Tune In Tonight

Our fifth piece for "Need to Know" airs tonight. PBS 8:30 (check local listings).

The show in its entirety will be available at: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/ by Saturday morning. At some point our segment will be up for individual linking.

We had a little more time than usual on this. We shot on Friday (one week ago). I didn't start editing until Monday -sending the 'radio edit' of the segment to the network by early afternoon with the picture to follow on Tuesday.

By Wednesday we had all the animation and the whole thing pretty much locked. Thursday bright and early Steve Brodner came into loop some dialogue which we didn't get down in the shoot (the first time we've done that on any of these films).

Friday night -on the air!

There was something kind of mellow and enjoyable about this one. On Monday we came up with a soundtrack- a kareoke version of Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are." It was funny and appropriate but I kinda hate Billy Joel so on Thursday morning another track struck me- a 30s dance hall version of "Love For Sale". It's a toss up as to which is "better" so we delivered both.

That's one great thing about PBS, all music is fair use and free.

Animator #89 - Disputes on the Rise

The issue of holiday pay is starting to blow up and Pal is locking out over non-union hires.

STATE OF THE UNION

DISNEYS: The company did come up with a new excuse and the two days pay, granted by award of the arbitrator and oked by the War Labor Board, has been held up again.  The company now claims that it will not pay the two days without permission of the Treasury Department to pay those earning over $5,000 as well.  The request went in we disagreed with the picture they gave that Department.  The Treasury informed us that we could only appear before them if given us its final answer as to whether or not it will appeal the decision of the Treasury.

We are if the opinion that the Treasury does not have jurisdiction on this matter and we are checking this.  As was stated in the full report made on this situation in the July 14 Animator there never was any question of our abiding by an arbitrator's award having once signed an agreement to do so.  We believe in, and have worked, and will continue to work for, decent labor relations.  (Walt Disney is one of the incorporators of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, incorporated August 29, 1944.  Get a copy of "THE TRUTH ABOUT HOLLYWOOD", put out by the twenty guilds and unions, from your steward or the office.)

SCREEN GEMS: The members received two days pay for Xmas and New Years the day before they closed down for their vacation.

WARNER BROS: Negotiations go to the Conciliation Dept. Friday.  Leon Schlesinger's representative mad the statement before the WLB that Mr. Schlesinger refused to arbitrate the question of Xmas and New Years and that he would not obey an order of the WLB.

LANTZ: We still have not heard from their attorney regarding our request for settlement or arbitration of Xmas and New Years.  Lantz reports he is out of town.

PLASTIC: Two meetings have been held on negotiations, others will follow.

PALS: We have asked for arbitration on 4 matters, to date we have not received from the company the name of the arbitrator.

Pals sent everyone home on Friday and locked us out.  Our members there were being asked to work with someone without a card or a work permit.  The Union gave them the names of 4 members qualified to do the work, in fact 2 have held the very job.  We even went further...

...and offered to let the man presently on the job finish the particular work he is doing.  We cannot allow a person without a work permit or without a card to work when regular members are able and willing to do the job.  There would be no point in our 6 months work permit period if we could not take the work permittees off and put a regular member on who is qualified to do the work.  As the membership knows we put in this 6 months ruling because 1) we felt the men in the armed forces should get at least that much protection and 2) it was not our desire to take initiation fees from people until they had been in the industry at least six months, so there might be some reason to believe that they are intending to remain.

The company, of course, could have let our people work, turn this man off and asked for arbitration to solve this, but they want us to allow him to work and arbitrate.  Any read of the above scene would show what we are up against in regard to the procedure, with Disney refusing to accept an arbitrators award, Schlesinger stating in advance that he would defy a WLB order and George Pal in violation of his contract by not even giving us the name of his arbitrator when we asked for arbitration in accordance with our contract with him.

INBETWEENS

WARNERS - Frank Tashlin now producer at Plastic Studios...  ....Warners have spent the last four weeks remodeling the cartoon studio and the work continues -returning vacationers were very pleased over the improvements... Bob MacKimson, new unit director ... Phil Monroe sports new Sgt. stripes

LANTZ - A bowling team has been organized and is to play in the Universal meet.

Then a list of winners from the golf tournament.  Disney was best represented (John Sibley, Ham Luske, etc) with MGM coming in second (Preston Blair).

Page three largely consists of an open letter to the country by a soldier stationed in New Guinea.

INBETWEENS about marriages and vacations.

Page four. Books for sale.

INBETWEENS include Bob Cannon one week overdue from vacation in Mexico and some updates on members in the military.

Modern Dance

In professional football, I can point out the successful strategies and executions that bring a team victory -not just in the game, but on a play by play basis.

A good percentage of American males can do the same thing.

This skill can be applied to all sorts of productions: baseball, animation, painting.  Once you have a grasp of the vernacular, every act of creation can be dissected and understood this way.

Dance has always seemed alien to me.  I tune out the ballets in Wagner and get lost watching any steps short of the Nicholas Brothers.

Art Spiegelman should be admired for his energetic pushing of limits, for his tenacity in conquering far off forms like opera and dance.

His "Hapless Hooligan in 'Still Moving'" is one of four pieces being performed by Pilobolus at the Joyce Theater through August 7.   It's an odd vaudeville, largely entertaining and the motion graphics are cute but wear thin.  They compare, unfavorably, to Kentridge's "The Nose" recently mounted at The Metropolitan Opera but still hold a degree of charm.

The piece plays with antique comic strip archetypes.  You've got the Blondie style waif, the cad beau out of Fontaine Fox.  Spiegelman has spent much of his career trying to convince us that comics are something other what the English speaking world wants them to be.  He transports the newsprint tropes -Krazy Kat brick and all -to the dance stage. 

The comic has a long history going to the stage.  Buster Brown at the turn into the 20th Century, L'il Abner at the half way mark, and the Addams Family today.  Amongst the dozens of other adaptations are the most produced musical in America ("You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown") and one of the most popular with budding 8 year old Sarah Brightmans ("Annie").

It's no surprise that Spiegelman, constantly recasting the comic as a high art form, would forgo the popular venue for a high end experimental dance troupe.  Sure, dance may be apples to musical theater's oranges -but the cultural tiering is worth note.

I may not be able to competently criticize dance (and every piece was well performed and enjoyable) but like a dutiful housewife who sees a "go" route connect for a 60 yard touchdown, I can tell a "home run" when I see one.



The final piece on the program -which includes an elegant piece of animation by the talented Peter Sluszka (who you may know from his Emmy Award winning animation on "I Spy"...) -is a "home run", or a "knock out" or some other inappropriate sports metaphor.  "Rushes" is dynamic, funny and moving.  You see this and you immediately understand why people love dance.

Marguerita

I picked up a 1975 issue of Graphis for the Roland Topor cover story and found two other notable articles inside.  In the future I'll post the magazine's wrap up of that year's Annecy festival.

For now, a piece written by Stanley Mason on a Marguerita Bornstein -well known at the time by simply  "Marguerita".

Being an international magazine, the editorial commentary is short. Just the top section of this page is the actual copy of the write up, it's then repeated in English and French.

The gist: Marguerita was born in Australia, raised in Brazil and returned to Australia where she became a household name in illustration and worked in animation.

A comparison is made to Tomi Ungerer -fair in one regard, unfair in another.  That's like measuring a left handed pitcher against Steve Carlton and his slider.

The top two frames are from an animated title sequence for "O Rebu" a Brazilian television series.

Much is made of 1950s animation design.  It's been recycled to intramural acclaim for the past couple decades.  I prefer the rawness of the 1970s stuff.

Above: frame from animated sequence from the Brazilian broadcast film "How To Make Your Child Schizophrenic".

The artist has been living and working in New York for some time but I'm unaware of any film work since this article.

Closed Monday

Here's another gem from a recent trip to the Metropolitan Museum.

Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Lavoisier by Jacques-Louis David

This portrait is somewhat overshadowed by it's neighbor, David's masterful "Death of Socrates".  The portrait of Lavoisier doesn't have the bravado of that somewhat earlier work but there's a confidence in the understatement.

David, of course, was a Jacobin and this painting was not permitted by the Monarchy to be exhibited.  Lavoiser was also a revolutionary.  Known today for his contributions to chemistry, he was ultimately executed on the word of Marat (the subject of another David masterpiece -a painting often used as the cover for the greatest historical study of the era de Tocqueville's "Old Regime and the French Revolution").  He held the uneviable position of taxpayer. Marat claimed he was using false weights, selling cut tobacco and was in league with foreign counterrevolutionaries, probably payback for a slight delivered years earlier.

Years later Lavoisier was exonerated and his property returned to his widow.

Beautiful glass and subtle light in this painting.

The air in the room also forms part of the portrait.  A remarkable work.

Animator #88 - "I Want My Two Days Pay!"

Issues numbers 86 and 87 are missing, so here goes issue 88 from August 18, 1944.

The resolution of the holiday pay at Disney from the dispute in issue 85 is reported.

STATE OF THE UNION

DISNEY:  All under our jurisdiction receiving less than $5,000 a year base pay will get an additional two days pay (last Xmas and New Years).  The Local is presently asking the Treasury Dept. (by request of the Company) for permission to pay those over $5,000 the two days also.

SCREEN GEMS: The only Company so far to agree to pay the two days Xmas and New Years without any quibbling.

MGM: Is not quibbling, the even refuse at this point to agree to arbitrate.

WARNER BROS: (note, no longer Schlesinger) Leon Schlesinger has it that the question of Xmas and New Years is a legal matter.  Not being able to understand the meaning of this, we have wired for a conciliator.

LANTZ: The latest from Walter is that he is consulting his attorney.  We can't find out whether he is consulting on the basis of getting away without paying it or with an aim of paying Xmas and New Years.

PALS: George Pal's right hand man, Harry Hinkle, says he wants to pay it but his attorney gets in the picture somehow at this point and can't give us an answer.

We have also made claim for straight time pay for the vacation period the number of hours regularly worked.

Also on this page, a note about dues and a request for contributors to the Conference of Studio Union's paper "The Bulletin."

Page two begins with a note concerning television (this is 1944, there's no animation on television yet).


INBETWEENS include: Frank Tashlin resigns from Warners leaving Friday Aug 19...

GUILD GALLERY: New show August 15 to Sept 15.  The exhibit will consist of a group of water colors and oils by Ralph Hulett, Joy Hankins, and Karen Johnson all of Disneys.

Some other interesting things too.

Buttoned Up

We got a new batch of buttons in.

We're also in the mood for making some new reel graphic -the two collide.

Final footage in a couple days.