Difference between revisions of "Whit Jolley"
From Twisted Hollywood
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| − | '''Whitman "Whit" Jolley''' ( | + | '''Whitman "Whit" Tobias Jolley''' (December 31 1899 — December 31 1975) was an artist, [[animator]], and director who founded [[Whit Jolley Animation]], a film studio specializing in all-[[toon]] productions. His most well-known collaborator was [[Tiny Cat]], a toon feline approximately the size of a mouse, whose misadventures and escapades (mostly relating to his unusual size) delighted audiences for years. From humble beginnings he rose to become one of the titans of [[Hollywood]], having shaped the industry and the world with his actions. |
| − | Jolley | + | == Appearance == |
| + | Jolley was an otherwise unremarkable man aside from two distinguishing features: his large ears, and a significant gap between his front teeth. These features were often lampooned and mocked by his detractors, including his former mentor [[Octavius Banks]] after the two men had their famous falling-out. It is widely believed that he began to sport a mustache in order to draw less attention to his teeth, and it quickly became part of his signature look. | ||
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| + | His otherwise-unruly hair was kept tamed with pomade whenever he was in the public eye, which became increasingly often in his later years. Overuse of the product may have contributed to his receding hairline. Naturally dark-haired, he began to go gray in the early 1950s due to the stress of running a major studio, and spent his final years with snowy-white hair. | ||
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| + | == Backstory == | ||
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| + | ===Early life=== | ||
| + | Whitman Tobias Jolley was born on the evening of December 31, 1899, in the town of Smokey Oaks, [[Wisconsin]]. He was the third child of Fontaine Jolley, a shoemaker, and his wife Dolores. From a very early age it was clear that Whitman, nicknamed Whit by his elder brothers Comstock and Emerson, was an unusual child. He showed a natural creativity and passion for the arts that repeated beatings could not seem to cure. | ||
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| + | Fontaine was a deeply religious man who firmly believed that hard work was good for the soul, and also that cheese was an invention of the Devil. Young Whit entered the world of business at his father's insistence, to not only keep his mind from wandering but also to assist with the family's finances. He was hired on as an accounting clerk at a nearby lumber yard, despite only being six years old and unable to accurately count past thirty. | ||
| − | == | + | Whit did not do well in his accounting career, often reprimanded for sleeping on the job and leaving fanciful drawings in the margins of ledgers. A succession of family doctors diagnosed him with a number of ailments, based on the limited understanding of the pre-Hollywood era, including scurvy of the brain humors, possession by evil spirits, and incurable stupidity. |
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| + | When war broke out in Europe in 1914, Whit was encouraged by his family to sign up for military service and fight in the trenches. However, as he was fifteen years old at the time and the [[United States of America|United States]] had not yet officially entered the war, this did not happen. | ||
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| + | ===Arrival in Hollywood=== | ||
| + | Whit Jolley did enlist before the end of the war, and although his exceptionally poor medical record did not make him unfit for active duty, it did bar him from both firearms training and being issued a firearm. After completing the elements of basic training he was permitted to take part in, which took around two weeks, he was deemed ready to enter the fray. Whit was eventually issued a small box of crayons, with the understanding that he would eat them. | ||
| − | + | In an uncommon stroke of luck, however, Whit was not deployed to the European front. Instead he was sent to California due to the behest of filmmaker [[Champion D. Melville]], who had petitioned the U.S. military for authentic American soldiers to use in the production of his patriotic epic ''To Death and Glory'' (1918). Exposure to Hollywood, where the creative impulse was recklessly goaded rather than suppressed, was a shock to Whit, who went AWOL on his first day. His whereabouts were unknown for two weeks, until finally he was picked up by police a mere six blocks from what would later be [[Toon Town#Connection with Hollywood|Toon Town]]. | |
| − | + | Whit spent three days in jail under charges ranging from vandalism to petty theft, although he always claimed he had no memory of the events and could not be held responsible. During this fugue state, he had taken buckets of paint from hardware stores and created murals on walls and sidewalks, evidently obsessed with finally getting the images in his head out into the world. He was released, with all charges dropped and his military service commuted, thanks to the intervention of wealthy tycoon [[Octavius Banks]]. Banks, keen on exploiting Hollywood and its residents for financial gain, recognized Whit Jolley's psychosis for what it was: the mark of an [[animator]], a newly discovered condition connected with Hollywood's [[toon]]s. He offered Jolley a position at his new venture, a studio by the name of [[Sovereign Pictures]]. | |
| − | + | Jolley worked with a small team of animators, including [[Rutherford Bartlett|Bartlett]] and [[Mehmet Wernick|Wernick]] who would go on to become longtime colleagues. Their task was to create toons for Sovereign's flagship cartoon project, the [[Laffographs]]. It was during these early years that Jolley saw the potential for toons, believing that they could do more than just singing and dancing for people's amusement. But his ideas for "toon dramaticals" were rejected by Banks, who believed that both toons and filmgoing audiences lacked the capacity for complex human emotions. | |
| − | == | + | ===Split from Sovereign=== |
| + | By 1926, Jolley had become the lead animator on the Laffographs, thanks to being the most mentally stable of the group. | ||
| − | + | ==="Jolley's folly"=== | |
| + | ===Death and legacy=== | ||
| + | --> | ||
[[Category:Characters|Jolley, Whit]][[Category:Humans|Jolley, Whit]][[Category:Historical figures|Jolley, Whit]][[Category:Animators|Jolley, Whit]][[Category:Directors|Jolley, Whit]] | [[Category:Characters|Jolley, Whit]][[Category:Humans|Jolley, Whit]][[Category:Historical figures|Jolley, Whit]][[Category:Animators|Jolley, Whit]][[Category:Directors|Jolley, Whit]] | ||
Revision as of 20:34, 19 April 2022
Whitman "Whit" Tobias Jolley (December 31 1899 — December 31 1975) was an artist, animator, and director who founded Whit Jolley Animation, a film studio specializing in all-toon productions. His most well-known collaborator was Tiny Cat, a toon feline approximately the size of a mouse, whose misadventures and escapades (mostly relating to his unusual size) delighted audiences for years. From humble beginnings he rose to become one of the titans of Hollywood, having shaped the industry and the world with his actions.
Appearance
Jolley was an otherwise unremarkable man aside from two distinguishing features: his large ears, and a significant gap between his front teeth. These features were often lampooned and mocked by his detractors, including his former mentor Octavius Banks after the two men had their famous falling-out. It is widely believed that he began to sport a mustache in order to draw less attention to his teeth, and it quickly became part of his signature look.
His otherwise-unruly hair was kept tamed with pomade whenever he was in the public eye, which became increasingly often in his later years. Overuse of the product may have contributed to his receding hairline. Naturally dark-haired, he began to go gray in the early 1950s due to the stress of running a major studio, and spent his final years with snowy-white hair.
