Norman Mclaren: Between the Frames

Home , A Chairy Tale, Mary Ellen Bute, Norman McLaren

Dobson, Nichola. "World Traveller." Norman McLaren: Between the Frames. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. 81–108. Animation: Key Films/ Filmmakers. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 10 Oct. 2021. .

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Copyright © Nichola Dobson 2018. Released under a CC BY-NC-ND licence (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 81

Chapter 3

W ORLD TRAVELLER

Norman McLaren was fortunate throughout his life to be able to travel quite extensively. From trips to Europe with his family during his late teenage years and an informative trip to Russia, to the eventual winter breaks in Mexico and frequent trips as jury member for the increasing number of fi lm festivals he was invited to. He enjoyed the experience of travel and lived during an exciting time of new developments including air travel and later in his life, the bullet trains of Japan. His letters home detailed his weeklong sea voyage to the United States from Glasgow and later his fi rst fl ight. Th is chapter examines some of the most infl uential voyages, looking at his fi rst job in London, his eye- opening trip to Spain at the start of the Civil War, his move to New York and later to Canada for his career at the NFB. Th e trip to China for UNESCO gave him another perspective and reinforced his humani- tarian politics, leading to one of his most obviously political fi lms, Neighbours (1952). Th e chapter also discusses some of the other places he enjoyed visit- ing, particularly when the cold Montreal winters made working more diffi cult. All of these experiences informed his work in some way, from the political extremes of war, to the Indian music of Ravi Shankar, who would contribute to the soundtrack of the fi lm A Chairy Tale (1957). Th ough he did not always enjoy the social aspect of the duties at fi lm festivals, he appreciated the opportunity to visit new places, oft en travelling via Scotland, and as discussed previously, the chance to catch the sun.

Russia

Th roughout the letters, and throughout various times in his life, McLaren was interested in Russia in terms of both its culture and politics. Th e fi lms of the Russian, Sergei Eisenstein inspired him to turn to the moving image, and in his formative years he looked to Russia as an example for political success. In the script for the Creative Process documentary, he recounted how shocked he was at the scenes of deprivation in the slums in Scotland during the Depression.

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Figure 3.1 Postcard from Moscow, September 1935. McLPost001.

So, like many young people, in the Great Depression, our minds went to Russia as a possible experiment along new economic lines. My father, who was a staunch conservative, pillar of the church and all that, was greatly concerned when he found that I had such left - wing thoughts and feelings. When I suggested I wanted to go to Russia, he said ‘fi ne. I’ll give you enough money for a good tour in Russia, and you’ll see how they live, and you’ll be cured from thinking that communism is a good thing . . .’ Actually I went to Russia, and it was for a fi lm and theatre festival. So I had a marvellous time. [You weren’t cured?] No, I was far from cured. But I began to get cured when the purges happened in Russia. 1

Th is trip was an adventure for the 21- year- old McLaren, who wrote to friend Biddy Russell that he was saving hard. ‘Sailing to Leningrad on Sat, I’m busy packing my suitcase with fi lms & myself with Russian’ (19 August 1935). 2 He sent a postcard from the trip, which reinforced that he had enjoyed himself, ‘I’m having a very energetic holiday here. Th e Moscow theatre Festival is providing an excellent menu of opera, ballet and plays. I’ve managed to see over a fi lm factory, & have met many fi lm people. I saw today one of the latest fi lms. “New Gulliver” – it’s a hum- snorer of a picture’ (7 September 1935).3 At this time he identifi ed himself as a communist, but by 1938 he had declared himself a pacifi st, having witnessed the march to war as well as the Civil War in Spain. Th e possible admiration of a communist, or rather Marxist, ideol- ogy would resurface when he visited China (discussed further in this chapter) but more in terms of social justice. Directly aft er his trip to Russia, he was

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Figure 3.2 Postcard from Moscow, September 1935. McLPost001.

interested in making a fi lm about Russia with Helen Biggar, though this never materialized. In 1943 he and Glover had decided to take Russian lessons as he thought it might be a useful language aft er the war. Th ough Glover’s nephew David Lloyd Glover confi rmed his uncle’s profi ciency with languages, it was never mentioned elsewhere in the archive; there is nothing to suggest they went beyond this initial interest. He did however visit Russia again in the 1970s and was always interested in seeing the Russian ballet when he had the chance.

Spain

McLaren’s political views had already been formed before he visited Spain during the Civil War. His anti-war fi lm Hell Unltd with Helen Biggar, discussed in Chapter 1 , showed the strength of his feelings. In late 1936, aft er moving to London to begin his work at the GPO for Grierson, he discovered that he was getting the opportunity to develop his technical training by accompanying director Ivor Montague to Spain to capture footage of the war. He wrote about the trip to his parents and friends Helen Biggar and Biddy Russell. To his parents, he was keen to stress his safety would be assured; he would only be fi lming refugees at the border. 4 Earlier that week, he told Helen a bit more about the technical details and asked her about the cameras she had previously used, “Ivor Montague is phoning me up . . . they’re going to be fi lming in Spain, or a fi lm about Spain, apparently or something & and they want to know what

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kind of camera would be best” (3 November p/ m 1936). 5 Interestingly, in his next letter to Helen, on the same day as his parents, when he told her that he was going to Spain, he suggested that it was somehow a secret; this suggests he knew there might be an element of risk that he did not want his parents to be aware of, ‘its all hush hush . . . been told to write for a leave of absence for illness to go for three weeks . . . Mr Grierson knows the truth’ (11 November 1936). 6 In a letter on his return, he suggested that someone high up at the GPO might have found out and that he might lose his job. Again he did not tell his parents this. In a longer letter to his parents dated Wednesday, 2 December 1936, ‘9.30pm’, McLaren outlined the horror of the bombing and what the people were endur- ing, as well as the poverty in the villages. 7 He told them that he is learning a lot about the history and culture of the area (near Madrid). He talked positively about the experiences of fl ying across the Pyrenees and the kindness and hos- pitality of the villagers but was obviously aff ected by the horror. He asked for donations to help them. Th e horror of what he witnessed was recounted more than once to Biddy Russell. In December 1936, when he was safely back in London and working on the fi lm, he talked about the urgency of the work, “Its so important to get this Spanish fi lm out soon , that I’m letting everything else go to Hell’ (14 December 1936). 8 He outlined the terrible situation, especially for the children, and described the lack of medical attention. His party visited the only hospital in Madrid that had not been bombed. ‘Th e civilians are having a terrible time of it. Its criminal that so little’s being done to give medical assistance.’ ‘Wait until you see our fi lm & you’ll see what its really like. By God, its criminal. By the way the GPO Film Unit & my visit to Spain must not be mentioned in the same breathe please.’ 9 Th is secrecy was again reiter- ated, the political aspect presumably seen at the time as sensitive. If the fi lm had not offi cially been sanctioned by the GPO, Grierson had certainly been involved in its inception, even if only by virtue of knowing what McLaren was doing (and setting up the opportunity to learn camera work fi rst hand). Th is plea is interesting, as it reveals the diffi cult political position Grierson was in. With the benefi t of an historical lens we can see that the fi lm was too important to Grierson to go through the GPO offi cially, and as such both Montague and McLaren were offi cially on leave while away fi lming. Th e fi lm was screened around the country to raise money for the Red Cross to aid the Spanish civilians. A year later, McLaren was still aff ected by the experiences, and in a beautifully illustrated letter to Russell in July, he talked of his feelings of seeing ongoing press coverage of the Civil War, particularly seeing images of Basque children ‘I felt so mad at this whole business of killing & war & being so help- less individually’ (11 July 1937). 10 In a letter to his parents in March 1938, he refl ected on the situation in Europe, as he had been discussing with Glover and was fearful of ‘modern warfare’ aft er what he saw in Spain.

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It will end up with a long & terrible war, infi nitely worse than the last one and probably much longer. If you read the latest news from Barcelona, you will get just a faint hint of what it’s going to be like. Under the shadow of such a future, it is quite impossible to think of a career in fi lm directing with any hope at all . . . I am only glad I didn’t go out to Spain again. (20 March 1938)11

Unfortunately he was correct in his assumptions about what the war situation would be like and this would lead to one of his biggest moves in terms of distance travelled. Prior to that, however, he returned from Spain to his job in London at the GPO.

London and the General Post Offi ce Film Unit (GPO)

Margaret Ann Elton: Everyone forgets that Norman McLaren had some mas- tery in black- and- white live fi lm, and he made an absolutely splendid fi lm called Book Market , a compiling of the London telephone directory. Perhaps his only token documentary fi lm, not animated.12

Despite being sent to Spain so quickly aft er making the move to London, McLaren’s time in the capital was mostly concerned with his work at the GPO. As this was his fi rst move away from home of any signifi cant distance (he stayed in Glasgow oft en while attending Art School but that was not a great distance from Stirling), many of McLaren’s letters to his parents concerned his living situation, how much money he was spending, where he was staying and as discussed in Chapter 1 , his gardening habits. Most of the early discussion about his work at the GPO came through his letters to Helen Biggar and Biddy Russell. He told Biggar about the working practices at the Film Unit and compared them to theirs,

My ‘offi cial postion’ is ‘director’s assistant’, but so far I’ve been doing damn all. It’s a delightful holiday compared with my accustomed work . . . I’ve been in the cutting room so far . . . Th e other two fellows . . . seem to take 1000’s of feet & use about a 1/ 10th . . . for the fi nal version. Aft er seeing this it seems that we’ve cut ‘Hell’ with next to no scrap! Yesterday it took all day to shoot about four very small scenes, it’s so terribly slow . . . My job for the next week or two is to be with Miss Evelyn Spice’s fi lm. (5 October 1936)13

Within a few weeks he wrote to her again and described a screening of other GPO fi lms, relating what he thought was good or not. He also suggested that while he was enjoying having little responsibility at this job, it felt more like a hobby and that he might get bored soon. Th is boredom obviously did not last as he stayed until 1939; he was also moved onto more fi lms and was gradually

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given more to do. Indeed by the following year he was complaining that he was too busy with GPO work,

Its terrible, I felt too miserable at beginning of this week to do anything except go to bed aft er work . . . ‘Cal[endar] of Year’ got fi nished by the 11th aft er many late nights – & then Cavalcanti suddenly decided the fi lm was terrible when he saw the show copy – & so he’s re-cutting & chopping & changing it now . . . its the way here – lots of wasted eff ort – one person goes & undoes what another person has done . . . I don’t know what it will be like when I direct a fi lm here. (16 January 1937)14

Th is change in his tone suggests that these working practices do not suit his own style. He feels that there is a lot of waste in terms of time and resources and longs for the freedom to return to making political fi lms. He is still clearly aff ected by what he has experienced in Spain and is keen to be ‘useful’ once more. Only three weeks later he tells Helen that he is quite, ‘fed up with GPO stuff just now’ (8 February 1937).15 His experiences begin to change once he is given more work to do and perhaps has some control over the process. By May he describes a fi lm that he is working on as useful work, again reinforcing the notion of what fi lm should, or could be to him. In July 1937, Grierson left the GPO and McLaren was left wondering what would happen, ‘Grierson has left GPO now. Stuart Legg is in charge at the moment – temporarily – tho there’s a chance he may become permanently – I hope so – I dont know him well, but what I do know of him makes me hope he will remain in charge’ (July 1937). 16 His mentor had gone, but McLaren carried on in London and at the GPO for another two years, during which time he made his own fi lms, which he described in letters to Russell, telling her about an upcoming screening at the GPO of their work, ‘ “North to Sea” “Mony a Pickle” “Trailer” – lots of work and nervousness for all . . . I’m responsible for making the “Trailer” fi lm which will open the shows – also for the editing and supervision of Mony a Pickle & Fizzie MacAlister & self were responsible for the “kitchen” episode in Mony a Pickle’ (25 April 1938). 17 In the spring of the following year he described another very busy period which outlined his latest work,

For the past 7 weeks I have been lent by the GPO to Grierson’s outfi t ‘Film Centre’ for the purpose of making a short fi lm for the Gas Light & Coke Company to publicize their latest streamlined gas cookers! [fi lm idea spawned 2 fi lms] . . . one diagrammatic entirely, the other in actuality . . . When I return to the GPO, it will be to complete experimental color cartoon which advertises New Empire Airmail rates in a very fl ippant way. Its dealing with the love life of a little winged letter & will be called ‘Love on the Wing’ & probably shown in the ordinary theatres . . . When I go back to the GPO, I also have to work on some short trailer fi lm for the World Fair at New York. (Sunday 26th March 1939) 18

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Th is interesting to note McLaren’s use of the term ‘actuality’ here for live action, just as Grierson had used it with documentary. He also suggested that Russell would be able to see Love on the Wing despite the fact that it was never released.

Love on the Wing (1938)

Made for the GPO in 1938 to publicize the Royal Mail Postal services, Love on the Wing, at 4 minutes 27 seconds, is one of the earliest remaining examples of McLaren’s cameraless animation. An excellent example of metamorphosis in animation, the drawings depicted a love story between two stick fi gure charac- ters that use the postal service to connect, despite barriers to their romance in the form of war. Th e fi lm was never released due to what the then head of the fi lm unit described as ‘Freudian imagery’, an accusation which McLaren always denied; though if viewed today, the phallic imagery, though possibly coinciden- tal, is clear. Th e fi lm is described in the Creative Process documentary in terms of the music used to accompany the fi lm,

Divertissement by Jacques Ibert was the musical inspiration for Love on the Wing, McLaren’s loud entry into the world of experimental cinema - - his fi rst professional step as a maker of fancy and fantasy. A sudden juxtaposition of two things very diff erent from each other as in a dream. Th e spirit is able to jump around with an extreme rapidity in spite of the laws of logic. 19

By October 1939, McLaren has made the decision, with Glover, to emigrate to the United States. Th e reasons were never explicitly stated in the letters home, but it could be argued that the oncoming war, the changes at the GPO, as well as his own failure (or what could be perceived as failure) for Love on the Wing were all contributing factors in them wanting to leave the country. As a pacifi st also, he would be keen to avoid the potential draft . Th e next section examines his move to New York in some detail, but as we saw in the previous chapter, while he was keen to maintain contact with Grierson and see what his work prospects might be, he claimed to be less keen to move to the NFB in 1939 as he felt it would be too close to the work at the GPO, reinforcing the notion that he was not terribly interested in maintaining his work, or at least this type of work at the GPO and that a move away from London was the best choice.

New York

McLaren and Guy Glover emigrated to the United States on 7 October 1939, sailing from Glasgow to New York on the S.S. Cameronia. Th ey spent two years there before Grierson ‘pulled him up to Canada’. Th is time is oft en considered as a bad time for McLaren artistically, certainly Terence Dobson 20 writes off the

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period as something of a failure. Perhaps in comparison to later periods it was, but the letters home suggest something quite diff erent. Th ough he struggled to fi nd work at fi rst, what he did produce would become key pieces in his fi lmog- raphy and lead to great things for him elsewhere. It would also see another interesting collaboration with another young female fi lmmaker, Mary Ellen Bute. Most importantly though, I would argue that New York was a most enjoyable time for both of them; their social life was full and the city inspiring. Th is section discusses this in detail, beginning with the letter from his initial voyage at sea. In his weeklong voyage, McLaren wrote a diary style letter home, describing fellow passengers, Glover’s constant sea sickness, his own wellbeing and relative good health in the choppy conditions of the sea. He mused on the situation of the war and was glad to have little news from the rest of the world, though he was occasionally curious. Th is account of his trip and the attention to detail is part conversation and part journal. Despite his earlier protests to Russell about the chore of writing letters, he clearly used this type of profuse output as an outlet and as a sense of companionship, in the absence of his parents. 21 Once he has arrived in New York, his fi rst letter home enthusiastically described their fi rst experiences.

My dear Mum & Dad, It is exactly one week since I arrived in New York. And already I feel quite settled & at home. During this week I have made many friends & met many kind people. Monday the 16th Oct was a glorious day. Before breakfast little sparrows were hopping about on deck & shortly aft er that we sighted land . . . At about midday we saw faintly thru the heat haze in the distance the skyline of New York. By 2 o’clock we were sailing past the Statue of Liberty, past the skyscrapers & into the dock . . . Well we went to the YMCA for the fi rst night, where we paid about 8/ - for a double room . . . Next morning . . . we got down to the job of hunting for a room . . . we went to the north side of town and found a very nice room at a most reasonable price for New York. It is in a good locality beside the Hudson River. (23 October 1939) 22

Th e letter went on for another two pages outlining the next couple of days in which McLaren began making contact with the people he knew, or had been told to contact. Th ey visited the World’s Fair and saw many interesting fi lms, and though he described the city as expensive and something of a ‘racket’, he already seemed to be enjoying the place. Th is enthusiasm came through very strongly in most of the letters from New York. Th e apartment they rented was on the Upper West Side – 583 Riverside Drive and was convenient for the rest of the city. As discussed in the previous chapter, he referred to Grierson in these early letters as he tried to make contacts and secure work.

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Within only a few weeks he had begun making contacts about his fi lms. Th e fi lms he brought with him had been held up in customs as they had wanted to charge him extra to bring them into the country, but aft er initially delaying the decision, he paid to release them so he could screen them for prospective clients. In the meantime he carried on drawing and working on ideas for fi lms, while Glover began writing television scripts. Within a month of arriving in New York, McLaren began arranging screenings of his fi lms. His contacts brought him to the attention of the television networks, and between a number of meetings with CBS and NBC he landed a small commission with NBC. He was tasked with creating a one- and- a- half- minute Christmas greeting to be shown on the network. He created it by hand painting on fi lm, returning to the technique he used to great eff ect in Love on the Wing (and would be used many times in the future). In the meantime he contacted his parents to inform them that he has asked the GPO for copies of his ‘Trailer’ and ‘Mony a Pickle’ presumably to use as a part of his reel; he had asked the GPO to charge the costs to his parents. In these early days in New York, McLaren oft en referred to fi nancial support from his parents as also from his extended family. Th ough he did not always use the money he had been sent, he liked to have it for emergencies. In January 1940, McLaren wrote home to his mother; this letter is the fi rst of many, which are typed, an interesting development in technology and his access to it. Th e NBC card was successful and the network hired McLaren for more work. Th e deadline for this next commission was not as strict so he was under less pressure but he told them that the pay rate was quite low and he did not feel like he could ask for more.

I drew up a list of ideas for using this sort of fi lm on all kinds of ways in their programs . . . and there will be a little leeway for experimenting, so i’m happy about that . . . I’ve done nothing about showing my art work and drawings to anyone, just simply because I’ve really had no time to do so, what with following up my fi lm and television contacts. (5 January 1940)23

Th is area of fi lmmaking was beginning to be more interesting to him, in terms of experimentation and the possibilities for creativity. He continued his painting habit, which remained an important part of his work over the years (and will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 4 ) but the chance to work direct on fi lm in this way gave him some vital experience which was to be useful later. On 9 January he followed up to his mum that from the success of the NBC fi lm, the head of CBS had been back in touch and might want him to do some work for them. Th is moderate success was only three months aft er arriving in the city and suggests that the gradual success was more useful than other writers and critics have suggested. At the end of the month, he updated his mother that the NBC

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fi lm was almost fi nished and that because the commissioner liked it, it would likely be broadcast in February. Th e contact from CBS led to a meeting but he reported that they could not off er him anything but that he should keep in touch with them,

. . . In fact I am going to make something happen, by sending him every week or so a letter with ideas and suggestions, until he sort of succumbs to the pressure of them, for I know he is interested. Of course he has to consult his superiors about taking new people on . . . but still, I am determined to see what I can do along this line. (24 January 1940). 24

Th is interest in television was to be put on hold due to the connection he made at the start of the month. In the fi rst letter of the year he also referred to a Miss Bute, who we discover is animator Mary Ellen Bute. She had a studio space that she had been letting McLaren work in and may have had some work for him soon. In the meantime Glover also had favourable responses from NBC for one of his scripts. Th e studio space rental led to another collaboration with a pioneering female fi lmmaker who, like Helen Biggar, would prove to be infl uential in McLaren’s work. Th ough this section shows that he was not entirely satisfi ed with the outcome of their work, he did fi nd it useful.

Mary Ellen Bute (1906– 83)

Mary Ellen Bute is well known in animation history as a pioneer woman in animation. She studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts then moved to New York where she learned stage lighting at the Intertheatre Arts School. Bute then attended Yale in 1925, but in 1926 won a place on the fi rst fl oat- ing university, a ship called the Ryndom which visited thirty- three countries in eight months. Her experiences left her feeling that the fi lm, which was being produced at the time, was too commercial and decided to work in abstract animation which is said to have been inspired by the work of artists Wassily Kandinsky and Oskar Fischinger (McLaren was also inspired by Fischinger). In 1932 she was credited with Leo Th urmin as working in the fi rst forms of computer animation through their experiments in drawing with electronically determined codes. She continued experimenting with a variety of techniques and made her fi rst abstract fi lm, Rhythm in Light , in 1934. Many of Bute’s fi lms were infl uenced by pieces of music and she became very interested in the relationship between line and color as counterparts to compositions in sound, as McLaren would be later in his career; she undoubt- edly infl uenced him here. Her fi lmmaking and painting continued to explore this and she began to use new technologies such as the oscilloscope, to create

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animated patterns. Other fi lms include Synchrony No.2 (1935), Escape (1938) and a series of shorts she made including Spook Sport, which was animated by Norman McLaren. Many of her fi lms were produced by her husband Tim Nemeth, and in 1965 she made the award- winning Finnegans Wake as a reac- tion to the James Joyce novel; the fi lm was very successful and was shown commercially.25 Th is collaboration is interesting as, like Biggar, Bute was an older woman, perhaps able to guide McLaren in his career. Th ough she was not as politically infl uential, she was clearly of artistic infl uence as is seen later in the discussion. McLaren outlined his working relationship with ‘Miss Bute’ (always very for- mally), in the letters to his parents. A week aft er telling them about sharing her studio, he told of more good news,

Miss Bute asked me along to her personal studio to discuss plans for making a 7 minute fi lm on a piece of music. She would like me to do it in the par- ticular hand drawn method that I have been developing . . . she would pay me 200 dollars . . . I am very happy over this for I shall enjoy doing it, and it wont interfere with my prospects for any other jobs. (14 January 1940) 26

Because of this he set up his drawing frame at her studio so he could work in better conditions than at home in their small apartment. Th e fi lm with Bute took on extra pressure when she told him her intention to fi nish by the end of February so they could market it to Hollywood during the New York scouting season. However, between the end of January and start of March it became clear that the fi lm was taking longer than they had hoped. Th ey decided to spend more time on it to make it better rather than rush it out for the market. By 18 May, two months later, he wrote home to say that it was fi nally fi nished and they were waiting for colour prints from the lab. Aft er they completed the fi lm, they screened it for CBS, presumably following McLaren’s existing connections, a meeting which he described as positive. However, nothing else was said about this aspect of the marketing of the fi lm.

Spook Sport (1940)

Th is 7 minute 52 second short fi lm is synchronized to the music, Danse Macabre by Camille Saint- Saens and features ghosts and skeletons dancing in a graveyard from night until dawn. Much of the animation is directly drawn on the fi lm, and is unmistakably McLaren’s style, particularly when compared to the aesthetics of the NBC greeting he had completed just before taking on this project. Th e fi gures are also reminiscent in style to his drawings in Love on the Wing. Th e hand-drawn element essentially takes on the form of a handwritten signature.

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He told his parents about the progress of the fi lm in its early stages and the fact that it was taking up so much of his time; in fact it was impacting his social life and his getting away for the weekend to their friends:

[I] will be able to enjoy it much more when this fi lm is fi nished. Th at is not to say that I am not enjoying drawing this one, because I am fi nding it interesting work, and I appreciate the greater freedom of this freelance work in contrast to the more rigid limitations of the G.P.O. (14 January 1940) 27

In a letter to Helen Biggar, McLaren described the fi lm, the making process and his fi nal thoughts on it, reiterating the ‘interesting’ nature of it,

Th e fi rst six months of this year were almost entirely taken up with making of an abstract fi lm to Danse Macabre by Saint Saens, by drawing direct on fi lm. Technically it was one of the most advanced work I had done in that line. I got my hand to doing things more easily than ever before and made it do a great many new things. As a whole I think the fi lm is more unifi ed and better modulated than previous eff orts. We spent a long time with much consider- ation on it (in fact the fi lm was to have been made in 1 month), but despite my own satisfaction about it, I don’t like the fi lm. Th e original conception was at fault or else distasteful to me. It was unimaginative and cold. I did the best I could with it. But still on looking at it now I feel sorry I put so much eff ort into it, but glad I got so much general experience from it. We used Warner Bros. Color system, a two color process, something very like cine color. Well the fi lm is made. But alack! It has not been sold, and I’m still in receipt of only a small sum for all my labor. Miss Bute for whom it was made is not what you’d call a fi rst class salesman, and she foolishly did not turn it over to an agent. Th e war also has put a damper on the market. So the whole eff ort can be summed up as Economically a failure. Experimentally a success, Artistically of interest if not of merit. (23 August 1940) 28

However, as he suggested, this was not a waste of time for him, indeed he went on,

One strange outcome of my experience in working at it is that I have been fi red with a tremendous desire to create a really very serious Abstract fi lm. I have within me the source of an inexhaustible power to create something very important in this line. I shall feel desperately thwarted if I don’t, and yet at present I don’t see any way of doing it . . . in old fashioned talk I might say I have a mission to do it. 29

Th is opportunity, provided by Bute, would be seen throughout his work in both the style of his cameraless animation and the increased use of sound synchronization.

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Th eir friendship lasted beyond this commission, with reference to her possibly coming to the fi lm board in 1942 to work with him, and much later when they had the chance to meet at a fi lm festival. Like Grierson before him, McLaren followed up with old connections to aid a friend. During a visit to New York in 1942, he visited his friends at the Guggenheim, ‘I also saw Mary Ellen Bute’s latest fi lm, and managed to sell it to the Baroness for her. Mary Ellen wanted me to do some fi lm work for her but of course I don’t have time’ (9 May 1942). 30 During the course of making Spook Sport McLaren and Glover found a new place to living in Flushing, Queens. He was feeling particularly settled by this time (March 1940), and in April sent a letter which conveyed a sense of joy at being in the city and having the opportunities he had. In it he describes his mostly vegetarian breakfast and in an interesting side note, refers to issues of nationality that had occurred in New York, ‘I got your letter of the 11th March (Monday) on March the 28th with your remarks about my being a Scotch and an Englishman. Well to most people here, its all one and the same thing whether we like it or not’ (2 April 1940). 31 Th is is typical of the common misconception from much of the rest of the world of the UK situation but is interesting that he still referred to his Scottish heritage throughout his life in numerous examples. Th e mention of a vegetarian breakfast reinforces the notion of the health fash- ions discussed earlier, and within this letter he included a drawing of ‘mum and dad going to the vegetarian convention’; this of course may also be due to the scarcity of meat during the war and a necessity rather than a trend or healthy- living kick but it is interesting in light of his other concerns with vitamins or health supplements in the post-war years. Once the Bute fi lm ended, he found himself without work for a slightly longer period, and in August 1940 spoke of his disappointment that he had not been more successful at fi nding work,

It is not through the lack of trying. Perhaps my artistic conscience has got the better of my commercial sense . . . but it was very diffi cult for it not to . . . I believe that in the long run, it will pay to do honest and good work, and not skim it just to make money faster. You have no idea how grateful I am to you for making it possible for me to do this. I appreciate the good fortune very much. (26 August 1940) 32

Th e lack of fi lmmaking led him back to drawing and painting, oft en using pastels. He mentions using watercolours in September 1940, lamenting that oil paints were too expensive. Th is return to his previous artistic training led to a new, rather diff erent job in September 1940, working in an unnamed department store painting/ modelling window displays. Th ough the work was not in fi lm, he told his parents that he rather enjoyed the hourly paid nature of the freelance job but that he had a long commute, so the store must be in Manhattan. Th e job did not last long, however, and in a letter on 18 September,

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he talked about ‘making a series of abstract fi lms which I am going to present to the Baroness Hila Rebay, who is in charge of the Guggenheim money for spon- soring artistic work of that kind’ (18 September 1940). 33 Rebay was known in the art world as a supporter of abstract work, or as she called it, ‘non- objective art’ and was instrumental in promoting the Guggenheim as it is now known. A month later they went to see Rebay give a talk and gave his parents his impressions of the Baroness. He and Guy were amused by her style, describing her as a ‘barmaid’ (12 October 1940). 34 Th ey were of course interested in the fact that she had access to funding by Guggenheim and they began working on a fi lm for her (as discussed previously, Guy assisted McLaren in some of these earlier productions). Glover also played a supporting role by accompanying McLaren to their next meeting with the Baroness – a screening of the work. Th is screening was successful and Rebay was suffi ciently impressed to want to show the work at a screening alongside other artists. McLaren was paid for his time and equipment, and for the fi rst time was paid for creating a fi lm of his own design. Th is next presentation by Rebay was more impressive than the fi rst time they met, and McLaren suggested to his parents that she may have been tipsy before (22 October 1940). 35 Th e success of the screening led to more commissions and a series of probably his best-known output from his time in New York, Dots and Loops both two- minute fi lms made in 1940.36 Over the next few months he received numerous off ers and by 6 November 1940, he started a new job with a Mr McKean at a company called Caravel fi lms as a scriptwriter. During this time he continued to help Mary Ellen Bute fi nd distribution for their fi lm but was also making a new fi lm: colour, image and sound direct on fi lm for Rebay’s next screening. Th e new job worked out well and McLaren reported back to his parents at the end of the month that he was fi nding it interesting work. He was able to work in all departments and could pick up any slack if people were off . In the meantime he had set up his drawing table in the attic at home so that he could carry on making his experimental fi lms in his spare time free from fi nancial pressures, ‘Some day I hope that all my very own eff orts and ideas about fi lms will become something important. In the meantime I must go gradually, and bow to the materialist forces of commercialism – for very obvious reasons!!’ On a recent cinema trip with Guy, he commented, ‘Went to see the new Disney fi lm, “Fantasia” – 2 hours of color, and fantasy to music; interesting and novel, and in a way, along the lines of the work I have been attempting; however it was rather tasteless and cheap at times’ (30 November 1940). 37 Oskar Fischinger had been involved in the early part of the fi lmmaking process and Jules Engel, another visual music pioneer, worked on it. Th ese fi lm- makers had similar interests to McLaren and as such it is clear that the fi lm would have intrigued him, whether he knew about these connections or not. 38 Th e screenings of his new fi lms yielded his most positive outcome since arriving in New York. Th e day aft er the show with Rebay, he wrote, ‘I think it

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was a great success . . . Aft er the show was over, so many people wanted to be introduced to me that I was somewhat embarrassed . . . and whats best of all, Mr Guggenheim agreed to buying copies of my three little fi lms I made here in America, and I’m to get 350 dollars for them’ (7/ 8 December 1940). 39 Th is notion of being embarrassed by the attention was an issue, which arose later in his career as he became better known and was invited to more events. He was modest about his success and rather shy about having to socialize with, and most importantly to McLaren, make small talk with strangers and well wishers. However, he did become more friendly with ‘the Baroness’ as he called her, including spending the New Year at her country home; though he was not entirely comfortable with her wealth and was saddened by what he saw as a waste. Again he saw injustice as he witnessed elsewhere and was troubled by it. At the start of the new year in 1941, McLaren wrote that he had found a quiet time with his job at Caravel fi lms and so would take a couple of weeks off so he could make another fi lm to sell to Rebay. His second screening at the museum was also successful and his fi lms were mentioned directly by a New York critic. At the screening he met Grierson, as discussed previously, and the success of these new fi lms put him fi rmly back on Grierson’s radar leading to the fi rst suggestions of going to Canada (12 and 18 January 1941).40 In the fi rst half of the year most of his letters outlined his social life and that his work had been quite quiet with the fi lm company. He had been tasked with scriptwriting for ads and doing jingles. He told his parents that he was working on a ‘slide fi lm’ for Pepsi Cola ‘It sometimes makes me quite mad to think that I am wasting my abilities to such a ridiculous end’ (23 May 1941). 41 His frustrations perhaps made the invitation, which would appear from Grierson a few months later, more attractive. As discussed in the previous chapter, he had been asked by Grierson to send copies of his fi lms to Canada by July of that year, with the hope of fi nding work for him there. We know that this led to a visit by Grierson to New York to see about some of his hand-drawn fi lms. In the same period he updated his parents on their social activities with friends and his continued good fortune with off ers of work,

FRIDAY 11TH JULY

Arthur Hungerford approached me to ask if I would be interested in making some short fi lms for television. If the job comes off , I would have to turn about a fi lm 20 seconds long each day all about watches or clocks, for a big watch making firm that advertised every day on television. I would get about 6 pounds for every fi lm . . . but the job is not certain yet . . . then to make matters still more complicated, a long fi lm script that I wrote for Caravel about Bakelite company has sold the idea, and that means that I will be in charge of directing this half- hour Technicolor trick fi lm . . . [he wants a salary rise to do it] . . . it is a very skilled and responsible job entailing a great deal of hard work. AND what with my art training which will come in very

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valuable I ought to be able to command a much higher salary than that . . . all my training and experience is at last beginning to cash in. Th en again if this fi lm is a success that I direct of Caravel it will increase my possibilities of getting a job in Hollywood, as I shall be on the credit titles having directed it. (11 July 1941) 42

Th e comment regarding Hollywood is interesting as later he would be off ered such a position but was not interested in the commercial nature of such work, despite the higher fee it would command. Th is of course is before he got a taste of the relative artistic freedom he would be given at the NFB. By the middle of July, as seen earlier, McLaren was trying to decide whether or not to stay in the city he enjoyed so much. He was torn at the decision as the Caravel project had come off and he was in charge of the Bakelite fi lm which he estimated would take another fi ve months. He later decided to take the job in Canada but remain at Caravel for at least six weeks and continue making the fi lm. He also told his parents that he was thinking about taking citizenship in the United States despite planning to leave for Canada (26 July 1941). 43 Th is suggests that he was thinking of Canada as a short-term move, rather than the permanent move it would be. I would argue that he might also be only thinking short term as Guy was not able to go with him initially. In the end Caravel decided to fi nd a new director to take over the whole project, so he was released early from his contract. 44 ‘All my friends here in New York are very sorry that I am leaving, and of course

Figure 3.3 Norman McLaren with Guy Glover, Vera and Jack Wilson, New York, c 1942. Acc 14 04 004.

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I am equally sorry to be leaving them, for New York seems like home to me aft er two years and so many contacts’ (3 August 1941). Before leaving the city, McLaren visited with the Baroness again to say good- bye, ‘at the same time I managed to get her to buy a copy of “Loops” which is a 4 minute abstract 45 fi lm I made at the beginning of the year, on my own, in my spare time, when working at Caravel’ (7 September 1941). 46 Even though he remained in Canada until his death, and took Canadian citizenship in the end, he visited New York oft en. Sometimes it was to process parts of his fi lm that needed technology unavailable at the NFB, occasionally to visit friends. In 1957, for example, he took what he described as a ‘quick trip’ to New York to take part in a symposium at the Museum of Modern Art. He noted that the presentation was fi ne but the party aft er was tiring. However, most importantly, he got to see some old friends, including Mary Ellen Bute (10 November 1957). 47 Th e move to Ottawa was initially a diffi cult adjustment; the city was much quieter culturally than New York and he didn’t have the same network of friends (and crucially Glover was not there for the fi rst few months). He would try to catch any performance of travelling theatre or ballet while he had the chance. He did once again settle fairly quickly, and once his job had settled down, found suitable accommodation. Th e years at the Film Board have been discussed by others including Dobson, McWilliams and Waugh among others and as such will not be discussed in much detail here beyond the key collaborations he forged while working there. Th e years spent in Canada reinforced the lack of exposure in Scotland, and perhaps the wider UK generally, and as such I fi nd the time outside of Canada more interesting. Likewise many of the letters home from the Canadian period are most interesting when he was outlining trips that he was planning, or oft en ones he had undertaken (and occasionally during them). He fi rst returned home in 1947 to visit what is now the Edinburgh Film Festival, which Grierson also attended; he spent several months away in which there was a signifi cant gap in the letters, presumably because he was at home at this point. By 1948 he was fully settled, and when pondering the previously mentioned off er from Gainsborough Pictures in Britain, he talks about how much he would miss Canada, ‘I really feel more at home here that any place I have been’ (14 March 1948). 48 Over the years, McLaren was given the opportunity to travel extensively to attend festivals and to escape the harsh Canadian winters. Th ough all of these trips were useful in terms of raising his international profi le and oft en an extra opportunity to visit his family at home, none were so directly infl uential in terms of his work than his UNESCO trips, discussed in the following section.

UNESCO (China and India)

Th ere has already been some published discussion of McLaren’s trips with UNESCO, particularly to China, 49 but it is so infl uential to his life in terms

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of political views and as a consequence in some of his fi lms, that it is vital to include further discussion here. Beginning with a lengthy excerpt from his initial announcement to his parents:

Now for the biggest bit of news . . . Th ere is quite a possibility that I may see you before this year is out . . . .last weekend I was down in New York seeing UNESCO. As a result, the prospect of my going to China is much more certain now. It would be for four months; and as I shall be busy on this present fi lm until June, and will not want to leave until the middle of July, aft er Sheena and David and the boys have gone, I have said I cannot leave for China, until then. (Th ough they would like me to go right away) Th e present situation in China, wont aff ect my trip or job; as I am being sent there by UNESCO, I shall have full protection. Th e work of UNESCO out there, in the Fundamental education movement, is apolitical, and not likely to be aff ected by the present changes. By July, it is more likely the war will be over, there; and traveling will be more settled . . . I am going to teach a group of Chinese artists how to make animated fi lms so that they can start making them themselves in order to educate the people in the backward villages there, who cant read or write, and who need fi lms made to teach them how to have a healthy village. Films on vaccination, hygene [ sic ], and all matters about health. I shall be going to the province of Szechwan, which is in the interior in the south. A very backward area. I shall be working with Mr Hubbard, an educationist from UNESCO, and the project we are working on is called the CHINESE AUDIO- VISUAL PROJECT. What we do with it, is supposed to act as a model for all other member-nations in UNESCO who want to do something about education in their backward areas. I am being paid a lump- fee for the four months job . . . Th e job will have a lot of work, responsibility and initiative attached to it . . . I am toying with the idea of going one way and coming back the other, so that by the end of the trip I will have gone right round the world. (1 May 1949) 50

His choice of routes took him west over the Pacifi c and in doing so, he ‘spent four days in Honolulu’ then on to Tokyo and then Hong Kong. 51 He writes in a very lyrical way about all of these new places he visited. On 4 September McLaren wrote home describing the accommodation in Pehpei, Szechwan; he said it was very pleasant and that he was renting a room from a nice couple. He told them about the food and the servant that worked for the family. He noted that he should be back in Scotland in around six months time and updated them on the war in China. 52 In the follow- up letter he reas- sured them that the fi ghting was nowhere near him.53 In October McLaren sent diary pages home describing the conditions of the area, his work, the weather and an interesting fruit he had found. Th ere appear to be some blacked-out sections – though it is hard to know if these are censored or errors. He talked about the bad situation of the farmers and

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Figure 3.4 Letter to parents from China, 26 September 1949. GAA 31 66.

their relationship with the landowners, and the increasing spiral of debt. He suggested that the communists were being welcomed with a promise or hope of redistribution of wealth. UNESCO worked under the old regime and it was hard to tell farmers about the healthy food they should be eating when they could not even get enough rice.

You can imagine the relative futility of designing posters fi lmstrips and mov- ies on the idea of a healthy diet for the farmers. Suggest he eats a couple of eggs a day, or a chicken, or a little bit of meat; he will just laugh at you, for he knows the idea is preposterous when it takes him all his time to get enough rice to eat. However we are designing fi lmstrips to encourage him and his family to eat green leafy vegetables every day, and bean products (both of which are relatively cheap) and would provide him with protein and

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minerals . . . All we can do in the Unesco project is to at least show the country folk how it might be; to put a blue print in their mind.(12 October 1949) 54

He continued with technical details about the creation of the fi lmstrips and how they were being used, as well as what tools and equipment they had. Based on his report, this information was published in the ‘Healthy Village’ UNESCO publication and contained diagrams outlining the processes. He spoke about the progress made by the project in the documentary Creative Process ,

I was able to teach them a few things, but they taught me a good deal more, especially about communicating with people of other races and languages. Although the Healthy Village project took place at the climax of the Chinese civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists, the program had an impressive impact. Its philosophy became the basis for future UNESCO projects. 55

Over the next few months he was kept busy and wrote to his parents again at the start of 1950, explaining that there was no communication possible for a month at the end of the year during ‘the changeover’ of regime from the Nationalists to the Communists. He describes the townspeople greeting the ‘peoples army’ joyfully. However his trip had been extended by virtue of bureaucracy; he could not leave until he got an exit permit which meant he was virtually on holiday: ‘Th e weather here at this season is not good – very damp, cold and grey (rather like Scotland – only not as much rain)’. 56 Th is enforced fl exibility saw him remain for several weeks more but this suited his interests as he planned to travel down the Yangtze river towards Hong Kong and get a fl ight; the trip would take two weeks but he was looking forward to seeing the gorges. McLaren’s experiences in China, in terms of seeing the eff ects of war, again, close up, seeing the changes being brought in under communism and interestingly working under a simplistic process, uncomplicated by external pressures or deadlines, remained with him for many years. His experiences in Spain of war and poverty were recalled, but in China he witnessed the end of their civil war and the beginning of the new communist regime. He returned to Canada just as the Korean War broke out and he was once more compelled to make an anti-war fi lm – the Oscar- winning Neighbours (1952). He outlined his feelings on this to Donald McWilliams in a discussion of what he viewed as his most important fi lm, ‘I came back to North America, and I felt great tension about war in general. Th e tension that was produced from my year’s experience in China, plus my return to here and to an environment where the newspapers were saying something totally diff erent from what I’d been used to, that tension produced the fi lm Neighbours57 .’

Neighbours (1952)

Animated using McLaren’s pioneering ‘pixilation’ technique – stop motion using live performers, the fi lm features two men whose garden boundaries

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Figure 3.5 Letter from China with drawing of Yangtze (date unconfi rmed). GAA/ 31/ PP/19/ 31/ 001.

become disputed over the appearance of a new fl ower. Th ey fi ght over the own- ership of the land, which the fl ower is on, ultimately destroying each other and the fl ower. Th e fi lm was made as an anti-war fi lm and won an Oscar.58 It was a departure from the earlier abstract fi lms, but the use of pixilation gives the fi lm a slightly abstract aesthetic. Aft er the completion of the fi lm, McLaren refl ected on its signifi cance in a letter to Biddy Russell,

Ever since China removed me from my . . . Ivory tower in Ottawa, I am more and more aware of the signifi cance of this [being human fi rst]. It is a signif- icance which in my teens and early 20s I was keenly aware of, and which

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got submerged during the last war and which got more clear in me now. And which for the fi rst time I have been able to marry with my technical & creative capabilities in this fi lm . . . Neighbours. I am happy with this, this bridging a gap. All other fi lms or drawings or paintings that I have done is the playing of games . . . I hope it [neighbours] will just be a beginning. (7– 11 April 1952) 59

While Neighbours would become one of McLaren’s best-known fi lms, arguably for the anti- war content, and indeed as discussed above, he was keen to rein- force this, it was also (like many of his fi lms) a technically pioneering work. He made detailed technical notes for most of his fi lms, which he shared with those who enquired, and for Neighbours he discussed how we would manipulate both the camera speed and the actor’s speed to create the eff ects he achieved. He noted that this was not a new technology but was clearly very excited about what he saw as ‘the creative potentialities of this stop- motion live- action technique are quite considerable for a new genre of fi lmic ballet and mime.’60 By using actors to perform in this way, he talked of the ‘spectacular feats of virtu- osity that this makes the actor capable of, it is possible to use the technique in a concealed way behind what appears to be normal acting’ 61 (1952/ 59). Th e fi lm was (and still is) critically acclaimed, winning an Oscar, notably in the documentary category rather than the Termite Terrace and Disney domi- nated short animation category – the fi lm would no doubt have been viewed as too experimental to put alongside the more familiar cel animation, which was more common in the mainstream. Th e local Ottawa press reported on it proudly.

A pixilated NFB fi lm which defi es the normal laws of motion and preaches brotherly love last night won an Oscar at the annual Academy Awards dinner in Hollywood as the best documentary short of 1952. Th e experimental color fi lm . . . also brought further honours to the National Film Board’s already world renowned experimenter, Norman McLaren, who made it. A reticent Scots bachelor who is a combination artist, composer, animator and inven- tor, McLaren was thousands of miles away in Mysore, India, recovering from an attack of ameobic dysentery when news of the Oscar reached Ottawa late last night. 62

McLaren was interested in the opinions of those he cared about and had responded to a comment by his father on the fi lm in September aft er its release,

I found your criticism of ‘neighbours’ very good. No one in their criticism of it so far has ever suggested that it would be improved by being even more beautiful in the beginning, but now that you point it out, it seems very true that it would have been much improved, and would have made its point better, if it had. I think that is a very good observation of yours . . . I thought the

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Sentinal write up was better than the Journal, and in fact I thought that its point at the end was very well written and made. (9 September 1952) 63

Before the Oscar win, he reported that, ‘I had a letter from the Canadian Film Commissioner last week. He says “Neighbours” is being shown in 400 cinemas in the U.S. Hope it does some good!!’ 64 He was clearly still interested in doing useful work and the fi lm (and the experiences leading up to it) had inspired something in him, which he had not felt since he was a much younger man. He spoke to Russell about making some sort of a sequel later but the closest he came was A Chairy Tale (1957). He suggested much later in his life that,

I can’t judge my fi lms, but if all my fi lms were to be destroyed, except one, I would prefer to have Neighbours because it has a strong social message about the covetous of man, about the irrationality of using violence to solve solutions; it’s a human statement which reveals human nature, which none of my other fi lms do. But the Oscar didn’t mean anything to me, winning an Oscar. I didn’t know what it was. It’s not important, but the fi lm I feel is important . . . [In 1971, McLaren was asked why he hadn’t made any more fi lms like Neighbours]. Th at’s because the life I lead here is – doesn’t bring it out of me. You see, I shuttle back and forth between home and the National Film Board, and lead a relatively quiet existence with a few intimate friends. And I’m not out in the world meeting people, or in a diff erent culture. And the only fi lms which concern human beings, apart from some very early fi lms, is Neighbours , Chairy Tale and Pas de Deux65 .

Despite what McLaren thought about his success with the fi lm, his mentor John Grierson was open about his dislike of it. In an interview with Grierson’s biographer, Forsyth Hardy, in 1976, McLaren recalled a conversation they had about it:

Long aft er I had made ‘Neighbours’, out of the blue [Grierson] phoned me, somewhat sloshed, to press home the point the ‘Neighbours’ was the worst fi lm I had made, and that I should’nt get involved with social or political themes. I was stunned and I didn’t know what to say . . . What he seemed to be saying was that I was much better at other kinds of fi lms, and he grudgingly praised a couple of them, that I didn’t think much of . . . Th is catalyzed me into defending ‘Neighbours’ . . . In the end, neither of us changed opinions. (Interview with Forsyth Hardy, Montreal, 29 February 1976)

Grierson, however, was one of the few dissenting voices regarding the social content of Neighbours, 66 and in an undated report by Celia Anderson, director of the Film Library of New York University, the potential for the fi lm to help ‘delinquent boys’ was outlined, based on the observations of a school teacher in 1955.

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NEIGHBOURS is a story about a grudge fi ght . . . ‘Th ese men acted like children . . . ’ ‘Th ey hit the women and babies. Why they want to do that?’ . . . ‘In a grudge fi ght nobody’s a winner’ . . . Th e above are scattered comments from the discussion following the showing of NEIGHBOURS to boys in one of New York City’s so-called ‘600’ schools, established for delinquent and pre- delinquent children. 67

A copy of this report was sent to Colin Low at the Film Board and passed on to McLaren, who then told Biddy Russell all about how much his fi lm moved the boys. He was clearly proud of this achievement, recalling his desire to make ‘useful’ fi lms.68 In late 1952, McLaren took another commission with UNESCO, this time travelling to India, to carry out the same type of project as he had carried out in China. Th ough politically not as infl uential as China, this trip was still interesting to McLaren and he spent many months giving seminars to trainee animators and extended his stay by several months (though he was also ill, as mentioned in the newspaper segment). ‘Th is life here is not at all like China; there’s no roughing it here’ (28 October 1952). Once he left Old Delhi, his initial destination, he travelled south to Mysore where he spent most of his time.

In my fi rst week I also visited several villages near Delhi, and saw open air displays, fi lm shows and dramatic performances . . . Th e homes were white- washed and beautifully decorated with colourful patterns painted on . . . a desperate attempt was being made by these folk to make life beautiful. Th ey themselves were the most corteous [ sic ], friendly, and having a great natural dignity . . . I have come to feel certain that this Fundamental Education is no more than giving an aspirin for an abcesced [ sic ] tooth. (23 November 1952) 69

Just as in China, the inequality and terrible poverty in certain parts of the country deeply troubled him. In the mid- 1950s he re- created the practises developed in India and China to work with artists more locally and he enjoyed the pared down experience. Th ough he does not explicitly state the infl uence in his letters, his fi lm A Chairy Tale features musical accompaniment by Ravi Shanker, and other Indian musicians, it could be presumed that he heard this music while he was travelling in the country.

Around the World

In 1954 his South American trips began, with an invitation to attend a fi lm festival in Brazil. His month- long trip saw him visit Argentina, where he sent a letter home, describing his trip so far, including fl ying in to Argentina with a planeful of Hollywood stars (he visited Argentina again in 1964). ‘At S ã o

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Figure 3.6 Jury at unknown fi lm festival, c.1958. GAA/ 31/ PP/ 19 008.

Paulo “Begone Dull Care” was on the opening program and my latest fi lm “BLINKITY BLANK” on the closing’ (11 March 1954). Th ough he seemed to enjoy the chance to visit Argentina, he complained of too much networking and not enough time to see any fi lms. Th is would be a common complaint over the years, reinforcing his more conservative and quieter side. In 1956 the Film Board moved to their new location in Montreal, wherein there seemed to be some problems in terms of distance from the offi ce, and most frequently he complained of the harsh winters. He would oft en try to take his Christmas vacation in South America, Mexico or the Caribbean to try to fend off a bout of winter depression. In April 1963 he visited Cuba on a return trip from Mexico and met Fidel Castro by chance. He doesn’t explicitly mention his previous communist leanings but reports on an interesting visit to fi lm studios there and was clearly impressed by meeting Castro:

On my last evening I met Fidel Castro! – but just by the sheerest chance. We had been to see a dance performance, and aft er it was over, around midnight, the fi lm animators wanted to take me to a rather fancy restaurant for a fare- well drink. When we went in, we were rather surprised to see Castro, sitting two tables away. On his going out of the restaurant, a number of well- to- do Cubans . . . started questioning and berating him . . . I was amazed at how openly & frankly they attacked him in public. He spent a great deal of time replying to them – I wasn’t able to follow all the Spanish . . . but I could tell by

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106 Norman McLaren

the tone of voice that his questioners were furious at the state of aff airs, and that he had a great gift of the gab, and a keen sense of wit & humour, for he had everyone in stitches quite oft en, and was able to parry with them at great length . . . He is a very unusual character. As he left the building the animators would have me introduced to him. So we shook hands – but he spoke only in Spanish – asked me how long I was to be in Cuba – when I said ‘5 days’ – he said ‘-not nearly long enough – better come back and stay longer’. (7 April 1963) 70

In these later years of his career, he travelled more frequently whenever his health allowed. Th is included a trip to Japan in 1971 where he took a ride on a bullet train. Th is experience is almost the opposite in terms of the technological progress of his fi rst major sea voyage from Glasgow to New York. Even as he got older he was still fascinated by, and commented on, the modes of transport he had the chances to try.

Notes

1 Donald McWilliams, Creative Process script, 1990. 2 National Library of Scotland Acc.5649/ 2. 3 Ibid. 4 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1936/1. 5 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 3/ 1936/32. 6 Ibid. 7 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1936/3. 8 National Library of Scotland Acc.5649/ 2. 9 Ibid. (Underlines in original). 10 Ibid. 11 University of Stirling Archive GAA/31/ C/ 1/1938/ 2. (Underlines in original). 12 Th e John Grierson Project (John Grierson and the NFB, McGill University: ECW Press, 1984). 13 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 3/ 1936/25. 14 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 3/ 1937. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 National Library of Scotland Acc.5649/ 2. 18 Ibid. 19 McWilliams, Creative Process t. 20 Terence Dobson , Th e Film Work of Norman McLaren ( Eastleigh : John Libbey , 2006) . 21 Th e letter has several dates over the week in October 1939 during the sailing. University of Stirling Archive GAA/31/ C/1/ 1939/3. 22 University of Stirling Archive GAA/31/ C/ 1/1939/ 4. 23 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1940/1. 24 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1940/4

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World Traveller 107

25 Th is biography was transcribed from Nichola Dobson , Historical Dictionary of Animation and Cartoons ( Lanham, MA: Scarecrow Press, 2009) . 26 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1940/3. 27 Ibid. 28 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 3/ 1940 29 Ibid. 30 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1942/9. 31 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1940/9. 32 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1940/19. 33 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1940/22. 34 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1940/25. 35 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1940/26. 36 Dots and Loops were made to sell to the Guggenheim and were created by drawing both the abstract images and the sounds directly onto the fi lm. 37 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1940/29. 38 Later, McLaren met Fischinger and reminded his parents of how much he was infl uenced by his work; see Chapter 4 . 39 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1940/30. 40 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1941/2. 41 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1941/18. 42 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1941/21. 43 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1941/22. 44 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1941/23. 45 Th e fi lm may have been 4 minutes when he made it, but the NFB currently lists it at 2 minutes 40 seconds. 46 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1941/25. 47 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1957/11. 48 University of Stirling Archive GAA/31/ C/ 1/1948/ 5. 49 See Terence Dobson, Th e Film Work of Norman McLaren (Eastleigh : John Libbey , 2006) and Donald McWilliams , Creative Process , 1990, for more discussion. 50 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1949/1. 51 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/1949/ 2, 8 August 1949. 52 GAA31/ C/ 1/ 1949/ 3, 4 September. 53 GAA31/ C/ 1/ 1949/ 4, 26 September. 54 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1949/6. 55 McWilliams, Donald. Creative Process Script, 1990. 56 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/ C/ 1/ 1950/ 1 11th January 1950. 57 McWilliams, Creative Process . 58 Th e Academy Award was given for Best Documentary, the fi lm was of course animated fi ction, but given the unique nature of the style of the fi lm, I would argue that the academy members might not have known how to categorize it. 59 National Library of Scotland Acc.5649/ 3. 60 Norman McLaren, ‘Some Notes on Stop- Motion Live- Actor Technique’, in Technical Notes by Norman McLaren (1933- 1984) (Toronto: National Film Board of Canada, 1952), p. 84. 61 Ibid. , 9. 62 Th e Journal , 20 March 1953. 63 University of Stirling Archive GAA31/C/ 1/ 1952.

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108 Norman McLaren

64 University of Stirling Archive GAA:31:83 11 January 1953. 65 McWilliams, Creative Process . 66 Th e scene in which each neighbour destroys the other’s wife and child was cut aft er some issues with screening it in Italy. McLaren was happy with this cut, but in later years the scene has been restored (presumably aft er his death). 67 Th e 1955 report by Celia Anderson, director of the Film Library of New York University, outlines how the fi lm was shown to a group of boys with short attention spans and engaged them very well. ‘Th e boys were fl attered by Mr McLaren’s fi lm and made self conscious about it,’ University of Stirling Archive GAA:31:200 68 National Library of Scotland Acc.5649/ 6, 28 February 1955. 69 University of Stirling Archive GAA:31:78. 70 University of Stirling Archive – not catalogued.

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