A Jay Ward Christmas

Jay Ward and Bill Scott sent out unusual Christmas cards and gifts to employees, freelancers and clients (see last year's post here) but perhaps the most unusual Christmas gift they ever gave was to director Ted Parmelee to commemorate his contributions to the success of the first year of Rocky and His Friends.  Since Bullwinkle the moose figured prominently in the series, the duo had delivered to Parmelee's home a full-sized stuffed moose head. 

Parmelee responded by bombarding Ward and Scott with a series of over a dozen gag cartoons riffing on the gift.  The above cartoon was included in The Art of Jay Ward Productions but space and content considerations prohibited including any more.  So, because the moose head was a Christmas present and we're in the Christmas season, here are many of those cartoons revealing not only Parmelee's sense of humor about his gift but also his confident, calligraphic drawing style.  Incidentally, the stuffed head hung in the Parmelee household for years afterwards.

 

The moose head was driven through Hollywood in a small sports car on it's way to Ted Parmelee's house.

One of Ted's passions was sailing.

Life at the Jay Ward studio, as seen by Bill Scott, part 1

With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to view the Ward studio as an animation success story, of the little studio that came from nowhere and succeeded, almost as if it were preordained.  But appearances can be deceiving and after all my interviews, research and combing through file after ancient file, the most revealing insight to the history of the Jay Ward studio came from a sheaf of gag cartoons drawn on legal pads and animation paper by Bill Scott, the producer, head writer and voice of so many of Jay Ward's cartoon shows.

In those drawings were Scott's wry observations of life in a struggling animation studio; commentary on agency perfidy, holding onto talent, the frustrations of producing a show across cultural and linguistic barriers and even whether or not the studio would survive.   Those cartoons are unguarded moments, meant to be shared only with Jay Ward; none of those emotions ever surfaced in any interview I found.  Press interviews of the time were often filled with bravado, with Jay and Bill taking on either the ABC or NBC networks while later interviews, after success was achieved, seemed to focus primarily on the shows themselves.

For those who are new here or who haven't read my book, The Art of Jay Ward Productions, most of the animation on Rocky & His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show was produced by a studio in Mexico City inexperienced in TV series production and at a fraction of the cost of shows by competitor Hanna-Barbera.  It was a situation forced on Jay and Bill by the sponsor's agency, Dancer-Fitzgerald-Samples, and it was perpetual source of aggravation for them.

Although the duo had low expectations given all that they were saddled with, even those expectations appeared to be overly optimistic.  Shows came back riddled with the kinds of errors that never should have left the production facility--characters missing body parts, painted the wrong color, walking on a ground plane different from the background, etc.  And then there was the matter of animation being executed by people who had never animated before.  Bill Scott, who had come up through the ranks of classic animation, was mortified by what he saw.

 

Next week, Bill Scott attempts to explain what happened behind the scenes at the Mexican studio.

Christmas with Jay Ward

Six months out from Christmas seems as good a time as any to talk about the holiday, maybe even better since it's easier to focus on Christmas without the Christmas rush.  As seen in many of my previous posts, Jay Ward had a keen sense of self-promotion and Christmas provided yet another opportunity for Jay Ward to showcase his sense of humor.  Each year a different artist was tapped to create the holiday greeting and each chose a different format.  Some of these images are featured in The Art of Jay Ward Productions but some of them didn't make the cut, mostly because of space issues.  First up, Sam Clayberger, who did three different versions for a Christmas card, Jay chose two of them to produce as 18 x 24" posters:

 

Jay Ward caricatured as the "Jay Bird"

Perhaps too dark to be made into a Christmas card...

Allan Burns took a shot at one:

Shirley Silvey also did a Christmas card (that was also a Christmas ornament) which promoted upcoming shows, including some that were never produced:

New shows included Watt's Gnu?, Simpson & Delany and Hoppity Hooper

The artist for this Christmas songbook is unknown but clearly the counterculture had taken over Hollywood:

Fractured Flickers

 As his production slate grew, Jay Ward redeployed Allan Burns and George Atkins from promoting The Bullwinkle Show to other productions, including the barely remembered show featuring overdubbed silent films, Fractured Flickers.

 Although both Burns and Atkins wrote for the series they also contributed to promoting it.  Chapter 9 in my book, The Art of Jay Ward Productions, features art that went into the making of the animated opening titles and end credits for this show. Today I feature some of the material generated to promote the series:

Decals and letterhead art by Sam Clayberger, other art by Allan Burns.

Moosylvania and the campaign for the 52nd state

Rather than presenting a key to the state of Moosylvania, Jay Ward presents a lock.

As a key part of their campaign, Jay Ward and his publicist, Howard Brandy, concocted a tour of the US, driving cross country to gather signatures on their petition to grant statehood to Moosylvania with the intention of presenting the scroll of thousands of signatures to President Kennedy.  Unfortunately for the duo, they arrived at the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis and were unceremoniously turned away, receiving little or no publicity whatsoever for their efforts.

To make the tour, Jay decided that they should have their own vehicle in which to call attention to their campaign.  He gave artist Sam Clayberger a blank check to go buy a Ford Econoline van.  Sam was then asked to design the exterior and later execute that design.  Here are four of his concepts:

As you can see from the photo below, Jay chose the gaudiest, most attention-getting design, the one on the lower right.

And here are some shots of Jay Ward and Howard Brandy from the tour:

Barely visible behind the van, (I know, who's looking at the van?) is a steam-powered calliope that was carried in the rear of the van and which was deployed to announce the arrival of the campaign.

Moosylvania, the 52nd state

In 1959, Alaska and Hawaii had been just been welcomed into the United States, a mere two years before the debut of The Bullwinkle Show, and the country seemed to be on a roll for admitting new states.  Continuing the effort to gain recognition for The Bullwinkle Show, George Atkins and Allan Burns came up with a campaign to keep the ball rolling and admit the fictional state of Moosylvania as the 52nd state.  (Bonus points if anyone can name the 51st state and triple bonus points if anyone can name all 57 states that the 44th President claimed were part of the Union.)  To give weight to the campaign, an island between Minnesota and Canada was leased as Moosylvania for several years; Moosylvania was also later incorporated into a story line on The Bullwinkle Show.  You can read more about the campaign and "state" in Keith Scott's seminal history of Jay Ward, The Moose That Roared.

Atkins and Burns came up with a promotional brochure to educate US leaders and the populace as to the benefits of admitting Moosylvania, including a map of the proposed state:

Once you were convinced of the merits of statehood, you could become a member of the Moosylvania Swamp Rat Patrol:

There's a good chance that your materials could have come in either one of these envelopes:

Once you were on board, you could march in support of statehood:

Wear a badge trumpeting your support of the new state:

 

 

 Put a decal on your car or dorm room window:

Sing songs from the Moosylvania songbook:

Or listen to the music from A Salute to Moosylvania:

For those so inclined, you can hear the album here.  The site suggests that Allan Burns wrote the liner notes but because George Atkins was the writer of record for all the other promotions, it's more likely that the notes were his work with art by Burns.

All art by Allan Burns except for the two envelopes, badge and decal which were done by Sam Clayberger.  It's clear that working on the campaign for Statehood for Moosylvania must have been good for one's health as both artists are still with us today.

Rocky and Bullwinkle shill for the US Treasury

The advertising agency behind General Mills' decision to sponsor the Rocky and Bullwinkle shows, Dancer-Fitzgerald-Samples, worked out a deal with the US Treasury to use the Jay Ward characters in a campaign to promote US Savings Bonds*.  Timed to coincide with the premiere of The Bullwinkle Show in September of 1961 was the Hollywood-produced short, Rocky and Bullwinkle Savings Stamp Club, promoting US Savings Stamps to school children, who would ultimately grow to become US Savings Bond purchasers.  Sam Clayberger color keyed and painted the backgrounds for this short (inexplicably giving Sherman blonde hair!) and a few of these keys can be seen in a previous post on this blog.  Art Diamond created this membership card for the club:

Allan Burns did these gag panels to promote buying US Savings Bonds:

which became the basis for this Sam Clayberger art for Boy's Life to encourage Boy Scouts to buy US Savings Bonds:

Allan Burns also created these promo comic strips aimed at getting adults to buy those same bonds:

*Jay Ward and Bill Scott had a tempestuous relationship with the agency, for more behind-the-scenes info read The Art of Jay Ward Productions and The Moose That Roared.

Jay Ward and the art of self-promotion, part 3

Once they began "Operation Loudmouth," Jay Ward and his publicist, Howard Brandy, managed to get Bullwinkle mentioned in places one wouldn't even think of, including a teen magazine.  Here is a recently surfaced item from a 1962 issue of Teen Screen magazine announcing a "Name Bullwinkle Contest."  Writing likely by George Atkins, art by Allan Burns and lettering by Sam Clayberger:

 No record on who won or how their visit to "Bullwinkle Court" went.  Did anyone out there win any of the consolation prizes, like an Official Bullwinkle Doll, an Official Bullwinkle Medal or Bullwinkle's autographed color picture?