3 Obits: 2 Californians and a New Yorker
Three obituaries in the LA Times online caught my eye.
Alexander Anderson Jr., who was a pioneering cartoonist in television, died at a rest home in Carmel, CA on Friday at age 90. He was a longtime resident of Pebble Beach and developed Alzheimer’s disease. Anderson was born in Berkeley on September 5, 1920 and attended UC Berkeley before he transferred to the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Anderson served in Naval intelligence during World War II. Anderson created the “landmark duo” of Crusader Rabbit and Rags the Tiger, as well as Rocky (the Flying Squirrel) and Bullwinkle (J. Moose) or “Moose and Squirrel” (as Natasha would have called them). He and his friend, Jay Ward, pitched a half-hour package to NBC, which also included Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties. NBC picked up Crusader Rabbit and inserted the cartoons into its children shows at a time when people questioned whether animation on TV was even possible! Anderson and Ward went their separate ways in 1951, with Anderson remaining in advertising in San Francisco and Ward eventually returning to TV in Los Angeles in 1957. Although Anderson reportedly remained half-owner of a number of cartoon characters, he told the Chronicle in 1991 that he had not received any payments since Ward’s death in 1989. In 1993, he settled his lawsuit with Jay Ward Productions over the rights to the characters.
Cartoonist Leo Cullum, who contributed hundreds of cartoons to The New Yorker magazine over 33 years, died of cancer in Malibu, CA on Saturday at age 68. His drawings helped to define the look of The New Yorker in recent years, and featured “businessmen in sombreros, showgirls in courtrooms, and smart aleck dogs.” Cullum‘s drawings were often used for the caption contest in the magazine. Cullum flew as a pilot for TWA for 30 years and became a more serious cartoonist after the airline laid him off.
Joseph Stein, who turned a Yiddish short story into the book, screenplay, and hit Broadway musical, “Fiddler on the Roof,” died at 98 from complications of a fall at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, where he had been hospitalized for prostate cancer. Stein, who also wrote the book or story for almost a dozen other musicals (including “Zorba,” “Mr. Wonderful,” and “Plain and Fancy“) won a Tony for his work on “Fiddler.” Stein also wrote for radio and TV and worked for performers such as Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers, and Henry Morgan.
-Bill at
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