Tuesday, May 31, 2005

May 31, 1944


May 31, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Monday, May 30, 2005

May 30, 1944


May 30, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

May 29, 1944


May 29, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

May 28, 1944


May 28, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Friday, May 27, 2005

May 27, 1944


May 27, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

May 26, 1944


May 26, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

In My Life in 'Toons," Joe Barbera reveals himself to be "the instigator of the MGM Water Wars."

They began with little enough inspiration. I took a paper cup, filled it with water, and placed it above an office doorway. When the victim opened the door, the cup would tip, fall, and douse him with water From this modest beginning, I graduated to brilliant feats of genuine engineenng. I tied one end of a stnng to my desk fan, ran the string up and over the pipe for the sprinkler system, which ran overhead, then tied the other end to a two-handled trophy cup I had, which I filled with water. I plugged the fan into the socket for the animators light board, so that when he turned on his lightboard, the fan would start instead, wind up the string, upset the trophy cup, and, once again, douse the animator.

This technique rarely yielded a direct hit, though it did soak the desk, eliciting very satisfying screams and curses from the victim. It also incited others to join the ongoing combat. A particularly intense rivalry developed between Harvey Eisenberg, a layout man, and Irven—Irv—Spence, an animator. This escalated rapidly until one would take the entire bottle off the water cooler and use it against his foe as heavy artillery. Thus attacked, Irv, taking note of a hole in the back of Harveys shirt, stuck his finger in it and pulled down sharply, ripping his shirt from near the collar all the way to the tails. By way of retaliation, Harvey tore off the breast pocket of Irv's shirt. Irv then ripped off Harvey's. Before the two of them were through, they were both drenched, and their shirts hung down from their belts like hula skirts. Harvey then grabbed the water cooler bottle under one arm, climbed to the top of his desk, took hold of the overhead sprinkler pipe with his free hand, and started swinging from it like an ape.

At this juncture, Fred Quimby, who had been utterly unaware of our battles, walked in. The mouth opened. The jowls drooped. "Jeeezus. A bunch of goddamn high school kids." And he turned and walked out.

This hardly ended the wars. Irv Spence devised what he considered a brilliant defensive strategy. He brought into his office a pile of empty film cans, which he stacked precanously on the edge of his desk. He attached string to them, and ran it to the doorknob, so that nobody could come into his office without triggering a very loud booby trap.

At lunchtime I secured a ladder and a drill. I set up the ladder outside in the corridor and drilled through the plywood wall of Irv's office nght over where his head would be. We all waited for Irv to come back from lunch. He went into his office and set up his defensive booby trap. With Irv behind his closed door, I brought back the ladder, set it up, took a big mouthful of water, climbed the ladder, put one end of the straw in my mouth and the other end through the hole I had drilled. Then I let loose with the water.

Now, we had timed all this, and we had studied the trajectories involved. The stream must have hit Irv squarely on the head. He let out a scream, and unable to figure out where the water was coming from, thoughtlessly pulled open his office door, triggering his own booby trap of some twenty empty metal film cans. It sounded like the end of the world. Of course it wasn't. But while we were throwing pushpins and developing the weapons of a water war, Europe and Asia were erupting in a very real war we all wondered how long we could stay out of.


Early water-bomb related humor from Irv Spence, published in the Los Angeles Times on August 5, 1928.

Aug. 5, 1928

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

May 25, 1944


May 25, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

May 24, 1944


May 24, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Monday, May 23, 2005

May 23, 1944


May 23, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

May 22, 1944


May 22, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Barrymore collar

Saturday, May 21, 2005

May 21, 1944


May 21, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Friday, May 20, 2005

May 20, 1944

May 20, 1944

The Uninvited had already been in release for a month at this time. The Los Angeles Times' clarity-impaired Edwin Schallert wrote on April 14, 1944, "I kept thinking of such a masterwork as Henry James' 'Turn of the Screw' while looking at 'The Uninvited,' which is probably a sort of lurking huge tribute to its mentality." So there. TCM's website has the trailer.

Uninvited

frenchuninvited

uninvited3

theuninvited

Thursday, May 19, 2005

May 19, 1944


May 19, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

May 18, 1944


May 18, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

May 17, 1944


May 17, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Monday, May 16, 2005

May 16, 1944


May 16, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

May 15, 1944


May 15, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

May 14, 1944


May 14, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Friday, May 13, 2005

May 13, 1944


May 13, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

May 12, 1944


May 12, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

No Drawing Today

Today's drawing was the second of two that have been lost over the years. The diary continues tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

May 10, 1944


May 10, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Monday, May 09, 2005

May 9, 1944


May 9, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

May 8, 1944


May 8, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

May 7, 1944


May 7, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Friday, May 06, 2005

May 6, 1944


May 6, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Also on this day Million Dollar Cat is released. Here's a few frame grabs.

MDC2a

MDC3

MDC4

Thursday, May 05, 2005

May 5, 1944


May 5, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Straight Outta Compton


July 29, 1928, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

As a substitute for today's missing diary drawing is this Irv Spence editorial cartoon, published in the Los Angeles Times on July 29, 1928, when he was 19 years old.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

May 3, 1944


May 3, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Monday, May 02, 2005

May 2, 1944


May 2, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.

Sunday, May 01, 2005

May 1, 1944


May 1, 1944, originally uploaded by Filboid Sudge.