Monday, April 5, 2010

Casper, On The Cheap

The following speaks for itself. Forget about the return address -- we were in Los Angeles and my dad had already been freelancing for Paramount for several years. He was at Hanna-Barbera by the date of this invoice. Geeze, can you imagine this kind of price for boards? Well, then again, it is Casper

8 comments:

Dave Mackey said...

Wonder how much Marty Taras got for animating it?

J Lee said...

At least the story was a little different from the other made-for-TV efforts Paramount did featuring the by-then standard staple of Harvey Comic characters and geared far more towards juvenile audiences than even the original theatrical Casper shorts were.

(Also, considering how much work Paramount was doing in 1963, and how many different people they had writing stories, I wonder if $175 was simply the going rate, or if the rates were different for a freelancer doing a Casper, as opposed to, say a Beetle Bailey or a Snuffy Smith cartoon for the KFS package Paramount was producing.)

Kirk Nachman said...

I wonder what that amounts to in adjusted dollars? -maybe he knocked it out in a day-!?

p spector said...

Nacht: he actually might have knocked it out in a day. For him, at this point in his career, this was like eating between meals. :}

J Lee: he did do a couple of Snuffys. Wish I had the invoices for them, we could figure it out.

Mackey: you're too funny!

Brubaker said...

I'm guessing he mailed the storyboards to NY? How many pages did a typical storyboard for a TV cartoon from the '60s have? I'm betting it was a pretty thick envelope.

Brubaker said...

Hey Paul,

Here's a treat. Go to this site

http://www.hitopstv.com/tv.cfm

select "Linus the Lionhearted" and click episode 4. It has "The Flying Lion", a pilot episode your dad directed. You described it as being your dad's "baby" once.

p spector said...

Brubaker -- From the few complete storyboards I have from his Paramount/Famous era,you can estimate about 120, give or take...mostly give. Usually, these are numbered on the boards I've already posted.
And yes, he was mailing it, figuartivly, from at least 1959,(that's when his journal ledger began, although he was already freelancing for P/F before that point.)

Thanks very much for the "Flyin' Lion" link!

- Paul

Unknown said...

I watched all the cartoons when I was six years old at that time during childhood in the Philippines my favorites like Popeye Casper Gumby Beany&Cecil Sinbad Jr. Three Stooges Marvel Heroes Gigantor Wacky Races Mightor and others and also like to read newspapers/magazines and comics after work day and night then stay home play action figures/toy soldiers/cars too by the way thanks for the information about your comments .from:Wayne