Mark Kausler’s CatBlog

Norm, I hardly knew ya

Norm Gottfredson, who had the upstairs office when he was part owner of Fred Calvert Productions , earned my awe and respect. I didn’t realize until later that he was Floyd Gottfredson’s son, or I would have been even MORE impressed with him. You see, I lived at Fred Calvert’s studio for a couple of months in the summer of 1968, when his studio was in North Hollywood. I talked to Norm about animation a little bit, and I’m sure he saw how starry-eyed I was about the business. Norm wouldn’t let me talk very long to him, and indicated that time was money, he was doing layout on some sub-contracted George of the Jungle episodes, and they needed to be done quickly. Norm’s office was beautifully decorated with many storyboard drawings, character roughs, and colorful paintings, that made me want to stay and browse! Fred Calvert Productions was a non-union shop in the midst of union studios, which sub-contracted a lot of work from Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward and the Children’s Television Workshop. Fred’s wife, Kimi, also had an office there and worked very diligently and hard for the studio. Floyd Gottfredson, in an interview with Malcolm Willits in the early 1970s, said this about his son: “My oldest son is an art director, artist, and part owner of Fred Calvert Productions, in Los Angeles. They produce industrial films, commercials, and animation entertainment films, among which are some sub-contracted Bullwinkle cartoons. (Actually, Floyd assumed that working for Jay Ward meant Bullwinkle, but by then George of the Jungle was the going series.)” This is the only mention I have in print of Norm’s career by his famous dad. If I had been a little bit more bold, I would have asked Norm if Floyd approved of his going into the animation business, how they got along when Norm was a kid, and whether Floyd got Norm any summer jobs at the Disney studio. (Maybe one of my readers will know the answers.) Norm had quite a long resume, evidently starting at TV Spots, Inc. in 1951 as an art director! He evidently started at the top. He art directed King Leonardo and His Short Subjects in 1960, Calvin and the Colonel in 1962, both for TV Spots. By 1963, he was doing layout on the Funny Company series where he probably worked with John Sparey, and in 1966 did storyboard and layout on the “Super 6” series for Depatie-Freleng, their first TV cartoon. By the time I met him when he was partners with Fred Calvert, Norm was doing layout on anything that Fred rounded up, George of the Jungle, Wacky Races, Three Musketeers, etc. Norm was an all-around artist who could draw practically anything and did! One of the last series he worked on with Fred was Emergency Plus-4, where he did layout, with Kimi Calvert doing the art direction. After 1973, Norm worked on an odd series called Drawing Power, a strange live-action/animation combination show, produced by Kim and Gifford in New York. Norm was an animator on the show, in which an actor named Bob Kaliban played “Pop”, an old animator who entertains children with his magical drawing board, and thus encourages youngsters to draw. It had very crude, chroma-key special effects, but was a novel-toon series. Norm when on to work as a timing director on Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears in 1985, Galaxy High School in 1986, Denver, the Last Dinosaur in 1989 and Widget the World Watcher for Bill Kroyer in 1991, where he was animation director. In addition, Norm did layout and design on many TV commercials for all sorts of clients, including of course, the Kellogg’s Leo Burnett stable, Green Giant, etc. Norm, Kimi, Iwao Takamoto and Fred Calvert were all very serious-minded people to whom animation was a nuts-and-bolts kind of business, in which a Sally Sargent, Emergency Plus-4, I Am The Greatest or George of the Jungle, were all pretty much the same thing. Just get ’em out, get ’em done and do ’em non-Union so we don’t have to pay benefits or health and welfare. When I met Duane Crowther at Fred’s studio, he was just the opposite of all the rest of the studio. Duane seemed to have a good time with his animation, and was easy to talk to.

I wish I could have talked to Norm Gottfredson a lot more, but being a real neophyte at the time, I was not encouraged to “take up his time”. He was a real talent, and admired by many people, but became part of the faceless army of TV animation enablers. As a timing director and animation director, he no doubt greased the wheels for the ultimate non-Union production, “overseas”. Norm, I hardly knew ya, but I was saddened to read of your passing on July 16th, in the Union paper. It’s interesting that The Pegboard only printed your activity with Union shops for the most part, never mentioning Fred Calvert.

I noticed that Joan-Ellen “Joanie” Gerber passed away on August 22. Joanie was a voice-over actor who did some of the “Lady Bugs of the Evening” voices on “Shinbone Alley” back in 1969, the feature film where I got my first scene of professional animation to do. She did voices on a lot of the same shows that Norm Gottfredson worked on, such as “Super 6”. One of her first jobs was on the TV cartoon version of “Beany and Cecil” for Bob Clampett in 1959. She did voices on “Heidi’s Song”, for Hanna-Barbera, the “Jokebook” show for H-B, Tex Avery’s “Kwicky Koala” for H-B, the revived Chipmunks series in 1984 and many many more. Read her career listing on IMDB. Her most recent credit was for Tony Cervone and Spike Brandt’s “Duck Dodgers” series.  I never had the chance to work closely with Joanie, but she must have been in demand, she worked a long time in one of the few animation jobs that can’t be out-sourced, the voices! She did a lot of baby voices, old lady voices and teenage girls as well. Maybe she will get a longer obit later on. This one: seems so puny.

Felix from 2-25 to 3-3-1935, has Felix once more defending his reputation as a good luck mascot by rescuing the sailors from their marooned diving-bell under the ocean. After fighting off monster fish for days, Felix is presented with still ANOTHER fish for his dinner! In the Sunday, Felix is still in Dreamland, and in another Winsor McCay swipe, rides away on a “Night-mare”!

Krazy is from 1-6 to 1-11-1941 this time. Ignatz tries to take a flower in a pot to Krazy a coupla times, but the Pupp manages to keep the pot. In the 11-8, Ignatz suggests improvements to the “Jail”, which he is imprisoned for suggesting. “Boorjwa”, exclaims Ignatz, one of my Grandma’s favorite words. Mrs. Kwakk-Wakk figures in the strips for the rest of the week, nearly getting caught in her own web of gossip.

Patrick is clearly labelled this time, from 11-7 to 11-12-1966. Patrick is quite a “biter” this week, sinking his teeth into Elsa and Godfrey. The 11-11 strip features the debut of Patrick’s new little brother in his playpen. He will make several more appearances in the strips to come, always confined to the pen. Watch for him! Soon!