John Coates, who was the real producer of the film was simply listed as "Production Supervisor." Things were different in 1968. This photo of Coates was taken recently at the World Animation Celebration in Los Angeles. Pho

One reason there was little recognition for the people who created the visuals was the attention the media gave to the music. The media was also fascinated by the idea that Erich Segal, then a Yale Greek and Latin professor, worked on the script. When the film was made the contract with TVC didn't go into details about publicity and name placement in the credits. It probably didn't dawn on anybody to demand that the distributor's press agents educate the media about the people who worked on the film behind-the-scenes.

John Coates said at the Creative Filmmaking Conference `97 (Tel Aviv, Israel), that he and George Dunning were so inexperienced that when it came to contract negotiations they didn't even know they could own a percentage of a film's gross or profits. They simply made the film for a fixed amount of money. Unfortunately, Yellow Submarine went over-budget and they lost money making it. Their participation in the feature ended when they previewed the answer print for King Features. It was approved and they were given their final payment for their work. King Features never made contact with them again.

The Collaboration Begins
Before making Yellow Submarine, TVC had produced The Beatles, a 39 episode TV series "produced" by Al Brodax and King Features. It turns out that King Features owned exclusive rights to the Beatles' cartoon characters. The TV program featured prerecorded songs by the group. Each segment was built around one song. Professional voice actors did the spoken voices of the Fab Four. Paul Frees did the voices of John and George and Lance Percival did Paul and Ringo. The show premiered in September, 1965, and grossed $3 million the first year. It ran as a weekly show on ABC until 1969.

Dunning, who directed the feature, was a Canadian who moved to London in the late 1950's to head UPA's overseas studio. Just after the studio folded he held a meeting in a pub and invited John Coates, Richard Williams and Denis Rich to attend. Coates, who began his career in the film industry after WWII with the Rank Organization was invited to run the new studio being formed. TVC is still in business 40 years later and is still headed by Coates (Dunning died in 1979).

When Coates and Dunning got the contract to do the feature they had a difficult time finding the right art director for the production. Eventually they saw the work of Heinz Edelman in Twen, a German magazine, and flew him to London for an interview. He did a few sample drawings and was hired. Coates said, "We loved his work."

While planning the production it was realized the script didn't have a well-defined enemy. Edelmann is given credit for inventing the Blue Meanies to serve that role. In an interview, Edelmann added yet another name to those who contributed to the film's script. He said, "There was never one script. We had about 20. Roger McGough was responsible for much of it." McGough was a Liverpool poet who was brought in to add a Liverpool flavor to the soundtrack. He was paid U.K. £500 for his work, but was not given screen credit.

When the film was in production Edelmann worked closely with Dunning. Edelmann watched over everything and would often go around at night and correct animators' drawings when they went off-model. Despite the critical acclaim of his design work for the film, he never worked on another animated feature.