Walter Lantz Animation Archive, 1927-1972

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Summary

Creators:
Lantz, Walter
Abstract:
Collection consists of materials related to the career of cartoon animator, Walter Lantz. Includes production files, subject files, cels, drawings, backgrounds, exposure sheets, and comic books and posters. Production files contain writer's and director's materials used in pre-and early production. Subject files contain correspondence, clippings, photographs and personal material. Comic books consist largely of foreign language publications from the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s including El Pajaro Loco, Haccke Hackspett, Nakke Nakuttaja, O Pica-Pau, Picchiarello, Pico, and Soren Spaette, and English language comics published from the 1940s-50s including Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Woody Woodpecker, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and New Funnies. The bulk of the collection consists of materials related to the music production process at the Lantz Studios from 1951-70. Includes the holographs of scores, parts, and detail sheets for Woody Woodpecker cartoons and various commercials. Also includes music sketches, recording routines, reports, and sorted printed classical and popular sheet music used as source material for various productions. Production scores include the work of Lantz music directors Darrell Calker, Frank Churchill, Walter Greene, James Dietrich, Frank Marsales, Eugene Poddany, and Clarence Wheeler.
Extent:
400.0 Linear Feet (800 boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Walter Lantz Animation Archive (Collection Number PASC 47). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

Collection consists of materials related to the career of cartoon animator, Walter Lantz. Includes production files, subject files, cels, drawings, backgrounds, exposure sheets, and comic books and posters. Production files contain writer's and director's materials used in pre- and early production. Subject files contain correspondence, clippings, photographs and personal material. Comic books consist largely of foreign language publications from the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s including El pajaro loco, Haccke Hackspett, Nakke Nakuttaja, O Pica-Pau, Picchiarello, Pico, and Soren Spaette, and English language comics published from the 1940s-50s including Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Woody Woodpecker, Oswald the lucky rabbit, and New funnies.

Includes a master index of materials by year and a chronology of productions, 1927-1972.

Biographical / historical:

Lantz was born in New Rochelle, NY, Apr. 27, 1900; at 12 years old he took his first mail-order cartoon drawing course which affected his entire life and career; he began working as a copyboy for the Hearst newspaper, New York American, where he was recommended to Gregory LaCava; from that point he started his career as a cartoonist drawing characters such as the Katzenjammer kids, Happy Hooligan, Krazy Kat, and Mutt and Jeff; produced and directed his first cartoon series, Colonel Heeza Liar, at J.R. Bray Studios in NY (1922); moved to Hollywood, CA in 1926 and wrote for Max Sennet comedies; started with Universal Studios in 1928 where he produced Oswald Rabbit for 10 years; in 1930, he produced The king of jazz, the first technicolor cartoon and Bing Crosby's first sound recording in a film; married Grace Stafford in 1941 who later became the voice of Woody Woodpecker; Lantz started his own production company in 1935 and served as its president into the 1970s; Lantz who is best remembered for Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, and Andy Panda, received an honorary Academy award, 1978; died Mar. 22, 1994, in Burbank, CA.

Acquisition information:

Gift of Walter Lantz Productions, Inc., 1977, 1980, 1985.

Theater Arts Library; transfer; 1977

Processing information:

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

Processed by UCLA Performing Arts Special Collections staff..

Arrangement:

Arranged in the following series:

  1. Lantz Productions, 1930-1972
  2. Commercials and Television Productions, 1950-1955
  3. Government and Industrial Productions, 1937-1953
  4. Character Sketches, 1927-1972
  5. Merchandising and Scrapbooks, 1930-1972
  6. Personal Papers, 1927-1972
  7. Institutional Relationships: Papers and Records, 1927-1972

Physical location:
Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Portions of collection unprocessed. Material in the Merchandising and Scrapbooks, 1930-1972; Personal Papers, 1927-1972; and Institutional Relationships: Papers and Records, 1927-1972 series is unavailable for access. Please see LSC's Access to Unprocessed Collections Policy for more information about levels of discovery and access of special collections materials and registering interest in unprocessed collections.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Walter Lantz Animation Archive (Collection Number PASC 47). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
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