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1-9 of 9
- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Jay Ward (born as Joseph Ward Cohen Jr.) was an American creator and producer of animated television series. He was the eponymous founder of the animation studio Jay Ward Productions (1948-), one of the earliest American studios to market its productions to television audiences. Ward co-created "Crusader Rabbit" (1950-1959), the first animated series produced specifically for television. His subsequent productions included "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends" (1959-1964), "Hoppity Hooper" (1964-1967), "George of the Jungle" (1967), and "The Dudley Do-Right Show" (1969-1970). In the 1960s, Ward's studio started producing animated television commercials for the Quaker Oats Company. Its best known project in this field were the commercials featuring the cartoon mascot Cap'n Crunch, depicted as an 18th-century naval captain.
In 1920, Ward was born in San Francisco. His parents were Joseph Ward Cohen (1890-1967) and his wife Mercedes Juanita Troplong Ward (1892-1972). He was primarily raised in Berkeley California, and his family name had changed to "Ward" by his teen years. He attended the Frances E. Willard Intermediate School in Berkeley.
Ward received his college education at the University of California, Berkeley, and gained an undergraduate degree. He pursued further studies at the Harvard Business School, graduating in 1947 with a Master of Business Administration (MBA). Following his graduation, Ward opened his first real estate office. It was profitable, but Ward was soon injured when a runaway truck crashed into his office building.
During his recuperation period, decided to invest profits from his real estate business into opening a new animation studio. He partnered up with the animator Alex Anderson (1920-2010), who was his childhood friend. Anderson had previous experience working with the animation studio Terrytoons (1929-1972), and happened to be a nephew of the studio founder Paul Terry (1887-1971).
Ward and Anderson developed the pilot film "The Comic Strips of Television" to market a new group of characters to television producers. The characters included Crusader Rabbit (a short but intelligent adventurer), Hamhock Bones (a parody version of Sherlock Holmes) and Dudley Do-Right (a bumbling Canadian Mountie). Nobody was interested in Hamhock and Dudley, but producer Jerry Fairbanks (1904-1995) was interested in financing an entire series about Crusader. Ward and Anderson produced the first seasons of the Crusader Rabbit series from 1950 to 1952, developing Rags the Tiger as Crusader's dimwitted sidekick. The episodes followed a comedy adventure format, with cliffhangers at the end of each episode. This version of the series lasted for 195 episodes.
In 1953, Fairbanks declared bankruptcy. His inventory of filmed, low-budget productions from past decades was considered outdated, and he could not find a market for it. Ward and Anderson entered a legal battle in an attempt to secure their rights to the "Crusader Rabbit" series, but lost. When the series was revived in 1956, a new producer had hired a different production team. By that time, Ward was trying to develop the script for a new series. It was to be called "The Frostbite Falls Revue" , and was intended to feature an entire cast of eccentric characters. This project never materialized, but two characters developed for it became the next big stars for Ward's animation studio: Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose.
Ward found television success with the "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends", which recycled some of the adventure comedy ideas from "Crusader Rabbit". The new series benefited from having a talented group of animators working of it (Ward had hired veterans from the United Productions of America/UPA), from its witty scripts by Bill Scott, Chris Hayward, and Allan Burns, and from its frequent use of self-referential humor.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ward's animation studio largely ended its production of new animated series. Ward had recurring problems with finding network executives interested in his ideas, while his television commercials were a more stable source of profit for the studio. Ward also operated his own gift shop, "Dudley Do-Right Emporium" (1971-2005). It marketed toys and souvenirs based on the studio's past productions.
Ward died in October 1989, due to renal cancer. He was 69-years-old at the time of his death. His family continued operating the studio and the gift store for several years.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Before he became "The Poet of the Piano", classically-trained Cavallaro had enjoyed a modestly successful earlier career as a soloist in society dance bands led by Al Kavelin, Abe Lyman and Enric Madriguera (at the time he was simply billed as 'Carmen'). In 1939, he fronted his own orchestra which made its debut at the Statler Hotel in St. Louis. This eventually blossomed into a 14-piece organisation which featured the future musical comedy and night club entertainer Larry Douglas on vocals and was built around Carmen's flashy piano solos (notable, especially, for the scintillating speed of his octave playing). There were, unusually, no trombones. The band generally consisted of three trumpets, four saxes, a four to five-piece string section (featuring a viola and/or cello) and a rhythm section comprising drums, bass and guitar. Carmen's theme song was "My Sentimental Heart". With its lush sound and Cavallaro's distinctive style of showmanship, the band reached the peak of its popularity in the mid-40s, especially with aficionados of sweet 'society-style' dance music. It worked the hotel and club circuits, headlining at top venues like New York's Paramount Theatre, the Waldorf-Astoria, the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, the Mark Hopkins in San Francisco and Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook. Cavallaro made prolific recordings for the Decca label and broadcast live on the Sheaffer Parade which was aired nationwide every Sunday afternoon. He also appeared as himself in several motion pictures including Hollywood Canteen (1944) and Diamond Horseshoe (1945). A massive popular hit was his recording of the piano soundtrack for The Eddy Duchin Story (1956) a year before joining ASCAP. In the 1950s, Cavallaro relinquished the orchestra and began leading smaller combos. He continued to turn out numerous best-selling records ("Cavallaro Plays Ellington", "For Latin Lovers", "Stairway to the Stars", etc.) as well as pursuing a solo career in night clubs and on radio. His own song compositions have included "While the Nightwind Sings", "Wanda" and "Masquerade Waltz". Among his other best-selling hits were popular versions of Chopin's "Polonaise", "Warsaw Concerto, "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12", "Fascination", "Zing Went the Strings of My Heart", "I Didn't Know What Time it Was" and "Just One of Those Things".- Actress
- Soundtrack
Milada Mladova was born on 3 June 1922 in Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Siren of Atlantis (1949), Night and Day (1946) and Escape Me Never (1947). She died on 12 October 1989 in North Olmsted, Cuyahoga, Ohio, USA.- Franz Roehn was born on 6 October 1896 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor, known for Mike Hammer (1958), Tobor the Great (1954) and Adventures of Superman (1952). He died on 12 October 1989 in Munich, Germany.
- Gordon Thorpe was born in Lakin, Kansas where he was raised until age five. His father, Harold Thorpe, independently wealthy, with a reputation for owning the largest cars available, then divorced Gordon's mother, Lois, and he later moved to Reno, Nevada, where he worked as an expert card dealer until retirement. Gordon, with his mother, moved to Los Angeles, to stay at the family mansion there on W.3rd Street. Noteworthy, Gordon's family, including Gordon, of course, were well connected and listed in all the social registers of the day, including "The Blue Book". Lois used these social connections to get Gordon special attention for a screen test, at which his talent was immediately discovered and he quickly rose to become one of the top child stars of the silent era. He was one of the chosen few able to maintain the same status into "The Talkies"throughout the 1930's. Gordon starred in features with many of the great actors of the day, Including Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, Jackie Cooper, among others. Yet all was not rosy for young Gordon. Though famous for his beautiful head of long curly hair, this became a curse as Gordon had to quite often defend his young masculinity against the short manes of the day, and developed a strong reputation as a fighter. Unfortunately, his frequent fights, though nearly all defensive, still got him into hot water with the studios and Lois, now an overbearing stage mother. This was a source of great distress for Gordon, and often kept him from pursuing or winning even more important roles. At age 16, in the famous movie "Dawn Patrol", he portrayed a young, brave fighter-pilot. This was pivotal for Gordon, as he was finally seen no longer as a "cute child", but rather as a fine strong young man. It was as much the acceptance in his role here as the character itself that motivated Gordon to leave films, go back to Kansas, go to college, only to later join the Army Air Corps upon the outbreak of the Second World War. He did enlist for fighter pilot duty, and was commissioned as a bombardier. He flew 47 wartime bombing missions in Europe, serving heroically, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Purple Hearts. Shot down and wounded three times, figuring the odds were likely for not surviving a fourth crash-landing, he politely requested a transfer. As reward for his heroic and loyal duty, he was promptly transferred to the OSS, where he was flown over Yugoslavia, and THROWN out of the plane. With a parachute,and an instruction manual on how to use it, he managed to safely land behind enemy lines. Captain Gordon Thorpe became principal in the formation of the Yugoslavian partisan resistance He used his charisma, his international reputation as a movie actor, and his bravery under fire, to motivate and help win back Yugoslavia at the end of the war. Though not the duty he expected, Gordon turned these events into his finest hour. Following the war, he married Jeanne Selby, a screen cartoonist for Universal Studios. He tried his hand at business being immediately recruited by IBM. Prior to his divorce in 1952, brought about by his recall to active service at the outset of the Korean War, he had one son, Anthony C. Thorpe. As a side note, Anthony did also inherit Gordon's great hair and good looks, but, seeing the perils his father encountered, he was discouraged from ever seeking a role in front of the camera. Anthony does however work in the industry even today, as Property Master and in other crew positions, having done so for over 30 years and with 100's of hours of Film and TV. Gordon served again in the Korean War as an infantry commander. It seems that as the Army Air Corp was dissolved,his commission was reverted to the regular Army. Again, Gordon seemed to inherit the duties he least desired. He once remarked to his son, "I'd gladly fight the Second World War three times again if it meant I didn't have to go to Korea once!" He served bravely again, at the front lines until the end of the war, was wounded, suffered from a grenade blast, and was never the same person again. In the years following he lived a colorful though not prosperous existence. He lived in various locales throughout the western United States until he settled down, remarried and managed his own coffeehouse in Sacramento,Ca. from the 1970's until his passing in 1989. He is survived by his son, Anthony C. Thorpe, and one grandson, Morgan Cantrell Thorpe.
- Margita Zemlová was born on 8 January 1912 in Podolie, Austria-Hungary [now Slovakia]. She was an actress, known for Szent Péter esernyöje (1958), Havrania cesta (1962) and Posledná bosorka (1957). She died on 12 October 1989 in Czechoslovakia.
- Stella Kadmon was born on 16 July 1902 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. She was an actress, known for Im Banne der Kralle (1921) and Asphalt (1951). She died on 12 October 1989 in Vienna, Austria.
- Valentin Polcuch was born in 1911 in Rostov, Russia. He was an actor, known for Der Stechlin (1975) and Jonas oder Der Künstler bei der Arbeit (1970). He died on 12 October 1989 in Hamburg, Germany.
- Camera and Electrical Department
Joe Foy was born on 21 February 1943 in New York City, New York, USA. He is known for Jews of Cuba (2002) and 1967 World Series (1967). He was married to Sadie. He died on 12 October 1989 in Bronx, New York, USA.