May 21 - John Hubley

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.