From 1937 to
1942 Carl Barks was an employee at The Walt Disney Studios, which was
establishing itself as the world's leading company in the fast growing area
of theatrical cartoon shorts as well as long, animated films. Here he was
engaged with several jobs such as gag writer, inbetweener, producer assistant,
sketch artist, scripter, story director, and storyman (see more
HERE). But Barks was
never given screen credit and so was not known outside the studios for his contributions to the
animated shorts. Disney had a policy of not listing
the staff names apart from the overall director, a questionnable policy that was
first remedied in 1944, by which time Barks had long left to begin his glorious comic
book career.
Because of said policy it is often hard to pinpoint and verify exactly what
contributions Barks made to the individual cartoons, but the above link gives you
an educated
guess of the areas he was involved with. One of the cartoons was The Autograph
Hound from 1939 that starred Donald Duck as well as numerous contemporary
celebrity characters in cameo roles.
This is the story.
TECHNICAL |
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STORY |
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CHARACTERS |
The bulk of the cartoon’s celebrity cameos are found in a fast paced montage near the end of the film. During half a minute there are more than 20 star caricatures that flash across the screen. All of them were celebrities during the 1930s and they are listed below in alphabetical order and using their well known stage names:
Henry Armetta (1988-1945) |
GALLERY EXAMPLES |
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You may wish to consult other media in order to compare the caricatures to the real life celebrities |
TITBITS |
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EXTRA |
Especially in the years before the Second World War there was a fad after which some of the American cartoon companies excelled in cartoons featuring caricatured celebrities. Here are 3 cartoon examples from Disney with a few of the many participating celebrities of the era mentioned in alphabetical order:
Mickey's Polo
Team (1936): Mother Goose Goes Hollywood (1938): Hollywood
Steps Out (1941): |
http://www.cbarks.dk/THECELEBRITYCARTOON.htm |
Date 2016-07-21 |