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Topics - Sogturtle

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TTTP In Exile / Not that it matters but it's that DARK time of year again ;)...

« on: July 26, 2013, 03:35:47 am »

It's frustrating but for whatever reason yours-truly can't seem to remember the IAD url anymore!! Grrr! So annoying to be working on a computer that's only half-working. Nice to be back! (Oh and today's my silly Birthday!! laughing (so Happy Birthday to myself ).

TTTP In Exile / Slightly off-topic (yet again)... Time-Warner has run out of Time ;o)

« on: March 09, 2013, 09:01:22 am »

Welllll in the final undoing of the terrible merger which saw the last incarnation of the mucho-famous Warners Cartoon studio unfairly closed down, (I speak of the unspeakable 2001 purchase of "Time-Warner" by one AOL) it was announced that besides having already spun off (dumped) AOL, now Time-Warner is spinning off the once mighty Time publishing empire itself!

This will have the effect of leaving the surviving "Time-Warner" (why keep THAT name, since it only came about with the 1989 merger?) as a pure entertainment play (just the movie studios, libraries, TV operations, and presumably the comic book empire). A nice name for the entertainment company would be "Warner Bros." or even "Warner Communications".

Have to wonder if NOW they will really re-start (again) the cartoon studio... ? A Turtle's hope springs eternal.

TTTP In Exile / A VERY quick bit about Schlesinger assistanant animators...

« on: February 08, 2013, 02:52:49 am »

Don't know if it'll interest anybody, but just a quick bit of info... Was going through a few Schlesinger-era drawings and as I unmatted a few of them was pleased to discover a few of the assistants initials on their work... Amongst them was a "R.S." (Rod Scribner) from a Hardaway-Dalton epic, an "F.P." (standing for Frank Powers) on the animated trees from "Corny Concerto"!

TTTP In Exile / Slightly off-topic...

« on: January 25, 2013, 07:36:23 am »

Hope everyone here has been doing okay the past few months as a certain Turtle hasn't really been reading the board or up to typing much at all since falling and breaking my front paw a while back... (It appears there were a couple of pm's in my absence).

TTTP In Exile / It's that moldy time of year again... ;)

« on: July 26, 2012, 01:06:22 pm »

Well not that it matters a "whole hill of beans" in this world of ours but it's this goofy Turtle's birthday yet again... Sooooo Happy Birthday to silly me (cash-gifts can be left outside my turtle-shell and of course PayPal accepted!)

TTTP In Exile / Updated and corrected info on Sid Marcus...

« on: July 10, 2012, 09:33:25 am »

Correction and update time about a thread of mine from some months ago... About six or seven months ago in response to a question from someone about the birth and background and even time of death of vintage director/storyman/ animator Sid Marcus, yours-truly created a thread attempting to once-and-for-all answer those questions. I'd long before been stumped and had appealed to ultimate answer-man Mike Barrier, who told me that he and his associate had given up on Marcus as an interviewee. Soooo that was a major blow to research about the guy...

Alright, so making a long story short (well kind of ) this Turtle spent a LOT of time poring through all available public records (the census for all pertinent years, marriage and divorce and death records, OLD articles etc. and came to the tentative conclusion that Sid Marcus had left Los Angeles and had THEORETICALLY commuted back and forth between there and Dallas. To attempt to prove/disprove this thesis I hunted down the only surviving child of the Sid Marcus (of Los Angeles and Dallas) and he confirmed that his father HAD indeed worked in films in Hollywood but was doubtful that he was the animator Sid Marcus, BUT that he would look up old photos of his Dad and send them for comparison... Well, that was 6 months ago and he never made good on his word about the pictures, in the meantime I filed a "Freedom Of Information Request" and got a copy of THAT Sid Marcus' ORIGINAL Social Security registration, and sadly it proved NOTHING as the guy didn't register till in the early 1950's. Tried searching and searching the newly released but un-indexed 1940 census back in April and found nothing. Finally this week cleared up the whole situation (or so this Turtle thinks ) by locating the 1940 Census listing of both the animator/director Sid Marcus AND of another Sid Marcus who has to be the one who worked in movies for a while then years later moved to Texas.

Okay so FOR THE RECORD, "OUR" director/storyman/animator Sid Marcus shows his age in 1940 as 38, so birth in 1901-1902 in New York (and his wife Esther in West Virginia in 1908-1909), will have to try to find more specific dates now that eluded earlier. For comparison, the "other" Sid Marcus of Los Angeles and Dallas (but who also worked in movies) was born in 1908...

It was decided that is was better to simply create this new thread, rather than exhuming and appending onto the old thread as there's a fear that exhuming the old thread will perpetuate my earlier erroneous conclusion since once stuff is posted on the internet it never seems to die unless it is deleted. I have no problem admitting my mistakes, but this one has been sticky to clear up... So hopefully this straightens matters out.

General Discussion / Rest In Peace Andy... Beloved Sheriff of Mayberry goes to his reward...

« on: July 03, 2012, 12:56:02 pm »

Very sad to hear that everyone's most favorite TV lawman Andy Griffith (aka "Andy Taylor" father of Opie) died in his sleep this morning at age 86... This is only a few weeks after the loss of his fellow Mayberry-ite (and friend) "Goober" George Lindsey. Thank you Andy for all the laughs and chuckles during this Turtle's whole lifetime, be sure to give our sometime cartoon-related but much beloved pal Don Knotts ("Pistol-packin' Barney Fife) a big hug. God bless...

[fixed a typo]

TTTP In Exile / Odd question on Mysto Fox...

« on: March 13, 2012, 08:07:14 am »

The bulk of us have probably seen the Columbia Fox and Crow cartoon "Mysto Fox" at some stage (even though it's only extant in black and white). It's notable though for a number of reasons, it's the only Columbia cartoon the Turtle knows of where Bugs Bunny is clearly referenced (in both a quasi-imitation and then a transformation). It's the ONLY Fox and Crow to be lost as a color cartoon. Also it's the final Columbia where Sid Marcus is the credited storyman, after this he disappears and then reappears as a full-fledged director (replacing one of the former directors).

But there's something in this toon that has the Turtle royally puzzled... It's just a little throwaway that appears on the wall in one scene.... namely in a frame on the wall it simply says "Rome 1904". What in the world?!?! IF it said "Rome 1944" it would make great sense in light of WWWII. But it's clearly "1904" I've checked all of the KNOWN people who worked on this cartoon to see if it refers to them and haven't come up with any correlations... Anybody have any insights into this??

General Discussion / A few moments silence for Davy Jones...

« on: March 01, 2012, 03:58:50 am »

Made this Turtle sad late last night to read about the abrupt and untimely passing of onetime (or many-time) Monkee Davy Jones... So here's to Davy Jones, a much-loved star of pop-culture, rock music and comedy...

TTTP In Exile / Steve Muffatti or was that Stephen Muffati?? Orrr.... ;)

« on: February 18, 2012, 08:43:36 pm »

Okay, here's the information the Turtle has assembled about Steve Muffatti... And it's, well, a little peculiar:... It's not exactly easy sleuthing out info on him.

A BIG part of why the guy is hard to research is that he subtly changed the spelling of his name at least a couple of times... Back in the Thirties when he was animating and directing at Van Beuren he seems to have faithfully spelled it as "Muffati" (one "t"), then for whatever reasons it looks like the spelling at Fleischer varies, with at times two "t's" making "Muffatti". THEN when he returned later to Famous he faithfully goes to "Muffati" (one 't' again). Which one was correct?? Will come back to that in a minute...

His CREDITED time at Fleischer was actually pretty brief, and his first stay at Famous seems ummmm misleading. The 1942 COMBINED total of Fleischer and Famous cartoons released with his name on them only totaled 2, and then a lone one slithered out in '43. Sooooo almost certainly those were backlogged back in late 1941 as the Fleischer brothers lost the studio, meaning he left the place about that time also. THEN it gets even weirder. I found the enlistment of one "Stephen P. Muffati" (one 't') dated May 11, 1943 in Dade Co., Fla., but IF this is him then WHERE was he for the previous year and half or so??? The most logical place would be at one of the warplants to slow down the chance of his being drafted, but there's no proof of that readily available.

He indicated to Uncle Sam there that he was born in 1910 and was a "commercial artist" and then mammoth strangeness, it shows him as being 98 inches tall (which is 8 ft. 2 in.) and weighing 111 pounds!!! Obviously both of those numbers (height and weight) are grossly wrong, but are the other particulars wrong as well?!?!. A year earlier back in New York ANOTHER man named Stephen Muffatti registered for the draft, showing his date of birth as Oct. 4, 1881 (and his age as 61) and that he was working in N.Y. (though he moved 3 times according to things crossed out on the form). Now it gets downright peculiar... THIS Stephen Muffatti had a bonafide Social Security registration and IT shows his birth date as Oct. 4, 1880, one year older than his draft registration) and death date of 1968. Whereas the OTHER one (born in 1910) APPEARS to have NEVER registered for Social Security, and so we have no specific birth or death date for him. Compounding the problem is that thus far the Turtle has been unable to find an obituary for either one or both of them to clear up everything, though am still trying.

Backtracking to the 1930 census we find one Stephen Muffatti (two 't's) age 20 (born in N.Y) and living with his mother, and his two brothers and sisters in Connecticut. That birth info of course precisely matches that given on the 1943 enlistment of 'Stephen P. Muffati' down in Dade Co., Fla. What is ONLY shown on the handwritten 1930 census is that it indicates his occupation already was as an artist and cartoonist, so there's NO doubt that this is the right guy. At this point we can only hypothesize where he was working though... Although going back to the Census of 1910 we discover that lo and behold, he already shows there as being 6 months old (this census was taken in April 1910) sooooo it means he was actually born in Oct. 1909 NOT 1910 as the army enlistment shows... Furthermore, the 1930 Census showed his mother as still being married though no sign of husband, interestingly the 1910 one reveals his dad as being named "Steafano" and was 28 years old (meaning birth in 1881) precisely like that "Stephen Muffatti" who registered for the draft in 1942 *and died in 1968...

As mentioned before I've had zero luck finding any precise info on his director/animator's Muffatti's death. ALTHOUGH when checking on obituaries of his siblings (one of whom died in 2000) Stephen was mentioned as already being dead then. The obituary records the Turtle is using don't start till 1977 so he had to have died between the Sixties and 1977. From what I've gleaned, the family spells the name always as "Muffatti", though WHY the '43 army enlistment show the last name as having only one 't' is a mystery. Stephen has/had several NEPHEWS but I've found no indication n of his having children at all or of a widow... One of his nephews (Todd Muffatti) was a fairly famous stage-set designer.

Soooo anywho, Steve Muffatti was born in Oct. 1909 and evidently died sometime before 1977. Somebody go change Imdb and whatever else!!
(IFFFF his obituary ever shows up then the Turtle will be tickled).

TTTP In Exile / Hmmmm... Mutt And Jeff??

« on: February 08, 2012, 09:45:59 pm »

Just curious... Does anyone out there have any of the other Mutt And Jeff cartoons from the final 1925-'26 period besides those few on Ray's DVD of a few years back and the redrawn "Alona Of The South Seas"?? Wonder if they're out there and if ANYONE (Ray, Steve) is planning a release... (research, research, research)

TTTP In Exile / Albuquerque...

« on: January 05, 2012, 07:25:59 pm »

Was gazing upon some old GAC-TTTP threads on the mention of Albuquerque in Warner's cartoons. Now the Turtle is pondering something... Did the gag-mention of said city originate from some RADIO program shtick like "CUCAMONGA" had?? Yowp? Detroiter? Anyone??

TTTP In Exile / Just Pondering...

« on: December 15, 2011, 08:56:00 am »

In all of my Turtlesque researches I've never found an obituary (let alone a contemporary biographical article) on Bill Nolan... Has ANYBODY 'round these parts ever found any such thing?? Jerry?? Yowp??? JLee?? Am wondering if VARIETY or the union magazine had an obituary on the man...

(Since Nolan expired in 1954 then obviously Mike Barrier didn't get a chance to interview him.)

TTTP In Exile / Animators of "A Wild Hare"

« on: December 09, 2011, 08:32:35 am »

Was just sitting and pondering some of the info I have here and about and started to wonder WHICH SCENES the various animation I.D.'ers here (and wherever) DON'T think they can readily identify for a particular animator from what is probably the single-most important cartoon that Warner Bros. ever released, namely Tex Avery's superb 1940 mini-epic of a smart & smart-aleck rabbit and a dumber than snot hunter, "A Wild Hare"...

Before anybody starts, keep this in mind... no matter WHAT Imdb or other sites might say, folks like Rollin Hamilton, Phil Monroe, and almost certainly not Don Williams, did NOT work on it (Paul J. Smith MIGHT'VE barely been there still to animate on it). What IS ALSO sure is that Tex's regular unit was abruptly and partly remade just a few months before "A Wild Hare" started production. With his new (and possibly improved) unit consisting of long-timers Virgil Ross and Sid Sutherland PLUS Charles McKimson and new transferees Rod Scribner and Bob McKimson (who apparently just barely got on board as he has a Jones credit only a few days later). So that makes a group of 6 KNOWN animators on it (if we're counting Paul J. Smith). [Notice how I said "KNOWN animators" ].

And yes indeed it's true that the Turtle makes no claim to even trying to I.D. animators... Sooooo do we have any takers??
Would love to hear whatever you guys DON'T think you can peg to someone...

TTTP In Exile / Alex Ignatiev's obituary...

« on: November 30, 2011, 08:18:46 pm »

Animation designer Alexander Ignatiev: Newspaper Obituary and Death Notice

The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, CA) - October 15, 1995

Deceased Name: Animation designer Alexander Ignatiev

Longtime California artist Alexander T. Ignatiev, 82, who was an animation designer for Walt Disney, Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera, died Thursday of heart disease.

His studio work included animated scenes for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" , Scooby Doo and the Flintstones.

Mr. Ignatiev also was known for his paintings of fishing boats, Victorian-style houses and street people.

"His whole life was art," said Billie Ignatiev, his wife of 38 years. "He couldn't fix anything, but he sure knew his art."

The son of a Czarist general, Alexander Ignatiev was born in Russia in 1913. After escaping to China during the Russian revolution, he and his family immigrated to San Francisco in 1923.

Mr. Ignatiev was awarded a scholarship to Chouinard Art School in Los Angeles. His first job after graduation in 1937 was for Walt Disney.

Artist Bob Singer, a colleague of Mr. Ignatiev's, said: "He was always outgoing and affectionate. He had this way of taking a coffee can, putting a rubber band around it, and playing Strauss waltzes."

A painting by Mr. Ignatiev is on display at the David and Sons Fine Arts gallery in Laguna Beach.

Funeral services for Mr. Ignatiev are private. Arrangements are by Ray Family Mortuary, San Clemente.

He also is survived by two sisters, Marie White and Ludmilla Waters, both of Los Angeles.

Edition: MORNING
Page: b07
Copyright (c) 1995 The Orange County Register

Just thought you'd find Alex's obituary interesting. Pity he never had any children or even step-children... {His wife "Billie" (Beulah) just died in 2007)