Howard Beckerman: A Rankin/Bass Person You Should Know!
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I was introduced to HOWARD BECKERMAN by DON DUGA, unfortunatly after my first
RANKIN/BASS book went to press. HOWARD filled the gap between TONY PETERS (RUDOLPH)
and DON DUGA (EVERYTHING after RUDOLPH) as RANKIN/BASS Storyboarder. HOWARD was
the storyboard artist on the very first RANKIN/BASS TV Special RETURN TO OZ (Feb.
1964). It made it's debut on the NBC-TV GENERAL ELECTRIC FANTASY HOUR and was well
received. It was also the first time that ROMEO MULLER wrote for a RANKIN/BASS
Special.
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Howard began in the animation field in 1949 when he was hired personally by Paul
Terry, at the TERRY-TOON STUDIO, to work on MIGHTY MOUSE and HECKLE & JECKLE
Cartoons. He rose from inker to in-betweener and then moved to Paramount's
FAMOUS STUDIOS to draw POPEYE and CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST.
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The demands of television brought the opportunity to animate commercials for many top studios including: SHAMUS CULHANE Productions, FILM GRAPHICS, ELEKTRA FILMS, GRYPHON, PELICAN, CINEFFECTS, BILL STURM STUDIOS and UPA PRODUCTIONS. At UPA (1954-1957), he drew the successful PIEL'S BEER Spots and wrote and animated shorts for the CBS series the GERALD McBOING BOING SHOW. It was the first animated half hour Children's program in COLOR.
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In the 1970's, he opened a studio to Produce, write and animate films for such clients as the XEROX CORP., IBM, EXXON, CBS, NBC. PROCTOR & GAMBLE and even animated segments for SESAME STREET & THE ELECTRIC CO.. For nine years his studio did all the animation for the BLACK FLAG commercials (Which many have thought JACK DAVIS designed BUT he did not.)
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Today he teaches Animation classes in New York at THE SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS (As does DON DUGA) and THE PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN. He also appeared with DON DUGA recently at an ASIFA screening of MAD MONSTER PARTY to talk about his RANKIN/BASS work and meet fans. "I enjoyed those early days working on RETURN TO OZ. I remember ARTHUR's studio well, which at the time doubled for his residence," Says BECKERMAN.
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