"The Mouse On 57th Street" Backgrounds

I was rewacthing Chuck Jones' "The Mouse On 57th Street" recently and was drawn (no pun intended) to the backgrounds. Great use of perspective, particularly for the scenes that focused on the mouse. Lots of upshots emphasizing how big the city is compared to our little drunken mouse friend. Layouts were done by Owen Fitzgerald and Maurice Noble and painted by Phil DeGuard. I assume Fitzgerald mostly did character layout. A few poses throughout the short reminded me of his posing in his Bob Hope comics. Though I have nothing docmenting that as a fact. I find this to be one of the more enjoyable of Jones' later Warner Bros. shorts.

    

Tom Ford Painting For Sale

I was asked if I could possibly help sell a background painting that was by Tom Ford, who was a background painter at Famous Studios. I don't know much else about Ford's career but if anyone knows anything please feel free to share it here. I'm not sure what cartoon it's from but Linda sent me a few shots of it and if you're interested just email me and I'll pass along your info to her.

Art Lozzi

I was watching some Yogi shorts last week that Art Lozzi had painted backgrounds for and noticed that even though different layout artists, Tony Rivera and Ernest Nordli, worked on the shorts the backgrounds were very similar in design. Below are some examples. This got me wondering how much leeway the background artist had when painting the backgrounds. I asked Art this very question and he was kind enough (as always) to respond. Here' what Art had to say.

Hey Kevin,

Great hearing from you, nice to close the gap.
It's a steady amazement to me that you, John K and others are still interested in backgrounds that I painted more than 45 years ago. Yes, I recognize the ones you attached, and swift memories shot by. I'll try to explain the routine.
Keep in mind that Hanna and Barbera was still a new company then. There were the old-timers from MGM who worked very close to eachother and followed strict patterns: layouts, and then backgrounds (usually Bob Gentle and what's-her-name who married Ollie Hanson, -Vera Ohman). The style was established and classic and Monte went in a gave them a hand occasionally.
At the new H-B studio there was not enough time to draw and redraw the layouts. They were being done fast, and by a lot of guys, to get it all done in time. It was a grind. I liked it because we -Monte and I- were given a wide leeway as to style. This is where I began using and developing my own. ..esp with the Flintstones, etc.
I still like the Yogi ones you sent me. Thanks.

Here in Greece, they don't show the HB cartoons. I have seen only about a dozen since I've lived here. They don't even know who Yogi Bear is. So I've been totally out of the picture and in the dark.
The answer to your question is Yes, I was able to exert more control -practically total- over the backgrounds, etc. The layout guys did not establish or instist on a particular style. They more or less sketched what had to be shown... fast, fast, fast... and left the rest up to us. Thank God for Ed Benedict however, who set the first Flintstones styles. Me, I stuck to it more or less. Great stuff, and great person. But the colors and painting techniques were mine.



Also, here's one of the shorts I was watching, "A Wooin' Bruin".

A Wooin' Bruin

Uploaded by klangley

Famous Studios Backgrounds-Robert Little

Here's some screen grabs of Robert Little's backgrounds from various cartoons. I know nothing about him, but his backgrounds in a lot of the Casper shorts make them worth watching. I love the backgrounds he did in the Little Lulu short "Cad and Caddy".

Little Audrey-"Song Of The Birds" (1949) Check out more screen shots here.

Little Audrey-"Tarts and Flowers" (1950)

Casper-"Too Boo Or Not to Boo" (1951)

Baby Huey-"One Quack Mind" (1951)

Casper-"Spunky Skunky" (1952)

Caper-"Boo Moon" (1954)

Little Audrey-"The Seapreme Court" (1954)

Herman and Katnip-"Rail Rodents" (1954)

Herman and Katnip-"Cat In The Act" (1957)

Casper-"Hooky Spooky" (1957)

Casper-"Ice Scream" (1957)

Noveltoon-"The Animal Fair" (1959)