Mark Kausler’s CatBlog

Happy (Sparey) Memorial Day!

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I hope all my readers are having a happy holiday as we remember our soldiers and what they put up with for all of us. The drawing above by John Sparey was inspired by the “Archy Declares War” sequence in “Shinbone Alley”(1969). It turned out to be the only part of the movie that looked anything like George Herriman’s drawings for the “Archy” books. Sam Cornell did the layouts for the sequence. Frank Andrina, the key animator, tossed me a couple of scenes to do in that section, and I was thrilled to be breaking into the ranks of professional animators for the first time! I must have gotten extremely angry one day over some development or other, so John Sparey thought he would comment about it, turning me into an aggressive cockroach.

Here are two more of John’s letters; in the first one, he is commenting on an exchange we had concerning his 16mm family home movies. I offered to screen them for him, since John had no projector. He used a note in his Christmas Card that year to interest me in the movies, but then decided to let his nephew handle the problem for him. John had no car and didn’t want to drive to Glendale from Hollywood. (I wonder if there was a time when John had a car, it must have been frustrating to always take Public Trans. in L.A. ) It’s also interesting that John worked many years at Disney, but had never seen the Mickey Mouse cartoon; “Through The Mirror” until they ran it on television in 2001. I guess the employee screenings in those days were rare. John was also a fan and a collector, as you can tell from his comments on “Animation Blast” and Floyd Norman’s book, “Son of Faster, Cheaper”.

Dec. 11, 2001

Mark,

I appreciate your offer to provide projection facilities. I cagily sent your card a week ahead of the bulk of them, and you came through handsomely. But having unspooled most of the film by hand and eyeballing it with magnification, I feel no need now to view it in motion. I am compiling program notes for distribution to whoever will be getting copies.

At the Union Christmas party last Friday, Carl Bell told me of a place in Hollywood that could help me get a transfer to video. That seemed more convenient than bussing to Glendale.

Then on Saturday, I got a call from the second-generation nephew who had sent me the films to identify in the first place, saying that he would prefer a CD (DVD). If I send him a CD, he can run off as many copies on his computer as will be needed. He says that there should be no problem finding somebody to make the CD transfer.

We’ll see. If you hear from me again, I need help.

I ordered Animation Blast #7 (with which you are familiar) from Bud Plant for its article on Ray Aragon. It properly played up his efforts for the failed Don Quixote project. I feel that his work on that is worthy of a book of its own.

There was also a collection of Floyd Norman cartoons–one of which I couldn’t figure out. When and why would Walt have wanted to ship Winnie-The-Pooh back to England?  (Mark here, maybe John didn’t read Floyd’s caption, Walt was frustrated at the restrictions of using Milne’s famous character, and almost gave up on Pooh at one point. He probably didn’t “literally” think of shipping the Old Bear back to Great Britain.) Some of Floyd’s jabs at Michael Eisner are sharp enough that he HAS to be good at his job.

This was pretty much of a Disney weekend for me. Sat. Night A&E had a 2 hour biography of Walt (a rerun, actually). The youngest participants were Floyd and Roland (Rolly) Crump. And Sunday noon, Ch. 13 set aside a 2 hour slot for “Alice In Wonderland”. Too much time for just the feature. My watching paid off. The program started with “Thru The Mirror” which I had never seen complete before–only snippets.

Enough.

John S.

In our second letter from John, dated May 7, 2006, John comments on his experiences with “Access Services” from the Woodland Hills Motion Picture Country House, where he lived after his collapse. He wanted to get his collections and personal things from his Hollywood apartment, but the obstacles to a handicapped older person with no transportation to getting anywhere near the apartment were daunting. It’s interesting to read the long paragraph (4th one) and get an insight into John’s extremely sharp memory for details, and how he could turn his frustrations into humor. Access Services were really obsessed with John’s blood pressure! This letter is really addressed more to John’s family, not me:

May 7, 2006

For the last couple of weeks, an appointment was being set up for me with access services. It was determined about a week ago that my appointment would be on Friday, May 5^th. But it wasn’t until 5:55 Thursday evening that I got a phone call telling me transportation would pick me up at 12:30 on Friday. Also, the “home” had hired a “caregiver” to make the trip with me. She arrived at 4:30 and saw to it that I had a dry diaper before I was served an early lunch. I can get on intimate terms with women very quickly these days. You’d never guess from her name, Gemma Cohen, that she’s from the Phillippines.

!!!CINCO de MAYO!!! It was the most satisfying meal-on-a-tray I have had here yet: ground beef taco salad with sour cream and salsa, a Mexican style soup, and a diet custard rather like flan.

Our wheelchair van was the best I’ve seen yet, with a chair space right next to the driver and a clear view all around. We had a one hour trip from Woodland Hills to East L.A., mostly on U.S. 101. You may ask, “What is Access Services?” A good question.

It looked to me like an overblown bureaucratic boondoggle. Inside of a several story-high warehouse space was a rambling sprawl of waiting areas, cubicles, and a testing area of curbs, ramps, and such. First, my California I.D. was copied and I signed away any rights to damages in case of injuries in the testing area. Then my blood pressure was checked with a finger clamp, and I rode onto a scale to show the total weight of me and the chair. Then I rode into a space with Lucite moveable walls that could measure the length and width of the chair. Then my picture was taken with a Fiber Optics camera, and my blood pressure was checked with a finger clamp. Then we were directed to join a group sitting in front of a video screen watching a public service film on the benefits of aids for the handicapped provided by the L.A. Transit System—alternately in Spanish and English–with lengthy screen saver footage separating the shows. That lasted an hour. We were then sent to Room 111. I didn’t see half a dozen cubicles in the area, but one had a cardboard sign 111. In there, I was shown a succession of photos, stopping them whenever I spotted a bus with a specific number or a Jack In The Box or a MacDonald’s location. I was asked to separate 53 cents from a collection of 1 Quarter, 2 Dimes, 1 Nickel, and a number of pennies spread across a table. I was asked about my medications, and I presented them with my list as updated to last November, which I carry around for such occasions as this. It is very much the same as my current dosages. I was asked how I had got along using our transit systems and what problems I had had. So I told them. Then my blood pressure was checked with a finger clamp. I was told I’d learn in a week or so if I qualify for their service. Another 40 minutes in another waiting area, and we were told our van was waiting for us. Another hour trip to Woodland Hills. We were told to expect a 4 hour outing. It took 4 hours, 10 minutes.

What is Access Services? It’s a supplement to Public Transit for the severely handicapped, equivalent to buses, not taxis. Price? $1.80 for less than 20 miles. $2.70 for 20 miles or more.

It’s the first step toward access to my apartment.

Felix (1-14 to 1-20-1935) continues Danny Dooit’s adventures. At the behest of the Explorer’s Club, Danny is invited to go on an ocean voyage as a representative boy scout with the Club’s expedition. Danny doesn’t even know what the trip is all about, but his parents agree to let him go anyway. The boy could be going into involuntary servitude for all they care! Felix disappears from his strip for two days, and doesn’t re-enter it until he magically pops up in Danny’s bag in the 1-18. In the Sunday, Felix continues to fight Flub the Pup, and ejects him from the house with a Jack-In-The-Box. It’s nice to know that folks were relaxed about taking the Christmas tree down in 1935.

Krazy (11-18 to 11-23-1940) is almost all word play this time. The English Dog in the 11-18 has such a thick accent that Krazy (who has quite a thick accent himself) can’t understand what “Ice Cool” is. In the 11-22, Krazy is naked in the bathtub, Offissa Pupp can’t look at her without her ribbon, which is carefully draped over the edge of the tub. In the 11-21, Garge is quoting from a hit tune of the 1920s, “Who?”, a smash for George Olsen’s band. The original lyrics were, “Whoooo stole my heart away? Whooooo makes me dream all day? Dreams I know can never come truuuue, Seems as though I’ll ever be bluuuue….”

Patrick (approx. 9-20 to 9-25-1966) loves being mean to Suzy Smith. He won’t give her anything for her birthday, then punches her out when she gets a little sarcastic with him. I like Patrick’s extreme reactions to “Shots!” and the “Cruel, Sadistic, Excessive Punishment” of having his TV privileges suspended for a week. There was no cable TV in those days, but still a lot of afternoon and morning kids’ programming, before the era of Oprah took most of it away. See you soon, you wonderful readers!