Happy Thanksgiving!

Mr. Magoo as a “Mad Man”

Madison Avenue had a long and fruitful relationship with Mr. Magoo, who served as a pitchman for various products and services over the years.  His first campaign, as discussed in a previous post, was for Rheingold beer in 1956 as the brewery tried to break into the Southern California beer market.  RCA used him to put out a record, Magoo in Hi-Fi in 1957 and a year later, Carling Brewery enlisted his assistance to sell their beer throughout the Midwest.  1960 found Mr. Magoo promoting cancer awareness in a 15 minute film for the American Cancer Society, Inside Magoo.  

Henry G. Saperstein took out a license on Mr. Magoo in 1959 and ended up buying the studio a year later.  His licensing acumen resulted in the decades-long campaign for General Electric light bulbs starting with Magoo’s feature film, 1001 Arabian Nights.  In a brilliant example of cross promotion, Saperstein was able to get a tie-in featuring Magoo in his role from the movie selling US Savings Bonds, saying  that bonds were "Your Magic Carpet to the Future!".  His image appeared on 40,000 Post Office trucks, in banks and in local businesses.  As part of his deal to bring The Mr. Magoo Show to television, Saperstein partnered with Kelloggs and at least one commercial was produced for Rice Krispies before the relationship ended.  In 1960, Mr. Magoo ran as a presidential candidate in a "Ballots for Bulbs" GE campaign and later appeared on glasses for Welch's Grape Jelly for several years during the early 60s.

Timex, as readers of my book and this blog will know, sponsored Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol although Magoo didn't appear in the bumpers or commercials.  His high point as a pitchman seems to have been 1964, the year in which he again ran for President as part of his GE advertising efforts, promoted Soakie bubble bath for Colgate Palmolive and sold canned and frozen food for Libby’s, who sponsored his primetime show, The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo.   

He was licensed for Fleer bubble gum/tatoo packages in 1967 and in 1977, he appeared in a series of ads for Lazyboy chairs while his GE light bulb campaign continued well past that.  Other promotions that Hank Saperstein claimed for Mr. Magoo were as a recruiter for the US Navy (there is a run cadence for the Sea Bees called Mr. Magoo), Blue Shield, the National Safety Council and the American Heart Association.  While Magoo inevitably appeared on toys and games, what's interesting is to note how often Mr. Magoo was used to advertise adult products rather than products aimed at children.

As Magoo's visibility began to wane, he was used less and less as an advertising icon.  He had a brief revival in a 1994 ad for NutraSweet and his last known campaign was to sell eyeglasses for Sterling Optical in 2005.  Many of these ads or promotions seem to have been lost; there may even be other campaigns that have yet to be discovered.  If anyone has images or videos, please feel free to share them on this blog.

The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo

Many of the readers of this blog grew up not only with Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol but also with the prime time series that it spawned, The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo.  For many, it was their first exposure to the classic literature that was the basis for the show.  The series, although memorable, unfortunately did not achieve any where near the ratings success of the Christmas special.

However, its production was rather remarkable.  From NBC’s greenlight in January to the show’s debut in September, the staff was quickly enlarged, multiple writers were attached to the series and much of the animation was farmed out to freelancers all over Los Angeles.  In less than nine months, UPA pumped out 26 half hours of hand drawn animation from a standing stop, which is still almost incomprehensible, even in this era of computer assisted production.  Above, is a poor quality photocopy from a trade magazine of the time, showing Hank Saperstein and some of the animation crew on the show.  You'll notice that it looks a bit crowded there.  There's only one room in any office that's long and narrow like that and that's a hallway, which gives you an idea of the intensity of production.  No one who worked at UPA recalls a hallway like that so it's possible this was a crew at a satellite facility.  (Below, the original model sheet for the debut episode, William Tell, probably drawn by Bob Dranko.)

Despite that massive increase of manpower, shortcuts were necessary that would allow the crew to meet that deadline.  One of those shortcuts was to avoid animating action within the episodes, relying instead on dialogue to move the story along or in the case of the Moby Dick episode, the use of still art to tell what the budget and schedule couldn't afford.  The unfortunate side effect was that the show became very talky making the show less interesting for younger viewers; doing the classics in cartoon form probably made it less likely that adults would watch, both of which might explain why it was not renewed.  However, it was suitable family viewing and probably its greatest strength was in introducing classic literature to children.  (Below, one of the pieces of still art by layout man Don Morgan for the climax of Moby Dick.)

Abe Levitow was the series' supervising director, underneath him were directors such as Christmas Carol sequence director, Gerard Baldwin,  former Looney Tunes director, Bob McKimson and former MGM animator Ray Patterson, who were responsible for individual shows and who would work directly with the animators. 

The writers had interesting pedigrees as well.  Below is a breakdown of the writing crew, all freelancers, with the shows they wrote.  I’ve highlighted each name with a link to their IMDB page.  If you click through, you’ll see that these writers worked on many of the classic sitcoms and dramas of the era.  You’ll also notice Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol scribe, Barbara Chain, in there.

Walter Black-Robin Hood, 1-4, Count of Monte Cristo, Captain Kidd
True Boardman-Don Quixote, Pts 1 & 2, Moby Dick, Cyrano de Bergerac, Sherlock Holmes
Barbara Chain-William Tell, Snow White, Pts 1 & 2, Noah’s Ark, Rip Van Winkle, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Joanna Lee-Three Musketeers, Pts 1 & 2
Sloan Nibley-King Arthur, Frankenstein, Gunga Din, Dick Tracy

As I pointed out in the book, while the episodes are often slow moving, the visuals are worth a second look.  Although the studio had to turn out an entire series in a short amount of time, it gave the design staff the opportunity to experiment without management or network  interference.  The show contains some appealing character designs and well designed layouts complemented by interesting painting styles. (Below, models by Lee Mishkin.)

Unfortunately, the only episode from The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo to be released on DVD is the feature length Robin Hood series which, because it was stitched together from four separate episodes, is missing scenes from its original broadcasts.  (Right, background by Bob Inman from Robin Hood.)  Lack of demand for Magoo product has made Classic Media gun shy when it comes to releasing the entire series.  Perhaps with enough interest, they can be persuaded to go back into the vaults.  You can contact them here.