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ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 4.2 - MAY 1999
In Passing
Evelyn Lambart, 1914 - 1999. Evelyn Lambart, filmmaker and close associate
of Norman McLaren, died Saturday, April 3 at the age of 84. Lambart studied
commercial art at the Ontario College of Art. On graduation, she worked for
a year and a half doing illuminations for Canada's Book Of Remembrance.
She began work at the National Film Board as a letterer in 1942. At that time,
the only ones doing animation at the NFB were Norman McLaren and Guy Glover.
One day, McLaren asked her to help with some heraldic devices for a film he
was working on and, with her experience in illuminating, she was able to do
a very good job. So began a long-lasting and very productive partnership,
with Lambart often perfecting the tools McLaren needed and suggesting materials
to produce the varied textures in his films. It was a partnership based on
mutual respect; Lambart is credited as co-director on six of the eight films
she made with him. Her collaboration with Norman McLaren produced Begone
Dull Care/Caprice En Couleurs, Now Is The Time, Around Is Around, A Chairy
Tale/Il Était Une Chaise, Le Merle, Short And Suite, Lines-Vertical/Lignes
Verticales, Lines-Horizontal/Lignes Horizontales, and Mosaic/Mosaique.
In the early 1960's, McLaren became interested in ballet films, which held
no interest for Lambart, so she started thinking about doing her own films.
She perfected the technique of paper cutouts transferred to lithograph plate
which she would then paint and animate. She used this technique in seven award-winning
films: Fine Feathers (1968), The Hoarder (1969), Paradise Lost (1970),
The Story Of Christmas (1973), Mr. Frog Went A-Courting (1974), The Lion And
The Mouse (1976), and The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse/Le Rat De Maison
Et Le Rat Des Champs (1980).
Jean Vander Pyl, Best Known As Wilma Flintstone's Voice, Dies. Jean
Vander Pyl, who was best known as the voice of Wilma Flintstone on Hanna-Barbera's
The Flintstones TV series, died Saturday, April 10 at her home in Dana
Point, California. She was 79. Although born in Philadelphia, she moved to
Los Angeles while still a teenager and attended Beverly Hills High and UCLA.
Her career began as a radio performer for several radio series including Amos
And Andy, Lux Radio Theatre, Studio One, and Father Knows Best.
In the late 1950's, she began doing voice work for Hanna-Barbera, and worked
on several well-remembered series, including Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry
Hound, Top Cat, Yogi Bear, and The Flintstones. In addition to
Wilma Flintstone, she will perhaps be best remembered for Pebbles Flintstone
and Rosie the Robot on The Jetsons. She continued to work for Hanna-Barbera
until mid-1998 when she was hospitalized for lung cancer. On April 20th, Women
in Animation awarded her with a posthumous lifetime achievement certificate.
Schoolhouse Rock Creator Dies In Car Accident. David McCall died April
18th in a car accident near Kukes, Albania, along with his wife, Penny, and
Refugees International's European representative Yvette Pierpaoli and the
car's Albanian driver. The McCalls were en route from Tirana to Kukes, the
primary reception point for Kosovar refugees. They were on a mission for Refugees
International, the Washington, D.C.-based organization on whose board Mr.
and Mrs. McCall served. Part of the mission was to explore providing region-wide
help through radio broadcasts to refugees seeking to locate family members.
The accident was the result of bad weather and treacherous road conditions.
Mr. McCall, 71, was a partner in the New York-based communications consulting
and advertising firm, Shepardson Stern + Kaminsky. He was a renowned figure
in the advertising world, having been the chief copywriter at Ogilvy &
Mather and the co-founder of his own agency, McCaffrey & McCall. Mr. McCall
began his advertising career in the mailroom of Young & Rubicam after
leaving Yale University in 1951. From Y&R, he joined Ogilvy & Mather,
where he spent ten years, eventually succeeding founder David Ogilvy as the
agency's chief copywriter. During his tenure at O&M, Mr. McCall developed
campaigns for such clients as Sears, Hathaway shirts and Maxwell House coffee.
For Maxwell House, he wrote the line, "Coffee that tastes as good as
it smells." In 1961, Mr. McCall left O&M to co-found the advertising
agency McCaffrey & McCall, Inc. The agency's clients included Exxon, Tiffany,
Hiram Walker, J.C. Penney, The Hartford Insurance Company, Mercedes-Benz and
Norelco. Among the many campaigns the agency developed was the name change
from Esso to Exxon. He also created the television commercial featuring Santa
Claus sledding downhill on a Norelco electric shaver. In 1973, he created
Schoolhouse Rock, a series of 3-minute animated educational segments
that originally aired on the ABC television network during Saturday and Sunday
morning cartoons from 1973 to 1985, and again in 1993. McCall originally presented
the Schoolhouse Rock idea to Michael Eisner, who at the time was serving
as ABC's vice president for children's television programming. The series
won four Emmy Awards.
Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.