Sketch of Lou Hertz. Courtesy of David M. Strandquest.

Animation advertising veteran Lou Hertz died at his home in Atlanta on July 4, 2005, after a brief battle with cancer; he was 73.

Hertz was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and studied at the University of Miami, where he claimed to have majored in sun tanning, according to a family bio. He served two years as a lieutenant in the Air Force where he began his career as an animator by making training films for bomber crews. Hertz was an animator for United Artists in Hollywood before he settled in Atlanta in 1957.

An active member of the Atlanta business and communications community for more than 45 years, he was the president of Louis Hertz Advertising and a local innovator in the combination of animation and live action in local advertising. He pioneered advertising techniques for the first regional shopping malls in Atlanta area and developed media campaigns for several local politicians. Hertz was also the president of the Hertz Communications Group, operating several radio stations throughout the Southeast.

More recently, Hertz was an artist and innovator in pen-and-ink animation for Crawford Communications (which had acquired DESIGNefx), Turner Communications and the Cartoon Network. Since his retirement, Hertz had taught courses in animation at Atlanta College of Art, American Intercontinental University and The Creative Circus.

He had been serving as president of the Atlanta ASIFA chapter and sat on the ASIFA International board of directors.

Hertz was active in community service for the 45+ years that he lived in Atlanta, contributing his leadership and serves as various points to Temple Sinai, the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the University of Miami Presidents Council, the Jewish Educational Loan Fund, the Friends of Piedmont Park and the Morningside-Lenox Park Assoc.

Hertz is survived by his wife of 28 years, Judith B. Hertz; his four children: Dr. Paul L. Hertz of Washington, D.C.; Karen Hertz Everett of New York City; Dr. Amy L. Hertz of Memphis; and Dr. Claire Hertz Bernstein of Chicago; as well as his 12 grandchildren; his cat, Inky, and his beloved poodle, Sam. Services were held July 6 at Arlington Cemetery of Sandy Springs. The family requests donations in Hertz’s memory be made to the Jewish Educational Loan Fund, 4549 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Chamblee, Georgia 30338.

As a tribute to him we have collected some thoughts of the animation community.

David M. Strandquest
Animator on Adult Swim/Stroker & Hoop Strangetoons

I had the pleasure of calling Lou Hertz one of my best friends. I was working at DESIGNefx in the early ‘90s as a commercial cel animation director, and we were having a hard time finding new young talent to help with our growing workload. I ran an ad in the AJC for artists interested in animation. After hanging about 50 portfolios on the, “wall of shame,” the front door opened, and in walked Lou. I believe the 1st thing he said to me was, “ I just want to draw a picture, boobie!” And so, the story starts back up there. He was one of our gang, and we all miss him, but we know his ghost is flying around us in a nightshirt and cap, doing tweens on our drawings while we sleep. He was always there when you needed a friend.

Mark Falls
Superlux

In the summer of 1993 I started an internship in the cel animation department at Crawford Communications. I’d been a freelance illustrator for 15 years and was looking for new veins of inspiration. No sooner had I begun than the guys all started talking about Lou, the new guy who was coming in to manage the department. It was a freewheeling environment — drawing tables, books, guitars, drums and every form of interesting junk piled to the rafters of a dark, cavernous warehouse. Assignments were relatively few and a lot of time was spent on serial cartoon panels, mostly inspired by garbled intercom pages.

There was a tremendous amount of talent there, but management was more attuned to post operations than animation. Lou would shift that balance. He had been an Air Force animator during the Korean War, had worked on Magoo back at UPA, and, we would later find out, had continued using and creating animation when he owned an agency during the ‘60s. After a succession of interesting careers, Lou had hooked up with the department as an inbetweener some months before. Impressed with the talent and feeling it under-utilized, Lou pitched management the idea of coming on as a manager/producer/account exec. They bought in, Lou signed on, and the cel department got itself a one-man promotional engine.

Lou had such success that he eventually hired more talent and a full-time producer. He shrugged off the change as “simple management” but I don’t know anyone else who could have done it. He was one of us. Lou didn’t institute structures or initiatives because he understood that was a recipe for rebellion. If anything, the torrent of prank panels and twisted caricatures increased during Lou’s tenure (many featuring Lou in dozens of madcap aliases and plenty of those drawn in his own hand). As the workload increased Lou would draft whatever manpower was available. He would pull me away from practicing walk cycles, bouncing balls and other studies in inertia and put me to work animating scenes for commercials, calmly critiquing my beginner efforts into material that was ready for air.

He was an incurable jokester, constantly regaling us with tales from his fraternity days at the University of Miami. Later, Lou became a regular at Little Bangkok, on Cheshire Bridge Road. Most Tuesdays you could count on a few new Lou jokes, and his invariable order of “chicken curry — but with pork.” My favorite Lou catchphrase could be heard every spring, when he bemoaned the plight of the “Bradfuhd payahs” (Bradford pears in his Alabama drawl). “I do worry about the Bradfuhd Payahs. I’m afraid that once they get blooming the cold will come along and kill them.” We suffered no such fate at Crawford, Lou. Thanks to you.