Cartoon Dollar Days

Despite unionised jobs in the cartoon business, there were animators in the Golden Age took on side work. Some were hired for uncredited animation for other studios (UPA’s pre-UPA cartoons, the Jerky Journeys and Bob Clampett’s short for Republic come to mind). Others drew artwork or wrote stories for comic books.

Then there’s the case of Ken Champin, who worked for several years on newspaper panel ads for a Hollywood business association.

It’s regretful that little is known about Champin, whose name you will probably recognise from the Friz Freleng unit at Warner Bros. I have never found an interview with him. You’ll have to pardon the brevity of this snapshot; I suspect Devon Baxter has looked into him and has found additional information.

Kenneth Ferdinand Champin was born on August 11, 1911 in Clifton, New Jersey, at the time a small town about four miles from Passaic, to Ferdinand (Fred) and Eleanor Champin. The family moved to San Diego in 1918, where his father co-owned and opened the Liberty grocery stores and died at the end of the year at the age of 29. He and his mother moved in with an aunt in Pasadena. His mother later re-married.

The only mention of him in the local press is in a story in 1928 that he had signed to play tenor saxophone with the Box Scout band in the La Canada valley. Champin attended Glendale Union High School and was the staff cartoonist for the Stylus. The 1930 Census reveals he was an 18-year-old grocery clerk. He married in 1932.

The 1936 Glendale directory gives his occupation as “attdt Forest Lawn.” It would appear he started in animation in 1937 as in 1987, he was honoured for 50 years in the business at the Motion Picture Cartoonists Golden Awards banquet. The very first edition of the Leon Schlesinger Studio’s internal newspaper, The Exposure Sheet (Jan. 1939), announced the birthday of Champin’s son Jim on February 28, 1938. The younger Champin ended up in the animation business as well.

Unfortunately, the newsletter (published in 1939-40) has little to say about him. He was part of a studio table tennis team that included Bob Matz, Dick Thomas and Bob Holdeman. He appeared in one of the studio’s Sketch Pad comedies before Christmas 1939.

Champin’s first screen credit for animation was in Daffy–The Commando, released Nov. 28, 1943. The final short with his name is Pests For Guests, released January 29, 1955. This was apparently animated before the cartoon studio shut down for the last six months of 1953.

Sources on-line indicate Champin drew some Disney comic books and (in conjunction with ex-Warners artist/writer Dave Hoffman) a Tom and Jerry colouring book. Much of his time in the late ‘50s and 1960s was spent in commercial animation. Television magazine of Sept. 5, 1960 reported on the creation of Filmfair “by several executives formerly with Ray Patin Productions.” One was Champin, who was named their animation director and was later a vice-president.

He passed away on Feb. 25, 1989 in Palm Springs.

(No, I didn’t “forget” other credits. This is not a filmography. You can find lists elsewhere on-line).

In 1920, the Merchantors’ Division of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce came up with a semi-annual Dollar Day. Not only did businesses take out full-page ads in the Hollywood Citizen-News, it commissioned a one-panel cartoon to comically promote it. Champin was the artist. Here are some of the examples.

January 26, 1937

January 29, 1937

July 27, 1937

July 26, 1938

July 27, 1938

July 28, 1938

July 29, 1938

Here is a week’s worth from May 1939. Champin shows a good sense of composition. I really like his struggling horses pulling a streetcar.

May 15, 1939

May 16, 1939

May 17, 1939

May 18, 1939

May 19, 1939

There are actually quite a number of others ending, it seems, on May 16, 1941 with a couple of Africans. I don’t want to make this post too long, so we’ll end with these. Toward the end, Champin focuses on World War Two (Pearl Harbor hasn’t happened yet).

July 31, 1939

August 1, 1939

August 2, 1939

August 4, 1939

October 12, 1939

October 14, 1939

February 3, 1940

January 27, 1941

May 13, 1941

May 14, 1941

May 15, 1941

Friz Freleng lived long enough where he was honoured and interviewed many times over later in life. So was Virgil Ross, who spent a large portion of his career in the Freleng unit. Champin doesn't seem to have been as fortunate, but perhaps this fills in a few blanks.