Here’s an example of one of his gags in Car of Tomorrow. It takes up four seconds of screen time, and contains no animation.
Narrator Gil Warren describes various features of futuristic cars at an auto show. There’s a shot of a car. He says “The newest thing in sun visors.” The camera pulls back on Johnny Johnsen’s drawing for the gag.
Full page ads in trade publications in 1951 shouted the cartoon was screened at a sneak preview of An American in Paris at Loew’s 72nd Street in August. There is no mention of Tex Avery. Just Fred Quimby.
In Johnsen’s painting, you’ll notice the bullet nose in the front, influenced by the 1950 Studebaker Champion. The 1949 Ford had a bullet nose as well and the company released a 25-minute, live-action film in June 1952 called Tomorrow Meets Today, which featured futuristic designs. General Motors’ Oldsmobile division came out with a 25-minute live-action shot made by Jam Handy in 1948 called The Car of Tomorrow, Today. (GM was back in 1956 with Your Keys to the Future, made by Dudley Films).
“A cartoon which will delight all motorists,” declared the Motion Picture Herald on Nov. 22, 1952.
There’s no indication who came up with the designs for the cartoon. The animators were Mike Lah, Walt Clinton and Grant Simmons.
I wonder about the " of Tomorrow" titles. It seems to be they all hearken back to the 1939-40 World's Fair "World of Tomorrow" theme. So was it already passé and kind of an inside joke by 1952?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say so, Anon. Consumer futurism seemed pretty popular into the 1960s (it brought us The Jetsons). There were quite a number of short advertising films about it and either G.E. or Westinghouse did a tour of the U.S. in the mid-50s with home gadgets expected in the future.
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