NY Dispatch #2

The New York trip continues at breakneck pace. In fact, there’s so much left to do that I’ve extended my stay in NY for another week. Here are a few of the highlights from the past few days. Had lunch with John Canemaker and got a tour of the NYU animation facilities, which is a nicer set-up than many studios I’ve seen in LA. Hooked up with Dan Nadel and Peter Buchanan-Smith who run the design firm PictureBox, Inc. I’m hoping they’ll handle the design for my Fifties animation design book, but that still remains to be seen. Attended the “Roast of Bill Plympton” at Caroline’s Comedy Club. It was an entertaining affair with his friends insulting him live on-stage interspersed with clips from his films. Roasters included Signe Baumane, Martha Plimpton and Dan Piraro. The highlight of the evening was John Dilworth’s hilarious play-by-play commentary of Plympton’s Oscar-nominated short YOUR FACE. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch that film again without Dilworth’s interpretation in mind. On top of all this, I’ve been interviewing many terrific folks from the Fifties animation scene, including so far Dolores and George Cannata (sister and brother designers/directors; their father was legendary Felix animator George Cannata Sr.), Larry Pomerance and Ed Smith. Tomorrow, a trip to upstate New York to meet director/designer Ray Favata. Among other things, he was the director of DEPTH STUDY, the great 1957 Terrytoons industrial film for CBS Television. More to report later.