Talk:Reg Hartt
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Saturday, April 22, 2006 Friz Vs. Clampett on Timing (Pt. 1)
God bless Friz Freleng. He is in no way my all-time favorite director at Warner Bros. (a topic heavily debated recently, my personal favorite will always remain Jones, followed very closely by Clampett), but he was probably one of the most solid directors to ever work in the industry. Very, very few directors can be claimed to have consistency in delivering a well-done and overall enjoyable product for their entire career, and Friz is most certainly one of them. What I think he did best, and this is why I admire his work, was timing. His sense of it was unique, because he knew HOW to deliver the punchline and to get the biggest laughs from all members of the audience. It's nowhere near as razor-sharp as Clampett's, whose timing I do prefer, but Clampett was brilliant as well, and brilliance doesn't appeal to all people.
Case in point. I have been to several unbiased (and unsupported by Warners) screenings. One I remember fondly was one of Reg Hartt's in Toronto. Only my father and I and a few others (two were a couple whose idea of a night at the movies was a six-pack of beer and watching Warner Bros. Cartoons... my kind of people!) were in attendance.
Reg played a lot of great ones, the best from all the directors. These other people, none of whom were very scholarly animation wise, laughed their asses off at I TAW A PUTTY TAT, HIGH DIVING HARE, RABBIT'S KIN, AWFUL ORPHAN, and BULLY FOR BUGS. I was amazed that not even the booze made them find brilliant shorts like THE GREAT PIGGY BANK ROBBERY, TIN PAN ALLEY CATS, or THE BIG SNOOZE remotely entertaining.-- Thad Komorowski http://classicanimation.blogspot.com/2006_04_16_classicanimation_archive.html
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Thad has made primal judgment errors here. That’s because he is a boy not a man. He is taking what he sees through a keyhole to be what we see when the door is open.
He assumes that the audience reaction for this program would be the same reaction for every audience. I can say from experience this is not so. Each audience is completely different.
Secondly, he assumes that just because folks do not laugh their heads off they don't appreciate what they are seeing. I found out that is not true years ago when I ran a program of killer Tex Avery cartoons to a packed house. Not one person laughed out loud. "They must not like these films," I thought.
When they walked out every single person (there were hundreds of them) stopped by and said to me, "Thank you. That was really great!" Had Thad been there and walked out without standing by me he would have thought, incorrectly, no one found the films funny.
TIN PAN ALLEY CATS is such an awesome work that most people are blown away by it. After all, it does in 6 1/2 minutes what YELLOW SUBMARINE does in 90. It is not uncommon for the film not to get a single laugh. Does that mean people do not like it? No, it does not. People come up to me after having seen it and say, "Wow! I never knew they made them that good!" Genuine awe always generates silence.
I am not particularly fond of fans. In fact I encourage fans and film buffs not to come to my programs. I have yet to meet a fan I wanted to know. I doubt any other artist has either. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Fame is proof the public is gullible." Gullible people are boring.
After fans come critics. Just as street people spend their days drinking cheap booze so critics spend their lives watching mainly bad movies. It does not take long for their sense of taste to be completely lost.
A local critic wrote the standard politically correct tripe about D. W. Griffith and THE BIRTH OF A NATION. The piece had more holes than Swiss cheese. The very least of his errors was crediting Edna Ferber (SHOWBOAT) with having authored Margaret Mitchell’s GONE WITH THE WIND.
When this was pointed out to him by myself and a great Griffith scholar did he have a change of heart for the better, admit his error and correct the record. No, he did not. He let the lie stand. He’s a nice guy but there nothing to him. Everything he writes is laced with convention. In Hexagram # 48, THE WELL, of THE I CHING we read:
“The town may be changed, But the well cannot be changed. It neither decreases nor increases. They come and go and draw from the well. If one gets down almost to the water And the rope does not go all the way, Or the jug breaks, it brings misfortune.”
The rope not going all the way means we stay rooted in convention, what we have been taught to believe. We fail to break through.
Damn few film writers are worth reading.
When I first began doing these programs (nearly thirty years ago) one group of fans told me that Chuck Jones had made Tex Avery angry because he had claimed credit for creating Bugs Bunny in a Peter Bogdanovich ESQUIRE interview. I had not read the interview. I printed that mis-information in an issue of my publication, ANIMAzine.
In 1980 Mr. Jones agreed to come to Toronto for a three day symposium. I sent him a set of ANIMAzines. He sent me back a letter which was one of the finest and most richly deserved spankings I have ever received plus a copy of the ESQUIRE interview. I found that he had taken great pains with Bogdanovich to ensure that credit went where it was due. In the book collection of his ESQUIRE interviews Bogdanovich included an angry letter from Tex about the issue, yes, but Tex mis-read the piece himself.
I did not deserve it but Chuck Jones became one of my best supporters. Before he passed away he sent me a hand created Grinch Xmas card on which he wrote, "Your thoughts are always close to my heart, Hartt." He was a great teacher.
Speaking of which there was at that time (and still may be as far as I know) no greater mine field to wade through than the one between the Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett camps.
I come down squarely in the Clampett camp because I worked with him organizing my events. I never met a more caring, considerate, generous, helpful man than Bob. Period. In conversation with me he always made sure I got my facts straight. He was generous to an extreme with giving proper credit to others.
Bob was also someone who actively went out of his way to help new people (a thing hardly anyone does).
I remember the day John Kricfalusi came to me in shock. It was the fall of 1978. He had been kicked out of Sheridan College as his teachers thought he had no talent and told him he was a bad influence.
Bob invited John to live in the apartment over his garage in Hollywood. "Find a job. Earn while you learn. Bring as many of your friends as you can," Bob told John. John had dropped by to let me know he was leaving. He gave me Bob Clampett's phone number so I could get in touch. Without Bob Clampett John Kricfalusi would never have gotten the chance he got. John was just one of the many Bob helped.
That particular day, it was a Sunday, I ran a program at Innis College on the University of Toronto campus that went from noon to midnight. I had a total of eight people all day.
I said to myself, "If I am going to get through the year I need to do something new."
That night when I got home I invited Bob Clampett to Toronto for a three day symposium in the summer of 1979. The next morning Bob called and said he would be glad to come.
Every Sunday at Innis College I offered four hours of cartoons. These were not easy shows to do. It was almost impossible to get the content. I had to buy the films. Basically I was giving a course in animation history to one student, myself. I wanted to see everything I could. I was buying the films. I needed an audience to be able to experience the films properly.
The worst way to see these films is alone. They are meant to be experienced sitting with tons of other people. Joe Adamson in his book TEX AVERY, KING OF CARTONS writes that TORTOISE BEATS HARE is not very good. As a result, though I had a print, I did not show it. One day I thought, "How much harm can one bad cartoon do in a four hour show?" To my astonishment it blew the roof off the house.
There is so much misinformation in animation history books it is unbelievable. I invited one author who was passing through Toronto over. He came. I showed him many of the films he had written about. I did not say a word. I let the films speak for themselves. After seeing them he said, "Damn it! That's what I get for relying on second hand information. I am going to have to re-write that book." The number one source for this maasive misinformation is the fan.
The only animation historian we can trust is Leonard Maltin.
Many of the other writers are nice but dumb. I don't think they have ever really been laid (a common experience movie fans share). They may like the Bunny but they don't make love like bunnies.
I first got interested in Hollywood Animation when I read the Winter 1975 issue of FILM COMMENT which was devoted to the Hollywood Cartoon. I had no idea such interesting work had been done. I had not seen most of the films I read about. I wanted to.
When I went to Disney, Fox, Columbia, Warners', Universal, MGM, Paramount to rent the films they all (except Disney) told the same tale. It cost more in paperwork than they made off the rentals. They had tossed their cartoon libraries in the trash. Disney did not have the ones I wanted to see.
Fate stepped in. I got a phone call from a retired man who told me he had some old cartoons for sale. I bought his collection (these films were once offered in legitimate 16mm prints for the home market, then in 8mm and now on vhs and dvd. The beauty of the 16mm prints is that they are uncensored).
The first program I did I pulled only a handful of people. When they talked with me I listened. They were interesting people. When I did the program again a few weeks later the people working with me said, "Only eight people came out for that program last time. Why are you doing it again?" "Because they were eight interesting people," I replied. "You are crazy," they said.
After the program ran they said, "How did you know you'd get so many people?"
When I did it the third time we had to turn people away.
"How did you know that would happen?" they asked.
The more shows I did the more people called me with cartoons for sale. I went from having to look everywhere to where people now come to me.
From the get-go I wanted my audience to know what was special about the films they were seeing.
I took Lon Chaney in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA to a college to show to five hundred students. "Do not be angry but they are going to laugh and talk all through the film," their teachers told me. "Not today," I replied.
I went up and introduced the picture. One of the teachers said, "I told you this would happen We should not have invited him."
I took half an hour. The kids listened to every word. I spoke about how Lon Chaney's parents were deaf mutes; about how, at that time, if a person had any physical malfunction they were looked at as children of Satan which means that Chaney grew up knowing what it is to be looked at as a monster. I told them how he had learned pantomime so he could talk to his parents. Then I said the girl is the monster in this movie not the Phantom. She is that person you loved who thought you were not good enough for her. She is that person who broke your heart. She is that person who said to you, "Good bye, honey, and I am keeping the money."
I had created the score for the film myself. I composed it out of the kind of music that would have been heard in the actual Paris opera house at that time. I explained that I had created the score to be the voice of The Phantom. The lights went down. The film began.
The students gave the film their full attention. When it ended they were on their feet stomping and cheering. They came by where I was and said, "That was really great! I had no idea silent films were this good!" Each asked where they could see more of my work.
Meanwhile their teachers, with dumb looks on their faces, said, "They have never done that before. I wonder why they are doing it now?" We can lead a horse to water. We can not make him drink.
I do the same with my animation programs. There is no shortage of fans on the web carping about the fact they have to listen to me. Some advise people to come late so they can miss the talks. As the London, Sunday TELEGRAPH put it, “Hartt’s shows are brilliant! And they usually sell out!” Come late and you won’t get in.
David Ogilvy (who built the ad agency OGILVY AND MATHER up from nothing) in his book CONFESSIONS OF AN ADVERTISING MAN teaches that the secret to successful advertising is not to try to sell but to simply give your audience information. "Information sells," he says. Of course, getting information is hard work. That is why modern ads are so pale. They are all flash.
When I announced that Bob Clampett would be coming to Toronto the fans said, "We don't care. We just want to see the films."
I have always found creators more interesting than their creations.
I gave the matter some thought. There had to be a way to do this without them.
I took a chance on a full page ad in David Mruz's xlnt fanzine MINDROT, the journal of the animated cartoon. I offered 200 cartoons over three days plus the chance to meet and learn from Bob Clampett.
One particularly noxious fan was telling everyone not to buy tickets to the event. I gave him a ticket. That took care of that.
Then word began to come in from all over the planet. I pulled people from across Canada and the United States (including Hollywood). People came from England, France, Italy, Greece, Russia, Germany, China, Japan. People came from everywhere.
The locals fans complained the event was too expensive (it was pay what you can as I wanted everyone to be able to meet and learn from Bob who wanted to and I did not want them kept out because they could not afford it).
Bob had never met an audience that gave him so much love. He and his wonderful wife, Sody, were treated as royalty (which, in a very real sense he was and Sody is).
One thing I knew for sure was that a printed program would kill the festival. Once an audience knows what is coming they lose interest.
The worst thing a film maker can do is take a course in film making. In his book MEMO David Selznick writes, “When you make a B picture you use a script. When you make an A, you improvise.”
I had promised two hundred films. I had over five hundred in the projection booth. As soon as the audience seemed to lose interest I showed them something completely different. Because they never knew what to expect they watched riveted.
Basically I collectively masturbated the entire audience slowing down when I sensed an orgasm, picking up when I felt interest flagging but never allowing them to shoot their load until they saw the last film in the program. If that sounds gross, well, that is what entertainment is all about. You can not be a great entertainer unless you are a great lover. You don't get to be a great lover confining yourself to just one sex.
I imagined the audience as a giant vulva in which I had my finger; a giant penis on which I had my hand. My job was to make that cunt and cock feel better than it ever had.
I knew a fellow who had a penis not much larger than a baby's. Of course, he felt he was inadequate.
He went to New York. A much older woman in her sixties took him on as her lover (he was 18).
When he came back to Toronto it was amazing to watch women react to him. Any bar, club or space he entered women were drawn to him automatically. He just oozed the knowledge that he could make love. He glowed.
It ain’t what you got. It is what we do with what we got. As the native people put it, “Ride proud on a poor horse.”
So guys, toss out those penis enlargement devices and go get yourself a much older woman with lots of experience to be your teacher. As Zorba the Greek puts it, "A real man unbuckles his belt and looks for trouble."
I threw on an old Terrytoon. "Why are you showing us this crap? demanded one of the few fans at the event. As soon as the film was over a fellow from Britain charged up to me shouting, "Wow! That was brilliant. I have never seen anything like it."
The biggest complaint I have with the Warner animation dvd collections is that they are too fan driven. Fans are the absolute worst people to listen to. Fans as a whole are a bunch of old women gossiping over the back yard fence. Fans may think it is a great idea to put a bunch of cartoons dealing with a single theme in a package. The public, however, when confronted with that says, "Why are we being shown the same film over and over again?"
The people putting these collections together have absolutely no sense of show business.
On top of that fans always show the best films first so that audience interest goes down instead of up. We must never lose sight of the fact that the first thing we are here to do is entertain. Entertainment works best when the audience is learning. But if the learning comes first the audience loses interest. Audiences demand, rightfully, to be seduced.
By and large fans are sexually immature. Whenever I introduced A TALE OF TWO KITTIES and told how Bob Clampett had modelled Tweety on his own nude baby picture the fans would get angry and say, "That's not true!" Of course, it is true.
Other fans say it is not true that Bugs Bunny flashes his multiplication equipment in THE WABBIT WHO CAME TO SUPPER. Technically, they are right. Bugs steps out of Elmer Fudd's shower and drops his towel enough to let us see his crotch. The illusion is created for all of the audience (except the sexually immature fans) that we are seeing more of Bugs than we thought we would. It is a brilliant throw away gag. It gets a helluva laugh whenever I show the film.
Chuck Jones was doing a presentation locally when a fan in the audience asked if it was true he was almost fired for making THE DOVER BOYS. "Yes," Jones told him.
"Well," said the fan, "I still don't believe the rest of those stories Reg Hartt tells."
One of my favorite stories comes from Shamus Culhane (another caring, considerate, generous, helpful man). Shamus and I talked nearly every day on the phone while he was alive. Ditto, Grim Natwick. I learned a helluva lot from him. One day Shamus called and said, "Reg! I'm writing a novel about the history of animation. You will never guess how it starts!"
My first thought was it started with a blow job. Shamus laughed and said, "It starts with a blow job in the back of a car!"
He passed away before he got that novel finished. I was invited to New York to do a presentation at the famed Thalia Theatre. I did it on condition I could do a tribute to Shamus Culhane. "Who is he?" they asked. "The reason why I will come to your theatre," I replied.
I got there and found my name on the marquee. "Take that down. Put SHAMUS CULHANE up there," I said.
That night, at the main event, the legendary Al Aronowitz introduced me to the audience.
Al had been a crime reporter for the New York Post in the 1950's. His editor's son was hanging out with some crazy homosexuals who smoked pot, sucked c**k, f*****d butt, flashed switchblade knives and spouted poetry. He sent Al down to write a hatchet piece.
Al said, "When I walked in I realized that for the first time in my life I was in the presence of living poets."
Instead of writing a hatchet piece Al wrote the first positive piece about Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs to appear in the media.
He met Bob Dylan in a laundromat, said, "Come with me," and took the kid to Allen Ginsberg who took one look at Bob and then did his best to get the pants of him. Bob was a drop dead beautiful boy in those days.
Al introduced Mick Jagger to Miles Davis and when The Beatles came to America and he found they had never smoked pot he left them so grateful they gave him part of an album. Al introduced me to New York. He got up and said, "Let me tell you why I love Reg Hartt."
What a way to come to the Big Apple!
Al had written a book called THE BLACKLISTED MASTERPIECES OF AL ARONOWITZ. I had written to him after I read about him in a New York paper. He wrote back. One day he called. We talked a lot on the phone. He told me no one would give him a reading. I brought him to Toronto. That started a tour that took him across America (most animators I have met today are culturally illiterate). The day after the Thalia Theatre event Al gave me the Cook's tour of New York and got me so stoned I could barely move. You can see pictures of Al at my site: http://groups.msn.com/DinnerAtCineforum.
I did six shows back to back that day. I never worked harder in my life. Most of the folks for the first show stayed for the second. Only the fans left. "What an asshole that guy is," they muttered.
On the third show the few fans in the audience asked the theatre to shut me up. When they were told, "Mr. Hartt [b]IS [/b][u]the show," they demanded and got refunds.
By the fourth show we had the bulk of the audience from the first, second and third shows staying over.
When it got down to time for Shamus the place was full of people who had been there all day. Shamus' health was such he could not introduce his work. Those who knew him then know how frail he was. "If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself," he told me. Shamus' wife, Juana, was a real blessing. She is that rare combination of inner and outer beauty that glows in the night.
I spoke for Shamus. He had many friends in that house that night.
When everything was done an old Chinese man who had sat back by the projection booth all day from the first moment to the last said to me, "Thank you. This has been the best day of my life."
Over the years literally millions of people have said that.
A few years after Shamus passed on a fellow in Toronto got the city to publish a paper for street people to sell. I offered to write a history of animation that would be continued in each issue. I decided to start it with Shamus Culhane's blow job story. That was too much. The city burned all 250,000 copies of the paper.
When I invited Friz Freleng to Toronto I asked if he would care for a fee.
"Can I bring my wife?" he asked. I wondered who would say no to a question like that.
"Yes," I said.
"In that case, there is no fee," he told me.
I found out later that when the art galleries colleges, museums, schools, universities, film societies etcetera were asked that question they always said, "It's not in our budget." Mr. Freleng would then demand and get a fee of $10,00.00 which he gave to his wife for shopping money while she was out of town with him
I was excited about his visit. Not so the animation students at Sheridan College in Oakville who all said, "He is old hat. He has nothing to teach us."
At that time I was head of a non-profit company with a board of directors. They took a vote. I was told to call Mr. Freleng and tell him the event was off..
I went out to the front office. "Hello, Reg," said Mr. Freleng as I picked up the phone. It had not even rung. He had called me before I even dialed. This is called synchronicity (meaningful coincidence in time).
"Yes, Mr. Freleng," I said.
"DePatie-Freleng has folded. I am back at Warner Brothers. They do not want me going anywhere they don't approve of. They don't approve of you."
My first thought was, "Gee, I am off the hook. All I have to say is 'Well that's too bad,' and I won't lose face." I said, "How do you feel about it."
"Well, I gave you my word and my wife is looking forward to the trip."
"Then I guess you are coming up," I said.
My board of directors looked at me in shock.
Then I flew down to New York where I talked with the head of the Warner Brothers' legal department. I had listed five of Mr. Freleng's films on the flyer announcing the event.
"Where did you get the prints of these films?" I was asked.
"I don't have them. Mr. Freleng got Academy Awards for those pictures."
The lawyer's name was Bernard Sworkin. He is a gentleman. "Oh, those are his credits," he said. We had a pleasant chat. Mr. Freleng came to Toronto. Bernard Sworkin is a memorable man. I genuinely enjoyed meeting him. He, himself, was worth the trip.
I brought Mr. Freleng and his wife to Toronto via AIR CANADA FIRST CLASS. I told them they had the creator of the Pink Panther and many of the finest films starring Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam and more on board. They put Friz in the Captain's seat when the plane landed in Toronto. I put them up at the Royal York Hotel. This was five star all the way without a dime of anybody's money but mine.
I wanted to learn. For animation Mr. Freleng, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Bernard B. Brown, Grim Natwick and Shamus Culhane were the best possible teachers I could ask for.
On top of that there was no fixed fee for my events. They were all done done on a pay-what-u-can basis. In most cases pay-what-u-can means pay-as-little-as-you-can. Not this time. Generosity breeds generosity. There never were many animation students at any of my symposia. What few there were though were the best ones.
There may not have been many animation students in the audience but there were tons of regular people.
We were packed.
What I did not know was how hot the Pink Panther (whom Friz had created) was.
Friz was astonished to discover that this crowd cared more about meeting him than they did about seeing his films. It was the only time in his life when he received the respect that a Pablo Picasso or a Salvador Dali got from their public. He deserved it. He was in their league. He is one of the great unsung artists of the twentieth century.
"I am only going to talk for half an hour," he said going in.
Three hours later (and not a film shown) he was still going strong. The crowd poured out so much love that the years fell off. He found himself energized by the experience. "I was told you are doing something good up here. I am glad I came," he said.
For three days and three wonderful nights Friz Freleng poured out his wealth of knowledge. I have a wee bit of it preserved on a dvd which is available on request. Every word Bob Clampett spoke was also recorded. I have a huge set of cds of Bob plus dvds and cds of Grim Natwick and Shamus Culhane that are also available on request. I also self-published books of the Clampett, Freleng and Narwick talks (animation students and fans are not the least bit interested in this material).
That Christmas (and every Christmas up to his passing) I called Friz to wish him the best.
"You are the finest host I ever met," he said that first Christmas adding, "Lilly sends her love."
That means more to me than money. So, Thad, Friz may not be one of your favorites. He got five Academy Awards for his work. He was doing something right. He was one of the best teachers I ever had.
When Bob Dylan switched from acoustic to electric the fans (thousands of them) said they had come to hear acoustic and if they were not going to get acoustic they wanted their money back.
"Go git it and git out," said Bob.
The last people serious artists should concern themself with are the fans.
The best thing about these films now being available on dvd is that it keeps the fans away from my door.
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"I want no part of the group dynamic. The group by nature is always second rate. I am a star."--Katharine Hepburn when invited at the start of her acting career to join New York's prestigious Group Theatre.
"Like the belief of the terminally ill in medicine, the belief of the legitimately frightened in the educational process is a comforting lie."--David Mamet, TRUE AND FALSE.
