Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

– Here are the remaining stills from the book by Harold Turney, “Filmguide’s Handbook to Cartoon Production”. These remaining stills show the technical parts in completing the film: camera operators, sound effects people, musicians and editors.

There are a few remaining stills in the book, but they’re predominantly shots of model sheets. All of them are available elsewhere (as are the models posted below.)

(As always, click on any image to enlarge.)

I doubt many will be able to identify any of these people, but if you know someone, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, not too many people know who the non-animation personnel were.

In the above left we see Disney, director, Wilfred Jackson and composer, Frank Churchill. The FX man in the upper right picture is Jim MacDonald, who voiced Mickey Mouse after Disney finally gave up the role in 1946.

The following is another group of photos from my copy of Harold Turney’s book “Filmguide’s Handbook to Cartoon Production” which was made up the last two postings on this site. The remainder of the photos shows some model sheets and audio effx and technical people at work. I will probably post those tomorrow. Here’s to more people to identify.
(Click on any image to enlarge.)


The bottom right photo shows pencil test camera operators at work. Nice to see a female filming, though a subsequent photo in the book shows a woman at work on final animation photography.

Here are a couple of provocative articles about animation:
- The Cartoon Conundrum. A NYPost article about the marketability (or not) of star voices in animated films. here

- A British article about the rise of “Adult” themed animated features. here

The Turney Book

- Continuing yesterday’s post, there are a number of photographs in Harold Turney’s “Filmguide’s Handbook to Cartoon Production. Many of the photographs are unique to this volume, and I wasn’t able to scan more of them yesterday.

It’s an odd little book, held together with two staples. However any publication on the animation process was a rarity in 1940. Aside from the Lutz book and Nat Falk’s book on Terrytoons, there’s little more.

The book includes this dedication: “Cartoon Production” is herewith dedicated to all teachers, club group leaders, and librarians as an enduring aid in answering the oft-repeated question, “How are cartoons made?” – H.T.

I don’t know where the book was sold, though I do know that many of the people in the studio were given a copy. It seems to have been part of a subscription offering. I find it a bit odd that you don’t see many copies of it around. This is the only copy I’ve ever seen.

I’ll post more of the photos tomorrow.

(Click on any of the images to enlarge.)

Just above, the photo on the upper left shows two animators. I believe the animator on the right is Norm Ferguson. I’m not sure who any of the others are though I would guess the director at the movieola in the photo on the lower right is Jack Cutting, director of The Ugly Duckling (the pictures behind them), who appears in yesterday’s post.

If anyone out there can identify any other of these artists, please leave a comment.

– This Harold Turney “Filmguide’s Handbook to Cartoon Production” is one of the things I treasure in my little collection.

It was smallish book published in 1940. Apparently, there was a whole series of these books about film production. It has about 65 pages of print on heavy newsprint paper followed by about 20 pages of B&W photos on semi-gloss paper. Many of the photos printed there don’t seem to have appeared in many other places. (Though I’ve found one or two lately on the internet.)

The pictures are almost wholly those of Pinocchio’s production.

I’m posting a few of the pages. There are several to do with animators. The only picture posted here shows Fred Moore at his desk (cigarette in hand). The model maker below him is pictured with a marionette behind her. That marionette was merchandised; I have one. These were pre-plastic days. It’s made of some wood pulp product, very interesting to me. There’s also an odd studio photo of Disney manipulating the same marionette.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)