The gent in the above photo is Jerry Beck. He's the one in the glasses. The other individual is a balloon-animal version of Droopy Dog. Try not to get them confused.
Jerry is an expert on animation. Now, some people call me an expert on animation but compared to Jerry, I'm Mitt Romney trying to talk about Libya. And it isn't just that Jerry is an expert. Better still is that he's an activist…an activist for animation. I can't think of anyone who has done so much to encourage and abet the preservation of animation and its exhibition. An awful lot of great cartoons have been saved, shown at film festivals and released on DVD because of this man.
My pal is doing even more for the cause of cartoons this Sunday when he co-hosts (with Robert Osborne) a six-hour chunk of vintage animation on Turner Classic Movies. Here's the schedule…
- Max Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels (1939) at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific
- Max Fleischer's Mr. Bug Goes To Town (1941) at 9:30pm Eastern/6:30pm Pacific
- UPA's Jolly Frolics at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific
- New York Studio Silent Era Animation from the collection of Tom Stathes at 12 midnight Eastern/9pm Pacific
- Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed at 1am Eastern/11pm Pacific
If you can't watch or record them all, you might want to snag Gulliver's Travels which is to me the best of the lot. Then again, most of the other offerings are scarcer and harder to see.
That TCM would schedule this is a big deal…for reasons Jerry can explain to you better than I can. He does so here. Do tune in and do spread the word. There are a lot of cartoons shown on TV these days but not a lot that aren't all about merchandisable current properties. Let's buck the trend and support this Sunday's mini-fest. Maybe it could lead to a maxi-fest somewhere.