Jay Ward
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Jay Ward | |
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The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show George of the Jungle | |
Spouse | Ramona Ward (m. 1943) |
Children | 3 |
Awards | Inkpot Award (1977)[2] |
Photographs | |
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Jay Ward, with Bullwinkle puppet on left hand[3] | |
Jay Ward, with Rocky & Bullwinkle characters[4] |
Joseph Ward Cohen Jr. (September 20, 1920
Early life
Jay Ward was born
He obtained his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley.[10][11] In 1947, he obtained his MBA from Harvard Business School.[12]
Early career
In 1947, the first day that Ward opened his first real estate office at the corner of Ashby and Claremont, a runaway truck crashed through the building and pinned Ward. While recuperating, Ward decided to animate cartoons, but kept his real estate business, later moving it to Domingo Avenue and then Tunnel Road, where it stayed, in Berkeley, even after Ward moved to Los Angeles.[4] He later received incorrect medical treatment while hyperventilating in an airplane. He then developed agoraphobia.[11]: 181–182
Animation career
Ward moved into the young
NBC-TV and Fairbanks were both unimpressed with all but Crusader Rabbit. The animated series Crusader Rabbit premiered in 1948 and continued its initial run through 1952. Adopting a serialized, mock-melodrama format, it followed the adventures of Crusader and his dimwitted sidekick Rags the Tiger. It was, in form and content, much like the series that would later gain Ward enduring fame, Rocky and His Friends.
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Ward and Anderson lost the rights to the Crusader Rabbit character in a legal fight with businessman Shull Bonsall, who had taken over the assets of the bankrupt
In a running-joke tribute to Ward, many of his cartoon characters had the middle initial "J." The cartoonist Matt Groening later gave the middle initial "J." to many of his characters as a tribute to Jay Ward.[15]
Ward fought many heated battles over content with the
An eccentric and proud of it, Ward was known for pulling an unusual publicity stunt that coincided with a national crisis. Ward leased an island on the Canadian border in Minnesota near his home[citation needed] and dubbed it "Moosylvania," based upon the home of his Bullwinkle TV character. He and publicist Howard Brandy crossed the country in a van, gathering signatures on a petition for statehood for Moosylvania. They then visited Washington, D.C., and attempted to gain an audience with President John F. Kennedy. Unfortunately, they arrived at the White House the morning the Cuban Missile Crisis was breaking, and were ordered at gunpoint to drive off.[11]: 199–200
Personal life and death
Ward married Ramona "Billie" Ward in 1943; the couple had three children: Ron, Carey, and Tiffany.[16]
Ward died of
Legacy
The offices of Jay Ward Productions, today managed by members of his family, are located across the street from the Chateau Marmont on the Sunset Strip.[18] In 2007, the building could be identified by a statue of Bullwinkle and Rocky,[19][13] located in front. In 2013, the statue was reported by the Los Angeles NBC affiliate KNBC to have been removed from its location by DreamWorks Animation, which previously owned the licensing rights to the Jay Ward catalogue.[20][21] DreamWorks Animation had stated that they intended to restore the statue as soon as repairs were completed on it; however, as of May 2014, the statue's whereabouts and status were unknown. It had been speculated that DreamWorks intended to relocate the statue to its own headquarters.[22] In late 2014 (ran until 4 January 2015) the statue was temporarily housed at the Paley Center for Media, in Beverly Hills, California, in conjunction with "The Jay Ward Legacy Exhibit".[13][23] The Jay Ward family gifted the refurbished statue to the City of West Hollywood as part of its Urban Art collection. On Feb 28th, 2020, the Bullwinkle statue finally received its permanent home when it was installed on the turning island at Sunset Blvd. and Holloway Drive, right across from where Tower Records and Spago had been.[24][25]
Following Ward's death, Alexander Anderson Jr., who had created the initial conceptions of the characters Dudley Do-Right, Bullwinkle and Rocky, but had not received public recognition, learned the characters had been copyrighted in Ward's name alone.[26] He sued Ward's heirs to reclaim credit as a creator, and in either 1993[27] or 1996[26] (sources differ), Anderson received a financial settlement and a court order acknowledging him as the "creator of the first version of the characters of Rocky, Bullwinkle, and Dudley."[27]
On June 21, 2000, Ward was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard for his contribution to the television industry,[28][29] as part of the publicity for the live-action and animation film The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.[28][30]
Until it closed in July 2004, the Dudley Do-Right Emporium, which sold souvenirs based on Ward's characters and was largely staffed by Ward and his family, operated on Sunset Boulevard.
References
- ^ a b c "Joseph W Cohen, born on September 20, 1920 in San Francisco County, California". CaliforniaBirthIndex.org. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ Inkpot Award
- ^ Willard Middle School. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
In Willard's yearbook he is listed simply as "J. Ward."
- ^ a b "Ward, Jay – Animator". Berkeley Historical Plaque Project. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ a b Folkart, Burt A. (October 13, 1989). "Jay Ward Dies; He Created Rocky, Bullwinkle for TV". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Mercedes J Clark in the 1940 Census". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ Campana, Joe (21 April 2007). "Finding Jay Ward". Animation - Who & Where. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- Frances E. Willard
- archive.org. Berkeley, CA: Printed by the Professional Press. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ Torrez, P.G. "Fiat yuks: Let there be laughs". Office of the President. University of California. Archived from the original on 8 October 1999. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-0312283834.
- ^ "Re: Fred Newman (MBA 1978); John Giudice (MBA 1978); Rich Wailes (MBA 1977); Sue Dickie (MBA 1978); Linda Carlson (MBA 1980); Kerr Taylor (OPM 39)". Alumni. Harvard Business School. December 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
I put him in a special category of entertaining HBSers, including the late Jay Ward (MBA 1947), who developed and produced The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show. —Richard Wailes (MBA 1977) via alumni.hbs.edu
- ^ a b c d King, Susan (25 October 2014). "Classic Hollywood: Honoring Jay Ward of Bullwinkle and Rocky fame". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
Darrell Van Citters, author of the book "The Art of Jay Ward Productions," talks about the Jay Ward Legacy Exhibit at the Paley Center For Media in Beverly Hills on Oct. 15, 2014;....16-foot revolving fiberglass statue of Bullwinkle in a bathing suit, holding Rocky up high in his left hand — a parody of the old Las Vegas Sahara hotel billboard across from Ward's offices by the Chateau Marmont.
- ^ Korkis, Jim (2009). "Bullwinkle Speaks! An Interview With Bill Scott". Hogan's Alley. No. 17.
- ISBN 978-0553105032.
- ^ Yarrow, Andrew L. (October 14, 1989). "Jay Ward, 69, The TV Cartoonist Who Created Bullwinkle, Is Dead". The New York Times.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-0983-9.
- ^ Blum, Steven (2019-08-21). "WeHo Has Strong Feelings About a Rotating Moose Returning to the Sunset Strip". LAmag - Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles. Archived from the original on March 8, 2024. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
- ^ "Rocky And Bullwinkle Statue · 8218 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90046". Google Maps. July 2007. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
- ^ Kudler, Adrian Glick (July 22, 2013). "Breaking: 52-Year-Old Bullwinkle Statue Lifted Off the Strip". Curbed: Los Angeles.
- NBC Los Angeles. NBC. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ Grams, Martin (17 January 2014). "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Statue".
- ^ "The Jay Ward Legacy Exhibit". Paley Center. 16 October 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ "Beloved Rocky and Bullwinkle Statue Returns Home to the Sunset Strip". WeHo Times. 28 February 2020.
- ^ "Sunset Blvd & Holloway Dr · West Hollywood, CA 90069". Google Maps. January 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
- ^ a b Lopez, Daniel (October 22, 2010). "Alexander Anderson Jr., creator of 'Rocky and Bullwinkle', dies at 90". The Monterey County Herald via The Kansas City Star. Archived from the original on October 28, 2010.
- ^ a b Schudel, Matt (2010-10-24). "Alex Anderson, creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle, dies at 90". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved 2011-04-04.
- ^ a b "Jay Ward". Hollywood Walk of Fame. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
- ^ "Star Walk: Jay Ward". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
- Free Online Library. June 22, 2000. Archived from the originalon 18 August 2016. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
Further reading
- Beck, Jerry; Minkoff, Rob; Ward, Tiffany; Burrell, Ty (February 11, 2014). The Art of Mr. Peabody & Sherman (Hardcover). ISBN 9781608872589.
- Chunovic, Louis (December 2002). The Rocky and Bullwinkle Book (Hardcover). ISBN 9780762853137.
- Kilgore, Al; Mendelsohn, Jack; Berg, Dave (2015). Rocky and Bullwinkle: Classic Adventures (Paperback). ISBN 9781631404900.
Al Kilgore, Dave Berg, Fred Fredericks, Jerry Robinson, Illustrators
- Scott, Keith (November 20, 2001). The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose (Paperback). ISBN 9780312283834.
- Van Citters ·, Darrell; Foray, June (March 2021). The Art of Jay Ward Productions (Paperback). Darrell Van Citters. ISBN 9780578845241.
External links
- Jay Ward at IMDb
- "Bullwinkle Studios". Archived from the original on July 20, 2011.
- "Dudley Do-Right's Emporium". seeing-stars.com. Archived from the original on 2005-09-01.
- Jay Ward memorial at Find a Grave
- Cruz, Brian; Delgadillo, Eileen. Feder, Colin (ed.). "Hokey Smoke! Rocky & Bullwinkle". Toonzone (fan site). Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
- Ulrich, Charles (ed.). "Frostbite Falls Page". (fan site). Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2012.
- "A Salute to Moosylvania!! Recorded Live at the Moosylvania Jazz Festival!". BambinoMusical.com (fan page for a satirical record album by Jay Ward). Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2012.