Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

- Attached are three drawings of the Esso Tiger (Exxon was called Esso, once upon a time) drawn by Armin Schafer, who animated the spot.

There was a discussion on Mark Mayerson’s blog about Schafer. He’s listed on Alberto Beccatini‘s site, as an animator on Disney’s The Country Cousin (1936), but there was some difficulty locating him, otherwise.

The comments page on Mark Mayerson‘s site reveals quite a bit of speculation about Armin Schafer‘s career, the spelling of his name, and even whether he exists. Finally, Tim Cohea aka Sogturtle answered the question:

. . .he was an assistant animator from AT LEAST Jan. 1938 until he was canned in Fall 1941. As such the REASON why we don’t see his name turning up as animator except on a couple of shorts (including this one) is because he was just an assistant… But that Riley graciously gave him some actual scenes to animate in “Mickey’s Birthday Party”, shortly before Shafer was fired. Armin shows as never being employed at Walt’s after that, which is why he’s not in the 1946 studio phone directory. Later on he turned up at John Sutherland’s as a full animator.

Armin Schafer, it turns out, was an animator for years working at Trans Film, then for Jack Zander at Pelican then Zander’s Animation Parlour. Described as “a big man” by Tissa David, he was very close with a number of NY animators. Tissa told me a story about him and Phil Eastman (P.D.Eastman, Tony Eastman‘s father.)

I’m sure he worked for a short time on Tubby The Tuba done at NYInstitute of Technology in the early 70′s. Johnny Gent (Gentilella) supervised the animation on that film – though he doesn’t get enough credit on it. However, Schafer’s name is not in the credits (nor are many of the people that worked on that bad movie.)

These are Schafer‘s Esso drawings.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

Anyone with more information on this animator, please feel free to comment.

Additional Note:
There’s an article in today’s NY Daily News about a new series for Nickelodeon co-created by Amy Poehler of Sat Nite Live fame. It seems Nick is generating some publicity about their new shows in production.

About Jack Zander.
It’s amazing how little there is on the internet about him, as well.
I came across an interview in a 2002 copy of the New York Times that I found interesting and thought I’d post here. I couldn’t link to the archives since most people probably don’t subscribe. This is a copy of it.

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