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Chapter 13: UPA: Back To The Future
I solved the background and design problem by getting permission to call in Cliff Roberts and Fred Crippen from Detroit. I began to have a group of talented people around me that made me look very good. Here is how our staff developed, with the inevitable departures and arrivals:
Barbara Baldwin, ink & paint supervisor
Howard Beckerman, assistant animator
Bill Bernal, sales and story collaboration
Peter Cooper, camera
Hedy Cramer, secretary/receptionist
Ed Cullen, business manager
Fred Crippen, animator and designer
Duane Crowther, animator
Tisa David, assistant animator
Gene Deitch, creative director
Ken Drake, production manager
Marvin Friedman, design and layout
Steve Frankfort, designer
Lu (Lucifer) Guarnier, animator
Wardell Gaynor, cameraman
Jack Goodford, designer, director
Chris Ishii, designer, director
Edna Jacobs, inker/painter, (and studio sex-object)
Irwin La Pointe, incredibly eager and efficient production assistant
Don McCormick, studio manager (orig. asst. animator)
Grim Natwick, animator
Cliff Roberts, designer
Pat Ward, ink & paint supervisor
Bard Wiggenhorn, animator
Even George Dunning worked with us for a while before taking off for London.
My sincere apologies to any I have forgotten, and my great thanks to Marvin Friedman, whose sharp memory reminded me of some on the above list. He even remembers my garish plaid shirts, and the exact way I hired him. (The dummy asked for the minimum wage!) He didn't mention my daring and ridiculous attempt to raise a beard. It just wasn't done in those days, and nearly cost me some clients!
Marvin also remembers the surprise visit to our studio of Ernie Kovacs, the great conceptual genius of early comedy television. We had a large UPA logo in our window facing 5th Avenue, that attracted Kovacs' attention, and he was waving at us. Marvin signaled him to come up, and he did, giving one and all a great kick.
Meeting and working with the great Grim Natwick was a revelation. I had been previously unaware of his existence, and was charmed by his laconic manner and amazing stories. Just now, after the recession in 2001, I'm reminded of something Grim Natwick told me when I first got to know him at UPA-New York in 1951. He said, "In the early 30s I was making really good money in animation, and I didn't even know there was a Depression on until my family began writing me and asking for money!" Of course. During the Depression of the 1930s people's only escape from the grim reality was going to the movies. Times were bad, but animators had work!
We UPA-New Yorkers quickly became the darlings of the Madison Avenue ad agencies, and created some of the early classic TV commercials.
We did the first commercials ever with Saul Steinberg, working with him personally. I was dazzled at the chance to visit my cartoon idol in his wondrous clock and rocking-chair filled apartment. The spots were for Jell-O Instant Pudding, of all things, but they won me my first New York Art Director's Club Gold Medal.
Our biggest commercial success was in the long series of "Bert & Harry Piel" beer spots. The beer was dreadful, but the commercials boosted its sales phenomenally. (When Piel's finally switched to another ad campaign, the company quickly collapsed!) The characters and dialog were actually created by Young & Rubicam writer, Ed Graham, and were voiced by the phenomenal Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding, Bob & Ray, but my design and direction of the series won me my second NY Art Directors' Club Gold Medal and a lot of career points. The most hilarious fall-out was from the original name of the series, "Harry & Bert." A woman viewer wrote a scathing letter to the Piel's Beer company, castigating them in a fierce diatribe for their "fascist advertising campaign about 'Aryan Bert!'" The company flipped out, and were demanding we immediately cancel the series, until we saved the situation and our hides by simply reversing the order of the names to "Bert & Harry." (Two of my Bert & Harry model drawings are in Chapter 8, "Make Luck Happen.")
Gene:
First a huge thanks for writing this book. You've got an incredibly unique perspective on the artform and life in general, and I'm so glad you're sharing all these fabulous stories. I'd love to hear more about UPA-New York. As I understand, UPA-NY was one of the most prolific commercial producers of the time, and I'm curious as to how involved the agencies were in the advertising process during the mid-'50s at a studio like UPA. It's always said that animation studios in the '50s had greater creative involvement in the commercial process, but then you say that a Y&R writer created the Bert & Harry campaign. Had the agencies already started providing boards at this time or were ad concepts still mostly thought up by the studios? I'd also be curious to hear what's your take on producing commercials as opposed to shorts and the other long-form animation you were producing later on. Was it more/less enjoyable? As fulfilling creatively? Completely different? That sort of thing.
Also I've heard that you created the original pilot of DUSTY OF THE CIRCUS at UPA-NY which turned into a series for THE GERALD MCBOING BOING SHOW. If that's true, I'd be interested in hearing details on how that came about, what it was originally intended for, etc, etc.
Thanks!
Amid
Gene, Fred Crippen is my father, and , I can go on record that his abilty to communicate visually was! and is! superior to his oratory skills,thanks for writing this history I had the pleasure to meet many of the people you've writen about, thanks for sharing your memories, sincerely Aaron Crippen
HI Gene, I'm enjoying reminiscing about the years you cover in animation. About the UPA staff photo, the caption requires editing. I don't know who everybody is, but I do know that the following names are improperly noted: Back Row: Grim Natwick on the left and Abe Liss in the center. Front row is Don McCormick on the left and Gene Deitch second from right. Wardell Gaynor is not in this photo although he was a super cameraman and should be there.
Keep writing,
Howard Beckerman
Hello Gene,
There is a man in New York that has thousands of hours of early telivision collected in a warehouse. He rents footage for the commercila business. I'm sure he has the Howdy Doody film you're looking for. I'll see if I can dig up his name.
Thanz for the wonderful stories.
Craig
Reply from Gene: Reader Scott Galley asked me to tell more about what it was like to work with Grim Natwick. Good idea, but I've been trying to keep this book from running on and on - just outlining the key events as I recalled them. I'm hoping some of my old staff who are still around will remind me of important stuff I may have forgotten. About Grim, I have to smile from my 77th year, and say that my first impression of Grim, when I first saw him, (and I have to confess I'd never actually heard of him at the time), was, "My gosh, why did Steve send me this old man?" Grim may have been in his 60s then! It didn't take long for me to get the answer! Grim was always laconic, and never said much. He just drawled a bit in a Minnesota way. I had a hard time getting him to talk about himself, or much of anything at first. It took a while to develop a warm relationship. After all, I was just a kid, playing at being the master's boss! The main thing he did was to produce great animation, and made me look very good! The UPA-NY staff member who benefitted the most from working in the same room with Grim was Duane Crowther. They became close friends, and Duane and his wife Cathy helped care for Grim until the end.
Gene;
Have been looking foward to this chapter most of all, and can honestly say, it was well worth the wait. Those years in New York sound facinating. It would be interesting to have a little more information on what it was like to work with animation legend, Grim Natwick, included.
Best;
Scott
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