Just to put these somewhere and add some solid cartooning to the Internet (it’s not in abundance), here is a slew of model sheets from Famous Studios, ranging from 1943 to 1957. All of these are courtesy of Will Friedwald. Some of these are copies from the collection of Frank Endres, one of animation’s good guys and a mainstay of Fleischer and Famous from the ’30s to the end of the ’50s. A red marking of “FE” was added to the models and to be respectful, I’ve left them intact wherever possible.
These are presented in rough chronological order. Take note of some of the dates and the gap between the cartoon’s production and the actual release date, which could be as long as three years!
Sheep Shape (1946), drawn by Dave Tendlar
The Circus Comes to Clown (1947)
Little Audrey, drawn by Bill Tytla
Wigwam Whoopee (1948)
Wigwam Whoopee (1948)
A Wolf in Sheik’s Clothing (1948)
Robin Hoodwinked (1948)
A Balmy Swami (1949)
“Kitty”, drawn by Dave Tendlar
Baby Wants Spinach (1950)
Pilgrim Popeye (1951)
Pilgrim Popeye (1951)
“Kitty Head Chart”, drawn by Dave Tendlar. (Katnip would be named in the 1951-52 season.)
Popeye, Oct. 1950, drawn by John Gentilella
Swimmer Take All (1952)
Popalong Popeye (1952)
Popeye, April 1951 (differs slightly from Oct. 1950)
Spunky Skunky (1952)
By the Old Mill Scream (1953)
Git Along Lil Duckie (1955), drawn by Dave Tendlar
Olive Oyl, Feb. 1952, drawn by Frank Endres
Dizzy Dishes (1955)
Wimpy, likely drawn for Penny Antics (1955)
Spooky
Peekaboo (1957), drawn by Myron Waldman
Finnegan’s Flea (1958)
Chew-Chew Baby (1958)
I wonder what took Git Along Little Ducky so much longer to make than the others. Anyway, great stuff.
Not so much production time, but shorts at Famous could sit around for a long time if there was no incentive to put them out. The last three Buzzy Crow cartoons were put out years after they were actually made, and the third was actually turned into a Herman & Katnip (A Bicep Built for Two). Not sure why this was the case for a cartoon with Baby Huey, who was becoming increasingly popular, but weirder things have happened.
I’ve seen the Bill Hudson Katnip one in Maltin’s Of Mice & Magic and the Johnny Gentilella Popeyes in such various books as Shamus Culhane’s Talking Animals. Since I’ve never seen the other ones, I found them to be a real treat to view and study. Do you have any model sheets featuring Possum Pearl? She only appeared in two Famous cartoons. I have a copy of one in which she’s named “Virgy.”
It was always interesting to me how Famous Studios managed to make Olive much prettier, as compared with other appearances.
Culhane’s complaint about the Fleischer Miami-era model sheets were that the drawings were too stiff and symmetrical. You only see 1-2 examples here that suffer from the ‘frozen in place’ problem, though of course by the time you get to 1958 and the major budget cuts the characters are done more to express trying to keep up with UPA than being fully expressive (though given Famous’ love for violent, painful gags, lord knows what “Chew Chew Baby” would have looked like if it had been made in full animation in 1948 instead of 1958).