RARE! FDC Drawings By Walter Lantz Fritz Freleng Rudolph Wendelin From 1977 COA

Description: Up for auction a "One of a kind" FDC W/ Drawings By Walter Lantz (Woody Woodpecker), Fritz Freleng (The Pink Panther) and Rudolph Wendelin (Smokey the bear). This item is certified authentic by Todd Mueller and comes with their Certificate of Authenticity. ES-7343 Walter Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker. Lantz was born in New Rochelle, New York, to Italian immigrant parents Francesco Paolo Lantz (formerly Lanza) and Maria Gervasi from Calitri According to Joe Adamson's biography The Walter Lantz Story, Lantz's father was given his new surname by an immigration official who anglicized it. Walter Lantz was always interested in art, completing a mail-order drawing class at age 12. He was inspired when he saw Winsor McCay's animated short "Gertie the Dinosaur". While working as an auto mechanic, Lantz got his first break. Wealthy customer Fred Kafka liked his drawings on the garage's bulletin board and financed Lantz's studies at the Art Students League of New York. Kafka also helped him land a job as a copy boy at the New York American, owned by William Randolph Hearst. Lantz worked at the newspaper and attended art school at night. By the age of 16, Lantz was working in the animation department under director Gregory La Cava. Lantz then worked at the John R. Bray Studios on the Jerry On The Job series. In 1924, Lantz directed, animated and even starred in his first cartoon series "Dinky Doodle", which included the popular fairy tale animated shorts Cinderella (1925) and Little Red Riding Hood (1925).[5] Lantz soon replaced George "Vernon" Stallings as head of production at Bray. (In the 1920s, Bray began to concentrate on competing with Hal Roach, the "king of two-reelers"). At the urging of his friend Robert G. Vignola, Lantz moved to Hollywood, California, after Bray switched to a publicity film studio in 1927, where he attempted to set up his own cartoon studio with Pinto Colvig, but their sound cartoons never got produced. In the meantime, he worked briefly for director Frank Capra and was a gag writer for Mack Sennett comedies. He also resorted to odd jobs, one of them being a chauffeur. Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905[a] – May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He introduced and/or developed several of the studio's biggest stars, including Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam (to whom he was said to bear more than a passing resemblance), and Speedy Gonzales. The senior director at Warners' Termite Terrace studio, Freleng directed more cartoons than any other director in the studio (a total of 266), and is also the most honored of the Warner directors, having won five Academy Awards and three Emmy Awards. After Warner closed down the animation studio in 1963, Freleng and business partner David H. DePatie founded DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, which produced cartoons (including The Pink Panther Show), feature film title sequences, and Saturday-morning cartoons through the early 1980s. The nickname "Friz" came from his friend, Hugh Harman, who initially nicknamed him "Congressman Frizby" after a fictional senator who appeared in satirical pieces in the Los Angeles Examiner. Over time, this shortened to "Friz". Rudolph Andreas Michael Wendelin (1910–2000) was a United States Forest Service employee and the best-known artist behind Smokey Bear. Beginning in 1944, Wendelin became the full-time artist for the Smokey Bear campaign. He was considered Smokey Bear's "caretaker" until his retirement in 1973. Wendelin was born in Herndon, Kansas on February 27, 1910. He studied architecture at the University of Kansas, and studied art at several art schools. He went to work for the U.S. Forest Service in 1933 as an illustrator and draftsman. He served in the United States Navy during World War II and returned to the Forest Service after the war. He completed hundreds of paintings of Smokey Bear. Wendelin designed several commemorative U.S. postage stamps. Among these were a Forest Conservation stamp in 1958, a Range Conservation stamp in 1961, a stamp honoring John Muir in 1964, a stamp honoring John Wesley Powell in 1969, and a Smokey Bear stamp in 1984. Wendelin received the Medal of Honor from the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1998 for his work on the Smokey Bear campaign. Wendelin was seriously injured in a car accident on August 18, 2000, when a car driven by his daughter lost control and collided with a truck and a highway divider. He died as a result of those injuries in a nursing home in Falls Church, Virginia on August 31, 2000.

Price: 699.99 USD

Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

End Time: 2024-11-13T13:06:05.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 USD