Fleischer Studios made arguably the funniest cartoons of the 1920s and ’30s — and they made them, from 1923 through 1938, in studio space leased at 1600 Broadway, the heart of Times Square, in Manhattan.

The original building was demolished several years ago. Its replacement is ready for tenants. It’s now a modern high rise condo. Wanna live where Betty Boop was created? Where Popeye met Sindbad? Wanna sleep where Wiffle Piffle was born? It’s all yours at the new 1600 Broadway.

(Thanks, Anne D. Bernstein)

I’m not one who likes to brag but that’s because I usually don’t have a whole lot to brag about. Things are a little different today though. I’ve just learned that my book Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation has won the Theatre Library Association Award for the best book about film, television and radio in 2006. Previous winners of the award, which has been given out since 1973, comprise a veritable who’s who of film and music historians including Gary Giddins, Neal Gabler, John Canemaker, David Bordwell and Kevin Brownlow. I’m humbled (and somewhat dazed) to be included among such elite company.

I’m especially thrilled because this is only the second time an animation book has won the top prize in the award’s 30-plus year history. The first time was in 1987 when John Canemaker was recognized for Winsor McCay: His Life and Art. (Also worth noting, last year, Daniel Goldmark received a Special Jury Prize for his book Tunes for ‘Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon.)

Cartoon Modern is essentially page after page about some of the most unrecognized and undervalued geniuses of 20th century film art, and it makes me really happy that these artists are being afforded the long overdue recognition they deserve, both from the fine folks who have purchased the book and organizations like the Theatre Library Association who are honoring the book. I’ll be headed to NYC in June for the TLA awards ceremony. I half expect Ashton Kutcher to meet me there and tell me I’ve been punk’d.

Here are the press release details if anybody’s curious:

“Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in Fifties Animation” (Chronicle Books), written by Amid Amidi, has been chosen as the winner of the 2006 Theatre Library Association Award. Established in 1973, the Theatre Library Association Award is given each year to the best English-language book about recorded performance, including motion pictures, television, and radio. Books nominated for the coveted award are judged on the basis of scholarship, readability, and general contribution to the broadening of knowledge.

The Theatre Library Association is a non-profit, educational organization established in 1937 to promote the collection, preservation, and use of theatrical and performing arts materials. Membership includes librarians, scholars, curators, archivists, performers, writers, designers, historians, collectors, and students.

Todd Goldman is a talented artist whose t-shirt/apparel company David and Goliath, Inc. made $90 million in 2004. That’s hardly a surprise considering that his work is popular with everybody from prostitutes to grandmothers to Saudi Arabian women. In fact, the only person who doesn’t like Goldman is Fox News commentator Bernard Goldberg who listed Goldman in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. Life, in general, couldn’t be going better for Goldman except for one slight problem: the Internet.

You see, over the past month, a lot of mean people online have been pointing out how some of Goldman’s work coincidentally looks like existing cartoons, comics and illustrations drawn by other artists. The differences between Goldman’s work and other artists are night and day but that hasn’t stopped evil Web people from harassing poor Goldman. Frankly, I’m disappointed with websites like BoingBoing, Slashdot,, Digg, MikeTyndall.com, and The Comics Journal who are disparaging the fine artistry of Goldman. Those awful folks at SomethingAwful have even posted a 110-page thread documenting these supposed similarities.

Seriously, can Goldman help if he made—totally by coincidence—a drawing that looks like a famous Disney character down to the pose, and then he put the Disney character’s name on it, and then he mass-produced the t-shirt and made lots of money selling it at retail stores and on his website. Fortunately, I know the lawyers at Disney are big-hearted and understanding; I mean which one of us hasn’t occasionally drawn a cartoon that looks like a famous Disney character and then mass-produced those drawings as merchandise.

And then, some other lame people online have been claiming that one of Goldman’s t-shirts looks like a character that illustrator Chip Wass designed for an animated commercial for Intel. These people, however, completely ignored the fact that Goldman’s character has stitches on its face and says “Bad Ass” beneath it. Apparently, 20/20 vision is not a prerequisite for critiquing artwork online.

Of course, what really bothers me is when well-known comic artists like Roman Dirge start claiming that the honorable Mr. Goldman is plagiarizing their work based on tenuous evidence. Compare Dirge’s design to Goldman’s design and just look at the eyes. Completely different characters if you ask me.

In fact, I spent most of last night designing my own new cartoon character. I call him Rugs Rabbit. Let’s just hope the Internet hounds don’t jump on my back like they have on Mr. Goldman’s and try to claim this completely original character is based on something else.

Fortunately, Todd Goldman isn’t taking this lying down. His lawyers have been defending his integrity by sending take-down notices to everybody, including Wired Magazine and Juxtapoz Magazine, who has dared point out these coincidences (or not-even-being-close-to-coincidences, as I prefer to call them). And a few weeks ago, Goldman himself set the record straight when he told the Las Vegas Sun what was really going on: “This is just a bunch of hater artists trying to take me down. I’m not an online Web guy. I’m not trying to rip people off. I work with a team of artists at David & Goliath. We create thousands of designs.”

Bottomline, here’s my advice to the online community: stop being a “bunch of hater artists” and let Mr. Goldman make his $90 million a year so he can defend himself from all your virulent online attacks.

I like Shag, but I hope this documenatry is better than its trailer:

The LA Times Festival of Books (4/28-29) is such a huge event - the Comic Con International of book fairs, if you will - that it cannot be held in any convention center or contained space. It takes over the campus of of UCLA and overwhelms it. If you love books of any type, on any subject, there is something here for you. Even for us animation fans and historians.

Mike Barrier (The Animated Man) will be a panelist on Biography: Icons on the Page which will take place at 10:30am on Saturday at Rolfe Hall (room 1200). Barrier will be around to sign books and chat afterward. Leonard Maltin will be signing books on Saturday at 12 noon at Dutton’s Brentwood Books booth #336. Neal Gabler, the author of the other recent Disney biography, will be a member of another panel of biographers, Biography: 20th Century Lives, at 3:30pm Saturday afternoon in Haines Hall (room 39). Charles Solomon will be on the panel Biography: Remarkable Lives on Sunday morning at 10:30am at Young Hall (room CS 24).

Most major book companies as well as small press and independent publishers, and book stores & major chains, have large booths selling back stock at discount prices (be sure to stop by the Chronicle Books booths #367, 804 and 901 for some great deals on their animation titles). Many big name real world celebrities—from Kirk Douglas and Elizabeth Taylor to Ray Bradbury appear on panels or do book signings. And it’s all free. For more information click here.

Here’s the reminder: yours truly, Jerry Beck, will appear on a live Internet radio chat today at 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific. I will be joined by animation historian-voice actor Keith Scott and pop-culture addict/host Stuart Shostack on Stu’s Show, which can be heard on Shokus Internet Radio. Together Stu, Keith and I will discuss classic cartoons, animation dvds, cartoon voice acting, Jay Ward, Popeye, and anything you want (call in toll-free!). Stu’s Show is only available to hear via live streaming audio during broadcast; it’s not archived for downloading later. So if you want to hear the two hour show, you’ll have to tune in today at 4pm Pacific Time (7pm Eastern). Click here and enjoy!

Update: The show I recorded live today will be rebroadcast at 7pm EST/4pm PST, each day for the next seven days. Tune in!

If I were in Boston this weekend, there’s no question what I’d be attending: the Visual Music Marathon at Northeastern University. This FREE event on Saturday, April 28, is a 12-hour(!) marathon screening of musically-themed abstract and experimental animation. The screening, which is happening as part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival, will include 64 contemporary films, chosen from over 300 submissions. Additionally, one of the hours will be devoted to live video performances, a couple other hours are curated programs by Larry Cuba of the Iota Center and Bruce Wands of the School of Visual Arts, and yet another hour is for historic “visual music” films by the likes of Oskar Fischinger, Len Lye, Hans Richter and Norman McLaren (his Begone Dull Care is the image above). It all takes place at the Egan Research Center (120 Forsyth Street, Boston, MA) at Northeastern University. A complete schedule can be found at the Visual Music Marathon website.

Tomorrow, April 26th, at 8pm is the opening of the art show “Music of Hickee Mountain” at Red Bird Studios (135 Avenue Van Horne, Montreal, QC). Many of the cartoonists and comic artists who comprise the Hickee collective also work in the animation industry at studios like LucasArts and Laika. The exhibiting nartists are Graham Annable, Scott Campbell, Razmig Marlian, Nathan Stapley, Joe White, Vamberto Maduro and Paul Brown. More artwork and details at the Hickee blog.