Uncredited directors

[Detroiter]

Who directed the most cartoons without receiving credit? Let's factor out the Disney directors and the Fleischer head animators. The first group we all know weren't credited for years and years (did Wilfred Jackson ever receive a screen credit for a short?) and the second group weren't credited as directors but we know who they are because of the animation credits.

So who? Likely candidates are Harman and Ising's subdirectors when they were each on the MGM payroll, the actual director(s) of Iwerks' cartoons, or the directors of the cartoons that at various times went out under Walter Lantz's name.

[Sogturtle]

Who directed the most cartoons without receiving credit? Let's factor out the Disney directors and the Fleischer head animators. The first group we all know weren't credited for years and years (did Wilfred Jackson ever receive a screen credit for a short?) and the second group weren't credited as directors but we know who they are because of the animation credits.

So who? Likely candidates are Harman and Ising's subdirectors when they were each on the MGM payroll, the actual director(s) of Iwerks' cartoons, or the directors of the cartoons that at various times went out under Walter Lantz's name.

Detroiter/Frank~

Hmmmm... Well, I BELIEVE Wilfred Jackson was only ever CREDITED on one Disney short and that was "The Little House" (1952). I think he directed 51 short cartoons for Walt. Okay so much for your first group.:p

The Lantz toons are somewhat like the Warner Harman-Ising's where they list both partners together (in this case Walter Lantz-Bill Nolan) but NO director credit per se. And it took a bit of detective work to determine that the earliest were indeed co-directions. Then they split and made things easier... Easier except then at that point Tex Avery was functioning as a sequence director and co-director for Nolan and Manuel Moreno in a similar role for Lantz. Moreno would later indicate that he was a full director for Lantz, BUUUUUT no credit for him has ever been found. Ditto for the several cartoons almost certainly directed by Avery at Lantz just prior to his firing.

The FEW credited animators of the Iwerks cartoons were the real directors of those cartoons, but like the Fleischer films they DO have their names on the films NOT as directors but just as animators (ONE lone exception actually lists two animators and then Ub Iwerks as the director). However from a point soon after Grim Natwick joined Iwerks in 1931 he found himself being rapidly thrust in the role of the REAL director of the Flip the Frog cartoons... So Grim had a bunch of uncredited directorial projects at Ub's.

Again in "the uncredited directors due to 'deceitful credits' category" would be ALMOST all of the sound Charles Mintz Krazy Kats, Scrappy and Color Rhapsody toons. Until a date in 1938 they all just bear credits for "story" and "animation" (but no director). The storyman and listed animators were the directors (darn few exceptions to that rule). Your winners for MOST uncredited directing MIGHT be here... Art Davis had around 90 cartoons there...

At the MGM version of Harman-Ising they'd (like Disney) made the decision not to credit anybody, but unlike Walt's, no archives to back up who did what... We mercifully know which were supposedly Hugh's or Rudy's but a NUMBER of those are of course REALLY directed by others. Unfortunately the sum total isn't yet known.

MGM proper at first credited Freleng, Hanna and Allen, then lapsed into no credits while Friz Freleng and George Gordon waited for the arrival of Harman and Ising... Definitely Freleng directed some cartoons under the Harman production banner (and I strongly believe several for Ising as well). Jerry Brewer and Bob Allen and Manuel Moreno would all direct some films anonymously.

[Dave Bennett]

WOW, Tim!!

As always, I am bowled over by your scholarship and knowledge!!

Is all of this information pretty much straight out of your head, or do you sit and type your posts with reference books opened and piled high around you like the rest of us mortals would have to do??

Thanks for all the great information!

•

[Detroiter]

The Lantz toons are somewhat like the Warner Harman-Ising's where they list both partners together (in this case Walter Lantz-Bill Nolan) but NO director credit per se. And it took a bit of detective work to determine that the earliest were indeed co-directions. Then they split and made things easier... Easier except then at that point Tex Avery was functioning as a sequence director and co-director for Nolan and Manuel Moreno in a similar role for Lantz. Moreno would later indicate that he was a full director for Lantz, BUUUUUT no credit for him has ever been found. Ditto for the several cartoons almost certainly directed by Avery at Lantz just prior to his firing.
In 1940, 1941 and into early 1942, Lantz himself is again credited as director. Was Walt picking up the megaphone - or at least the stop watch - and directing again, or was it really Alex Lovy (who directed both before and after this period) or some such?
And I also wonder about the period when Lantz reopened in 1950. Was he the uncredited director - to save money or get his chops back - or was it another staffer?

The FEW credited animators of the Iwerks cartoons were the real directors of those cartoons, but like the Fleischer films they DO have their names on the films NOT as directors but just as animators (ONE lone exception actually lists two animators and then Ub Iwerks as the director). However from a point soon after Grim Natwick joined Iwerks in 1931 he found himself being rapidly thrust in the role of the REAL director of the Flip the Frog cartoons... So Grim had a bunch of uncredited directorial projects at Ub's.
As did Culhane, Eugster, Wolf, Blackburn, Stokes and no doubt other animator/directors who wandered into the Iwerks shop on the way from and to other employment.

MGM proper at first credited Freleng, Hanna and Allen, then lapsed into no credits while Friz Freleng and George Gordon waited for the arrival of Harman and Ising... Definitely Freleng directed some cartoons under the Harman production banner (and I strongly believe several for Ising as well). Jerry Brewer and Bob Allen and Manuel Moreno would all direct some films anonymously.
Did George Gordon have two seperate directing tenures at MGM, 1938 and thereabouts and 1943-45 (release dates), or a continuous one going anonymous under Hugh and/or Rudy?

[Sogturtle]

In 1940, 1941 and into early 1942, Lantz himself is again credited as director. Was Walt picking up the megaphone - or at least the stop watch - and directing again, or was it really Alex Lovy (who directed both before and after this period) or some such?
And I also wonder about the period when Lantz reopened in 1950. Was he the uncredited director - to save money or get his chops back - or was it another staffer?

....
Did George Gordon have two seperate directing tenures at MGM, 1938 and thereabouts and 1943-45 (release dates), or a continuous one going anonymous under Hugh and/or Rudy?

Detroiter/Frank~

Yep, Lantz was the credited director of the early Forties, and I personally hold to that (and it was almost certainly due to money constraints). Mike Barrier stated that the rough drawing style of "Knock, Knock" indicated it was done by Alex Lovy. Fascinatingly, the surviving Lantz records reportedly indicate that the cartoon was indeed directed by Walter Lantz... There is possibly a way of reconciling Barrier's view with the Lantz records if we view the animation layouts as being drawn by Lovy but the timing and rest of the directing as being done by Lantz.

And yep, George Gordon did indeed have two MGM directing go-arounds in 1938/early '39, and again in the 1943 era. He then left the studio and went to work briefly for Hugh Harman (where he directed a Pvt. Snafu, then jumped to John Sutherland). With life seemingly running in cycles George then directed/co-directed the Harding College films which then ended being released theatrically by... MGM!


WOW, Tim!!

As always, I am bowled over by your scholarship and knowledge!!

Is all of this information pretty much straight out of your head, or do you sit and type your posts with reference books opened and piled high around you like the rest of us mortals would have to do??

Thanks for all the great information!

Aw shucks Dave:o :o :o But thank you for the very, very kind words!!:o

And yeah, unfortunately most of the info is pretty much straight out of my pointed little-noggin (hence the occasional mistake:o :p ). Buuuuut to cut down on errors I have gotten lately to hopping up and running and checking my original notes, hand-written filmographies, etc., and anything else to back things up (and so I don't make a complete dork out of myself, like my missing the Sid Sutherland credit in "The Wacky Wabbit":rolleyes: ).

[JDWeil]

So why was Friz Freleng's name missing from Hollywood Daffy?