Allen... Joined the reconstituted Harman-Ising studio in 1934 (with the loss of Friz and half of the animators a LOT of upward mobility ;) ). He was extremely gifted, and functioned as animator, background designer, storyboard artist etc. He was hired away by MGM in 1937 (along with Bill Hanna and a couple other less significant employees). Hugh Harman refused to ever work with either man again when he and Ising joined Metro.

Enough?

[J Lee]

Everyone knows Jones, Freleng, Clampett, Tashlin, Hanna & Barbera, etc. Most people here also know Davis, McCabe, Deitch, etc. I am interested in some of the unknown directors. Where did they come from, what else did they do, and what happened to them?

Especially:

Earl Duval (Duvall?) - He directed Buddy cartoons for WB.

Robert Allen - He directed Captain and the Kids cartoons for MGM.

The book "Hollywood Cartoons" by Michael Barrier (http://www.michaelbarrier.com/index.html) does a good job in covering both directors. Tim pretty much covered what's in the book, though its worth noting that Harman's refusal to work with Allen, coming after High's run-ins and behind-the-scenes manuvering with Walt Disney, Charles Mintz, Leon Schlesinger and, presumably, MGM short subjects boss Jack Chertok, is pretty funny in and of itself.

[Sogturtle]

The book "Hollywood Cartoons" by Michael Barrier (http://www.michaelbarrier.com/index.html) does a good job in covering both directors. Tim pretty much covered what's in the book, though its worth noting that Harman's refusal to work with Allen, coming after High's run-ins and behind-the-scenes manuvering with Walt Disney, Charles Mintz, Leon Schlesinger and, presumably, MGM short subjects boss Jack Chertok, is pretty funny in and of itself.


Actually John the bulk of what I wrote came from my own info and original sources rather than from Mr. Barrier... Something very important that I left out is that I have a small pile of drawings from MGM cartoons from the 1939-41 period. From what I can see of them they came from a single artist, almost certainly Bob Allen. Fascinatingly a couple of these drawings are from some of the suspect "Hugh Harman" films... What this translates into meaning is that it is strong evidence that these cartoons with Bob Allen aboard were directed by somebody other than Harman... :eek:

[Frizfrelengfan]

Friz Freleng~

Earl Duvall was originally a Los Angeles newspaper artist, and was hired away from there by Walt Disney in the very early Thirties (June 1931). At Disney he was one of the first two men assigned to doing background layouts. He then worked in the Disney story department till the fortuitious moment when Harman and Ising fell out with Schlesinger. Duvall had the fine distinction of being the only director to be out-and-out fired by Leon (for drunkenly screaming out a demand for a raise in Schesinger's face)... He then bounded (or reeled) to Ub Iwerks studio.

Bob Allen... Joined the reconstituted Harman-Ising studio in 1934 (with the loss of Friz and half of the animators a LOT of upward mobility ;) ). He was extremely gifted, and functioned as animator, background designer, storyboard artist etc. He was hired away by MGM in 1937 (along with Bill Hanna and a couple other less significant employees). Hugh Harman refused to ever work with either man again when he and Ising joined Metro.

Enough?

Sog,

Very interesting.

On a related note, I noticed that the Happy Harmonies and the early MGMs are very stingy on credits.

[J Lee]

Actually John the bulk of what I wrote came from my own info and original sources rather than from Mr. Barrier... Something very important that I left out is that I have a small pile of drawings from MGM cartoons from the 1939-41 period. From what I can see of them they came from a single artist, almost certainly Bob Allen. Fascinatingly a couple of these drawings are from some of the suspect "Hugh Harman" films... What this translates into meaning is that it is strong evidence that these cartoons with Bob Allen aboard were directed by somebody other than Harman... :eek:


I should have added that, Tim -- I was actually getting ready to post a longer reply, but when I hit preview, you're reply came up so I just crushed the first part of my paragraph down.

Given Harman's disdain for "Warner Bros. rowdyism" -- hey, at least he and Quimby agreed on that, though Fred just didn't want it in the studio -- it wouldn't be surprising if some of the non-Disney-like cartoons Hugh made he did palm off at least in part on other people, so his dislike of both those cartoons and of Bob Allen would merge nicely. If Hugh doesn't care about "Abdul the Bubal-Amir" why should he care if Bob Allen is involved with it?

On the other hand, if some of your drawings by Allen are from cartoons like "Peace on Earth" or "The Little Mole," I would be surprised, since those are the ones Hugh did seem to put his energy into.

[Sogturtle]

I should have added that, Tim -- I was actually getting ready to post a longer reply, but when I hit preview, you're reply came up so I just crushed the first part of my paragraph down.

Given Harman's disdain for "Warner Bros. rowdyism" -- hey, at least he and Quimby agreed on that, though Fred just didn't want it in the studio -- it wouldn't be surprising if some of the non-Disney-like cartoons Hugh made he did palm off at least in part on other people, so his dislike of both those cartoons and of Bob Allen would merge nicely. If Hugh doesn't care about "Abdul the Bubal-Amir" why should he care if Bob Allen is involved with it?

On the other hand, if some of your drawings by Allen are from cartoons like "Peace on Earth" or "The Little Mole," I would be surprised, since those are the ones Hugh did seem to put his energy into.


Hey John~

That's pretty much my point. But Allen cropped up as animator on "The Bookworm", seemingly just to illustrate that if Hugh wasn't directing (Friz was of course), then no sweat even if a supposed "Harman" production. Actually it strongly APPEARS that Freleng had to assemble a sort of ad hoc animation unit each time he was ready to start a new Metro cartoon *(that alone would've driven him back to Leon's).

The little sheaf of drawings I got all came from "Rudolf Ising Productions", except for one from "Harman's" "The Alley Cat". Additionally one of these "Ising" toons has been suspected of being an unknown Freleng cartoon (remember what I said about an "ad hoc" animation unit). While three of the other drawings are from films known to have been directed by Bob Allen or Jerry Brewer.

Annnnd two others are from abandoned MGM cartoons, one of which is from "The Sleepy Groundhog", which I believe was to be another 'Harman' cartoon (I'd have to go back and check on that to be sure).





Sog,

Very interesting.

On a related note, I noticed that the Happy Harmonies and the early MGMs are very stingy on credits.

Friz Freleng~

Yep, from the moment Harman-Ising broke their relationship with Van Beuren (making Cubby Bear toons) their Metro cartoons were shorn of all credits. Except for these, "MGM Happy Harmonies-A Hugh Harman-Rudolf Isng Production". Just think if not for that policy then we'd have seen as animators, folks like Mel Shaw, Bob Allen, Jerry Brewer, Ray Patin, plus folks whose names we'd recognize instantly... Anyway, when Hugh and Rudy were hired directly by Metro their films bore either the words "A Hugh Harman Production" or "A Rudolf Ising Production. Just after Hugh quit a decision was made to start affixing (relatively) full credits (thus no Harman or supposed Harman cartoon ever bears the name of the real director, let alone storymen, animators etc. Only a tiny handful of "Rudolf Ising" productions were released with credits.

[JDWeil]

Everyone knows Jones, Freleng, Clampett, Tashlin, Hanna & Barbera, etc. Most people here also know Davis, McCabe, Deitch, etc. I am interested in some of the unknown directors. Where did they come from, what else did they do, and what happened to them?

Especially:

Earl Duval (Duvall?) - He directed Buddy cartoons for WB.

Robert Allen - He directed Captain and the Kids cartoons for MGM.


Earl Duvall also has the distinction of drawing the very first Mickey Mouse Sunday page in 1932.

[Jave]

Friz Freleng~

Yep, from the moment Harman-Ising broke their relationship with Van Beuren (making Cubby Bear toons) their Metro cartoons were shorn of all credits. Except for these, "MGM Happy Harmonies-A Hugh Harman-Rudolf Isng Production". Just think if not for that policy then we'd have seen as animators, folks like Mel Shaw, Bob Allen, Jerry Brewer, Ray Patin, plus folks whose names we'd recognize instantly... Anyway, when Hugh and Rudy were hired directly by Metro their films bore either the words "A Hugh Harman Production" or "A Rudolf Ising Production. Just after Hugh quit a decision was made to start affixing (relatively) full credits (thus no Harman or supposed Harman cartoon ever bears the name of the real director, let alone storymen, animators etc. Only a tiny handful of "Rudolf Ising" productions were released with credits.

Considering there wasn't a music credit in those cartoons either, who was the main musical director during the Harman-Ising years? Was it Scott Bradley?

As for Robert Allen, the only cartoon I can remember he directed was "Chips Off the Old Block", which I think is a wonderful cartoon.

[Sogturtle]

Considering there wasn't a music credit in those cartoons either, who was the main musical director during the Harman-Ising years? Was it Scott Bradley?

As for Robert Allen, the only cartoon I can remember he directed was "Chips Off the Old Block", which I think is a wonderful cartoon.


Javeman~

Good guess! Twas indeed Scott Bradley writing the musical scores for Hugh and Rudy. Would have been interesting ifffff Frank Marsales had been kept for their Metro work.

And back to Heck Allen's brother Robert... Bob also directed the 1941 "Little Cesario" for 'Rudolf Ising' productions, and of course received NO screen credit for his labors. The model sheet I have for it has a date in the early Fall of 1940, a full year before it's release. This 1940 date is quite important as it shows Ising letting others besides Hanna & Barbera direct, and at an early point. Was this a ultimately a response to full director (but not 'producer') Freleng quitting??? I strongly believe it was (but maybe that's just me... :shrug: ).

I'll also point out that 1940's "Romeo In Rhythm" and "The Homeless Flea" look and feel NOT like producer Ising's work (nor Bob Allen's or Jerry Brewer's) but very suspiciously like Friz Freleng's... ;)

[Toss]

I know Jay Ward directed the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (my favor-ite cartoon, I'm a big fan of it), and he may have had some help from Bill Scott but I really don't know. I'm almost positive ol' Jay also directed those other shows- you know, Fractured Fairy Tales and Peabody's Improbable History. Hope I helped! :)