Vladi11?ir Williall? T!Jlla @904-1968) AQi11?atie>J?'S Mic)?elaQgele>

There is a scene in Walt Disney's SNOW n ••• at times you will want Plus he was very bright, could analyze and WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937), think, which you have to be able to do to an­ masterfully animated by Bill Tytla, that re­ to ani-mate stuff where you imate, at least the way ~ did to coordinate mains a tillJ!~force of animation technique just can't be cute and coy. -ail these things. in exploring cartoon personalities: Snow Donald Graham, the gifted instructor in White informs the .dwarfs that they must Those are the times when charge of the Disney Studio art classes that wash before supper or they'll "not get a bite began in 1932, frequently used film exam­ to eat," Reluctantly they make their way to you will have to know ples of Tytla's animation in his action-anal­ an outdoor water pump and tub-all except something about drawing. ysis classes. "[Tytla] does not animate the recalcitrant Grunipy, who jeers at their forms, Gral1am observed in 1937 to a group attempts at cleanliness fron1 the sidelines. Whether it is called form or of novice animators, "but symbols of forces After singing a courageous washing ,song force or vitality, you must .•. this is a revolutionary conception .•. in­ {"Bluddle-Uddle-Um-Dum''), the six dwarfs stead of seeing a character as a round body, attack Grumpy and throw him into the tub get it into your work, for beautifully modelled in drawing, he sees the for a rousing reprise. that will be what you feel, animating forces inherent in it. It is a con­ In "full animation" technique, as opposed firmation of all the instructors have been to "limited," Saturday mornirtg-type anima­ and drawing is your means trying to do here in the drawing classes. tion, it is quite a feat to not only move a Tytla' s work has-been a revelation!" cartoon "actor" convincingly through his of expressing it." Vladimir William Tytla is almost totally paces, but to make him move and react ac­ unknown outside of the animation industry, cording to the dictates of his unique cartoon but audiences all over the world have ex­ personality. In Tytla's sequence, we have a perienced his artistry through unforgettable veritable mob scene with seven characters, cartoon performances in thousands of ani­ who are of a similar shape but have seven mated films, most notably in scenes from completely different personalities, and thus the Disney .features. SNOW WlfiTE AND seven different n1otivations and reactions. THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937), PINOCCHIO Tytla's successful solution of this problem {1940), FANTASIA (1940), DUMBO {1941), of cartoon identity can be regarded as a and SALUDOS AMIGOS (1943). In the pro­ small miracle and is a tribute to his power­ fession, he is a legend, "the MiChelangelo ful gifts of concentration and his ability to of animators," claims Chuck Jones. "become" the characters he drew. In many ways, Tytla's career parallels Animator George Bakes, Tytla's friend the brief history of film animation itseU: he and assistant in New York from the late began when both he and the art were in their 1950s-until Tytla's death in 1968, comment­ teens in New York, and went on to flourish ed recently on "Bill's connection with the during animation's "Golden Era" at Dis­ thing he wits able to do, that it wasn't really ney's; there the vital Tytla was at the height a drawing-it was Bill that was coming out! of his creativity aJ;ld in total command of his He was such an intense and sensitive soul dynamic powers, which were challenged by that once he had that connection with paper, each new assignment at that studio. The with a little perspiration he was home free. dark side of the Tytla legend concerns his slow, tragic decline as an artist after leav­ ing Disney's; changes in economics and John Canemaker is a leading authority on public tastes in the late 1940s and '50s were the field of cartoon animation. He lives in reflected in animated productions and Tyt­ New York and is currently preparing a book la's frustration with television animation on the production of the feature-length car­ that never challenged his magnificent talent, toon RAGGEDY ANN AND ANDY to be pub­ Vladimir William Tytla, circa 1963. plU-s his depression over the realization that lished by Bobbs-Merrill. (Photo by G, Komar) he would never again attain the peaks he reached at Disney, eventually took their wanted to work with him," Tytla recalled toll. Tytla did not live to participate in the years later, "I beard he was a really tough current resurgence of animation as an in­ guy, he never treated anyone with kid dustry and as an art form. gloves •.. I had the reputation of being very William Tytla, christened Vladimir, was slick with a crayon and pencil •.. I took a born in Yonkers, New York, on October 25, great liking to him as a man because he 1904, the eldest of four children. His fath­ looked like a man and talked like one and he er, Peter, was a Greek Uniate Catholic and had a very fine subtle sense of humor. Fi­ an Uhlan in Emperor Franz Josef's Austri­ nally he came over to my easel and he got a an Army who emigrated from the Ukraine whole stack of drawings I had done for a to America in 1890, and established himself week. He glanced through them and said, as a cooper in Yonkers and Jersey City, 'They're kinda clever, aren't they?' Then making barrels and crates. His success in he got to work on me. He told me to get a a new land opened the way for marriage to brand new pencil with a new slick point on his intended, a Roman Catholic w'°man from it, so I would have to draw-and no tech­ his homeland whose father, a well-estab­ nique! Then he criticized the drawing, He lished architect of the lower Polish nobility, asked where the neck line was (I just had a had earlier disapproved her marriage to couple of lines and a smuctg:e). I had no leg this man of the Cossacks. to stand on ... I picked up a lot from Board­ Anne Tytla- Gibb recently described her man Robinson. " brother William's earliest years: "As a By age 17, Tytla was working at Para­ child," writes Mrs. Gibb, "Bill loved to mount Pictures in New York lettering main draw, copying pictures in magazines, es­ titles and balloon captions for that studio's pecially the comic strips, such as Buster fihns, which earned him the nickname "Tyt- Brown, Katzenjammer Kids, and the like, Any loose paper around the house was seiz­ ed for his drawings. Occasionally my father brought home drawing paper and other sup­ plies. "Bill was the only one of us who showed any talent for art ... he attended Catholic parochial schools in Yonkers and public schools in Jersey City. His teachers recog­ nized his drawing talent and encouraged him This Page: Bashful plays the concertina, 3 to deyelop it. of Tytla's original animation drawings for "He did not complete high school but SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS went to art school in New York City [at the (1937). Right; Tytla animating Stromboli New Yqrk Evening School of Industrial Art for Walt Disney's PINOCCIUO (1940). and the Art Student's League]. My father was summoned to court because of Bill's absence from school. He explained to the much later. The fact of this moustache non­ judge that Bill was attending art schbol and sense was that at 22., Bill was a top animat­ showed samples of Bill's work. The judge or receiving a top salary as proof of his an­ was especially impressed by a sketch of imation capability." Admiral Sims which Bill autographed and Tytla roomed with two commercial ar­ presented to the judge. The- charges were tists, Maurice Rawson and Henry Berger, dismissed." at the Kit Kat Club at 7th Avenue and 14th The teenaged Tytla was greatly influenc­ Street, an association that rented studios to ed by Boardman Robinson, one of his in­ artists. Klein lived in a studio below Tytla's structors at the Art Student's League. ''! and notes that Tytla and his friends "attend­ ed some evening life-sketch classes, did some painting, and lead a lively after-woTk :· < young artists' life." In 1929, Tytla, Rawson and Berger took their savings and sailed for Europe to tra­ vel and study painting. In Paris, Tytla stud­ .. ·..· .. ied sculpture briefly with Charles Despiau ~6, ··~ and it has often been noted that Tytla's ani­ mation has the solidity, weight and dyna­ la the Titler." Soon he was animating"Judge mism of sculpture. Rummy" and "Happy Hooligan'' at John Ter­ It was in Paris that Tytla first heard of ry's Greenwich Village studio; according to Walt Disney. "I went to a movie there," he I. Klein, veteran Disney animator and a remembered, "and saw one of his shorts. I contemporary of Tytla's in those early ani­ wondered who he was ... Later I had the op­ mation days in New York, "Bill Tytla re­ portunity to watch some stolid Germans as garded john Terry as a worldly and wise they sat through a Disney short. They didn't man to whom he could always turn to for laugh at all. Throughout the film they turn­ advice. Long after Bill went to work for ed to each other and made a motion of _a other studios, he always went to John for wheel turning by their ear. They thought he his opinion before coming to a decision." was sc:fewy •.. they didn't understand him at By 192.3, Tytla was animating AESOP'S all. " FABLES for John Teriy's brother, Paul. I. Henry Berger recently recalled their vi­ Klein met Tytla on the street a few years sit to London: "The usual sight-seeing, mu­ later and noticed that he was now a "dapper seums, cathedrals, historical sites, etc. dude" and was "sporting a fancy hirsute a­ While there Bill tried to interest the Rus­ dornment above his upper lip. He seemed to sian Embassy in his animation abilities. think an explanation was in order. To wit: Bill had thoughts of heading a Disney-like he was now earning a very fine salary as an studio in Moscow. They didn't go for it. animator and wanted to look mature, to "We headed [backl for Paris by plane, match his salary-earning capacity. It was a stuffing our ears wi(h cotton to cut out the suave type of moustache, sort of a Dali­ noise. A rough-go over the Cha)lnel. It was thing in its early stages-the change for the a first for both of us. All this befor·e the Stalin-type of heavy moustache developed trip down to Nice. Down there Rawson and 10

Bill met up with a couple of dames and left curity at Disney's later on. Bill was very Left: Dopey washing up, blowing water out of me behind for a tour of Italy." highly regarded in the animation industry both ears, one of Tytla's original animation During his 18 months in Europe, Tytla even at that time. drawings for Walt Disney's SNOW WffiTE painted some Cezanne-lsh landscapes and "When I first came out to California [in AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Right: Tytla's still lifes, and went to Vienna specifically 1932]," continues Babbitt, "and had my first model sheets for DUMBO {1941) and an ear­ to gaze upon the work of his idol, Bruegel. interview with Walt Disney, I immediately ly version of Stromboli for PINOCCHIO. There Tytla assessed his own artistic po­ started talking about the marvelous talents tential and decided to concentrate on the of Bill Tytla. He had heard about Bill from corninercial, rather than the fine, arts. other guys like Ted Sears and Norm Fergu­ studio grounds where all his artists could When Paul Terry contacted him in Paris son rNew York animators who joined Dis­ sharpen their drawing skills by sketching asking him to work on the new Terrytoon ney's], and Disney asked me, "Now how live models, animals and nude and draped sound cartoons, Tytla accepted immediately soon can we get this guy Tytla out here?' So humans. The Disney artists could extend and returned to New York. I wrote to Bill and when Terry heard of it, their knowledge of the world of art by at­ The New York animation industry in 1930 Terry gave him a $25 raise. A month or tending lectures featuring guests, such as was made up of a majorjty of men.who were two later, Disney asked me again, 'Let's Frank L1oyd Wright, Rico LeBrun, and Al­ mainly cartoonists with no backgrOund· or get this guy Tytla out here!' So again I exander Woollcott, and, they could partici­ training as fine arts draftsmen. Tytla once wrote to Bill and again Terry gave him a pate in seminars on perspective, color, mu­ spoke to a Disney animation class about his $25 raise. Now this happened about three sic, and action-analysis of live-action films problems returning to this rather rough and tinles, so I finally gave up trying to get Bill from Chaplin comedies to NOSFERATU and tumble atmosphere: "I worked for a com­ out here. So I figured, just for the hell of SAN FRANCISCO. pany that was considered tops and aceS in it, I'll send him, a telegram which said no­ Discoveries improving the quality of the the east and they were making a tremendous thing specific. It was stated something 1,ike films were made almost daily in every de­ amount of money. When I suggested a mo­ this: 'There are many opportunities in the Partffient and the knowledge was shared by del, we had to hire him ourselves and of west'-and Bill got another $25 raise!" every artist in the studio. This grounding in course they wouldn't consider engaging an ''In 1934," Tytla- recalled in 1968, "I the disciplines of graphic art and unceasing instructor lor us. We thought the lead ani­ flew from New York to the Disney studio. "explorations of the possibilities in the new mators could help us, but they couldn't do The flight took 18 hours. Jesus, but I was art of film, p1us the sharing of all informa­ much if you took them off cats and mice. If impressed at the Disney studio. It was such tion, is what enabled the Disney animated there was a scene of an old man hit by a films to advance their quality to such a high club and beautiful girls floated around him degree in an extraordinarily short time and in his daze, the lead animators couldn't an­ subsequently to profoundly influence the en­ imate the girls-we would have to,,, It was tire animation industry. just purely accidental that one or two of us In the fall of 1934, Walt Disney was al­ liked drawing and went to art school be­ ready deeply involved in the basic struc­ cause it was a lot of fun besides. tures of the greatest challenge of his ca­ "Finally, w,e had to give it up-the fel­ reer, the feature-length cartoon, SNOW lows would make wisecracks about the girls WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, which who posed for us. So after two or three ses­ would be con1pleted three years later. Into sions even these classed stopped, , . th'e time this highly- charged creative atmosphere, I speak of, they said anyone who goes to art after two years of coaxing, stepped Bill school is a 'homo Bolshevik,' They'd say, Tytla, one of the best paid and most highly 'What the hell do you want to go to art respected young animators in New York, school for-you're animating, aren't you?' The brilliance with Which he would handle Then when you countered with, 'Why do you all his assignments during his brief nine give me this stuff [dancing girls, etc.] to do year tenure at the studio would provide Walt -why don't you do it yourself?'-That was Disney with some of his finest cinematic different." moments and would build Tytla's reputation Then there was the matter of salary, to legendary status. Tytla found out that some older Terrytoon David R. Smith of the Walt -Disney Ar­ animators, turning out as much footage as chives provided a summary of Tytla's Con­ he and of a lesser quality, were being paid tributioils to the Disney shorts: 1935: COCK considerably more per week. He went to OF THE WALK (most of rooster and gitl); John Terry who advised him to go to his COOKIE CARNIVAL (boy cookie sings to brother, Paul Terry, and threaten to quit if girl and leads her away; Angel Food; Devil's he were not given an immediate 10o% in­ Food); MICKEY'S FffiE BR~GADE (Clara­ crease in salary. It worked and Tytla got a beautiful plant. .. Walt and Roy knew of me belle); BROKEN TOYS (step 'n'Fetchit; Je­ the raise. because of what I did for Terry, They would mima); 1938: BRAVE LITTLE TAILOR (Gi­ It was at Terrytoons that Tytla first met look at Terry's productions and could re­ ant); 1941: GOLDEN EGGS (rooster); 1943: Art Babbitt, who today is recognized by his cognize my animation. Roy would cail me THE GRAIN THAT BUILT A HEMISPHERE peers as one of the world's finest anima­ up whenever he was in New York .•. I re­ (Indains); EDUCATION FOR DEATH (Sleep­ tors. He and Tytla were to become life-long turned to New York to tie up my affairs and ing Beauty sequence; teacher);REASON AND friends, and Babbitt recalls, "Bill taught in November of 1934 started to work full­ EMOTION (Hitler). Tytla also worked on the me a great deal [about animation]. Bill time at the [Disney] studio." feature VICTORY THROUGH AIR POWER. taught me to have the courage to invent. He The High Renaissance of animation was After beginning on the Mickey Mouse and was sort of a reticent personality, he was in full flower at the Disney studio; during Silly Symphony shorts, Tytla was soon as­ shy, and yet there was an exuberance about the peri6d between 1928 to about 1938, Walt signed as Supervising Animator, with the hiin. You felt little sparks of electricity Disney developed his cartoon factory into a late Fred Moore, on SNOW WHITE AND THE coming off of him all the time. We seemed 20th century version of a Middle Ages Flor­ SEVEN DWARFS, and it was these two who to hit it off right from the start and within entine workshop. Sound and Technieolor were responsible for defining the distinctive a week after we met, we were sharing an added tremendous emotional impact to the personalities of the Seven Dwar:fs. apartment up in the Bronx not far from the Disney cartoons and advanced animation's Concerning Tytla's work on the Dwarfs, studio. potential as a storytelling medium, but Dis­ Don Graham noted that, ''lndividu::!lly [the "He burned many of the paintings that he ney's greatest triumph was in creating a drawings] are full of moven1ent -which re­ had brought back from Paris. Bill just new look for animation, a 1ook unique in the sults in a feeling of real vitality and per­ didn't think they were good enough and that history. of art containing a new flexibility sonality in the character. There is a feeling was his attitude towards all the work he and Ufe quality based on caricatured reality of movement df line developed through -ne­ ever did. He was never satisfied with what and fine draftsmanship. cessity, .. This stuff has vitality," repeated he had done. Although he sat across the Leonardo da Vinci would have felt quite Graham, and concluded 'that "any animator aisle from me [at Terry's] I never ob.Served at home at Disney's, for as in any proper could profit a lot by studying these as draw­ too closely at the time just how he did work. "workshop" all the master artists had as­ ings ... there is a strong feeling of linear I had the impression he wasn't struggling sistants and apprentices learning their in­ design thrOughout, but always in three di­ toQ hard. He seemed to have confidence in dividual crafts on-the-job. In addition, Dis­ mensions." what he was doing, as opposed to his inse- ney rnaintained a formal art school on the Bill Shull, Tytla's assistant on SNOW

12 © 9¥ail Disney Prod. .Notes 01i mE 'FIRE EATER TEMPORARY MODEL SHEET }!te head is a JJtodilJt:d PINOCCHIO FOR STORY DEP'T. USE pear s/tapt!. Keep .bea?d fall Jowls are lteavy !/"' 3 :Body power/kl axd So/id - not /at

f!ONPARATIVE SIZES.....

_,_ ..rn'''""'°_,, @Wa/IDl-"""1~""""'!"""' l/•:JWf Right: Tytla animating the devil from "The Night On Bald Mountain" sequence of FAN­ TASIA (1940). Fellow Disney animator Art Babbitt, commenting on this breathtaking Tytla animation of the gigantic devil noted " ••• the power of the devil, the drawing where he turns his hands around-this is something that has been forgotteo. Thl:l so­ called animators of today couldn't come anywhere near the craftsmanship that Bill was capable of in those years. Inset: Tytla's "method acting" approach to animation via which he sought to become the characters he drew.

WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, once remarked on Tytla's instinctive use of dis­ tortion and exaggeration, the keys to dy­ namic animation: ''I get a kick out of the way ,TYtla will distort something," said Shull, "the forefinger of a hand perhaps­ stretch it out so that it looks almost silly. When you see it on the drawing you would swear it meant nothing, but on the screen these things seem to hold the scene togeth­ er." A prime example of this magical distor­ tion can be observed in Tytla's superb real­ ization of the character, Stromboli, the evil puppeteer in PINOCCHIO. An overweight monster of mercurial moods, capable of wine - soaked, garlic - breathed Old World charm one second and knife-wielding, chop­ you-up-for-firewood threats the next, the Stromboli character is larger than liff:l, and this is how Tytla. animated him. Frighten­ ing and comic by turns, Stromboli as Tytla captured him, is one of the most three-di­ mensional of all the Walt Disney cartoon villains. ''In my estimation," states Art Bab)Jitt, "the greatest animator of all time was Blll Tytla. " Commenting on the breathtaking Tytla animation of the gigantic devil in "The Night On Bald Mountain" sequence of FAN­ TASIA, Babbitt notes, " .•• the power of the devil, the drawing where he turns his hands around-this is something that has been forgotten, The so-called animators of today couldn't come anywhere near the crafts­ manship that Bill was capable of in those years." Versatility, the rare ability of an anima­ tor to assume completely different roles. was yet another natural attribute of Tytla. "Bill was a very sensitive and sentimental man," explains Babbitt, "and he was per­ fectly capable, of being tender as he was with the little character Dumbo [the ele­ phant with the long ears who learned to fly]. In fact, there's one memorable scene -in DUMBO where he comes to visit his mother who is locked up in a cage, and I have seen this picture in several places around the world and each time a number of people in the audience weep. It could have been so crude and maudlin but instead it was done with great sensitivity and taste. It's assum­ ed you can make somebody laugh with funny little drawings,'' concludes the veteran ani­ mator, "but to be able to use these funny little drawings and to make a person feel so deeply that he weeps:-in my estimation, that is true artistry." When he first arrived in Hollywood, Tyt­ la moved in with old pal Babbitt in his beau­ tiful home on Tuxedo Terrace. The two well-'i)aid bachelors led busy "playboy" ex­ istences after work and Tytla, who ioved horses, took up polo, only to temporarily give that sport up when a horse fell on him and cracked his pelvis. He was in the hos-

14

pital on the critical list for months, then on 'don't change a thing.' I felt pretty good a­ Left: Grumpy turns angrily, abruptly alter­ crutches, and finally he recovered without a bout it. ing expression and body angle, one of Tyt­ limp. "Finally the time came for Walt to see la's original animation drliwings for SNOW It was at a Disney drawing class one ev­ it, He was subdued and even jolly in the WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Right: ening in 1936 that Tytla met his future wife, 'sweatbox' [Projection room]. He said 'That Two of Tytla's "clean-up" drawings of the Adrienne le Clerc, an actress from Seattle was a helluva scene, but'-there's always Devil from FANTASIA. "Clean-up" draw­ who worked at the Hollywood Playhouse and that cruel 'but' in there-'if anybody else ings are made from the animator's rough other Little Theatres. In addition, Miss le had animated it I would have passed it. But animation drawings. They contain fine de­ Clerc was a fashion model and worked for I expected something different from Bill!' tails and are the final-step for the art work artists and illustrators including, 0!'1 this ''Well, he sunk a ship with that remark on paper, which is next traced onto clear 'fateful occasion, the Walt Disney studio. , .. it took a couple of weeks before I could sheets of acetate and opaqued with color on Today, Tytla's vibrant and elegant widow work again. I was crushed. But one day I the reverse side. The inked and painted eels maintains the acres of property Tytla pur­ took up my pencil and started to draw again, are placed onto an opaque background and chased in East Lyme, Connecticut in the differently. It was as if somo::ithing hit me photographed one at 'a time, 24 eel drawings 1930s on advice from his father, }l[rs. Tytla and I started all over. This time I showed it for each second of action. owns and operates, out of her barn, an An­ to Walt, he said, 'Greati Just what I was -tiques and Garden Ornaments Shop, writes expecting I' He never did explain what was a spirited weekly local newspaper colunm wrong. It was as ii by some magical y;ay agreed unanimously to go_ out on strike on called "The Joy of Eating" and is writing a you would know." May 29, 1941. To Walt Disne}''s amazement, cookbook called The Mousse That Roared. At some point, Tytla read Boleslavsky's Bill Tytla jOined the strikers. A witty and candid woman, Mrs. Tytla is Acting-: The First Six Les!jg_I!§ and used the "I was for the company union," Tytla ex­ still easily moved to tears when discussing book's six premises of concentration, mem­ plained later, "and I went on strike because her late 'husband. ory of emotion, dramatic actiOn, character­ my friends were on strike. I was sympa­ "I had a friend who was a model," she ization, observation, and rhythm in his ani­ thetic with their views, but I never wanted recalled recently, "and she had been dating mation. "On all my animation,'' he once to do anything against Walt. Art Babbitt and I heard all abol.it this char­ said, "I tried to do some research and look "The food supplied by the union wasn't acter, Biil Tytla. She called him a mad into the background of each character. So for me, so one lunch hour I went to a near­ Russiiin. Well, he wasn't Russian and he by greasy spoon for lunch, There was Walt wasn't mad-he Was just brooding and in­ in a booth. ·1 went up to him and we shook tense. I was ffianic and he was depressive. hands. I told hirri the strike was foolish and But dynamite with that great leonine head! nnnecessary. He asked n1e to return to his He was so broadshouldered he looked as office with him to work out a solution. 1 was though he should come through a door side­ dressed in old clothes, so I asked to go ways. God, he was a hunk! hon1e, shower and change. We made an ap­ "Our son Peter is now 37 and Is a gifted pointment for later that afternoon. and successful director of TV commercials "I drove to my home in La Canada and in Mexico City. Tamara, our 27 year-old my wife said that Walt had just called to daughter is married to a superb chef and cancel our meeting. Somebody had gotten to lives in Ossining. She has just started in him and told him not to work with me. I the business and commutes to New York City wasn't an officer of the union and I really where she free-lances for George Bakes.,, couldn't speak for anybody ·really. " learning to be a camera assistant and loves Babbitt states, "I know that Disney re­ it. When people in the business find out she spected Bill's integrity and craftsmanship is Bill Tytla's daughter they invariably to the highest degree. Although they never speak of his genius with great reverence. It socialized very much, if at all, I could feel completely blew her mind the first few that Bill was one of the few people that Walt times because after all, he was just 'Daddy' permitted himself to be fond of. Even after to her for so long. the strike Walt couldn't quite bring himself "Anyway, we were together for three to completely write off Bill Tytla. I know years and when- we finally got married on one of Bill's most prized possessions was April 21,1938 we had dinner at Victor Hugo. an autographed picture of Walt Disney and That was it-We never went on a honey­ Bill posed together [in 1959]." moon. The next day he had to get right back Tytla resigned from the Disney studios to work, He loved to hunt, he loved horses, on February 25, 1943 almost two years af­ he loved the out-of-doors, but most of all ter the strike was settled. Adrienne Tytla he loved his work. He was always under a suggests several reasons for his decision; lot of pressure. He was like Vesuvius but for the devil on Bald Mountain in FAN TASIA "Will felt unhappy there after the strike. He he worked best under pressure. I think he I did some reading about Moussorgsky. Now felt discriminated against for his 'disloyal needed it, it,was always a challenge to him. I'm Ukranian and Moussorgsky used tern1s I opinions' against the studio. \Vill had creat­ No matter what he worked on, everytime he could understand. He talked about 'Chorni­ ed a lot of heavies for Walt. Now he had would come home With a different assign­ bok,' the Black Art. Ukranian folklore is been cast as one, by him. And there was ment_, he would say, 'Oh God! I don't know. based on 'Chorni-bok'-1 related to t~is and too much tension and electricity in the air. I've never done an elephant before, l'vo::i ne­ studied up," With Will everything was instinctive and in­ ver done a whale before. Jesus! How am I 'Tytla's baby son, Peter, provided the tuitive, and now the vibes were all wrong. going to do a giant? And dwarfs? And seven characterization for the star of DUMBO. Also the war was on. We were actually of them at the same time and all of 'em dif­ Time magazirie of December 20, 1941 glow­ shelled by the Japanese in Santa Barbara ferent, " ingly reviewed the film and quoted Tytla as (sic). And Will felt Peter and I would be Babbitt concurs with this picture of the saying, "I saw a chance to do a character safer in Connecticut on the farm -especially insecure Tytla; "Everytime he was handed without using any cheap theatrics. Most of if he had to go off to the service. an assignment he would come to me and the expressions and mannerisms -I got from "Paul Terry made a special trip out to say, 'Art, I can't do- it. I'm gonna q_uit, I'm my own kid, There's nothing theatrical a­ California to try to get Will back. He wined gonna go back to New York.' And of course, bout a two-year old kid, They're real and and dined us at posh restaurants with his whatever he tackled just turned out beauti­ siricer\' ... I tried to put all those things in wife, Irma, and old friend Claire Trevor. fully. And he was very highly- regarded at Dumbo." And he offered Will a job back at Terry­ Disney's." Art Babbitt was a leader in the company toons." Tytla once spoke about his problems in union and he had a serious personal con­ Whatever the reasons for Tytla leaving dealing with Walt Disney's cryptic way of frontation with Disney over a Wage differen­ the Disney studio, Mrs. Tyl;la is sure "Will demanding the best from his men; "I had to tial between himself and his assistant. Fi­ regretted it to the end of his life, because animate one sequence in PINOCCHIO and I nally, Babbitt switched his allegience to the he realized he would never have the oppor­ gave it everything I had. There were sever­ new Screen Cartoonists Guild, which was tunity to work anywhere the way he did al scenes in the S!!quence and I showed my affiliated with the AFL. Disney fired Bab­ there." animation to the other animators. They all bitt which was in direct violation of the The Tytla's moved to their 160 acre said 'great' or 'nothing else needed' or Wagner Labor Relations Act and the union farm in Connecticut on March 1, 1943.

16 t\ JI

I I

. I / I l I J I I \ I / I \ ~~ ~ \ \

\

I ' I I Bill's father and one of his brothers were York after his studio folded and went to live Below: An owl does a double-take, an ori­ living on the property at the time. They left in Connecticut on the farm. I started to get ginal Tytla animation drawing from his after a couple of years and Will, who loved some free-lance work and I gave Bill some post-Disney period at Terrytoons. Right: cattle and farming tried his hand af being an footage to do, Whenever the date for it came The young "Bill" Tytla, circa 1930, {Photo absentee dairy farmer for seven years. "We due, he'd have half of it done. If I gave him courtesy of Henry Berger). Inset: Walt Dis­ had Displaced Persons living here helping," five feet, two and a half was done. If I gave ney poses with Tytla during a meeting in Mrs. Tytla says. "But Will worked in New him 25 feet, 12 and a half was done. And his 1959, holding the model of the Devil Tytla York City all week and I managed the run­ animation was rough when he started to do animated in FANTASIA. Disney inscribed ning of the farm , , . he was no farmer and he it again after the sickness, but it was get­ the photo "To Bill, with all be,st wishes," poured money into this place like water in ting better an<_l better. You just knew that 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice.'" this guy had such a strong hold on this thing Tytla returned to Terrytoons as a direc­ that if be was just sittin' on the board that sire to express the knowledge of craft and tor of animation; I. Klein was working there he would be doing it. No doubt in my mind. " the "Vesuvius" of emotions inside of him. at the time and observed that "Bill was in a While fu the hospital for a "routine "pros­ Once, he was fortunate enough to find the new atmosphere where the Disney-type of tate operation," Tytla had another stroke perfect outlet for bis gifts-at Disney's, as perfection at any cost did not exist. Anima­ and was unable to speak or write for weeks a top cog in the best, most lavish and ex­ tion was just a commercial commodity to be after. He tried to print words during this pensive ofthe cartoon factories, where ev­ produced in the most economical way•.. 1)€riod and managed to even draw some en a nihe minute short went through over 24 Terrytoons work schedule was tight, effici­ additional Mousthusula sketches, but these different s1)€ciilized departments, where ent and fast. Bill adjusted grudgingly. After drawings are very sad to see-pathetic there was time and money for careful £!X­ several years he moved on to Paramount scribblings of a giant who had lost the pow- perimentation and, lm:ury of luxuries, per­ Cartoon Studios where he directed Popeye fection. •.. here too the schedule was tight and effi­ "·On December 29, 1968, William Tytla Tytla was an animation elitist wbo would cient." died on his farm. George Bakes had just not, and in many ways could not, adapt him­ George Bakes recalls that Tytla "was negotiated to produce a series of TV com­ self to an evolving film world. To his mind very depressed, got discouraged from the mercials and was going to share his luck there was only one way of animating and work and the lack of work and the lack of with Tytla. "That was a big change from producing a film-the way it was done at something meaningful to do ..• He was of­ just free- lancing for producers,'' Bakes Disney's during the "Golden Era." This in­ fered a whole bunch of Popeyes [to produce] said, "I was waiting to teil Bill about this -tractabli;: attitude finally destroyed him, and at one point. They were going to do a limit­ thing because this is a character [the Trix the young art of animation lost an authentic ed-animation version of it. He didn't do one rabbit] that goes on and on, If he got used genius. of them. He didn't like the budget. '' to the character and got to know him, he Durjng the current explosion of interest Tytla turned to directing commercials could really get back into animation. in animation, with not less than six feature for television and worked on close to 2000 "But he died before I could tell him that. films in production in this country alone and cartopns for Tempo Studio, Academy Pic­ Saddest thing I ever heard of. That the guy a constant flood of 1)€rsonal anin1ated shorts tures, and finally, his own William Tytla was emotionally taking a pounding becai.lse from individual artists, designers, and stu­ ProdUctions, Inc, He maintained an apart­ of his -great love for animation that turned dents finding international outlets and show~ ment/office in Manhatten and went home to into a great frustration. That's what killed cases, it would be wise to review and study Connecticut on weekends. him. 'Cause of this tremendous pride--he the legacy of magnificent c·artoon perfcirm­ "Bill was not a businessman, he was an started out so young and was on top and then ances animated by Vladimir Willia'm Tytla. artist." says George Bakes. "His business to have this kind of animation that came a­ For he was the greatest sorcerer of them got pretty bad because he was a bad busi­ round that didn't have any craft in it. It was all, and knew the spells for infusing life and nessman. Eventually it died and he went discourag~ng that he had to compete with personality into anything he ,drew; by com­ looking for work." Adrienne Tytla recalls, that with what he could do, There was no bining Tytla's pioneering contributions to "He would go out to the coast and everybody place he could do what he co_uid do outside the vocabulary of the craft, with. today's knew how great he'd been and they were of Disney's." freedom of expression and choices of tech­ sorry for him and they gave him stuff to do, It seems unlikely that the Trix rabbit, or niques, perhaps only then will animation but he couldn't keep up with the amount of even the more recent characters and films realize its fabulous potential. footage that was required. Within a five from the Disney studio, would have satis­ year period he had three strokes, [and] he'd fied Tytla's demon talent and his aching de- periodically get a hemorrhage in the left •CFQ• eye. He was blind in that eye for three years and he never let anyone know that. " Tytla's work for other studios always brought him a handsome salary. He created the three Post Sugar Crisp Bears and did many lucrative ads with them on TV and in Life and Look magazines. He directed odds and ends for Hanna-Barbera and in 1962 was in charge of the animation sequences in THE INCREDIBLE MISTER LIMPET which combined live-action . with animation and "\~···.·· .. starred Don Knotts. He worked nine months .. · on that film In Hollywood and Art Babbitt saw him during this period: ''It was a trag­ edy to see this man disintegrate. His mind just .gradually dissipated. He still made sense but he was not the strong, vibrant person I had known when he was young." While in California, Tytla tried to sell a cartoon film idea he bad been planning for five years, "Mousthusula, the 2000 Year Old Mouse," and for which he had made many charming and vigorous sketches; but there were no takers. "He got sick out there with pneumonia," Bakes recalls. ''He came back in terrible shape, a beaten man, I saw him In the street one day trying to go around, like he was staring in the air. I saw this thing [drawings of Mousthusu!a]un­ der his arm. I said, 'Bill, I don't want you to go nowheres {sic), You stay home. I'll go get some work.' He .had moved out of New 18

''Vladimir William Tytla la almost totally unknown outside of the animation Industry, but audiences all over the world have ex­ perienced his artistry through unforgettable cartoon performances ln thousands of ani­ mated films, most notably in scenes from the Disney features, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (193'1), PINOCCHIO (1940), FANTASIA (1940), DUMBO {1941), and SALUDOS AMIGOS (1943). In the pro­ fession, he is a legend, 'the Michelangelo of animators,' claims Chuck Jones." ©WOP