Linda Jones

My involvement in the sale of cels from animated cartoons began with a phone call in the mid 1970's from Don Foster, an 18-year pillar at my father's studio in Hollywood. "Hey, Linda. Your dad asked me to call and see if you might help us out with something."

The "something" turned out to be a project Don and my father were working on with Neiman Marcus. The prestigious Christmas Catalogue was about to have its first cartoon character cover: Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner. My father had designed and drawn a superb scene with Wile E. chasing a Roadrunner weather vane across a snow-covered roof. The miniature silhouette of Santa and his reindeer flew across the distant, star-studded sky. Don had produced the cel and background, inserted the lettering and mechanicals. It was a thing of beauty, indeed.

Now that Neiman Marcus had accepted the artwork, my father's discussions with the marketing director had brought up the question of ancillary products which might support the cover.

My husband, Jim, and I were, at the time, the proprietors of a small manufacturing company south of Los Angeles. Although the business was unrelated to the entertainment or animation industry, I had continued my involvement with part-time research, writing and clerking at the studio when time permitted. Our children were almost all grown and off "doing their own things" in the jargon of the day.

A Limited Edition
I agreed to help out and flew to Dallas where discussions with the marketing director resulted in the decision to produce a limited edition "print" of the cover. Because of the particular (and somewhat peculiar) technique used to produce the original art, we decided to produce the "print" in the same way. It would be, in the strictest sense of the word, a fine art limited edition. The line image was transferred to clear acetate via a specific photo-transfer process and each image was hand-painted on the reverse side. The acetate sheets (commonly called a "cel" in the animation industry) were numbered "one" through "fifty" in the time-honored style of the limited edition. Each cel was signed by my father. They were beautiful!

It had been decided that the matted and framed cels would be sold from the gift departments of the Neiman Marcus stores throughout the country. It was with great satisfaction and delight that I discovered #25/50 hanging in a place of honor and prominence in our brand new NM store at Fashion Island in our hometown of Newport Beach, California.

Around that same time, Ed Summers interviewed my father for a television segment for a local New York program. Ed came to Hollywood with his crew and shot the interview in the offices of Chuck Jones Productions, Tower Twelve, in the Sunset Tower building at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Vine Street. During a break in the shooting, Ed talked about his little gallery/memorabilia store in New York on Lexington called Super Snipe Gallery. He and George Lucas were co-owners and were constantly on the look-out for interesting and unusual additions to their inventory.