Walter Lantz
Walter Lantz | |
---|---|
Born | New Rochelle, New York, U.S. | April 27, 1899
Died | March 22, 1994 Burbank, California, U.S. | (aged 94)
Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) |
Other names | Walt Lantz |
Occupation(s) | Animator, producer, director, screenwriter |
Years active | 1912–1972 |
Employer | Walter Lantz Productions |
Notable work | Woody Woodpecker Chilly Willy Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Andy Panda |
Television | The Woody Woodpecker Show (1957–1958) |
Spouses | |
Awards | Academy Honorary Award 1979 Lifetime Achievement Winsor McCay Award 1973 Lifetime Achievement |
Signature | |
Walter Benjamin Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994)[1] was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker.[2][3]
Biography
Early years and start in animation
Lantz was born in
While working as an auto mechanic, Lantz got his first break. Wealthy customer Fred Kafka liked his drawings on the garage's bulletin board and financed Lantz's studies at the
By the age of 16, Lantz was working in the animation department of
The Oswald era
In 1928, Lantz was hired by Charles B. Mintz as director on the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon series for Universal Pictures. Earlier that year, Mintz and his brother-in-law George Winkler had succeeded in getting several animators from the Walt Disney Studio to work for their own studio instead. Universal president Carl Laemmle grew dissatisfied with the Mintz-Winkler product and fired them, deciding instead to produce the Oswalds on the Universal lot. While schmoozing with Laemmle, Lantz wagered that if he could beat Laemmle in a game of poker, the character would be his. As fate would have it, Lantz won the bet and Oswald was now his character.[9]
Lantz inherited many of his initial staff, including animator Tom Palmer and musician Bert Fiske from the Winkler studio, but importantly he chose fellow New York animator Bill Nolan to help develop the series. Nolan's previous credentials included inventing the panorama background and developing a new, streamlined "Felix the Cat". Nolan was (and still is) best known for perfecting the "rubber hose" style of animation.[10] In September 1929, Lantz released his first cartoon, "Race Riot".
The character went to Lantz's operation in 1933.[11]
By 1935, he parted company with Nolan. Lantz became an independent producer, supplying cartoons to Universal instead of merely overseeing the animation department.[12] By 1940, he was negotiating ownership for the characters with whom he had been working.
The Woody Woodpecker era
When Oswald had worn out his welcome, Lantz needed a new character. Meany, Miny and Moe (three ne'er-do-well chimps), Baby-Face Mouse, Snuffy Skunk, Doxie (a comic dachshund), and Jock and Jill (monkeys that resembled
The woodpecker himself, Woody Woodpecker, made his first appearance in an Andy Panda short entitled Knock Knock on November 25, 1940. Less than a year later on August 29, 1941, Lantz married actress Grace Stafford in Reno, Nevada (he was previously married to and had a child with Doris Hollister). According to Lantz himself, he came up with the character during his honeymoon at a ranch nearby. He and Stafford kept hearing a woodpecker incessantly pecking on their roof. Grace suggested that Walter used the bird for inspiration as a cartoon character. Taking her advice, though a bit skeptical, Lantz created the brash woodpecker character, similar to the early Daffy Duck. Woody Woodpecker became an instant hit and got his own series during 1941.
Lantz claimed that Alex Lovy created the original design for Woody, although many animators at the studio agreed that Ben Hardaway, who liked screwball characters (with him creating the preliminary version of Bugs Bunny), drew the original design. Hardaway showed a prototype drawing of Woody to voice actor Mel Blanc, asking what he thought of it, to which he jokingly responded "Ugliest damn thing I ever saw".[13]
Mel Blanc supplied Woody's voice for the first three cartoons. When Blanc accepted a full-time contract with
In 1948, the Lantz studio created a hit Academy Award-nominated song titled "The Woody Woodpecker Song", featuring Blanc's laugh. The song was featured in the film Wet Blanket Policy.[14] Mel Blanc sued Lantz for half a million dollars, claiming that Lantz had used his voice in later cartoons without permission. The judge ruled for Lantz, saying that Blanc had failed to copyright his voice or his contributions. Though Lantz won the case, he paid Blanc in an out-of-court settlement when Blanc filed an appeal, and Lantz began searching for a new voice for Woody Woodpecker.[15]
In 1950, Lantz held anonymous auditions. Grace, Lantz's wife, offered to do Woody's voice, but Lantz turned her down because Woody was a male character. Not discouraged in the least, Grace made her own anonymous audition tape and submitted it to the studio. Not knowing who was behind the voice, Lantz chose Grace's voice for Woody Woodpecker. Grace supplied Woody's voice until the end of production in 1972 and also performed in non-Woody cartoons. At first, Grace voiced Woody without screen credit, thinking that it would disappoint viewers both young and old to know that Woody Woodpecker was voiced by a woman. However, she soon began to enjoy being known as the voice of Woody Woodpecker and, starting with 1958's
Lantz's harmonious relationship with Universal, the studio releasing his cartoons, was jarred when new ownership transformed the company into Universal-International and ended many of Universal's company policies. The new management insisted on owning licensing and merchandising rights to Lantz's characters. Lantz refused and withdrew from the parent company by the end of 1947, releasing 12 cartoons independently through United Artists in 1948 and into the beginning of 1949. Financial difficulties forced Lantz to shut down his studio in 1949. Universal-International re-released Lantz's UA cartoons (and several earlier ones) during the shutdown and eventually came to terms with Lantz, who resumed production in 1951.
New directors, new styles
Director Tex Avery had developed a wacky, fast-paced style in his cartoons for Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Walter Lantz persuaded him to join the Lantz studio, where he directed four cartoons in 1954–55: Crazy Mixed Up Pup, Sh-h-h-h-h-h, and the Chilly Willy cartoons I'm Cold and The Legend of Rockabye Point. Avery's wild approach to cartoon gags influenced the Lantz staff and temporarily revitalized the Lantz cartoons; The Legend of Rockabye Point and Crazy Mixed Up Pup were nominated for Academy Awards.
Since the early 1950s, Walter Lantz had been working faster and cheaper, no longer using the lush, artistic backgrounds and stylings that had distinguished his 1940s work. Lantz, forced to economize, could no longer afford Avery. A salary dispute resulted in Avery leaving the studio, effectively ending Avery's career in theatrical animation.[16] Avery left three new Chilly Willy storyboards behind; these were later made into cartoons by director Alex Lovy.
Lovy left in 1959 to join the Hanna-Barbera TV-cartoon company. While the animation departments of other studios like Paramount and Terrytoons were being entrusted to younger creative directors, Walter Lantz preferred established, veteran directors of the 1930s and '40s. Lantz replaced Lovy with Disney director Jack Hannah. Hannah brought his own sense of humor to the studio, but soon became disillusioned by the Lantz studio's lower standards: "Walter Lantz himself is one of the nicest, sweetest guys. He was great to pick up talent already developed. The only trouble is, once you've been at Disney's, it was just a job. The people you worked with were second-rate [compared to Disney's], and no extra effort was expected. I wasn't used to that. So as a result, I just got bored there."[17] Another industry veteran, Sid Marcus, replaced Hannah in 1962.
Later career
Walter Lantz brought his old theatrical cartoons to network television in 1957, with
Lantz entertained the troops during the Vietnam War and visited hospitalized veterans. Walter Lantz was a good friend of special-effects animator George Pal.
By the late 1960s, other movie studios had discontinued their animation departments, leaving Lantz as one of two producers still making cartoons for theaters (the other was
In retirement, Lantz continued to manage his properties by licensing them to media. He continued to draw and paint, selling his paintings of Woody Woodpecker rapidly. On top of that, he worked with
During the 1980s and 1990s, Lantz served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute.[18][19]
In 1990, Woody Woodpecker was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1993, Lantz established a $10,000 scholarship and prize for animators in his name at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, Santa Clarita.
Lantz died at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California from heart failure on March 22, 1994, at age 94.
Characters
Some characters in the Walter Lantz cartoons (both cartoons and comics) are Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (formerly), Andy Panda, The Beary Family, Maggie & Sam, Maw and Paw, Space Mouse, Woody Woodpecker, Inspector Willoughby, Homer Pigeon, Chilly Willy, Lil' Eightball, Charlie Chicken, Cartune, Wally Walrus, and many more.
Awards
- In 1959, Lantz was honored by the Los Angeles City Council as "one of America's most outstanding animated film cartoonists".
- In 1970, Lantz received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[20]
- In 1973, the international animation society, ASIFA/Hollywood, presented him with its Annie Award.
- In 1979, he was given a special Academy Award "for bringing joy and laughter to every part of the world through his unique animated motion pictures", being the second animator to receive this award (the first was Walt Disney, who received it three times, while Chuck Jones was in 1995 the third to receive the merit).
- In 1986, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[21][22]
See also
- The Golden Age of American animation
- The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1985) (produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit) – a documentary about George Pal in which Lantz appeared as himself.
- Walter Lantz Productions
References
- ^ Collins, Glen A. (March 23, 1994). "Walter Lantz, 93, the Creator Of Woody Woodpecker, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
- The Los Angeles Times. October 22, 2007. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
- The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
- ^ Lenburg 2012, p. 11-12.
- ^ Lenburg 2012, p. 23-27.
- ^ "Fairy Tale Flappers: Animated Adaptations of Little Red and Cinderella (1922–1925)". governmentcheese.ca.
- ^ Lenburg 2012, p. 23.
- ^ Lenburg 2012, p. 36-40.
- ^ "Walter Lantz Plays it Lucky, 1928 |". cartoonresearch.com.
- ^ Lenburg 2012, p. 45-48.
- ^ Mallory, Michael (March 20, 2014). "A Tale of Two Walts".
- ^ Lenburg 2012, p. 61.
- ^ Lenburg 2012, p. 75-76.
- ^ "The 21st Academy Awards | 1949". Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
- ^ "Woody Woodpecker on Records |". cartoonresearch.com.
- ^ "Tex Avery Chills & Thrills". Retrieved January 2, 2016.
- ^ Leonard Maltin and Jerry Beck, Of Mice and Magic, New American Library, 1980, p. 183.
- ^ National Student Film Institute/L.A: The Sixteenth Annual Los Angeles Student Film Festival. The Directors Guild Theatre. June 10, 1994. pp. 10–11.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Los Angeles Student Film Institute: 13th Annual Student Film Festival. The Directors Guild Theatre. June 7, 1991. p. 3.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - American Academy of Achievement.
- The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
- The Los Angeles Times. February 27, 1986. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
- Lenburg, Jeff (2012). Walter Lantz : made famous by a woodpecker. Chelsea House.
Further reading
- The Walter Lantz Story with Woody Woodpecker and Friends by Joe Adamson (1985) ISBN 978-0399130960
External links
- Walter Lantz Productions Collection..1940–1960. UCLA. Performing Arts Special Collections.
- The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia
- Walter Lantz at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
- The Walter Lantz Studio at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
- Walter Lantz biography on Lambiek
- Walter Lantz at IMDb
- Walter Lantz at Find a Grave
- King of Jazz - Cartoon Section on YouTube