Walter Lantz

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Walter Lantz, photo from 1983
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Walter Benjamin Lantz (born April 27, 1899 in New Rochelle , New York , † March 22, 1994 in Burbank , California ) was an American illustrator, director and producer of animated films . Lantz operational from 1929 to 1972 his own animation studio, among his most famous cartoon characters is one of Woody Woodpecker .

biography

Beginnings

Walter Lantz was born into an Italian immigrant family. His father, Francesco Paolo Lanza, received the new family name from an immigration officer on his arrival in the United States. Walter was artistically gifted from an early age, so he completed a drawing course as distance learning at the age of twelve . The early animated films like Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur fueled his interest in comics and cartoons.

Lantz was working as an auto mechanic in a workshop when a customer named Fred Kafka saw his sketches on the workshop notice board. Kafka recognized Lantz's talent, funded him to study at the Art Students League of New York and got him a job as a newspaper delivery boy. In 1915, Walter Lantz first worked on an animation film under the direction of Gregory La Cava for William Randolph Hearst's animation department. His first work as a draftsman included episodes of the short-lived cartoon version of Katzenjammer Kids . In 1919 Lantz moved to John R. Bray's studio. There he quickly rose to director after Max Fleischer left and created his first cartoon series, Dinky Doodle , in 1924 . Lantz himself appeared in these early animated films and interacted with the cartoon characters.

When Bray went bankrupt in 1927, Lantz went to Hollywood . There he worked briefly as a gag author for Mack Sennett . In 1928 he was hired by Charles Mintz , the director of the Winkler Studios. Mintz owned the rights to that of Walt Disney developed cartoon series Oswald the Lucky Rabbit ( Oswald the Lucky Rabbit ) and sought new animators for the continuation of the series. Lantz worked at Winkler Pictures with cartoonists such as Friz Freleng , Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising , who later worked successfully for Warner Brothers on the development of the Looney Tunes films . Universal Studios , which distributed the Oswald cartoons, were unsatisfied with the quality of the cartoons. Universal President Carl Laemmle therefore canceled his contract with Mintz and decided to set up his own animation studio directly with Universal. Lantz was appointed head of this studio.

Walter Lantz Productions

Walter Lantz behind pictures with Woody Woodpecker (1990)

Since Harman and Ising were not taken over by Laemmle, Walter Lantz had to look for a replacement. He managed to hire Bill Nolan, who was previously responsible for the sleeker and more modern look of Felix the Cat . With him, Walter Lantz published his first cartoon, Race Riot, on September 2, 1929 . Lantz was here for the first time a producer, director and draftsman in one person. In 1930 Lantz hired Tex Avery , Clyde Geronimi and Pinto Colvig as draftsmen, but they soon left the studio. For the music film King of Jazz with band leader Paul Whiteman in the lead role, Lantz produced an animated sequence that was the first in film history to be recorded using the Technicolor method.

The rabbit Oswald remained the star of Walter Lantz Productions , but Lantz continuously tried to develop new characters. In 1932 he produced the first Pooch the Pup cartoon, but the series was discontinued after a year. From 1935 to 1937 films were produced with the chimpanzees Meany, Miny and Moe , whose characters were based on The Three Stooges . At the same time, Lantz developed cartoons from 1934, in which stories similar to Disney's Silly Symphonies were told without recurring characters. The first series, the Cartune Classics , was recorded by Technicolor using the 2-color printing process. Since Lantz could not compete with Disney's color films, the Cartune Classics were discontinued a year later.

When Carl Laemmle had to relinquish the management of Universal in 1935, Lantz took the opportunity to become independent with the animation studio. The cartoons continued to be distributed by Universal. Since the stories about Oswald did not develop any further, Lantz and his staff looked for a suitable replacement, but initially without success. In 1938 the Oswald series ran out, initially only cartoons from the New Universal Cartoon series without recurring characters were published. Other employees increasingly took over the direction, Lantz concentrated on the production of the films and the organization of the studio. In September 1939, Lantz finally found an adequate successor for Oswald in the panda bear Andy Panda . Life Begins for Andy Panda was also one of the first Lantz cartoons to be released by Technicolor using the 3-color process. With Andy Panda, Lantz was able to build on the success of the early 1930s. Despite this, Walter Lantz Productions ran into financial difficulties due to the increased production costs, and in early 1940 the studio had to close for a short time. Lantz quickly agreed on a new contract with Universal, in which he even received all exploitation rights to the characters he had developed.

A short time later, the hyperactive great spotted woodpecker Woody Woodpecker made his debut in the Andy-Panda cartoon Knock Knock . Woody Woodpecker became Lantz's greatest hit. Lantz is said to have had the idea during his honeymoon with actress Grace Stafford . Woody's distinctive voice was voiced by Mel Blanc in the first three films . But when he moved to Warner Brothers, gag author Ben Hardaway had to step in. Lantz continued to use Blanc's inimitable laugh for Woody, which led to a legal battle between Blanc and Lantz in the late 1940s when The Woody Woodpecker Song, written for the cartoon Wet Blanket Policy , was nominated for a big hit and an Oscar for best song has been. Blanc lost in court, but Lantz reached an out-of-court settlement with Mel Blanc and began looking for a new voice for Woody Woodpecker. In the early 1950s, Lantz's wife Gracie secretly screened screenings and was actually hired as the new voice of Woody Woodpecker. She remained Woody's voice until the 1980s, initially unnamed because she was afraid she would disappoint the children if Woody were played by a woman.

At the end of the 1940s, Walter Lantz went through his greatest professional crisis. After the contract with Universal had expired in 1947, Universal insisted on receiving the exploitation and licensing rights to Lantz 'figures again if sales continued. He then ended the collaboration and won United Artists as the new distributor of his cartoons. But only twelve films were produced for United Artists; financial problems forced Lantz to close the studio in 1949. In 1950 Lantz was able to resume operations through minor commissioned work, but it wasn't until 1951 that he agreed on a new partnership with Universal. Universal initially only commissioned seven Woody-Woodpecker cartoons, but since the first films were already a great success, more films were soon ordered. Although the cartoons never reached the artistic level or humor of the Disney films or the Looney Tunes cartoons, they were a lucrative source of income for both Lantz and Universal.

The late years

After starting over with Universal, Lantz initially focused on audience favorite Woody Woodpecker. Andy Panda did not return to the big screen, instead a little penguin named Chilly Willy made his first appearance in late 1953 . Chilly Willy became the second star alongside Woody Woodpecker. The popularity of Chilly Willy contributed to the fact that Tex Avery gave a brief guest appearance with Walter Lantz at the end of his career and directed two of the earlier Chilly Willy films.

In 1957, Lantz followed Disney's example and produced the television series The Woody Woodpecker Show for ABC television . In this series not only older cartoons were shown, but Walter Lantz himself also appeared in front of the camera and explained in short films how cartoons are made. The series initially ran for a year on ABC and was then repeated on local television stations until the late 1960s.

Despite the increasing competition from television, Lantz produced new short films exclusively for the cinema program. Lantz also continued to introduce new characters, either as an opponent for Woody Woodpecker or as a star in his own, mostly short-lived cartoon series. The last successful series started in 1962 with the Beary Family , directed by Jack Hannah . In the early 1970s, Walter Lantz was the last significant producer of cartoons for the cinema. Of the animation studios of the 1930s, in addition to Lantz, only Walt Disney Productions was active, although they concentrated on feature films. In 1972 Walter Lantz closed his studio. Bye, Bye Blackboard with Woody Woodpecker was the last Walter Lantz Productions film . In total, Walter Lantz had produced more than 800 cartoons since 1935.

As the owner of the rights to the cartoons and characters, Lantz remained active in retirement. He supervised the evaluation of his films on television and the marketing of the characters on merchandising products. In 1979 Lantz was awarded an honorary Oscar . As a producer, Lantz was nominated ten times for an Oscar for best animated short film, without ever having won one.

In 1984 Walter Lantz sold his rights to MCA , the owner of Universal. In 1993 he donated an animator scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts . On March 22, 1994, Walter Lantz died of heart failure at the age of 94 at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California.

Awards

  • 1973: The International Animated Film Society gives Walter Lantz the Winsor McCay Award for Lifetime Achievement.
  • 1979: Awarded an honorary Oscar to Walter Lantz for "the joy and laughter that he brought all over the world with his unique cartoons".
  • 1986: Walter Lantz is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Filmography (selection)

Publications

  • Walter Lantz: Walter Lantz new funnies. A Dell comic . Dell Publ., New York (USA) 1949-1949. (Journal; post-weighted year)
  • Walter Lantz: Character Animated Film Classic, No. 39; Woody Woodpecker . Bildschriftenverl., Aachen 1968. (German translation from English)
  • Walter Lantz: Large comic album, No. 2; Widdi Hupf, Widdi Hupf is riding again . Bildschriften-Verl., Aachen 1970. (German translation from English)
  • Woody Woodpecker, the fireworks . Authoris. Ed., Whitman, Frankfurt am Main 1970. (German translation from English; pictures by Walter-Lantz-Studio)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lantz himself related this experience, which is said to have taken place in 1941 (cf. obituary of the Los Angeles Times from 1994 ). Knock Knock was published in 1940.
  2. ^ William Moritz: The 'Golden Age' of American Animation ; in The Oxford History of World Cinema , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996.
  3. ↑ Michael Irwin: Walter Lantz is the Only Pioneer Still Producing Cartoon Shorts for Theaters , in Films in Review 1971, Vol. XXII, Iss. 4, p. 211.
  4. ↑ Official reason: "To Walter Lantz for bringing joy and laughter to every part of the world through his unique animated motion pictures.", AMPAS database  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective . Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / awardsdatabase.oscars.org  

literature

  • Joe Adamson: The Walter Lantz story, with Woody Woodpecker and friends . GP Putnam's Sons, New York (USA) 1985, ISBN 0-399-13096-9 . (English)
  • Leonard Maltin : The classic American cartoon . New edition, Heyne Verlag, Munich 1992 (= Heyne books, 32; Heyne film and television library, 42), ISBN 3-453-86042-X . (German translation; English original title: Of mice and magic )
  • Jeff Lenburg: Who's who in animated cartoons. An international guide to film and television's award-winning and legendary animators . Applause Theater & Cinema Books, New York (USA) 2006, ISBN 1-55783-671-X . (English)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lantz, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lantz, Walter Benjamin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American animator
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH New Rochelle
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1994
Place of death Burbank