So Long Sam
Here is my friend Sam Cornell’s obituary from the Pegboard, the Animation Guild’s newsletter:
Sam Cornell d. 5/01/2021 – Industry veteran Sam Cornell is
known for his varied work on Twilight Zone: The Movie, The
Rugrats Movie, The Wuzzles, and Shinbone Alley. His many roles
included Storyboard Artist, Layout Artist, and Title Designer. He
also directed numerous commercials with classic characters such
as Tony the Tiger and the Keebler Elves.
I guess that’s a little start on a career summary, but it misses the real Sam. I think Sam would like to be remembered as an excellent cartoonist, a really fun and cordial kind of guy and a husband and father, which I assume that he was. Sam was a dark haired slightly beefy guy with a big dark mustache. He had dark eyes that sometimes sparkled merrily. Sadly it’s been so many years since I’ve seen any of his family that I can hardly remember them. I remember that one of Sam’s children was in the “Indian Guides”, sort of an alt-world Boy Scouts, and that Sam was a senior Guide. We love George Herriman around the old Catblog, and Sam was the first animated cartoonist I met in So. Cal. who also loved Garge and of course early Disney design. If you look to the top of the post, you will see one of Sam’s layouts from the “Archy Declares War” sequence in the feature cartoon, “Shinbone Alley”, directed by John Wilson. Sam loved to talk old cartoons and cartoon history and gave me a lot of ideas for study. He was one of the first adults I met who made it OK to really enjoy old cartoons and really appreciate what made the drawings good and appealing. Look at the control he had with Pentel felt pens, he could get a good approximation of steel point inking and could draw Krazy and Ignatz in his own way, while paying tribute to Herriman at the same time. Frank Andrina was the animator on the “Archy Declares War” sequence, and I wound up doing inbetweens for him. Frank knew how MUCH I wanted to animate a professional scene, and he gave me one of my first chances to do so. Just below Sam’s layout you will see a cel set-up from that first scene, a marching army of bugs led by General Roach himself. Sam designed these characters as well. Frank animated all the scenes in this part of “Shinbone Alley” in felt tip pen, and all us inbetweeners had to follow him up with pen drawings as well. These were then Xeroxed on to cels. In the old days, good inkers would have been relied on to get the Herriman “line”, but by 1969, animators and assistants were responsible for the final line quality that reached the screen.
  A few years later, Sam Cornell and fellow Chouinardian Gary Katona, formed a little company called Pacific Motion Pictures. I was hired on as a staff animator, I even had a business card! Randy Akers, who was a good friend of Gary’s was an art director for the little company. One of the most fun TV commercials we made was for Popeye Video Games. We styled the characters a bit like Segar, a bit like Bela Zaboly and a little bit like Fleischer. Randy actually constructed real sets for the spot, which were photographed on a sound stage. The idea was to emulate the Fleischer “Stereoptical Process” 3-D backgrounds without actually sculpting and building the miniature sets. In the finished commercial, you can hardly see the sets with their glass brick and translucent counter tops for the animated characters exposed over the live action “plates”. I remember that Randy was kind of upset that my ugly animation was blocking his beautiful sets. In the layout for Sc two (see above), you can see how much room I gave Popeye and Bluto/Brutus and just how much they covered Randy’s set, which I traced in red from the photostat. I think Sam liked the look I gave Popeye, Olive and Bluto/Brutus. At the time it seemed so futuristic to have old Popeye playing the new thing called a “Video Game” of himself. Now it seems quaint as the Popeye video game looks very early 1980s. Sam also directed at FilmFair studio in the San Fernando Valley, run by former animator Gus Jekel. A lot of talented people worked there, including Bob Kurtz, who had his own little subdivision of FilmFair called “Festival Films”. Sam supervised the more traditional animated commercials, such as Charlie the StarKist tuna, and Ernie Keebler from the cookie family. A lot of old timers hung around FilmFair picking up work, I met Rudy Zamora Sr., who dated back to the silent Felix the Cat cartoons and the Fleischer cartoons in New York. Rudy didn’t look his age at all, he still had very black hair and a lot of energy. One of Sam’s favorite animators was Stan Walsh, who was one of the original partners in Quartet Films, along with Mike Lah and Art Babbitt. Stan was a rock solid traditional animator who did beautiful stuff on Charlie Tuna. In the 1970s and 80s, traditional animators were called “Mouldy Fig” and “Centerline Animators”. If you didn’t draw like Heinz Edelman (the top designer on “Yellow Submarine”) you were relegated to the sidelines. People like Stan Walsh were just taken for granted, along with people like Hicks Lokey and Amby Paliwoda. These guys could really draw volumetrically and could turn and twist a character in any direction, which came in handy for characters like Tony Tiger, Ernie Keebler and Charlie Tuna. Sam admired cartoonists who drew “funny” and well. Here’s a link to the ONLY radio interview ever done with Sam: HERE. In this interview, Sam talks about his involvement with the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962 and the creation of the Unisphere with Harper Goff, a Disney Imagineer. Harper said that Sam drew with a “Funny Pencil”, and that really sums up Sam’s approach to drawing. He just couldn’t help being a clown with cartooning. We worked on quite a few things, notably an animated sequence for the “It’s A Good Life” seqiemce of theTwilight Zone movie, designed by Sally Cruikshank. Ethel, played by Nancy Cartwright (who eventually became the voice of Bart Simpson and a multi-millionaire) is wished in to Cartoonland by Anthony, played by Jeremy Licht, where Ethel is eaten up by a Sally Cruikshank monster. The main flaw in the sequence is that Ethel’s demise is not gory enough. We had fun making our part of the sequence, but had a hard time balancing the flatness of Sally’s designs with the dimensional look required to work with a live actor (Nancy). I also animated part of the title sequence for the “New Woody Woodpecker Show”, in which Woody was being chased by Wally Walrus. At first Sam thought the animation was too “fast”, but changed his mind when all the inbetweens were done and the cels were painted. I really enjoyed animating one of my favorite characters, Woody. I applied several times for work at the Lantz studio in the early 1970s, only to be told that “You’re gonna have to wait until some of these guys DIE before we’d ever hire YOU!” Sam gave me the chance to at last do one scene with the red headed rascal.
Sam did take a drink or two occasionally, and I think he may have been a smoker, judging by the slightly wheezy tone of his voice. The girls liked Sam a lot, he had a knack of making them laugh and complimenting them at the same time. Sam unfortunately was in a terrible car accident, in which he ran his convertible off the highway and right under a roadside billboard, as I recall. He broke nearly every bone in his body, and I visited him in the hospital. I think he tried to laugh a little, but it was too painful for him. He walked with a cane for the rest of his life, but bounced back almost as jovial and convivial as he was before the accident.
The last time I heard from him was just about three years ago. Sam was in a care facility in Ojai where his family had placed him and he called me on the phone one Sunday afternoon. He was very cordial and complimentary to me about my animation for him over the years. He wouldn’t say just what ailment was keeping him in the facility, but he did say he liked the place. I really enjoyed hearing from him. About a year later, my wife and I were in Ojai for a film festival and tried to find the care facility where Sam had called me from, but he had been moved somewhere else by then. I don’t know what was the actual cause of Sam’s demise, perhaps it was complications from his car accident injuries. It’s not pleasant to dwell on what he died from, it’s a lot more fun to remember Sam the Funny Cartoonist!
You can see from some of the images I’ve collected here, that Sam tried to make every assignment from him as much fun as he could. The little drawings and notes really made me want to get in to animating the scenes. I especially like the self-portrait that Sam put on an envelope that contained “Approx. 35 Feet inside here for Mark!” Note the cocktail glass and the severed foot alongside Sam’s portrait. Sam drew himself with Mickey ears because he liked the Mouse and did direction and layout for several commercials featuring Mickey and the Disney characters. If you listen to the radio interview, Sam outlines some of these commercials combining live action and animation. That envelope held the layouts to the last animation I did for Sam, a Keebler commercial with a runaway “Magic Oven” pursued by a Keebler elf, as you can see on one of the ruffs I did for the spot.
To give you an idea of Sam’s “funny Pentel”, I’ve included a couple of his drawings from a Super Sugar Crisp commercial he directed with Sugar Bear and a couple of vultures in the cast. I love the lively effects he achieved with marker and white out to make Sugar Bear look “Super”, and the wild action implied as Sugar Bear faces the vultures. I also like the little cheek he drew on the Bear’s face, a real MGM cartoon/Harvey Eisenberg touch.Sam’s drawings were inspiring to work with, even though I had to re-interpret the characters to put them on model. I always kept Sam’s drawings pinned up on the desk to boost my enthusiasm. They bristled with energy!
It’s not easy to say goodbye to such a great friend and employer who valued my work. Sam’s “funny pencil” turned out hundreds of amusing sketches over the years. He even sent out funny Christmas cards, one of which featured a turbaned character in a Moroccan desert pushing a cart that was labelled: “Cheeses of Nazareth”. Sam was so well thought of at Jay Ward’s studio that there was an old animation table in the basement with a placard reading: “The Sam Cornell Memorial Desk”. Maybe that desk is still there, along with the memories and funny drawings that Sam left in it. I learned from the Union newspaper, “The Pegboard”, that Sam had passed away. I’m sure you can imagine dear reader, just what a sad discovery that was. So Long Sam!
Here’s a short list of work that Sam kept on his resume:
live -action/animation: Integration of live actors with animated characters.Director ; Hawaiian Punch; Jerseymaid Milk; Tony Tiger; Capt. Crunch; Quisp; Quake; Froot Loops Etc.Etc Storyboard;Jay Ward studios. George of the Jungle;etc
writing: :30 commercials Ogilvy and Mather, L.A. Main Titles design/direction Walt Disney T.V. Animation and Universal Cartoons. Director for Keebler commercials from 1962 through 2005 ( While at Duck Soup Studio in Santa Monica A VERY INTELLIGENT AND BEAUTIFUL MELISSA TIMME helped me in producing a series of commercials.)
Toy design, Mattel Toys.
Model maker;Seattle World’s Fair and New York World’s Fair
( anybody remember: “Hey, how ’bout a nice Hawaiian Punch?” “Sure.” POW!
Charles Brubaker says:
Very sorry to hear of Sam’s passing. I’m familiar with many cartoons he worked on.
Thanks for sharing your memories of him! Very touching.
Mark says:
Thanks for you comment, Charles! I’m very happy you commented. This post took many weeks to put together, I’m glad you liked it.
Paul Groh says:
My condolences, and thanks for this lovely tribute to Sam Cornell’s life and work.
I don’t think the animation in the Twilight Zone movie needed to be any gorier. By that point in the segment an intense mood of foreboding had already been established, thanks in no small measure to the use of classic cartoons like “Bimbo’s Initiation” in the background. The idea of being trapped in a cartoon world, for real, was quite scary enough.
I do indeed remember those Hawaiian Punch commercials! I think they may have backfired as far as promoting the product was concerned; whenever anyone offered you a “nice Hawaiian punch”, you’d turn it down if you knew what was good for you. I don’t think I ever tasted it. We were a Hi-C family.
Mark says:
Thanks Paul,
Is it true you are from Australia? Thanks for reading and commenting on my post. That’s a good comment you made on the Twilight Zone sequence. I was concerned when we made it that not enough people would get the point of Ethel’s murder. Glad you did.
POW! Mark
Paul Groh says:
I was born and raised in the Detroit area, but I’ve lived in Australia for over 20 years and became an Aussie citizen in 2005. Believe me, that was a terrifying sequence in the Twilight Zone movie — I watched it through a lattice of my fingers — and everyone involved in its making should be very proud of it.
David Nethery says:
Hi Mark –
Sorry to read of Sam’s death , but glad to have your share your memories of working with him (and along the way the other people you mention in the article) and the wonderful drawings. You put such care into crafting this beautiful biographical sketch and it shows. Hope you and Cathy are well and enjoying life
-D
Mark says:
Thanks David, For taking the time to read my Sam Cornell post. I really appreciate your comments.
All the best, Mark
David Koenigsberg says:
I had the honor of working with Sam back in the 1990’s on the animation segments for a CD-Rom Edutainment series called “The Wanna-Besâ€. I was the creative director for Cloud-9 Interactive where we hired Sam & his company, Cornell/Abood to produce the animation.
At that time he was partnered with Cheryl Abood and they had their offices at 4400 Coldwater Canyon in Suite 100 (the ground floor). The project we were working on was just terrible but I loved working with Sam and we swapped all sorts of stories for many afternoons!
Sam produced all the keys and exposure sheets which I had to approve and then he shipped them off to his favorite Japanese sub-contracting studio which I had never heard of and cannot remember the name of to this day!
During this period, as others have alluded to but I will emphasize, Sam was the only contractor outside of Disney, allowed to animate the classic Disney characters. (The Disney Afternoon syndication characters were not considered classic.) It was a big deal and a special honor for Sam.
When I was working with him, Sam was also animating a Flintstones cereal commercial layed out in the wonderful thick outlines of Scott Shaw! I loved how Sam hinted at the volume of Fred & Barney which you never rarely had the time or chance to do at the original H&B!
Sam was a great animator and a joy to work with. He will be missed.
Mark says:
Hi David, Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you enjoyed working with Sam as well. I didn’t know about his Japanese sub-contracting, I wouldn’t have approved, but that was his business. I remember too that Sam’s favorite drink was a Rob Roy. A guy named Mike Webster, who was at Disney, introduced Sam to them. I think Mike Webster was instrumental in getting Sam the special Disney outside contractor status. You know that Tex Avery documentary that was partially shot at your New Hollywood studio is making us immortal! TCM recently ran it, much to my surprise. I had a lot of energy in those days. Yours, Mark
Robert Alvarez says:
Don’t be too harsh with the obit in the Pegboard. They never seem to say enough about anyone’s passing ,especially when it is someone we knew and will miss. I never met Sam but reading your article made me feel that I too would have liked knowing and working with him. When friends or family members are gone their memories become treasures. I will tell you what I have said to others who grieve at the loss of of a close friend or family member. They will always be just a memory away. Stay well.
Mark says:
Thanks for your comment, Robert. I apologize if I was too hard on the Pegboard’s obit of Sam. It was not intentional to be mean to the obituary writers of the Union’s paper, just pointing out an irony. I appreciate your wise words on feeling grief. You know, I’m starting to get a little bit scared to read the Pegboard’s obits, it can be quite shocking to find out about the passing of old friends that I didn’t know about.
Greg Crosby says:
Mark, Because of your blog I have only just read of Sam’s passing. I had no idea that he was in a nursing facility. How sad. I was a good friend of his in the 1970’s when we worked together at Disney Consumer Products. I knew his kids and his ex wife, we spent a lot of time together. Sad to say we drifted apart and never got together again.
I’m sure you must remember me, I sold you an animation desk and you and I loved the same old animation stuff, including Tex Avery. I would love to talk to you more about those days. Please contact me at gregcrosby@aol.com.
thanks,
Greg
Mark says:
So good to hear from you, Greg! I’ll be in touch with you by email. Thanks so much for reading my blog and commenting about Sam.
Yours, Mark