England - Thirsk, View of St. Mary's Pulpit #2 / Chuck Jones

Netflix has a program that's trending right now about Walt Disney, called Walt / The Man Behind the Myth, narrated by Dick Van Dyke, released in 2016 (incredible that Van Dyke, in his 90's, is still working).  The show offers a fascinating history of animation as a parallel to Disney's life and career, and many of his former employees and heavy hitters in the industry were interviewed.  One of those heavy hitters was Chuck Jones.

I've always had a fascination with animation, and often said that if I were to go back in time would pursue a career in the technical aspects of the art.  For that reason I chose to teach animation to sixth graders as a rotating elective at a district where I taught in Deep East Texas.  I built an animation board with three pegs and had the kids hand draw enough frames to do a short of ten seconds on sheets of white typing paper, which were then 3-hole punched to fit on the board.  When they were ready to commit to film I brought an old 8mm film camera and had them assist in shooting their frames one at a time until all 180 were captured.  Then I got the film developed and showed everyone's short at the end of the six-weeks.  We also did some stop-motion just for fun.  It was a well-received class, I think.

Several years later, in Houston during a hiatus in teaching, I learned that Chuck Jones would be signing books at the Bookstop in the old Alabama Theater building.  Though I really wasn't a fan of his style, due to his place in cartoon history I thought it a no-brainer to buy one of his books and have him sign it.  With book in hand I found myself in line with hundreds of others at the appropriate time.

Upon arriving at the table, while handing him the book to sign, I decided to take the liberty and tell him about what I'd done in the classroom.  To my surprise he became engaged and stopped the line to hear me out and, with apparent sincere interest, asked detailed questions about my methods, seeming impressed that the next generation was taught the fundamentals of animation in a rural East Texas classroom.  In fact we went on so long that I started to get nervous about everyone else waiting in line, but we broke it off and kept the line moving.

As I exited the front of the store with my now-signed book in hand, I saw one of those big black stretch limos out front waiting to whisk him away when the time came.  Stopping for a moment, I looked in awe at the car knowing that it was ultimately paid for by none other than...BUGS BUNNY!!