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Dave Hilberman (interviewed September 2003) was one of the pioneers of animation, admired almost as much for his stellar work in helping to build the Cartoonist’s Union, as he was for his superb direction and layout work.  Every animator in the industry owes a debt to his selfless energy in seeing that the animation family has better working conditions.  Hilberman began as an art teacher in a Cleveland high school, before being selected to work on Disney’s first animated feature, Snow White.  Our 2003 interview with Hilberman is marred by a technical hum that was in the line that day, but we are working to get that fixed and will replace the present audio with a better version, asap.  The 30 minutes that you will hear here, were selected from a longer interview recorded for the UPA documentary.  We will be adding more from the UPA interview library, as the weeks go by, to augment our regular podcast interviews, because some of those earlier interviews are becoming historic, even when we set aside the UPA material for later use in the documentary. 

But, there is still quite a bit about UPA in this interview, because Hilberman was one of the founding fathers, the others being Zack Schwartz, and my dad, Steve Bosustow. Hilberman created all the poster jobs for the young studio, then called United Film and Poster Service, while Zack and my dad concentrated on a slide film, Sparks and Chips Got the Blitz.  But, when they landed their first actual film, Hell Bent for Election, a frame of which is to the right, everyone climbed aboard.  Chuck Jones directed, and Hilberman did layouts, and was instrumental is getting the Hell Bent job, commissioned by the CIO and United Auto Worker’s, in support of the re-election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.  Also in the interview, are thoughts about the Cartoonists Union, the Disney Strike, the  Black List, serving in World War II, and the formation of Tempo Films, which Hilberman founded with Zack Schwartz, in New York.

It was an exciting time for young liberal artists like Hilberman, and his excitement continued long after leaving UPA.  But, one of the greatest things about Hilberman, for me personally, was his strong sense of family, supported by a 70-year marriage with the love of his life, Libbie Hilberman.  Dave Hilberman was my very first video interview for the UPA documentary.  I was anxious about our first meeting, and doubting whether I should be intruding in other people’s lives, but Dave and Libbie were so gracious and warm, that I quickly became enthusiastic about the project.  Of the many people who have encouraged and helped along the way, the Hilberman’s were at the very beginning.

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This episode sponsored by The UPA Project

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Tom Roth has worked in both traditional animation and computer animation for Disney, Ralph Bakshi, Richard Williams, Nick Bosustow, and others.

Roth started in the animation business in 1971 working for Nick Bosustow, at Stephen Bosustow Productions, in Santa Monica. The building was an old converted warehouse, owned by a colorful character known as Gordie Hormel, the meat-packing heir. At Bosustow’s, Tom worked for director, Sam Weiss, and later spent a few years working on various Saturday morning series, as well as an interesting stint with Ralph Bakshi, who made Fritz the Cat. Tom worked on the controversial Coonskin there, as well. So far all of this is hand-drawn animation.

Through Carl Bell, Tom got a job animating on the feature Raggedy Ann and Andy, directed by Richard Williams, the wildly eccentric and hugely talented animator/director. Roth worked for Williams for several years, on various projects. Then, tired of living in Hollywood, Tom moved back to his hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona, and set up an animation commercial operation, which was quite successful, concentrating on local clients. Most of us think of LA, NYC, and a few other large metropolises in the States, and around the world, as the only games in town. But, some visionaries, such as Roth, find a hungry market in other towns, where clients are anxious not to have to deal with the big monoliths. That said, after four years running his own business, Tom decided that being a businessman was not for him.

When he got an offer to go to Disney, he jumped at the chance, and worked on Hercules, in hand-drawn animation, which was his familiar background. However, he began studying the burgeoning computer animation techniques, and because of that, got a computer animation job at Disney, on Dinosaur, and subsequently, worked on several more CG features including, Shrek, Stuart Little, Scooby-Doo and others.

In the course of Tom’s work, he’s been able to live in Dublin, New York, London, Vancouver, and San Francisco. But, Tom Roth still considers Scottsdale, Arizona, his home, and commutes with ease to other places, where ever the work is, or to help us launch Toon In to the World of Animation … our very first show.

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This episode is sponsored by The UPA Legacy Project.