You can see the address on the sidewalk in the shade of the lower right corner. 17340. We don’t wish to deceive you. This is a bigger house than what was on the property at the time. The original home was on an acre of land, had three or four bedrooms, a den, a guest house and a pool. It was owned by the same person according to the 1945 local directory as it was in the U.S. Census for 1950, the year it was sold.
The home is at 17340 Magnolia Boulevard in Encino. The property at the time belonged to a gent named Walter Lantz.
The Valley Times wrote about the cartoon producer several times that year, but in a story published April 29, a reporter decided to visit Lantz at home. The first subject wasn’t cartoons.
Encino Tops for Home, Says Cartooner Lantz
By HILDA BLACK
Going in search of Walter Lantz, producer of the animated cartoons that bear his name, your reporter arrived at a modest French provincial home in Encino. Producer Lantz was found digging in his garden. He is, he confided to us, going to have enough strawberries to supply his favorite fruit for every meal. Its worth all the hard work, the bending and stooping, he said. We agreed, and made a mental note to make a return trip in another week. We like strawberries, too!
Did he, we wondered, have any other farmer-like instincts, chicken raising, for instance? Not on your life, was the firm response; at $1 a piece eggs are cheap, compared to the worries that beset an “egg raiser.” Lantz admitted he discovered this the hard way.
While we discussed the price of eggs and the value of raising your own strawberries, the Lantz dogs, Daisy, a pointer, and Butch, a 165-pound Great Dane, were greeting us officially. Butch darned near knocked us down, in a friendly way, of course.
Butch Is Sensitive
“He greets all our friends,” Lantz explained. “Gracie tried to break him of the habit, but it’s no use. He’s sensitive, and sulks all day if he doesn’t get a chance to jump up and meet every visitor.
Even as he spoke, Mrs. Lantz (Gracie) was trying to call off the hounds. We thought she looked like someone we’d seen before, and commented on it. Our hunch was correct; Mrs. L.—the former Grace Stafford—had been an actress on the New York stage, then one of the Duffy players who appeared regularly at El Capitan theater in Hollywood, and still later in pictures. Now, she’s perfectly content to be a housewife.But not a “sit-by-the-fire” housewife, for she is a senior grey lady at Birmingham hospital, and during the war, as part of her patriotic contribution, she put in over 500 hours as a spotter in the Valley.
Films for Government.
And what, we wanted to know, about Walter? Did he work at spotting, or something like that? No, he told us. While Gracie was busy spotting, he had been busy at his Universal studio making training films for the government. Twenty-two in all, for the U. S. navy. What were they?
Oh, pictures on bomb fuzes, torpedo practices, and one which now is being shown all over the country: A film called “The Enemy Bacteria.” Designed to teach young doctors the necessity for proper sanitation precautions, the picture fills more than a wartime need. Today, young medics and nurses are shown this picture early in their training. It is also being distributed through the Latin American countries by the office of the co-ordinator of inter-American affairs, as part of their educational program.
Yes, Walter Lantz did a good job for the government, we decided. And so did Grace.
Woody in Cement
On our way up the driveway we thought we had detected a bit of Lantz artistry, and asked about it. Yes, that’s Woody Woodpecker, and Andy Panda, Walter agreed a bit sheepishly. Then he told us about how his top Cartune stars found their way into his driveway. They almost didn’t we learned.
Seems when the driveway was being put in, Lantz got the unique idea of drawing a Woody and an Andy in the wet cement. Anxiously, he waited around until the workmen had left for the day, then carved out the figures of his two top stars with a nail.
He was a little chagrined next morning when the gardener came running into the house reporting that some darned neighborhood kids had scribbled all over the driveway and ruined it!
Speaking of neighbors, we wondered about his. Well, we learned, there was M-G-M Publicity Chief Howard Strickling and Actors Paul Muni and Walter Tetley. Tetley, incidentally, is the voice of Andy Panda in the Lantz Cartunes.
He Loves Encino
Fine neighbors, enthused Walter, and Encino! Well, here’s a town! And he’s not kidding—he means every glowing word. He almost had us believing that the weather is always wonderful, and that even though there may be fog in every other town in San Fernando Valley, in Encino the sun always shines!
We became a trifle suspicious, and asked if, by chance, he had anything to do with the local chamber of commerce. Our remark brought only an innocent, pixie-ish grin, and the information that the chamber of commerce meets regularly in Edward Everett Horton’s barn, and is now planning to build the Encino community clubhouse.
What about local politics, we asked pointedly. Once more we got that naive smile and Walter Lantz informed us: “Tom Breneman may be mayor of our town—but I’m the only cartoon producer in Encino.”
By the way, we checked the Van Nuys directory for 1945 and, sure enough, Walter Tetley lived almost across the street with his parents at 17357 Magnolia Blvd. That house has been replaced as well.
The year Lantz sold his home, he inked a deal with Universal to make a new series of Woody Woodpecker cartoons for the studio after a dead period of over a year; the first one was released in January 1951.
And who bought the Lantz house? In 1962, it was listed for sale again. It seems the owner filed for bankruptcy, partly because he was trying to make alimony payments to three ex-wives. The man was Joseph N. Yule, Jr. You know him better as Mickey Rooney.
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