The Other John Dunn...

The draft of the day before yesterday (The Autograph Hound) showed animation done by J. Dunn. But is this the same John Dunn as the genius designer we know from the 50's and 60's?

Maybe not! I found that around 12/01/1936 there was a John J. Dunn at the Disney Studios whose personal data is this: born 12/07/1910, died 10/05/1992 in Ventura, CA.
The "real" John Dunn was John William Dunn, born 12/25/1919, Coatbridge, Scotland, UK, died 01/17/1983 in San Fernando, CA.

At the time of The Autograph Hound there was also a Ed(ward) Dunn at the studio, but the draft clearly states J. Dunn. Since we really have no info on John W Dunn at Disney before the late 40s, and only Ed Dunn was part of the strikers in 1941 (as animator he made a weekly $52,25), that to me strongly suggest that the animator on The Autograph Hound was John J Dunn, the "other" John Dunn.

Anyone out there who can shed a clearer light on this matter?

Comments

  1. Floyd NormanNovember 12, 2012 at 10:27 AM

    Yes, these duplicate names can be confusing. The John Dunn I knew in the fifties was a talented story man in Ward Kimball's "Space Unit." I believe he worked at DePatie-Freleng after leaving Disney.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prod. 2074 - Peter Pan (XVII)  - Seq. 15.0 - Voyage Home -- Ending

Image
Directed by Wilfred "JAXON" Jackson, laid out by Maclaren Stewart. Assistant director Mike Holoboff, secretary Toby (Tobelmann). This FINAL draft dated 11/3/52. Animation by Marvin Woodward (Lost Boys, John, Michael), Eric Larson (Peter), Harvey Toombs (Wendy), Don Lusk (Tink), Norm Ferguson (Nana), Jack Campbell (Father), Art Stevens, Milt Kahl (Father, Mother, Wendy), Marc Davis (Mother), Hal King (John), George Rowley (anchor chain, pixie dust, sail, ship), Josh Meador (cloud-ship). And that concludes the draft for Peter Pan, the fourteenth complete feature film draft on this blog! (Ok, you smart-alecks, we still need to see the last page of the Pink Elephant sequence...) As always, I feel the need to stress that these documents were kept to keep track of the responsible person, and as such it may not reflect precisely the specific directing animators who worked on the sequences. If e.g. an inker or checker needed to find out who animated the scene because of some question
Read more

The First Hyperion Ave. Studio

Image
I used to wonder where precisely Walt Disney's first 2719 Hyperion Ave. studio was located, and what it looked like. Since reading about it first in the 1970s in Dave Smith's article in Michael Barrier's great Funnyworld, I spent hours looking at photos, aerial photographs, maps etc, until I found I had a pretty good impression. My aim here is to pass some of that on to you, as I have found there was an interest in this since I posted this image of the staff with their new Charlotte Clark dolls on my Facebook page: Looking through Cecil Munsey's Disneyana, it appears to me that the "funny looking" Mickey with the button eyes is actually an example of the 1930 British-made pose-able Mickey by the Dean's Rag Book company of London. First, the WHERE. Here is the front of the Gelsons parking lot, with the original plot of the studio indicated in a blueish hue. We see the very small building, the back yard that has a car shed does not even reach the current Gel
Read more

Miffy the Movie in cinemas in Holland!

Image
Finally, the film I directed called " nijntje de film " ( miffy the movie ) has gone into general release in 118 cinemas in Holland today! As you can imagine, I am very proud of this film. Interestingly, the reviews are split in two: the ones where the reviewer saw the film WITH a children's audience all give the film four out of five stars, while the ones who have NOT seen the film with kids give it three out of five, and mention "I doubt if the film can keep the young audience captivated." The "four star" reviewers note that it can - that the film "works!" In the Dutch TV guide Troskompas , in the very first review published a week ago, I found a very clear view on this: the reviewer wrote that he feels he has no way of judging the film, but as his kid loved it and was entertained all the way, he could not but give the film four stars. To me, that is the only way to look at it: does our target audience like it? Are they amused and entertai
Read more