The Linda Jones Clough Archive: Ode to the Washam Wedding

Chuck Jones's daughter, Linda Jones Clough, will be posting weekly, material from her personal archive of writings and ephemera created by her father over the course of his lifetime. Today, she presents "Ode the Washam Wedding" a poem Chuck Jones wrote celebrating the wedding anniversary of his friend and colleague, Ben Washam. It is important to note that Chuck was intimate friends with his animators throughout his career.Linda recounted that as a four-year old, Ben Washam's wife, Eddie, was one of her favorite visitors--always ready with a lap and a kind word.

From: Chuck Jones

To: Ben and Eddie Washam

Re: Eighth wedding anniversary, October 1942

ODE TO THE WASHAM WEDDING

Happy wedding anniversary to the Washams. I.E.: to Benny and Eddie,

Who apparently have gone together for a long time. Steady.

From where I sit it looks like you have been married since nineteen

thirty-four. To be exact, in October.

Were you sober?

Or were you drunk with love or liquor.

And so woke up the next morning with a screaming headache thinking

you had never felt worse or been sicquor?

Eight years is a good long time to have been married.

Some people I know quite well would rather be hari-karied.

But I want you to know that marriage is a thing that I spend a good deal

of time endorsing.

It’s better than horsing

And being a general gadabout,

Even though some irresponsible wolves may be madabout

You.

Pew!

Just remember that when you’re a hundred and nine years old and not

married and not pretty.

It’s pretty s----y.

(That line is only dirty if you make it so.

I might have meant ‘sweaty’ if you pronounced ‘pretty’ ‘pretty’

instead of ‘pritty’, or I might have meant ‘sweety’ if you

pronounced ‘pretty’ ‘preety’ like Mexicans do, no?)

Well, anyway, you dirty-minded little couple you, Happy Birthday to

the inception of your connubial bliss.

Do you realize this:

For twenty-nine hundred and nineteen nights Benny has been saying:

“Beddie?”

And Eddie answers, “Ready.”

We Get Mail: The History of Animation with Linda Jones Clough

Chuck's daughter and Emmy Award-winning producer, Linda Jones Clough, was in New York this past weekend for the 25th anniversary performances of George Daugherty's "Bugs Bunny at the Symphony".While in the lobby of Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, at the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity's information kiosk, she met an animation student, Gabe Schleifer. Gabe sent us this email this morning:

"Hello, this email is for Linda Jones. My name is Gabriel Schleifer, I'm a 3rd year animation student at The School of Visual Arts. She and I met at Lincoln Center a few days ago during the Bugs Bunny at the Symphony concert where she and her granddaughter were promoting the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity.

"I just wanted to let you know that I had a great time chatting with you about your father and about the foundation, not to mention all of the talented artists who are already helping. It's wonderful to be able to speak to someone who is, in some way or another, a part of the history of this extraordinary art form and is making sure the revolutions of it's pioneers lives on.

"Here are a couple of photos taken from the event. I plan to stay in touch with this organization."

Thanks again! Gabe Schleifer

Chuck Jones's Letters to His Daughter, Linda: Wednesday, November 12

Wednesday, November 12?Post # 54

Dearest Linda:

I owe you more letters than I do apologies for not writing to you oftener.  The preceding sentence defies logic but it sounds logical.  As the mid-Victorian magician said to his wife as he sawed her in two, “I could not half thee, dear, so well loved I not Honoré best.  (Honoré was a popular ladies’ name in the nineties.)

Enclosed find one (1) explanation by John Burton of the theory and practise of 3-d for your Physics project.  Since it is fairly brief, though reasonably clear, I thought I had best check with Mr. Pickwick [Hollywood bookstore] for further information.  I found an excellent volume, though somewhat technical, which will be mailed today and should arrive not too much after this letter.  As I say, a lot of it is technical and can be skipped, but the introduction and the last part, I believe titled “The Human Element” look very interesting and inside the back cover is a sleeve containing a pair of 3-d glasses and a series of charts.  The chance of pulling this material into shape for an interesting article is very good I would think.  One thing to always stress, I think, is that it is manifestly impossible to attain 3-d without insuring separate viewpoints for the two eyes.  So far, spectacles seem the only possible answer.  All the other processes only simulate stereo: Cinemascope, Cinerama, Vistavision all are concerned with greater size and different dimension, but they are no more 3-d than a mural is.  They can force the eyes to move around by the very nature of their shape and size, but the truth is that a one-eyed person will see exactly what a two-eyed person will, and this is the significant difference.   In three-d we get binocular vision, or depth perception or whatever you want to call it. Anyway, I hope this will serve your needs and that your paper will be a huge success.  I love you.

The C-plus in Spanish is far from fatal and I am very, very pleased with the way your academic progress is going, but this is the big year and there is no question that you have the ability, the diligence and the desire to get top grades and to learn, too.  Whether they will be sufficient to get you into Stanford we do not know, there are other factors.  Doing top work does not always get top grades, we know that too; teachers are often very human, but I know that you are going to merit high grades this year because you will bend yourself to it and not as a drudge but because you can, because this is the time to do so and because, as Roger Bannister shows, the final drive is the supreme satisfaction and the supreme achievement.  This is the big year in your high school career and I am not asking what your report card will be, but I am asking truly and simply that you give your best.  And that is asking a great deal.

I can’t wait to see you behind the wheel of this beautiful Oldsmobile with your horse-tail flying and your pretty, proud head thrown back.  Wow!

So much for now..I know you want this material so I had best get it in the mail.

Shall I write to [your boyfriend] re grades?  Would it help?

I love you…

Chuck Jones's Letters to His Daughter, Linda #2

Sept. 22, 1952…Monday morningDear Linda;

At work, by Joe, at 8:15 and awake, too.  An amazing thing.  My co-workers look a little shocked, why? We spent Saturday night and Sunday day with [friends], so we had little chance to get lonely for you.  Good thing, too.  You must be a pretty big girl because you leave a very large hole in our household.

I got a fifth of I.W. Harper bourbon, a very, very fine and old whiskey for my birthday.  A nice gesture from [the guy who sent it], but there is no way I could tell him that I’m not used to good liquor and that it would probably just give me the pip.

The weather continues very hot and muggy.  As Henry Morgan used to say, “Muggy, followed by Tueggy, Weggy, Thurgy and Frygey.”  At ten o’clock last night we went for a ride through the Hollywood hills in the convertible, with top down, and the air was precisely the same as our bodies.  Sort of like floating in a lukewarm lake.

I am going to start a carving.  I found that one of those pieces of driftwood was very nice inside.  I don’t know what it will be, but it will be fun.  Nothing else in the world quite resembles the effect one gets from handling wood.  Try it some time. Received your telegram at 9:30 Sunday morning.  Thanks very much. Keep us informed when inclined and when convenient.  I know you have other correspondents.

Chuck Jones Centennial Celebration of Animation at the Newport Beach Film Festival 2012

The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, a Newport Beach Film Festival Event Sponsor, will be hosting a morning of Chuck Jones animated cartoons at Triangle Square, Costa Mesa (at the intersection of Newport Blvd., 19th St., and the terminus of the 55 freeway) on Saturday, April 28th at 11 AM. Among the many favorite short cartoons to be shown will be one of his masterpieces, "One Froggy Evening."Following the showing at 1:30 PM will be a panel discussion and seminar on animation with celebrated voice actress, June Foray (Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, and Witch Hazel); Emmy Award-winning producer Linda Jones Clough; "Dora the Explorer" producer and director, Jeff DeGrandis; animation director, character designer ("Hop"), and writer, Chris Bailey and photographer Marian Jones, Chuck Jones's widow. The discussion will be moderated by Craig Kausen, chairman of the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity.

A ticket for both events is $5.00 for adults. For more information and to purchase tickets, please contact the Newport Beach Film Festival by clicking on their name in this sentence.