From The Peg-Board, February 1996
Animation pioneer, producer and author SHAMUS (JIMMY) CULHANE
died on February 2 after a long battle with diabetes and circulatory problems.
He was eighty-eight.
Starting in 1924 as an errand boy at J.R. Bray's studio, becoming an animator
with the advent of sound (he could read music), his career spanned sixty
years. Fleischer, Iwerks, Van Beuren, Disney, Warner Bros., Walter Lantz,
Shamus Culhane Productions, Hal Seegar, Storyboard, Famous, Steve Krantz,
Gamma, M.G. Films and Westfall. He taught animation and his two books, Talking
Animals and Other Funny People and Animation From Script to Screen are two
of the more popular volumes on animation around today.
Shamus was one of animation's great personalities. He lived life in broad
strokes with a gusto worthy of Rabelais or Falstaff. Inspiring, maddening,
irreverent, tender, he never failed to elicit opinions wherever he went,
and never paid them notice.
In 1977, I was his assistant on one of his final films, a nuclear civil-defense
film (Mea culpa! a non-union project). Shamus taught me X-sheets, assist
and production techniques; using the old fashioned way of instruction: regularly
delivered butt-kicking .When he saw I would not whither under his tough
tutelage, we became fast friends.
Marc Davis said Grim Natwick didn't just teach him about animation, he taught
him about life. Shamus had the same effect on me. He taught me that you
could love the art of animation and not have to be a cartoon geek, you could
parallel your tastes towards fine art and music (During an argument with
Max Fleischer, Max growled at him: "You know what's your problem, Culhane?
You are an artist!")
As an employer he had locked horns with unions in the past, yet he was proud
of my union leadership, calling me "El Presidente!" and predicting
to me that the future of the animation employer-employee relationship will
evolve eventually into employee-owned studios.
Farewell, my teacher and friend. My second father. I think his epitaph can
be found in his reminiscence on the Gala Premiere night of Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs. He recalled as he was walking the red carpet towards
the theater he heard two onlookers say: "Who's that? Nahh, that's nobody!",
and that after the triumph of the film he thought to himself: "Screw
you s.o.b.'s. I've worked on a picture that will be around long after you're
dead. I am somebody!"
-- Tom Sito
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