Michael Shepherd Studio's Page

Tell us your story:

Chapter One. I was born. Obstetritians (at Druid City Hospital, Tuscaloosa, near Univ. of Ala. & all its "Crimson Tide" rah-rah) pulled me out with forceps, took one look at ME, and shook their heads with: "Tsk, tsk. Five'll git'cha ten that t-h-i-s boy's gonna b'come a Ckrriss-chun who votes famb'ly-values-cohnn-s'rrvative, on Hollywood, Nashville, an' whut h-e-'l-l call 'kuh-mrr-shull speech." A nurse chimed in: "And t-h-a-t's the good news. Better watch out , though! Cause, someday, t-h-i-s little tyke's gonna vote--on the o-t-h-e-r hand---just like the Kennedys; on government spending, and like these here Negro agitators." (This was Nov. of 1963, remember.) A third doctor summed it up: "In othah words (sigh): five'll git'cha ten, gang, that THIS one's gonna be one o' them Commie Pinkos, lak them bishops o' his Methy-dist parents 'n' grandparents."

Seriously (chuckle!)...I'm a portraitist, lanscape artist, abstract-artist (trying to become one, anyway), art-photographer (well...sort-of!), and crafter of hand-made action-figures, stuffed-plushes, & model-cars. (Haven't made any for sale...yet...until this past year. Don't worry!---this "Justin-type Refugee from N.I.M.H." is NOT a copyrighted character.)

Outside of modern art, however...ah! my FAVORITE jobs are all considered "commercial." They a-l-s-o date back into my own childhood---as far back as my t-o-d-d-l-e-r years, for at least o-n-e type of landscape/cityscape. (Rural, "mom-&-pop," crossroads stores with gas-pumps & oil companies' signs, to be specific.) Also, I got into these genres of comm'c'l. graphics" at VERY same years that I developed my six categories of antiques-collecting. (Welll...of collecting "comm'c'l, pop-cultural junk," to be exact." Broadly speaking...four might be grouped as "roadside Americana"; remaining three fall under "Publishing & Entertainment Memorabilia." Here they are below, beside the parts of my work that correspond to them. Careers that I w-a-n-t to enter after earning an M.A. at an Art Institute, I've also listed beside s-o-m-e categories of my work:

"COMM'C'L." WORK: POP-CULTURAL JUNK which CORRESPONDS to SAME:
Logos for small businesses; Chrome, car/truck emblems, pre-1960
graphic layout...& ad-copy, too (also "showroom signs," esp. Cadillac crest)
(first sketched by age five, 1969) Glossy, showroom sales brochures
Antique, popular magazines (more ads, the better!)
Road maps , pre-1960
Antique-car & sports-car artwork; Plastic, 1/25th or 1/24th-scale models & kits; also
futuristic auto design (both ever die-cast models, esp. 1/18th-scale. (Partial to
since 1973-'74, age ten) chrome-emblems & brochures from medium-
(WANT to become Detroit -priced & independent nameplates [i.e., Hudson,
Detroit designer after grad. school!) Packard, &c.]; partial to model-cars of top-line,
luxury-model-series from medium-priced &
independent companies. (Need not be full-
-sized Mercury Marquis, Chrysler New Yorkers &
300s, Studebaker Land Cruisers, &c; later, mid-
-sized, Rambler/AMC Ambassadors, Grand Prix
& Cutlass Supreme Broughams, Regal Limited
models, &c., are all O.K. by me.)

Hometown:

Fayette, Alabama (and LONG-in' to l-e-a-v-e rural Southeast)

Personal Website:

http://None (yet)

Portfolio Site:

http://deviantart.com; oldgas.com

About Me:

Very soon! Please read my profile in deviantart.com, too.... (C-a-n members come back & edit these?)

Favorite Cartoons:

Please read both "Favorite Films & "Favorite TV Shows," below: One thing I CAN promise you, however: I'm a VERY big fan of...drum roll, please: The SILLL-ver SHELLL! And of "Powdered-Toast Man!"...as long as we're talking about Nickelodeon-copyrighted(?) characters, even from different production-companies. That werewolf from "Danny Phantom"...Danny himself...and Jenny X-J-9...are all among my Top Five.

These are my very f-a-v-o-r-i-t-e characters from ALL of Viacom. And, yes; that d-o-e-s include even Paramount's contract-stars, from Hollywood's classic, "studio system." (What a shame that MCA-Universal owns most of their original negatives---lock, stock & copyrights---instead of Paramount TV!) And Lucy, Walter Cronkite, Tom Selleck (speaking of MCA/Universal, I've a-l-w-a-y-s been JEALOUS of women's adoration of "Thomas Magnum"! Wasn't Selleck in a 1970s' issue of---ugh!---"Playgirl"?), Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, Buffy & Jody, Edward R. Murrow, Rod Serling, Filmation's old, "Sat AM" cartoons, Proctor & Gamble's soaps...or ANY-body from CBS. Or a-n-y of Simon & Schuster's authors! (One exception: I a-m a fan of old road-maps from o-n-e Viacom division---H.M.Gousha Co.---as I'm a gas station-antiques collector.)

Here's the beginning & end of the whole thing: While I'll E-mail l-o-t-s of examples of my cartoony (and automotive, a-n-d graphic-design) work, in the future---you'll all see
a LOT of my takes on both "Silver Shell" a-n-d "Powdered-Toast Man!" (And so will the members of that "Teenage Weblog"...and of "Furnation"...and of "DeviantArt.") Just give me some t-i-m-e (amidst canvasses for my local customers, here in N.W. Alabama) to f-i-n-i-s-h the originals, for two nieces' Christmas---and for my new "icon," "avatar," or whatever they're called....

At least (again regarding Viacom), m-y submissions a-i-n-'t gonna be illustrations of, say, Tom Greene (regarding MTV)...or of Paramount veteran, Richard Gere ("OOOoohhh!" [Pant-pant, arms swooning over legs, swooning lips & eyebrows, female-orgasm-type shouts, &c., &c.] "That 'American Gigolo' heee-roh is, like, SOOO hot, y'know?")...or of Adam Carolla. (Remember him...from MTV's old "Love-Line." Ha, ha. Chuckle, chuckle.) Read my sharp rebuke of c-e-r-t-a-i-n, male-oriented, R-rated entertainment (including pay-cable & recording industry) within box below.

Favorite Films:

Very soon! "Favorite TV Shows" m-i-g-h-t give a clue. C-a-n-n-o-t abide m-o-s-t R-rated films. M-u-s-t have both exceptional scripts (and exceptional, critics' acclaim) for me to watch something like, say, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975), "Schindler's List" (1993), or that D-Day/Normandy picture, from 1997, from both Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. (Name escapes me when I wrote this; was it "A Few Good Men"?) A STER-ling example was Steven Spielberg's "Amistad"---one of DreamWorks' very first pictures. The "Good Ship Amistad" was an illegal slave-ship, whose "cargo" a-l-l died in a (hurricane? typhoon?)---but "Amistad" is also a little-known, seldom-told courtroom drama (1840s' style), of John Quincy Adams (Martin Balsam?), and his attempts to abolish illegal, smuggled slave-ships (and possibly, slavery as a whole)...through his eloquent case before U.S. Supreme Court. despite its frontal male nudity (of the chained "cargo"), "Amistad" s-h-o-u-l-d have been at least n-o-m-i-n-a-t-e-d for Best Picture of 1998!

But all of t-h-e-i-r contexts (shall we say?) are PLANETS away from what comes to m-a-n-y parents' minds, when you mention the "R" rating:
Comedies aimed at 18-40-yr.-old Males, ever since "Kentucky Fried Movie!" (Paramount, 1977)...the Mother (and w-h-a-t a mothah!) of "Animal House" (Universal, 1978), and of every R-rated comedy ever since!

Am considering s-e-c-o-n-d manuscript...this time, for the junior-high, paperback market, and from a Scholastic-type publisher. Here, I h-o-p-e to lambast the Harold Ramises, the Alan Landises, the John Belushis (I was 18 when he died of cocaine, in early 1982) and the Tommy Chongs of what Hollywood likes to call "The Industry." H-o-p-e to include their spiritual sons & nephews: the Judd Apatows & Todd Phillips of 30 yrs. later. Hope to include the R-rated imitators of Spike Lee (on big screen of 1990s, anyway)...such as good ol' Martin Lawrence, and the Wayans Bros. Hope to have the "chitlin' circuit" come in for i-t-s share.
(According to Am. music historian, [Britisher] Paul Oliver...vaudeville-blues/jazz performers, plus African-Am. comedians, gave t-h-i-s name to Caucasian-owned theatres within inner-city neighborhoods from 1910s into [!]1960s. A childhood Sammy Davis, Jr. was most certainly n-o-t treated like Marian Anderson or Paul Robeson!)

But---just HOW to show Alonzo Keys, 11-yr.-old Sal Mineo Barry, Fabian Hill, 12-yr.-old Christopher Turlington, a-l-l enjoying that trash? (Along with their divorced dads on custody weeks?) How to especially show Samuel Bullock's overweight, divorced dad introducing his precocious son to poker, 'coon huntin', girlie mags, & Bud Light...all behind Mom's back...and all by age seven or eight? (It's a 17-yr.-old Samuel Bullock who'll teach ASFA's 10-12-yr. old, seventh-graders to REAL Manhood, you know. Until their little sisters---and feminist sisters in colleges---all find out what's going on...!) HOW do I show five or six, Ala. School of Fine Arts "studs" (and nerds like I've always been)...with-o-u-t showing the very stuff I want to trash?! More later...!

Favorite TV Shows:

Other than the "Teenage Robot" and "Danny Phantom": "Frontline," "Between the Lions," "Independent Lens," "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly," "Evening at Pops," "Art in 21st Century," "Am. Masters," and "Antiques Roadshow"(all PBS); Turner Classic Movies, Faith & Values Network...made-for-TV features on Lifetime, Oxygen, & "We" channels... Discovery Channel's Animal Planet, Nicktoons (but of course), Toon Disney, and Nerd Corps' "Storm Hawks" (Cartoon Network).

Now, on to the guilty pleasures: Videotapes of "Biker Mice," "Sherlock Hound," & "Dragonball Z," and "Inuyasha" (am indifferent to animated action-dramas...but the characters' designs are deliciously semi-cartoony, if nothin' else!); videotapes of c-e-r-t-a-i-n episodes of "Buzz on Maggie" (those with "Aldrin"...trademark of a Shell pesticide!) and Disney's "Replacements." Have VERY high hopes for both "Master Raindrop" and "Staines Down Drains"---both from Yoram Gross' celebrated, Aussie animation studio, plus a New Zealander studio. And, I'm embarassed to admit...videotaped episodes of almost every other Mighty Rovers & Galactic Geese episode from 1990s.

Still believe, however, that the w-r-i-t-e-r-s & "creators" [!] thought ONLY in t-h-e-s-e terms:

[A.] Short-term gains to pacify, mollify stockholders---and cereal companies, toy companies, fast-food chains, &c. (You can h-a-v-e licensed merchandise with-o-u-t assembly-line plots, or condescending attitudes to children. Sh***t, Mark Brown's "Arthur" library has proven this, over & over again....!)

(B.) "Aw, jus' git it outth' f****in' door!"...much as Chrysler execs and Henry Ford II all thought, during 1970s; and like GM chairman Roger Smith thought during 1980s. (Oldsmobile Club of America members haver ol' Roger to thank for death of brand-name in existence since 1897....)

(C.) Aw, kids'll watch ennny-thing that blows-up, or enny-thing with a gee-whiz light n' music show." (Parents can achieve this very same result, thank you, with a Fisher Price Busy Box for their infants...or with kaleidoscopes & plasma lights [from Spencer's tacky Gift Stores] for their older children.)

(D.)"Kidz izz ree-tahrr-did, ennywayz." My former students in Art Therapy/Music Therapy, at our local ARC chapter, are g-e-n-i-o-u-s-e-s compared to a-n-y-body in Hollywood (Nashville, madison Ave., Detroit....the White house...the Capitol...or in state capitals)---who thinks t-h-a-t way!

I feel es-PE-cially betrayed by both Disney TV and Warner Bros. TV Animation. That studios of t-h-e-i-r calibre (despite making 'em for TV) would produce Turtles-imitations, twelve yrs. ago! (Also angry at...Touchstone TV?...for producing "Clerks" as a c-a-r-t-o-o-n series; no matter how short its lifespan was on ABC, it's s-t-i-l-l available on videos & DVDs....so kids under twelve can s-t-i-l-l buy or rent them. Did D-i-s-n-e-y TV Animation produce for ol' Kevin Smith & Co.---and then slap their "Touchstone TV" trademark" on its end?)


OOOH!...if I weren't so BUSY, on my daily "juggling act" (please read above)---I'd lo-o-h-h-vvve to l-a-m-p-o-o-n the intestines out of such animation from 1990s! In fact...I've got a childrens' book manuscript (my first) in the works, plus pencilled character-designs, with which to do just t-h-a-t...heh, heh, heh! Tom Ruegger (formerly of Kids' WB) & Joseph Barusso (Disney TV)---hey, I'm ready for your slander suits...!

Favorite Comics:

Funny-animal-humanoids from black/white, alternative, creator-copyrighted, "small-press" publishers. (Just so long as these are c-l-e-a-n or PG-rated, at worst!) "THUNNN-DER Bunny!" (created by Martin L. Greim, & published from 1982 through 1987) is my v-e-r-y favorite, with those "Biker Mice" (published by marvel in1993-'94) being a c-l-o-s-e second. Too bad that their writers went through used parts & plot-cliches from a Detroit assembly-line...for b-o-t-h titles. (Even during 1980s, you expected better stuff from creator-copyrighted, black/white titles!) What both titles COULD have been like: "Defenders of Dynatron City." Ever heard of it? Marvel published this during 1992-'93, for its copyrighted company, LucasArts. (Also, Marvel Prods. produced one...o-n-e...series-puilot, for Fox Kids' TV, in 1992. Good luck finding a video or DVD of this!) Yes, the "Defenders" were the ONLY costumed superheroes even remotely associated with Geo. Lucas (although a Gary Winnick was the literal creator)---and, happily for us, they were a p-a-r-o-d-y! Just as Kids' WB's "Freakazoid" had been for Steven Spielberg (although literally created by "Batman's" Bruce Timm), 'way back in 1995-'96.

(That is, until Spielberg...in a rare lapse of judgment...financed Michael Bey's Labor Of Love: to plop Hasbro's Humanoid Vehicles [which I love, too!] into a typical (but almost R-rated), Big-Budgeted-Special-Effects-Thrill-Ride. Complete with your African-Americans as Overweight, Supporting, Comic Cast....your Urban Rap-Slang spoken by Suburban Caucasians [who n-e-v-e-r give ANY-thing back, by volunteering or by donating to inner-city, United Way-type charities]...and the Heroine [no matter how intelligent] as your Photogenic, Half-Naked Hottie.....)

Favorite Books:

Very soon!

Favorite Artists or Illustrators:

A-n-y-body who knows how to draw in what I call the "UPA/Underdog/Bullwinkle style." (You're familiar with Mr. Magoo and p-o-s-s-i-b-l-y with the endearing [and oft-imitated] "Gerald McBoing-Boing." Yet, you m-i-g-h-t n-o-t know that United Productions of America created them, Or that UPA was born just after the ex-HAUST-ing "Fantasia"...after Walt Disney animators' famous strike of 1940-'41...amidst their efforts to make Disney Prods. t-r-u-l-y a union-shop...and born just-in-time for the needs of the Film Unit...within the Signal Corps...of the U.S. War Dept. You might not know that it was Columbia Pictures who once distributed UPA shorts (which won the critical praise (and Oscars) that I don't t-h-i-n-k Columbia's o-w-n Animation Dept. (1934-'48) had ever won.

With one, sole exception--- those once-famous, animated, Maypo commercials (LONG before my birth!), all directed by UPA's founders, Mr. & Mrs. Hubley---TV's "illustrated radio" ALL merely i-m-i-t-a-t-e-d the Hubleys' UPA studio, from 1955 into 1965. Yep!---from "Tennessee Tuxedo" through those "Chipmunks," through (as I later read) Rankin Bass' pre-1966 "kidvid"---to even UPA's later, TV "kidvid." (Which was no better than its imitators' shows....)

Do you know just h-o-w many y-e-a-r-s I've t-r-i-e-d to accomodate t-h-a-t kind of cartooning into my o-w-n work? How are today's artists (presumably in their twenties) able to ac-COM-plish this so damned beautifully? We usually associate this "look" with Cartoon Network, Nicktoons, Disney Channel/Toon Disney, and their suppliers (such as Frederator). We think of their producers: Bill Mechanic, Craig McCracken, Van partible ("Samurai Jack") John Krikfalusi, Billy West , Billy Wray (is he Fay's grandson? Grand-nephew?)---man, the list of talent is e-n-d-l-e-s-s. (Those last three guys added more, classic, 1940s' "squash-&-stretch" and "anticipatory action" to their "1950s TV look." You remember them for "Ren & Stimpy"---and p-o-s-s-i-b-l-y remember their efforts to revive "Mighty Mouse" for CBS, back in 1987-'88. But I'm NO Ralph Bakshi fan!)

BUT---it's not limited to TV only: The late Mary Blair, Ward Kimball, Friz Freling, and a h-o-s-t of other animators at MGM, Warners, & even Walter Lantz' unit (at Universal)...ALL of the overworked, u nderpaid g-r-e-a-t-s often sketched this way, even despite the detailed backgrounds & "squash-&-stretch" which theatre audiences saw on the screen. And, of course, their bosses appropriated the "UPA look" to almost a-l-l cartoon shorts by 1955. (Tardy exceptions were two "widget factories": Paramount's "Famous Studios" [once the Fleischers' wonderful,"Inkwell Studio"]...and "Terrytoons." Say...how do Nickelodeon & CBS, & Paramount ever explain that it was once 20th-FOX that originally distributed Terrytoons?!) If you'd like to see how beautifully t-o-d-a-y's feature animators have kept the "UPA/Jay Ward/hanna-Barbera look" alive & well---look at conceptual art for "Ratatouille"! Jewish Chrysler! but they look like construction-paper animation, directed by Saul Steinberg himself! (The great, mid-20th-Century abstract painter was an acquaintace of Faith & John Hubley, actual founders of UPA.)

Other than t-h-o-s-e examples, however...here are my o-t-h-e-r heroines & heroes (behind Jesus Christ, of course):

AUTO and INDUSTRIAL DESIGNERS:
Richard A. Teague (Rambler/Am. Motors)
Ray Dietrich (1920s' custom-coachwork, 1930s at Chrysler)
Norman bel Geddes (father of Chrysler Airflow, 1934-'37 [and yes, of Barbara, too!])
Virgil Exner (1930s at Pontiac Division; 1950-'62, over all of Chrysler Design)
Elwood Engel (1950s at FoMoCo; after 1962, over all Chrysler, well into 1970s)
Bob Gregorie (FoMoCo, 1931-1946; that is, 1932 Fords, Lincolns to 1951 Mercurys &
Lincolns. Worked alongside Edsel Ford to start Mercury Division & 1940
Continental.)
George Walker (1947 [1949-51 Ford Division bodyshell, that is] into 1960s, as head
over all FoMoCo Design: trucks, tractors, Lincoln/Mercury, &c....even
over the Edsel.)
Frank Hershey (1930s, at Pontiac Div.; 1950s, at Ford)
Frank Spring (Hudson's 1948, "Step-Down" body/chassis...dated-looking by 1954!)
Howard "Dutch" Darrin (Customized Packards during 1930s into 1942; Kaiser-Frazer
from 1945 into early 1950s; "Darrin dip" [V-shaped crease
between door-sills & rear fenders] was copied by GM by 1954,
into 1958...and by FoMoCo/Dearborn by 1957-'59)

William Mitchell
Edward Wellburn
Harley Earl (Cadillac/LaSalle Div., 1925-'30 [that is, for 1927-'32 models]...all of GM,
1930-'58. That is, for 1933-'60 models.) Ah, yes: "Mistearl." The "first"
auto designer. The "Man who put Art on Am. Wheels, and on American
Roads." The Man who made "the General" Just As Copied & Influential
as NBC, M-G-M, and Emily Post were, over Mid-20th-Century. A-c-t-u-a-l
facts:

Paul Rand
Milton Glaser

Frank Lloyd Wright
Walter Dorwin Teague

Raymond Loewy

My list of favorite studio-artists or "fine" artists) is simply FAr too long, to list h-e-r-e. Let's just say that they're a-l-l Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Fauvists, Dada-ists (1914-1920), Abstract Expressionists, Pop & Op-Artists (1960s), Minimalists (1970s-1990s, much like composers Phillip Glass & John Adams of "Nixon in China" fame)---oh, a-n-y type of "-ism" ever since 1830s. Who else would you think I'm trying to l-e-a-r-n from, for m-y watercolors & canvasses?

Again: Am sick & tired of being "a Thomas Kincade with a Kodak," as I scornfully call what my local customers expect of me. No, Norman Rockwell was n-o-t (to use o-n-e art historian's words) "the Rembrandt from Punkin Creek." (Sh***t, at least Rockwell k-n-e-w how to d-r-a-w....)
THIS Jethro Clampett-Bodine or Gomer Pyle does to h-i-s efforts what John Anderson once did to country-pop during 1980s! (With his teeth---and mine---on chalkboards, maybe?)

Favorite Music:

1. Contemporary Christian pop (but n-e-v-e-r country-gospel
quartets; these you cannot es-CAPE, here in N.W. Alabama & N.E.
Mississippi!)

2. Soul gospel & contemporary Christian soul

3. Klesmer (sic) bands...the folk music of Israel and predecessor to jazz
(for Yiddish-speakling immigrants through Ellis Island, between 1865
& early 1920s). Klesmer bands simply adapted Black Am. blues &
ragtime to their clarinets & violins.

4. ELECTRONIC, AMBIENT music! (Enya, Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno,
Wyndham Hill Records, Warner Music Group's "Chilled Spirit," &c.)

5. AL GREEN! (Very happy that he's a minister, nowadays)

6. Oldies soul music

7. Phil Spector-produced music in general (despite his current, criminal
charges; what a WASTE!)

8. Neil Diamond-written in general, Neil Sedaka-written and/or arranged
in general, & Michael McDonald (of Doobie Bros. fame) written and/or
arranged

9. Music from 1965 in general

10. Phil Davis (BIG chart-topper during last high-school years, 1980-'82)

11. Petula Clark

12. Burt Bacharach written and/or arranged in general

13. Dmitri Tiomkin (scores from 1930, at MGM...to 1967, at Universal City,
for "The War Wagon"). Would LOVE to have heard Tiomkin,
Bacharach, & Phil Spector...all join together at, say, Warner Bros.
Records, from 1955 to 1965.

14. So-called "Nashville Sound" RCA's Nashville recording studio, when
RCA quickly adopted Hi-Fi stereo---then installed Chet Atkins as
arranger (and producer?) Kitty Wells, Pianist Floyd Cramer, "Awww,
Lonne-somm Me!" (1958), Ray Price, Eddy Arnold, "Honeycomb"
(1957), and Jim Reeves are all Exhibit "A" examples. How sad that
most of their Southeastern, White/Caucasian fans were racist
segregationists, during era when "Nashville Sound" dominated
country radio!

15. Denice Williams (or Denise Nichols): Is now a Christian, these
days...20 years after her heyday as Prince's "Vanity Six." (BADLY want
a-l-l of the following "role models" to find Christ, too: Barbara McNair,
Halle [no longer fan of h-e-r-s, because of screen nudity & profanities],
Alicia, Sandra Bullock...and, of course, the Spears sisters & the Hilton
sisters. What do YOU Frederator fans think?)
16. Faith Hill (esp. because she's a mother)
17. Shania Twain (esp. because s-h-e's Canadian!)
18. Arnold Schoenberg: possibly first of three founders of A-tonal music;
this is to music what abstract painting & sculpture are to art history.
19. Igor Stravinsky
20. Alban Berg
21. Disciple of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, & Berg: Jerry Goldsmith,
Alexander Courage, Alex North (Warners & 20th-Fox), Leonard
Rosenman (Warners), Elmer Bernstein, Andre Previn (MGM; later a
symphony-conductor)
22. Miklos Rosza & Bernard Herrmann: two Hollywood composers who
lived & worked in-between classic studio-system, with its
"impressionist music" & studio composers (i.e., Universal's Hans
Salter & Frank Skinner, RKO's Roy Webb, & C. Bakalienkoff,
Columbia's Morris Stoloff, RKO's [then Warners'] & Max Steiner
[proteges at Warners: Bill Lava, & David Buttolph], Warner's Franz
Waxman, 20th-Fox's Newman brothers, Paramount's Victor Young &
Leith Stevens, MGM's Herbert Stothart, &c., &c.)
23. MANCINI! (Except for his scores for "10" [Orion, 1979]..."S.O.B."
[Paramount, 1981]...and "Man Who Loved Women" [1983]. All of
those were R-rated comedies---which I scornfully call "commercial
speech." Yes, even if they w-e-r-e Blake Edwards' pictures!)
24. Frank deVol

Favorite Robots:

"SILLLL-ver SHELLL"---bar none! Say...since I also collect petroliana (I'm a graphic & logo designer & automobilia-landscape artist, remember)...did you know that Royal Dutch-Shell had beaten Frederator to that name by about 75-80 years? It was the name of their economy motor oil, at least by the Depression. Mainly, however: NICKELODEON/VIACOM Marketing & Licensing has done NOTHING with the t-o-y manufacturers, regarding that Teenage Robot! Not to Mattel, not to Hasbro, not even to Marx (resurrected for adult collectors). Why not
join forces with WOW-WEE TOYS---the "Robosapien" people---nad encourage Viacom to license to t-h-e-m? Until that day (sigh!)...I simply have to build my own Silver Shell. (Look for snapshots which I'll soon E-mail you!)