Animation legends:
https://reghartt.ca/cineforum/?p=40241
https://reghartt.ca/cineforum/?p=30948
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDAcJW66MkM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CEYYLr9tRU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0AivWOg7bI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEWI5WodkD8
, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0XUx8mAGA4 ,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taGVbmQdafg,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT_4ro6Mvb8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFa6vtJ-Rqo ,
Read this today on GREENBRIAR PICTURE SHOWS: “Some had not even finished high school,’ says Pointer. As to pastimes, ‘wild living, speakeasies, and gambling … consuming bootleg liquor and weekend bridge-playing with prostitutes.‘” Although Ray did not mean it as one that is not a negative but a HUGE plus.Too bad the boys and girls are so ready to damn those who embrace wild living, speakeasies and gambling. https://greenbriarpictureshows.blogspot.com/
When I went out to Hollywood in 1987 for the Academy Tribute to Grim Natwick Mrs. French, Grim’s landlady and Richard William’s mother-in-law put me up in one of her apartments and put her grandson in charge of me which he was not one bit thrilled by until I bought a ton of pizza and a two-four of beer.
After the Academy Tribute Grim pulled out his hard liquor and his art books.
That was a helluva night!
I learned more in one night than could be learned in decades at Yale or Harvard let alone animation school.
Keep it short? Hell, no. I can and have spoken at length at my animation fests which, by the way repeatedly set attendance records at premium prices in the venues they were in.
Jerry Beck, Leonard Maltin and others did and do great work but neither of them got drunk with these people let alone conjured up out of thin air and empty pockets to fly them (First Class) from Hollywood to Toronto for three days and house them in an “A” hotel while being told by the Toronto animation community these guys were old hat and could teach them nothing.
In 1988 my programs, by chance, were in THE GRAPEVINE ROOM of The Diamond Club (the hottest venue in Canada). They gave me twenty-four free beer each night I was there. I was there four nights a week–Monday through Thursday. If we don’t use it, we lose it.
One night I came home drunk, saw an ad for half price ads in an ANIMATION DIRECTORY and bought the inside back cover where I announced to the world that Grim Natwick was turning 100 on August 16, 1990.
That led to the Wonderful Grim Natwick 100th Birthday Party. Had I been sober I would not have done it. No money in the bank.
Jerry and Leonard are cool but neither ever had someone of the calibre of Jane Jacobs say over a dozen beers, “The best part of what you offer is what you have to say,” nor are they to be found, as I am, on this list of the 50 best male speakers of all time: https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-male-orators/reference .
“You are staying with me,” said Bob Clampett’s widow Sody when I went out for Grim’s 100th. Her house was under the “H” in the Hollywood sign. The kid I brought out with me, Tim Slater, drank like his life hung on it. He was so gifted an artist the Clampett family asked him to stayed behind. They kept him busy there for a while.
“Would you care for a fee?” I asked Friz Freleng when I invited him to Toronto. Friz asked, “Can I bring my wife?” I wondered who said “No,” to that question. I later learned that excepting myself most (all I believe) said their budget would not cover the expense. Them Friz charged thousands. To me he said, “In that case their is no fee.”
That Christmas when I called him Friz said, “You are the finest host I ever met.”
I prepared of those events which Canadian publishers tell me there is no market for.
That is, not, true of course.
An out of Toronto theatre that sat 1,000, charged 99 cents and regularly pulled 60 people per show said their audience would not pay the premium fee I demanded. Well, the place filled, over five hundred had to be turned away and the police showed up to say, “Next time you know you will have a crowd like this call us. We will help you control it.”
Thing is, they did not know but I did.
That theatre, like so many others, is gone now.
It was a privilege to be invited to get drunk with these wild guys.
A proper intro to “A WILD HARE” takes at least 30 minutes.
COAL BLACK easily demands an hour.
“Would you like coffee or tea,” Jane Jacobs said. I said, “Sure.” Inside she put four beer down saying, “I think you would prefer this. For became more. Then she said, “The best part of what you offer is what you have to say.” “Hearing that from you is better than receiving an Academy Award,” I told her. “I would not say that,” she replied. I said, “I would and do.”
« See THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) 7pm Sunday at The CineForum in Toronto.