One of the autograph requests I sent out in 1985 was to Woody Woodpecker creator Walter Lantz. Walter started his career with the Hal Roach Studios and claimed to have painted the Flying Elephants in the film of the same name, a fact disputed by Roach special effects man Roy Seawright. In any case, Lantz’ name in animation history is secure as the creator of Woody and the producer of a vast array of “Cartunes” from 1929 to 1972, including Woody, Chilly Willy, Andy Panda, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (after the series left Disney’s domain).
I got the idea to write Mr. Lantz from Carl Ahlm, as he had received a signed photo as well as an original drawing of Woody. This was one of the times that enclosing two notecards with my request proved to not pay off. Instead of getting an 8 1/2″ by 11″ drawing, Lantz drew Woody on a notecard. Don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled to have the drawing as well as the signed photo that he sent, but a larger, easier to display, drawing would have been more desirable. I sent out my letter on June 11 and got a relatively speedy response on July 3.
I did however take the opportunity over a year later to request something else of Walter Lantz, which turned out to be one of the prizes in my collection…
More autographs from 1985 coming soon…
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