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Wanna buy Bob Clampett’s studio?
January 7, 2008 12:05 am
The ultimate Looney Tunes collectible, the historic Bob Clampett studio on Seward Street in Hollywood, is for sale. I don’t know the whole history of the building, but in addition to being the home base for the animated Beany & Cecil show, it’s where Klasky Csupo got its start, the Tracey Ullman Show Simpson’s bumpers were created and first episodes of The Simpsons produced. Several post production companies have used the space over the years, and daughter Ruth is currently running Clampett Studio Collections on the second floor. And it’s where Bob had his incredible memorabilia-filled office, where he welcomed fans like me in to chat about the great Warner Bros. cartoons of the ’30s and ’40s. The building has been the family for over 40 years and holds many great memories. I hope it ends up in good hands. |
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Good heavens, everyone has used this space! At least as far back as 1932, J. Stuart Blackton was based there, a lot of development work was done on Bambi, Screen Gems, Klasky, Clampett — the list goes on and on…. Just imagine the people who have walked through the front door!
oh, yes…i pray to GOD that it “lands in good hands!”
I use to visit the Clampett studio back in the sixties. Yep, I drove all the way from Disney in Burbank because Bob’s studio was such a wonderful, wild, wacky place. It was everything a cartoon studio was suppose to be.
I was dating a hot babe who worked there, but that’s another story.
Wish I could buy it. I tried buying the old Fleischer 1600 Broadway building before it was torn down but the realtor wouldn’t except $50 down & $25 a month, which I’m assuming is the case with the Clampett building.
Hey, Joe Campana, that’s amazing history! I didn’t know so much animation history had passed through those doors.
The Clampett building was also once a car dealership, back in the 1920’s or even earlier, which explains those narrow, cast iron vertical doors in the back that once opened into what was the automotive showroom. That property, as Joe Campana mentions, served as a portal for many, many talented people over the years. In the world of today’s Hollywood realty, it should fetch a staggering price.
Didn’t Walter Lantz spend his last years in the business in a Seward Street building? What was that address?
That place should be a museum, but I’d rather a working animation studio buy it and keep it in the family, so to speak.
Is that studio across from the WB cartoon building where Clampett made his stop motion footage in the 30s?
let’s hear more about Floyd’s hot babe!
I used to work on Seward Street at Roto Effects of America, next door to Klasky Csupo. On breaks I would sometimes visit David Silverman and Wes Archer when they were working on the infant Simpsons shorts. I had no idea that it used to be Clampett’s studio. I wish I had taken some pictures.
“I hope it ends up in good hands.”
Paging LA Fitness!
“Okay ladies! Now squash and stretch, squash and stretch! Alright, now just keep doing that 24 times a second!”
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Richard+Simmons+and+Jamie+Jacobs&sitesearch=
Watch top video only. :-()
Could’ve been worse, the building would be owned by some company that manufactures heating, conditioning and/or exhaust systems like the type of buildings I’ve seen gone to that level around town. My sis already works in that sort of biz.
Man, I too hope it ends up in good hands…
729 Seward was like a magical address for me after I got to know Bob in the mid ’70s. That return address always meant a letter, card or cool Beany & Cecil merchandise had arrived from a guy whose body of work was a huge influence on me as a cartoonist, and whom (as well as Sody) I was really proud to know.
I finally got to visit it in person after Bob had died, when Jay lynch & I were in L.A. from Chicago, and I was thrilled to be in Bob’s office (which was kept “as is”) amongst all that history…I was really floored to see (while scrutinising/drooling over all the memorabilia) a caricature I’d done of Bob on one of the shelves, right next to an “ENGEL & FIALA’S FANDOM FOLLIES” button from the SD Con…Bob was really supportive of young cartoonists…the highlight of the visit was Sody letting me pose for a picture holding that historic Bugs maquette seen in old photos of Clampett’s WB unit…Sody also introduced Jay Lynch & I to some new tenant friends who happened to be Klasky & Csupo.
I dropped in one other time when I was in town briefly, and Ruth showed me some “TIME FOR BEANY” props (and a big “LEAKIN’ LENA”) that had just been returned to the studio from an exhibit somewhere…gosh, that place just oozed history…this is sad.
Well, it looks like John K. has found his new shrine.
Somebody in the area MUST take pictures of the interior! Just too much history there to be committed to dust and memories. I hope some of this history will be preserved at ASIFA.
What a shame that the Registry of Historical Buildings won’t get involved in preserving the Clampett studio the way they did for the Hanna-Barbe…oh, wait, they didn’t.
To Michael J. Hayde: The Walter Lantz Studio stood a few blocks north of the Clampett building on Seward Street. Lantz closed it down in the late 1970’s for good and, word has it, Friz Freleng purchased the handful of beautiful, custom-built, late 1940’s art deco animation desks Lantz had inside the structure. Freleng knew how well built that furniture was and quickly snapped it up before it would’ve been tossed. What became of those desks after that point remains a mystery.
I remember going there for Christmas… Bob Clampett would wear a Santa outfit and hand out us kids stockings full of goodies… then we would watch cartoons… cool!
My dad, Homer Jonas, worked there at Snowball… I have to guess that “Go Van Gogh” had to be the perfect thing for him to work on, or “No Bikini Atoll”….
Unfortunately I have very little Beany and Cecil artwork, just some titles, and most of those are ozalids (sp?)…
My late associate, Brian King had his post facility in that building at one time. He had an original BEANY AND CECIL cel personally autographed as “To Brian, King of the Cutters, from Bob Clampett.”
Where’s the BOB CLAMPETT neon sign in the window upstairs?
To clarify about the Seward Street building:
The Bob Clampett studio is historic in it’s own right because it was home to Bob Clampett Productions. However , I think the building a lot of people are referring to when they talk about “Seward Street” is the building located at 861 Seward St. I read about this building which was home to several animation studios over the years in Martha Sigall’s book ” Living Life Inside the Lines: Tales of the Golden Age of Animation” . In the book on page 225 she has a couple of photos of the 861 Seward St. building and mentions a few of the occupants of that building over the years:
Harman & Ising , then Walt Disney’s “Bambi” unit (1939 – 1941) , next Columbia Screen Gems cartoon unit (40’s) , finally the Walter Lantz studio . Martha Sigall also mentions that Lantz rented space in the building to various animation companies , such as Abe Levitow’s commercial unit.
If there was ever a time John K. needed a new studio, this would be it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, HOOOLD on a second…..you mean David Silverman did his first drawings of The Simpsons….in BOB CLAMPETT’S STUDIO??????????????!!!!!!!!!
Well…..that explains EVERYTHING, doesn’t it? Clearly there’s some kind of magic wacky dust in that place. You walk in a bored slave to the formulaic crap you’ve been forced to animate for years and walk out the most distinctive and talented director/animator of your time. Whaddya know, eh?
I’ve got an autographed Bugs Beany and Cecil (11×17) poster from the 70’s from Bob Clampett and an official Bob Clampett business card. Anybody know what these are worth?
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?filter=nf#!/photo.php?pid=4086024&id=608241471
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?filter=nf#!/photo.php?pid=4086025&id=608241471&fbid=308159226471