WOODY WOODPECKER
The work of renowned animator Walter Lantz is represented at the UCLA Walter Lantz Animation Archive by his films and television commercials This collection is complemented by Lantz' professional and business papers held at UCLA's Arts-Special Collections and Music Libraries.
Walter Lantz was born into an immigrant Italian family in New Rochelle, New York on April 27, 1900. At 12 years old he took his first mail-order cartoon drawing course which affected his entire life and career; he began working as a copyboy for the Hearst newspaper, New York American, where he was recommended to Gregory LaCava and then worked with the animation pioneers at Bray Studios. His career as a cartoonist began drawing characters such as the Katzenjammer kids, Happy Hooligan, Krazy Kat, and Mutt and Jeff. Later, in 1922, he produced and directed his first cartoon series, Colonel Heeza Liar, at J.R. Bray Studios in New York. He moved to Hollywood, California in 1926 and wrote for Max Sennett comedies. He started with Universal Studios in 1928 where he produced Oswald Rabbit for 10 years. In 1930, he produced The King of Jazz, the first Technicolor cartoon and Bing Crosby's first sound recording in a film He married Grace Stafford in 1941 who later became the voice of the bird with the trademark laugh, Woody Woodpecker. Lantz created many other popular cartoon characters including Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, Wally Walrus, Maw & Paw, The Beary Family and Space Mouse. He received an Honorary Academy Award in 1978. On March 5, 1986, at age 85, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died March 22, 1994, at age 93 in Burbank, California. Grace died two years earlier.
The Film & Television Archive holds more than twenty-five of Walter Lantz' cartoon shorts, spanning the early 1930s to the 1960s. Many of the titles from the 1940s feature the Woody Woodpecker character. At Arts-Special Collections the Walter Lantz Archive (1940-1979) is available for research. It consists of 350 boxes, divided into three main areas. Part I contains animation cels and models, storyboards and backgrounds. Part II is devoted to production materials, including research materials and notes, scripts, treatments, storyboard sketches, cutting continuities, publicity materials (clippings, stills). Part III is a collection of comic books featuring Walter Lantz cartoon characters.
UCLA's Music Library holds the Walter Lantz Music Collection, containing scores, parts and detail sheets for Woody Woodpecker cartoons and various commercials. It also features popular sheet music for use as source material for productions.
[UCLA Arts Library Special Collections]
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