Photos &Richard Williams &Rowland B. Wilson 05 Feb 2009 08:51 am
Mystery Man
- Here’s a mystery that hasn’t been solved since 1975. It was posed to me by Tim Hodge. 1975 is the year Donald Heraldson‘s book, Creators of Life was published. In the book, there’s a team photo of Richard Williams’ staff sitting in front of the Soho Square studio.
(Click any image to enlarge.)
There in the center of the photo is a boy, arms crossed, standing in front of Grim Natwick, Ken Harris and (I think) Rowland Wilson, behind Art Babbitt kneeling. The caption beneath the photo reads: “Yes, the 10 year old boy is part of the staff – Williams considers him a prodigy.”
I know that Williams had taken Errol Le Cain under his tutelage in the 60′s and pushed him to animate the short, The Sailor and the Devil, on his own. However, Le Cain was born in 1941 and wasn’t 10 in 1975.
Perhaps Williams was high on this kid at the time of the photo, but soon grew tired of him and moved on after a couple of months. Or maybe the boy, who’d be in his 40′s now, became one of our top animators.
Or maybe the book, which is filled to the brim with errors, actually misunderstood the role of the child in the studio. (He may just have been someone’s child.)
Well, the question is: who was that “10 year old boy”?
If you have any idea, please leave a comment.
Actually, if you can identify others in the photo, please don’t hesitate to share the info.
on 05 Feb 2009 at 9:31 am 1.Mark Mayerson said …
The leftmost man, wearing the tie and glasses, is animator Jeff Short. He’s a wonderful guy that I had the pleasure of working with at Nelvana. To the right of Jeff, behind the woman wearing the dark top, is Canadian animator Greg Duffell, who I also met at Nelvana.
on 05 Feb 2009 at 9:52 am 2.Mark Mayerson said …
And Greg, I should add, is also a wonderful guy.
on 05 Feb 2009 at 9:58 am 3.Mark Mayerson said …
Dick Purdom is the rightmost crouching man.
on 05 Feb 2009 at 10:00 am 4.Michael said …
I once got tu meet Jeff Short who had dinner at my home. He was very sour on Dick Williams at the time comparing him to Ralph Bakshi. Jeff is an excellent animator. I hope he’s forgiven Dick for his peculiar methods. I guessed that that was he but it’s been so long that I didn’t want to say definitively. Thanks, Mark.
on 05 Feb 2009 at 11:02 am 5.Richard O'Connor said …
If I were forced to guess, I’d say it was a joke. Somebody’s son or something or a kid visiting that day.
Sounds crazy, I know as animators a renowned for their dire, humorless sensibilities.
The tipoff -any animator of his generation would be dressed like a schlub.
on 05 Feb 2009 at 11:10 am 6.Tim Hodge said …
I also sent the photo to William’s Master Class website. This is the response I got back yesterday from I. Sutton.:
“He wasn’t an employee but a very bright boy who was invited to attend
a Masterclass at the studio. It was a long time ago and I don’t have a
record of his name or whether he is still animating.”
So the book was off-base a little.
on 05 Feb 2009 at 12:27 pm 7.Pete Emslie said …
Hey Mark, I thought that our pal, Greg Duffell was the only “child prodigy” at Richard Williams – apparently this young usurper in the glasses and suit was trying to steal away his title. At any rate, in those duds he looks more like a future animation exec to me!
on 05 Feb 2009 at 3:32 pm 8.Richard O'Connor said …
On further examination, I think it’s Lev.
on 05 Feb 2009 at 6:49 pm 9.Simon W-H said …
Roy Naisbitt, third before the end on the right at the back. Might be a young Teddy Hall (fabulous animator), third in from the left at the back.
on 05 Feb 2009 at 6:52 pm 10.Simon W-H said …
If you can get hold of the Richard Williams episode of the ‘Do It Yourself Film Animation Show’ introduced by Bob Godfrey and made by the BBC, I believe the 10 year old’s line tests are shown on there…aside from that, no idea who he is.
on 05 Feb 2009 at 6:57 pm 11.David Nethery said …
““He wasn’t an employee but a very bright boy who was invited to attend a Masterclass at the studio. It was a long time ago and I don’t have a record of his name or whether he is still animating.â€
Ok, well there’s at least a partial answer. The book was wrong about the boy “being part of the staff” , but he was in fact a very bright kid who was invited to attend one of Art Babbitt’s Master Classes in Animation , so I’m still jealous of him !
Now it will be interesting to see if anyone comes forth with his name and whether he did stay in animation.
It’s funny after you sent me the photo Tim and also mentioned you were sending it to Michael I almost wrote back and said : “See if you can get someone to show it to Greg Duffell, he might know.” because I knew that Duffell was there in those days.
(Mark Mayerson, or other Torontonians: What’s Duffell up to these days ? He used to have a really good commercial studio in Toronto called LightBox.)
Finally, on the identities of other people in the photo, I’m fairly sure that the man who is third from the right in the back row is longtime Williams studio layout artist Roy Naisbett.
And is one of those guys Tony White ? He would have been there around that time (there’s another person who might recall who the kid is )
on 05 Feb 2009 at 7:11 pm 12.David Nethery said …
Richard O’Connor:
“The tipoff -any animator of his generation would be dressed like a schlub.”
Maybe the kid was taking tips on how to dress from Babbitt, Harris, and Natwick , in addition to animation lessons ?
on 06 Feb 2009 at 6:02 am 13.Simon W-H said …
Dick Purdum was my first boss and is an all round lovely man.
on 06 Feb 2009 at 9:11 am 14.Michael said …
Dick PurdumCarl Gover supplies most of the names on The Thief blog:Bottom row:
R.W, Richard Burdett (animator), Art Babbitt, (unknown) Carol Stallings (Dick’s sec.), Dick Purdum
Row above:
Chris Knott (SFX guy), Bella Bremner (Dick’s Asst.), Ken Harris, Grim Natwick, Roland B. Wilson (Designer/illust.), Sergio Simonetti (animator), Brian Lewis (Lawyer), Tass Hesom (animator),(unknown) Leslie Silver (Prod. Asst.) (unknown) Howard Blake (Composer)
The people behind (left) are familiar but the only name I remember is Tony White (animator) between Bella and Ken.
Those behind (right) are Roy Naisbitt, Russell Hall, Rod Howick (editor)
on 06 Feb 2009 at 11:36 am 15.Holger said …
Hi Michael,
it was Carl Gover, who was kind enough to identify people in that photo on the Thief blog, not Dick Purdum.
on 06 Feb 2009 at 12:17 pm 16.Greg Duffell said …
Thanks to Bob Jaques for alerting me to this blog.
I can identify most of the people in the photograph taken in June or July of 1973.
Back row from left:
Inbetweener Geoff Adams, unknown (perhaps assistant editor), trainee inbetweener John McCartney, Assistant director, designer, layout artist and technical director Mr. Roy Naisbitt, animator Russell Hall, editor Roy Howick
Next row forward: Junior Animator Jeff Short, trainee inbetweener Greg Duffell, Animator Tony White, Animation legend Mr. Grim Natwick, Illustration legend Mr. Rowland B. Wilson, Senior animator Mr. Sergio Simonetti, Executive Producer Brian Lewis, Executive Secretary Lesley Silver, Lettering artist and animator Mr. Raymond Guillemet.
Next row forward: Effects animator Chris Knott, Assistant animator Bella Bremner, Animation legend Mr. Ken Harris, visiting student Jonathan Dean, trainee inbetweener Tass Hesom, animator Bill Rhodes, composer Howard Blake
Front row: Legendary animator Mr. Richard Williams, Top assistant animator and animator Richard Burdett, Legendary animator Mr. Arthur Babbitt, Executive secretary Carol Stallings and Dick’s right hand man and animator Mr. Richard Purdum.
on 06 Feb 2009 at 12:41 pm 17.Greg Duffell said …
So now you know the little boy in the photo was Jonathan Dean. I trust my memory is correct on that. I remember him very well if only for one incident.
Following one of Art Babbitt’s morning lessons (as time wears on I can hardly believe I was actually there) Jeff Short, the young lad Jonathan and I were in Ken Harris’ office. Jeff and I often went out to lunch with Ken. For some reason Ken had been practicing drawing Bugs Bunny, I think because Dick was trying to secure a commercial that featured either the Oscar winning rabbit himself or a similar looking lapin and was prepping Ken to animate it.
Ken had a waste basket with several amazing Bugs Bunny drawings. It was all coming back to him. I pulled the brown Col-erase sketches out of the basket and asked Ken if he would sign them for me. That’s when that rotten kid intervened and demanded one too! Well, I got one of them and it’s still framed and displayed in a prominent place in my home.
So, out there somewhere…just maybe…exists an amazing signed drawing of Bugs Bunny by one of the most gifted animators of all time, Mr. Ken Harris. 45 year old Jonathan Dean…Did you cherish and save harmless this important artistic artifact? I surely hope so.
Speaking of Ken’s drawings, Mr. Williams (Dick) was nice enough to offer me several when he was clearing out his office one day. There included a lovely one of Pepe Le Pew’s head. Thanks Dick, for that and everything you offered me as a young man.
Many of the Williams animators (I won’t name them) were not impressed by Ken’s drawing ability, but I was, and still am to this day.
on 06 Feb 2009 at 1:24 pm 18.Greg Duffell said …
Sorry…more about the legendary English animation schoolboy Jonathan Dean as well as Grim Natwick and other denizens of the 1973-74 Richard Williams Studio including myself.
I remember young Jonathan was the son of a prominent man who either knew Dick, or had heard of the Art Babbitt lectures and had contacted Dick about his son being an animation enthusiast.
Oh, the animation in the “Do-It-Yourself Cartoon Kit” is not the animation of young 10 year old Master Dean, but (I’m not sure if I should be ashamed to admit) the work of yours truly, Greg Duffell, at the time 17 years old.
I started this animation in the fall of 1973. It was a project that Dick initiated with Grim Natwick in which the trainees (or anyone, I guess) could be mentored by Grim on a film project. I sat outside Grim’s office and recall hearing Dick laying this plan out with him.
Grim was enthusiastic about this concept but he had two provisos. One, that we animate nothing but “blobs”. As I was eavesdropping on this conversation, I remember thinking…”I don’t want to animate blobs. I’ve got a real cartoon in mind”. I was really into Laurel and Hardy and wanted to do them as bears, animating all of their mannerisms. I had a whole story concocted.
The other proviso was that Dick would not be allowed to see any of the trainee’s tests until they were ready for final screening. Grim felt that the repetition of showing the Thief footage in “rushes”, either in test form or cut together to the whole studio, was hampering Dick’s ability to judge audience reaction properly. Grim felt that the pencil tests should only be shown to the studio personnel when put in proper edited context.
The only other person that worked with Grim on this project, that I can remember, was fellow trainee Tass Hesom, a young South African art student now living in England and part of the Art Babbitt lecture series. I think she actually did the “Blob” idea with Grim!
Meanwhile, I took one sequence out of my proposed story and animated that. After the Art Babbitt lectures of the summer, which were overwhelming and exhausting, I found that a lot of the principles he discussed, that I had been bombarded with in such concentration, were finally sinking in and I was using them spontaneously. I was also planning and thinking more. In addition, as an inbetweener I got to see how the animators worked and I was learning the proper discipline to engage in the animation I aspired to do.
Since Grim was right in the next office, I would often discuss my project with him after I had accomplished my regular duties at the studio, or during a break. He was really helpful with timing and he leaned heavily on the metronome. For instance, we discovered that Stan Laurel’s trademark walk was on ’14′s.
Eventually I animated three minutes of rough animation in a couple of months of spare time at home. As January 1974 rolled around, Grim would soon be departing for California and I wanted to present my work to him in a farewell screening.
Well, I defied Grim on his blob idea, and Dick just couldn’t resist taking a sneak peak at the work in progress by me and Tass. Now it can be told. Without us knowing, Dick ordered his editor Rod Howick to lace up the footage. I think it was Rod who told me about that. Dick’s comment on mine was something like: “He can animate…but he can’t draw.”
At the screening, I was very nervous. In the “sweatbox” I sat on the cold basement floor right opposite Dick. As I recall, my little film got a lot of laughs (mostly in the places I intended them). I’m not sure what Dick’s reaction was to it. I think Grim commented, but I can’t remember what he said though I thought he was pleased with what I had done.
Much to my surprise a few months later, Dick appeared on the BBC show Bob Godfrey Cartoon Kit and presented a portion of my pencil test saying (to the best of my memory…it’s 35 years ago) something like, “Here’s a pencil test by one of our trainee inbetweeners. It shows a good understanding of weight.”
It was very nice of him, really, and I’m thankful he didn’t tell the general audience that the drawing was awful.
on 06 Feb 2009 at 3:52 pm 19.Tim Hodge said …
Thanx everyone for filling in this historical gap! I’m going to print this page and keep it in that book now.
on 06 Feb 2009 at 11:13 pm 20.Suzanne "Skeezix" Wilson said …
Thank you for posting that amazing photo. I think I could identify almost everyone EXCEPT the little boy. But thankfully, Mr. Duffell obliged. It’s possible their intense expressions are about the rigours that Art put them through in his class. In the “Coronet” afterwards everyone mentioned how challenging it was!
What a tremendous opportunity! What a great training for all concerned and you cannot help but notice what great heights many of them went on to!
on 07 Feb 2009 at 12:13 am 21.Borge Ring said …
Front row kneelng: Dick Williams,Richard Burdett, Art Babbitt, unknown, Richard Purdum. Next row standing Chris … beautiful Bella…Ken Harris, Grim Natwick, Rowland Wilson. two unknowns Roy Naisbitt.
I cannot find Russell Hall. It could be because he was sent to Sweden for a year and cured of lung tuberculosis among the reindeer high up in Lapland with no bacteriae in the air.
Notes:
Roy Naisbitt was Dick’s background artist laureate. For the feature about the “Thief and the Cobbler” Dick rented a liveaction studio and Roy covered the enormous floorspace to the inch with a huge drawing of an Old Persian city seen from the air. The camera would begin on a close-up of the corner of a table in a tavern, widen and truck up and up and up and UP untill it saw the Isphahan from high, high up in the sky.
Many years later Warner Brothers took Dick’s unfinished feature away and brought it to Hollywood. After a time they phoned Roy Naisbitt and asked if he would be willing to come to California and finish the film for them..
“Yes” said Roy ” I will…But only if I can bring my own assistant.”
“No problem, no problem. What’s his name?”
“Richard Williams”, said Roy and hung up.
The child wearing glasses in the midst of it, next to Ken Harris and echoeing Ken’s pose is 11years old JONATHAN He was an animator who came to the studio at intervals as often as his mother would let him.
Each morning at ten we gathered into the tiny projection room to sit on the floor and view (twice) everything that had been shot in house yesterday and around the town during the night. When the lights went on again Dick up front near the screen would usually turn to Babbitt down by the door and ask: “What do YOU think Art.?”
But one of these mornings when the lights went on again we suddenly found that Jonathan had arrived from thin air – sitting in the middle of the cubicle. He had crawled in during the projection and now sat there in short pants and glasses looking round and upwards at everybody. There was general mirth and Art Babbitt said “Now Dick, HERE is the man to ask for advice”. Rowland Wilson chimed in “Yes, but how much would he charge?”
Later on I visited Jonathan who sat upstairs at a lightbox. I introduced myself politely and asked what he was working on. He scratched his head and said with earnest: ”I have a problem here, you see: Look; this owl is lying down. I want him to jump up. But how do you anticipate a jump when he is already flat on the ground?”
The darkhaired girl behind Babbitt seeming to seduce the fotographer is Nula, the sexiest female in the house. At a studio party she sat down next to Babbitt who was 67 at the time. Art paid homage by saying:”Oh Nula, you always make me feel like I was 66 again.”
greetings
Børge
The small studio on Soho Square was heaven for an animator at the time.
on 07 Feb 2009 at 1:44 pm 22.John Fielding said …
Is there anywhere where one can find notes from these Babbit lessons?
on 07 Feb 2009 at 4:05 pm 23.greg duffell said …
Hello “Skeezix” (Suzanne) and Borge:
What a reunion, here on a webpage, a development we never bargained on back at Richard Williams Studio in 1973.
First of all, my condolences to you, Suzanne, concerning Rowland. Not to take anything away from the wonderful people I met at Dick’s studio, but I think we would all agree that Rowland B. Wilson was the heart and soul of that studio from the moment he arrived. He was so kind and generous to me (and I assume everyone), just a young boy dropped amongst legendary talents including himself. I will never forget him.
You’re right about the intense aspect of Art’s classes. He packed in the lessons he would normally spread out over a year in his weekly classes at the Union office in Hollywood and jammed them into the 3 or 4 weeks he spent in London that summer. He taught classes despite being hit by a car or truck within hours of arriving in London. He had to wear a neck brace for the remaining time and for years after!
Dick used to portray Art as a tough army sergeant. In reality, Art was opinionated, but I found him to be a kind, ethical, gentle man with a soft heart and an undying respect for the animation medium. He had such hopes for it going into the future.
And Borge Ring…yet another wonderful person and, of course, completely accomplished animator and film creator of the greatest sensitivities.
By the way, that photograph of the studio was also published in the International Film Guide, 1975.
Now, not to contradict Borge, but Russell Hall IS in the photo, between Roy and Rod Howick in the back row right. Russell’s trip to India and subsequent illness and quarantine (!) happened maybe two years later.
And while I will agree with EVERYTHING (and more) Borge said about Nuala Grant’s bewitching and sultry charms (she at one time settled in Canada-Alberta maybe- and changed her name to Luana), I do not think that is her kneeling behind Art in the photo. In my notations I neglected to identify this person, but I believe her name was “Wendy” and she was an illustrator who freelanced on watercolour animated illustrations on select projects.
It should be noted that the “Trace and Paint” staff are not pictured in this photo at all, of which Nuala was one at the time. That is not to say that they were normally excluded from activities. As I recall, everyone in the studio was welcome to participate in Art’s classes every morning that summer of 1973. The photos of the class I recall, for instance, the editor Rod Howick sketching away and probably Barbara McCormick, the supervisor of the “T and P” department, participating as well. Everyone went to rushes too. It was not just for animators. This inclusiveness was a very impressive, principled and smart move of Dick’s.
The great Oscar Grillo, who was not employed at the studio, attended as well. Oscar had this amazing sketchbook he took notes in. While many of us in the class were attempting to keep up with Art by drawing stick figures for notes, Oscar was able to illustrate his with perfectly drawn Mr. Magoo’s or Goofy’s. One day he excitedly engaged Ken Harris in conversation and then, in the most passionate of terms, described his love for the work Ken did animating the dog “Marc Anthony” in the 1951 Chuck Jones cartoon “Feed the Kitty”. Oscar gesticulated wildly with admiration for Ken’s animation, then scribbled madly for a few seconds and came up with a perfect drawing of the cartoon dog. Ken’s eyes practically popped out. Oscar was about to discard it but I intervened and still have it in my collection.
The memories keep flooding back and I apologise if I lack etiquette in this type of forum being responsible for the creation of these rather long posts.
on 07 Feb 2009 at 6:01 pm 24.Michael said …
I have a complete set of notes that Dick took and copied for us all. I’m afraid they don’t make much sense unless you already know what he’s talking about. They’re sort of like an outline for Dick’s book. You can see a sample I posted here. If you think it worthwhile, I’ll post more.
on 07 Feb 2009 at 8:47 pm 25.Bridget Thorne said …
Thanks! This has been a great trip. Wonderful stories.Let’s have more photo I.D contests.
on 08 Feb 2009 at 9:40 am 26.Hans Perk said …
It is especially amazing for me to read this posting and these great comments as I took Heraldson’s book off my shelf for the first time in maybe fifteen years and looked at the self same photo just ONE day before Michael posted it here, something I find very spooky indeed! I had the good fortune to at least visit the Soho Square studio a couple of times in the early 80s – once when visiting Kaj Pindal had just re-found his old Danish showreel that he had lost years earlier behind a radiator in the building…
on 08 Feb 2009 at 9:10 pm 27.Simon W-H said …
Ah…I remember clearly Greg, the animation of the cowboy character carrying the weight…I thought it was fabulous…but Bob and Dick also showed some very loose linetests, Dick said was by a young boy…they were attempts at road runner and coyote type stuff…impressive, considering the age of the animator.
on 09 Feb 2009 at 6:39 pm 28.Stephen Perry said …
I too started with Dick Purdum at Richard Purdum Productions. I also work with Roy Naisbitt at Amblimation; Roy also worked on 2001 and I wished I’d got him to sign my copy of the paperback book that came out about the time the film was released on the making of 2001. I worked with Jeff Short and Russell Hall at Warners… Sergio left dick’s and set up his own studio called Dragon production just off of Soho Sq. Oscar Grillo also was at Dragon in the late 70′s, before setting up his own studio, Klacto. A lot of London studios started from that small group of animators at Soho Sq. The 80′s was a great time for commercial animation in London, hardly any of the studios that sprang from Soho Sq exist now….
on 13 Feb 2009 at 7:07 pm 29.Scott Caple said …
I say it’s a pic of Williams himself as a boy, puckishly inserted by one of those rascals in the photo…they could do that before Photoshop, you know….
on 01 Apr 2009 at 3:17 pm 30.Michael (Hirsh) said …
Hi, all!
I didn’t work for Dick until about a year after this photo was taken, yet I recognise about 90% of the people in it.
Sergio Simonetti gave me my break in animation just before he left to set up Dragon with Oscar Grillo.
What intrigues me, however, is that no-one has tried to identify the face seen in profile just behind Sergio. Is it a reflection in the glass?
Does anyone have a high resolution version of the pic.?
on 03 Aug 2009 at 12:59 pm 31.Ramon Modiano said …
I feel fairly sure that the face seen in profile just behind Sergio is that of Jane Grindley. Jane was the production secretary during the three years I worked at Richard Williams studio (1969 to 1971). It looks as if she might be talking to Janet Chapman (also seen in profile behind Roy Naisbitt), who, like myself was a young trainee animator at that period. Hope that helps to clear a point Michael.
on 15 Aug 2009 at 10:51 pm 32.Deborah Brown said …
My father wrote that book. Back then all he had was the dial up telephone and the public library to research cartooning etc. It was his passion to say the least. I wouldn’t be shocked at all to find out that his information was incorrect on “the kid”. It’s my Mom holding the paint brush in the book pretending to be a background illustrator on my dad’s painting.
on 22 May 2010 at 3:41 am 33.LR said …
David, I believe Greg Duffell is now retired from animation as a result of the digital revolution. One of those sad cases of a child prodigy who never lived up to his potential and was unable to adapt to change.
on 28 May 2010 at 4:45 am 34.Paul Chung said …
Priceless picture!
So many familiar faces here. Although I never worked in the Soho square studio, I worked for or with many people in the photo:
Tess was one of first animators who gave me a job as an assistant. She used to do freelance work from her house in Hornsey and I would walk there and back from my place in Crouch End. Later on I worked for Tony White and Richard Burdett when they were running Animus Productions in the 80′s. Tony formed Animation Partnership with Carl Gover which never really came off the ground. Carl ended up being the only one in the new company. I was there for a few years and many people would find it odd that the studio was called “partnership” when there was only one boss.
Tony is now living in the states and we exchanged email a few times.
Of course a lot of the people in the picture were on Roger Rabbit, another project that brought so many of us together. Rusell Hall, Chris Knoll…and more. John McCartney was a professional bass player as well as an animation assistant. We used to sit close to each other and he would play his guitar in the evenings with us. Sadly he passed away not long ago.
Who would forget Sergio- the crazy Italian? An animator who can hypnotize you? I had a good time working in his studio for a short time.
I met Dick a few more times in the states in his daugter Claire’s place in LA. He also came to PDI/Dreamworks to give a lecture a few years ago.
When his book came out, he visited again and we had lunch and had a good chat. He was still in good form (not holding back his tongue).
By the way, is the lady sitting behind Art Babbitt Lee Hill?
Paul
on 08 Jan 2012 at 5:00 am 35.Karen Donnelly said …
I worked at Richard Williams in the early 1970s, mainly in the P & T department with Barbara Mc. Yes,it was a very democratic workplace and we always attended rushes in the basement. I can also recall vividly Roy’s amazing workspace that was right at the top of that Soho building. Looking at that photo brings back so many memories. I think the woman kneeling in front of Tass is Wendy?(I recall her partner was an actor. I remember one year we did a Christmas card based on Eadweard J. Muybridge images – anyone got a copy? That would be an interetsing image to deconstruct.