weatherman3.jpg

Soundac was the Miami Florida animation studio that did commercials, station IDs, and most famously, the first color cartoon for TV (beating out Hanna Barbera’s Ruff and Reddy by a few months), Colonel Bleep. Creative head Jack Schleh was the main artist and director of the studio, and the same year he was immersed in work on Bleep (1956-57), another job came into the shop: Weather Man.

Fran Noack was the studio’s top character designer and he, with staff artist Hal Lockwood, animated these incredibly cool, ’50s modern Weather Man spots which were sold to local news broadcasts around the country. Check them out. Each one is visually clever, with great graphics and cool lettering (and you gotta love that weathervane headpiece!).

(Thanks, Bedazzled!)

Jerry Beck