Yoiur new book Bluto, Buster and The Blob - in a few words,
what's it about? To put it in a few words - which is always difficult for me to do - it's a collection of
interviews I've done with old movie stars, filmmakers and voice artists
- primarily those performers from the early to late 20th century.
Given the topic of your book, it's fair to assume you're a
vintage movie and cartoon enthusiast - so what gets you quite as excited
about old films and animation?
Well, I was born in the "tail end" of the
so-called "baby boom generation". TV - generally speaking -
had been around for about ten years when I was born in 1958, so there
was a LOT of old movies, cartoons, etc. on TV. I grew up with it,
really. You have to understand that for some years when TV was developed
and sold to the American (and European) public, the owners of the movie
studios were not only afraid of the competition, but they were actively
against it - for years. However, some of the movie studio executives
wisely realized a few years before I was born that television was not a
"fad" - it was here to stay. So, some movie studio executives
sold or leased the rights for TV stations to play some of their older
films on TV. Some studios set up production companies to make programs
directly for television. So, kids of my generation got a whole mix of
older films and cartoons - along with new product.
I was attracted to the older films and cartoons right
away, maybe because they seemed "different" and kind of
"exotic" to me. I wanted to become a cartoonist and then an
animator, because of the classic Warner Bros., Fleischer
Popeye and Disney cartoons I saw on TV as a kid. I saw one of those
"flip-books" that somebody had and I thought, "Hey, maybe
I can do this, too!" So, I bought a pad of paper and tried to do
animated drawings, studied books on cartoon animation, made some movies
with a Super 8mm movie camera - like a lot of kids did in my era - and
many, many years later, I took some animation night school classes at
Columbia College in Chicago - some of them taught by Gordon Sheehan, who
animated Popeye cartoons in the 1930s. I never made it as a
cartoonist or an animator, but gave it my "best shot" and I'm
not sorry to have spent my time persuing this lofty goal. It gave me
more respect for the animators and artists who DID make a living at it.
When I was sitll in grade school, there was a
"nostalgia" fad for movies, cartoons, comic books, etc. from
my parents' and grandparents' generation. There was a supposed
"generation gap" between the older kids and their parents in
terms of politics, religion, morals, etc., but later I found it ironic
that these young adults LOVED the same kind of films and other things
that their parents enjoyed. So, there were film festivals of Buster
Keaton films (later those of Charlie Chaplin) [Buster
Keaton bio - click here], and of older movie
comedians like the Marx
Brothers, W.C. Fields [W.C.
Fields bio - click here], Laurel
and Hardy which were
discovered or rediscovered. Collections of E.C. Segar Popeye
comic strips appeared (which I couldn't afford then), Milton Caniff's Terry
and the Pirates, etc. Old Batman,
Superman
and Captain
Amirica comicbooks were reprinted in collections as well. Of all the interviews
you've done and articles you've written over the years, what made you
compile exactly those you did for Bluto, Buster and The Blob, is
there any kind of common theme?
I didn't do this intentionally, but everybody I interviewed or wrote
articles about - which appear in this book - were of my parents' or
grandparents' generation. These people knew neighbors or friends who
lived through World War I. These people I talked to had survived the
Great Depression, World War II and the Cold War against Russia and the
threat of the atomic bomb. Much of the work these people did in the
entertainment world has stood up to "the test of time" as
something worth preserving and enjoying again.
original color proof sheet for the Charlton comic book
version of the TV series Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion (1955)
(courtesy of Donnie Pitchford and the late Michael Ambrose) |
I thought that the three major "subjects" from my
book titleBluto, Buster and The Blob would be a good choice for the
first book in the series. Voice actor Jackson Beck who worked mainly in
radio, but did cartoon voices for "Bluto" and later his
"brother Brutus" in the Popeye
cartoons from the middle 1940s through the early '60s - that's
what the Bluto refers to. Buster refers to film actor and
Olympic athlete Buster Crabbe [Buster
Crabbe bio - click here], who may be best known for playing Flash
Gordon in three movie serials that used to be shown constantly
on TV when I was growing up. The Blob refers to the famous
science-fiction movie (which is about as old as I am) that actress-writer
Kate Phillps (aka Kay Linaker) helped write. There is a lot of other good
material in there (I think), other than the three main interviews, as
well. You've got quite an
impressive round of interviewees in Bluto, Buster and The Blob - so
how did you get some of these interviews even, and were there some that
were especially hard to get?
Well, my dad for a time had been a history teacher for a
Catholic high school, and he loved finding out where things we took for
granted had come from. So I guess I got some of that kind of interest
from him. If I saw a movie or a cartoon that was very unusual and really
got my attention and I loved seeing it, I wanted to find out how that
film was made and who made it - or why it was made in the first place..
Fate, hard work and persistence helped me out - a lot.
For instance, I loved the old Flash
Gordon movie serials that still played on TV when I was a kid in Chicago. I had always hoped that
I'd meet the actor who played the hero, "Flash Gordon" who was
Buster Crabbe. I saw something in a monster movie magazine
called Famojus Monsters of Filmland that you could send a
"birthday greeting" to Buster. Right around the same time, my
mother sent a package of old movie related mail to me when I was away
in college in Indiana. In the package was a flyer stating that Buster
would be in Chicago to do a "benefit" show for charity at
Northwest Federal Savings and Loan - like a bank that had a gigantic
room for special events that had a few hundred seats, a movie projector
and a stage. Mom had attached a note to the flyer saying
that she knew I had too much work to do at school, but she wanted me to
know about the event. So, I drew a birthday card for Buster Crabbe
and asked him if I could interview him for our college newspaper. I had
just seen him - fate, again - on a news show where he was furious that
then President Carter had decided that the USA would boycott the
Olympics in 1980. I never thought I'd get a response back, but when I
was back in school, there was his letter one day in my mail slot at the
campus post office! Maybe the fact that I was some young college kid
had him agree to talk to me in Chicago. So, he told me who to contact
and I called my parents up and told them that I would be taking a
Greyhound bus to Chicago for a couple of days - and of course, I got a
chance to meet and talk to one of my heroes, Buster Crabbe!
I was a member of ASIFA-Central - an international
animated film society - and maybe because of those credentials I got
to meet some cartoon animators and talk to them. Animator and cartoon
director Shamus Culhane had just written his autobiography Talking
Animals and Other People, and the head of ASIFA-Central Dave
Daruszka asked me to interview him for a cable TV program on behalf of
our organization. I had never been on camera before and I
was pretty nervous, especially because Shamus Culhane was known to have
an explosive "Irish temper" with people he agreed to talk
with. Dave was a little nervous about interviewing Shamus for the
program for that reason. He said, "Look, you've read his book.
You've written to him once about working at the Fleischer Studio. You
can do this!" . So, despite my fears, we did the show and we got along
fine. He mentioned a cartoon called Bamboo Isle (1932) with Betty
Boop, and he must have spotted something in my face. I had heard that
there was a lot of controversy over the fact that it was rumored Culhane
had traced over some film footage of a women dancing the Hawaiian hula dance and used that for his animation of
Betty. Shamus looked me right in the eye when he brought up the rumors and what he
said he animated. What he told me made sense, so he put out an
argumentative fire even before one started. We got along
fine. I had an Irish-American grandfather so I could handle a little bit
of sarcasm here and there.
Popeye
convention 2010 in Chester, Illinois: Leopnard as Bluto, his terrified one and half
year-old son Leo and Cathy Rinne in Sea Hag makeup (courtesy of Chuck
Anders) |
I wrote an occasional article to a newspaper for old
movie fans and collectors called The Clacis Film Collector (later Classic
Images), and through that, way back in 1978 - I
was barely 20 years old then - and through that credential,
I was allowed to tape record some of the Sons fo the Desert Laurel
and Hardy convention held in Chicago. If I had the money, I would
have stayed at the Ramada Inn near the O'Hare airport, but my dad
thought it was a waste of money as I lived in Chicago, so I didn't get
to "report" on everything during the convention..
I absolutely was nervous meeting Oliver Hardy's widow,
Lucille - or actresses who had appeared with Laurel and Hardy, like
Rosina Lawrence, Della Lind and Anita Garvin Stanley. I was thrilled to
meet these ladies - and Darla Hood Granson, who had been
"Darla" in the Our Gang (aka The Little
Rascals)
comedies, but I was too shy to ask to do any interviews. However, for
the question and answer session - which I was able to record for the
newspaper - I did write a few questions on cards which the
"celebrity panel" did answer. I lost the cassette tape of that
Q&A"session some years ago by accident, so I'm glad I
spent hours transcribing most of it for the Classic Images newspaper articles all those years ago - there were three of them all
together. I saved a Xerox copy of those articles and I thought it was
worth preserving in print for this book..
Some interviews I did were hard to get, though. Some
could have gone the "wrong way" if things didn't work out.. For instance, your pal Fred Grandinetti
[Fred Grandinetti interview - click here] - who is the
co-founder of the international Offical Popeye Fanclub (one word) - wrote
an article about voice actor Jackson Beck called How About a
Kiss, Babe? for the magazine, and I knew Fred had interviewed
Jackson Beck. I told Fred that I'd like to interview Mr. Beck on his
old-time radio career, etc. - not just the work he did on the Popeye
cartoon series. So Fred gave me Jackson's phone number. As I remember it I introduced
myself, and Beck thundered at me: "WHO the HELL
GAVE you THIS number?" I swear I visualized Bluto
reaching out and attacking me in my mind. I quakingly mentioned that I
was a member of the Offical Popeye Fanclub and that Fred Grandinetti had thought it was
okay if I contacted him. Well, THEN everything was all right! I talked
to Mr. Beck for a few years on and off, and I can't tell you what a
thrill it was for him to one day say on the phone "Oh, hi, Lenny!
How's it going?" I saw pictures of him later and he wasn't a big
burly guy like you'd expect him to be with his massive - almost gruff - voice!
Some interviews were hard to do, because the people I
talked to had health issues - strokes and other things. So I had to
learn to be patient while not being a "pest" and constantly
calling some of these people over the phone. Are there any interviews or
artivlees in your book you remember especially fondly?

voice actor Jackson Beck in a rare still for a
pilot radio show called Brady-K (c. 1950). (courtesy of Steve Darnall and
The Nostalgia Digest magazine.)
|
Yes, I mentioned some of them. When I went to interview
Buster Crabbe, he had just over half an hour or so - maybe a little
more - to talk to me before he went on the air for Chuck
Schaden's Those Were the Days radio show for the Chicagoland
area. Buster patienly explained to me why the boycott against the 1980
Olympics would be such a tragedy for some of these young athletes who
had trained for much of their lives to be in these Olympic gGames. He
said to me some of these young kids were at the peak of their physical
ability right at that particular time of their lives and for them to
have to wait four more years to try to compete again might be a
disaster. So, he spent a good chunk of time explaining that and I got to
sneak in a few Flash
Gordon questions during commercial breaks
during the radio interview with Chuck Schaden, etc. So, I was happy with
meeting and talking to Flash
Gordon, but I wish I had more time to talk to him.
While I would have rather have had the chance to talk to
Jackson Beck face to face and be armed with recordings of
radio shows or cartoons he had done to help jog his memory,
I am fairly happy with the interviews I did with him - under the
circumstances - over the phone..
The talks I did with actress Kate Phillps face to face at
various conventions - a Buck Jones Western film convention and a number
of conventions devoted to old-time radio comedians, The National Lum
and Abner Society - were great, all things considered. Not always
ideal, as I couldn't run film clips or play radio or TV shows Kate had
worked on to jog her memory, but those interviews were
probably the most successful, all in all. I could later phone her or
after reading a "rough draft" of what I had transcribed
earlier, she would say "Oh, I forgot to tell you one thing about
working with so-and-so."
Other film conventions I've gone to over the years have
been fun, meeting up with old movie stars or their relatives. I set up
a long phone interview with actor Jimmy Hunt, who is probably best known
for his film appearance in Invaders
from Mars (1953), but got to
act with the likes of Western star Joel McCrea, Bob Hope, Barbara
Stanwyck, Dick Powell, etc. All these actors were big stars
in their time, and Jim Hunt was able to work well with them. We did a
pretty good interview over the phone, and then I discovered that my Radio
Shack phone hook-up wasn't working. You could hear my voice
asking questions but none of Jim Hunt's answers. I tried by e-mail and
other ways to set up another interview, but it didn't happen. I met the
actor at a Monster Bash convention - he appeared (I believe)
unscheduled for it, and I had no tape recorder and he had no time to re-do
the interview. I guess it wasn't meant to be. Super-friendly guy, but we were never able to do another interview. So, I had
to rely on my notes and memory for the small article on him that appears in the book.
The shortest and most frustrating interview I ever did
was with film director Joseph H. Lewis. I was doing research on my first
book, Sinister Serials of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney
jr and I had read that before Mr. Lewis had become a film director,
he had been an editor at Republic Pictures
[Republic Pictures history -
click here] and, for a while, had run
the editorial department. So, I thought that he was still at the studio
when Lon Chaney jr [Lon Chaney
jr bio - click here] appeared in the serial Undersea
Kingdom (1936) and might have still been there when Bela Lugosi [Bela
Lugosi bio - click here[ appeared in S-O-S Coast Guard (1937)
- and of course, I would have liked to have asked
Joe Lewis about some of his great film noir classics like Gun Crazy
(1950) and The Big Combo (1955). Later on for TV, he
did a number of very good episodes of The Rifleman and other
series. Anyway, I contacted my friend Ted Okuda who was the associate editor at
FilmFax magazine. I had written a couple of
articles for that publication and I told Ted that I wanted to try to
talk to Mr. Lewis for research on my book, and Ted got a phone number and
address for me. So I wrote Joe Lewis ,and I waited several weeks but
got no reply. I rashly thought that he MUST have at least seen my letter
by then, so I called him up on the phone. I told him who I was and why I
wanted to talk to him, and he tersely explained that he actually had TWO
addresses, his home and an address for his yacht - where he spent a lot
of his time. I told him that I had written to him at his regular mailing
address. Well, Mr. Lewis answered a couple of my questions - very
briefly - and then he suddenly stated that he didn't like being
interviewed over the phone, or through the mail (which I suggested). He
said that if I wanted to interview him, he'd allow me to come to
California and visit him on his yacht to talk. Well, I didn't see that happening, and I knew my friend
Dr. Gary Don Rhodes was going to interview people on one of his books on
Bela Lugosi, so Dr. Gary got there to talk to Joe Lewis, so it all
worked out (see the anthology book, The Films of Joseph H Lewis
by Gary D. Rhodes). Still I would have liked to ask Lewis about his
time at Republic
to get an idea of how movie serials were constructed at
the studio, etc. But, that was that!.
rare animation cel and background painting from the
Popeye
cartoon Abusement Park (1947) (courtesy of Heritage Auctions) |
What can you tell us about the research that usually goes into your articles
and interviews?
Well, I see that you've written a couple of books
yourself and worked on some productions. If you ever need to interview
anybody, I'd recommend that you do as much research about this person as
possible. The person you interview will probably be impressed by your
research, but more importantly, he or she will realize that you're
probably not going to waste their time talking to them. The fact that
you have some prior credentials will absolutely help you get your foot in the door! The $64-question of course, where's your
book available from? Good question! It's available from the publishing
company, BearManor Media (BearManorMedia.com),
amazon.com
and book stores like Barnes and Nobles. Anything you can tell us about
audience and critical reception of Bluto, Buster and The Blob?
Not all that much as of yet. The book was supposed to be
published just before Christmas of 2024, but there was a mix-up
regarding the index, and so it's only been available for a few weeks - as
I write this, late in April of 2025. I got a nice review from my
colleague, animation cartoon restorer and historian Steve Stanchfield on
the Cartoon Research website.. As
far as I heard, you plan to release two more books of articles and
interviews on vintage movies and cartoons - so what have you got in store
for future issues?
Well, as I said, through my connections with
organizations like ASIFA-Central, The Official Popeye Fanclub and
periodicals I wrote for, I was able to interview animators like Shamus
Culhane (who worked on the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
and Pinocchio), Gordon Sheehan and Dave Tendlar (who worked on the classic
Popeye and Superman cartoons of the 1930s into the early WWII years) and
relative newcomers like animator Jon McClenahan who worked
for Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros.
on cartoon TV series like Tiny Toon Adventures, Taz-Mania
and Animaniacs. The fun thing about talking
to Jon McClenahan was that he was working on these cartoons just before
or during the time these were being produced. So, there are a number of
interviews with cartoon animators in the future two volumes..
Through working wth my friend, the late Bill Naras, I
helped Bill to produce a theatrical film showing of King
Kong (1933) in
Chicago. One of the guests for the show was supposed to be special
effects technician Linwood Dunn, who not only worked on King
Kong, but
movies like The
Thing from Another World (1951), It's a Mad, Mad World (1963),
the original Star
Trek TV series - lots of stuff. Long after Mr. Dunn
official retired from the business, movie directors like Brian
DePalma would call him up to figure out how to solve some technical
problem with a film's special effect. Mr. Dunn had to cancel his
appearance at our King Kong
show as he was on the board of directors
for the Academy Awards and had things he had to do and couldn't get to
Chicago. I'd call him up for an interview and he always seemed to be too
busy to talk. Finally, one day - even though he pointed out to me how
valuable his time was (I think he was already in his early 90s) - he
said that any questions I had on King
Kong, etc. he was saving for an
autobiographical book he was working on with his friend George Turner.
So Mr. Dunn WAS willing to talk about the time he was a
cameraman for his uncle Spencer G. Bennet on the last of the silent
serials being made for Pathé
Studios in the late 1920s, which was what I had planned to include on my Sinister
Serials book. Dunn was fascinated by the possibilities of digital
technology and was excited about the internet and new ways to use
special effects or editing techniques with new technology. This was
about in the middle of the 1990s, and it amazes me that a man who started
in the film business when movie cameras were cranked by hand, not only
kept up with changing film technology but was excited about all the new,
revolutionary ideas that were being tested and thought up back then. Sadly, Linwood Dunn and George Turner passed away before
their book was finished. So I wish I HAD got to talk to Mr. Dunn more
about King Kong or other great movies that he had worked on. Anyway,
interviews like that will appear in the next two books of the series.
Way Out West (1937) with Rosina Lawrence, Oliver Hardy and Stan
Laurel - two comic "heroes" save the heroine and save the
day
|
Filmmakers, actors, cartoonists, whoever else who inspire you?
Do you mean more modern film directors, actors, etc.? If
so, I'm just as much interested in the career of say, Steven Spielberg
or Tim Burton as I would be about directors John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock
or an actor like Jimmy Stewart. Old-time radio collector and historian
Chuck Schaden once stated: "I don't live in the past. I live WITH
the past!" Your
favourite movies?
Oh, I like all kinds. Comedy, sci-fi, horror, mysteries.
New and old. I've always enjoyed comedy movies with a "comedy
team" in them - Laurel and Hardy,
the Three
Stooges, the Marx
Brothers, etc. to Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, Eddie Murphy and Dan
Aykroyd, John Candy and Steve Martin, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, etc.
But comedians like Will Farrell or Adam Sandler really can work well
as a "solo" comic characters in a movie, but it helps
tremendously if someone like that has an "ensemble" group of
other comedians to kind of back that person up. I'll explain what I mean
in answering your next question.. ... and of course, films you really
deplore?
Well, let me answer that question partially by going into
what can often be wrong with a comedy film. When Stan Laurel and Oliver
Hardy left producer Hal Roach, Stan Laurel - in particular - longed for
more freedom to make the kind of comedies he wanted to do at Hal Roach
Studios. When he and Ollie signed up to make films at
20th Century Fox and MGM
during the WWII years, what happened instead was that those in
charge at the two studios hired them more as actors-for-hire than to be actively involved in these comedies.
Stan Laurel in particular was writing and offering
many editing and directorial ideas to the directors and the people in
charge at Hal Roach
Studios. He didn't get ANY of that "creative
control" when making the Laurel and Hardy
comedies for Fox
and MGM in the
'40s. If that wasn't bad enough, the writers at those studios really
didn't understand what made the comedic versions of "Stan and
Ollie" work. The characters appeared even dumber than they had been
at Roach's for one thing. Instead of being laughed WITH by theater
audiences, they were laughed AT - more and more. Rather than being comic
heroes in films like Pack Up Your Troubles, Babes
in Toyland and Way Out West, they were looked at by other characters in the
later films as being completely stupid and "slow". In a typical Hal
Roach comedy, Laurel and Hardy were surrounded by people that had
comedic quirks of their own - short tempered James Finlayson (Homer
Simpson borrowed his "Doahh!" expression), shrewish wife
(mostly Mae Busch), and so on. In a more "normal" world at
20th Century Fox and MGM in the '40s, Stan and Ollie were "two
square pegs in a round, round world", and I instantly sensed - even
before I became a surly teenager - when I watched these later films on
TV that something was really WRONG! So,
the very "artistic freedom" Stan Laurel hoped for, was denied
him at the big studios. Laurel DID get a little more freedom on his last
couple of films at
20th Century Fox, but not much! And again, most of the people cast
in those later Laurel and Hardy
comedies were way too "normal" in their
attitudes toward "The Boys" and again, that made the
eccentricities of "Stan and Ollie" seem pitiable, almost
abnormal!" The writers seemed to think that they were writing for
Abbott and Costello and that's not really who the "Laurel and
Hardy" characters were. Producers and writers for Buster Keaton for MGM
on his feature films in the 1930s gave Keaton much less creative
control over his films and his character was portrayed more as a
pathetic "boob" rather than the stronger individual kind of
"force of nature" character he had always portrayed.
I'd say that a relatively more recent comedy film
starring somebody like Will Farrell or Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey
would have to be awfully hard to construct for the writers and
directors, because their characters could be way, way "out there". A film comedy with these guys has to be populated with
characters who can't be totally 100 per-cent "normal". I took
a cartooning class for a few weeks over the summer when I was not in
high school. Underground artist Jay Lynch taught the course. He told us
about a comic strip where everybody in the stories looked and acted 100
per-cent normal in a very realistic way, except for ONE character. Lynch
said it gave him nightmares and he hated the thing. I wish I could
remember what the comic strip (or maybe comic book?) was. It would
illustrate my point about what I would call "bad" film
comedies. You don't want the comedian - or comedians - in the film to be
a total jerk or someone you have a lot of pity for, but no respect.
When Laurel and Hardy's
characters in Babes in Toyland
- despite huge odds against their success - help conquer the bad guy Silas
Barnaby and stop the dreaded Bogeymen creatures from destroying Toyland,
they - despite their fumbling and goofiness - succeed and have the courage
to get the job done. You can look at Bill Murray's character in
Stripes for another example of what I'm talking about. Or look
at Groundhog Day, where Murray's character is funny, but overly sarcastic and
nearly unlikeable, but he goes through a kind of purgatory to become the
best person he can be. This film has a strong spiritual message, but it's
also a hilarious comedy. If the characters that Phil Connors comes in
contact with were not slightly comic in their own particular way (and
played their parts as totally normal, serious people), Bill Murray's
character would be totally a fish out of water and the film wouldn't work.
If these same characters were portrayed in a broader comic style, the film
might not have worked either. Andie MacDowell's character of
"Rita" is the anchor between the comic, almost slapstick
approach of some of the comedy and the more serious message the film gives
to the audience. It's a delicate balance on how far you can push comedy in
what could be an absolute failure as a piece of storytelling. I seem to
remember that humorist Mark Twain said something like that if you want to
have suspense and excitement even in a comic story, your "shark has
to have teeth."

with wife Dana at the Bluto statue
at Chester, Illinois September, 2008. (courtesy of Chuck Anders) |
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Feeling lucky ? Want to search for books by Leonard J. Kohl yourself? |
The links below will take you just there!!! (commissions earned) |
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So, mean-spirited comedies, horror films,
etc. are the kind of films that I don't like. Horror movies where any
character you care about is brutally killed or broken in spirit. I want
the heroes of these monster movies to at least
TEMPORARILY triumph over the monster or serialkiller or supernatural
being at least until the next sequel! So I'm not foud of needlessly
gory horror films where there's less of a good story than lots of scenes
of blood and bone breaking! I saw a recent film called The Amateur
(2025) about a guy who vengefully goes after the terrorists who killed
his wife, but luckily he stops short of turning into the kind of
soul-less killers he's fighting against. It was very well acted, edited
and written. The only actor I recognized was Laurence Fishborne. So, as
much as I admire older films, every so often a current film will
surprise and inspire me!. Your/your book's website, social media,
whatever else? Go to BearManorMedia.com to order
Bluto, Buster and The Blob from their website, or go to amazon.com to order a copy. As
I said, you can order - or find - copies of the book at most book
stores. Anything else you're dying to mention and
I have merely forgotten to ask?
Well, in my working career I've been with some younger people who have said to me
"Why should I care about things that happened long before I was
born? They don't make any difference in my life!" Well, I disagree.
The kind of "buddy comedy" I've talked about from the days of
say Laurel and Hardy is still with us, but with different performers
and different storylines. I just saw a newly created feature-length
version of a .Looney Tunes Warner Bros. cartoon called
The Day the Earth Blew Up and I was more than pleasantly surprised at
how fun it was to see. The animation was a blend of old-time "hand
drawn" animation in the wild 1940s style and I think some digital
animation. I hope it does well enough to people to want to make more of
these kind of films! The story-telling techniques of old movie directors
like John Ford, directors who made serials and Westerns for kids, people
like Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett who made cartoons "back in the
day" have influenced people like Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis,
Quentin Tarentino or just about any current Hollywood director you might
care to name. Thanks for the
interview! You're welcome! Thanks for letting me talk about my book! I hope those of you
who read it will enjoy it! - Lenny Kohl
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