Before we get into today’s post, here’s some good news!
Recently, I mentioned a piece of film in the Library of Congress’s archives, which I described as a small, vital chapter in a famous animation director’s filmography.
Shortly after I had published the article on Cartoon Research in May 2023, I contacted the Library of Congress to find out if they had 35mm materials from 1937’s When’s Your Birthday?, which features Bob Clampett’s directorial debut: an animated Technicolor segment in a B&W film that poked fun at the Zodiac signs (the film involves Joe E. Brown as a prizefighter who is a staunch believer in astrology).
It turned out that the LoC has the complete feature in a 35mm nitrate composite master positive, but the Technicolor insert was still in B&W. The interesting thing about the film’s opening scenes: reel 1 is divided into two parts: the animation is reel 1A, and the beginning live-action is in reel 1B. Because the film wasn’t copyrighted or renewed, despite the opening titles containing an on-screen copyright statement, I was able to request a 2K scan of reel 1A. Unless a film collector owns an original release print with its color intact, no other archive or institution has other 35mm elements.
In a few months, this piece of Clampett’s oeuvre will be posted on my Patreon in a newly remastered version. Besides the helpful members of the LoC, the Patronage helped make this possible, so give them a round of applause! These screen captures are directly from the raw scan (click to enlarge):
In early 1933, producer-directors Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising split their business relationship with Leon Schlesinger. Leon decided to open a new studio that summer, which left Harman, Ising, and many of their fellow staffers out of work.
Hugh and Rudy subcontracted work from the Van Beuren Corporation on a trio of cartoons with Cubby Bear: Cubby’s World Flight, The Gay Gaucho, and Mischievous Mice.
Harman-Ising then commissioned an animated sequence of the Walrus and the Carpenter in Paramount’s all-star adaptation of Alice in Wonderland (1933, dir. Norman Z. McLeod).
For this post, Mark Kausler provided an essential document from Harman’s papers: a typewritten list of Harman-Ising employees on the studio payroll during the hiatus between the end of Hugh and Rudy’s contract with Schlesinger and the start of their MGM release in early 1934. Bob Clampett, the first recruit in Leon’s new studio, is absent from the personnel sheet.
Also, note that Hugh, Rudy, and animators Rollin “Ham” Hamilton and Carmen “Max” Maxwell had relatives on staff at H-I.
Notably, the payroll records specify that Hugh and Rudy highly valued Isadore “Friz” Freleng and Ham Hamilton—Freleng at $225 a week and Hamilton at $200 a week. [In 2026 US currency, Friz: $5,655.89; Ham: $5,027.46.]
This annotated guide lists when various H-I staffers left the payroll:
September 14
Paul Conlon
September 19
Herman F. Ising
September 24
Frank Marsales [received a check for Cubby Bear #3 (Mischievous Mice) on November 6, 1933]
September 27
Jonathan “Mo” Caldwell
Otto Englander
Friz Freleng
Rita Gulick
Walker Harman
September 28
Don Smith
September 29
Rollin Hamilton
Larry Martin
Bob McKimson
Larry Silverman
September 30
Sandy Walker
October 2
Tom McKimson
Bob Stokes
October 3
Norm Blackburn
October 4
Bob Allen
Tom Byrne
Hugh Harman
Murray Hudson
Rudolf Ising
Charles McKimson
Mel Shaw
Francis Smith
Paul Smith
Gladys Stout
Elmer Wait
James Williams
October 5
Idelle G. Berkson
Lillian Freleng
Dale Lemon
Carman Maxwell
Jack Maxwell
Irene Urban (née Hamilton, Rollin Hamilton’s sister)
October 7
Marie Coffey
Lawrence “Art” Goble
Howard Hanson
James Hazell
Anna McCaskill
Melvin Millar
Irene “Pee-Wee” Wyman
October 9
Bill Hanna
October 11
Max Ising
Special thanks to Mark Kausler for providing the rare production materials for this post.
