A Little More on Grant Simmons

Disney, Screen Gems, MGM with Tex Avery, Grantray-Lawrence with Ray Patterson, DePatie-Freleng. Grant Simmons has that on his list of animation accomplishments.

We profiled him in this post. In leafing through clippings, but there’s one we missed. We’ll give you some other tidbits, too.

A family history at Ancestry.com says Grant Alden Simmons was born Nov. 11, 1912 at Pima, Arizona and his early schooling was in Miami, Ariz. It claims the family moved to Los Angeles after he graduated from high school—at the age of 12! (June 25, 1924), though a 1943 article transcribed in the previous post says he attended high school in Glendale, which seems more likely. He attended Brigham Young University for two years, studying art.

But the history is missing something. Besides his third birthday party reported in the Graham (Ariz.) Guardian (games and refreshments). This story is from the weekly Lordsburg Liberal of Lordsburg, New Mexico, May 31, 1935.

JACK KERR TELLS OF THE MICKEY MOUSE CARTOON
Our own Jack Kerr, voted the most popular boy on the campus of Modesto College in California, published an article in the Modesto Collegian on the production of the famous Mickey Mouse cartoons, the production being so good that it was broadcast over the radio. Jack's very interesting article follows:
In the minds of the audiences who have seen a Mickey Mouse cartoon, the prevalent reaction is one of mere entertainment. But in the minds of the 250 skilled artists who make these cartoons is the thought of one and a half months of long, hard work, according to Grant Simmons, MJC student.
Simmons has attended several noted art schools, including the Otis Art in Institute at Los Angeles, and was at one time employed by Walt Disney in the making of one of his famous cartoons.
The studio is run on the same scale a large motion picture corporation, according to Simmons. If the artist is good enough he is given a three months' course in apprenticeship, which is held on the studio lot. The artist who has possibilities is given a contract for six months as an "in betweener," and from here he works up the ladder.
The animater plays the most important part in the making of a cartoon. He draws every first and fifth movement. The drawings are then sent to the "thirders," who draw every third movement, and from there the drawings continue on to the "in betweeners," who draw all other motions between the first, third, and fifth drawings.
From these rough sketches a trial picture is made, and if satisfactory the drawings are then sent to the inking department, where "inkers" trace all drawings on celluloid. These celluloid copies are then shown on a stationary background.
All of the songs heard in the cartoons are composed at the Disney studio.
It takes approximately 150,000 drawings to make a single Mickey Mouse moving picture cartoon.
Simmons, who is taking art under Jean Williams at MJC, is practising animation and plans to have a try-out with Disney this summer.

After working on Fantasia (1941), Simmons accepted an offer from Dave Fleischer to work for Screen Gems. The Film Daily’s review on Nov. 9, 1942 of The Dumbconscious Mind, a Phantasy cartoon, says “Reel is amusing and skillfully animated by Grant Simmons.”

The Hollywood correspondent on the Deseret News of Salt Lake City wrote on June 2, 1943:

Grant Simmons, animator at Columbia Cartoon Studios, gets screen credit on Columbia’s current cartoon “Something About A Soldier.” It’s good fun. Grant is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Simmons, formerly of Salt Lake. When I asked Grant if his three-year-old daughter Arlene is also an artist, he said: “She’d better not be.”

Simmons stayed at Screen Gems until it closed in November 1946 (cartoons with his name were put on hold then released over the next two years). His first credit at MGM in the Tex Avery unit was Li’l Tinker. Model sheets for the cartoon are dated June 5, 1946 and the short was released May 15, 1948.

During the ‘40s, he was also active in the Screen Cartoonists, Local 852 as a trustee.

MGM disbanded the Avery unit in March 1953. Variety of June 16, 1953 reported that two weeks earlier, Simmons and Ray Patterson, who bounced between the Hanna-Barbera unit and Avery’s crew, had been hired by Walter Lantz. While two Lantz cartoons bear their names, they did not stay long. On July 21, 1954, Variety said the two, and New York producer Robert Lawrence, had set up Grantray Animation, Inc., later Grantray-Lawrence. The intention was to make commercials, industrial films and theatricals. For a time, their creative supervisor was Gene Hazleton.

Simmons and Patterson’s company did some sub-contract work for television, notably on the debut episode of The Jetsons (1962). It also turned in footage for the features Gay Purree (1962) and Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear (1964). Then came a big break. Broadcasting revealed in its Jan. 24, 1966 issue:

Comics on TV ● Producers Robert Lawrence and Stephen Krantz have acquired TV animation rights from Marvel Comics group for two of its comic characters, Spider-Man and Captain America. Production of a half-hour pilot film is now under way at Grantray-Lawrence Productions, Hollywood.

A million-dollar contract between Krantz Films and RKO General Broadcasting to put the Captain America half hours—three segments including Sub-Mariner, The Incredible Hulk, The Mighty Thor and Iron Man—on five of its stations was announced in the Mar. 26, 1966 issue of Back Stage. By April 11, sales reached two million for 18 cities, according to Broadcasting magazine. Simmons was one of the directors.

As for Spider-Man, ABC decided by January 19, 1967 to add the half hour to its fall Saturday morning schedule (source, The Hollywood Reporter). There were expanded studios and staff. There were more TV commercials. It was all too much. Grantray-Lawrence closed in (I understand) 1968. Spidey was now animated in New York, though Simmons got a credit.

Simmons’ name appears in Daily Variety a final time on June 1, 1970. He was hired, along with familiar names Art Davis, Sid Marcus, Hawley Pratt, Gerry Chiniquy and Lars Calonius, to direct the Doctor Dolittle cartoon series for DePatie-Freleng.

Cancer claimed Simmons died on October 31, 1970 at age 57.

Eye-Sproing on Broadway

Animation takes could be pretty exaggerated during the years of World War Two. Take a look at Tex Avery’s Northwest Hounded Police (MGM, 1946 release). By the 1950s, that kind of thing had settled down, as cartoon characters became more stylised. My guess is the take-gag had also become a cliché.

Occasionally, one would pop up in a ‘50s short. The eye gag at the end of Droopy’s Double Trouble (MGM, 1951 release) is my favourite. Here’s one from in Broadway Bow Wow’s, released on August 2, 1954.

The tale is of lovers John and Mary, whose dancing act rises to the top of vaudeville. Then, John gets a look at a femme fatale. Here’s the take.



This short was one of two made by Ray Patterson and Grant Simmons for Walter Lantz. People on the internet claim Grantray-Lawrence made it. Let’s look at the facts. Variety of June 16, 1953 reported Lantz had hired Simmons and Patterson as part of a studio expansion, and mentioned on July 21, 1954 the two had formed Grantray Animation to do commercial work for Robert Lawrence. As the cartoon was released August 2, 1954, there’s no way it could have been made at Grantray-Lawrence.

However, Business Screen magazine’s issue of August 1954 reported the two “have been in the animation business for twenty years. Both were formerly with Walt Disney and later with M.G.M. cartoon studios. Operating as a partnership for the past two years, Simmons and Patterson have been producing television animated commercials and writing and directing theatrical cartoons.”

Buried in the background of one scene is a sign reading “Grantray’s Snake Oil.” There are also signs saying “Garity’s Goiter Pellets” (for Lantz’s studio manager, Bill Garity) and another for “Batchelor’s Eye Wash” (for Mickey Bachelder, Lantz’s chief cameraman). There’s also one for “Avery’s Liver Tonic.” I am assuming that’s a reference to Tex Avery, who was hired by Lantz in December 1953 to be his executive producer, according to the Hollywood Reporter of December 23 that year.

There are no animation credits on the short, but Ray Jacobs and Art Landy handled the backgrounds and layouts, and Dick Nelson got screen credit as John, the narrating dog.

This post will be the last on Tralfaz for the indefinite future.

Operatic Turnabout

Poochini the opera singer gets his revenge on the magician at the end of Magical Maestro by turning the phoney conductor into all the transformation guises he went through during the cartoons. The last one is the Hawaiian war dance (with accompanying magicians rabbits) with the goofy head twists, no doubt animated by Grant Simmons.



There’s nothing else director Tex Avery can do so, logically, this happens.



Rich Hogan helped with the gags and the other credited animators are Mike Lah and Walt Clinton. The cartoon was released in 1952.

Tex Avery's Clementine

“Hey, Bill.”
“What, Joe?”
“Remember how we took Tex Avery’s Southern wolf and turned him into a dog?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, why don’t we take that ‘Clementine’ song Tex used in ‘Magical Maestro’ and give it to the dog?”
“Joe, that would be the Chuckle-berriest!”

Okay, the conversation didn’t go like that. But you have to admit some of Tex’s ideas at MGM were the same as the ones the other unit at the studio put in its TV cartoons when Metro shut down production.

Magical Maestro (released in 1952) is one of Tex’s “revenge” cartoons. Mysto the magician gets revenge on Poochini the opera singer for not buying his magic act. Poochini then gets revenge on Mysto for screwing with his performance of “Largo al Factotum” from Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” (well, what other opera IS there in cartoons? Unless you’re Bugs Bunny on a plump horse, I mean). Mysto and his wand turn Poochini into all kinds of singers, and the situation is reversed at the end.

Oh, for good measure, Tex and writer Rich Hogan have completely refined a gag from his Warner Bros. travelogue Aviation Vacation (1941) involving a hair getting “stuck in the projector.” Instead of Mel Blanc’s character on screen screaming at an unseen projectionist, Poochini pauses in his act just long enough and casually takes care of the situation.

This is one of those cartoons you have to freeze-frame to appreciate the expressions as Poochini is controlled by Mysto’s wand. Here are a few from the Clementine scene. These two are consecutive.



The next pose is below. No in-betweens to smooth things over. Tex wanted to show the abrupt change in Poochini and does it by making a sudden switch in positions so enabling the singer to go into a little Western song and cowboy stroll while playing the guitar. He walks wide because he is wearing furry chaps and that is how someone wearing them would walk.



Some random frames. The animation is on twos. Tex has the background moving every frame.



Poochini butt.



A look of contentment.



The contentment evaporates. He realises he’s not singing Rossini now.



He shoves the guitar away (while still playing it). He’s seething.



He’s angry now and back to singing “The Barber of Seville.”



Mysto’s rabbits suddenly appear. Tex has them show up here and there during the cartoon so you don’t know when to expect them and are surprised when they appear.



Poochini didn’t expect them. When he realises he’s holding onto those rabbits again, he throws them out of the scene.



Avery comes up with various ways to change costumes back to the tuxedo, some of them using an obscuration gag. That’s what he does here with the oversized cowboy hat.



I believe this is a Grant Simmons scene. Mike Lah and Walt Clinton also animate; I can never figure out Clinton scenes. Judging by the opening scene of the old brick theatre, Johnny Johnsen is the uncredited background artist. And, as you have likely read elsewhere, the orchestra conductor is a parody of MGM musical director Scott Bradley.

This cartoon is full of great little scenes. Far better than this one, in my estimation is Poochini as Carmen Miranda and as the Ink Spots.

Daws Butler should be recognisable as the voice of Mysto. Historian/impressionist Keith Scott went through studio records. People who guess at actors’ identities and get it wrong don’t have to guess who you are hearing in this cartoon any more. Read them here.

Warners has done a wonderful job restoring this short for a BluRay release (as a side note, I am happy their latest version of Car of Tomorrow is minus some very frustrating DVNR issues). You can see unrestored versions of other scenes in earlier posts by clicking on the “Magical Maestro” label to the right.

Wrap the Girl

A sign for Reynolds Wrap morphs into a little girl designed by Gene Hazelton at the start of his minute-long, 1950s TV spot. Here are the drawings; most are on twos.



Grant Simmons is the animator for the Grantray-Lawrence studio. My thanks to Mike Kazaleh for the film and the ID.

Cracking Up Spike

Spike thinks he can get rid of the title character in Garden Gopher (1950) by clobbering him with a sledgehammer. The rodent outsmarts him again, and we get Tex Avery’s cracking-up gag—several times for a change—ending with a mini-Spike tapping his foot in disgust.



Grant Simmons is responsible for this scene, with additional animation by Mike Lah and Walt Clinton. Rich Hogan is the storyman.

Disney had a garden gopher vs. dog cartoon the same year, but you know Tex Avery’s is funnier. Poor Tex gets no respect, though. The theatre ad to the right thinks it’s a Tom and Jerry cartoon. The short was re-released March 22, 1957.