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| Image courtesy michaelbarrier.com |
On this day, in 1914, John Hubley was born in Marinette, Wisconsin. Right
out of high school, John moved to Los Angeles, California and began studying
painting at the ArtCenter College of Design. He was following in the footsteps
of his mother, artist Verena K Hubley, and his grandfather. After three years
of instruction in the finer points of painting, John began working for the Walt
Disney Studio in 1935 as a background painter. He would later add layout artist
to his resume, working his magic mostly in the Features Department. John’s work
can be seen in
Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi and, specifically, in the
Rite of Spring segment of
Fantasia.
In 1939, Frank Lloyd Wright visited the studio, bringing with him a print of
a Russian animated feature,
The Tale of
the Czar Durandai, looking to inspire Disney’s animators to be more modern.
Walt at the time was consistently pushing for ever more realistic animation
while
Durandai had a very stylized,
abstract look. Some of the animators, John among them, were inspired by the
Russian drawings, they just weren’t allowed to use that inspiration at work. Their
frustration over what they saw as a creatively stifling atmosphere was one
thing that led to the great Disney Animator’s Strike of 1941. John was one of
the first young bucks to walk out the door and never look back.
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| Image copyright Disney |
John began creating shorts for Screen Gems, a contractor for Columbia
Pictures, with a number of other former Disney animators, including the company’s
founder, Frank Tashlin. The artistic freedom at Screen Gems was looser than at
Disney, but only marginally. When World War II finally came to America, John became
part of the Animation Unit of the Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit,
making training films for the troops. The Air Force only cared about what information
was taught, not what the film looked like, so most of the animators got to
experience more experimentation than they’d ever enjoyed before.
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| Image courtesy fandor.com |
In 1944, John was asked to help create a reelection film for Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. He prepped the storyboards with fellow FMPU worker Bill Hurtz. The
studio chosen to make the final short was Industrial Film, which had just been
founded by former Disney and Screen Gem employees so John fit right in.
Following the successful release of
Hell-Bent
for Election (yes, that is the actual title)
, the United Auto Workers approached Industrial to make an
anti-racism film and John was chosen to direct. Following the end of the war,
Industrial Film became United Productions of America and would go on to become
the most influential animation studios of the Fifties.
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| Image copyright UPA |
UPA became the main studio for Columbia Pictures, pushing Screen Gems out of
the picture. In 1949, John created one of UPA’s biggest characters, Mr. Magoo.
Based on an uncle of his, he directed the first few
Magoo shorts and was instrumental in helping Jim Backus find the
voice of the obstinate senior citizen by encouraging Jim to improvise much of
the dialog. John quickly became unhappy with the direction the studio took his
character, in spite of Mr. Magoo’s growing popularity. He felt too much
emphasis was being placed on his near-sightedness and the more interesting
aspects of his personality were being ignored.
In the early Fifties, John found himself in trouble at work once again. This
time, he got caught up in the investigations being conducted by Senator Joe
McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Someone branded
John a communist and he was hauled in front of the committee. He saw McCarthy
for what he was, refused to name anyone else and was blacklisted from all major
Hollywood studios. Out of work again, he did the only thing he could do. He
started his own company, Storyboard Studios, making mostly commercials, at
least to begin with.
In 1955, John married his second wife, Faith Elliot, an artist and fellow
animator, and moved his company to New York City. John and Faith continued to
do purely commercial projects but made a commitment to producing one
independent short every year. They explored just about every kind of animation
technique you can think of, as well as using ambient sounds (like their
children at play) as soundtracks. The experimentation paid off. They were
nominated for an Academy Award seven times, winning three for 1959’s
Moonbird, 1962’s
The Hole (about the horrors of nuclear war) and 1966’s
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature.
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| Image courtesy laughing-stalk.blogspot.com |
When
Sesame Street started up in 1969, Jim Henson and company needed lots of content in a short amount of time. John and Faith were more than happy to fill in some of the gaps. Featuring their signatures of jazz music, improvised dialog and abstract images, they helped teach kids about the letters of the alphabet and concepts like danger. They would later do the same thing for
The Electric Company, most notably the Letterman bits (voiced by the late great Gene Wilder). John’s final project was in collaboration with a former student of his, Garry
Trudeau, bringing to life the characters from Garry’s comic strip,
Doonsbury, for a half hour television
special. Part way through production, John was diagnosed with cancer. He worked
until he couldn’t anymore, leaving Faith and Garry to finish the project in
tribute to him (a fitting final note to his career:
A Doonsbury Special would earn an final Oscar nomination). John
passed away in New Haven, Connecticut on February 21, 1977. He was 62.
