Walter Benjamin Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker.
Biography
Early years and start in animation
Lantz was born in New Rochelle, New York, to Italian immigrant parents Francesco Paolo Lantz (formerly Lanza) from Castiglione Cosentino, Italy and Maria Gervasi (changed to Jarvis to avoid prejudice) from Calitri. Walter's father ran a grocery. His mother, Maria, died while giving birth to Walter's younger brother, Michael Lantz. Walter's father, Francesco, soon became physically incapacitated leaving Walter to run the grocery store at a young age. According to Joe Adamson's biography The Walter Lantz Story, Lantz's father was given his new surname by an immigration official who anglicized it. Walter Lantz was always interested in art, completing a mail-order drawing class at age 12. He was inspired when he saw Winsor McCay's animated short "Gertie the Dinosaur".
While working as an auto mechanic, Lantz got his first break. Wealthy customer Fred Kafka liked his drawings on the garage's bulletin board and financed Lantz's studies at the Art Students League of New York. Kafka also helped him land a job as a copy boy at the New York American, owned by William Randolph Hearst. Lantz worked at the newspaper and attended art school at night.
By the age of 16, Lantz was working in the animation department of International Film Service studio under director Gregory La Cava. Lantz then worked at the John R. Bray Studios on the Jerry on the Job series. In 1924, Lantz directed, animated and even starred in his first cartoon series "Dinky Doodle", which included the popular fairy tale animated shorts Cinderella (1925) and Little Red Riding Hood (1925). Lantz soon replaced George "Vernon" Stallings as head of production at Bray in 1924. At the urging of his friend Robert G. Vignola, Lantz moved to Hollywood, California, after Bray switched to a publicity film studio in 1927, where he attempted to set up his own cartoon studio with Pinto Colvig, but their sound cartoons never got produced. In the meantime, he worked briefly for director Frank Capra and was a gag writer for Mack Sennett comedies. He also resorted to odd jobs, one of them being a chauffeur.
The Woody Woodpecker era
When Oswald had worn out his welcome, Lantz needed a new character. Meany, Miny and Moe (three ne'er-do-well chimps), Baby-Face Mouse, Snuffy Skunk, Doxie (a comic dachshund), and Jock and Jill (monkeys that resembled Warner Brothers' Bosko) were some personalities Lantz and his staff came up with. One character, Andy Panda, stood out and soon became Lantz's headline star for the 1939–1940 production season.
The woodpecker himself, Woody Woodpecker, made his first appearance in an Andy Panda short entitled Knock Knock on November 25, 1940. Less than a year later on August 29, 1941, Lantz married actress Grace Stafford in Reno, Nevada (he was previously married to and had a child with Doris Hollister). According to Lantz himself, he came up with the character during his honeymoon at a ranch nearby. He and Stafford kept hearing a woodpecker incessantly pecking on their roof. Grace suggested that Walter used the bird for inspiration as a cartoon character. Taking her advice, though a bit skeptical, Lantz created the brash woodpecker character, similar to the early Daffy Duck. Woody Woodpecker became an instant hit and got his own series during 1941.
Lantz claimed that Alex Lovy created the original design for Woody, although many animators at the studio agreed that Ben Hardaway, who liked screwball characters (with him creating the preliminary version of Bugs Bunny), drew the original design. Hardaway showed a prototype drawing of Woody to voice actor Mel Blanc, asking what he thought of it, to which he jokingly responded "Ugliest damn thing I ever saw".
Mel Blanc supplied Woody's voice for the first three cartoons. When Blanc accepted a full-time contract with Warner Bros., he was replaced as Woody's voice by Danny Webb, who only voiced the character in Pantry Panic before Webb himself was replaced by Kent Rogers. After Rogers went into the service due to World War II, Dick Nelson voiced Woody in 1943's Ration Bored before gagman Ben Hardaway, the man who was the main force behind Knock Knock, became the bird's voice the following year, starting with The Barber of Seville. Despite this, Blanc's distinctive laugh was still used throughout the cartoons until 1951.
In 1948, the Lantz studio created a hit Academy Award-nominated song titled "The Woody Woodpecker Song", featuring Blanc's laugh. The song was featured in the film Wet Blanket Policy. Mel Blanc sued Lantz for half a million dollars, claiming that Lantz had used his voice in later cartoons without permission. The judge ruled for Lantz, saying that Blanc had failed to copyright his voice or his contributions. Though Lantz won the case, he paid Blanc in an out-of-court settlement when Blanc filed an appeal, and Lantz began searching for a new voice for Woody Woodpecker.
In 1950, Lantz held anonymous auditions. Grace, Lantz's wife, offered to do Woody's voice, but Lantz turned her down because Woody was a male character. Not discouraged in the least, Grace made her own anonymous audition tape and submitted it to the studio. Not knowing who was behind the voice, Lantz chose Grace's voice for Woody Woodpecker. Grace supplied Woody's voice until the end of production in 1972 and also performed in non-Woody cartoons. At first, Grace voiced Woody without screen credit, thinking that it would disappoint viewers both young and old to know that Woody Woodpecker was voiced by a woman. However, she soon began to enjoy being known as the voice of Woody Woodpecker and, starting with 1958's Misguided Missile, her name was credited on the screen. Her version of Woody was cuter and friendlier than the manic Woody of the 1940s, and Lantz's artists redesigned the character to suit the new personality. Grace also recorded her own version of Woody's trademark laugh, which was used in the shorts from 1950's Puny Express onward, but Mel Blanc's voice was still heard saying "Guess who!?" in the opening titles.
Lantz's harmonious relationship with Universal, the studio releasing his cartoons, was jarred when new ownership transformed the company into Universal-International and ended many of Universal's company policies. The new management insisted on owning licensing and merchandising rights to Lantz's characters. Lantz refused and withdrew from the parent company by the end of 1947, releasing 12 cartoons independently through United Artists in 1948 and into the beginning of 1949. Financial difficulties forced Lantz to shut down his studio in 1949. Universal-International re-released Lantz's UA cartoons (and several earlier ones) during the shutdown and eventually came to terms with Lantz, who resumed production in 1951.
Retirement and death
In retirement, Lantz continued to manage his properties by licensing them to media. He continued to draw and paint, selling his paintings of Woody Woodpecker rapidly. On top of that, he worked with Little League and other youth groups in his area. In 1982, Lantz donated 17 artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, among them a wooden model of Woody Woodpecker from the cartoon character's debut in 1940. The Lantzes also made time to visit hospitals and other institutions where Walter would draw Woody and Grace would do the Woody laugh for patients.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Lantz served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute.
In 1990, Woody Woodpecker was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1993, Lantz established a $10,000 scholarship and prize for animators in his name at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, Santa Clarita.
Lantz died at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California from heart failure on March 22, 1994, at age 94. His ashes were interred beside his wife Gracie (1903–1992), at Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles County, California, CA., in the Courts of Remembrance section, Columbarium of Radiant Dawn.
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- SERVES
- 4
- COOK TIME
- 35 Min
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- 1/2 cup Dijon-style mustard
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 2/3 cup honey
- 1/3 cup light cream
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 8 chicken drumsticks (about 2 pounds)
- In a small bowl, combine Dijon and dry mustards, honey, and cream; mix until smooth.
- In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, heat oil until hot, but not smoking. Add the chicken and cook 7 to 9 minutes or until evenly browned, turning frequently.
- Reduce the heat to low and pour the mustard mixture over the chicken. Cover and simmer 25 to 30 minutes, until the juices run clear in the chicken.
- Arrange chicken on a serving platter; stir the sauce and pour over the chicken. Enjoy!
**When preparing this dish, make sure you use dry mustard (not prepared mustard) along with the Dijon mustard. This will guarantee the most delicious results!
Also celebrating a birthday today is Terri Prim (former station secretary/supervisor for LASD on Catalina Island). HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRI!! xo
