Spectorphile

Christmas Coogy: Nice Jewish Cartoonist Does Santa

2009-12-20T13:37:00.004-05:00

I'm snowed-in here in the northeast, still waiting on a guy to come and plow 150 feet of driveway. What's to do? How about we get my Christmas post out of way? Don't kids like to open their presents early? (Trust me, in the manner I was raised there was no such thing as delayed gratification). If you like to frequent Spectorphile and the same kind of blogs I do, then I suspect you are just a kid. I know your type alright. Why must you wait?

From December 23, 1951:

What I really want to know is...where are all the Chanukah strips drawn by Christian cartoonists hiding?
You kids, whatever you may celebrate, if anything, please have a good time. And don't blog and drive.

Stocking Stuffers

2009-12-16T14:03:00.004-05:00

As you might have guessed, the above items are from my dad's last days in the Army Animation Unit (WWII). If you're wondering why there is a "T" on the chevrons, that's because the AAU was actually part of the Army Technical Corps.

The above has to be from the mid-70's, because my dad is sporting those graying sideburns which were so popular among balding middle-aged men from that era. Oddly, I like the photograph.

Yes, there really is a reel in the can. It has three commercials: Nabisco Shredded Wheat, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Buster Brown Shoes (don't forget his dog Tige -- he's in there too.) Actually, that is my own ugly handwriting at the top of the label -- to remind myself what is inside -- because if you've ever had to unspool something of this length using a pencil, like I did -- you'll never want to do it again.

Anyway, that's the way I heard it...

2009-12-02T15:55:00.005-05:00

...and if that ain't the truth let me be struck by lightning.

Here's a story I must have heard a half-dozen times in my life when I was much less than half as old as I am now. The tale never wavered. It goes something like this:

My dad, when he was young(er), used to draw single-panel gag cartoons and send them off to celebrities that he was fond of. Now, some of you might know that his industry sobriquet was "Spec", yet few of you know that in those early days he would often sign his artwork with a pair of spectacles (I myself have yet to see this phenomenon, but I take his word for it). Well, one piece he sent to Gary Cooper...the actor, not the astronaut. Cooper did a goodly number of western cowboy flicks and so my dad drew a gag about a cowpuncher, something about a bull with a black eye, if I recollect correctly. Decades go by, and Cooper eventually passed in 1961. My dad is flipping through some Cooper magazine retrospective and comes across a caption something to the effect of, Most people don't know it but Gary Cooper was a very good artist. So, my dad looks at the drawing, it seems vaguely familiar, and then notices a pair of spectacles in place of Cooper's signature.

By the way, I've yet to come across this drawing. If any Spectorphile does find a copy of where it appeared, I guarantee you a nice original authentic artistic piece of work in trade for your trouble.

Comic Book Interlude: The Farmer's Daughter #1

2009-12-12T11:37:00.007-05:00

Here's a real Spector oddity of cheesecake. The Farmer's Daughter ran for four issues, beginning with the February-March 1954 issue. What is it with the four-and-out titles from this era such as Muggy-Do, Boy Cat, Lucky Duck, and now this? You'll notice that the story is copyright Hal Seeger, although my dad drew and wrote all the stories in it (Muggy is also copyright Seeger). Anyway, I am personally taken with the rushed yet controlled abandon of its loosey-goosey style.

Yup, she was only the farmer's daughter's butt. I don't have my Overstreet guide at hand but I do recall there being a mention of a "lingerie panel", or "nudity panel" -- or something to that effect -- in this same issue. Here's a one-pager to which they must have been referring.

Thanks to Glenn Bray for inadvertantly mentioning this title to me, Bob Jaques for locating and sending me scans of issue #'s 1 and 2 from Golden Age Comics (UK) and of course the folks who uploaded them in the first place.

Gulliver Animation - King Bombo on the Carriage Step

2009-11-24T12:15:00.004-05:00

It's difficult to identify my dad's actual pre-war (WWII) animation. However, two days after my dad passed away, Arnold Gillespie (who not only worked at Fleischer but went on to have a glorious career in special effects), paid me a wonderful telephone call to let me know that, back in the day, this particular piece of animation from Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels just "tickled" him. We can thank Bob Jaques for the clip. It seems like the moment I press the send email button to ask "Do you have...", the darn thing is already in my inbox.

Comic Book Interlude: Little Lionel

2009-11-18T12:57:00.003-05:00

We can thank Mr. Bob Jaques for this one. Bob was searching for moonlighting-comic-book-drawing animators and came up with this from a Wacky Duck titled reprint pubbed in 1958 (I.W. Enterprises). My dad had already exited from a decade-long comic book era at that point, and Little Lionel dates back to the post-war 1940s. Still, I like the sort of pre-war old-fashioned flavor of it all: the telephone, the firemen panel, et al.

The Sad Sack

2009-11-12T10:26:00.012-05:00

Harkening back to the old U.S. Army Signal Corps days, here's an old mildewed book I have that Sgt. George Baker, creator of The Sad Sack, personalized (above) to my dad. I don't know if Baker was technically in the animation unit, but then again, when it came to creatives -- no mattter what their particular facility -- every cartoonist (using that term in general) knew each other.

Rather than send you to Wiki's blurb on Sad Sack, let's just let the book do the talking.

Books in wartime, Egad!:

The Introduction: You might want to read the whole thing, but I'll paraphrase that Sad Sack first appeared in Yank magazine in 1942. "The Sack is Army's perfect personification of the Army's little man, the hopeless underdog who has no stripes, no glory, no friends in the orderly room, no escape from the dread terror of red tape and higher ranks. Since he is the Army's little man, none of his problems are of his own making. No matter what he does or leaves undone, trouble will come to him from outside forces. "

The deal, storywise, with Sad Sack, is that no matter how hard he tries, he always gets the crap end of the military pecking-order stick: the end gag is always the same...he's just a sad sack of... The book is flush with pages -- those scanned below are, to my own eyes, representative of what you would find.

Offline

2009-11-03T23:23:00.002-05:00

Spectorphile will be offline for the next several days, as will my email. The Mrs. has ordered new carpeting to be installed 11/4, which means I have to disassemble my antiquated computer setup and stick the Irvchives into that strange place under the stairwell. I'll be up all night with this kind of stuff. See you shortly therafter.

Christmas In October

2009-10-19T10:04:00.003-04:00

When I blogged the Coogy Columbus Day post, I found out that they were already celebrating Thanksgiving in Canada! What the heck is going on here? The absolute nerve! Not to be beaten to the punch again, I'm skipping this coming November's scheduled T-day post and going straight on to Christmas. On December 25th, expect my July 4th post, unless somewhere else someone is celebrating their Independence Day before that.

I have no idea who drew this card. Likely, the conversation went this way:

ARTIST (to Spec): Uh, Spec, what are we going to do about an Xmas card?

SPEC: Good idea -- hadn't thought about it. Would you like to do it?

ARTIST: I'd love to.

And so there ya go.

You're in the army now...

2009-10-14T14:04:00.008-04:00

...You're not behind a plow
You'll never get rich
By digging a ditch...

Hey, you know that old military tune, don't you? Well, here's a bunch of mugs that I doubt ever dug ditches in the Army. More than likely, they never even had to get behind a plow; rather, they were behind lightboards. That would be my own dad, front-right. The identities of the other guys are open to your suggestions.

The above photo had to be taken when many of the Army Signal Corps Animation Unit was moved from Astoria (Queen, NY) into Manhattan. How can we tell? Check the date-stamp at the bottom of the photograph.

Here's an envelope that Vince Fago -- then at Timely -- sent my dad while he moonlighted comics during his Army stint (and he wasn't the only one doing that.) I wonder what was in it.

Funny Frolics #1? That's his penciled handwriting on the cover. I guess he wanted some credit.

My dad was so delighted that eight years later he snuck Vince into the New York Herald Tribune! Check out the name on the green door, middle tier center.

However, life can be tough in the military, especially when you have to draw all day long. I own plenty of drawings from those days, although I'm usually hesitant to attribute them to my dad unless I have some sort of corroborating evidence. As my dad was often hesitant to sign his work, I am always grateful when I can find a single drawing with his signature that leads me to believe that I can, by drawing style, accredit more to him. Now, I'm not saying whether the artwork is good enough or not to be post-worthy, I'm just saying they exist, so why keep them in a box?

Troop dismissed!

Watch This

2009-10-13T15:09:00.003-04:00

COOGY: Columbus Day Special (Black and White and Sunday Color)

2009-10-08T12:34:00.008-04:00

Yes this post is premature, as Columbus Day is celebrated in the States a few days from now, this coming Monday the 12th. Yet, this post came together so quickly that I figure we might as well get a jump on the matter and trump all those other bloggers whom I know will try and do the same thing.

I put Special in the title because not only do I have the originals but also their corresponding published Sunday color strip, and so now, for the first time on Spectorphile, we get to see them side by side. Now, to some that might be redundant but I figure it was more than just a serendipitous event because I actually have only three of the five episodic originals and likewise the same exact ones for the colors. We can not deny the hand of fate, my friends. Plus, rather than teasing you by serializing it and making you return here over the next few days until Monday, I'm giving it to you all at once!

Politically, Columbus Day divies up people, depending upon which point of view one takes. But Spectorohile doesn't deal in politics, we just deal in cartoony stuff. However, we will say that if you are foolish enough to attempt a crosstown drive in Manhattan this Monday during the time the parade strolls down the Avenue, you will be cursing Columbus's arse over the fact that he ever left port in the first place.

October 21, 1951:

November 4, 1951:

November 18, 1951:

L'Amour The Merrier, 1957, (Pt. 2 of 2)

2009-09-30T09:45:00.020-04:00

And now back to our program...

L'Amour The Merrier: Paramount/Famous Noveltoon, 1957: Storyboard (Pt.1 of 2)

2009-09-29T15:56:00.028-04:00

Yes, it's true -- Louise is my sister's name.

div>

Yes, there are a few boards missing, but no one will have a tough time following. Some of you might also have noticed that my dad cut down 3-punch peg to make his own boards. That, and the dabs of color occasionally tossed in, confirms my suspicions that the storyboards I retain are a sort of first draft; as far as I know, few cartoonists were able to get back their final boards.

Part 2 to follow shortly.

Piece of Cache

2009-08-14T14:15:00.008-04:00

Apologies for neglecting the blog throughout this summer. It's been due to my own unreconciled stubborn dilemma about the unearthed cache: I don't know whether to be grateful or an ingrate. At some point in the future I will have to address it online and hopefully get over it, but until then here's a few items that were sent back my way:

My dad as Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Artist unknown, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were a self portrait.

Pola Negri

"Gestures" by Harpo Marx. My dad was a huge Marx Bros fan.

Flippin' The Bird

2009-06-12T10:30:00.004-04:00

No, the title of this post is not a tune from the Complete Savoy Recordings of Charlie Parker (I have it on double-album vinyl, so I can assure you.) However, I do know at least 4.8 Spectorphiles who can tell me which cartoon this is from. (Yes, I know too, but I'd rather you empty your valve spit in the comments section.) This picture used to hang on the wall above my dad's basement hovel animation desk on Long Island. It's larger than my scanner plate, hence apologies for the seam. And, he signed it, something he rarely did, and so was apparently satisfied, even with the professionally antiqued coffee drips.

A few years later in L.A., in one of my newly-adolescent moments, I noticed and mentioned to him that some of the musicians were flippin' the bird, giving the finger...or however you care to express it. This came as a surprise to him, and he said something to the effect of, "Oh God, they ARE!" He'd no idea (let's not get too Freudian about it all). And then he laughed.

(BTW, I realize the blog has lately been slower than usual. I'm currently in life's grip but hope to gear-up shortly)

Lucky Duck in "Mountain Madness"

2009-05-25T09:28:00.007-04:00

As promised, here's another Lucky Duck story that appeared in a Supermouse. Once again, hats off to Bob Jaques for the scans. Splash original courtesy of Glenn Bray. Big thanks to both.

Lucky Us

2009-05-22T09:37:00.002-04:00

Here's two Lucky Duck stories that are not included in the four eponymously titled LD issues (oddly, numbered as 5-8...Muggy-Doo, Boy Cat are 1-4); a 3-pager and a 1-page. Next post will be a longer Lucky Duck story. Let's thank Mr. Bob Jaques, who discovered them all in some Supermouses he purchased and sent scans our way.

You'll notice that this next one is under a Rocky Rabbit heading, rather than LD. The endgag is a pre-owned throwaway, but I know you people only look at the pictures :)

Tools of the Trade

2009-05-08T11:26:00.011-04:00

Soon after my father bit the bullet I scooped up a lot of his tools of the trade. These were real cartoonist items, not the sissyfied digital crapola used today. Above is just one scannerfull of a few handfulls of a very large bag of his pencils and other workingperson animator utensils. Well, my wife thinks I'm borderline OCD because I've lugged them around for over 30 years. I tell her, first, "How can you say that? You've only known me for fifteen of those years. " If that doesn't work I say, "You are missing a tremendous tactile experience by not immersing your own hands in the bag and running through it all." Eventually I just ask her, "What's for dinner?"

Below is my second favorite drawing item from when I was an animator's brat: the double-bladed blue and red pencil. You had to be careful not to poke your eye out. But what real animator would care about that? They'd just pop their eyeball back in and keep on going. These days, your monitor blacks out and you cry out for Mama.

You can tell that my dad used to sharpen his pencils with a single-edged razor -- then he'd eat the razor as a parlor trick and wash it down with the pencil shavings. You guys today, with your drawing tablets and all, how do you sharpen your pressure-sensitive digital pen? Shove it in the USB port, wait a while, and then press the Help button? Bah! Get yourselves a big bag of pencils and feel the real!

My dad would be sharpening his pencils with one hand while his other hand held his timer (below) as he worked over an exposure sheet.

You modern guys and gals; all you got is some plastic box with some high-falootin' software that can't even keep track of the correct date to change back and forth from daylight savings time. Bah! My dad would have eaten your Maya 3D helpware for breakfast, and then spat them right back atcha'.

Below is my very favorite drawing item. Generally known as a china marker, my dad and his real animator brethern called them grease pencils. Yeah, grease. Ya got a problem with that, you digital debutantes? When was the last time you got down and greasy with your work?

I used to be totally fascinated with grease pencils. You expose the point by peeling back the string and uncoiling the outer wrap. As a tyke I used to sit on me pappy's lap and just unwind them for hours. But did he punish me? Hell no! He'd pat me on the head and call me "A good wee lad." (Sometimes my dad forgot he was Jewish and thought he was Scottish...so we'd have to remove the Dewars for a spell. Don't laugh you modern animators -- when was the last time you needed to have your frappacinos taken from you?)

One oldtimer who doesn't get enough hand's-on props is John Oxberry. This guy should be enshrined in several of those mutual-backslapping organizations you modern guys got -- and you can make room for him by shoving out the guy who invented the graphic accelerator card. Ox's animation cameras were ubiquitous to just about every studio in the real animation era. Made of metal, flesh and blood, no one had wait overnight for rendering: you shot it, you got it, you shoot the next. Case closed Go over to the Splog and see this amazing post on him.

Below is Paramount's in-house guide on their use of the Oxberry.

An alternative to the Oxberry was the Richardson-Bowlds. The model RB-300 could stand in a real animation studio as if you'd parked your big ol' humpback Oldsmobile 88 inside, and looking like it could have had the the eponymous starring role in Transformers. You modern folk, I'll bet you got Smartcars and drive them in the slow lane, starring in some flick with Hugh Grant and Mandy Moore. Bah! Just look under the hood, man:

Seymour Kneitel sent my dad the following letter when he screwed up some animation direction. That's probably why I have the Oxberry guide -- Seymour must have sent it to him as a reminder.Kneitel addressing my dad as "Irving" is equivalent to Hilary Clinton calling her husband William. In the industry everyone always addressed my dad as either Spec or Irv. The only time someone ever called my dad Irving was my mother when she was pissed at him. So maybe Seymour, gentleman that he was, was annoyed. Around this same time my dad had resumed his brogue so the scotch had to go back into the cabinet. I reasoned hard with my dad that he really was of Russian ancestry -- so out came the vodka. Hence we got Boris the Matchmaker and his samovar. Whatta ya got now? Kimpossible? Bah!

Comic Book Interlude: Stuffy Derma in "Shipped Ahoy"

2009-05-06T15:05:00.004-04:00

I recently obtained a copy of Muggy-Doo, Boy Cat #2 (September, 1953), within which my father drew and wrote all the stories and the cover. But I'm not posting a Muggy story. Instead, I'm posting one where Stuffy Derma is the main character. Why? Well, when one comes across a character with a name like that -- that's what one does.

Is it just a coincidence that an advertisement like the one below precedes the story?

By the way, for those of you who don't frequent a certain kind of deli, Stuffy Derma is name after the delicacy Stuffed Derma:
Stuffed derma, also known as kishka (Slavic for “gut”), is traditionally a cow’s intestine stuffed with a mixture of grain, fat, and sometimes ground meat and vegetables. Nowadays, kishka is most commonly made with a synthetic casing, and when made at home, some people use chicken skin as a wrapping instead.
Typical filling recipes include flour, matza meal, salt, pepper, chicken or beef fat, grated carrots, and grated onions. It’s eaten plain, with sauce, or on top of the traditional Sabbath afternoon stew (called “cholent”).

COOGY: Avalanche Country

2009-04-30T12:08:00.003-04:00

From February 29, 1953:

I don't know the exact terminology but this is a sort of "proof" that the Herald-Tribune sent my father before the color was added. Unfortunately I don't have the original for comparison, and something tells me that this inked-only version might be nicer than what was published.

Paramount Cartoon: Mike The Masquerader (Modern Madcap, 1959)

2009-04-29T08:13:00.003-04:00

In my previous post I asked if anyone knew the title of the cartoon that the initial model sheet (the elephant) was related to. In that, J Lee and Ken Layton answered the call: Mike The Masquerader. Bob Jaques took it one step further, and not only suggested that I post the cartoon, but then he actually had the nerve to send it to me (and thereby welcome me into the 21st Century, film clips online -- what a concept). Big thanks to all.

I did notice a bit of anachronistic chicanery: the model sheet is signed and dated 1960, yet the animation itself is copyrighted 1959. I went back and looked at the model. Although it's a stat, it appears that my father's signature and date are not. My guess is he received the model back from the studio the following year and signed/dated it then.

The Phantom Tollbooth: MGM (1970): Irv Spector (Uncredited)

2009-03-23T21:05:00.013-04:00

In the personal collection of my father's leftovers, The Phantom Tollbooth, ironically, takes up more volume than practically anything else. Here's the most interesting piece I own: the early meeting minutes of the minds:

It's tough to say why a film falls flat. Sure, it's a simple exercise many of us play, to pick at a film after the fact. But who knows, decades later, why strong veteran talent can't bring a film up to, at the least, average level? Certainly, no one starts out to make a dull flick. My dad is uncredited on Phantom; not sure why, but it happens. Maybe Jones had a crystal ball and was doing my dad a favor. And now I’m undoing that favor. Ain’t it just like a son to revisit the sins of the father?

I got hundreds of pages just like the ones above.

However, here's how my dad found out about the non-credit: My dad, my good schoolfriend Danny (whose favorite book was The Phantom Tollbooth) and myself, went to see a screening of the film, probably at the Screenwriters Guild, where I saw a lot of screenings in the sixties. The lights go out, the opening credits roll, and my father's name is not to be found. We sat through the movie, drove Danny home, and then my father turned red and got real angry...to empahsize, I mean, REAL angry. This was one of maybe a half-dozen times in his life I have ever seen him like that -- where you hold your anger inside for a few hours, then turn lava red, and finally go off like a volcano. He said he would have walked out at the beginning were if not for us kids being there.

Phantom being, I believe, MGM Animation's final release before their demise, I think my father must have been on to another studio by the time of its release, and so had no idea. The minutes are from 1966 but the film wasn't released until 1970. I think it was finished in 1968 and held back.

Here are a few pages of my father's treatment. And I got a lot more just like them. My own feeling about the film is that episodic allegory that is too literal -- therefore defeating the purpose of allegory in the first place...no one requries allegory spelt out for them -- does not make for great film:

I happened to watch Phantom on TCM last Tuesday (I lasted about an hour and then went to bed.) On the above page, you can see my dad used Danny's name -- later changed to "Ralph" by Chuck's request -- because, in my father's words, Chuck thought names like "Ralph" were funnier. I can't argue with that. It's true. My name, "Paulie" was completely omitted from the final script, which I had been already made aware of at the time it happened. No big deal to me. By the way, no one ever called me "Paulie" in my youth, until 25 years later, when I became a Made Man in Little Italy. However, the dialogue about me "taking his drum lesson" was absolutely true at that time.

I'm deliberating whether or not to post pictures here, as all I have are a mess of faded old photocopies...okay then, I hear ya, hold on, I'll scan them. I doubt they're my father's. And, if not Chuck's, then Tony Rivera would be my guess.

So let's forget Phantom. Here's an anecdote even more interesting about another time when my father blew his stack. You gotta love stack blowing -- the true essence of a person: Earlier in the 1960s, Ed Graham (Linus) was over at our apartment. Me? I was still in elementary school at that point. Ed was, chronologically, a grown man. I was chatting in our living room along with the rest of the adults. I told Ed that I was one of the fastest runners in my school. Ed challenged me to a race, right there, on the sidewalks of Magnolia Blvd. I was game. We go downstairs. We race. He beats me. I figured he would too. We go back upstairs. My dad asks who won? I say Ed. Quiet from my dad. Ed and his wife leave about an hour later. My dad blows his stack! My dad yells something to the effect of, "Beating a kid! He always has to be so damn competitive!" Although I'm using damn as a euphemism.

Stray Model Sheets I Have Known

2009-04-25T11:59:00.006-04:00

Okay you Paramount junkies, which cartoon is the above stray model sheet from?: 1960, production number N-18-10. Gee, another smoking character by my dad. Looks to be a ratty cigar. I think I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

Below, we have another dobie model sheet drawn on Oct. 3, 1961 (not only a year, but day and month too) by the legendary Iwao Takamoto (at least the initialed signature constitutes a consensus of three people who say it probably is Takamoto's, but add the disclaimer, "Don't quote me on it.") Touche and his sidekick Dum Dum were part of the The New Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Series (1962-63).

I now give you a model sheet from Tubby The Tuba, OK-ed by Sam Singer and brought to you by the New York Institute of Technology. Why would I be in possession of it? Michael Sporn speculates that Johnny Gentilella farmed some work out to my dad (Johnny G. and my dad knew each other from way back, at least to the Paramount/Famous days.) Michael himself worked on this production, and when I read about his utter disgust with it, it makes me fall-on-the-floor laugh. Have you ever been witness to that in person? When someone hates something so much they can go on and on, practically cussing it in all sorts of venomously creative ways? I'm laughing right now! It only endears him to me more. Here is but one post of several where he's commented upon it. I always read between the lines.

Finally, here are two model sheets of Porky and Granny from my dad's singular directorialship when DePatie-Freleng were producing the Warner Bros cartoon characters: this one titled Corn On The Cop. Granny and Porky, an odd pairing for sure.

Years ago, on a cartoon forum, I'd read a comment on a hit-or-miss poll about it. The commenter stated that, to loosely paraphrase, "...the cartoon came out so miserable that Friz must have yanked Spector from the directorial ranks then and there and forbade him to ever direct again."

Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion, so I didn't then necessarily feel the need to comment. But I guess it must still be sticking in my craw these years later. All I would like to say now is, "And you my friend, what wonderful piece of animation have you produced lately?"

Damn! That felt great!

Paramount: Abner The Baseball - Script by Eddie Lawrence

2009-04-23T10:23:00.016-04:00

Here's Eddie Lawrence's complete script for Paramount's Abner The Baseball. You'll be better served by clicking on his name (above) to learn about his career than whatever I can tell you, although I do know of several Spectorphiles who will likely be leaving additional comments about him and Abner.

I'll include Wiki's entry on the cartoon below. Wiki states the cartoon is actually sixteen minutes; certainly it's a two-reeler -- but not a full two reels -- it clocks in at 12:30 (as shown in the Academy's screening list at the end of this post):

The extended-length title was among the earliest, Abner the Baseball, a 16-minute special seen in November 1961, based upon a tale which was among the tracks on The Kingdom of Eddie Lawrence LP. It is a first-person account by an anthropomorphized baseball describing its experience of being hit out of Briggs Stadium by Mickey Mantle in a September 10, 1960 home run against the Detroit Tigers. Bizarre whimsy, as usual, was the order of the day.

By 1961 my father was freelancing cartoons for Paramount. In the cartoon's credits he's listed under animation design. However, in his personal ledger he billed and received for $1,950. I believe that would have been an unusally high amount just for the animation design, even for the abbreviated two-reller. Unfortunately, he didn't itemize his billing.

Addtionally, here's a letter that animator Johnny Gentilella wrote to my father, in which the final paragraph refers to Abner.

Abner was Paramount's submission for an Academy Award, although I don't know if it actually made the final list of nominees.