From Jeremy Hall…
You mentioned the other day that you were once going to write an animated Mr. Magoo feature. Can you tell us anything about it? How did you get the job? I understand that it didn't go forward because the producer died but was anything done on it before that happened?
Taking the last part first: Not really. I wrote up a one-page "pitch" and…well, maybe I should tell the story from the start. I had a friend named Greg Burson who was a terrific cartoon voice actor. He was especially good at reproducing voices done by actors who had passed away. He did the voices of several of Mel Blanc's characters including Bugs Bunny, and several of Daws Butler's characters including Yogi Bear. After Jim Backus passed away, Greg did Magoo for some commercials and a few other projects.
Henry Saperstein, who owned (or at least controlled) Quincy Magoo, told Greg he was looking for an idea for a Magoo feature. As I understand it, he'd involved several writers and whatever they came up with did not enthuse Mr. Saperstein to the point of going forward with any of it. Greg suggested he meet with me.
The three of us had lunch one day at the Smoke House, a fine restaurant in Burbank across the street from the big movie studio sometimes known as Warner Brothers. More importantly, the restaurant was next door to an office building that held the U.P.A. studio — and therefore, Mr. Saperstein's office.
Quick aside: For a long time, whenever they were recording Magoo cartoons, they did it in those offices and it was the job of the voice director, Jerry Hausner, to take Mr. Backus to the bar at the Smoke House and fill him full of alcoholic beverages until Mr. Magoo "arrived." After the second or third drink, Hausner would reportedly ask Backus, "Is Magoo here yet?" And Backus would reportedly say something like, "He'll be here after one more Manhattan."
(Or whatever the drink was. I certainly hope he was drinking Old Fashioneds because, you know, what can happen to an Old Fashioned?)
Anyway: Greg, Mr. Saperstein and I had a non-alcoholic "get acquainted" lunch and then we hiked over to the U.P.A. offices and he showed me some of the things they had in work for the Nearsighted One. Finally, he asked me if I had an idea for a Magoo feature. I said, "Yes. You get the rights to remake Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and then I write a movie, which may or may not follow the original too closely, called Mr. Magoo Goes to Washington."
Mr. Saperstein did a "take" not unlike a wolf in a Tex Avery cartoon ogling Red Riding Hood and said, "We'll do it, we'll do it!" Fastest sale I ever made — or it would have been if the project had ever gone forward. As I recall, he spent a few weeks dealing with whoever he had to deal with to get the rights to the Frank Capra movie. He also asked to read something I'd written so my agent sent him a script of mine and he called to say he liked it and would trust me to write the script.
At at one point, he called me to say his lawyers had told him that he might not have to purchase the rights. We could call it what I wanted to call it if we treated it as a parody of the classic movie and didn't use too much of its plot. I have no idea how legally-sound that might have been. His lawyers also talked to my agent and discussed a range of compensation for me which struck me as the low end of Acceptable.
In this business, you often find yourself accepting the low end of Acceptable but I don't think we ever got a written contract. I wrote up that one-page "pitch" for him, which I probably shouldn't have done without a firm deal, but that was all I wrote. There was never a decision as to how much of the plot of the movie I'd be able to use and I never heard what, if anything, he had worked out with whoever owned the original. I'm guessing nothing.
Saperstein called me from time to time to tell me he was working on the deal but the calls got farther and farther apart. It has been my experience — in TV, movies, comic books…just about everything I've ever done — that this often happens: They say yes, "We're definitely doing this" but then no one takes the steps necessary to make it happen. They may keep saying yes. No one may ever say no. But the project just fades away without anyone ever officially declaring it inert.
By the time I read that Mr. Saperstein had died, I had long since stopped thinking Quincy Magoo was ever going to get to Washington. This kind of thing happens so often that I long ago learned to not start celebrating when they say yes. Someone still has to take a firm step, usually one that involves writing a check. Even Magoo should be able to see that.
