UPA Pictures Interviews

Larry Alexander

Larry Alexander is writing a book with Kenneth Farrell on UPA Pictures. We interviewed both of them in New York City in early Spring of 2006. The two live in the Washington DC area, and have been fans of UPA animation since there childhood, particularly the unique shorts from the CBS television series of the late 50’s.

Evan Bailey

Evan Bailey is Senior VP or Production and Creative Affairs at Classic Media, in New York. Classic Media now owns the UPA characters and UPA television library. They have recently been producing a new Gerald McBoing Boing show for the Cartoon Network, and Evan gives an interesting account of what went into developing the series, and other thoughts about this valuable product line.

Jerry Beck

Jerry Beck is a well-respected authority on animation. He has written a number of books on the subject, and has been of great assistance to our documentary project. We filmed an interview with him at his Hollywood office. He was also the moderator of the 2004 Tribute at the AFI. We hope to film a longer interview with him this year.

Howard Beckerman

Howard Beckerman worked at the UPA New York studio on animation and story for most of its glorious years, as one of the foremost producer of award wining commercials in the country. He now teaches animation, and has recently revised his popular book, entitled, Animation, the Whole Story.

Gianalberto Bendazzi

Gianalberto Bendazzi is among the most respected authorities on animation in the world, due in large part to his definitive tome, Cartoons, an encyclopedia of world animation, now in several languages. Giani has not only given us a fact-filled two hour interview, but has helped us make valuable contacts, and find important archival material, among them a rare interview with Zack

Geefwee Boedoe

Geefwee Boedoe presently writes and illustrates children's books, but created some wonderful animated art on the way, for Disney, and later Pixar. He was the creator of the UPAesque opening title sequence for Monsters, Inc. We interviewed Geefwee in his artist's loft on the East Bay, across from San Francisco.

Nick Bosustow

Nick Bosustow is one of two sons of Stephen Bosustow, and was his partner at Stephen Bosustow Productions, for 17, producing award wining entertainment and educational films. Nick gives a fascinating inside look at the man who ran UPA during its “golden era”. Nick has since left the animation world for a series of dream jobs, helping empower the powerless, through the Peace Corps.

Bruce Burness

Bruce Burness, son of director, Pete Burness, is a race car designer, who got his start as a teenager, working on the exotic cars of various artists at UPA. He has an amazing collection of UPA cells, drawings, backgrounds, and other material, collected by his father. At this point in the interview he is talking about this original background from the first Magoo, Ragtime Bear.

Carolina Caballero

Carolina Lopez Caballero is a Spanish animator and filmmaker, who produced a reportage on UPA for Canal+ Spain, with interviews by Jules Engel and Jimmy Murakami. We met Caballero at a party given by Zagreb Films, at the 2005 Annecy International Animation Festival, in the French Alps, and later interviewed her at the Atria Novotel Hotel, where we were both staying in Annecy.

Vincent Cafarelli

Vincent Cafarelli animated at the renowned UPA New York studio, and relays stories of the artists that made the studio a step ahead of the others in those days. Cafarelli now runs his own studio in New York City, specializing in educational films, that make a difference in young people’s lives.

John Canemaker

John Canemaker is the Renaissance man of animation … as animation filmmaker, animation professor at NYU, and author of many books on animation. His most recent film is the highly acclaimed, The Moon and the Son, an Imagined Conversation, a multi-styled, fantasized, documentary … sort of. It is impossible to categorize, but resonates with viewers on many different levels.

Hana Cannon

Hana Cannon is the eldest daughter of the legendary animation director, Robert "Bobe" Cannon. Hana may be the ultimate biographer of her father, but she has also had a long career in animation production and feature length live action. Her focus now days is in screen writing, which she works on daily at a hideaway she shares with her sister Abby, in the quite town of Sequim, in upstate Washington.

Dale Case

Dale Case lives in the most northwestern corner of Washington State, at the tip of the great Olympic Peninsula. Dale is a wonderful find for us, because he worked at UPA at the critical juncture between the tenure of Steve Bosustow and Henry Saperstein. Dale has produced and directed and animated many highly acclaimed films, and continues to work out of his picturesque home on the Puget Sound.

Olivier Cotte

Olivier Cotte is a prolific journalist and author, specializing in the world of animation. We tried to find him during our 2005 European trip, but didn’t catch up with him until Zagreb 2006. Sébastien Dabadie interviewed Cotte in his home/office, and had “verre” with Cotte, his wife, and daughter.

Fred Crippen

Fred Crippen was interviewed at his bustling Pantomime Pictures, in Studio City. Fred was a fascinating artist to talk with, because he worked at both the highly praised UPA New York studio, and later moved to Burbank, as the CBS Gerald McBoing Boing show was just getting under way. He directed some of the funniest segments, the Three Horned Flink, Fight on for Old, Winter Sports, among many others.

John Culhane

John Culhane teaches animation history in New York and is not only a storehouse of knowledge about every film and artist that passed through the history of animation, but is delightfully passionate about his love for the art of animation, and Upa in particular. We taped our interview with John in the home of Marilyn Miller Wassbotten, our gracious host during our stay in NYC, doing pre-Europe interviews.

Sebastien Dabadie

Sebastien Dabadie teaches and produces animation in Paris, France. He met Tee Bosustow (seen in pix behind Sebastien), and Tee's DP/daughter, Sylvie, at Annecy 2005. Afterwards, he assembled a marvelous UPA screening at Theatre Gobleins, where he gave informative commentary for the audience between films. Sebastien is the most important person promoting our documentary in Europe, and is putting on a larger UPA Tribute in Paris, on December 13th.

Tissa David

Tissa David began her animation career in her home country of Hungary, continued in Paris, during the war, and finally settled in New York City, getting a job fairly quickly, assisting legendary Grim Natwick, at the New York studio of UPA. She has since become one of the most respected animators in the City, doing commercials, and entertainment shorts, in her distinctive European style.

Gene Deitch

Gene Deitch began at UPA's first studio in Hollywood, learning production design under Bill Hurtz. After a stint directing for Jam Handy, he returned to run the highly successful Upa New York studio. We first interviewed Gene in 2004 at his son's home in San Francisco, then a 2nd time in 2005 at his Prague studio in the Czech Republic, where he continues to produced films with his wife, Zdenka.

Kim Deitch

Kim Deitch is one of the sons of Gene Deitch, and had become a very well known cartoonist in his own right. However, our interview primarily plums the depths of Deitch’s memory, as a young boy, exploring his father’s animation travels, many at UPA Pictures.

Paul Dopff

Paul Dopff is an animator, animation distributor, and instructs children in the art of animation. His collection of children's animation is among the most delightful creations imaginable. Dopff, and his Pink Splash Productions, continues from his home studio, in a former farm in the small town of Verneuil-sur-Indres, in the Loire Valley of France. Our interview with Dopff is in French, our only non-English interview.

Borivoj Dovnikovic

Borivoj Dovnikovic, known by most as Bordo, was one of the original cartoonists at the famous Zagreb Films. He attended the Zagreb 2006 Festival, honoring the 50 year animation. We interviewed him in the festival hall, as he remembered how UPA was a beacon to the young animators of Croatia.

Robert Dranko

Robert Dranko was one of the main designers during the heyday of UPA Pictures, often doing color and backgrounds as well. He came to the studio, after seeing some of their work and realizing that this was the place to be for an innovative artist, when most of the world was still in the dark ages, when it came to creative work. Dranko continued to create his own fine art during, and well after leaving UPA.

Tony Eastman

Tony Eastman, son of pioneering UPA writer, Phil Eastman, Tony remembers his father’s collaborations with director,John Hubley, and the dark days of the McCarthy era. Tony has gone into the animation world as well, but has worked in the graphics end of the business, as well as writing. He has also created children’s books.

Jules Engel

Jules Engel was the chief background artist on all of Bobe Cannon's films, as well as others at UPA. He made several of his own award winning films, and was a teacher at Cal Arts, influencing generations of young animation artists. We interviewed Jules at his Cal Arts office, in Valencia, California, just a few months before his death.

Kenneth Farrall

Kenneth Farrall is writing a book with Larry Alexander on UPA Pictures. We interviewed both of them in New York City in early Spring of 2006. The two live in the Washington DC area, and have been fans of UPA animation since there childhood, particularly the unique shorts from the CBS television series of the late 50’s.

June Foray

June Foray, often called the First Lady of Animation, has recorded the voices of some of our favorite cartoon characters. She did voices for many UPA films, and worked with the UPA artists who immigrated to Jay Ward Studios for the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. June, of course, was the voice of Rocky and Natasha.

Ed Friedman

Eddie Friedman was one of the first animators to animate the new styles that UPA created. During the early years in the Otto K. Olsen building he began by taking scenes home to do, but soon became a cherished staff animator, working on nearly all the classic UPA asterpieces. Eddie was also an Olympic athlete, excelling in the broad jump, and later teaching fencing, and was a champion ping pong player in the Toluca Lake patio area, during lunch and break times.

Oscar Grillo

Oscar Grillo is a celebrated animation director, specializing in commercials. He began in his native Argentina, worked for a time in United States, and now resides in London, where he prefers to work out of his home studio, a remodeled old English home in the western part of London. Grillo is particularly passionate about the musical breakthroughs and social consciousness of UPA.

Vivien Halas

Vivien Halas was another of the interviews we did at the Zagreb 2006 Festival. Halas is the daughter of British animation team John Halas and Joy Batchelor. She had a program of restored prints from her parents historic production company, and is focusing on finding lost films, and restoring those that have deteriorated over the years.

Chico Hamilton

Chico Hamilton was a young musician / composer in Los Angeles, when UPA heard his first album, with a cut entitles, “Morning After”. Hamilton re-recorded it as the theme song for The Gerald McBoing Boing show. It was his first “movie music”, and to this day, he continues to score films, and play clubs, but now in NYC.

Michael Helmerhorst

Michael Helmerhorst is a major collector of animation films in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He got started during an extended visit to the United States, and now has one of the largest such collections in Europe. His interview is highlighted by a scene-by-scene description of what inspires him in the innovative UPA film "The Tell Tale Heart", which he played on his Kem bench, for our cameras.

Dave Hilberman

Dave Hilberman was one of the original founders of UPA in the early 40s, when it was known as Industrial Film and Poster Service. We filmed Dave at two separate occasions, both in the home of his son, Dan Hilberman, in Palo Alto, California. On the second occasion we also interviewed his wife Libbie, who also worked at UPA.

Libbie Hilberman

Libbie Hilberman, the longtime wife of Dave, spoke to our cameras during the second occasion we interviewed Dave. Libbie also worked at UPA in the early days, and was able to tell us about some of the stories that happened behind the headlines, so to speak, the woman's side of what was, in those days, almost entirely a man's world.

Edna Jacobs

Edna Jacobs was a young illustrator in 1955 when someone at UPA-New York heard about her work, and asked if she would like to work there. She had heard about UPA, so she jumped at the chance, and felt she learned a lot during her years there, doing back grounds and special effects.

Hank Jordan

Henrietta “Hank” Jordan began in the very early days as a receptionist at the main UPA studio in Burbank/Toluca Lake. Hank very quickly rose through the ranks to become the Production Co-Ordinator for Herb Klynn. Her interview is full of wonderfully candid opinions of what when on behind the artistic public face.

Mark Kausler

Mark Kausler is not only a wonderful animator, and filmmaker, in his own right, but has accumulated one of the finest collections of animation art and memorabilia in the world, including a sizable collection on UPA. Plus, he is one of the few collectors, who also has 35mm films, and is able to screen them in his home. After our interview with Mark, he ran some rare UPA films, a few of which, we
believe no one has seen since the fifties.

Mike Kazaleh

Mike Kazaleh is revered as one of the finest animators in the business today, and he is also a walking encyclopedia of animation knowledge, about which he is deeply passionate. Mike has an uncanny ability to be able to recognize which animators did each scene in any animated film. And, if that isn't enough, he has volunteered to create the first animated scene for first our documentary, on Bobe Cannon.

Derek Lamb

Derek Lamb was born in London, and began working in the world-renowned Canadian Film Board in the late 50's, and along with other animators there, were profoundly influenced by UPA. Derek continued his affection for UPA throughout his career, and built on that to create some of the greatest films in animation. We interviewed him at the peaceful lakeside home of his friend, Dal Lamagna.

Mel Leven

Mel Leven arrived at UPA Pictures as the Gerald McBoing Boing show began its ground breaking run on CBS television. Mel composed, sang, and performed some of the more memorable segments on the series. We interviewed Mel at his home in North Hollywood, where he played and sang some of his best creations. Mel was also one of the panelists at the 2004 UPA Tribute at the AFI.

Leonard Maltin

Leonard Maltin is a nationally recognized film critic on Entertainment Tonight. Leonard turns out to have a strong interest in animation, and has written one of the finest books on the top animation studios. He is a fervent fan of UPA, and allowed us into his Toluca Lake, California, home, to discuss some of his favorite UPA films.

Craig Marin

Craig Marin, and his wife, Olga, are puppeteers for their company, Flexitoons, the UPA of the puppet world. Craig tells our cameras how he got started, and how UPA influenced his unique puppet creations. We interviewed him at his New York home/studio, surrounded by a room full of their puppet creations.

Bob McIntosh

Bob McIntosh was Pete Burness' primary background artist on the Magoo series, although Bob did color on other UPA films as well. He's now a fine artist, whose paintings hang in many galleries. We filmed two interviews with Bob in his home studio, in Bel Aire, California, and he was a panelists at the UPA Tribute at the AFI.

Bill Melendez

Bill Melendez was a top animator during the golden years of UPA. He later became better known as the director of the Charlie Brown specials, with Charles Schultz. We interviewed Bill twice at his busy studio in Studio City, the first time at a video monitor, watching shorts he animated at UPA, some 50 years earlier. Later we filmed him at his drawing board, demonstrating his love of the art of animation.

Joe Messerli

Joe Messerli was a comic book artist, when he decided to study at Choinards. There he met UPA artists that eventually led to work there on the CBS show. Joe met Evelyn Field, who was an ink and painter at UPA. They got married, and are still together … our UPA romance story.

Judith Morgan

Judith Morgan, along with her husband, Neil, wrote “Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel”, the only biography written with the direct support of the reclusive Geisel, himself. Geisel/Seuss created the original Gerald McBoing Boing character as a children’s record in 1950. Judith’s interview gave us fresh insights on how the very Seussian Gerald, which appears on the original Capitol record cover, morphed into the little UPA Gerald, who became so popular, and won the studio’s first Oscar.

Frank Mouris

Frank Mouris produced the ground breaking animated short, Frank Film, which won the Oscar for best animated short in 1973. Although, his style is clearly his own, his introduction to UPA, at Harvard, under the tutelage of Derek Lamb, opened Frank up to the idea that anything is possible. We interviewed Frank at the eclectic home he shares with his producer/partner/wife, Caroline Mouris, in upstate NY.

Jimmy Murakami

Jimmy Murakami was a jurist at the Zagreb 2006 Festival, and was able to give us a wonderful interview, between Competition screening. Jimmy was one of the hot young talents on the CBS Boing series, working much of the time with Fred Crippen and Ernie Pintoff. Later, her formed Murakami/Wolff with Fred Wolff, and now lives and works in Dublin, Ireland.

Barrie Nelson

Barrie Nelson is an award winning animator, who worked extensively on John Hubley's later films. He was greatly influenced by UPA, as a young boy in Winnipeg, Manitoba. We filmed him in is home studio, in Malibu, California, where he also animated a funny little walking scene of Magoo, for our first demo tape.

Teddy Newton

Teddy Newton is another young artist influenced by UPA. He designed a segment for Iron Giant, which Brad Burd asked him to do … in a UPA style. We filmed Teddy in his apartment in Oakland, overlooking Lake Merritt, where he discussed some of the UPA genius, which contributed to the influences that propelled him into animation.

Richard O’Connor

Richard O’Connor became a fan of UPA films, long after they had had their hey day. But, seeing the freedom of style of UPA films, O’Connor was inspired to follow his desire to pursue his dream. He has become one of the more successful NY animators, working out of his own company, Asterick Productions.

Jeff Pidgeon

Jeff Pidgeon studied animation at Cal Arts and now works at Pixar Studios, on the east bay, across from San Francisco. He was very impressed by UPA films at an early age. We interviewed him at his converted attic, filled with animation memorabilia.

Willis Pyle

Willie Pyle was an animator during the early days of the Columbia Pictures contract. We first met him at a recent Smoke House restaurant reunion of UPA alumni, in Toluca Lake. Willie is now a fine artist. We filmed him next to one of his paintings, in his home studio, in Seal Beach, California. Then he treated our crew to lunch at a local sea food restaurant, in his antique Rolls Royce.

J.J. Sedelmaier

J.J. Sedelmaier is another NY animator who found inspiration in UPA animation. Although, he never worked at the UPA studios in New York, he has worked with many of its veterans, most notably, Tissa David. JJ also works quite a bit with Tony Eastman, and, like Tony, has collectables in every corner of his office.

David Silverman

David Silverman has been on The Simpsons television series from its inception, most of the time as the Supervising Animation Director. Currently, however, he is the Director of the first Simpsons animated feature. Silverman was first introduced to UPA, when Herb Klynn took over UCLA animation, during Dan McLaughlin’s year-long sabbatical. Early on he
worked at Stephen Bosustow Prods.

Joe Siracusa

Joe Siracusa was one of several members of Spike Jones' novelty band, who ended up in the UPA editing room, creating sound effects. We interviewed Joe in his Tarzana home, surrounded by an eclectic collection of noise making devices. He helps us see why the team efforts at UPA created good vibes and great films. Joe was also a panelist at the 2004 UPA Tribute at the AFI.

Michael Sporn

Michael Sporn is not only one of the fine animators of the present generation, but an eloquent speaker when it comes to the subject of animation, and UPA animation in particular. We conducted his interview at his NY studio, sitting at a UPA animation desk, which he purchased 30 years ago, for twenty dollars.

Gerry Woolery

Gerry Woolery is a son of Adrian Woolery, UPAs first production manager. Ade then went on to found Playhouse Pictures in Hollywood. Gerry has some great stories of his childhood at UPA, and later working with Bobe Cannon at Playhouse. Herb Klynn told Gerry that Gerald McBoing Boing was named after him, as he was playing around the UPA offices with Christopher Cannon when both were 7 years old.

Ralph Young

Ralph Young is best known as one half of Sandler & Young, one of the hottest singing teams of Las Vegas, and other entertainment capitals of the world. But, few know that Ralph was a hair's breath away from becoming the voice of Mr. Magoo. We interviewed him about this moment in his life, and he recorded some Magoo lines for us, at Patrick Dunavan's home production studio, in Bel Aire, California.

Alan Zaslove

Alan Zaslove washed paint jars as a teenager in the early days of UPA, and worked his way up to director, by the early 60s. We filmed two interviews with Alan, in his home in Studio City. Plus, he was part of the panel discussion at the 2004 UPA Tribute at the AFI.

Interviews from other Sources
and Animation Events of Note

KCET-TV Los Angeles

Steve Bosustow was interviewed on the local LA PBS station, as well as WBZ Radio Boston. We're constantly searching for interviews that were filmed of UPA members who are no longer with us. Any help we can get would be greatly appreciated.

KTLA 1952 City at Night

This is a wonderful source of material that was aired live in Los Angeles during the end of production on Madeline. We have the original Kinescope copy. It takes the through the various steps of production, and includes interviews with Bobe Cannon (direction), Bill Melendez (animation), Jules Engel (background), Ted Baker (editing), Marianne O'Callaghan (Inking), unidentified lady (painting), and Denis Farnam (camera). Corrections are welcome, if needed, and will be included in the next update of the site.

The 1978 Filmex Tribute

We had a wonderful panel after a two-hour film program at Filmex. But, unfortunately we didn't record that. However, we did interview Bill Hurtz, Art Babbit, and, Steve Bosustow, on audio tape.

The 2004 UPA Tribute

photo by Mara Zaslove
There were six panelists at the UPA Tribute last year. We taped the discussion, and later filmed separate interviews with four of the panelists. Two remain to be interviewed, Fred Crippin, who came on board for the CBS show, directing and designing some of the funniest segments, and Eddie Friedman is an animator who worked at UPA from its earliest days well into the 60s. We hope to produce a larger Tribute this spring at the Egyptian Theater, on Hollywood Boulevard.

2005 Golden Award Banquet

photo by André Smith
We video taped over four hours of the historic Golden Awards Banquet. We didn’t interview any of the honoree that evening, but we talked to several who we have made arrangements to interview soon. But, we did record many fascinating speeches from presenters, many of them extremely entertaining, and all of them very enlightening, about the history of animation, and the incredible people that have made animation one of the world’s most popular, and loved, art forms.

2005 Paris Gobleins Screening

photo by Sylvie Bosustow
Sebastien Dabadie put together this evening of films and information about UPA. The event was attended by animation fans, as well as members of the French press, who went on to interview Sebastien in the weeks that followed. Tee Bosustow is also shown, when he appeared briefly to answer questions about UPA and the documentary.

2005 Academy Shorts Panel

photo courtesy of AMPAS
Bill Melendez and Tee Bosustow were interviewed at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, by Randy Haberkamp, during the series "It's Great to be Nominated". Several UPA nominated films were shown during the series. On this particular evening, UPA's "Trees and Jamaica Daddy" was shown with "Sayonara", both nominated in 1957.

2005 Archives: Cannon Daughters

Abby and Hana Cannon, the two Bobe Cannon daughters, explored their father's marvelous collection. We are constantly looking for UPA memorabilia, which is very hard to come by, so this was a highlight to record. Abby's explaining in the picture above, how this photo of Bobe reminds her of toddling around her dad, as he worked at his animation desk at home. Abby, incidentally, was also the camera operator, and set decorator, on our three Olympic Peninsula interviews.

2006 Egyptian Theater Panels

The distinguished panelists at the UPA tribute in Hollywood, included Fred Crippen, Sam Clayberger, Alan Zaslove, Mark Kausler, Bill Melendez, Willie Pyle, Amid Amidi, Lou Romano, and moderator, Jerry Beck.

More Interviews to Shoot

Bob Godfrey, shown in center, at Zagreb 2006 festivities, is one of several we hope to interview soon, others include, Amid Amidi, Dorothy Schecktor, Tom Sito, Martha Sigall, Dave Brain, Earl Bennett, Vic Haboush, Adam Abraham, Bob Kurtz, Antran Manoogian, Bill Littlejohn, Chris Jenkins, Paul Carlson, Annie Guenther, Corny Cole, Fred Wolf, Kathy Barrogis, and many more.

More Archival Interviews

John Hubley, Bobe Cannon, Pete Burness, Paul Julian, Chuck Jones, and many other key UPA artists died before we were able to record them. We'd love to hear about any interviews or archival footage lying around in someone's attic, or at a museum, or television station, or anywhere that could be used in our documentaries.

If you have any important information, you can find an email to reach us, in the Contact Button. And, Click the "Funding" button for unique items for sale, and other ways to get involved financially with our project. We are producing, and offering for sale, DVD interviews, rare animation art, and archival footage, as one way to raise funds for the documentary, "UPA: Mavericks, Magic & Magoo", and other ancillary UPA documentary films.

Almost 60 Interviews