jim henson

When re-watching vintage 1960s episodes of 'The Flintstones', a heaping portion of the cozy,
comfort-food nostalgia it kindles comes from the familiar background music heard throughout the run of the series.
As with so much of the TV I was glued to in my youth, the soundtrack to the show has been part of the soundtrack to my life.

Hoyt Curtin had been Hanna-Barbera's primary composer and arranger, responsible not only for the Flintstones underscore and its immortal theme song, but for the music heard in almost all of the animation studio's many productions, from their origins in the mid-1950s until Curtin's retirement
in the '80s.

For a while, much of Curtin's H-B music was commercially available on various cartoon music CDs released by the Rhino label, but sadly and shockingly it looks like they've all lapsed out of print.

From one of those discs, the background music cues posted below all go back to the original Flintstones series.
As a finicky nerd, it had bothered me that Rhino had chosen to tack each of these brief themes onto the end of the 'primary' songs-from-the-series tracks, as sort of unlisted 'mystery bonus fun'.

- - So, for the sake of my own dork-tastic needs (and maybe even yours) I futzed with them, to bring some focus to just those Curtin instrumentals.

All of the listed titles are ones I made up, just as a referential aid for the different files, previously unnamed on the Rhino releases.

- If you have knowledge of any 'real' titles for these cuts, or have more info to share about Hoyt Curtin's cartoon music, please feel free to leave a comment on this post.

Enjoy!


(click for audio)

1. Reedy Saunter (1:22)
2. Quarry (0:30)
3. Short Chirpy Bridge (0:09)
4. Mischief March (0:23)
5. 'Oh Brother' Punchline (0:09)
6. Jaunty Stroll (0:55)
7. Harried Exit (0:11)
8. Brassy Exit Fanfare (0:10)
9. No Brakes! (1:00)
10. Bouncy Exit (0:18)
11. Driving Into Bedrock (0:41)
12. Stumbling Xylophone (0:27)
13. Morning After Pomp (0:32)
14. Walking Dino, Fred Follows (1:04)
15. Military Maneuvers (0:30)
16. Quizzical Exit Fanfare (0:07)

(click for audio)

- - OR click here to grab all 16 tracks in one 11.8 Mb zipfile.

- For a bit more of old Hanna-Barbera cartoon music by Hoyt Curtin, you might try here, or at a post about 'Jonny Quest' music at If I Only Had...

- And while listening to Flintstones music, you could do far worse than to peruse the dozens of fascinating Bedrock screen captures and other edifying wonders on display over at John K Stuff.

(Reposted from 'Brief Window')

A treat to find new artwork by
Alternative Comix creator J.R. Williams!

- Follow this link to J.R. Williams' 'Cartoons and Comics' Flickr set.

I recall first seeing his comics in the pages of 'Weirdo' back in the '80s, and then in' Crap' and other titles in the '90s, but it seems like it's been a little while since running across his name.

(Not to be confused with the earlier
'Western' cartoonist of the same name)

Recent work on display at Flickr shows that he's been busy, and branching into fine art, but the comics background is still present.

Images rendered in ink, acrylics and watercolor mix with delightfully odd digital collages.

(Via Eye of the Goof)






















































See also:
- A December '08 interview with Williams at the Blah Blah Gallery blog.

- Another Flickr set; less comicky, more artsy, and very cool.
Follow link to J.R. Williams' 'Abstract/etc.' gallery. ▼

(Reposted from 'Brief Window')

Follow the link over to Flickr and take a look at slappy427's photostream for a beautiful and eclectic set of Hanna-Barbera artwork and ephemera.

(A few examples here)

Photos, memorabilia, concept art and more from nowadays and back in the day, with an emphasis on some of the more obscure characters from the animated world of
Hanna-Barbera.

Curator slappy427 is a cartoonist and avid enthusiast for all things HB, and has shared lots of truly fun images!

See also:
His blog, Hanna Barberian.

(found via Cartoon SNAP)

In addition to all of her other works during her long career, Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck wrote several 'juvenile fiction' Christmas-related stories.

This 'storybook insert' originally ran in the December, 1956 issue of Family Circle magazine (the same issue that provided last week's
Peter Lind Hayes & Mary Healy 'Night(mare) before Christmas'
photo-spread post).

The story was published in hardback form the following year, with different (non-Disney) artwork.

Other than "Visualized by
Walt Disney and Staff", I'm not finding any credit for individual artists on this piece.

If you have any insights or clues, I'd love to hear about it - - leave a comment or drop a line.

In 1956, Disney was running full-steam with their brand-new Anaheim theme park and two popular TV shows.

More and more of their visual output on TV and in theaters was live-action. Disney animation was still producing theatrical shorts, had released the feature-length 'Lady and The Tramp' the previous year, and began production in '56 for the 1959 release of 'Sleeping Beauty'.

So far, I see no evidence to suggest that there had been any plans by the Disney studios to produce an animated version of Pearl Buck's 'A Christmas Miniature'. Again, any info you might have on the topic is appreciated.

Click on page numbers or images below ⬇ to open enlarged text in a new window:

(pages 1-2) ⬇
(pages 3-4) ⬇⬇
(pages 5-6) ⬇⬇
(pages 7-8) ⬇⬇
(pages 9-10) ⬇⬇














































































(Click on images ⬆ to ENLARGE in a new window)

Here's a well worn old kiddie record, a 6-inch, 78 rpm orange disc, the old 'Little Golden Record' format.

◀ (Click on image to view outer sleeve ENLARGED in a new window)

On Side A, Jiminy Cricket sings his 'Safety Song', just as he did in several educational cartoons that aired on TV's 'Mickey Mouse Club' show, beginning in 1955.

- Follow link to a list of the different 'I'm No Fool' educational cartoons at The Big
Cartoon DataBase.


Listen to:
Cliff Edwards as the voice of Jiminy Cricket, w/ the Merry Mouseketeers, chorus & orchestra -
I'm No Fool
(Little Golden Record 6" 78, circa 1955)
(click for audio)

Side B features a quick, no-frills 'round', sans Cricket...

Listen to:
Frances Archer, Beverly Gile, Merry Mouseketeers, chorus & orchestra -
Frere Jacques
(Little Golden Record 6" 78, circa 1955)
(click for audio)


- Click here for the outer sleeve's back cover text, with a roster of other Mickey Mouse Club records in the series.

Cliff Edwards (1895 - 1971) originated the voice of Jiminy Cricket for 1940's 'Pinnochio', and continued in the voice role until the 1960s.

Though he was uncredited in the film, the role helped to revive his career, which had been in decline since the depression.

In the 1950s, his return to the role on TV would do so again,
for a time.

During the 1920s and into the early '30s, Cliff Edwards, a.k.a. 'Ukulele Ike' had been a Genuine Super Star as a recording artist, and on stage and screen.

His flair for jazzy scat singing, crooning and vocal 'tromnet' influenced many, and it was quite likely his use of the ukulele that helped make the instrument a staple of the era.

By the latter-half of the 1930s though, problems with money and problems with substance abuse and high-living began a roller-coaster of ups and downs that would follow him through the rest of his life, which ended, sadly, in obscurity.

See also:
- The Red Hot Jazz Archive has many fine archived vintage Cliff Edwards recordings.
(audio requires RealPlayer)

- Assorted other Cliff Edwards recordings at the Internet Archive
If you've never heard Ukulele Ike, you must investigate.

- Follow link to a video clip of Edwards, performing 'Hang On To Me' from a curious 1935 short,
'Starlit Days At The Lido', filmed in an early Technicolor process.

- Other 'Cliff Edwards - Ukulele Ike search results at YouTube.

Below, ▼ one of the 'I'm no Fool' segments from TV...

(Reposted from 'Brief Window')

Oh, Joy!

Perhaps this is old news to some, but it was exciting and new for me when I stumbled onto it recently.

It's a huge, fun trove of old production library music - - specifically, stuff that had been put to such great use back in the '90's as incidental cues and background in different episodes of the old 'Ren & Stimpy' TV show.

Praise be to Kirk at Secret Fun Blog (a subsidiary of his thrill-tastic Secret Fun Spot) for making almost 7½ hours of a wide variety of instrumental tracks available for download in two great 'unofficial' collections.

Assorted themes are grouped by mood.
The majority of this familiar material has been used time and again going back at least to the 1950's in TV commercials and in radio, movies, and other cartoons.

Predictably, not included are the pieces of music by Raymond Scott that were used in 'Ren & Stimpy', which have a more discernible 'life of their own'.

For many, myself included, what's here is almost like the subconscious soundtrack to our lives.
Beyond any Ren & Stimpy nostalgia, this pile of music represents 'a million household uses'.

Go! Check it out now!

Follow links to:
- Ren & Stimpy Production Music. Vol. 1

- Ren & Stimpy Production Music. Vol. 2

This being the internet, several other folks have already posted online regarding
Mr. and Mrs. J. Evil Scientist, a curious little footnote in the history of comic books and
animated cartoons. I figure I'll take a turn anyway...

One interesting facet about J. Evil Scientist and his family was that the characters were one of the few Hanna-Barbera properties to appear in their own comic book without ever having had a series of cartoons devoted to them.

Gold Key Comics (who published many
Hanna-Barbera cartoon-based comics in the '60's) printed only four issues of the title, releasing one a year just prior to Halloween from 1963 to 1966.

Looking back on the mid-1960's, the ghoulish clan fit right in with assorted monster crazes and popular creepy families like the Addamses and the Munsters on TV.


(◀ Cover to issue #3, 1965.
A couple of excerpted story pages from this issue follow below.)



As the mining of hit sitcoms for animated series scenarios was a tried-and-true method for Hanna-Barbera, it would be natural to assume that had been a key to the creation of 'the Scientists'.

In fact, the characters' history in cartoons and in comics predates those television comedies.
Their origins go back to 1960, when the characters began as 'supporting players' to established H-B stars in a few various 'tryouts' (or pilots) for their own series.

Though unnamed in the cartoon, Mr. and Mrs.
J. Evil Scientist and their son, Junior made their first appearance in a
7-minute animated Snooper & Blabber cartoon,
'Surprised Party', which (according to The
Big Cartoon Database) premiered on TV's
Quick Draw McGraw Show on December 3rd, 1960.

This was shortly followed by another 'guest appearance', opposite Snagglepuss in
'Fraidy Cat Lion', which had its premiere on The Yogi Bear Show on February 20th, 1961.

(See video clips at the end of this post!)

In those days, the most likely influence for the creation of the
'J. Evil Scientist' characters would have been the pre-TV
'Addams Family' seen for many years in the Charles Addams
one-panel cartoons that ran in the New Yorker.







Mr. and Mrs. Scientist would turn up a few times in Gold Key-published Hanna-Barbera comic books as supporting characters or as a back-up feature, but in April of 1963 they had their 'official' comics debut in the anthology 'Hanna-Barbera Band-Wagon', ▶
issue #3.

The first issue of their own title appeared just a few months later. ▼













Given that the earlier comics pre-date 'The Munsters' and such on TV, I wonder if part of the 'Scientist' formula had perhaps come from the 'Bizarro' stories running in various Superman comics in those days.

Some of the backward 'good=bad' / 'pretty=ugly' machinations seem similar, though maybe this
over-estimates the popularity and influence the Bizarro World may have had at the time.


(From issue #1, interior page below ▼ ganked from Uncle Ernie's Creature Ink)













































Although their characters may have pre-dated the proliferation of monster-family TV sitcoms, certainly by the second or third issue of 'The Weird World of Mr. and Mrs. J. Evil Scientist' Hanna-Barbera had caught up to the bandwagon.

The strongest evidence would come in 1964 with the morphing of J. Evil and his crew into
The Flintstone's new neighbors, the Gruesomes.

That the Gruesomes looked slightly less reminiscent of The Addams Family could only work in H-B's favor.

(Cover to issue #2, 1964. ▶
A small excerpt from this issue follows below.)

Adding insult to injury in the demise of the
J. Evil Scientist franchise was Gold Key Comics spinning the concept into their own
non-Hanna-Barbera-owned property,
Little Monsters, a comic book which ran
from 1964 to 1978.










See also:
- An entry at Scott Shaw's
Oddball Comics regarding
'J. Evil Scientist' #1.

Scott identifies the issue's artwork as being by Pete Alvarado and fellow Gold Key workhorse Dick Hall.

- Comics creator Jay Stephens loves him some J. Evil Scientist, but as of this writing a couple of related posts archived at his Monsterama blog are missing their image links.
Perhaps that will change.

































- As previously referenced, here's a couple of video clips featuring early cartoon appearances of the
J. Evil Scientist family.
(Catch 'em
while you can)

Below, ▼ Snagglepuss in 'Fraidy-Cat Lion'



- - followed by ▼ Snooper & Blabber in 'Surprised Party'

Some recent nostalgia for sixties-era Chipmunks and 'The Alvin Show' cartoon got me jonesing for the misadventures of inventor Clyde Crashcup and his intrepid assistant, Leonardo.

Before long, I'd dug out some of my old, tattered issues of the funnybooks printed by Dell Comics way back when.

The comic book version of Crashcup was created by John Stanley, much-beloved artist and writer of
Little Lulu and so many other characters.

Below are a few tidbits to enjoy...

(clicking on links or images will ENLARGE pages in a new window)






(click on links to open pages in a new window ⬇⬇)

⬅ 'Clyde Crashcup invents The Broom',
from issue #3 (1963)
⬇

(The Broom, page 1)
(The Broom, page 2)
(The Broom, page 3)
(The Broom, page 4)
(The Broom, page 5)
(The Broom, page 6)































































(click on links to open pages in a new window ⬇⬇)

⬅ 'Clyde Crashcup invents Sports',
from issue #4 (1964)
⬇

(Sports, page 1)
(Sports, page 2)
(Sports, page 3)
(Sports, page 4)
(Sports, page 5)
































































(click on links to open pages in a new window ⬇⬇)

⬅ 'Clyde Crashcup invents Hi-Fi',
from issue #5 (1964)
⬇

(Hi-Fi, page 1)
(Hi-Fi, page 2)
(Hi-Fi, page 3)
(Hi-Fi, page 4)
(Hi-Fi, page 5)
(Hi-Fi, page 6)
(Hi-Fi, page 7)
(Hi-Fi, page 8)














See also - -
- A couple of animated Clyde Crashcup episodes available at YouTube:
'Crashcup Invents The Bathtub'
'Crashcup Invents The Ship'

- - and more John Stanley at:
- 'Beatsploitation in Kookie #2', a previous post on this blog

- The Stanley Stories blog!

Recently there's been another DVD re-release of Disney's 'The Three Caballeros', along with it's precursor, 'Saludos Amigos'.

Both animated features were crafted as Latin-American travelogues produced to aid in solidifying relations with those countries during World War 2.

The print ad, text piece and review shown here all appeared in the March, 1945 issue of Motion Picture magazine.

(click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)



































































































(click on images to ENLARGE in a new window)

Viewed today, the film gives an interesting glimpse of the Disney studio of a different era.

In addition to its propaganda qualities, the film was their first feature-length release to blend animation with live action, and provides a portrayal of Donald Duck as slightly more randy than we may be accustomed to seeing him.

Several clips can be viewed at YouTube...