Canemaker, John 1943-

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CANEMAKER, John 1943-

PERSONAL: Born John Cannizzaro, May 28, 1943, in Waverly, NY; son of John F. (in hospital maintenance) and Rose (a nurse's aid; maiden name, Laux) Cannizzaro. Education: Marymount Manhattan College, B.A., 1974; New York University, M.F.A., 1976.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Office—New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Department of Film and Television, 721 Broadway, New York, NY 10003. Agent—Robert Cornfield, 145 West 79th St., New York, NY 10024.

CAREER: Worked as actor, singer, and dancer on television commercials and on stage, 1961-71; WCBS-TV, New York, NY, teacher, cartoonist, and performer on "Patchwork Family" series, 1972-75; animation teacher at workshops in New York City, 1973-76, and Nassau County Arts Development Center, Long Island, 1976; William Paterson College, Wayne, NJ, instructor in animation techniques, 1978—; Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, instructor in animation history, 1978—. Lecturer in animation at School of Visual Arts, New York City, 1976, New York University, 1977-78, Adelphi University, 1978, and Los Angeles International Film Exposition (Filmex), 1978. Host for CBS Camera Three, 1975-77; artistic director and master of ceremonies at New York International Animation Festival, 1975; coordinated the first U.S. retrospectives of the classic animated films of Winsor McCay, 1975; arranged the first U.S. retrospective "Felix the Cat" tribute to Otto Messmer at Whitney Museum of American Art, 1976. Held drawing exhibition in 1978; held cartoon screenings at New York Film Festival, Museum of Modern Art, Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, and John F. Kennedy Center. Freelance animator for producers of "Sesame Street," "Electric Company," "Captain Kangaroo," "Patchwork Family," American Broadcasting Co. (ABC)-TV's special "Days of Liberty," and in-house video for Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith, Inc; New York University Tisch School of the Arts, professor of film and television, head of animation area. Military service: U.S. Army, 1965-67.

AWARDS, HONORS: Award for best film in nostalgia category, Association of Animators, 1973, for "Lust"; third prize from Association of Animators, 1973, for "Greed"; grant from American Film Institute to produce, write, and direct "Remembering Winsor McCay," 1976; "The 40's" was selected for 1977 New York Film Festival American Program; National Education Association grant, 1981, Public Broadcasting System grant, 1983, 1984, for What Do Children Think of When They Think of the Bomb?; Museum of Modern Art, "Cineprobe" retrospective, 1984. Designed and directed animation for Academy Award-winning documentary You Don't Have to Die and the Peabody Award-winning documentary, Break the Silence: Kids against Child Abuse.

WRITINGS:

The Animated Raggedy Ann & Andy: An Intimate Look at the Art of Animation; Its History, Techniques and Artists, Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis, IN), 1977.

(Author of introduction) Walt Disney Productions, Treasures of Disney Animation Art, Abbeville Press (New York), 1982.

Winsor McCay, His Life and Art, Abbeville Press (New York), 1987.

Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat, Pantheon Books (New York), 1991.

Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists, Hyperion (New York), 1996.

Tex Avery: The MGM Years, 1942-55, Turner Publications (Atlanta, GA), 1996.

(Illustrator) Joseph Kennedy, Lucy Goes to the Country, Alyson Wonderland (Los Angeles, CA), 1998.

Paper Dreams: The Art and Artists of Disney Storyboards, Hyperion (New York), 1999.

Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation, Disney Editions (New York), 2001.

The Art and Flair of Mary Blair, Disney Press, 2003.

TELEVISION PROGRAMS

The Boys from Termit Terrance, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)-TV, 1975.

The Animated Art of Oskar Fischinger, CBS-TV, 1977.

SHORT SUBJECT FILMS

Animation: Its History and Uses, 1959.

Lust,1973.

The 40's, 1974.

Street Freaks, 1974.

Remembering Winsor McCay, 1976.

Otto Messmer and Felix the Cat, 1977.

Confessions of a Stardreamer, 1978.

Bottom's Dream, 1983.

The Hunger Project, 1987.

You Don't Have to Die, 1988.

John Canemaker: Marching to a Different Toon, 2001.

Contributor of articles to periodicals, including New York Times, Print, Film Comment, Filmmakers Newsletters, Variety, and Cinefantasique. Animation editor of Millimeter, 1975—; created the animation segment for the movie The World According to Garp, 1981; made several Children's Television Workshop films.

New York University's Fales Library houses the collection of Canemaker's documentary and graphic materials, which contain information on personalities and subjects, both American and international, who have significantly contributed to film animation.

SIDELIGHTS: John Canemaker is a professional animator who has written extensively about his field. He is not only an award-winning cartoonist, he is also an internationally recognized historian of animation. Some of his more noted publications include studies of the early Walt Disney Studio artists such as Tex Avery, Albert Hurter, Bill Peet, as well as Disney himself; pioneer animator Winsor McCay; and the creator of the cartoon character Felix the Cat, Otto Messmer.

Canemaker was born John Cannizzaro on May 28, 1943, in Waverly and then reared in Elmira, both towns located near the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. He became interested in animation in high school and even produced a film, but upon graduation, he decided to move to the big city and try to make a living as an actor. After gaining several lucrative positions as actor, singer, and dancer for television commercials and off-Broadway plays, Canemaker decided, at age twenty-eight, to enroll in college. It was at Marymount Manhattan College (New York City) that Canemaker met a teacher who would turn his career back to his original fascination with animation.

Sister Dymphna Leonard learned that Canemaker had made an animated film in high school, so she offered him an opportunity in the summer of 1973 to travel to Disney Studios and research the lives and careers of some of the original Disney cartoonists. In an article posted at the Animated World Network website, Mike Lyons reported that when Canemaker arrived at the studios, he met all of the "Nine Old Men" [a group of of original Disney animators], all of whom were still alive. During his stay at the studios, Canemaker told Lyons, "they showed me films and I saw Albert Hurter's drawings and I flipped [the animation drawings of] the Mushrooms from Fantasia and I was gone!" Afterwards, not only was Canemaker's interest in animation reawakened, he also became fascinated with the history of animation. Since then, he has authored several books on this topic. Lyons reported, "Canemaker says he strives to uncover the background of the artist in his writing and how their lives impacted on their work. 'I'm interested in the humanist aspects, the human story.'"

Winsor McCay, His Life and Art was the first book that Canemaker wrote in which he focused on a single artist. John Gross commented in New York Times: "John Canemaker's biography should go a long way toward putting McCay firmly back on the map.... He satisfies your curiosity about McCay's life, sets him in the context of his times, and comments perceptively on his art." Michael Barrier in Comics Journal called the book "Probably the best biography ever written . . . John Canemaker's text is that great and most welcome rarity, a genuine work of scholarship about a cartoonist . . . A model for other books about comic art."

McCay's contribution to the field of animation was considerable. Beckerman emphasizes "the high level of art that no one had approached previously and few have attained in the years since." Early animated films demanded thousands of drawings, and McCay had the gift for accuracy and quickness. Beckerman noted that Canemaker effectively demystifies his subject's life by providing important facts that had eluded historians and artists who wanted to know more about him and his colleagues.

Canemaker researched the story of another important figure in animation, Otto Messmer, for his next book. Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat relates the story of Messmer's creation of the first cartoon character to express an individualized personality in a film series. Felix started quite unpretentiously as a rush job for Paramount. The studio was so impressed with the little black cat that they asked for a whole series of the cartoon character, who was first called Master Tom. Messmer's boss, Pat Sullivan, took credit for the creation, but after the death of Sullivan, Messmer received his long overdue credit.

While conducting interviews of the old-time animators, people kept telling Canemaker that he should seek out Messmer. According to Lyons's article, "The meetings between Canemaker and Messmer would change both men's lives." After his interviews with Messmer, Canemaker wrote a book and produced a documentary film about the classic animator.

In Tex Avery: The MGM Years, 1942-55, Canemaker chronicles the life of a man who, according to Booklist reviewer Gordon Flagg, preferred the creative freedom of highly imaginative animation. Flagg adds that "today's cartoons owe far more to Avery's over-thetop style than to Disney's staidness." Walt Disney believed in making his characters lifelike. Avery did not. Instead, Avery created the character Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers animated stars. His influence remains popular in more contemporary animated cartoons.

After almost thirty years of working with animation, as an artist, as a teacher, and as a historian, Canemaker wrote Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation, going back to those first interviews that he conducted while an undergraduate student. The nine people he interviewed were Les Clark, Woolie Reitherman, Eric Larson, Ward Kimball, Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery, and Marc Davis, cartoonists and animators responsible for Disney Studios' early successes. This was Canemaker's third book on the topic of Disney Studio artists; the first two were Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists and Paper Dreams: The Art and Artists of Disney Storyboards.

Interviewer Amid Amidi of the Web site Animation Blast asked Canemaker what drew him to the project of writing Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation. Canemaker responded, "I wanted to delve into great detail about each of the Nine, personally and professionally. I was interested in discovering their individual approaches to animation techniques, their philosophy of entertainment and communication, etc. I also wanted to know them as people, what their personal lives and personalities were like, and how that affected their work and relationships."

Canemaker's book was "highly recommended" by Library Journal's David M. Lisa, who wrote that this work would appeal to readers interested in "the creative forces" responsible for bringing to life "some of the most recognizable characters and sequences" in Disney's history.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 18, 1978.

Back Stage, July 10, 1987, Volume 28, Howard Beckerman, review of Winsor McCay, His Life and Art, pp. 46-47.

Booklist, November 15, 1996, Volume 93, number 6, Gordon Flagg, review of Tex Avery: The MGM Years, 1942-1955, p. 562; October 1, 1999, Volume 96, number, 3, Mike Tribby, review of Paper Dreams: The Art and Artists of Disney Storyboards, p. 333.

Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 1997, Zoe Ingalls, "Designs That Come to Life: The Basic Magic of Animation."

Comics Journal, March, 1988, Michael Carrier, review of Winsor McCay, His Life and Art.

Film News, November and December, 1976, summer, 1977.

Hollywood Reporter, August 12, 1977.

Library Journal, October 1, 1999, Volume 124, number 16, Kelli N. Perkins, review of Paper Dreams, p. 95; February 1, 2002, Volume 127, number 2, David M. Lisa, review of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation, p. 94.

Los Angeles Times, May 26, 1978.

New York Daily News, February 2, 2003, Chrissy Persico, "That Old Walt Disney Magic."

New York Times, June 9, 1987, John Gross, review of Winsor McCay, His Life and Art, p. 24; May 4, 2001, Wendy Noonan, "When Mickey Was Just a Minor Mouse."

New York Times Book Review, March 31, 1991; Michael Cart, review of Felix: The Twisted Tale of the World's Most Famous Cat, p. 11.

Print, July-August, 1992, Volume 46, number 4, Steven Heller, review of Felix, p. 285; July-August, 1997, Volume 51, number 4, James McMullan, review of Before the Animation Begins: The Art and Lives of Disney Inspirational Sketch Artists, pp. 28-29B; January, 2000, Volume 54, number 1, Joe Sedelmaier, review of Paper Dreams, p. 40A.

Publishers Weekly, September 20, 1999, Volume 246, number 38, "Inside the Mouse," review of Paper Dreams, p. 68.

Southampton Press, October 15, 1998, Ellen Keiser, "'Bridgehampton' Colorful Art Potpourri in Cinematic Animation."