Commentary 06 Sep 2008 07:42 am
Bill Melendez
- I never got to meet Bill Melendez. However, I did speak with him. In 1976 I was writing an article for Millimeter Magazine. My task was to discuss the commercial scene in animation studios. Among those I contacted was the Melendez studio, and in the first call I got through to Bill Melendez, and we spoke on the phone for more than half an hour.
There was no doubt that I liked this guy. He was affable and friendly and giving. He made my job easy; he answered every one of my questions in depth. Of course, given the opportunity, I had to ask a number of questions that interested me personally about producing the many shows he was making, about his history at UPA, about a number of other impertinent items. I got no sense from Bill that he took this as off-topic, and I tried not to overstep my bounds too far. He invited me to meet with him the next time I was in LA (which I stupidly never did), and couldn’t have been more gracious.
I’m truly sad I didn’t meet him, and now it’s too late. I’m curious to see what will become of his studio; I hope the work continues there.
Bill Melendez obituaries are out there, and they’re not all identical.
Here’s:
Charles Solomon for the LA Times
the NYTimes
the Washington Post
Variety
AWN
Cartoon Brew still stands high.
The ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive has an interesting interview between Bill Melendez and Tom Sito.
Here’s an interview on YouTube.
on 06 Sep 2008 at 10:40 pm 1.Mary Schnerk Lincoln said …
My dad (Jack Schnerk) was a good friend with Bill Melendez. They worked at Disney and on several Peanuts specials together.
Bill was a great guy and I remember visiting him when I was little, on our trips to California. I remember being very impressed by his mustache and his charming personality. At our house we always looked forward to the Christmas cards that came from his studio.
One story I remember him telling us, was how when he would go to restaurants, he would give the waiter our last name Schnerk. He would get a table right away, because they didn’t want to embarrass themselves with the name pronunciation.