The above item is pictured in the Profiles in History Hollywood Auction booklet, available here. Aside from obviously being paired with an unrelated background, Mike Kazaleh tells me he suspects it was done by one of the MGM assistant animators rather than one of the regular suspects (Harvey Eisenberg, Ken Muse, Dick Bickenbach) for personal amusement. It is doubtful the word “boob” would be used in 1940s publicity material, regardless of where the booklet states it’s from.
There’s lots of great artwork pictured from most of the classic studios, so grab the PDF while you can. I was planning a self-righteous rant about how the practice of animation art dealing is little more than shysters ransacking widows to make obscene profits on artwork they don’t even know the origins of, save the occasional upstanding practitioner (the excellent Howard Lowery comes to mind immediately), but thought better of it.
(Via Mark Mayerson).
what the hell? their pricing seems pretty off, they had the original Blitz Wolf title card at $800-$1200,but a Yogi Bear title card at $2000-$3000.
I hear you, Adam. The above T&J piece is valued at $3,000-$5,000. On the same page is an original drawing from Gertie the Dinosaur, valued at… $3,000-$5,000. There’s obviously no system to their method of pricing.
Actually, “boob” at that time was a fairly common and inoffensive slang word for “dummy.” In fact, it was used in the title of at least one WB cartoon, “Boobs in the Woods.”
That’s true, but I’m increasingly doubtful this cel (which Mike Kazaleh notes is painted rather than puddled in as was traditionally done) ever used in actual publicity material. Anyone have a collection that proves otherwise?
Geoff is right about the use of the word “boob” here. In fact there was a comic strip with the title character “Boob McNutt”.