Foto File

Just came across this photo on my D drive. I'm not sure who took it but it was in June Foray's backyard around 1972. The occasion was a sale of animation cels that had been donated to raise money for ASIFA Hollywood, a fine organization that has done much to boost the prestige and preservation of cartoons. The society was started on June's instigation and one weekend, she had this big event to come up with the cash to get the thing going. It did and it's still around, bigger than ever.

Who's in the pic? Back row: The gent at left is the great Bob Clampett, who directed some of the best Warner Brothers cartoons and later gave us Beany and Cecil. To the right of Bob is Shel Dorf, the recently-deceased founder of the Comic-Con in San Diego. And then at the right in the back row is me. In front of Bob is my longtime friend, Tom Stern. And then the guy with the yellow shirt is Richard Butner, who took over around then as the chairman of the Comic-Con…another one of those indispensable folks who made the con what it is today. And that's about it for this photo.