Michael Sporn’s Splog is a daily must-read for anyone interested in cartoons, their history and the experiences of a life-long New York independent animator. Today, Michael posts several vintage articles on the old Terrytoons studio based in New Rochelle, NY.

I want to thank Mike for giving me an excuse to post this fun TV commercial from the mid-1950s, below, featuring future Oscar winner Patty Duke playing with a Remco toy Drive-In Movie Theatre — which came complete with Terrytoons:

Here’s a DVD I’ve been waiting to see for over a decade - Beany & Cecil: The Special Edition Vol. 2.

Volume 1 is a must have for all fans of Bob Clampett. It was loaded with bonus material and rare footage we’d been dying to see for decades. Volume 2 promises to be more of the same: 11 classic Beany & Cecil cartoons, remastered from 35mm camera negatives, and several bonus features including rare Time for Beany kinescopes and an alternate version of Beanyland. It’ll be available September 8th from Hen’s Tooth Video.

There’s no debate that animator Irving Spector was, like John Dunn, an under appreciated cartoonist and storyman — working in animation at a time when the finished product didn’t do justice to the talents behind it. Thanks to Spector’s son, Irv’s work is getting some long overdue appreciation in a blog dedicated to his work.

Among the best of the late Paramount output, Chew Chew Baby was produced during a brief period when the studio put some actual effort behind its limited animation. This particular film is one of my favorites, and contains one of Jackson Beck’s (no relation) best performances. It’s also notable as one of the last cartoons to ignore political correctness and feature a pygmy cannibal - as well as one of the last cartoons credited to Isadore Sparber, released a few days before his death in August 1958.

This is also one of the “Harveytoons” not contained in Classic Media’s Complete Harveytoons DVD collection. Mike Van Eaton (of Van Eaton Gallery) recently unearthed a cache of original Spector storyboards from this film (click thumbnails below to enlarge). These drawings are a lot of fun - and this film may be the closest representation of Spector’s design style to make it faithfully to the screen.

Someone posted a bunch of vintage Danish animated commercials for Nilfisk Vacuum Cleaners on You Tube. Check them all out. My favorite is this one.

(Thanks Milton Knight)

This has to be the most trivial post I’ve ever written - and I’ve written some pretty trivial posts - but at least it gives me the chance to once again plug the latest Pixar Little Golden Book tie-in.

Animator Ken Priebe discovered on the first page (center image, click thumbnails below to enlarge) of the Golden Book adaptation of UP, if you look carefully at Carl’s scrapbook, spin it upside down (below right), you can see a microscopic image of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit! Those sly devils at Disney Publishing. Tried to pull a fast one on us, aye? Last year we found an Oswald “cameo” in the Wall-E Little Golden Book. Perhaps this is the beginning of a trend?

Kudos to designer Stuart Smith and illustrators Jean-Paul Orpinas and Scott Tilley. You keep making these books look cool, and I’ll keep buying ‘em!

Three more vintage pieces from TV Guide, presented for your historical reading pleasure. Click thumbnails below to enlarge and read. First up, on the far left below, a color spread on Ward Kimball’s first Tomorrowland episode Man In Space from the March 5th, 1955 issue.

In the center, a review of “TV Cartoons” from the December 30th, 1961 edition. Esteemed critic Gilbert Seldes (The Seven Lively Arts), in the brief space alloted, manages to praise early Disney, Bullwinkle and “a 15-year-old (Paramount) Popeye” - while putting down the use of canned laughter, The Flintstones and Disney realism. A good read.

Finally, on the far right, a page from the February 16th 1963 issue commemorating the birth of Pebbles on The Flintstones.

(Thanks, Stu Shostack)

Fellow animation historian David Gerstein is on a roll.

He’s followed up his discovery of the lost ending to the Bugs Bunny Hare-um Scare-um with an equally intriguing find. He’s just posted on his blog of the existence of several rare Tom & Jerry prints from the 1940s, featuring previously unseen main title art (click thumbnails above for a few samples). You’ll recall that I’ve posted before, on my MGM Cartoon Research page, that the original negatives to MGM cartoons prior to 1952 were destroyed in a studio fire. While duplicate film elements survive, these are from reissue prints. Unfortunately MGM refilmed the opening titles and sometimes removed or changed gags and animation for re-release. In other words, the original visuals for 1940s MGM cartoons only exist in rare nitrate prints. David has posted some choice shots from several of these on his blog. These are images never seen on DVD or Cartoon Network. Click here and enjoy.

Animator and comic book artist Jack Bradbury passed away in 2004. Now his son Joel has launched a tribute website loaded with comic art and animation history. It’s a treasure trove of over 1300 pages of classic comics, odds and ends and a wealth biographical information, shedding new light on working as a freelance comic artist in the 1940s and 50s. I especially love the correspondence between Jack and various comic book editors, discussing the virtues of Hucky Duck, Pansy the Chimp and Angus McSnoot.