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The Old Man and the Sea

Last Saturday was the Afternoon Of Remembrance. I just got a group of photos of the event from Art Leonardi. I spoke for my teacher Ric Estrada. Ric’s son Seth was also going to speak but he got their just as I started speaking and I didn’t see him until the break.

Life is strange. Here I am with Seth on my left and one of the Hemmingway boys from Cuba on my right. This gentleman, I forgot his name – shame on me, grew up in the village where the Old Man and The Sea was filmed. He therefore met Ric Estrada because Ric was there with Hemmingway during filming.



“Ernest Hemmingway built us a boxing ring and taught us all to box. We also knew the Spanish fisherman that the story was about. He lived in the village too.”

How strange is that. Seth didn’t even know that his father was a cameraman on Old Man And The Sea and here he meets a cartoonist who knew his father during the filming of that movie.

(NOTE: This post is so late due to my server company, their decided to make a major change to the FTP protocol without telling anybody. It took me 2 days and 10 emails before they would even admit that they made changes. It has been a nightmare.)

Happy 90th Sol

My family and I went to Culver City yesterday for Sol Sigall’s 90th birthday party. Anybody in animation or a fan of the history of animation should know Sol and Martha. Martha is a noted figure in the very fabric of that history from way before her first job at Schlesinger in 1936. But a lot of people in animation tend to overlook Sol because he never worked it the field.

Sol, along with his wife, was a member of an elite group of animation legends, a roundtable who met and partied together. In fact, Sol and Martha are the last 2 members of that group. Martha once told me that it is Sol’s love of all things animation that has kept her active in the animation community for all these years.

When I was a young man, studying for the gallows, I worked a summer as a lifeguard on a beach in Sarasota, Florida. One part of the beach was given over to the old retired people. Talking to other lifeguards it was common knowledge that the average retired person with nothing to do with themselves lasted about 3 to 5 years.

Both Sol and Martha retired in the 1970s and have been active in the animation community and with the Culver City Historical Society, the Afternoon of Remembrance committee and who knows what else ever since. What is their secret? There are a team, a very active team. Sol may not have worked in animation but he is an important person in the history of animation all the same. I have learned a lot talking to Sol. Happy 90th Birthday to a good guy and a great friend.

Bozu Update

Moving forward on the sculpt for the AniMazing Spotlight Festival Award Trophy. Yes the chin goes up on the drawing and down on the sculpt. And I dropped the pencil and the glasses. There are casting reasons for all of these changes which deals with gating and venting (hot metal in / hot air out) problems.

And yes I put a little more age on the face. Wanted to get out of the Disney Bosustow and a little more into the UPA Bosustow.

Still pushing for a cartoony feel to the sculpt. This is lots of fun. Next finish the body etc., pull a mold so that we can do more than one of these if wanted and then the wax and casting.

Speaking of AniMazing Spotlight Short Animation Festival, just reviewed the first batch of films for the second quarter. There were some promising student films. One killer short. And one very professional, very Saturday morning (just like everybody else's show) that was well done but not to my liking because it was so much like what is already out there but it was still very well done. Hey, that's what you get. Looking forward to the next batch.

Good Bye Lenny

I called my grade school/high school friend/college friend roommate Steve Rothman last week looking for a contact to Burt Reynold. Steve and Burt use to deal when Steve was running theatre in Florida. I am trying to find someone to say something or write something for Dom DeLuise for the upcoming Animation Afternoon of Remembrance and Burt is the logical one.


Afternoon of Remembrance
Lasky-DeMille Barn
HOLLYWOOD HERITAGE
2100 North Highland Avenue
(in the parking lot next to the Hollywood Bowl)
Los Angeles, CA 90068-3241
March 13th
12 Noon meet and eat
Remembrance starting at 1 PM

I was shocked to hear that Steve’s father, Leonard, had just died. Sure Lenny was in is 80s but it is hard to think of a world without him. There was a time in high school when Leonard Rothman was more of a father to me than the father I was issued at birth. My father wasn’t there very much. And when he was he really wasn’t.

Lenny Rothman was loud and demonstrative and always treated me like just another one of his sons. There are some debts you can never pay. All you can do is just acknowledge them.

Award Update 4:

Update on award trophy. Starting to work on the face. Put in the eyes but still need to build up the lids etc. Started on the right hand, which is the one that is out from the body. Still have a long way to go but starting to get there.

Award Design Update #3:

Moving along on the Bozu Award design. Still haven't got to any detail but am getting the underpinning of the sculpt in shape. Next is it is time to start on some detail on the face, eyes, chin, hair etc.



The pose is looking good so far. I always leave the joints of the armature free until I am far along in the sculpt. That way I can make last minute adjustments to the flow of the figure.