Forgotten Master:

He directed, wrote, and often animated over 70 Bobby Bump cartoons, he co-wrote Snow White, did character design on Fantasia, he ran the animation department at Paramount, and he created and patented the cel overlay process that was the standard of the animation industry for over 80 years and most of you don’t know his name.

Earl Hurd was born on 14 September 1880, in Kansas City. He was a New York animator before there was an animation industry in New York. He devised and patented the cel overlay process in 1915.

His lawyer suggested that he join his patent with J. R. Bray`s animation patent because of some ligel overlap. He became a partner in the Bray studio as a result of the 1915 Bray/Hurd patent.

I still think it should be the Hurd/Bray Patent. The Bray process of preprinted backgrounds was not only flawed but proved completely unworkable in real production.

Bray and his wife, the Prussian Bitch as she was called behind her back, spend the rest of their lives pretending that they had invented cel overlay and that Earl Hurd was their employee and not their partner.

While Bray and his wife chased down prosecuted/persecuted patent violators Earl Hurd put out the visually sophisticated and well-written Bobby Bump series.

If that was not enough he moved to Disney in the mid 30s where he wrote a host of top-notch shorts and co-writing Snow White.

He died in 1940 in Burbank, California and has gone on to be an unsung hero. With people still giving credit to Bray for the Earl Hurd cel overlay invention. His Bobby Bump Forms a Lodge can be seen at the Origins of American Animation Site by clicking the image below.