LifeTimeline

Myron Waldman

    • APR 23

      Mine...and Shakespeare's!

    1908
    • The Art of Mashed Potatoes

    1912
    • Dad's First Muse

    1915
    • Working His Way Through Pratt

    1926
    • OCT

      Joining Fleischer Studios

    1930
    • Dad's First Screen Credit!

    1931
    • I YAM WHAT I YAM

    1934
    • Dad's All Time Favorite Betty Boop Carton

    1935
    • Twentysomethings in the 1930s

    • OCT

      A Fleischer Studio Profile of Dad

    1936
    • And the Academy Award (Nomination) Goes To...

    1937
    • Southward Ho! (or Boop Over Miami)

    1938
    • Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane? No, It's One of the Best Cartoons Dad Ever Made

    1941
    • And Dad Created Eve

    1943
    • And Max & Clara Created Rosalie!

    1944
    • You'll Get That Comic Strip Yet!

    1946
    • Casper The Friendly Ghost Arrives!

    • APR 23

      The Best Birthday Present Dad Ever Gave Himself

    1948
    • APR

      Dad & Mom's First Co-Production

    1950
    • APR 08

      Dad & Mom's Second Co-Production

    1953
    • Dad & The Golden Age of Live TV

    1954
    • Goodbye Paramount, Hello Hal Seeger Productions

    1958
    • Hallmark, Eat Your Heart Out

    1964
    • MOMA Salutes Myron!

    • Grandchildren Arrive!

    1993
    • The Second Golden Age of Myron Waldman

    1994
    • APR 21

      Grandaughter #3 Arrives!

    1997
    • FEB 04

      Even at the Very End, Dad Made Us Smile

    2006
  • Mine...and Shakespeare's!

    Brooklyn, New York
    Dad was born in Brooklyn on April 23, 1908. It was also the birthdate of another genius.

    In fact, when Dad was in high school, one of his teachers asked on April 23rd, "Does anyone know what great man’s birthday is it today?" Dad stood up, and proclaimed proudly, “Mine and Shakespeare’s!”
    By Robert Waldman
  • The Art of Mashed Potatoes

    Broooklyn , New York
    At the family dinner table, 4 year old Myron was taught by his 19 year old brother Max how to shape mashed potatoes into a donkey.
    A lifelong love of art and legumes began.
    By Robert Waldman
  • Dad's First Muse

    Brooklyn, New York
    The most fascinating thing Dad ever saw as a little boy was a beer stein that his mother's family had brought with them when they came to America from Germany. (Photo: that's the actual stein)
    As you can see, the stein was painted with cartoons of people cavorting and carousing in a tavern.
    Dad started copying the cartoons with his crayons. Day after day, he would copy them.
    “Can’t you do anything else?” said his brother Herbert. "A beer stein isn’t for drawing; it’s for drinking!”
    Suddenly, Herbert had an idea.
    “Hey, Broth…I bet if I filled that stein with an ice cream soda, you couldn’t finish it.”
    Dad put down his crayon. If there was anything he liked better than drawing it was ice cream.
    A half- hour later, Dad was finishing up the last of not a pint, not a quart, but an entire half- gallon of chocolate ice cream soda.
    Thirty seconds later, the half gallon of chocolate ice cream soda was finishing up Dad.
    When Dad finally stopped throwing up, Herbert smiled as he handed him a washcloth and said, “Better stick to drawing, Broth. It’s the one thing you’re good at.”

    By Robert Waldman
    Andy Englehart
    Wanted information about the vase ,
    .I have one like it
    John Williams
    Very nice vase!
  • 2

    Working His Way Through Pratt

    Brooklyn & Glen Spey, New York
    In the fall of 1926, Dad did something none of his brothers or sister had ever done. He started college.

    Just as he had hoped, Pratt Institute made him a better artist. He could draw and paint as well as anyone there, whether it was a portrait or a still life, watercolors or oil paints. He even discovered that he was a good sculptor too.

    Dad worked hard to pay for school. At night, he drew pictures for telephone books, ads for a lingerie company (see photo) and cartoons for a newspaper on Long Island. In the summers, he worked as a counselor at a sleep away camp in upstate New York. He also drew cartoons for the camp’s newsletter and designed scenery for its shows. One year, he even created an entire circus featuring all the campers.

    With every job experience, more and more people thought that Dad was the best artist they had ever seen. One of them was the Camp's nurse (The story continues in 1930).
    By Robert Waldman
  • 2

    Joining Fleischer Studios

    New York , New York
    The nurse at the sleep away camp where Dad worked as a counselor was a neighbor of Max Fleischer’s brother Dave—the director of all the Fleischer cartoons.

    The nurse saw all of Dad’s artwork and asked him if he would like to meet Dave. Dad was a big fan of the Fleischer Brothers Out of the Inkwell cartoons and said sure.

    So in the fall of 1930, he brought his portfolio to Dave Fleischer, and was soon hired as an inker. That’s the person who traces the animators drawings on celluloid sheets…which are then colored and then photographed frame by frame.

    He didn’t stay an inker too long. One weekend, he animated a sample scene of Bimbo, one of the studio’s characters, falling through the sky and being saved by a vulture flying by. He put the scene on Dave Fleischer’s desk Monday morning. Dave liked it, but asked Dad why the bird’s wings were flapping in the wrong direction.

    Dad then realized he had made a mistake, but quickly covered it by saying, “I thought it would be funny.”

    At 23, Dad was made a full-fledged animator. By the time he was 25, he was made a head animator. That’s the animator who’s in charge of a cartoon. He lays out the picture’s scenes, designs all the supporting characters, and animates the key scenes and assigns the others.

    Check out this rarity: a copy of his first Fleischer contract as an animator. In just 7 months, his salary had gone from $12 a week to $35 a week (a lot of money then).

    By Robert Waldman
    steve waldman
    1931 Fleischer Studios, Dad upper right
    steve waldman
  • Dad's First Screen Credit!

    New York, New York
    At 23, Dad earned his first screen credit on the Bouncing Ball cartoon, "By the Light of the Silvery Moon." He found out what movie theatre the cartoon would be playing in Brooklyn and told his mom.
    She brought all her friends to the theatre and when Dad's name appeared on the big screen, they all cheered. How proud Grandma Becky must have been!

    Click on the image to see Dad's first credited cartoon.
    By Robert Waldman
  • I YAM WHAT I YAM

    Dad got credit on only four Popeye cartoons(worked uncredited on many more), but his first, "Can You Take It?" is considered by animation historians to set the standard for all the Popeye cartoons to come.
    Here's the first three minutes.
    By Robert Waldman
  • 2

    Dad's All Time Favorite Betty Boop Carton

    New York, New York
    Dad animated more Betty Boop cartoons than any other animator. He even created her little dog, Pudgy.

    Of all the Boop cartoons he made, A Language All My Own was his favorite. In it, Betty flies to Japan to entertain at a Tokyo vaudeville house. During production, Dad met with Japanese students from Columbia University to make sure Betty's dance movements were in no way offensive or vulgar to Asian audiences.
    By Robert Waldman
  • Twentysomethings in the 1930s

    Dad, his cousins and siblings were the best of friends and often hung out together. And look how good looking they were! From Left to Right,
    Dad's good friend Albie Zeisel, unidentified, Cousin Sidney Daley, Dad, his sister Sylvia(this is the only picture I've found of Sylvia and Dad together as adults; she died in 1937), her husband Hank, and sister-in-law, Mollie.
    By Robert Waldman
  • 2

    A Fleischer Studio Profile of Dad

    New York, New York
    A rarity discovered in the New York Historical Society's library.
    The Fleischer Studio newsletter featured monthly profiles of employees at the studio. They got around to 28 year old Dad in October of 1936.
    By Robert Waldman
  • 2

    And the Academy Award (Nomination) Goes To...

    Los Angeles, California
    The Fleischer Studio was nominated four times for the best cartoon short.
    Two of those cartoons were Dad's, Educated Fish (1937) & Hunky & Spunky (1938), starring two characters Dad created. For your 21st century consideration, here they are again.
    By Robert Waldman
  • 4

    Southward Ho! (or Boop Over Miami)

    Miami, Florida
    In 1938, Dad was just about to buy a farm near the Delaware Water Gap when he got word that the Fleischer Studio would be leaving New York and relocating in Miami. (According to Charles Solomon’s excellent History of Animation, Paramount was pressuring the Fleischer’s to make a feature length cartoon on the heels of Disney’s success with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The studio didn’t have enough office space for the additional staff a feature required, so Max decided to move the whole operation to Miami where he had a winter house. The tax breaks Florida offered to lure film production to the state were an added incentive.)

    After hearing the news of the move, his mom made her own announcement.

    “When you go to Florida, I’m going to leave your father. We’ve never had anything in common.”

    “Nothing doing,” said Dad, “you’re both coming with me!”

    “They didn’t have anything in common,” he told me years later. “But she would have died on her own.”

    So in 1938, Dad and his parents left Brooklyn, and never lived there again.

    From the pictures, the home movies and Dad’s stories, Florida in the late ‘30s was paradise. In eight years, he had gone from a starting salary of $12 a week at Fleischer’s to $185 a week --the equivalent of $3,000 a week today. For 75 bucks a month, Dad rented a huge house in the Beverly Hills of Miami, Coral Gables. He drove a beautiful cream- colored Packard convertible that he bought for cash.

    On weekends, he’d take Pan American’s flying boats to visit his cousins in Havana. “The most beautiful takeoffs in the world,” he remembered years later. (Photo: Dad just before taking off)
    “When the plane started to take off, you couldn’t see anything out the windows because the water was splashing so high. As the plane went up, the water would drop away and you would see you were in the air! It was so exciting!”

    No more dingy offices in 1600 Broadway. The Fleischer Studio in Miami was the epitome of Streamline Art Deco inside and out; as modern as Disney’s new studio in Burbank.

    Unfortunately, Max Fleischer was no Walt Disney. While Mickey Mouse toys, games and books became part of growing up in the 1930s, Max said, “I’m not in the toy business.”

    Dad’s brother Herb tried to get the studio into the merchandising act with Betty Boop lingerie. But the idea never took off. (Uncle Herb was 60 years ahead of his time.)

    Max’s brother, Dave, the closest thing the studio had to a Disney, was losing focus, spending more time picking ponies at Hialeah and fooling around with his secretary than with Betty Boop, Popeye and the rest of the gang.

    In 1937, Popeye had been a bigger box office star than Mickey Mouse. By 1939, the Fleischer’s were losing whatever lead they had through a series of blunders.

    The first of them was the decision about what its first feature length cartoon should be. The leading candidates: an animated version of Gulliver’s Travels, or Popeye, the studio’s biggest star, as Aladdin.

    Max Fleischer reasoned, “Well, Popeye may be big in America, but just like Snow White, all of Europe knows Gulliver’s Travels. It’ll have a huge foreign market.”

    True…if only Gulliver had gotten to Europe before Hitler.

    After Gulliver, the Fleischers were stuck with an enlarged staff. The studio’s bread and butter cartoons of Betty Boop and the Color Classics just weren’t cutting it in ’39 as they had in ’35. Only Popeye remained popular, but there were just too many people at the studio to work on just one series. To keep everyone gainfully employed, the studio developed new projects to replace Betty and the Classics.

    Among them: a series of cartoons about a Stone Age family featuring their primitive yet zany versions of all the modern day conveniences.

    Sound familiar? Unlike Hanna-Barbera’s later formula of turning popular TV characters into cartoon characters, the Stone Age Cartoons were just a series of sight gags with characters that lacked the charm of Fred Flintstone/Ralph Kramden and Barney Rubble/Ed Norton.

    After screening the first Stone Age cartoon Dad animated, Dave Fleischer buried his head in his hands and muttered, “Where was I? Where was I?”

    Dad, who had hated the concept from the very beginning, couldn’t hold his tongue.

    “Where was you?” said Dad. “Right here when you approved the script!”



    By Robert Waldman
  • Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane? No, It's One of the Best Cartoons Dad Ever Made

    Miami, Florida
    In 1940, Paramount Pictures came up with an idea that would result in the most amazing cartoons my Dad or anyone else ever made. They asked the Fleischers to produce a series starring the newest sensation in comic books, Superman.

    First released in 1941, the Superman cartoons were an immediate hit. To this day some critics even compare them to another classic from the same year, Citizen Kane. And not just because of their spectacular mise en scene. The Superman cartoons had the same effect on Max Fleischer’s future as Kane had on Orson Welles career.

    As great as they were, the cartoons marked the beginning of the end for the studio.
    At 100 grand a pop when a Popeye cost $25,000, they were just too expensive for Paramount to earn a profit on them. In early 1942, the Fleischer Studio went out of business in Miami and was reorganized in New York by Paramount as Famous Studios.

    From 1941, here is Dad's "Billion Dollar Limited." (beautifully restored & remastered)
    By Robert Waldman
  • 4

    And Dad Created Eve

    Miami & NYC
    Life in Florida gave Dad the idea for a book. As a handsome, eligible bachelor living in glamorous Miami, he was constantly getting calls from the sisters, cousins, and nieces of friends who still lived in New York.

    Dutifully, he would pick up all these lovelorn ladies in his gleaming Packard convertible and show them a night on the town, including a stop at the Roney Plaza to see the latest Latin sensation, Desi Arnaz.

    While he didn’t meet anyone who made him want to forsake bachelorhood, they all inspired Dad to begin working on a novel; a love story about a chubby secretary from New York who comes to Miami looking for love.

    He didn’t write a single word. Instead, he drew the entire story.

    Eve, A Love Story Without Words was the most important item Dad brought back from Miami to New York. (Excluding Grandma Becky, of course. On December 5, 1941, Grandpa Barney, while waiting for his lunch to be served, dozed off and never woke up. He was 82. “I just wish he’d had his lunch first,” said Dad.
    “That’s the only thing that made me sad.”)

    In New York, he found an apartment off Fifth Avenue and 66th Street for Grandma Becky and himself. But instead of joining Famous Studios, the successor to Fleischer's, he enlisted in the Army.

    After basic training down South and being assigned to a camouflage unit painting trucks, Dad’s talents were recognized and he was reassigned to the Signal Corps in Astoria, Queens.

    Being close to New York allowed Dad to take care of nonmilitary stuff. He sent around the manuscript of Eve to agents. One of them was Annie Laurie Williams, the literary agent who had shopped around a novel of the old South by an obscure writer named Margaret Mitchell.

    The agent who had sold Gone With The Wind was charmed by Eve and took Dad on as a client. Not long after, Dad was having lunch at his favorite Armenian restaurant when the resident fortune-teller asked if he would like his tea leaves read.

    What the heck.

    “I see you are going to get good news today.”

    A few hours later, Annie Laurie Williams called.

    “I’ve sold Eve.”

    How he must have felt! Eve was Dad’s original story, his original art.
    He was finally recognized for himself, not Betty Boop, Popeye or Superman.

    The cover said it all.

    EVE
    BY MYRON WALDMAN

    No Max Fleischer or Famous Studios as the middleman.

    Eve was his and his alone.

    Published in 1943, Eve earned raves.

    “The charm of Waldman’s picture novel lies not in his story, but in the pictures themselves.”-- Chicago Sun Book Week,

    “It’s better than the comics, it’s funnier than a joke book, it’s very human” -- Raleigh News and Observer.

    “In a half hour’s time, you too, can fall in love with this wordless little sketchbook,” – Cincinnati Times Star

    Walter Winchell, then the most influential newspaper columnist in the country, bestowed Eve with his highest accolade, Orchids. “Delightful!” he gushed in
    papers from coast to coast.

    All this for a book without words and no chapters.

    No chapters, that is, but one.

    Chapter 11.

    In 1944, the publisher of Eve went bankrupt.

    Just enough copies were printed to get big bucks on Ebay today...and to be recognized as one of the very first graphic novels.


    By Robert Waldman
    Keith McKane
    Hello Robert - My dad (Irving Nussbaum McKane) attended Pratt and joined the Army in a similar timeframe as your dad. Dad was part of the Ghost Army camo unit and your father gave him this wonderful cartoon sketch. Your dad was an amazing artist and created some of the most unforgetable images during that era. Our family treasures this delightful piece and I wanted to reach out with my heartfell "hello" and appreciation for Myron - Best regards, Keith McKane - Keene, NH
    Robert Waldman
    Hi Keith, Wow! It’s great to see something Dad drew that I’ve never seen before. Thank you so much for sharing and for your kind words.
    Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
    Best, Rob Waldman
    Debbie White
    I have a book that was made for my husband's step-grandfather Dr's Henry and brother Sidney Silver signed Sincerely Myron Waldman Feb 1944 the book was EVE. How would be value of this book?
    Robert Waldman
    Hi Debbie,
    Check on EBay and Amazon.
  • 2

    And Max & Clara Created Rosalie!

    New York, New York
    While Dad was in the Signal Corps, he also started doing work for Famous Studios.

    His visits to the studio were eagerly awaited, especially by the women who worked in the inking and checking departments.

    “Myron’s coming today!”

    “The best animator of them all…”

    “The nicest, sweetest…”

    “A gentleman…”

    “Wait till you meet Myron!”

    All this was being said to a new employee in the Checking Department.
    A pretty, vivacious 22 year old brunette named Rosalie Socolov.

    Rosalie was a live wire. When she wasn’t working at the studio, she was volunteering as a Gray Lady (a Candy Striper gone to war) at the Army Air Force’s Mitchel Field in Garden City, Long Island. In her spare time, she played piano and organ on the radio, co-ran a Jewish social group, and dated lots of guys in uniform.

    Which is why all the checkers and inkers thought she should meet Myron.

    Myron, truth be told, was a man about town. At 36, he was a living version of the Goings On section of the New Yorker. Unlike a lot of animators whose days ended and sometimes began on a barstool, he dined at all the great restaurants in town, went to Broadway shows, nightclubs, concerts and attended parties where fellow guests like Nat King Cole and Buddy Rich would jam.

    Rosalie Socolov thought, “This is a man I have to talk to.”

    And so she did.

    “Myron, I’ve got a date tomorrow night for dinner. We want to go someplace Italian
    Where would you recommend?”

    Thus began Myron Waldman’s career as Rosalie Socolov’s personal Zagat’s Guide.
    Over the next two years, he never steered her wrong once.

    And then along came a Cupid named Nick Tafuri. Nick was one of Dad’s animators and best friends. By 1946, these two Brooklyn boys had worked together for 16 years. Nick knew Myron maybe better than anybody else at the studio. And he thought Myron should be more than Rosalie Socolov’s guidebook.

    Early one afternoon in 1946, Nick sidled up to Rosalie and whispered, “Hot Lips, (yes, that was her nickname at the studio), “come with me to lunch.”

    “Sure.”

    “And no matter what I say,” Nick added, “just go along with it.”

    When they stepped off the elevator and into the lobby of 25 West 45th Street, there was Myron Waldman.

    “Hot Lips was hungry,” said Nick, “so I told her she could join us.”

    “Of course. Hello, Rosalie.” (Myron had too much class to call her anything but her real name.)

    “Hi Myron.”

    And off they went to the Red Devil, Myron and Nick’s favorite Italian restaurant for lunch.

    And happily ever after.
    By Robert Waldman
  • 2

    You'll Get That Comic Strip Yet!

    New York , New York
    In Dad's Pratt Institute yearbook, the inscription under his picture reads,
    "He'll get that newspaper comic strip yet." In 1946, it happened when Dad became the artist for radio writer Steve Carlin's creation, "Happy The Humbug." The strip ran for two years, winning Dad and Steve a feature article in Newsweek, as well as a commendation as "the most suitable comic strip for children." Years after the strip ended, there were still puppet shows in New York City parks featuring Happy and his gang. Here's a typical panel.
    By Robert Waldman
    steve waldman
  • 2

    Casper The Friendly Ghost Arrives!

    New York, New York
    After Betty Boop, no other cartoon character is more associated with Dad than Casper The Friendly Ghost. In 1948, he was head animator of the second cartoon starring Casper and gave Casper a cuter design than he had in his 1945 premiere in "The Friendly Ghost."
    In other words, the Casper we all know and love is because of Dad. He ended up doing more Caspers than any other animator.
    Here's one of my daughters' favorites, Boo Moon (1953). It was originally released in 3-D. This is the 2-D version.

    Here's also a model chart Dad designed for one of Casper's little pals.
    By Robert Waldman
  • 3

    The Best Birthday Present Dad Ever Gave Himself

    New York, New York
    On his 40th birthday, in a taxi somewhere near Grand Central,
    Dad proposed to Rosalie. Fortunately, she said yes (or I wouldn't be writing this). Only five weeks later, on May 30, 1948, they were married in a huge formal wedding. As you can see, they had fun from the very beginning. Dad wanted a wedding photo that was a takeoff on the stiff, very formal portraits taken in the early 1900s, and the bottom picture is the result.

    When Mom helped me find these pictures, she looked adoringly at them and said, "He made all my dreams come true."
    By Robert Waldman
  • 2

    Dad & Mom's First Co-Production

    New York, New York
    Number One Son, Robbie makes his debut Wednesday, April 19, 1950.
    By Robert Waldman
  • 3

    Dad & Mom's Second Co-Production

    Rockville Centre, New York
    Steve Waldman, the original, not to be confused with Steve Waldman, the cousin (although both are rabid Yankee fans) makes his debut on April 8, 1953.

    Between having Number #1 & 2 sons, Dad and Mom moved from Peter Cooper Village in New York to the Long Island suburb of Wantagh. The photo of everyone was taken in the living room of the house where Mom still lives.
    By Robert Waldman
  • Dad & The Golden Age of Live TV

    New York, New York
    From the '40s on, Dad appeared on TV shows including local kiddie shows in New York. One host ( I think it was the Merry Mailman) was so hammy that he pushed Dad out of the frame so all you could see of him were his hands. The next time he appeared on the show, Dad wrapped his feet around the easel so the host couldn't push him out! Dad always told the story of his first time on television. The studio lights were so hot that his crayon melted in his hand. (Photo: Dad drawing Casper on the Herb Sheldon Show, 1954. Photo taken live off the TV screen by Martin Waldman)
    By Robert Waldman
  • Goodbye Paramount, Hello Hal Seeger Productions

    New York, New York
    In 1957, Dad left Paramount and became Head Animator a year later at Hal Seeger Productions, a company formed by another Fleischer alum.

    The portfolio he carried off the LIRR wasn’t filled with movie stars anymore. Instead, there were elves that sold Norelco shavers, little girls who screamed for Mott’s Apple Juice and funny looking cars thirsty for Amoco gas.

    Dad’s attitude seemed to be, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, but do it better than anybody else.”

    And he did. His reputation as one of the best, most respected animators in New York remained intact. His work was seen not only in commercials, but in the revival of Out of The Inkwell with Koko The Clown (Photo: Dad at the Wantagh Public Library drawing Koko)and in The Milton The Monster Show that aired in ABC's Saturday morning line-up in the mid-60s.
    By Robert Waldman
    Keith McKane
    Hello Robert, my wife and I were watching White Christmas the other evening and we noticed the background sketches used during the "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army" dance number. They were clearly in the style your Dad was creating (to our untrained eyes..) MIght he have provided set artwork for this?? Just another moment of appreciation for your father's contribution to the era :-) Best, Keith McKane
  • 6

    Hallmark, Eat Your Heart Out

    Wantagh, New York
    Dad didn't believe in Hallmark. If he was going to give anyone a card, it would be an original. If Mom & Dad had a party or a brunch, he would create a menu. Here's a gallery of some of the homemade cards and menus he created over the years.
    By Robert Waldman
  • MOMA Salutes Myron!

    New York, New York
    In 1993, the Museum of Modern Art paid tribute to Dad with a retrospective of his cartoons from the 1930s through the 1960's.
    The event was certainly a highlight of his career and his life, with friends and family gathering for the occasion. Here is a New York Times article about Dad that was published just before the event.
    By Robert Waldman
  • 2

    Grandchildren Arrive!

    United States
    There was a lot of kvelling in the summer of 1993. Within eight weeks, Dad & Mom became the grandparents of not one but two kids. Rob's daughter, Emily, and Steve's daughter Becky. (Photo: Becky on Left, Emily, Right)

    Here they are with Dad blowing out the candles on his 90th birthday cake in 1998.
    By Robert Waldman
  • 4

    The Second Golden Age of Myron Waldman

    United States
    Dad was busier in his 80s and 90s than he ever was in his 60s. One reason was the rise of Animation Art Galleries in the 1990s. As the last surviving head animator of the Fleischer Studio, Dad was now recognized as a living legend. Commissioned first by Toon Art, then American Royal Arts, Dad began drawing scenes from the classic cartoons he had worked on decades before. All over the country, fans lined up to meet him and buy his work. He & Mom were traveling so much that Mom joked, "It's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your parents are?"

    They were having the time of their lives, culminating in 1997 with a trip to California for Dad to receive the Windsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to animation.
    (Photo: Dad & Mom arriving at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium for the event)
    By Robert Waldman
  • 2

    Grandaughter #3 Arrives!

    Manhasset, New York
    Two days before Dad's 89th birthday, his third granddaughter, Ariel (Rob's daughter) made her debut.
    By Robert Waldman
  • 2

    Even at the Very End, Dad Made Us Smile

    Bethpage, New York
    On the last afternoon of Dad's life, something amazing occurred.
    Although he was unconscious, his hands took the position as if he were drawing! They stayed that way for hours.

    But that wasn't what was most astonishing.

    Just after midnight on February 4th, Mom woke up in the hospice room and saw that Dad had passed away. She woke up my brother Steve, who went to notify the nurses on duty.

    Now Dad had been moved to the room a few hours earlier, and none of the hospice staff had any idea of who he was and what he had done.

    But when Steve got to the nurse's desk, he couldn't believe what he saw. In fact, he almost passed out.

    The nurse on duty was wearing a uniform covered with Betty Boop and her little dog, Pudgy.

    When Steve regained his composure, he asked the nurse why she was wearing that uniform.

    "Betty Boop is my favorite, character" she replied , "and I love her little dog."

    "You're not going to believe this," said Steve. "But the man who created that little dog just died in Room B-20."

    I like to think Dad arranged it. It was just like him to leave something to make us smile even through our tears.

    Thank you , Dad. For everything.



    By Robert Waldman
    Nick Stantzos
    This put a smile on my face. What a great tribute to a talented man!
    Robert Waldman
    Thanks Nick!
    Maria Dorfner
    What a fascinating and wonderful life and tribute! Enjoyed reading that.