Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol back on NBC!

Classic Media informs me that NBC, the original broadcaster for Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, will be showing the special during prime time on Dec. 22 at 8 PM in honor of its 50th anniversary.  Much has changed on television since 1962 and one thing is length.  A broadcast hour then was 52 minutes with the balance being taken up by commercials.  A broadcast hour today is 44 minutes so expect to see some cuts made in the story, perhaps the absence of a song as well.  However, it's nice to see a national broadcaster revive the special after so many years of its absence from the air.  Thank you Classic Media and NBC!

The 50th Anniversary Edition is here!

It's finally here!  Pictured above is the 50th anniversary collector's edition of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special.  For those wondering if they should order this edition, I've decided to answer a few questions on how and why this book came about. 

 Why a 50th anniversary edition of a book that's been out for several years? 

When I first published the book in 2009, I had proposed doing a special edition for the 50th anniversary in 2012 figuring it was several years away.  The first book did better than anyone expected and sold out quickly.  It wasn't in my plans but due to demand, I decided to do a second run with corrections inserted wherever I could.  That edition is on the verge of selling out now. 

In October of last year, a good friend asked me if I was still going to do a 50th book.  I told him it was time to move on but he made it clear he felt something needed to be done to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the special and this might be the only thing to happen.  Not only that, he was willing to put his money where his mouth was.  Although touched, I still wasn't completely convinced.  It was only after I mentioned it to several other interested parties who were also willing to support the project that I agreed to do it.

Isn't this just a ploy to sell the same book three times over?

I'm not that smart.  This is not a money-making venture.  If it weren't for the 'angel investors' mentioned above, this book wouldn't exist.  Those 'angels' have to be paid back from the proceeds of book sales, not an easy task when the print run is so low.  Also, as I mentioned above, there was never supposed to be a second printing and although this edition uses the same format as the previous ones, it has been thoroughly revised and expanded.  It is no easy job to tear apart a book, insert hundreds of images and add text without destroying the narrative and then stitch it all back together. 

Then what's different about this edition as opposed to the previous printings?

 As I mentioned in a previous post, the book has been expanded to 176 pages from the original 128.  There are close to twice as many illustrations now, 435 vs. the original 232, which include: photos which were eliminated from the previous editions due to space restrictions, frames from the re-mastered film when no art could be found to reflect the text, discarded art from deleted sequences which give a glimpse into the production process and a large amount of new production art, most of which was discovered since the last printing.  I had hoped to include some images from Ronald Searle’s illustrations of "A Christmas Carol", showing the influence he had on this production, but the Searle attorneys were dismissive.  Fortunately, Timex was far more cooperative and there are some frames from the original opening credits.  

The book features heavier board and paper stock, printed endpapers, cloth binding in a cloth bound slipcase with gold foil stamping and limited to 250 numbered copies.  

Can I buy this at my local bookstore or on Amazon?

Yes and no.  Book retailers have an unfortunate habit of damaging books somewhere along the supply line; the publisher has to bear the cost of shipping the book to the distributor, having it become damaged and therefore no longer sell-able, and then paying to have the book shipped back.  It makes no sense on a premium book like this to risk that kind of damage and expense.  Although I may make the book available on Amazon, regardless of where you buy it, here or there, it will be coming from me.  It will not be available at your local bookstore.

If you want to order the book, you can get it here.  It's the definitive edition and when it's gone, it's gone.

The Recording of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, Pt. 1

In readying the 50^th anniversary edition of the book, I did a little more research into the facilities where Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol was recorded-the dialogue, the songs and the score.  In the first edition, I had chased all that information down, even to looking for the vaults where the recorded material might have been stored.  This time I was more interested in the recording facilities themselves and briefly considered adding images of the studios to the book while providing a little more history on the places.  Unfortunately, inserting this material proved disruptive to the narrative flow of the book so I decided to post it on the blog.

Altec Lansing crew, ca. 1944

The dialogue recording sessions were done at 1161 Vine Street in Hollywood at Ryder Sound Services.  Prior to serving as a recording and post-production studio for Ryder, the facility was the Hollywood headquarters of Altec Lansing, a pioneer in the field of recorded sound with an impressive list of accomplishments in the industry.  However, they were best known for providing and servicing sound systems for motion picture theaters.  They also helped promote professional quality sound systems for home use or, as it was known during the 50s, hi-fi.

Photo from 2009, facade has since been covered by vegetation.

Loren Ryder took over the facility after leaving his job at Paramount after a 20 year association.  Ryder, was a true engineering pioneer in the field of motion picture sound, helping to develop and usher in the era of magnetic tape.  Along the way, he won 5 Academy Awards for his work in motion pictures.  He had started his own business in 1948 but continued to work for Paramount until 1957 when he left for good.  Ryder’s reputation made the facility a highly regarded one, and his operation was kept busy by the then burgeoning business of TV production.  For decades, this building was home to entertainment sound engineering history.

Although UPA had a recording studio, as with many of the pre-production aspects of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, Orgel went for the best, booking his dialogue sessions at Ryder Sound Services.  The late Laura Olsher recalled that between the day's sessions, the actors went upstairs for lunch at a place called The Grapevine.  I have not been able to find corroborating information regarding the restaurant but I have no reason to doubt her memory.  A real estate listing from a few years ago shows a loft, which would have been the eatery in its heyday.

At the time of the recording sessions, the building still retained its old LA charm.  Since then, it has seen a a variety of uses, and has lost some of its original appeal, being painted a deep red with vegetation allowed to obscure its façade.  It’s currently home to Stereo D, a provider of 3D conversion services to the motion picture industry.

Mr. Magoo's stock pose

Ever wonder where this overused pose of Magoo came from?  It’s from a 1956 Rheingold beer ad:

Mr. Magoo and Rheingold beer

In a post last year, I discussed Magoo and his shilling for two different beers, Rheingold and Stag.  A few of the Stag spots have survived over the last 50+ years and can be found on various DVD commercial collections and on Youtube.  However, the Rheingold spots have yet to materialize in their full form as commercials.  We can get a little peak at what one of them looked like from some recently discovered storyboards, thumbnails presumed to be drawn by Magoo director, Pete Burness.  Click on each image to see it larger:

David Weidman show in LA

Followers of this blog will recognize the name David Weidman as one of the background painters on Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.  David will be having a showing of his stunning serigraphs tomorrow evening at The Animation Guild at 1105 N Hollywood Way in Burbank.  If you're in Los Angeles, it's definitely worth your time to stop by and meet David in person and check out his work.  If you would like to read more about David and his work on Christmas Carol, follow this link.  If you would like to order a book featuring his serigraphs, try this link.  And if you can't make the event but would still like to buy a print, go here.  Hope to see you there!

Mr. Magoo and UPA

Last January, I mentioned that there would be several Magoo related items being released this year.  The first was the seminal history on the UPA studio, When Magoo Flew, by Adam Abraham.  It tells the story of the unique studio that revolutionized animation design but was plagued by indecision, weak stories and poor production management, all of which eventually did it in.  While the studio eschewed what it felt were the rigid formulas of the other studios' output, UPA was no less rigid in it's ideological viewpoint; any mention of Warner Bros. cartoons, for example, was strictly verboten.  Bill Scott, head writer for Jay Ward, who wrote for both Warner Bros. and UPA, concurred:  "To begin with, you never mentioned Warner Bros.!  The kiss of death at UPA was to be considered a Warner Bros. writer."  Gerard Baldwin, in his upcoming autobiography, recalls how Chuck Jones, who had directed an early UPA effort, Hell Bent for Election, eagerly screened his first Roadrunner film, Fast and Furryous, for the UPA artists to deafening silence.  The audience filed out silently and Jones slunk back to his car, alone, film in hand.  It also appears to have been a studio not for the faint of heart, at least if you were in the top echelon of artists.  While the artists were outspoken in their opinions of the other animation studios of the time, they reserved the long knives for themselves , often turning on each other through political jockeying and power plays.  Many consider Hank Saperstein’s ruthless takeover of the company as the destruction of a once great enterprise but this book makes it clear that the foundation for its demise was in place long before then.  Highly recommended.

Another new release for this year was the UPA boxed set, a retrospective of all the studio’s non-Magoo cartoons (although it does include Magoo’s first cartoon, The Ragtime Bear).  The UPA library has been difficult to find on video and no complete collection of the studio’s cartoons has ever been released before.  The set is a great companion piece to Abraham’s book as it provides a visual counterpart to his text and illustrates both the strengths and weaknesses of the studio’s theatrical output and makes it clear that UPA's reputation was made off of a surprisingly small group of films.  Despite this, the studio's impact on animation design continues to reverberate today.  Most of the transfers are gorgeous, allowing a viewer to better comprehend the design and color that made the studio so renown.

Last but not least was a boxed set of the complete theatrical Magoo cartoons including his feature debut, 1001 Arabian Nights, which has been long out of print.  Unfortunately, this set, which was scheduled for release first in February, then June and finally December, has been pushed back yet again and will not be released until sometime next year.  The good news is that the delay is due to the fact that all the cartoons are being digitally remastered from the original negatives and it’s taking Sony longer than originally anticipated. However, if the UPA boxed set is any indication, it will be worth the wait.  I will update this blog when there is more news to report on the collection.