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{{Short description|American film director, producer, |
{{Short description|American film director, producer, and screenwriter (1914–1977)}} |
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{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2023}} |
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2023}} |
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{{Infobox person |
{{Infobox person |
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| name = John Hubley |
| name = John Hubley |
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| image = John Hubley |
| image = John Hubley in 1941.jpg |
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| alt = Photograph portrait of Hubley looking up |
| alt = Photograph portrait of Hubley looking up |
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| caption = Hubley in 1941 |
| caption = Hubley in 1941 |
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| birth_name = John Kirkham Hubley |
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1914|05|21}} |
| birth_date = {{birth date|1914|05|21}} |
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| birth_place = [[Marinette, Wisconsin]], US |
| birth_place = [[Marinette, Wisconsin]], US |
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| death_date |
| death_date = {{death date and age|1977|02|21|1914|05|21}} |
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| death_place = [[New Haven, Connecticut]], US |
| death_place = [[New Haven, Connecticut]], US |
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| education = ArtCenter College of Design |
| education = [[ArtCenter College of Design]] |
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| occupation = [[Animation|Animated film]] [[Film director|director]] |
| occupation = [[Animation|Animated film]] [[Film director|director]] |
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| employer = [[Walt Disney Animation Studios]] (1936–1941)<br />[[United Productions of America|UPA]] (1944–1952)<br />Storyboard, Inc./Hubley Studios (1953–1977) |
| employer = [[Walt Disney Animation Studios]] (1936–1941)<br />[[United Productions of America|UPA]] (1944–1952)<br />Storyboard, Inc./Hubley Studios (1953–1977) |
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| years_active = 1936–1977 |
| years_active = 1936–1977 |
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| spouse = {{marriage|Claudia Sewell|1941|1954|end=divorced}} |
| spouse = {{plainlist| |
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* {{marriage|Claudia Sewell|1941|1954|end=divorced}} |
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* {{marriage|[[Faith Hubley]]|1955}} |
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}} |
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| children = |
| children = 6, including [[Emily Hubley]] and [[Georgia Hubley]] |
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| relatives = [[Kathleen Kirkham]] (Aunt) |
| relatives = [[Kathleen Kirkham]] (Aunt) |
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| module = {{Infobox military person |
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|embed = yes |
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|allegiance = {{Flag|United States}} |
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|branch = {{tree list}} |
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* {{army|United States}} |
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** {{nowrap|[[File:US Army Air Corps Hap Arnold Wings.svg|20px]] [[United States Army Air Forces|Army Air Forces]]}} |
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*** {{nowrap|[[File:1st Motion Picture Unit - Emblem.jpg|20px]] [[First Motion Picture Unit]]}} |
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{{tree list/end}} |
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|serviceyears = 1942–1946 |
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|rank = [[Private (rank)|Private]] |
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|unit = [[18th AAF Base Unit]] |
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|battles = [[World War II]]}} |
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}} |
}} |
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'''John Kirkham Hubley''' (May 21, 1914 – February 21, 1977) was an American [[Animation|animated]] [[film director]], [[art director]], [[Film producer|producer]], and [[Screenwriter|writer]] known for his work with the [[United Productions of America|United Productions of America (UPA)]]<ref name="When Magoo Flew">{{cite book |last=Abraham |first=Adam |title=When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA |publisher=[[Wesleyan University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-8195-7270-7}}</ref> and his own independent studio, Storyboard, Inc. (later renamed Hubley Studio).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/90156%7C86023/John-Hubley/|title=Overview for John Hubley|website=Turner Classic Movies|accessdate=January 5, 2023}}</ref> A pioneer and innovator in the [[Animation in the United States in the television era|American animation industry]], Hubley pushed for more visually and emotionally complex films than those being produced by contemporaries like the [[The Walt Disney Company|Walt Disney Company]] and [[Warner Bros. |
'''John Kirkham Hubley''' (May 21, 1914 – February 21, 1977) was an American [[Animation|animated]] [[film director]], [[art director]], [[Film producer|producer]], and [[Screenwriter|writer]] known for his work with the [[United Productions of America|United Productions of America (UPA)]]<ref name="When Magoo Flew">{{cite book |last=Abraham |first=Adam |title=When Magoo Flew: The Rise and Fall of Animation Studio UPA |publisher=[[Wesleyan University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-8195-7270-7}}</ref> and his own independent studio, Storyboard, Inc. (later renamed Hubley Studio).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/90156%7C86023/John-Hubley/|title=Overview for John Hubley|website=Turner Classic Movies|accessdate=January 5, 2023}}</ref> A pioneer and innovator in the [[Animation in the United States in the television era|American animation industry]], Hubley pushed for more visually and emotionally complex films than those being produced by contemporaries like the [[The Walt Disney Company|Walt Disney Company]] and [[Warner Bros. Cartoons|Warner Brothers Animation]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hubley |first1=John |last2=Schwartz |first2=Zachary |title=Animation Learns A New Language |journal=Hollywood Quarterly |volume=1 |issue=4 |date=July 1946 |pages=360–363 |jstor=1209495 |doi=10.2307/1209495|s2cid=191564703 }}</ref> He and his second wife, [[Faith Hubley]] (née Chestman), who he worked alongside from 1953 onward, were nominated for seven [[Academy Awards]], winning three.<ref>https://awardsdatabase.oscars.org ''Academy Awards Database''.</ref> |
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Hubley was born in [[Marinette, Wisconsin]], in 1914 and developed an interest in art from a young age, as both his mother and maternal grandfather were professional painters.<ref name="Animation: A Creative Challenge">Hubley, John and Faith (1974). ''Animation: A Creative Challenge''. Mid-America Film Center and the Kansas City Art Institute.</ref> After high school, Hubley attended the [[ArtCenter College of Design]] to study painting. After three years of classes, he got a job at the Walt Disney Animation Studio at the age of 22.<ref name="Screening Room with John and Faith Hubley">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGLF0pHAmmY&t=1173s&ab%20channel=HubleyArchive "Screening Room with John and Faith Hubley"]. ''Screening Room''. April, 1973. WGBH Boston. Film</ref> Although his talents were recognized by the studio and he was given a position as an animation director on ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'', Hubley felt restricted by the studio's conservative animation style. Hubley left Disney in 1941 during the [[Disney animators' strike|Disney animator's strike]] and joined the [[First Motion Picture Unit|First Motion Pictures Unit]], later following many of his fellow unit artists to the newly-formed Industrial Poster Service (later renamed the [[United Productions of America]]). Hubley served many roles at UPA and directed several Academy Award-nominated animated shorts. Most famously, he directed ''The Ragtime Bear'' (1949), the debut of [[Mr. Magoo]], a character he co-created. |
Hubley was born in [[Marinette, Wisconsin]], in 1914 and developed an interest in art from a young age, as both his mother and maternal grandfather were professional painters.<ref name="Animation: A Creative Challenge">Hubley, John and Faith (1974). ''Animation: A Creative Challenge''. Mid-America Film Center and the Kansas City Art Institute.</ref> After high school, Hubley attended the [[ArtCenter College of Design]] to study painting. After three years of classes, he got a job at the Walt Disney Animation Studio at the age of 22.<ref name="Screening Room with John and Faith Hubley">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGLF0pHAmmY&t=1173s&ab%20channel=HubleyArchive "Screening Room with John and Faith Hubley"]. ''Screening Room''. April, 1973. WGBH Boston. Film</ref> Although his talents were recognized by the studio and he was given a position as an animation director on ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'', Hubley felt restricted by the studio's conservative animation style. Hubley left Disney in 1941 during the [[Disney animators' strike|Disney animator's strike]] and joined the [[First Motion Picture Unit|First Motion Pictures Unit]], later following many of his fellow unit artists to the newly-formed Industrial Poster Service (later renamed the [[United Productions of America]]). Hubley served many roles at UPA and directed several Academy Award-nominated animated shorts. Most famously, he directed ''The Ragtime Bear'' (1949), the debut of [[Mr. Magoo]], a character he co-created. |
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In 1952, Hubley was forced to leave UPA after refusing to denounce [[communism]], leading to his eventual investigation by the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]]. He soon opened his own independent studio to capitalize on commercial work for the new market of [[Television advertisement|television advertising]],<ref>[https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-red-scare-killed-an-animators "The Red Scare Killed an Animator's Career, So He Took Over TV"].''Animation Obsessive''. Published May 18, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2023.</ref> directing the successful [[I Want My Maypo|"I Want My Maypo!"]] spot. In 1954, he was commissioned by the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]] to make an animated short film, the first short ever funded by an art museum.<ref>Haug, Sarah. [https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/findings/a-joyful-animated-mid-century-film-from-the-guggenheims-archives "A Joyful, Animated Mid-Century Film from the Guggenheim's Archives"]. ''Guggenheim.org''. Published January 8, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2023.</ref> |
In 1952, Hubley was forced to leave UPA after refusing to denounce [[communism]], leading to his eventual investigation by the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]]. He soon opened his own independent studio to capitalize on commercial work for the new market of [[Television advertisement|television advertising]],<ref>[https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/the-red-scare-killed-an-animators "The Red Scare Killed an Animator's Career, So He Took Over TV"].''Animation Obsessive''. Published May 18, 2021. Retrieved January 5, 2023.</ref> directing the successful [[I Want My Maypo|"I Want My Maypo!"]] spot. In 1954, he was commissioned by the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]] to make an animated short film, the first short ever funded by an art museum.<ref>Haug, Sarah. [https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/findings/a-joyful-animated-mid-century-film-from-the-guggenheims-archives "A Joyful, Animated Mid-Century Film from the Guggenheim's Archives"]. ''Guggenheim.org''. Published January 8, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2023.</ref> |
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Hubley (alongside his wife Faith) is often considered the most important figure in American [[independent animation]] and one of the most important figures in the history of animation. The |
Hubley (alongside his wife Faith) is often considered the most important figure in American [[independent animation]] and one of the most important figures in the history of animation. The Hubleys' film ''[[Moonbird]]'' (1959) became the first independent film to win the [[Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film|Academy Award for Best Animated Short]]. Hubley collaborated with jazz musicians like [[Dizzy Gillespie]], [[Benny Carter]], and [[Quincy Jones]] and often used unscripted, improvised dialogue in his films, creating an entirely new way of expressing emotion and feeling through the medium of animation. His films are considered important in the evolution of post-war modernism in film.<ref name="Amidi">{{cite book |last=Amidi |first=Amid |title=Cartoon Modern: Style and Design in 1950s Animation |publisher=Chronicle Books |year=2006 |isbn=0811847314}}</ref> [[The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences]] claim the Hubleys' films "bucked the establishment and defined an era of independent animation production".<ref>Wall text, Inventing Worlds and Characters, Animation, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles, California</ref> |
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== Early life and education == |
== Early life and education == |
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[[File:John Hubley Birthplace Marinette WI.jpg|thumb|right|Hubley’s birthplace in [[Marinette, Wisconsin]].]] |
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Hubley was born on May 21, 1914, at 1212 11th Street (now Shore Drive) in [[Marinette, Wisconsin]].<ref>''Directory of the Town of Marinette, Wisconsin, 1914.'' p. 181.</ref> His father, John Raymond Hubley, was a secretary at the John B Goodman Company<ref>''Directory of the Town of Marinette, Wisconsin, 1911.'' p. 179.</ref><ref>''Directory of the Town of Marinette, Wisconsin, 1916–1917.'' p. 177.</ref> – a [[Wood industry|logging company]] – in Marinette, and his mother, Verena Kirkham Hubley, was a homemaker. Verena's maternal grandfather, Jacob Leisen, was one of the founders of the Leisen & Henes Brewing Company in [[Menominee, Michigan]].<ref>[https://www.taverntrove.com/the-leisen-henes-brewing-company-of-menominee-michigan-usa-br-118.html "The Leisen & Heines Brewing Company of Menominee, Michigan, USA"]. ''Taverntrove.com'' Accessed January 8, 2023.</ref><ref>Sawyer, Alvah Littlefield. "A History of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan and its People". Vol. 3. The Lewis Publishing Company. 1911. Accessed through hometownchronicles.com article [http://hometownchronicles.com/mi/menominee/bios/leisenj.html ''Jacob Leisen''], retrieved January 8, 2023.</ref> The Leisen-Kirkham family were economically stable, allowing Verena's parents to send her to the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], where she studied painting from 1907 to 1909. Verena's father, Richard Archibald Kirkham, was also a painter<ref>[https://www.askart.com/artist/Richard%20A%20Kirkham/105322/Richard%20A%20Kirkham.aspx ''Richard Kirkham Biography'']. askArt. Accessed January 8, 2023.</ref> and one of the earliest photographers in Menominee.<ref>Tinder, David. ''Directory of Early Michigan Photographers''. University of Michigan. 2013. p. 1399.</ref> |
Hubley was born on May 21, 1914, at 1212 11th Street (now Shore Drive) in [[Marinette, Wisconsin]].<ref>''Directory of the Town of Marinette, Wisconsin, 1914.'' p. 181.</ref> His father, John Raymond Hubley, was a secretary at the John B Goodman Company<ref>''Directory of the Town of Marinette, Wisconsin, 1911.'' p. 179.</ref><ref>''Directory of the Town of Marinette, Wisconsin, 1916–1917.'' p. 177.</ref> – a [[Wood industry|logging company]] – in Marinette, and his mother, Verena Kirkham Hubley, was a homemaker. Verena's maternal grandfather, Jacob Leisen, was one of the founders of the Leisen & Henes Brewing Company in [[Menominee, Michigan]].<ref>[https://www.taverntrove.com/the-leisen-henes-brewing-company-of-menominee-michigan-usa-br-118.html "The Leisen & Heines Brewing Company of Menominee, Michigan, USA"]. ''Taverntrove.com'' Accessed January 8, 2023.</ref><ref>Sawyer, Alvah Littlefield. "A History of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan and its People". Vol. 3. The Lewis Publishing Company. 1911. Accessed through hometownchronicles.com article [http://hometownchronicles.com/mi/menominee/bios/leisenj.html ''Jacob Leisen''], retrieved January 8, 2023.</ref> The Leisen-Kirkham family were economically stable, allowing Verena's parents to send her to the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], where she studied painting from 1907 to 1909. Verena's father, Richard Archibald Kirkham, was also a painter<ref>[https://www.askart.com/artist/Richard%20A%20Kirkham/105322/Richard%20A%20Kirkham.aspx ''Richard Kirkham Biography'']. askArt. Accessed January 8, 2023.</ref> and one of the earliest photographers in Menominee.<ref>Tinder, David. ''Directory of Early Michigan Photographers''. University of Michigan. 2013. p. 1399.</ref> |
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== Career == |
== Career == |
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===Working at Disney and the 1941 Animator's Strike: 1936–1941=== |
===Working at Disney and the 1941 Animator's Strike: 1936–1941=== |
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⚫ | Hubley started working at Walt Disney Productions on January 1, 1936.<ref name="Screening Room with John and Faith Hubley"/> He started as an apprentice on ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs]]'' (1937) producing background tracings and painting backgrounds and layouts for animators. He was quickly promoted to an art director for ''[[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]'' (1940). |
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⚫ | Hubley |
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On February 25, 1939, the architect [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] visited the studio with a copy of ''The Tale of the Czar Durandai ''(1934), a Russian animated film directed by [[Ivan Ivanov-Vano]]. Wright showed the film to Disney's staff, including Hubley, |
On February 25, 1939, the architect [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] visited the studio with a copy of ''The Tale of the Czar Durandai ''(1934), a Russian animated film directed by [[Ivan Ivanov-Vano]]. Wright showed the film to Disney's staff, including Hubley, |
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<ref name="In His Own Words: Frank Lloyd Wright on 'Fantasia'">Korkis |
<ref name="In His Own Words: Frank Lloyd Wright on 'Fantasia'">{{cite web |last=Korkis |first=Jim |url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/in-his-own-words-frank-lloyd-wright-on-fantasia/ |title=In His Own Words: Frank Lloyd Wright on 'Fantasia' |website=Cartoon Research |date=December 16, 2022 |access-date=January 11, 2023}}</ref> who was greatly inspired by the film's stylized visuals and animation.<ref>{{cite web |last=Amidi |first=Amid |url=https://www.cartoonbrew.com/books/exclusive-excerpt-from-walts-people-52659.html |title=Exclusive Excerpt from "Walt's People" |date=January 26, 2012 |website=[[Cartoon Brew]] |access-date=June 17, 2020}}</ref> |
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Hubley was chosen as one of three directors (alongside [[Dick Kelsey]] and McLaren Stewart) to handle the [[Rite Of Spring|"Rite of Spring"]] passage of [[Fantasia (1940 film)| |
Hubley was chosen as one of three directors (alongside [[Dick Kelsey]] and McLaren Stewart) to handle the [[Rite Of Spring|"Rite of Spring"]] passage of ''[[Fantasia (1940 film)|Fantasia]]'' (1940). Specifically, Hubley directed the section covering the molten stage of Earth's creation to the cooling off into greenery. Hubley was upset by the film's inaccuracy, stating that "it was not scientifically accurate in terms of the demise of the reptiles. It was more likely they were frozen by the [[ice age]]. But [[Walt Disney|Disney]] didn't want an ice age; he wanted a desert sequence".<ref name="Animation: A Creative Challenge"/>{{rp|1}} Hubley also painted several backgrounds for the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment. This same year, Hubley moved out of the Woodruffs' house to his own house at 3827 Ronda Vista Place in Los Angeles. Hubley lived here with fellow Disney Studios artist and actor John McLeish.<ref>"Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940". ''Department of Commerce-Bureau of the Census''. Sheet no. 11-A. Enumerated April 17, 1940. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref> |
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In the spring of 1941, employees at Disney Studios were unhappy with salary inequalities and the studio discouraging [[unionization]].<ref>Friedman, Jake (2022). ''The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation's Golden Age''. [[Chicago Review Press]]. {{ISBN|9781641607223}}</ref> Hubley and his wife Claudia both participated in the [[Disney animators' strike|1941 Disney strike]],<ref>Friedman, Jake. [https://www.thedisneyrevolt.com/strikers "The Strikers"]. ''thedisneyrevolt.com''. Accessed January 8, 2023.</ref> with John taking dozens of photographs to document the event. Hubley was one of the better-paid employees of the studio, making $67.50 a week<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|17}} (equivalent to $1,367.04 in 2023), but decided to strike in support of unionization. The strike, organized by Hubley's friend [[Art Babbitt]], strengthened Hubley's relationship with strikers like [[Bill Littlejohn]], [[Herbert Klynn|Herb Klynn]], [[Stephen Bosustow]], and [[Jules Engel |
In the spring of 1941, employees at Disney Studios were unhappy with salary inequalities and the studio discouraging [[unionization]].<ref>Friedman, Jake (2022). ''The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War of Animation's Golden Age''. [[Chicago Review Press]]. {{ISBN|9781641607223}}</ref> Hubley and his wife Claudia both participated in the [[Disney animators' strike|1941 Disney animators' strike]],<ref>Friedman, Jake. [https://www.thedisneyrevolt.com/strikers "The Strikers"]. ''thedisneyrevolt.com''. Accessed January 8, 2023.</ref> with John taking dozens of photographs to document the event. Hubley was one of the better-paid employees of the studio, making $67.50 a week<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|17}} (equivalent to $1,367.04 in 2023), but decided to strike in support of unionization. The strike, organized by Hubley's friend [[Art Babbitt]], strengthened Hubley's relationship with strikers like [[Bill Littlejohn]], [[Herbert Klynn|Herb Klynn]], [[Stephen Bosustow]], and [[Jules Engel]], all of whom later worked with Hubley at UPA or Hubley Studios. On August 10, 1941, John and Claudia were two of the 256 employees fired by the studio when the strike ended.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|22}} |
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===Enlistment and Beginning of UPA: 1942–1948=== |
===Enlistment and Beginning of UPA: 1942–1948=== |
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After being fired from Disney Studios, Hubley briefly worked at [[Columbia Pictures|Columbia's]] [[Screen Gems]] under [[Dave Fleischer]]. Hubley called |
After being fired from Disney Studios, Hubley briefly worked at [[Columbia Pictures|Columbia's]] [[Screen Gems]] under [[Dave Fleischer]]. Hubley called Fleischer one of "one of the world's intellectual lightweights".<ref name="Interviews: John Hubley">{{cite interview |last=Barrier |first=Michael |url=http://michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Hubley/Hubley.html |title=Interviews: John Hubley |website=michaelbarrier.com |date=1976 |access-date=January 11, 2023}}</ref> Hubley disliked his work at Screen Gems, but Fleischer's detachment from the employees allowed Hubley a creative freedom he had not found at the Disney Studio. |
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⚫ | On November 23, 1942, Hubley enlisted in the [[United States Armed Forces]] to work in the [[First Motion Picture Unit]],<ref>[https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=3&cat=all&tf=F&q=John+hubley&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=1775207&rlst=3604667,3969509,1775207 "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938–1946 (Enlistment Records)"]. ''The National Archives''. Accessed January 11, 2023.</ref> an independent film production unit in the Air Force.<ref>Amidon, Audrey and Holmstrom, Heidi. [https://www.archives.gov/files/calendar/know-your-records/handouts-presentations/sept19-presentation.pdf "World War II and theFirst Motion Picture Unit Films"]. ''The National Archives''. Published September 19, 2017. Accessed January 11, 2023.</ref> Here, Hubley directed animated training films related to flight safety and firearm equipment. Though uncredited, ''Old Blackout Joe'' (1942) was Hubley's first time directing.<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0151814/ "Old Blackout Joe (Short 1942)"]. ''IMDb.com''. Accessed January 11, 2023.</ref> Hubley's time in the Air Force was leisurely, and he "got to go home every night" and "spent half [his] time drawing [gags] and passing them around".<ref name="Interviews: John Hubley"/> The Air Force had few expectations for how the films should aesthetically look or feel, allowing Hubley and his team near-complete creative control. Hubley, who had grown increasingly more interested in the works of [[modern art]]ists like [[Paul Klee]], pushed his films to have flat, abstract visuals. Since the films were often uncredited, it is unknown how many films Hubley directed for the First Motion Picture Unit, but ''Flight Safety: Landing Accidents'' (1946) was likely his last.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} Hubley is credited with the animations on ''[[Tuesday in November]]'' (1945), produced by the US Office of War Information.<ref>Houseman, John. ''[https://archive.org/details/Tuesdayi1945 Tuesday in November]''. U.S. Office of War Information. 1945.</ref> |
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<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:FMPU Hubley.jpeg|thumb|right|Hubley's military portrait, taken during his time serving in the [[First Motion Picture Unit]].]] --> |
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⚫ | On November 23, 1942, Hubley enlisted in the [[United States Armed Forces]] to work in the [[First Motion Picture Unit]],<ref>[https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=3&cat=all&tf=F&q=John+hubley&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=1775207&rlst=3604667,3969509,1775207 "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938–1946 (Enlistment Records)"]. ''The National Archives''. Accessed January 11, 2023.</ref> an independent film production unit in the Air Force.<ref>Amidon, Audrey and Holmstrom, Heidi. [https://www.archives.gov/files/calendar/know-your-records/handouts-presentations/sept19-presentation.pdf "World War II and theFirst Motion Picture Unit Films"]. ''The National Archives''. Published September 19, 2017. Accessed January 11, 2023.</ref> Here, Hubley directed |
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In 1943, Hubley was contacted by the [[United Automobile Workers|United Automobile Workers (UAW)]], who were looking to hire Hubley to produce a short film endorsing [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in the [[1944 United States presidential election|1944 Presidential Election]].<ref name="Interviews: John Hubley"/> Hubley took the project to the newly-formed Industrial Film and Poster Service, which was soon renamed to [[United Productions of America|United Productions of America (UPA)]].<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|49}} The film, ''[[Hell-Bent for Election]]'' (1944), was storyboarded by Hubley and directed by [[Chuck Jones]].<ref>[https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a35d218 "Hell-bent for Election"]. ''[[British Film Institute]]''. Accessed January 11, 2023.</ref><ref name="Interviews: John Hubley"/> At UPA, Hubley found the creative freedom he had yearned for his entire career. The UAW was pleased with ''Hell-Bent for Election'' and hired UPA for ''The Brotherhood of Man'' (1946), a film on race relations.<ref>Stanchfield |
In 1943, Hubley was contacted by the [[United Automobile Workers|United Automobile Workers (UAW)]], who were looking to hire Hubley to produce a short film endorsing [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in the [[1944 United States presidential election|1944 Presidential Election]].<ref name="Interviews: John Hubley"/> Hubley took the project to the newly-formed Industrial Film and Poster Service, which was soon renamed to [[United Productions of America|United Productions of America (UPA)]].<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|49}} The film, ''[[Hell-Bent for Election]]'' (1944), was storyboarded by Hubley and directed by [[Chuck Jones]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20230111132900/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a35d218 "Hell-bent for Election"]. ''[[British Film Institute]]''. Accessed January 11, 2023.</ref><ref name="Interviews: John Hubley"/> At UPA, Hubley found the creative freedom he had yearned for his entire career. The UAW was pleased with ''Hell-Bent for Election'' and hired UPA for ''The Brotherhood of Man'' (1946), a film on race relations.<ref>{{cite web |last=Stanchfield |first=Steve |url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/upas-the-brotherhood-of-man-1946/ |title=UPA's 'The Brotherhood of Man' (1949) |website=Cartoon Research |date=September 29, 2016 |access-date=January 11, 2023}}</ref> Hubley co-wrote the film and led the [[Production designer|production design]]. With both UAW films, Hubley pushed for a [[Modernism|modernist]] aesthetic of sleek lines, flat shapes, and bold colors that were completely unique to UPA's films. |
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By 1947, Hubley had been promoted to vice president and creative head of UPA.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|75}} That same year, UPA founder [[Stephen Bosustow]] struck a distribution deal with Columbia: UPA would produce several "trial"<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|75}} films for the studio using Columbia's cartoon stars [[The Fox and the Crow (animated characters)|The Fox and The Crow]]. If the films were a success, Columbia would enter a formal distribution partnership with UPA. Hubley was tasked with directing the first "trial" films, ''Robin Hoodlum'' (1948) and ''The Magic Fluke'' (1949). |
By 1947, Hubley had been promoted to vice president and creative head of UPA.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|75}} That same year, UPA founder [[Stephen Bosustow]] struck a distribution deal with Columbia: UPA would produce several "trial"<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|75}} films for the studio using Columbia's cartoon stars [[The Fox and the Crow (animated characters)|The Fox and The Crow]]. If the films were a success, Columbia would enter a formal distribution partnership with UPA. Hubley was tasked with directing the first "trial" films, ''Robin Hoodlum'' (1948) and ''The Magic Fluke'' (1949). |
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===UPA and Mr. Magoo: 1949–1952=== |
===UPA and Mr. Magoo: 1949–1952=== |
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⚫ | Hubley and the UPA team felt restricted with The Fox and The Crow shorts, and approached Columbia with an idea for an original short.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|77}} Hubley, inspired by his uncle Harry Woodruff, pitched an idea for a short-tempered, aggressive old curmudgeon. "The character was based upon an uncle of mine, Harry Woodruff"<ref name="Memories of Mr. Magoo"/>{{rp|1}}he later said. Hubley and writer [[Millard Kaufman]] would name the character Mr. Magoo after [[Point Mugu]] in [[Malibu, California]].<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|78}}While Hubley is often credited as the sole creator of Mr. Magoo, the character was a combined effort with Kaufman, who based Magoo partially on his own uncle.<ref>{{cite news |last=Grimes |first=William |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/movies/19kaufman.html |title=Millard Kaufman, 92, a Creator of Mr. Magoo, Dies |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=March 19, 2009 |access-date=January 12, 2023}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Hubley and UPA founder Zachary Schwartz made their intentions with UPA clear in a 1946 issue of ''[[Film Quarterly]]''. Hubley and Schwartz believed it had become "necessary for the craftsman-animators of the motion picture industry to analyze and reevaluate their medium".<ref name="Animation Learns a New Language">Hubley, John and Schwartz, Zachary. "Animation Learns a New Language". ''Film Quarterly''. Vol. 1, no. 4. July 1946. p. 360-363.</ref> Hubley and Schwartz were influenced by their shared experience in the First Motion Picture Unit making training films, specifically by how animation was being used as an educational tool, as the two believed "animation usage in the educational film [was] singularly undeveloped"<ref name="Animation Learns a New Language"/>{{rp|360}} before the war. Now, Hubley and Schwartz understood the "significance of the animated film as means of communication"<ref name="Animation Learns a New Language"/>{{rp|363}} and aimed to create films that could "express the essence of an idea" with "line, shape, color, and symbols".<ref name="Animation Learns a New Language"/>{{rp|363}} |
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⚫ | Hubley and the UPA team felt restricted with The Fox and The Crow shorts, and approached Columbia with an idea for an original short.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|77}} Hubley, inspired by his uncle Harry Woodruff, pitched an idea for a short-tempered, aggressive old curmudgeon. "The character was based upon an uncle of mine, Harry Woodruff" |
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⚫ | Hubley served as the supervising director of ''[[Gerald McBoing-Boing]]'' (1950), written by [[Dr. Seuss|Theodor Geisel]] and directed by Robert Cannon. The film won UPA their first [[Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film|Academy Award for Best Short Subject Cartoon]], which "stung" and "really shocked" Hubley, claimed layout artist Bill Hurtz.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|91}} Hubley, now determined to win his own Academy Award for the studio, directed ''[[Rooty Toot Toot]]'' (1952), UPA's most expensive and ambitious film at the time.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|93}} Hubley wrote the film alongside [[Bill Scott (voice actor)|Bill Scott]] and hired [[Phil Moore (jazz musician)|Phil Moore]] to compose the score. At the recommendation of [[Art Babbitt]], Hubley hired dancer Olga Lunick to choreograph the film's dance elements, and much of the film's animation was done by [[Betty Boop]] creator [[Grim Natwick]].<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|96}} The film's dark themes of murder, sex, violence, jealousy, and infidelity were a "groundbreaking moment for animation".<ref>{{cite web |last=Lyons |first=Michael |url=https://www.animationscoop.com/a-killer-story-the-70th-anniversary-of-rooty-toot-toot/ |title=A Killer Story: The 70th Anniversary of 'Rooty Toot Toot |website=Animation Scoop |date=November 13, 2021 |access-date=June 22, 2023}}</ref> While the film was nominated for the Academy Award,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1952|title=1952 {{pipe}} Oscars.org {{pipe}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|website=www.oscars.org|date=October 5, 2014 }}</ref> it lost to ''[[The Two Mouseketeers]]''. The same year, Hubley also directed the animated segments of Irving Reis's ''[[The Four Poster (1952 film)|The Four Poster]]'' (1952).<ref>"UPA animation from The Four Poster (1952)". [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc5gHe3r49o&t=230s&ab%20channel=AnimationStorage ''YouTube'' link.] Accessed January 12, 2023.</ref> |
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⚫ | Hubley and UPA founder Zachary Schwartz made their intentions with UPA clear in a 1946 issue of ''[[Film Quarterly]]''. Hubley and Schwartz believed it had become "necessary for the craftsman-animators of the motion picture industry to analyze and reevaluate their medium".<ref name="Animation Learns a New Language">Hubley, John and Schwartz, Zachary. "Animation Learns a New Language". ''Film Quarterly''. Vol. 1, no. 4. July 1946. p. 360-363.</ref> Hubley and Schwartz were influenced by their shared experience in the First Motion Picture Unit making training films, specifically by how animation was being used as an educational tool, as the two believed "animation usage in the educational film [was] singularly undeveloped"<ref name="Animation Learns a New Language"/>{{rp|360}} before the war. Now, Hubley and Schwartz understood the " |
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⚫ | In September 1951, UPA layout artist Bernyce Fleury testified before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] that several UPA artists, including Hubley, were [[Red Scare|promoting communism]] through their films.<ref name="Toontown's Reds: HUAC's Investigation of Alleged Communists in the Animation Industry">Cohen, Karl. "Toontown's Reds: HUAC's Investigation of Alleged Communists in the Animation Industry". ''Film History''. Vol. 5, No. 2. June 1993.</ref> In response, the following April Columbia sent UPA a list of eight suspected communist employees which included Hubley. Columbia, threatening to end their distribution deal with UPA, wanted the named employees to either confess or leave UPA.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|129}} Hubley refused to denounce communism and was subsequently fired from UPA on May 31, 1952.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|131}} Reflecting upon his time at UPA, Hubley would say "it got too large. Before we knew where we were, we were getting more and more concerned with administration and less with creation."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Starr |first=Cecile |url=https://archive.org/details/Sight_and_Sound_1962_01_BFI_GB/page/n22/mode/1up |title=Evolution of a Cartoonist |magazine=[[Sight and Sound]] |date=Winter 1961–1962 |volume=31 |number=1 |page=17 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> |
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⚫ | Hubley served as the supervising director of ''[[Gerald McBoing-Boing]]'' (1950), written by [[Dr. Seuss|Theodor Geisel]] and directed by Robert Cannon. The film won UPA their first [[Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film|Academy Award for Best Short Subject Cartoon]], which "stung" and "really shocked" Hubley, claimed layout artist Bill Hurtz.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|91}} Hubley, now determined to win his own Academy Award for the studio, directed ''[[Rooty Toot Toot]]'' (1952), UPA's most expensive and ambitious film at the time.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|93}} Hubley wrote the film alongside [[Bill Scott (voice actor)|Bill Scott]] and hired [[Phil Moore (jazz musician)|Phil Moore]] to compose the score. At the recommendation of [[Art Babbitt]], Hubley hired dancer Olga Lunick to choreograph the film's dance elements, and much of the film's animation was done by [[Betty Boop]] creator [[Grim Natwick]].<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|96}} The film's dark themes of murder, sex, violence, jealousy, and infidelity were a "groundbreaking moment for animation".<ref>Lyons |
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⚫ | In September 1951, UPA layout artist Bernyce Fleury testified before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] that several UPA artists, including Hubley, were [[Red Scare|promoting communism]] through their films.<ref name="Toontown's Reds: HUAC's Investigation of Alleged Communists in the Animation Industry">Cohen, Karl. "Toontown's Reds: HUAC's Investigation of Alleged Communists in the Animation Industry". ''Film History''. Vol. 5, No. 2. June 1993.</ref> In response, the following April Columbia sent UPA a list of eight suspected communist employees which included Hubley. Columbia, threatening to end their distribution deal with UPA, wanted the named employees to either confess or leave UPA.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|129}} Hubley refused to denounce communism and was subsequently fired from UPA on May 31, 1952.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|131}} Reflecting upon his time at UPA, Hubley would say "it got too large. Before we knew where we were, we were getting more and more concerned with administration and less with creation."<ref>Starr |
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=== Independent success with Storyboard, Inc. 1952–1969 === |
=== Independent success with Storyboard, Inc. 1952–1969 === |
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Following his firing from UPA, Hubley was effectively [[Blacklisting|blacklisted]] from the animation industry.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|131}} He found work illustrating album covers for [[Westminster Records|Westminster]] and [[Clef Records]] for artists such as [[Al Hibbler]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/master/1504748-Al-Hibbler-Sings-Duke-Ellington|title=Al Hibbler - Sings Duke Ellington|via=www.discogs.com}}</ref> [[Aaron Copland]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/release/10356613-Aaron-Copland-Appalachian-Spring-Ballet-Suite-Billy-The-Kid-Ballet-Suite|title=Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring (Ballet Suite) Billy The Kid (Ballet Suite)|via=www.discogs.com}}</ref> [[Slim Gaillard]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/master/1334122-Slim-Gaillard-Slim-Gaillard-Cavorts|title=Slim Gaillard - Slim Gaillard Cavorts|via=www.discogs.com}}</ref> and [[Chico O'Farrill |
Following his firing from UPA, Hubley was effectively [[Blacklisting|blacklisted]] from the animation industry.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|131}} He found work illustrating album covers for [[Westminster Records|Westminster]] and [[Clef Records]] for artists such as [[Al Hibbler]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/master/1504748-Al-Hibbler-Sings-Duke-Ellington|title=Al Hibbler - Sings Duke Ellington|year=1954 |via=www.discogs.com}}</ref> [[Aaron Copland]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/release/10356613-Aaron-Copland-Appalachian-Spring-Ballet-Suite-Billy-The-Kid-Ballet-Suite|title=Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring (Ballet Suite) Billy The Kid (Ballet Suite)|year=1954 |via=www.discogs.com}}</ref> [[Slim Gaillard]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/master/1334122-Slim-Gaillard-Slim-Gaillard-Cavorts|title=Slim Gaillard - Slim Gaillard Cavorts|year=1953 |via=www.discogs.com}}</ref> and [[Chico O'Farrill]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/master/1365339-Chico-OFarrill-2nd-Afro-Cuban-Suite|title=Chico O'Farrill - 2nd Afro Cuban Suite|year=1954 |via=www.discogs.com}}</ref><ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley">"Introducing John and Faith Hubley". ''The Criterion Channel''. Published online October 29, 2020. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E%20J6BIkHCSE&t=786s&ab%20channel=HubleyArchive On YouTube]</ref> These covers showed Hubley's art progressing further into [[abstract expressionism]] and modernism, taking heavy influence from [[Pablo Picasso]]. |
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Still |
Still "undercover" in Hollywood, Hubley founded Storyboard, Inc. (sometimes referred to as Storyboard Studios or simply Storyboard) in 1953.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|131}} Since television work was both uncredited and in high demand, Hubley quickly found work directing animated commercials for companies such as [[Heinz]],<ref>{{cite tweet |user=@ani_obsessive |number=1291056374864990208 |title=John Hubley's award-winning commercial for Heinz Worcestershire Sauce (1954/1955), Storyboard Inc. |date=August 5, 2020 |access-date=January 22, 2023 |via=Twitter}}</ref> [[Bank of America]],<ref>{{cite video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogefk1bz_CY |title=Bank of America ad by John Hubley & Rod Scribner |access-date=June 22, 2023 |via=YouTube}}</ref> and E-Z Pop.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfYBt4Bgfcw&ab%20channel=AnimationStorage "Bop Corn [HQ<nowiki>]</nowiki>"] Uploaded by Animation Storage to YouTube April 9, 2021. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Stanchfield |first=Steve |url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/a-smattering-of-spots-a-reel-of-john-hubleys-storyboard-inc-commercials/ |title=A Smattering of Spots! A Reel of John Hubley's Storyboard, Inc Commercials |website=Cartoon Research |date=May 26, 2016 |access-date=January 22, 2023}}</ref> Since many of his clients were looking for a fast turnaround, Hubley's highly-stylized approach to [[limited animation]] and bold graphics became both practical and popular. For these early commercials, Hubley would again collaborate with animators such as [[Bill Littlejohn]], [[Emery Hawkins]], and [[Rod Scribner|Rob Scribner]]. Also in 1953, Hubley and producer Michael Shore began developing an [[Finian's Rainbow (unfinished film)|animated adaptation]] of the musical ''[[Finian's Rainbow]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Jones |first=Kenneth |url=https://www.playbill.com/article/an-animated-finians-rainbow-com-191573 |title=An Animated Finian's Rainbow? |website=Playbill |date=March 2, 2010 |access-date=January 22, 2023}}</ref><ref name="Lost Rainbow">{{cite magazine |last=Canemaker |first=John |url=http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=2157 |title=Lost Rainbow |magazine=[[Print (magazine)|Print]] |date=March–April 1993 |via=Michaelspornanimation.com |access-date=January 22, 2023}}</ref> Shore wanted Hubley to direct, and Hubley was motivated to "develop the visual art even further than the UPA films".<ref name="Lost Rainbow"/> Shore had difficulty interesting studios with the project due to the musical's strong racial themes, but eventually secured funding and a distribution deal with the [[Distributors Corporation of America|Distributors Corporation of America (DCA)]]. [[Frank Sinatra]] and [[Ella Fitzgerald]] were signed on for the film, marking their only collaboration. By the end of 1954, all of the dialogue and music had been recorded for the film and Hubley had assembled a large team of past collaborators, such as Littlejohn, Babbitt, and Les Goldman. [[Faith Hubley|Faith Elliott]] (née Chestman), later Hubley's second wife, served as a script supervisor on the film. While Hubley was very excited for the project, his "easygoing manner" made him "hard to work with because he wasn't very disciplined".<ref name="Lost Rainbow"/> The musical's writers, [[Burton Lane]] and [[Yip Harburg]] (a fellow victim of the blacklist), kept a close watch on Hubley, and tensions soon arose over the musical direction of the film and Hubley's visuals.<ref name="Lost Rainbow"/> Issues also arose between DCA and members of the film's crew who were members of the [[Screen Cartoonist's Guild|Screen Cartoonists Guild (SCG)]] and not the [[International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees|International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)]]. DCA was concerned that since many members of the crew were not IATSE, the film would not be played in theaters. Soon thereafter, DCA president Fred J. Schwartz received a call from IATSE representative [[Roy Brewer]], who ousted Hubley for his refusal to cooperate with the [[House Un-American Activities Committee|HUAC]]. Hubley, who still refused to testify before the HUAC, caused DCA's parent company to stop funding the film. While Schwartz did attempt to save the film by approaching [[RKO Pictures|RKO]], it was no use.<ref name="Lost Rainbow"/> The film was canceled in 1955, with the contents of the entire studio impounded.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|132}} |
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In 1955, after the collapse of '' |
In 1955, after the collapse of ''Finian's Rainbow'', Hubley moved Storyboard, Inc. with him to [[New York City]],<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview">{{cite interview |last=McGilligan |first=Pat |title=Faith Hubley: An Interview |work=[[Film Quarterly]] |date=Winter 1988–1989 |volume=42 |number=2 |page=5}}</ref> where he soon married his second wife, Faith Hubley (née Chestman). Faith, herself an editor and script supervisor on films such as ''12 Angry Men'' (1957),<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|5}} collaborated closely with her husband on all of their subsequent films. Towards the end of 1954, Hubley and James J. Sweeney, the director of the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]], began discussing the museum commissioning a film from Hubley.<ref name="Letter from James J. Sweeney to John Hubley dated January 22, 1954">Letter from James J. Sweeney to John Hubley dated January 22, 1954. ''Collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives.''</ref> Hubley and Sweeney were determined to create a film that also served as a piece of modern art and communicated the importance of "play" and "the sensuous pleasures of [approaching pictures through] the eye rather than [the] intellectual pleasure [of] the ear".<ref>Undated letter (between 1955 and 1956) from John Hubley to James J. Sweeney. ''Collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives.''</ref> The resulting film, ''The Adventures of *'' {{ref|a}} (1957) was the first short film Hubley directed after leaving UPA, as well as the first animated film ever commissioned by an art museum.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Reviews; Art Museum Itself a Film Producer | author=Land | url=https://archive.org/details/variety206-1957-05/page/n5/mode/2up| date=May 1, 1957 | page=6 | journal=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> The film's visuals were heavily influenced by the Guggenheim Museum's collection of modern art, as well as Hubley's desire to "transform [animation] from hard-lined cel animation to textured, subtle, new styles more connected to the history of art than to the Disney or UPA look".<ref>{{cite web |last=Ružić |first=Andrijana |url=https://asifa.net/animation-tastebreakers-john-and-faith-hubley-and-the-adventures-of-an-1957/ |title=Animation Tastebreakers: John and Faith Hubley and The Adventures of an * (1957) |website=International Animated Film Association |date=October 28, 2022 |access-date=January 22, 2023}}</ref> [[Benny Carter]] composed the film's score, including vibraphone by [[Lionel Hampton]]. The film won several awards, including a diploma speciale from the 1957 [[Venice Film Festival]] and the Grand Prize at the 1958 [[Uruguay International Film Festival|Montevideo Film Festival]].<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography">Hubley, Faith. "The Hubley Studio Filmography". ''Collection of Yale University Film Records.'' RU 760, Accession 1990-A-068. Published 1982. Accessed August 13, 2022.</ref> In 1957, Hubley was also hired by the advertising firm Fletcher, Richards, Calkins & Holden to direct the hugely successful [[I Want My Maypo|"I Want My Maypo!"]] commercial. For the first time in his career, Hubley used the voice of one of his children, his stepson Mark, for the commercial.<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|10}} The commercial led to a boom of sales for [[Maypo]], and the character of "Marky Maypo" (named after his stepson) became the cereal's mascot.<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|10}} The commercial is also credited for beginning the trend of using animation to sell products to children, as it "exploit[ed] children's less than fully developed ability to distinguish between entertainment and selling".<ref>Samuel, Lawrence. "Brought to You By: Postwar Television Advertising and the American Dream". ''[[University of Texas Press]]''. 2001. p. 104.</ref> Around this time, Hubley met musician [[Dizzy Gillespie]] through mutual friend [[Paul Robeson]],<ref name="To Be, or Not-- to Bop">Gillespie, Dizzy and Fraser, Al. "To Be, or Not-- to Bop". ''[[University of Minnesota Press]]''. 2009. p 462-463.</ref> and the Hubleys soon made their first film with Gillespie, ''A Date with Dizzy'' (1956). The film contained many of the advertisements Hubley had already made at Storyboard, Inc.,<ref>[https://jazzanimated.wordpress.com/2006/10/09/a-date-with-dizzy-1956/ "A Date With Dizzy (1956)"]. ''Jazz::Animated''. Published October 9, 2006. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> as well as an original segment by a then-unknown [[R.O. Blechman]].<ref>"[https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/there-wasnt-five-minutes-of-free 'There Wasn't Five Minutes of Free Time']". ''Animation Obsessive''. Published February 17, 2022. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> |
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Following the success of the Maypo spot, John and Faith turned their attention to producing more short films. Their next film, ''Harlem Wednesday'' (1957), marked the first time John and Faith were credited alongside one another on-screen (though Faith is credited as Faith Elliott). The film, an experimental montage of paintings by [[Gregorio Prestopino]]<ref>[http://www.gregorioprestopino.com/harlem%20wednesday.htm "Harlem Wednesday"]. ''GregorioPrestopino.com''. Accessed January |
Following the success of the Maypo spot, John and Faith turned their attention to producing more short films. Their next film, ''Harlem Wednesday'' (1957), marked the first time John and Faith were credited alongside one another on-screen (though Faith is credited as Faith Elliott). The film, an experimental montage of paintings by [[Gregorio Prestopino]]<ref>[http://www.gregorioprestopino.com/harlem%20wednesday.htm "Harlem Wednesday"]. ''GregorioPrestopino.com''. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> with a score by Carter,<ref>[https://www.acmi.net.au/works/68323--harlem-wednesday/ "Harlem Wednesday - United States, 1957"]. ''ACMI.net'' Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> further explored the Hubleys' desires to push animation towards modern art. Their next film, ''Tender Game'' (1958), included an unused track by Fitzgerald from ''Finian's Rainbow''.<ref name="Lost Rainbow"/> Hubley experimented with [[multiple exposure]] effects on the film to give it a distinct look and dimensionality.<ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley"/> Mark Hubley would later remark "the film has always struck me...as a love letter between [John and Faith], the figures...look like mom and dad".<ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley"/> The film won the grand prize at both the Venice Film Festival and the Montevideo Film Festival.<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/> Hubley was inspired by his earlier work on the Mr. Magoo films with [[Jim Backus]] to experiment with films centered around improvised dialogue, as he often encouraged Backus to riff in the studio. In 1958, Hubley recorded his sons Mark (aged 6) and Ray (aged 3) his sons playing a game where they search for a "Moonbird", referring to a pet bird the family had lost recently by leaving a window open.<ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley"/> Faith edited the conversations together into a narrative, and John enlisted Ed Smith and former UPA director Robert Cannon for animation. The resulting film, ''[[Moonbird]]'' (1959), marked one of the earliest examples of using real children voices in an animated film.<ref name="cartoonresearch.com24">{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1959/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1959 -|website=cartoonresearch.com}}</ref> ''Moonbird'' won the [[Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film|Academy Award for Best Animated Short]] in 1960, becoming the first independent film to win in the category.<ref>[https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/when-indie-animation-won-its-first "When Indie Animation Won its First Oscar"]. ''Animation Obsessive''. Published July 11, 2021. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> The success of ''Moonbird'' caught the attention of Susan Burnett, the film officer of the [[UNICEF|United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)]], who commissioned the Hubleys to make a film for UNICEF.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Wallace |first1=Kevin |last2=Gill |first2=Brendan |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1961/08/05/up-from-bugs |title=Up From Bugs |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=August 5, 1961 |page=18 |access-date=January 22, 2023}}</ref> For the first time, Hubley used the voices of all of he and Faith's children, though most of their vocals are gurgles and mumbles made by his infant daughters [[Emily Hubley|Emily]] and [[Georgia Hubley|Georgia]]. The film, ''Children of the Sun'' (1960), addressed "how hunger affects the world's children".<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/><ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|10}} |
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Hubley wanted to make a film about [[Theory of relativity|Albert |
Hubley wanted to make a film about [[Theory of relativity|Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity]], and was inspired after reading [[Harlow Shapley]]'s ''Of Stars and Men'' (1959) in 1959.<ref name="If Truth Be Told, Can 'Toons Tell It? Documentary and Animation">{{cite journal |last=DelGaudio |first=Sybil |title=If Truth Be Told, Can 'Toons Tell It? Documentary and Animation |journal=Film History |volume=9 |issue=2 |year=1997 |page=194 |jstor=3815174 |issn=0892-2160}}</ref> Intrigued by Shapley's attempts to understand mankind's place in the universe, Hubley wrote to Shapley with the idea to adapt the book's themes into an animated film. Instead of simply writing a script and getting Shapley's approval, Hubley and Shapley chose to collaborate closely on nearly every aspect of the film, with Hubley sending Shapley detailed outlines for the film's structure<ref>Letter from John Hubley to Dr. Harlow Shapley dated June 24, 1959. ''Collection of the Harvard University Library''. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref> and frequently traveling to Shapley's home in [[Peterborough, New Hampshire|Peterborough]], [[New Hampshire]], to meet with him.<ref>Letter from Dr. Harlow Shapley to John and Faith Hubley dated May 7, 1971. ''Collection of the Harvard University Library''. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref><ref>Letter from John and Faith Hubley to Dr. Harlow Shapley and his wife dated August 20, 1963. ''Collection of the Harvard University Library''. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref> Hubley and Shapley became close friends during this period, resulting in ''[[Of Stars and Men]]'' (1962), the Hubleys' first [[Feature film|feature-length film]]. The film follows a very loose narrative style, relying predominantly on Shapley's narration. Hubley's children would again appear in the film, with their improvised conversations again being presented much in the same way as in ''Moonbird''. Due to the nature of the film's presentation, the Hubleys, audiences, and distributors alike were unsure if the film could be categorized as a [[Documentary film|documentary]]. At the 1961 [[San Francisco International Film Festival]], the film won Best Documentary, and at the Venice Film Festival - where the Hubleys' films had been previously screened as part of the animation category - the film was placed in the feature category alongside [[Live action|live-action films]]. Author Sybil DelGaudio cites the film as one of the earliest examples of an [[animated documentary]].<ref name="If Truth Be Told, Can 'Toons Tell It? Documentary and Animation"/>{{rp|193}} While the film was screened in festivals as early as 1962, the Hubleys would continue to revise the film and appeal to both [[Columbia Pictures|Columbia]]<ref>Undated letter from Faith Hubley to Dr. Harlow Shapley. ''Collection of the Harvard University Library''. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref> and Show Corp. for distribution; it would be released to the general public in 1964 by [[Films Inc.|Films, Inc]].<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/> |
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While shopping around ''Of Stars and Men'', the Hubleys collaborated again with Gillespie for ''[[The Hole (1962 film)|The Hole]]'' (1962). Gillespie and actor [[George Mathews (actor)|George Matthews]] improvised a conversation between two construction workers discussing life and nuclear war. The film mirrored American anxieties over [[Cold War|the Cold War]], as it was in production during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].<ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley"/> The film won the Hubleys their second Academy Award for Best Animated Short, with John and Faith both being recognized by the Academy for the first time.<ref name="cartoonresearch.com8">{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1962/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1962 -|website=cartoonresearch.com}}</ref> ''The Hole'' led to the [[World Law Foundation]]<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/> commissioning the Hubleys to make ''The Hat'' (1964),<ref>[https://broadenimpact.com/wpi-timeline/?fbclid=IwAR3qiJ8-1LmIKXqI1rK4zYr5nolTNOA8N0J2aUff%20BMpLkKF6Hy5wYPD85Y "World Policy Institute Timeline"]. ''World Policy Institute''. Accessed January |
While shopping around ''Of Stars and Men'', the Hubleys collaborated again with Gillespie for ''[[The Hole (1962 film)|The Hole]]'' (1962). Gillespie and actor [[George Mathews (actor)|George Matthews]] improvised a conversation between two construction workers discussing life and nuclear war. The film mirrored American anxieties over [[Cold War|the Cold War]], as it was in production during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].<ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley"/> The film won the Hubleys their second Academy Award for Best Animated Short, with John and Faith both being recognized by the Academy for the first time.<ref name="cartoonresearch.com8">{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1962/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1962 -|website=cartoonresearch.com}}</ref> ''The Hole'' led to the [[World Law Foundation]]<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/> commissioning the Hubleys to make ''The Hat'' (1964),<ref>[https://broadenimpact.com/wpi-timeline/?fbclid=IwAR3qiJ8-1LmIKXqI1rK4zYr5nolTNOA8N0J2aUff%20BMpLkKF6Hy5wYPD85Y "World Policy Institute Timeline"]. ''World Policy Institute''. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> a spiritual successor of sorts to ''The Hole'' centered around an improvised conversation between Gillespie and [[Dudey Moore|Dudley Moore]] as soldiers debating the morality of war. ''The Hat'' came from the World Law Foundation's initiative to "reach...broader audiences" through "arts and media". Both ''The Hole'' and ''The Hat'' use a more grounded visual style than the abstract expressionism of ''The Adventures of *'' and ''Of Stars and Men'' and address more serious themes of violence, nuclear war, [[Nuclear anxiety|nuclear anxieties]], and death. ''The Hat'' was the only film by the Hubleys distributed by [[McGraw Hill Education|McGraw-Hill]],<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/> and was also released as a book with illustrations taken from the film.<ref>Hubley, John and Hubley, Faith. "The Hat". ''Harcourt''. 1974. {{ISBN|0152336117}}</ref> Carter would collaborate with the Hubleys again on ''Urbanissimo'' (1966), a film humorously examining the impact of [[urban sprawl]] on the environment made for [[Expo 67]] in [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]].<ref>"+10: The Hubleys in Canada". ''Animation Obsessive''. Published November 4, 2021. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> ''A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature''{{ref|b}} (1966), a film interpreting the music of jazz musician [[Herb Alpert]], was released the same year. John and Faith won their third Academy Award for the short,<ref name="cartoonresearch.com11">{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1966/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1966 -|website=cartoonresearch.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1967|title=1967 {{pipe}} Oscars.org {{pipe}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|website=www.oscars.org|date=October 4, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP-eSgyKARE|title=Short Film Winners: 1967 Oscars|date=March 18, 2015 |via=www.youtube.com}}</ref> and the film is today considered to be an early prototypical example of a [[music video]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.filmthreat.com/features/34621/ |title=Film Threat - the Bootleg Files: A Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Double Feature |accessdate=2013-07-07 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629124824/http://www.filmthreat.com/features/34621/ |archivedate=2011-06-29 }}</ref> |
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The film was distributed by [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]], marking the first collaboration between Hubley and a major Hollywood studio following his 1952 blacklisting. |
The film was distributed by [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]], marking the first collaboration between Hubley and a major Hollywood studio following his 1952 blacklisting. |
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Hubley began teaching filmmaking at [[Harvard University|Harvard]] in 1962, becoming the first teacher of animation at |
Hubley began teaching filmmaking at [[Harvard University|Harvard]] in 1962, becoming the first teacher of animation at Harvard's Visual Arts Center.<ref name="Flatland">[https://filmstudycenter.fas.harvard.edu/fellows-works/flatland/ "Flatland"]. ''The Film Study Center at Harvard University''. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> Hubley wrote an adaptation of [[Edwin Abbott Abbott|Edwin Abbot's]] 1884 novella ''[[Flatland]]'', and collaborated with his students as well as Dudley Moore and several members of [[Beyond the Fringe]]. The resulting film, ''Flatland'' (1965), was directed by Eric Martin.<ref name="Flatland"/> As early as 1964, filmmaker Joseph Koenig pitched a film explaining the importance of [[voting]] to the [[National Film Board of Canada|National Film Board of Canada (NFB)]].<ref>Letter from Guy Roberge to N.J. Castonguay dated December 22, 1964. ''National Film Board of Canada Archives''. Accessed digitally October 10, 2022.</ref> Hubley was chosen<ref>Letter from Doris Jennanh to John Hubley dated March 18, 1965. ''National Film Board of Canada Archives''. Accessed digitally October 10, 2022.</ref> to direct the film for the NFB, which eventually became ''The Cruise'' (1967). The film was designed to be an educational tool for school use, though Hubley had very little involvement with creating the curriculum surrounding the film. The film would be screened in high schools and colleges across the United States and Canada throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Hubley's involvement with education would continue in the 1970s, when he and Faith became professors of film at [[Yale University]] teaching animation and "The Visualization of Abstract Themes".<ref name="John Hubley, 62, Leading Creator, Producer of Animated Films, Dies">{{cite news |last=Flint |first=Peter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/02/23/archives/john-hubley-62-leading-creator-producer-of-animated-films-dies.html |title=John Hubley, 62, Leading Creator, Producer of Animated Films, Dies |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=February 23, 1977 |access-date=January 23, 2023}}</ref> |
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The Hubleys continued to make short films together for the rest of the 1960s. Their next film, ''Windy Day'' (1967) featured an improvised conversation between their daughters Georgia and Emily |
The Hubleys continued to make short films together for the rest of the 1960s. Their next film, ''Windy Day'' (1967) featured an improvised conversation between their daughters Georgia and Emily "explor[ing] the child's projection of fantasy to enact romance, marriage, and growing up".<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/> The film was nominated for the 1968 Academy Award for Best Animated Short, but lost to Disney's ''[[Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day]]''.<ref name="cartoonresearch.com13">{{cite web |last=Beck |first=Jerry |url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1968/ |title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1968 |website=Cartoon Research |date=September 18, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1969|title=1969 {{pipe}} Oscars.org {{pipe}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|website=www.oscars.org|date=October 4, 2014 }}</ref> [[Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions|The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions]] commissioned Hubley for ''[[Zuckerkandl (film)|Zuckerkandl!]]'' (1968), a short film interpreting a comical routine by [[Robert Maynard Hutchins|Robert M. Hutchins]].<ref>[https://archive.today/20130628180739/http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon_story/46124-Zuckerkandl.html Zuckerkandl!] at the Big Cartoon Database</ref> The short was also released as a [[Zuckerkandl!|book]] with illustrations by Hubley.<ref>Hutchins, Robert et al. "Zuckerkandl!".''Grove Press''. 1968</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://magazine.uchicago.edu/9506/June95Letters.html|title=University of Chicago Magazine, June 1995, Letters|website=magazine.uchicago.edu}}</ref> Hubley was commissioned again for Storyboard, Inc.'s next film, ''Of Men and Demons'' (1969), by [[IBM]] for [[Expo '70]] in [[Osaka]], [[Japan]]. The film earned John and Faith their fifth Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short.<ref name="cartoonresearch.com14">{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1969/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1969 -|website=cartoonresearch.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1970|title=1970 {{pipe}} Oscars.org {{pipe}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|website=Oscars.org|date=October 4, 2014 }}</ref> |
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=== Hubley Studios, Inc. and Late Career: 1970–1977 === |
=== Hubley Studios, Inc. and Late Career: 1970–1977 === |
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1970 saw the release of |
1970 saw the release of Hubley's fifteenth independent directorial credit with ''Eggs'' (1970).<ref name="cartoonresearch.com15">{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1970/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1970 -|website=Cartoon Research}}</ref> For the first time, John and Faith collaborated with musician [[Quincy Jones]], who composed and performed the film's score. The film addressed themes of fertility and death and continues Hubley's run of collaborating with musicians as voice actors, as singers [[Anita Ellis]] and [[Grady Tate]] lent their voices for the film, as did actor [[David Burns (actor)|David Burns]]. The film was entirely animated by [[Tissa David]],<ref>Sporn, Michael. [http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=3120 "Tissa David 1921 - 2012"]. ''Michael Sporn Animation Splog''. Published August 22, 2012. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> a recent hire of the Hubleys best known as the second woman to ever direct a feature-length animated film, ''Bonjour Paris!'' (1953).<ref>Lobell, Skye. [http://greatwomenanimators.com/tissa-david/ "Tissa David"]. ''Great Women Animators''. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> Around this time, Storyboard, Inc. was renamed Hubley Studios, Inc. (sometimes referred to as The Hubley Studio or Hubley Studios), indicating Hubley's growing confidence towards using his name as the effects of the [[Blacklisting|blacklist]] faded away. |
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Despite the critical acclaim the |
Despite the critical acclaim the studio's films received, Hubley was still struggling financially. "Film shorts seem inevitably to be financial failures, for the only people who come out ahead on them are the distributors. Even ''Moonbird'', for instance, grossed at least as much as its production costs (about $25,000), but only a third of the gross wound up at Storyboard, Inc.",<ref>Amatniek, Kathie. [https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1964/6/1/john-hubley-pharvards-first-course-in/ "John Hubley - Silhouette"]. ''The Harvard Crimson''. Published June 1, 1964. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> revealed a 1964 profile by [[The Harvard Crimson]]. By the beginning of the 1970s, John and Faith understood they needed to take on more commercial work in order to fund their shorts, and began contributing animated segments for New York-based children's variety programs such as ''[[The Electric Company]]'' and ''[[Sesame Street]]''. Notably, Hubley directed the "Letter E" segment for the latter's first episode on November 10, 1969.<ref>[https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/what-sesame-street-did-for-animation "What 'Sesame Street' Did for Animation"]. ''Animation Obsessive''. Published September 26, 2021. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> Hubley directed over thirty animated segments for the show between 1969 and 1977.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Movie Sleuth Originals: A is for Animators: Talents Behind Some of Sesame Street's Segments |date=February 10, 2020 |url=https://www.spoilerfreemoviesleuth.com/2020/02/movie-sleuth-originals-is-for-animators.html |access-date=2023-01-23}}</ref> His most notable contributions would be on ''The Electric Company'', where Hubley directed "[[The Adventures of Letterman]]" segments from 1972 to 1977<ref>Sporn, Michael. [http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=319 "Letterman I, II, & III"]. ''Michael Sporn's Animation Splog.'' Published March 25, 2006. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> featuring [[Joan Rivers]], [[Gene Wilder]], and [[Zero Mostel]].<ref>Semite, Yo. [https://heebmagazine.com/adventures-letterman-gene-wilder-zero-mostels-best-non-mel-brooks-partnership/53496 "The Adventures Of Letterman: Gene Wilder And Zero Mostel's Best (Non-Mel Brooks) Partnership"]. ''Heeb Magazine''. Published December 9, 2014. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> On both ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Electric Company'' Hubley would again collaborate with artists like Quincy Jones and [[Dizzy Gillespie]] for voice acting and music. To help handle the new workload at the studio, Hubley hired several new artists, including Tissa David and [[Michael Sporn]].<ref>Kosarin, Ray. [https://asifaeast.com/michael-sporn-1946-2014/ "Michael Sporn (1946-2014)"]. ''ASIFA East''. Published January 23, 2014. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> |
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While working on animated segments for ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Electric Company'', Hubley became more recognized for his television work (as he |
While working on animated segments for ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Electric Company'', Hubley became more recognized for his television work (as he hadn't made a television commercial since the late 1950s). [[CBS]] approached the Hubleys to produce an educational program on geology for the station.<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/> Hubley enlisted the help of geoscientist [[Bruce C. Heezen|Bruce Heezen]] to research the film.<ref>Letter from Maggie Glass to Dr. Bruce Heezen dated January 10, 1972. ''Collection of the Harvard University Library''. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref> Originally titled "What's Under My Foot?",<ref>Letter from John Hubley to Dr. Bruce Heezen dated January 10, 1972. '''Collection of the Harvard University Library''. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref> ''Dig'' (1972) premiered on CBS on April 8, 1972.<ref>[https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=jack&p=188&item=T:34503 "DIG: A JOURNEY INTO THE EARTH (TV)"]. [[Paley Center for Media|''The Paley Center for Media'']]. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> The film's music was composed by Jones and featured [[Jack Warden]] and Hubley's son, Ray. The following year, the film was adapted into a book co-written by John and Faith.<ref>Hubley, John and Hubley, Faith. "Dig: A Journey Under the Earth's Crust". ''Harcourt''. 1973. {{ISBN|015223490X}}</ref> Much in the same way ''The Hole'' and ''The Hat'' were companion pieces, Hubley's next film, ''Cockaboody'' (1973) was a companion piece to ''Windy Day'' (1967). Hubley again recorded a conversation between his daughters Georgia and Emily and brought it to life through animation.<ref>[https://film-makerscoop.com/catalogue/faith-hubley-cockaboody "Cockaboody (1973)"]. ''The Film-Maker's Coop''. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> Unlike ''Windy Day'', John and Faith collaborated with students in their animation class at [[Yale University]] to create the film. ''Cockaboody'' was created in conjunction with the Hubleys' students at Yale, as well as the [[Yale Child Study Center]]. The process of making ''Cockaboody'' at Yale was filmed by Howard Sayre Weaver for the documentary ''In Quest of Cockaboody'' (1973).<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5553291 "In Quest of Cockaboody"]. ''WorldCat.org''. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> ''Cockaboody'' marked the first time The Hubley Studio name was used in one of Hubley's films, and the second film at the studio animated solely by David. |
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<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Cockaboody 7.jpg|thumb|right|Storyboards drawn by Hubley for ''Cockaboody'' (1973). The film was one of several he created in conjunction with [[Yale University]] while he and his wife were professors of animation.<ref>Sporn, Michael. [http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1150 "Cockaboody Board 2"]. ''Michael Sporn's Animation Splog''. Published August |
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Cockaboody 7.jpg|thumb|right|Storyboards drawn by Hubley for ''Cockaboody'' (1973). The film was one of several he created in conjunction with [[Yale University]] while he and his wife were professors of animation.<ref>Sporn, Michael. [http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=1150 "Cockaboody Board 2"]. ''Michael Sporn's Animation Splog''. Published August 3, 2007. Accessed January 23, 2023.</ref>]] --> |
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John and Faith earned another Academy Award nomination for their next shot, ''Voyage to the Next'' (1974),<ref name="cartoonresearch.com19">{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1974/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1974 -|website=cartoonresearch.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1975|title=1975 |
John and Faith earned another Academy Award nomination for their next shot, ''Voyage to the Next'' (1974),<ref name="cartoonresearch.com19">{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1974/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1974 -|website=cartoonresearch.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1975|title=1975 {{pipe}} Oscars.org {{pipe}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|website=www.oscars.org|date=October 6, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8K3YCFjdvI|title=Short Film Winners: 1975 Oscars|date=May 15, 2014 |via=www.youtube.com}}</ref> another collaboration with Gillespie, as well as actresses [[Maureen Stapleton]] and [[Dee Dee Bridgewater]] commissioned by The Institute for World Order.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Voyage to Next - Faith Hubley - The Film-Makers' Cooperative |url=http://film-makerscoop.com/catalogue/faith-hubley-voyage-to-next |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=film-makerscoop.com |year=1974 |language=en}}</ref> Continuing the themes of previous films like ''Eggs'' and ''The Hat'', ''Voyage to the Next'' tackles themes of environmentalism, nationalism, and war. The same year, the [[Zagreb Film Festival]] held a career-long retrospective on John and Faith's films, with John serving as president of the year's jury.<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/><ref>Riegel, O.W.. [https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC03folder/AnimatFestRiegel.html "Festival Report - Animation at Zagreb"]. ''Jump Cut''. no. 3. 1974. p. 22-23. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> In an ironic turn of events, Hubley's next film, ''People People People'' (1975), was commissioned by the [[United States Bicentennial|United States Bicentennial Commission]].<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/> Hubley, now being commissioned by the same government that had practically forced him out of UPA in 1952, was finally free from the effects of the blacklist. This same year, both John and Faith were awarded the Winsor McCay Award from ASIFA, the highest honor an artist in the animation industry can receive.<ref>[https://annieawards.org/juried-awards/winsor-mccay "The Winsor McCay Award"]. ''Annie Awards''. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> |
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Now one of the most respected artists in an industry that had blacklisted him only two decades prior, Hubley began his most ambitious project to date. As early as 1973, John and Faith became interested in adapting [[Erik Erikson|Erik |
Now one of the most respected artists in an industry that had blacklisted him only two decades prior, Hubley began his most ambitious project to date. As early as 1973, John and Faith became interested in adapting [[Erik Erikson|Erik Erikson's]] [[Erikson's stages of psychosocial development|Theory of the Eight Stages of Life]] in a feature-length animated film. As they did with ''Cockaboody'', the Hubleys planned to make the film in conjunction with Yale's Film Laboratory Center. Initially, Erikson was dismissive of the idea,<ref>Letter from Erik Erikson to John Hubley dated November 2, 2023. ''Collection of the Harvard University Library''. Accessed digitally August 15, 2023.</ref> but by 1975 he agreed, with CBS interested in airing the film. Initially, CBS and Hubley agreed the film would be three half-hour episodes, but CBS changed it to be one ninety-minute film during the final three months of production.<ref>Sporn, Michael. [https://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=2777 "Babbitt's Carousel Mime – revisited"]. Published October 6, 2011. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> John and Faith created the film's storyboards alongside their Yale class, supervised by professor Ken Kennison.<ref name="Life Is All Ups And No Downs On This 'Carousel'">{{cite news |last=Dundy |first=Elaine |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/05/archives/life-is-all-ups-and-no-downs-on-this-carousel.html |title=Life Is All Ups And No Downs On This 'Carousel' |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=September 5, 1976 |access-date=January 22, 2023}}</ref> Hubley picked many unknown actors with few or no prior credits for the film, including [[Lawrence Pressman]], his then-girlfriend [[Lanna Saunders]], and Yale student [[Meryl Streep]] in her first acting role.<ref>[http://www.simplystreep.com/projects/1976-everybody-rides-the-carousel/ "Everybody Rides the Carousel".] ''SimplyStreep.com''. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> The Hubley children also appear in the film for different stages of life. ''[[Everybody Rides the Carousel]]'' (1976) was broadcast on September 10, 1976.<ref name=Woolery>{{cite book |last1=Woolery |first1=George W. |title=Animated TV Specials: The Complete Directory to the First Twenty-Five Years, 1962-1987 |date=1989 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=0-8108-2198-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/animatedtvspecia0000wool |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/animatedtvspecia0000wool/page/135 135]–137}}</ref> Much like the Hubleys' previous films, the film is built from improvised conversations between the actors relating to Erikson's stages of life. The larger production led to Hubley Studios hiring a handful of new employees, including Erikson's daughter, Sue Erikson,<ref name="Interviews: John Hubley"/> coincidentally a student of the Hubleys at Yale. The film was a success, and won the Blue Ribbon Award at that year's [[American Film Festival]].<ref name="The Hubley Studio Filmography"/> |
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Around the time Hubley began production on ''Everybody Rides the Carousel'', producer [[Martin Rosen (director)|Martin Rosen]] hired Hubley to direct an animated adaptation of Richard |
Around the time Hubley began production on ''Everybody Rides the Carousel'', producer [[Martin Rosen (director)|Martin Rosen]] hired Hubley to direct an animated adaptation of Richard Adams' ''[[Watership Down]]'' (1972).<ref name="Interviews: John Hubley"/> Hubley flew to London to meet Rosen at the new studio Rosen opened for the film and the two took trips to the English countryside for inspiration, but Hubley's interest in the project quickly faded. Rosen and Hubley frequently disagreed on the film's narrative, with Rosen pushing for grittiness and Hubley pushing for a lighter tone and more abstract visual style.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Richard |date=2016-05-02 |title=From Watership Down to Warren Street |url=http://wildyorkshire.blog/2016/05/from-watership-down-to-warren-street/ |access-date=2023-01-22 |website=Wild Yorkshire |language=en-US}}</ref> Hubley had signed an exclusivity contract to work on the film, but Rosen soon found out he was secretly developing a new film, leading to Rosen firing Hubley from the film and becoming the director himself.<ref>Power, Ed. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/watership-down-film-bright-eyes-rabbits-disease-martin-rosen-richard-adams-disney-a8590226.html "A piercing Screen: How Watership Down Terrified an Entire Generation"]. ''The Independent''. Published October 20, 2018. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> Hubley's work can be seen in the opening "fable" scene,<ref>Kehr, Dave. [https://chicagoreader.com/film/watership-down/ "Watership Down"]. ''Chicago Reader''. Published February 21, 1985. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> animated by [[Bill Littlejohn]], Phil Duncan, Ruth Kissane, and [[Barrie Nelson]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Michael Sporn Animation – Splog » Watership Down Down Down |url=http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=949 |access-date=2023-01-22}}</ref> Hubley is often credited as the co-director of [[Watership Down (film)|the film]], but his name does not appear in the credits. In November 1976, [[cartoonist]] [[Garry Trudeau]] approached Hubley with the idea of an animated special featuring Trudeau's characters from [[Doonesbury]]. Hubley and Trudeau had already known one another, as Trudeau was one of Hubley's students in the early seventies, and Trudeau and the Hubleys greatly enjoyed working with one another.<ref>Trudeau, Gary et al. "John and Faith Hubley's A Doonesbury Special: A Director's Notebook". ''Sheed Andrews and McMeel''. 1978. {{ISBN|0836211049}}</ref> In 1976, Doonesbury was one of the most popular newspaper comics in America, having won a [[Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning|Pulitzer Prize]] the year prior<ref>[https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/garry-trudeau "Garry Trudeau of Universal Press Syndicate"]. ''Pulitzer.org'' Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> and frequently making headlines for being dropped by papers across the country over Trudeau's decision to tackle topical and controversial real-world events.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/doonesbury/strip/archive/timeline "Timeline - An Illustrated Chronology of Impact"]. ''The Washington Post''. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> Unlike their previous films, John and Faith shared directing and producing credits with Trudeau and followed a tight script for the film. Toward the middle of production in February 1977 Hubley died,<ref>Mollica, Vincent. [https://cinema.wisc.edu/blog/2015/11/12/i-am-child-brief-history-john-and-faith-hubley "I Am a Child: A Brief History of John and Faith Hubley"]. ''Cinematheque''. Published November 12, 2015. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> leaving Faith and Trudeau to finish the film themselves. ''A Doonesbury Special'' (1977) was broadcast on NBC on November 27, 1977. The film earned Hubley a posthumous Academy Award Nomination<ref name="cartoonresearch.com21">{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1977/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1977 -|website=cartoonresearch.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1978|title=1978 {{pipe}} Oscars.org {{pipe}} Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|website=www.oscars.org|date=October 5, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4YfsLnZQ3o|title=Short Film Winners: 1978 Oscars|date=August 18, 2014 |via=www.youtube.com}}</ref> and posthumous Special Jury Prize at the [[Cannes Film Festival]], tying with ''Oh, My Darling'' by Dutch animator [[Børge Ring]].<ref>[https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/films/the-doonesbury-special "The Doonesbury Special"]. ''Festival de Cannes''. Accessed January 22, 2023.</ref> |
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== Personal life == |
== Personal life == |
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On May 30, 1941, Hubley married Claudia Sewell, one of Disney's "ink |
On May 30, 1941, Hubley married Claudia Sewell, one of Disney's "ink and paint girls", in [[Reno, Nevada]].<ref>"State of Nevada, County of Clark Marriage Certificates". ''State of Nevada''. Certificate 113340 - 44078. Certified May 30, 1941. Filed June 20, 1941. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref> The couple did not go on a honeymoon, and instead sped back to California to partake in the [[Disney animators' strike|1941 animator's strike]], which had started the day prior.<ref>Sito, Tom. [https://animationguild.org/about-the-guild/disney-strike-1941/ "The Disney Strike, 1941"]. ''The Animation Guild''. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> The Hubleys moved to a house at 10543 Woodbridge Street in the [[Toluca Lake, Los Angeles|Toluca Lake]] section of [[Los Angeles]].<ref>1944 Census of the City of Los Angeles. p. 213. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref> The couple's first child, Anne, was born in 1942. John and Claudia had two more children, Mark and Susan, while living at 11689 Laurelwood Drive in Los Angeles.<ref name="Letter from James J. Sweeney to John Hubley dated January 22, 1954"/> Both houses were only a short drive from the UPA studio in [[Burbank, California|Burbank]].<ref>Amidi, Amid. [https://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/john-lautner-architect-of-the-greatest-animation-studio-building-ever-built-was-born-on-this-day-207018.html "John Lautner, Architect Of The Greatest Animation Studio Building Ever Built, Was Born On This Day"]. ''Cartoon Brew''. Published July 16, 2022. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> |
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Sometime in the 1940s, Hubley met [[Faith Hubley|Faith Elliott]], a stage manager from New York City who had come to Los Angeles to become a [[Script supervisor|script clerk]] at [[Columbia Pictures|Columbia]].<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|5}} Faith recalled she |
Sometime in the 1940s, Hubley met [[Faith Hubley|Faith Elliott]], a stage manager from New York City who had come to Los Angeles to become a [[Script supervisor|script clerk]] at [[Columbia Pictures|Columbia]].<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|5}} Faith recalled she "met John in Hollywood...when he was in the Army".<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|6}} The two became friends and remained friends during Hubley's time at UPA. When Hubley was fired from UPA and began work on [[Finian's Rainbow (unfinished film)|''Finian's Rainbow'']], [[Yip Harburg]] assigned Elliott to be Hubley's assistant.<ref name="When Magoo Flew"/>{{rp|132}} By all accounts, the relationship between Hubley and Elliott was [[Platonic love|platonic]], with Elliott saying they "both... controlled their friendship for ten years and after all [Hubley] was a married man with three children".<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|9}} Nonetheless, as Elliott and Hubley grew closer, Hubley's own marriage crumbled. John and Claudia divorced in 1954, with his children staying in Los Angeles while Hubley left to focus on Storyboard, Inc. in [[New York City]]. |
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Hubley married Elliott in 1955. Faith Elliott was born Faith Chestman in 1924, but kept the name of her first husband, Melvin Elliott, a radio announcer on [[WQXR-FM|WQXR]].<ref>Sanger, Elliott.''Rebel in Radio: The Story of WQXR''. Hastings House Publishers. 1973. p. 148</ref><ref>[https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/capecod/obituary.aspx?n=melvin-elliott&pid=20432810&fhid=2813 "Melvin Elliott Obituary (2006)"]. Legacy. Originally published in The Cape Cod Times December |
Hubley married Elliott in 1955. Faith Elliott was born Faith Chestman in 1924, but kept the name of her first husband, Melvin Elliott, a radio announcer on [[WQXR-FM|WQXR]].<ref>Sanger, Elliott.''Rebel in Radio: The Story of WQXR''. Hastings House Publishers. 1973. p. 148</ref><ref>[https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/capecod/obituary.aspx?n=melvin-elliott&pid=20432810&fhid=2813 "Melvin Elliott Obituary (2006)"]. Legacy. Originally published in The Cape Cod Times December 26, 2006. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> Faith already had one child, Mark, born in 1952. When the Hubleys married, they vowed to make one film a year together, and to have dinner with their family every night.<ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley"/> The Hubleys moved to the [[Upper West Side]] of New York City at 110 Riverside Drive,<ref>I-94 Arrival - Departure Record for John K Hubley, passport number 1200289. Issued in Washington, D.C. June 15, 1960. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref> and had three more children: Raymond, [[Emily Hubley|Emily]], and [[Georgia Hubley|Georgia]]. All of the Hubley's children would voice characters in their films, with Mark and Ray appearing in ''[[Moonbird]]'' and ''Dig'', and Emily and Georgia appearing in ''Windy Day'' and ''Cockaboody''. All four are featured in ''[[Everybody Rides the Carousel]]''. Raymond Hubley later remembered "there were a lot of enforced things...in our family that [were] connected to the work regiment of [John and Faith's] relationship...they used to have a thing where we'd go around the table and tell [about] your day, and it was like a pitch meeting or something".<ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley"/> Many of Hubleys kids went on to pursue their own artistic careers,<ref>Lang, Jamie. [https://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/emily-hubley-john-faith-max-rosenthal-215652.html "On Take Your Child To Work Day, Emily Hubley Talks Three Generations Of Family Animation"]. ''Cartoon Brew''. Published April 28, 2022. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> with Raymond becoming a film editor,<ref>[https://rayhubley.com/bio/ "Bio"]. ''Rayhubley.com''. Accessed digitally February 6, 2023.</ref> Emily becoming an animator,<ref>[https://emilyhubley.com/bio-2 "Bio"]. ''Emily Hubley - Hubbub inc.'' Accessed digitally February 6, 2023.</ref> and Georgia founding the band [[Yo La Tengo]] with her husband [[Ira Kaplan]].<ref>[https://www.chickfactor.com/interviews/georgia-emily-hubley/ "Georgia & Emily Hubley"]. ''Chickfactor''. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> Given the nature of John and Faith's collaboration, Faith was sometimes looked over professionally with the attention and credit for their films given to her husband.<ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley"/> Hubley actively fought against this, highlighting Faith's contributions and their collaboration whenever possible. Following Hubley's solo [[Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film|Academy Award]] win<ref>[https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1960 "1960"]. ''Oscars.org'' Accessed February 7, 2023.</ref> for ''Moonbird'', he and Faith would be nominated together for the rest of their career. In his final interview before his death, Hubley insisted interviewer [[Michael Barrier]] was "sure to write [the article] in terms of the partnership of me and Faith, because all of the films, right from the beginning of our stuff, from [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum|Guggenheim]] on up, have always been a very close collaboration, creatively and on every other level."<ref name="Interviews: John Hubley"/> |
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Hubley remained close with a number of UPA and Disney animators, many of whom he worked with on Storyboard, Inc. films. The Hubleys also became close friends with musician [[Dizzy Gillespie]] in the 1950s, meeting through mutual friend [[Paul Robeson]].<ref name="To Be, or Not-- to Bop"/> Gillespie made several films with Storyboard, Inc., including the [[Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film|Academy Award-winning]] [[The Hole (1962 film)|''The Hole'']]. Gillespie |
Hubley remained close with a number of UPA and Disney animators, many of whom he worked with on Storyboard, Inc. films. The Hubleys also became close friends with musician [[Dizzy Gillespie]] in the 1950s, meeting through mutual friend [[Paul Robeson]].<ref name="To Be, or Not-- to Bop"/> Gillespie made several films with Storyboard, Inc., including the [[Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film|Academy Award-winning]] [[The Hole (1962 film)|''The Hole'']]. Gillespie "respect[ed] them and appreciate[d] their creativity", calling them "wonderful people, very warm and very generous" who "seem[ed] to see me in things other people don't see".<ref name="To Be, or Not-- to Bop"/> Gillespie was a constant presence around the Hubley's house, with Mark Hubley remembering John and Faith "having parties [with Gillespie]" often, and Gillespie once "standing on his head playing [[Happy Birthday to You|'Happy Birthday']]" for Raymond.<ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley"/> Hubley was also close with [[Benny Carter]] and [[Quincy Jones]].<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|13}} |
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== Political views and HUAC investigation == |
== Political views and HUAC investigation == |
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Hubley was a lifelong registered [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]].<ref>Index to Register of Voters - Los Angeles City Precinct No. 2114-A. 1944. Accessed digitally August |
Hubley was a lifelong registered [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]].<ref>Index to Register of Voters - Los Angeles City Precinct No. 2114-A. 1944. Accessed digitally August 13, 2022.</ref> In 1951, the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC) heard the testimony of UPA layout artist Bernyce Fleury, who claimed Hubley's films promoted [[communism]] and Hubley held communist sympathies.<ref name="Toontown's Reds: HUAC's Investigation of Alleged Communists in the Animation Industry"/> On April 25, 1952, Hubley was formally [[subpoena]]ed by the HUAC to appear at the Los Angeles Federal Building for questioning.<ref>Subpoena for John Hubley by authority of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States of America. Dated April 25, 1952. Accessed digitally through the National Archives October 10, 2022.</ref> The subpoena was served to Hubley's attorney on May 2.<ref>Subpoena for John Hubley before the Committee on Un-American Activities. Served May 2, 1952. Accessed digitally through the National Archives October 10, 2022.</ref> While Hubley did leave UPA, he did not respond to the subpoena, and on February 2, 1953, Hubley was again summoned to the Federal Building for questioning.<ref>Subpoena for John Hubley by authority of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States of America. Dated February 2, 1953. Accessed digitally through the National Archives October 10, 2022.</ref> Boyle found that Hubley had moved in the year prior before receiving the subpoena,<ref>Return of Non-service of Writ in the Southern District of California. Dated March 24, 1953. Accessed digitally through the National Archives October 10, 2022.</ref> hence his lack of response. For an unknown reason, Hubley was not subpoenaed again until May 4, 1955, to appear before the HUAC.<ref>Subpoena for John Hubley by authority of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States of America. Dated May 4, 1955. Accessed digitally through the National Archives October 10, 2022.</ref> Hubley responded, and was set to appear before the HUAC on June 20, 1956.<ref>Subpoena for John Hubley by authority of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States of America. Dated May 29, 1956. Accessed digitally through the National Archives October 10, 2022.</ref> Hubley's attorney, Arthur McNulty,<ref name="Investigations of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles, Calif., Area - Part II.">Investigations of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles, Calif., Area - Part II. U.S. Senate, 84th Cong. (1953, 1956).</ref> postponed the hearing twice, first until June 28,<ref>Telegram from Francis E. Walter to John Hubley dated June 21, 1956. Accessed digitally through the National Archives October 10, 2022.</ref> then to July 5,<ref>Telegram from Francis E. Walter to John Hubley dated July 2, 1956. Accessed digitally through the National Archives October 10, 2022.</ref> likely since Hubley had already moved to New York City. |
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On July 5, 1956, Hubley appeared before the HUAC |
On July 5, 1956, Hubley appeared before the HUAC in Room 227 of the Los Angeles Federal Building with McNulty as his counsel.<ref name="Investigations of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles, Calif., Area - Part II."/>{{rp|5809}} California Representatives [[Clyde Doyle]] and [[Donald L. Jackson]] presided over the hearing. When asked if he held communist sympathies, Hubley responded "I feel that in the area of politics...I do not feel personally that your committee should ask me to reveal or speak on these matters, either with my opinions or associations...I do not agree it is a proper question for a person such as myself to be asked".<ref name="Investigations of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles, Calif., Area - Part II."/>{{rp|5811}} Hubley [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|invoked the Fifth Amendment]] for the remainder of the hearing.<ref name="Investigations of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles, Calif., Area - Part II."/>{{rp|5812}} When asked if his films at UPA promoted communist ideas, Hubley replied: |
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<blockquote>I have a lot of opinions on |
<blockquote>I have a lot of opinions on art...It is public work, and anyone is welcome to examine it and to look at it, and I stand on my work, and not on my opinions. My opinions can change, and I have changed them many times, all through my life, and I like the right we have to be able to change them. But the work stands. I have no shame about it. If anyone wants to examine it, it is there...My work has been my own work, and my own talent, and my own opinions.<ref name="Investigations of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles, Calif., Area - Part II."/>{{rp|5814}}</blockquote> |
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Hubley was never formally indicted by the HUAC, but the investigation did effectively [[hollywood blacklist|blacklist]] him from Hollywood afterwards. He named his new studio Storyboard, Inc. out of fear of using his own name. |
Hubley was never formally indicted by the HUAC, but the investigation did effectively [[hollywood blacklist|blacklist]] him from Hollywood afterwards. He named his new studio Storyboard, Inc. out of fear of using his own name. |
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== Style and technique == |
== Style and technique == |
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While at UPA, |
While at UPA, Hubley's films were more flat and graphic than those of [[ Disney Animation Studios|Disney Studios]] or [[Warner Bros. Cartoons]]. Hubley was greatly influenced by [[Ivan Ivanov-Vano|Ivan Ivanov-Vano's]] ''The Tale of Czar Durandai'' (1934),<ref name="In His Own Words: Frank Lloyd Wright on 'Fantasia'"/> which used [[limited animation]] and flat compositions to create an incredibly stylized world. While Hubley's early UPA films featuring [[The Fox and the Crow (animated characters)|The Fox and the Crow]] animate the main characters in a style similar to that of Disney Studios, the films' backgrounds showcase Hubley's influence from European design. ''Punchy De Leon'' opens with a [[Panning (camera)|panning shot]] of a highly-stylized graphic background that uses skewed perspective, large blocks of color, and exaggerated shape language. Hints of Hubley's stylization of background perspectives and crows shots can also be seen in ''Robin Hoodlum'' and ''The Magic Fluke''. |
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After UPA finished its trial run with [[Columbia Pictures|Columbia]] in 1950, |
After UPA finished its trial run with [[Columbia Pictures|Columbia]] in 1950, Hubley's films became more visually ambitious. As the supervising director of ''[[Gerald McBoing-Boing]]'', Hubley oversaw the film's unique visuals provided by designer Bill Hurtz<ref>Cavalier, Stephen. [https://www.skwigly.co.uk/100-greatest-animated-shorts-gerald-mcboing-boing/ "100 Greatest Animated Shorts/Gerald McBoing Boing/Robert Cannon"]. ''Skwigly''. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> and [[colorist]]s [[Herbert Klynn|Herb Klynn]] and [[Jules Engel]]. ''[[Rooty Toot Toot]]'' uses complex color blocking to tell its story visually, and implements even stronger skewed perspective and stylized line art backgrounds. Unlike ''Gerald Mc-Boing Boing'', which uses abstract blocks of color in its backgrounds, ''Rooty Toot Toot'' experimented with different patterns and brush types.<ref>Sporn, Michael. [http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=3180 "Inspired Perspiration"]. ''Michael Sporn's Animation Splog''. Published October 23, 2012. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> The film's last act is illustrated in the style of sponge painting, pulling inspiration from European [[Abstract expressionism|abstract expressionist]] artists. This push towards replicating brush strokes and printmaking in backgrounds extended to the animated segments Hubley directed for [[The Four Poster (1952 film)|''The Four Poster'']]. |
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[[File:JOAN MIRO PAINTING 1938 DETAIL.jpg|thumb|right|Detail of ''Painting'' (1938) by [[Joan Miró]]; the face on this figure is remarkably similar to that of the main character in ''The Adventures of *'']] |
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⚫ | For his independent directorial debut, ''The Adventures of *'', Hubley drew heavily from the visual style of artists like [[Paul Klee]], [[Joan Miró]], and [[Pablo Picasso]].<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|13}} The film's backgrounds were painted with sponges and thick brushes for texture. The characters were drawn in yellow crayon on black paper to give them a more unique, handmade look.<ref>Hubley, John. "Characters from 'The Adventures of *'". 8.5 in x 11 in. Wax crayon on paper. Collection of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Los Angeles, California.</ref> In subsequent films, Hubley would experiment with [[Watercolor painting|watercolors]], [[ballpoint pen]], and [[marker pen|fabric markers]] to give his films distinctive visuals. Hubley used both [[cel]]s and the [[Xerography|Xerox]] method (popularized by [[Ub Iwerks]] on the 1961 film ''[[One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'')<ref>Yetikyel, Gia. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-one-hundred-and-one-dalmatians-saved-disney-180977869/ "How 'One Hundred and One Dalmatians' Saved Disney"]. ''Smithsonian Magazine''. Published June 2, 2021. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> depending on the film. For ''Cockaboody'', characters were drawn on paper by [[Tissa David]], then cut out and placed on cels. Hubley sometimes opted to use underlighting<ref>Sporn, Michael. [http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=2771 "Eggs Recap"]. ''Michael Sporn's Animation Splog''. Published October 3, 2011. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> - wherein the drawing or cel is lit from below rather than above - to make the films more distinct, and often used [[multiple exposure]] for more complex elements, like the river in ''Tender Game''<ref name="Introducing John and Faith Hubley"/> or the abstract color section in ''[[Everybody Rides the Carousel]]''. |
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⚫ | While directing ''The Ragtime Bear'', Hubley encouraged actor [[Jim Backus]] to [[Improvisation|improvise]] his dialogue and ramble on as his character [[Mr. Magoo]] would.<ref name="Memories of Mr. Magoo"/>{{rp|18}} Bauckus' unique vocal performance would make Mr. Magoo a hit, becoming UPA's flagship character. The idea of using improvised dialogue in animation was not created by Hubley, as [[Dave Fleischer]] often encouraged his actors to make up their own dialogue for his [[Popeye the Sailor (film series)|Popeye]] and [[Betty Boop]] shorts,<ref>Fischer, William. [https://collider.com/fleischer-brothers-who-are-they/ "The Downfall of Betty Boop's Creators, the Fleischer Brothers"]. ''Collider''. Published April 24, 2022. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> but the success of Bauckus as Mr. Magoo inspired Hubley to pursue stream of consciousness improvisation for his independent films. Hubley took the idea a step further by recording his children playing together, interpreting their conversations through animation<ref>Emmett, Neil. [https://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/how-filmmakers-use-unscripted-audio-in-animation-a-survey-from-moonbird-to-waltz-with-bashir-87698.html "How Filmmakers Use Unscripted Audio in Animation: A Survey From 'Moonbird' to 'Waltz with Bashir'"]. ''Cartoon Brew''. Published August 26, 2013. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> after Faith had edited them together into a story. Films like ''The Hat'', ''[[The Hole (1962 film)|The Hole]]'', and ''Everybody Rides the Carousel'' consist entirely of improvised conversations between actors, and ''[[Zuckerkandl (film)|Zuckerlandl!]]'' is an animated interpretation of a [[Sketch comedy|comedy routine]] by [[Robert Maynard Hutchins|Robert M. Hutchins]]. |
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⚫ | For his independent directorial debut, ''The Adventures of *'', Hubley drew heavily from the visual style of artists like [[Paul Klee]], [[Joan Miró]], and [[Pablo Picasso]].<ref name="Faith Hubley: An Interview"/>{{rp|13}} The |
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⚫ | Many of Hubley's films at Storyboard, Inc. with his wife explore [[war]] and the nature of conflict. ''The Hat'', ''The Hole'', ''Eggs'', ''Voyage to the Next'', and ''Urbanissimo'' tackle [[Industrialisation|industrialization]], war, [[overpopulation]], and the [[Environmental protection|environment]], all subjects the Hubleys were highly concerned with. Hubley, himself an avid reader of psychology books, also looked to explore complex psychological theories in his films, as he believed animation to be the perfect medium to visualize such intricate ideas.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hubley |first=John |title=Beyond Pigs and Bunnies: The New Animator's Art |magazine=The American Scholar |volume=44 |issue=2 |date=Spring 1975 |pages=213–223}}</ref> Fittingly, the Hubleys taught a class at Yale called "The Visualization of Abstract Themes".<ref name="Interviews: John Hubley"/> Hubley was also fascinated with the way children discussed life and their own experiences, which can be seen in ''Moonbird'', ''Windy Day'', and ''Cockaboody''. |
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⚫ | While directing ''The Ragtime Bear'', Hubley encouraged actor [[Jim Backus]] to [[Improvisation|improvise]] his dialogue and ramble on as his character [[Mr. Magoo]] would.<ref name="Memories of Mr. Magoo"/>{{rp|18}} |
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⚫ | Many of |
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==Death, preservation and legacy== |
==Death, preservation and legacy== |
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[[File:HubleymarkerA.jpg|thumb|left| A [[Wisconsin Historical Society|Wisconsin Historical Marker]] for John Hubley at the Stephenson Public Library in [[Marinette, Wisconsin|Marinette]].]] |
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⚫ | During the production of ''A Doonesbury Special'', Hubley went to the [[Yale New Haven Hospital|Yale New Haven Medical Center]] for what was thought to be a standard [[Cardiac surgery|heart procedure]]. Hubley died during the surgery on February 21, 1977, at the age of 62.<ref name="John Hubley, 62, Leading Creator, Producer of Animated Films, Dies"/> ''A Doonesbury Special'' was completed by his wife and [[Garry Trudeau]], earning John Hubley a posthumous Academy Award nomination and [[Palme d'Or]] win.<ref>{{cite web |last=Murray |first=Noel |url=https://www.avclub.com/a-doonesbury-special-offered-a-disillusioned-generation-1798274912 |title=A Doonesbury Special offered a disillusioned generation its own Charlie Brown Christmas |website=[[The A.V. Club]] |date=December 11, 2014 |access-date=February 6, 2023}}</ref> Hubley was [[Cremation|cremated]], and his ashes were spread over the Atlantic Ocean. |
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⚫ | During his life and after his death, retrospectives and screenings of Hubley's films have been held all over the world. The [[Museum of Modern Art]] held a major two-part exhibition on the Hubleys' films and artwork in 1997 and 1998,<ref>[https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/268 "The Hubley Studio: A Home for Animation"]. ''The Museum of Modern Art''. Accessed digitally February 6, 2023.</ref> and the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] held a salute to Hubley in 2011.<ref>Klein, Katie Cropper. [https://asifaeast.com/john-hubley-an-academy-salute/ "John Hubley: An Academy Salute"]. ''ASIFA-East''. Published October 11, 2011. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> [[Mr. Magoo]], a character co-created by Hubley, would become one of the most famous cartoon characters of all time, ranking #29 on [[TV Guide]]'s "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" list in 2002.<ref>{{cite book|title=TV Guide Book of Lists|url=https://archive.org/details/tvguidebookoflis0000unse|url-access=registration|year=2007|publisher=Running Press|page=158|isbn=978-0-7624-3007-9}}</ref> Hubley is often cited as one of the most influential figures in the history of animation, influencing artists such as [[Michael Sporn]],<ref>[https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/an-oscar-nomination-from-nowhere "An Oscar Nomination from Nowhere"]. ''Animation Obsessive''. Published October 6, 2022. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> [[Gene Deitch]],<ref>Deitch, Gene. [https://genedeitchcredits.wordpress.com/roll-the-credits/chapter-11-%E2%80%93-john-hubley-%E2%80%9Cit%E2%80%99s-got-to-be-about-something/ "11. John Hubley".] ''GeneDeitchCredits''. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> and his own daughter, [[Emily Hubley]]. On October 2, 2022, Garry Trudeau's ''[[Doonesbury]]'' ran a strip encouraging readers to watch Hubley's ''Windy Day''.<ref>Trudeau, Garry. "Doonesbury". Published October 2, 2022. [https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2022/10/02?comments=visible On GoComics]</ref> |
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⚫ | During the production of ''A Doonesbury Special'', Hubley went to the [[Yale New Haven Hospital|Yale New Haven Medical Center]] for what was thought to be a standard [[Cardiac surgery|heart procedure]]. Hubley died during the surgery on February 21, 1977, at the age of 62.<ref name="John Hubley, 62, Leading Creator, Producer of Animated Films, Dies"/>''A Doonesbury Special'' was completed by |
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⚫ | Eight of Hubley's films (''[[Moonbird]]'', ''[[The Hole (1962 film)|The Hole]]'', ''[[A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature|A Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Double Feature]]'', ''Windy Day'', ''Of Men and Demons'', ''Voyage to the Next'', ''A Doonesbury Special'', and ''A Smattering of Spots'' - a reel of Storyboard, Inc. commercials) are preserved in the [[Academy Film Archive]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Preserved Projects|url=http://www.oscars.org/academy-film-archive/preserved-projects?title=&filmmaker=John+Hubley&category=All&collection=All|website=Academy Film Archive}}</ref> Papers from Hubley's life are held at the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum]], the [[Harvard Library|Harvard University Library]], the [[Yale University Library]], the Museum of Modern Art, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2013, ''The Hole'' was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref name="2013Add">{{cite press release|title=Library of Congress announces 2013 National Film Registry selections |newspaper=Washington Post|date=December 18, 2013|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/library-of-congress-announces-2013-national-film-registry-selections/2013/12/17/eba98bce-6737-11e3-ae56-22de072140a2_story.html?tid=hpModule_ef3e52c4-8691-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394|access-date=December 18, 2013}}</ref> Artwork from ''Moonbird'', ''Windy Day'', ''Cockaboody'', and several other of the Hubleys' films are on display at the [[Academy Museum of Motion Pictures]] in [[Los Angeles]].<ref>Grobar, Matt. [https://deadline.com/2022/03/academy-museum-unveils-new-exhibitions-for-2022-2023-1234983553/ "Academy Museum Sets 'Hollywoodland' Showcase Of L.A. Film Industry's Founders As First Permanent Exhibition, Unveils Others"]. ''Deadline''. Published March 21, 2022. Accessed February 6, 2021.</ref> |
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⚫ | During his life and after his death, retrospectives and screenings of |
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In 2021, a crowdfunded campaign headed by the Animation Education Association to have a Wisconsin State Historical Marker for Hubley placed in [[Marinette, Wisconsin]], reached its goal.<ref>Harris, Maya. [https://www.ehextra.com/news/student-raising-funds-for-john-hubley-historical-marker/article%20623faa5b-3c2b-5fcb-96a2-54a9352f436d.html "Student Raising Funds for John Hubley Historical Marker"]. ''Marinette Eagle Herald''. Published September 28, 2021. Accessed February 6, 2023.</ref> The marker was unveiled on May 20, 2023.<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/events/1694162030999873?active%20tab=about Facebook event for "A Hubley Homecoming"] posted by the Stephenson Public Library. Published April 14, 2023. Accessed May 2, 2023.</ref> To coincide with the unveiling, May 20, 2023, was proclaimed "John and Faith Hubley Day" in Wisconsin by Marinette's mayor Steve Genisot.<ref>[https://www.marinette.wi.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/%2005022023-1320 "Common Council Regular Meeting Agenda - 5/2/2023"]. Agenda for the Common Council of the City of Marinette. Published April 28, 2023. Accessed May 2, 2023. p. 74</ref> |
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⚫ | Eight of |
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Artwork from ''Moonbird'', ''Windy Day'', ''Cockaboody'', and several other of the Hubleys’ films are on display at the [[Academy Museum of Motion Pictures]] in [[Los Angeles]].<ref>Grobar, Matt. [https://deadline.com/2022/03/academy-museum-unveils-new-exhibitions-for-2022-2023-1234983553/ "Academy Museum Sets ‘Hollywoodland’ Showcase Of L.A. Film Industry’s Founders As First Permanent Exhibition, Unveils Others"]. ''Deadline''. Published March 21st, 2022. Accessed February 6th, 2021.</ref> In 2021, a crowdfunded campaign to have a Wisconsin State Historical Marker for Hubley placed in [[Marinette, Wisconsin]], reached its goal.<ref>Harris, Maya. [https://www.ehextra.com/news/student-raising-funds-for-john-hubley-historical-marker/article%20623faa5b-3c2b-5fcb-96a2-54a9352f436d.html "Student Raising Funds for John Hubley Historical Marker"]. ''Marinette Eagle Herald''. Published September 28th, 2021. Accessed February 6th, 2023.</ref> The marker is set for installation in the spring of 2023. On October 2, 2022, [[Garry Trudeau|Garry Trudeau’s]] ''[[Doonesbury]]'' ran a strip encouraging readers to watch Hubley’s ''Windy Day''.<ref>Trudeau, Garry. "Doonesbury". Published October 2nd, 2022. [https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2022/10/02?comments=visible On GoComics]</ref> |
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== Filmography == |
== Filmography == |
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{{div col}} |
{{div col}} |
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=== Screen Gems === |
=== Screen Gems === |
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* ''Wolf Chases Pigs'' (1942) |
* ''Wolf Chases Pigs'' (1942) |
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Line 159: | Line 171: | ||
* ''Spellbound Hound'' (1950) |
* ''Spellbound Hound'' (1950) |
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* ''Punchy de Leon'' (1950) |
* ''Punchy de Leon'' (1950) |
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* ''[[Gerald McBoing-Boing]]'' (1951) |
* ''[[Gerald McBoing-Boing]]'' (1951) (Oscar winner) |
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* ''Fuddy Duddy Buddy'' (1951) |
* ''Fuddy Duddy Buddy'' (1951) |
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* ''[[Rooty Toot Toot]]'' (1952) |
* ''[[Rooty Toot Toot]]'' (1952) |
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===Format Films === |
=== Format Films === |
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* ''The Tale of Old Whiff'' (1959) |
* ''The Tale of Old Whiff'' (1959) |
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=== Storyboard/Hubley Studios === |
=== Storyboard/Hubley Studios === |
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'''shorts and features''' |
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* ''[[Dizzy Gillespie|A Date with Dizzy]]'' (1956) |
* ''[[Dizzy Gillespie|A Date with Dizzy]]'' (1956) |
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* ''Adventures of |
* ''Adventures of *'' (1957) |
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* ''Harlem Wednesday'' (1957) |
* ''Harlem Wednesday'' (1957) |
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* ''Tender Game'' (1958) |
* ''Tender Game'' (1958) |
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* ''[[Moonbird]]'' (1959) (Oscar winner) |
* ''[[Moonbird]]'' (1959) (Oscar winner) |
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* ''Children of the Sun'' (1960) |
* ''Children of the Sun'' (1960) |
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* ''Of Stars and Men'' (1962)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://vimeo.com/98123446|title=Of stars and men - Extrait|first=Images en|last= |
* ''Of Stars and Men'' (1962)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://vimeo.com/98123446|title=Of stars and men - Extrait|first=Images en|last=bibliothèques|date=June 13, 2014|via=Vimeo}}</ref> |
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* ''[[The Hole (1962 film)|The Hole]]'' (1962) (Oscar winner) |
* ''[[The Hole (1962 film)|The Hole]]'' (1962) (Oscar winner) |
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* ''The Hat'' (1964)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1964/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1964 -|website=cartoonresearch.com}}</ref> |
* ''The Hat'' (1964)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1964/|title=Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1964 -|website=cartoonresearch.com}}</ref> |
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* ''[[Fail-Safe (1964 film)|Fail-Safe]]'' (1964) |
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* ''[[A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature]]'' (1966) (Oscar winner) |
* ''[[A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature]]'' (1966) (Oscar winner) |
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* ''Urbanissimo'' (1966) |
* ''Urbanissimo'' (1966) |
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* ''A Doonesbury Special'' (1977) (Oscar nominee) |
* ''A Doonesbury Special'' (1977) (Oscar nominee) |
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* ''[[Watership Down (film)|Watership Down]]'' (1978) (uncredited) |
* ''[[Watership Down (film)|Watership Down]]'' (1978) (uncredited) |
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* ''The Cosmic Eye'' (1986) (archive footage)<ref>{{Cite |
* ''The Cosmic Eye'' (1986) (archive footage)<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/06/movies/screen-cosmic-eye-animation-and-music.html|title=SCREEN: 'COSMIC EYE,' ANIMATION AND MUSIC|first=Vincent|last=Canby|work=The New York Times |date=June 6, 1986|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref> |
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'''TV''' |
'''TV''' |
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* ''[[The Electric Company]]'' ("The Adventures of Letterman", 1972) |
* ''[[The Electric Company]]'' ("The Adventures of Letterman", 1972) |
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{{end div col}} |
{{end div col}} |
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==Notes== |
==Notes== |
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:1.{{note|a}}Sometimes referred to as |
:1.{{note|a}}Sometimes referred to as ''The Adventures of an *'' or spelled out ''The Adventures of Asterisk''. |
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:2.{{note|b}}Sometimes referred to with an [[ampersand]] as |
:2.{{note|b}}Sometimes referred to with an [[ampersand]] as ''A Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Double Feature''. The [[Academy Film Archive]] uses this spelling. |
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==References== |
==References== |
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*{{IMDb name|id=0399524|name=John Hubley}} |
*{{IMDb name|id=0399524|name=John Hubley}} |
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*[//www.clipland.com/Name/0010608/ John Hubley] at [//www.clipland.com Clipland] |
*[//www.clipland.com/Name/0010608/ John Hubley] at [//www.clipland.com Clipland] |
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⚫ | |||
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120320165216/https://www.pbs.org/itvs/independentspirits/filmography.html Independent Spirits documentary on PBS] |
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⚫ | |||
{{Winsor McCay Award 1970s}} |
{{Winsor McCay Award 1970s}} |
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[[Category:Producers who won the Best Animated Short Academy Award]] |
[[Category:Producers who won the Best Animated Short Academy Award]] |
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[[Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios people]] |
[[Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios people]] |
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[[Category:Independent animation]] |
Revision as of 06:58, 23 August 2024
John Hubley | |
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Born | John Kirkham Hubley May 21, 1914 |
Died | February 21, 1977 | (aged 62)
Education | ArtCenter College of Design |
Occupation | Animated film director |
Years active | 1936–1977 |
Employer(s) | Walt Disney Animation Studios (1936–1941) UPA (1944–1952) Storyboard, Inc./Hubley Studios (1953–1977) |
Spouses | |
Children | 6, including Emily Hubley and Georgia Hubley |
Relatives | Kathleen Kirkham (Aunt) |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service | |
Years of service | 1942–1946 |
Rank | Private |
Unit | 18th AAF Base Unit |
Battles / wars | World War II |
John Kirkham Hubley (May 21, 1914 – February 21, 1977) was an American animated film director, art director, producer, and writer known for his work with the United Productions of America (UPA)[1] and his own independent studio, Storyboard, Inc. (later renamed Hubley Studio).[2] A pioneer and innovator in the American animation industry, Hubley pushed for more visually and emotionally complex films than those being produced by contemporaries like the Walt Disney Company and Warner Brothers Animation.[3] He and his second wife, Faith Hubley (née Chestman), who he worked alongside from 1953 onward, were nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning three.[4]
Hubley was born in Marinette, Wisconsin, in 1914 and developed an interest in art from a young age, as both his mother and maternal grandfather were professional painters.[5] After high school, Hubley attended the ArtCenter College of Design to study painting. After three years of classes, he got a job at the Walt Disney Animation Studio at the age of 22.[6] Although his talents were recognized by the studio and he was given a position as an animation director on Fantasia, Hubley felt restricted by the studio's conservative animation style. Hubley left Disney in 1941 during the Disney animator's strike and joined the First Motion Pictures Unit, later following many of his fellow unit artists to the newly-formed Industrial Poster Service (later renamed the United Productions of America). Hubley served many roles at UPA and directed several Academy Award-nominated animated shorts. Most famously, he directed The Ragtime Bear (1949), the debut of Mr. Magoo, a character he co-created.
In 1952, Hubley was forced to leave UPA after refusing to denounce communism, leading to his eventual investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee. He soon opened his own independent studio to capitalize on commercial work for the new market of television advertising,[7] directing the successful "I Want My Maypo!" spot. In 1954, he was commissioned by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to make an animated short film, the first short ever funded by an art museum.[8]
Hubley (alongside his wife Faith) is often considered the most important figure in American independent animation and one of the most important figures in the history of animation. The Hubleys' film Moonbird (1959) became the first independent film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Hubley collaborated with jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, and Quincy Jones and often used unscripted, improvised dialogue in his films, creating an entirely new way of expressing emotion and feeling through the medium of animation. His films are considered important in the evolution of post-war modernism in film.[9] The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences claim the Hubleys' films "bucked the establishment and defined an era of independent animation production".[10]
Early life and education
Hubley was born on May 21, 1914, at 1212 11th Street (now Shore Drive) in Marinette, Wisconsin.[11] His father, John Raymond Hubley, was a secretary at the John B Goodman Company[12][13] – a logging company – in Marinette, and his mother, Verena Kirkham Hubley, was a homemaker. Verena's maternal grandfather, Jacob Leisen, was one of the founders of the Leisen & Henes Brewing Company in Menominee, Michigan.[14][15] The Leisen-Kirkham family were economically stable, allowing Verena's parents to send her to the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied painting from 1907 to 1909. Verena's father, Richard Archibald Kirkham, was also a painter[16] and one of the earliest photographers in Menominee.[17]
Hubley was encouraged at a young age to become an artist by his mother and maternal grandfather. In a 1974 interview, Hubley stated "I used to watch my grandfather when I was a little kid...It was always ordained that I would go to art school as soon as I got out of high school".[5]: 1
In 1921, John Raymond Hubley partnered with his cousin Loren O. Robeck opened Robeck & Hubley, a Ford dealership at 1919 Hall Avenue in Marinette.[18] The business was only modestly successful[19] and closed in 1928, the same year the Hubleys left Marinette and moved to Iron Mountain, Michigan. Hubley attended Iron Mountain High School from 1929 to 1932.[20][21][22][23] While a student, Hubley would partake in a wide array of extracurricular activities, including the debate,[24] drama,[25] a capella,[26] basketball,[27] Hi-Y (a male-only group associated with the YMCA),[28] and mathematics clubs.[29] Hubley also wrote for the school's newspaper, The Mountaineer, and from 1930 to 1932 provided the illustrations for the school's yearbook, The Argonaut. While in high school, Hubley worked as a bank cashier in Iron Mountain.[30]
In the fall of 1933, Hubley enrolled at the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles, California, to study painting.[31] Unable to support himself, Hubley lived with his aunt, Kathleen Kirkham Woodruff, who had moved to Los Angeles for her film career. Her husband, Harry Woodruff, inspired the character Mr. Magoo.[32] During his time in college, the newly-formed Walt Disney Animation Studio was scouting local art schools for talent. Hubley's painting talents caught the studio's eye, and he was hired as a background and layout artist.[5]: 1–2
Career
Working at Disney and the 1941 Animator's Strike: 1936–1941
Hubley started working at Walt Disney Productions on January 1, 1936.[6] He started as an apprentice on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) producing background tracings and painting backgrounds and layouts for animators. He was quickly promoted to an art director for Pinocchio (1940).
On February 25, 1939, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright visited the studio with a copy of The Tale of the Czar Durandai (1934), a Russian animated film directed by Ivan Ivanov-Vano. Wright showed the film to Disney's staff, including Hubley, [33] who was greatly inspired by the film's stylized visuals and animation.[34]
Hubley was chosen as one of three directors (alongside Dick Kelsey and McLaren Stewart) to handle the "Rite of Spring" passage of Fantasia (1940). Specifically, Hubley directed the section covering the molten stage of Earth's creation to the cooling off into greenery. Hubley was upset by the film's inaccuracy, stating that "it was not scientifically accurate in terms of the demise of the reptiles. It was more likely they were frozen by the ice age. But Disney didn't want an ice age; he wanted a desert sequence".[5]: 1 Hubley also painted several backgrounds for the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment. This same year, Hubley moved out of the Woodruffs' house to his own house at 3827 Ronda Vista Place in Los Angeles. Hubley lived here with fellow Disney Studios artist and actor John McLeish.[35]
In the spring of 1941, employees at Disney Studios were unhappy with salary inequalities and the studio discouraging unionization.[36] Hubley and his wife Claudia both participated in the 1941 Disney animators' strike,[37] with John taking dozens of photographs to document the event. Hubley was one of the better-paid employees of the studio, making $67.50 a week[1]: 17 (equivalent to $1,367.04 in 2023), but decided to strike in support of unionization. The strike, organized by Hubley's friend Art Babbitt, strengthened Hubley's relationship with strikers like Bill Littlejohn, Herb Klynn, Stephen Bosustow, and Jules Engel, all of whom later worked with Hubley at UPA or Hubley Studios. On August 10, 1941, John and Claudia were two of the 256 employees fired by the studio when the strike ended.[1]: 22
Enlistment and Beginning of UPA: 1942–1948
After being fired from Disney Studios, Hubley briefly worked at Columbia's Screen Gems under Dave Fleischer. Hubley called Fleischer one of "one of the world's intellectual lightweights".[38] Hubley disliked his work at Screen Gems, but Fleischer's detachment from the employees allowed Hubley a creative freedom he had not found at the Disney Studio. On November 23, 1942, Hubley enlisted in the United States Armed Forces to work in the First Motion Picture Unit,[39] an independent film production unit in the Air Force.[40] Here, Hubley directed animated training films related to flight safety and firearm equipment. Though uncredited, Old Blackout Joe (1942) was Hubley's first time directing.[41] Hubley's time in the Air Force was leisurely, and he "got to go home every night" and "spent half [his] time drawing [gags] and passing them around".[38] The Air Force had few expectations for how the films should aesthetically look or feel, allowing Hubley and his team near-complete creative control. Hubley, who had grown increasingly more interested in the works of modern artists like Paul Klee, pushed his films to have flat, abstract visuals. Since the films were often uncredited, it is unknown how many films Hubley directed for the First Motion Picture Unit, but Flight Safety: Landing Accidents (1946) was likely his last.[citation needed] Hubley is credited with the animations on Tuesday in November (1945), produced by the US Office of War Information.[42]
In 1943, Hubley was contacted by the United Automobile Workers (UAW), who were looking to hire Hubley to produce a short film endorsing Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1944 Presidential Election.[38] Hubley took the project to the newly-formed Industrial Film and Poster Service, which was soon renamed to United Productions of America (UPA).[1]: 49 The film, Hell-Bent for Election (1944), was storyboarded by Hubley and directed by Chuck Jones.[43][38] At UPA, Hubley found the creative freedom he had yearned for his entire career. The UAW was pleased with Hell-Bent for Election and hired UPA for The Brotherhood of Man (1946), a film on race relations.[44] Hubley co-wrote the film and led the production design. With both UAW films, Hubley pushed for a modernist aesthetic of sleek lines, flat shapes, and bold colors that were completely unique to UPA's films.
By 1947, Hubley had been promoted to vice president and creative head of UPA.[1]: 75 That same year, UPA founder Stephen Bosustow struck a distribution deal with Columbia: UPA would produce several "trial"[1]: 75 films for the studio using Columbia's cartoon stars The Fox and The Crow. If the films were a success, Columbia would enter a formal distribution partnership with UPA. Hubley was tasked with directing the first "trial" films, Robin Hoodlum (1948) and The Magic Fluke (1949).
UPA and Mr. Magoo: 1949–1952
Hubley and the UPA team felt restricted with The Fox and The Crow shorts, and approached Columbia with an idea for an original short.[1]: 77 Hubley, inspired by his uncle Harry Woodruff, pitched an idea for a short-tempered, aggressive old curmudgeon. "The character was based upon an uncle of mine, Harry Woodruff"[32]: 1 he later said. Hubley and writer Millard Kaufman would name the character Mr. Magoo after Point Mugu in Malibu, California.[1]: 78 While Hubley is often credited as the sole creator of Mr. Magoo, the character was a combined effort with Kaufman, who based Magoo partially on his own uncle.[45]
Hubley and UPA founder Zachary Schwartz made their intentions with UPA clear in a 1946 issue of Film Quarterly. Hubley and Schwartz believed it had become "necessary for the craftsman-animators of the motion picture industry to analyze and reevaluate their medium".[46] Hubley and Schwartz were influenced by their shared experience in the First Motion Picture Unit making training films, specifically by how animation was being used as an educational tool, as the two believed "animation usage in the educational film [was] singularly undeveloped"[46]: 360 before the war. Now, Hubley and Schwartz understood the "significance of the animated film as means of communication"[46]: 363 and aimed to create films that could "express the essence of an idea" with "line, shape, color, and symbols".[46]: 363
Hubley served as the supervising director of Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950), written by Theodor Geisel and directed by Robert Cannon. The film won UPA their first Academy Award for Best Short Subject Cartoon, which "stung" and "really shocked" Hubley, claimed layout artist Bill Hurtz.[1]: 91 Hubley, now determined to win his own Academy Award for the studio, directed Rooty Toot Toot (1952), UPA's most expensive and ambitious film at the time.[1]: 93 Hubley wrote the film alongside Bill Scott and hired Phil Moore to compose the score. At the recommendation of Art Babbitt, Hubley hired dancer Olga Lunick to choreograph the film's dance elements, and much of the film's animation was done by Betty Boop creator Grim Natwick.[1]: 96 The film's dark themes of murder, sex, violence, jealousy, and infidelity were a "groundbreaking moment for animation".[47] While the film was nominated for the Academy Award,[48] it lost to The Two Mouseketeers. The same year, Hubley also directed the animated segments of Irving Reis's The Four Poster (1952).[49]
In September 1951, UPA layout artist Bernyce Fleury testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee that several UPA artists, including Hubley, were promoting communism through their films.[50] In response, the following April Columbia sent UPA a list of eight suspected communist employees which included Hubley. Columbia, threatening to end their distribution deal with UPA, wanted the named employees to either confess or leave UPA.[1]: 129 Hubley refused to denounce communism and was subsequently fired from UPA on May 31, 1952.[1]: 131 Reflecting upon his time at UPA, Hubley would say "it got too large. Before we knew where we were, we were getting more and more concerned with administration and less with creation."[51]
Independent success with Storyboard, Inc. 1952–1969
Following his firing from UPA, Hubley was effectively blacklisted from the animation industry.[1]: 131 He found work illustrating album covers for Westminster and Clef Records for artists such as Al Hibbler,[52] Aaron Copland,[53] Slim Gaillard,[54] and Chico O'Farrill.[55][56] These covers showed Hubley's art progressing further into abstract expressionism and modernism, taking heavy influence from Pablo Picasso.
Still "undercover" in Hollywood, Hubley founded Storyboard, Inc. (sometimes referred to as Storyboard Studios or simply Storyboard) in 1953.[1]: 131 Since television work was both uncredited and in high demand, Hubley quickly found work directing animated commercials for companies such as Heinz,[57] Bank of America,[58] and E-Z Pop.[59][60] Since many of his clients were looking for a fast turnaround, Hubley's highly-stylized approach to limited animation and bold graphics became both practical and popular. For these early commercials, Hubley would again collaborate with animators such as Bill Littlejohn, Emery Hawkins, and Rob Scribner. Also in 1953, Hubley and producer Michael Shore began developing an animated adaptation of the musical Finian's Rainbow.[61][62] Shore wanted Hubley to direct, and Hubley was motivated to "develop the visual art even further than the UPA films".[62] Shore had difficulty interesting studios with the project due to the musical's strong racial themes, but eventually secured funding and a distribution deal with the Distributors Corporation of America (DCA). Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald were signed on for the film, marking their only collaboration. By the end of 1954, all of the dialogue and music had been recorded for the film and Hubley had assembled a large team of past collaborators, such as Littlejohn, Babbitt, and Les Goldman. Faith Elliott (née Chestman), later Hubley's second wife, served as a script supervisor on the film. While Hubley was very excited for the project, his "easygoing manner" made him "hard to work with because he wasn't very disciplined".[62] The musical's writers, Burton Lane and Yip Harburg (a fellow victim of the blacklist), kept a close watch on Hubley, and tensions soon arose over the musical direction of the film and Hubley's visuals.[62] Issues also arose between DCA and members of the film's crew who were members of the Screen Cartoonists Guild (SCG) and not the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). DCA was concerned that since many members of the crew were not IATSE, the film would not be played in theaters. Soon thereafter, DCA president Fred J. Schwartz received a call from IATSE representative Roy Brewer, who ousted Hubley for his refusal to cooperate with the HUAC. Hubley, who still refused to testify before the HUAC, caused DCA's parent company to stop funding the film. While Schwartz did attempt to save the film by approaching RKO, it was no use.[62] The film was canceled in 1955, with the contents of the entire studio impounded.[1]: 132
In 1955, after the collapse of Finian's Rainbow, Hubley moved Storyboard, Inc. with him to New York City,[63] where he soon married his second wife, Faith Hubley (née Chestman). Faith, herself an editor and script supervisor on films such as 12 Angry Men (1957),[63]: 5 collaborated closely with her husband on all of their subsequent films. Towards the end of 1954, Hubley and James J. Sweeney, the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, began discussing the museum commissioning a film from Hubley.[64] Hubley and Sweeney were determined to create a film that also served as a piece of modern art and communicated the importance of "play" and "the sensuous pleasures of [approaching pictures through] the eye rather than [the] intellectual pleasure [of] the ear".[65] The resulting film, The Adventures of * [1] (1957) was the first short film Hubley directed after leaving UPA, as well as the first animated film ever commissioned by an art museum.[66] The film's visuals were heavily influenced by the Guggenheim Museum's collection of modern art, as well as Hubley's desire to "transform [animation] from hard-lined cel animation to textured, subtle, new styles more connected to the history of art than to the Disney or UPA look".[67] Benny Carter composed the film's score, including vibraphone by Lionel Hampton. The film won several awards, including a diploma speciale from the 1957 Venice Film Festival and the Grand Prize at the 1958 Montevideo Film Festival.[68] In 1957, Hubley was also hired by the advertising firm Fletcher, Richards, Calkins & Holden to direct the hugely successful "I Want My Maypo!" commercial. For the first time in his career, Hubley used the voice of one of his children, his stepson Mark, for the commercial.[63]: 10 The commercial led to a boom of sales for Maypo, and the character of "Marky Maypo" (named after his stepson) became the cereal's mascot.[63]: 10 The commercial is also credited for beginning the trend of using animation to sell products to children, as it "exploit[ed] children's less than fully developed ability to distinguish between entertainment and selling".[69] Around this time, Hubley met musician Dizzy Gillespie through mutual friend Paul Robeson,[70] and the Hubleys soon made their first film with Gillespie, A Date with Dizzy (1956). The film contained many of the advertisements Hubley had already made at Storyboard, Inc.,[71] as well as an original segment by a then-unknown R.O. Blechman.[72]
Following the success of the Maypo spot, John and Faith turned their attention to producing more short films. Their next film, Harlem Wednesday (1957), marked the first time John and Faith were credited alongside one another on-screen (though Faith is credited as Faith Elliott). The film, an experimental montage of paintings by Gregorio Prestopino[73] with a score by Carter,[74] further explored the Hubleys' desires to push animation towards modern art. Their next film, Tender Game (1958), included an unused track by Fitzgerald from Finian's Rainbow.[62] Hubley experimented with multiple exposure effects on the film to give it a distinct look and dimensionality.[56] Mark Hubley would later remark "the film has always struck me...as a love letter between [John and Faith], the figures...look like mom and dad".[56] The film won the grand prize at both the Venice Film Festival and the Montevideo Film Festival.[68] Hubley was inspired by his earlier work on the Mr. Magoo films with Jim Backus to experiment with films centered around improvised dialogue, as he often encouraged Backus to riff in the studio. In 1958, Hubley recorded his sons Mark (aged 6) and Ray (aged 3) his sons playing a game where they search for a "Moonbird", referring to a pet bird the family had lost recently by leaving a window open.[56] Faith edited the conversations together into a narrative, and John enlisted Ed Smith and former UPA director Robert Cannon for animation. The resulting film, Moonbird (1959), marked one of the earliest examples of using real children voices in an animated film.[75] Moonbird won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1960, becoming the first independent film to win in the category.[76] The success of Moonbird caught the attention of Susan Burnett, the film officer of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), who commissioned the Hubleys to make a film for UNICEF.[77] For the first time, Hubley used the voices of all of he and Faith's children, though most of their vocals are gurgles and mumbles made by his infant daughters Emily and Georgia. The film, Children of the Sun (1960), addressed "how hunger affects the world's children".[68][63]: 10
Hubley wanted to make a film about Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and was inspired after reading Harlow Shapley's Of Stars and Men (1959) in 1959.[78] Intrigued by Shapley's attempts to understand mankind's place in the universe, Hubley wrote to Shapley with the idea to adapt the book's themes into an animated film. Instead of simply writing a script and getting Shapley's approval, Hubley and Shapley chose to collaborate closely on nearly every aspect of the film, with Hubley sending Shapley detailed outlines for the film's structure[79] and frequently traveling to Shapley's home in Peterborough, New Hampshire, to meet with him.[80][81] Hubley and Shapley became close friends during this period, resulting in Of Stars and Men (1962), the Hubleys' first feature-length film. The film follows a very loose narrative style, relying predominantly on Shapley's narration. Hubley's children would again appear in the film, with their improvised conversations again being presented much in the same way as in Moonbird. Due to the nature of the film's presentation, the Hubleys, audiences, and distributors alike were unsure if the film could be categorized as a documentary. At the 1961 San Francisco International Film Festival, the film won Best Documentary, and at the Venice Film Festival - where the Hubleys' films had been previously screened as part of the animation category - the film was placed in the feature category alongside live-action films. Author Sybil DelGaudio cites the film as one of the earliest examples of an animated documentary.[78]: 193 While the film was screened in festivals as early as 1962, the Hubleys would continue to revise the film and appeal to both Columbia[82] and Show Corp. for distribution; it would be released to the general public in 1964 by Films, Inc.[68]
While shopping around Of Stars and Men, the Hubleys collaborated again with Gillespie for The Hole (1962). Gillespie and actor George Matthews improvised a conversation between two construction workers discussing life and nuclear war. The film mirrored American anxieties over the Cold War, as it was in production during the Cuban Missile Crisis.[56] The film won the Hubleys their second Academy Award for Best Animated Short, with John and Faith both being recognized by the Academy for the first time.[83] The Hole led to the World Law Foundation[68] commissioning the Hubleys to make The Hat (1964),[84] a spiritual successor of sorts to The Hole centered around an improvised conversation between Gillespie and Dudley Moore as soldiers debating the morality of war. The Hat came from the World Law Foundation's initiative to "reach...broader audiences" through "arts and media". Both The Hole and The Hat use a more grounded visual style than the abstract expressionism of The Adventures of * and Of Stars and Men and address more serious themes of violence, nuclear war, nuclear anxieties, and death. The Hat was the only film by the Hubleys distributed by McGraw-Hill,[68] and was also released as a book with illustrations taken from the film.[85] Carter would collaborate with the Hubleys again on Urbanissimo (1966), a film humorously examining the impact of urban sprawl on the environment made for Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec.[86] A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature[2] (1966), a film interpreting the music of jazz musician Herb Alpert, was released the same year. John and Faith won their third Academy Award for the short,[87][88][89] and the film is today considered to be an early prototypical example of a music video.[90] The film was distributed by Paramount, marking the first collaboration between Hubley and a major Hollywood studio following his 1952 blacklisting.
Hubley began teaching filmmaking at Harvard in 1962, becoming the first teacher of animation at Harvard's Visual Arts Center.[91] Hubley wrote an adaptation of Edwin Abbot's 1884 novella Flatland, and collaborated with his students as well as Dudley Moore and several members of Beyond the Fringe. The resulting film, Flatland (1965), was directed by Eric Martin.[91] As early as 1964, filmmaker Joseph Koenig pitched a film explaining the importance of voting to the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).[92] Hubley was chosen[93] to direct the film for the NFB, which eventually became The Cruise (1967). The film was designed to be an educational tool for school use, though Hubley had very little involvement with creating the curriculum surrounding the film. The film would be screened in high schools and colleges across the United States and Canada throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Hubley's involvement with education would continue in the 1970s, when he and Faith became professors of film at Yale University teaching animation and "The Visualization of Abstract Themes".[94]
The Hubleys continued to make short films together for the rest of the 1960s. Their next film, Windy Day (1967) featured an improvised conversation between their daughters Georgia and Emily "explor[ing] the child's projection of fantasy to enact romance, marriage, and growing up".[68] The film was nominated for the 1968 Academy Award for Best Animated Short, but lost to Disney's Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day.[95][96] The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions commissioned Hubley for Zuckerkandl! (1968), a short film interpreting a comical routine by Robert M. Hutchins.[97] The short was also released as a book with illustrations by Hubley.[98][99] Hubley was commissioned again for Storyboard, Inc.'s next film, Of Men and Demons (1969), by IBM for Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan. The film earned John and Faith their fifth Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short.[100][101]
Hubley Studios, Inc. and Late Career: 1970–1977
1970 saw the release of Hubley's fifteenth independent directorial credit with Eggs (1970).[102] For the first time, John and Faith collaborated with musician Quincy Jones, who composed and performed the film's score. The film addressed themes of fertility and death and continues Hubley's run of collaborating with musicians as voice actors, as singers Anita Ellis and Grady Tate lent their voices for the film, as did actor David Burns. The film was entirely animated by Tissa David,[103] a recent hire of the Hubleys best known as the second woman to ever direct a feature-length animated film, Bonjour Paris! (1953).[104] Around this time, Storyboard, Inc. was renamed Hubley Studios, Inc. (sometimes referred to as The Hubley Studio or Hubley Studios), indicating Hubley's growing confidence towards using his name as the effects of the blacklist faded away.
Despite the critical acclaim the studio's films received, Hubley was still struggling financially. "Film shorts seem inevitably to be financial failures, for the only people who come out ahead on them are the distributors. Even Moonbird, for instance, grossed at least as much as its production costs (about $25,000), but only a third of the gross wound up at Storyboard, Inc.",[105] revealed a 1964 profile by The Harvard Crimson. By the beginning of the 1970s, John and Faith understood they needed to take on more commercial work in order to fund their shorts, and began contributing animated segments for New York-based children's variety programs such as The Electric Company and Sesame Street. Notably, Hubley directed the "Letter E" segment for the latter's first episode on November 10, 1969.[106] Hubley directed over thirty animated segments for the show between 1969 and 1977.[107] His most notable contributions would be on The Electric Company, where Hubley directed "The Adventures of Letterman" segments from 1972 to 1977[108] featuring Joan Rivers, Gene Wilder, and Zero Mostel.[109] On both Sesame Street and The Electric Company Hubley would again collaborate with artists like Quincy Jones and Dizzy Gillespie for voice acting and music. To help handle the new workload at the studio, Hubley hired several new artists, including Tissa David and Michael Sporn.[110]
While working on animated segments for Sesame Street and The Electric Company, Hubley became more recognized for his television work (as he hadn't made a television commercial since the late 1950s). CBS approached the Hubleys to produce an educational program on geology for the station.[68] Hubley enlisted the help of geoscientist Bruce Heezen to research the film.[111] Originally titled "What's Under My Foot?",[112] Dig (1972) premiered on CBS on April 8, 1972.[113] The film's music was composed by Jones and featured Jack Warden and Hubley's son, Ray. The following year, the film was adapted into a book co-written by John and Faith.[114] Much in the same way The Hole and The Hat were companion pieces, Hubley's next film, Cockaboody (1973) was a companion piece to Windy Day (1967). Hubley again recorded a conversation between his daughters Georgia and Emily and brought it to life through animation.[115] Unlike Windy Day, John and Faith collaborated with students in their animation class at Yale University to create the film. Cockaboody was created in conjunction with the Hubleys' students at Yale, as well as the Yale Child Study Center. The process of making Cockaboody at Yale was filmed by Howard Sayre Weaver for the documentary In Quest of Cockaboody (1973).[116] Cockaboody marked the first time The Hubley Studio name was used in one of Hubley's films, and the second film at the studio animated solely by David. John and Faith earned another Academy Award nomination for their next shot, Voyage to the Next (1974),[117][118][119] another collaboration with Gillespie, as well as actresses Maureen Stapleton and Dee Dee Bridgewater commissioned by The Institute for World Order.[120] Continuing the themes of previous films like Eggs and The Hat, Voyage to the Next tackles themes of environmentalism, nationalism, and war. The same year, the Zagreb Film Festival held a career-long retrospective on John and Faith's films, with John serving as president of the year's jury.[68][121] In an ironic turn of events, Hubley's next film, People People People (1975), was commissioned by the United States Bicentennial Commission.[68] Hubley, now being commissioned by the same government that had practically forced him out of UPA in 1952, was finally free from the effects of the blacklist. This same year, both John and Faith were awarded the Winsor McCay Award from ASIFA, the highest honor an artist in the animation industry can receive.[122]
Now one of the most respected artists in an industry that had blacklisted him only two decades prior, Hubley began his most ambitious project to date. As early as 1973, John and Faith became interested in adapting Erik Erikson's Theory of the Eight Stages of Life in a feature-length animated film. As they did with Cockaboody, the Hubleys planned to make the film in conjunction with Yale's Film Laboratory Center. Initially, Erikson was dismissive of the idea,[123] but by 1975 he agreed, with CBS interested in airing the film. Initially, CBS and Hubley agreed the film would be three half-hour episodes, but CBS changed it to be one ninety-minute film during the final three months of production.[124] John and Faith created the film's storyboards alongside their Yale class, supervised by professor Ken Kennison.[125] Hubley picked many unknown actors with few or no prior credits for the film, including Lawrence Pressman, his then-girlfriend Lanna Saunders, and Yale student Meryl Streep in her first acting role.[126] The Hubley children also appear in the film for different stages of life. Everybody Rides the Carousel (1976) was broadcast on September 10, 1976.[127] Much like the Hubleys' previous films, the film is built from improvised conversations between the actors relating to Erikson's stages of life. The larger production led to Hubley Studios hiring a handful of new employees, including Erikson's daughter, Sue Erikson,[38] coincidentally a student of the Hubleys at Yale. The film was a success, and won the Blue Ribbon Award at that year's American Film Festival.[68]
Around the time Hubley began production on Everybody Rides the Carousel, producer Martin Rosen hired Hubley to direct an animated adaptation of Richard Adams' Watership Down (1972).[38] Hubley flew to London to meet Rosen at the new studio Rosen opened for the film and the two took trips to the English countryside for inspiration, but Hubley's interest in the project quickly faded. Rosen and Hubley frequently disagreed on the film's narrative, with Rosen pushing for grittiness and Hubley pushing for a lighter tone and more abstract visual style.[128] Hubley had signed an exclusivity contract to work on the film, but Rosen soon found out he was secretly developing a new film, leading to Rosen firing Hubley from the film and becoming the director himself.[129] Hubley's work can be seen in the opening "fable" scene,[130] animated by Bill Littlejohn, Phil Duncan, Ruth Kissane, and Barrie Nelson.[131] Hubley is often credited as the co-director of the film, but his name does not appear in the credits. In November 1976, cartoonist Garry Trudeau approached Hubley with the idea of an animated special featuring Trudeau's characters from Doonesbury. Hubley and Trudeau had already known one another, as Trudeau was one of Hubley's students in the early seventies, and Trudeau and the Hubleys greatly enjoyed working with one another.[132] In 1976, Doonesbury was one of the most popular newspaper comics in America, having won a Pulitzer Prize the year prior[133] and frequently making headlines for being dropped by papers across the country over Trudeau's decision to tackle topical and controversial real-world events.[134] Unlike their previous films, John and Faith shared directing and producing credits with Trudeau and followed a tight script for the film. Toward the middle of production in February 1977 Hubley died,[135] leaving Faith and Trudeau to finish the film themselves. A Doonesbury Special (1977) was broadcast on NBC on November 27, 1977. The film earned Hubley a posthumous Academy Award Nomination[136][137][138] and posthumous Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, tying with Oh, My Darling by Dutch animator Børge Ring.[139]
Personal life
On May 30, 1941, Hubley married Claudia Sewell, one of Disney's "ink and paint girls", in Reno, Nevada.[140] The couple did not go on a honeymoon, and instead sped back to California to partake in the 1941 animator's strike, which had started the day prior.[141] The Hubleys moved to a house at 10543 Woodbridge Street in the Toluca Lake section of Los Angeles.[142] The couple's first child, Anne, was born in 1942. John and Claudia had two more children, Mark and Susan, while living at 11689 Laurelwood Drive in Los Angeles.[64] Both houses were only a short drive from the UPA studio in Burbank.[143]
Sometime in the 1940s, Hubley met Faith Elliott, a stage manager from New York City who had come to Los Angeles to become a script clerk at Columbia.[63]: 5 Faith recalled she "met John in Hollywood...when he was in the Army".[63]: 6 The two became friends and remained friends during Hubley's time at UPA. When Hubley was fired from UPA and began work on Finian's Rainbow, Yip Harburg assigned Elliott to be Hubley's assistant.[1]: 132 By all accounts, the relationship between Hubley and Elliott was platonic, with Elliott saying they "both... controlled their friendship for ten years and after all [Hubley] was a married man with three children".[63]: 9 Nonetheless, as Elliott and Hubley grew closer, Hubley's own marriage crumbled. John and Claudia divorced in 1954, with his children staying in Los Angeles while Hubley left to focus on Storyboard, Inc. in New York City.
Hubley married Elliott in 1955. Faith Elliott was born Faith Chestman in 1924, but kept the name of her first husband, Melvin Elliott, a radio announcer on WQXR.[144][145] Faith already had one child, Mark, born in 1952. When the Hubleys married, they vowed to make one film a year together, and to have dinner with their family every night.[56] The Hubleys moved to the Upper West Side of New York City at 110 Riverside Drive,[146] and had three more children: Raymond, Emily, and Georgia. All of the Hubley's children would voice characters in their films, with Mark and Ray appearing in Moonbird and Dig, and Emily and Georgia appearing in Windy Day and Cockaboody. All four are featured in Everybody Rides the Carousel. Raymond Hubley later remembered "there were a lot of enforced things...in our family that [were] connected to the work regiment of [John and Faith's] relationship...they used to have a thing where we'd go around the table and tell [about] your day, and it was like a pitch meeting or something".[56] Many of Hubleys kids went on to pursue their own artistic careers,[147] with Raymond becoming a film editor,[148] Emily becoming an animator,[149] and Georgia founding the band Yo La Tengo with her husband Ira Kaplan.[150] Given the nature of John and Faith's collaboration, Faith was sometimes looked over professionally with the attention and credit for their films given to her husband.[56] Hubley actively fought against this, highlighting Faith's contributions and their collaboration whenever possible. Following Hubley's solo Academy Award win[151] for Moonbird, he and Faith would be nominated together for the rest of their career. In his final interview before his death, Hubley insisted interviewer Michael Barrier was "sure to write [the article] in terms of the partnership of me and Faith, because all of the films, right from the beginning of our stuff, from Guggenheim on up, have always been a very close collaboration, creatively and on every other level."[38]
Hubley remained close with a number of UPA and Disney animators, many of whom he worked with on Storyboard, Inc. films. The Hubleys also became close friends with musician Dizzy Gillespie in the 1950s, meeting through mutual friend Paul Robeson.[70] Gillespie made several films with Storyboard, Inc., including the Academy Award-winning The Hole. Gillespie "respect[ed] them and appreciate[d] their creativity", calling them "wonderful people, very warm and very generous" who "seem[ed] to see me in things other people don't see".[70] Gillespie was a constant presence around the Hubley's house, with Mark Hubley remembering John and Faith "having parties [with Gillespie]" often, and Gillespie once "standing on his head playing 'Happy Birthday'" for Raymond.[56] Hubley was also close with Benny Carter and Quincy Jones.[63]: 13
Political views and HUAC investigation
Hubley was a lifelong registered Democrat.[152] In 1951, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) heard the testimony of UPA layout artist Bernyce Fleury, who claimed Hubley's films promoted communism and Hubley held communist sympathies.[50] On April 25, 1952, Hubley was formally subpoenaed by the HUAC to appear at the Los Angeles Federal Building for questioning.[153] The subpoena was served to Hubley's attorney on May 2.[154] While Hubley did leave UPA, he did not respond to the subpoena, and on February 2, 1953, Hubley was again summoned to the Federal Building for questioning.[155] Boyle found that Hubley had moved in the year prior before receiving the subpoena,[156] hence his lack of response. For an unknown reason, Hubley was not subpoenaed again until May 4, 1955, to appear before the HUAC.[157] Hubley responded, and was set to appear before the HUAC on June 20, 1956.[158] Hubley's attorney, Arthur McNulty,[159] postponed the hearing twice, first until June 28,[160] then to July 5,[161] likely since Hubley had already moved to New York City.
On July 5, 1956, Hubley appeared before the HUAC in Room 227 of the Los Angeles Federal Building with McNulty as his counsel.[159]: 5809 California Representatives Clyde Doyle and Donald L. Jackson presided over the hearing. When asked if he held communist sympathies, Hubley responded "I feel that in the area of politics...I do not feel personally that your committee should ask me to reveal or speak on these matters, either with my opinions or associations...I do not agree it is a proper question for a person such as myself to be asked".[159]: 5811 Hubley invoked the Fifth Amendment for the remainder of the hearing.[159]: 5812 When asked if his films at UPA promoted communist ideas, Hubley replied:
I have a lot of opinions on art...It is public work, and anyone is welcome to examine it and to look at it, and I stand on my work, and not on my opinions. My opinions can change, and I have changed them many times, all through my life, and I like the right we have to be able to change them. But the work stands. I have no shame about it. If anyone wants to examine it, it is there...My work has been my own work, and my own talent, and my own opinions.[159]: 5814
Hubley was never formally indicted by the HUAC, but the investigation did effectively blacklist him from Hollywood afterwards. He named his new studio Storyboard, Inc. out of fear of using his own name.
Style and technique
While at UPA, Hubley's films were more flat and graphic than those of Disney Studios or Warner Bros. Cartoons. Hubley was greatly influenced by Ivan Ivanov-Vano's The Tale of Czar Durandai (1934),[33] which used limited animation and flat compositions to create an incredibly stylized world. While Hubley's early UPA films featuring The Fox and the Crow animate the main characters in a style similar to that of Disney Studios, the films' backgrounds showcase Hubley's influence from European design. Punchy De Leon opens with a panning shot of a highly-stylized graphic background that uses skewed perspective, large blocks of color, and exaggerated shape language. Hints of Hubley's stylization of background perspectives and crows shots can also be seen in Robin Hoodlum and The Magic Fluke.
After UPA finished its trial run with Columbia in 1950, Hubley's films became more visually ambitious. As the supervising director of Gerald McBoing-Boing, Hubley oversaw the film's unique visuals provided by designer Bill Hurtz[162] and colorists Herb Klynn and Jules Engel. Rooty Toot Toot uses complex color blocking to tell its story visually, and implements even stronger skewed perspective and stylized line art backgrounds. Unlike Gerald Mc-Boing Boing, which uses abstract blocks of color in its backgrounds, Rooty Toot Toot experimented with different patterns and brush types.[163] The film's last act is illustrated in the style of sponge painting, pulling inspiration from European abstract expressionist artists. This push towards replicating brush strokes and printmaking in backgrounds extended to the animated segments Hubley directed for The Four Poster.
For his independent directorial debut, The Adventures of *, Hubley drew heavily from the visual style of artists like Paul Klee, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso.[63]: 13 The film's backgrounds were painted with sponges and thick brushes for texture. The characters were drawn in yellow crayon on black paper to give them a more unique, handmade look.[164] In subsequent films, Hubley would experiment with watercolors, ballpoint pen, and fabric markers to give his films distinctive visuals. Hubley used both cels and the Xerox method (popularized by Ub Iwerks on the 1961 film One Hundred and One Dalmatians)[165] depending on the film. For Cockaboody, characters were drawn on paper by Tissa David, then cut out and placed on cels. Hubley sometimes opted to use underlighting[166] - wherein the drawing or cel is lit from below rather than above - to make the films more distinct, and often used multiple exposure for more complex elements, like the river in Tender Game[56] or the abstract color section in Everybody Rides the Carousel.
While directing The Ragtime Bear, Hubley encouraged actor Jim Backus to improvise his dialogue and ramble on as his character Mr. Magoo would.[32]: 18 Bauckus' unique vocal performance would make Mr. Magoo a hit, becoming UPA's flagship character. The idea of using improvised dialogue in animation was not created by Hubley, as Dave Fleischer often encouraged his actors to make up their own dialogue for his Popeye and Betty Boop shorts,[167] but the success of Bauckus as Mr. Magoo inspired Hubley to pursue stream of consciousness improvisation for his independent films. Hubley took the idea a step further by recording his children playing together, interpreting their conversations through animation[168] after Faith had edited them together into a story. Films like The Hat, The Hole, and Everybody Rides the Carousel consist entirely of improvised conversations between actors, and Zuckerlandl! is an animated interpretation of a comedy routine by Robert M. Hutchins.
Many of Hubley's films at Storyboard, Inc. with his wife explore war and the nature of conflict. The Hat, The Hole, Eggs, Voyage to the Next, and Urbanissimo tackle industrialization, war, overpopulation, and the environment, all subjects the Hubleys were highly concerned with. Hubley, himself an avid reader of psychology books, also looked to explore complex psychological theories in his films, as he believed animation to be the perfect medium to visualize such intricate ideas.[169] Fittingly, the Hubleys taught a class at Yale called "The Visualization of Abstract Themes".[38] Hubley was also fascinated with the way children discussed life and their own experiences, which can be seen in Moonbird, Windy Day, and Cockaboody.
Death, preservation and legacy
During the production of A Doonesbury Special, Hubley went to the Yale New Haven Medical Center for what was thought to be a standard heart procedure. Hubley died during the surgery on February 21, 1977, at the age of 62.[94] A Doonesbury Special was completed by his wife and Garry Trudeau, earning John Hubley a posthumous Academy Award nomination and Palme d'Or win.[170] Hubley was cremated, and his ashes were spread over the Atlantic Ocean.
During his life and after his death, retrospectives and screenings of Hubley's films have been held all over the world. The Museum of Modern Art held a major two-part exhibition on the Hubleys' films and artwork in 1997 and 1998,[171] and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences held a salute to Hubley in 2011.[172] Mr. Magoo, a character co-created by Hubley, would become one of the most famous cartoon characters of all time, ranking #29 on TV Guide's "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" list in 2002.[173] Hubley is often cited as one of the most influential figures in the history of animation, influencing artists such as Michael Sporn,[174] Gene Deitch,[175] and his own daughter, Emily Hubley. On October 2, 2022, Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury ran a strip encouraging readers to watch Hubley's Windy Day.[176]
Eight of Hubley's films (Moonbird, The Hole, A Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Double Feature, Windy Day, Of Men and Demons, Voyage to the Next, A Doonesbury Special, and A Smattering of Spots - a reel of Storyboard, Inc. commercials) are preserved in the Academy Film Archive.[177] Papers from Hubley's life are held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Harvard University Library, the Yale University Library, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2013, The Hole was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[178] Artwork from Moonbird, Windy Day, Cockaboody, and several other of the Hubleys' films are on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.[179]
In 2021, a crowdfunded campaign headed by the Animation Education Association to have a Wisconsin State Historical Marker for Hubley placed in Marinette, Wisconsin, reached its goal.[180] The marker was unveiled on May 20, 2023.[181] To coincide with the unveiling, May 20, 2023, was proclaimed "John and Faith Hubley Day" in Wisconsin by Marinette's mayor Steve Genisot.[182]
Filmography
Screen Gems
- Wolf Chases Pigs (1942)
- Old Blackout Joe (1942)
- The Dumbconscious Mind (1942)
- King Midas, Junior (1942)
- The Vitamin G-Man (1943)
- Professor Small and Mister Tall (1943)
- He Can't Make It Stick (1943)
UPA
- Flat Hatting (1946)
- Robin Hoodlum (1948)
- The Magic Fluke (1949)
- Ragtime Bear (1949)
- Spellbound Hound (1950)
- Punchy de Leon (1950)
- Gerald McBoing-Boing (1951) (Oscar winner)
- Fuddy Duddy Buddy (1951)
- Rooty Toot Toot (1952)
Format Films
- The Tale of Old Whiff (1959)
Storyboard/Hubley Studios
- A Date with Dizzy (1956)
- Adventures of * (1957)
- Harlem Wednesday (1957)
- Tender Game (1958)
- Moonbird (1959) (Oscar winner)
- Children of the Sun (1960)
- Of Stars and Men (1962)[183]
- The Hole (1962) (Oscar winner)
- The Hat (1964)[184]
- Fail-Safe (1964)
- A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature (1966) (Oscar winner)
- Urbanissimo (1966)
- The Cruise (1967)
- Windy Day (1968) (Oscar nominee)
- Zuckerkandl! (1968)
- Of Men and Demons (1969) (Oscar nominee)
- Eggs (1970)
- Dig (1972)[185]
- Cockaboody (1973)[186]
- Voyage to Next (1974) (Oscar nominee)
- People, People, People (1975)
- Everybody Rides the Carousel (1976)
- A Doonesbury Special (1977) (Oscar nominee)
- Watership Down (1978) (uncredited)
- The Cosmic Eye (1986) (archive footage)[187]
TV
- Sesame Street ("Imagination E", 1969)
- Sesame Street ("O Song", 1969)
- Sesame Street ("Polar Bear & Exit", 1970)
- Sesame Street ("Small V", 1970)
- Sesame Street ("F for Football", 1971)
- Sesame Street ("Baby Fantasy", 1971)
- Sesame Street ("Birds 1-20", 1971)
- Sesame Street ("Penguin Rhythms", 1971)
- Sesame Street ("Hungry M", 1971)
- Sesame Street ("Letter S", 1972)
- The Electric Company ("The Adventures of Letterman", 1972)
Notes
- 1.^ Sometimes referred to as The Adventures of an * or spelled out The Adventures of Asterisk.
- 2.^ Sometimes referred to with an ampersand as A Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Double Feature. The Academy Film Archive uses this spelling.
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- ^ Emmett, Neil. "How Filmmakers Use Unscripted Audio in Animation: A Survey From 'Moonbird' to 'Waltz with Bashir'". Cartoon Brew. Published August 26, 2013. Accessed February 6, 2023.
- ^ Hubley, John (Spring 1975). "Beyond Pigs and Bunnies: The New Animator's Art". The American Scholar. Vol. 44, no. 2. pp. 213–223.
- ^ Murray, Noel (December 11, 2014). "A Doonesbury Special offered a disillusioned generation its own Charlie Brown Christmas". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
- ^ "The Hubley Studio: A Home for Animation". The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed digitally February 6, 2023.
- ^ Klein, Katie Cropper. "John Hubley: An Academy Salute". ASIFA-East. Published October 11, 2011. Accessed February 6, 2023.
- ^ TV Guide Book of Lists. Running Press. 2007. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-7624-3007-9.
- ^ "An Oscar Nomination from Nowhere". Animation Obsessive. Published October 6, 2022. Accessed February 6, 2023.
- ^ Deitch, Gene. "11. John Hubley". GeneDeitchCredits. Accessed February 6, 2023.
- ^ Trudeau, Garry. "Doonesbury". Published October 2, 2022. On GoComics
- ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
- ^ "Library of Congress announces 2013 National Film Registry selections". Washington Post (Press release). December 18, 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Grobar, Matt. "Academy Museum Sets 'Hollywoodland' Showcase Of L.A. Film Industry's Founders As First Permanent Exhibition, Unveils Others". Deadline. Published March 21, 2022. Accessed February 6, 2021.
- ^ Harris, Maya. "Student Raising Funds for John Hubley Historical Marker". Marinette Eagle Herald. Published September 28, 2021. Accessed February 6, 2023.
- ^ Facebook event for "A Hubley Homecoming" posted by the Stephenson Public Library. Published April 14, 2023. Accessed May 2, 2023.
- ^ "Common Council Regular Meeting Agenda - 5/2/2023". Agenda for the Common Council of the City of Marinette. Published April 28, 2023. Accessed May 2, 2023. p. 74
- ^ bibliothèques, Images en (June 13, 2014). "Of stars and men - Extrait" – via Vimeo.
- ^ "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1964 -". cartoonresearch.com.
- ^ "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1972 -". cartoonresearch.com.
- ^ "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1973 -". cartoonresearch.com.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (June 6, 1986). "SCREEN: 'COSMIC EYE,' ANIMATION AND MUSIC". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
- 1.^ At this time, the company was still called the Industrial Film and Poster Service. The name was changed in 1949 for The Brotherhood of Man.
- 2.^ The film is sometimes referred to as The Adventures of an * or The Adventures of an Asterisk.
External links
- Moma Exhibition – The Hubley Studio: A Home for Animation
- John Hubley at IMDb
- John Hubley at Clipland
- [permanent dead link] 1973 episode of Screening Room with John & Faith Hubley on YouTube
- 1914 births
- 1977 deaths
- American art directors
- American animated film directors
- American animated film producers
- Animators from Wisconsin
- Directors of Best Animated Short Academy Award winners
- English-language film directors
- First Motion Picture Unit personnel
- Film directors from Wisconsin
- Hollywood blacklist
- National Film Board of Canada people
- People from Marinette, Wisconsin
- Producers who won the Best Animated Short Academy Award
- Walt Disney Animation Studios people
- Independent animation