Gene Deitch was involved in the making of this limited animation cartoon. The highlights may be the post-war designs and the voice work of Dick Beals, who later moved to Hollywood where his perennial kid voice could be heard in Alka Seltzer commercials, as Ralph Phillips in the Warner Bros. cartoons (Windsock compares interestingly with Phillips), and in TV series like The Funny Company, Roger Ramjet and Davey and Goliath. Beals was an actor on radio in Detroit at the time this film was made.
Deitch, of course, went on to do commercial work at UPA, became the head of production at Terrytoons, then moved to Czechoslovakia where he made Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons and Popeye cartoons for television.
Rudy Zamora has been identified by Mr. Deitch as one of the Windsock animators. Another source says Jim Fekete also worked on it.
Gene Deitch's account of his time with Jam Handy can be found here:
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Dick Beals, like Walter Tetley, had some kind of hormonal anomaly in which his voice never matured or deepened as he got older. These gentlemen had a real advantage in radio and cartoon voices whenever they needed a child's voice with mature acting in it.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly got to do a lot over the years. I never even knew how convincing that voice was as kid or that it came from a grown-up!
DeleteI'd always wondered if Dick Beals AND Walter Tetley EVER worked together......their voices had the same reason for being as they were (explained by Mark) but are instantly distinghuisable from one another.SC
DeleteTheir British counterpart was Jimmy Clitheroe, who had his own BBC radio show.
DeleteI noticed a lot of sources credit 1947 for when this film came out, BCDB lists 1949 which sounds more sensible to me, but I could be wrong over that anyway. I just assume the roman numerals on the Air Force logo was the date that organization was established.
ReplyDeleteYes, the U.S. Air Force became a separate service in 1947.
DeleteAh, I got the 1947 year from the Air Force logo. Didn't realize that was for the year the organization was established.
ReplyDeleteDick Beals started out doing radio work in Detroit, and first film work was for industrials like this. My first recollection of his presence was as the voice of Speedy Alka Seltzer that started after this.
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