Tiger, Tiger, Painted Bright - of Jungles, Walt Disney - and Helping a Friend

Boy, talk about Convergence of Topics, and degrees of separation! This is gonna be tricky, but bear with me - there's a payoff, particularly for collectors of Tiger Art.

If you look up at the top of the page, you'll notice that the theme for AnthroCon this year is "It's a Jungle Out There". This can mean that there will be all sorts of art and conbook contributions dealing with The Jungle, and Jungle Animals.

Also please note that this year, our Guest of Honor (or, as his modest nature would prefer, our "Guest of OK") is Floyd Norman, an artist/animator who actually worked at the direction of Walt Disney himself, and worked on the feature THE JUNGLE BOOK, among many later feature films from that studio.

JUNGLE BOOK bears a couple of distinctions which help it stand out among the Disney Classics. It was the first film which featured the voice talents of known character actors, enhancing the personalities of the characters so much that the dialog, script, story and layout were altered because of the influence of those distinctive voices. Sebastian Cabot provided the voice - and stiff, fussy temperment - of Bagheera, the black panther; Louis Prima, bandleader, was cast as King Louie; and perhaps the most radical selection of all, the Saloon and Big Band singer, Phil Harris, who became inescapably tied to Baloo, the Bear - Easy Going, Take Life as it comes, a Jungle Bum, for whom the "Bare Necessities of Life" are good enough. The original concept for Baloo was quite different, almost a hindi screwball, but the Phil Harris voice and personality were something that the animators couldn't escape, and didn't want to, which truly lifted the film. And it was Walt who suggested Harris in the first place, according to studio history.

A sadder distinction is that JUNGLE BOOK was the very last film that Walt Disney had a direct hand in making, from beginning to distribution; he died the week of the theatrical release.

Like most Disney films, JUNGLE BOOK had a villian - Shere Khan, the Tiger, voice by the english actor George Sanders. Walt had suggested someone like Basil Rathbone, and the character design of Shere Khan sort of suggests a Rathbone caricature, but the controlled and civilised MENACE of Sanders' deep voice, with an upper-class, born-to-Empire tone, absolutely makes the tiger one of Disney's memorable villians, perhaps foreshadowing Scar from THE LION KING.

I look forward to the opportunity to meet Mr. Norman; I'd like to hear what it was REALLY like to work for Walt Disney, a man who despite his very carefully crafted and preserved image, had a number of flaws; but I have found that it is the success one has in life, often IN SPITE of those flaws, that makes the true test of character and greatness in people.

But all of this is basically a prelude to what I really want to say here...

I would like to direct your attention an interesting auction, now taking place on eBay. The auction in question is here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=190225307514

If you didn't click the link, this auction is for an animation cel, purchased in the late '60's, before Animation Cel Art was considered Gallery-worthy and a collectible commodity. It is a VERY nice production cel from JUNGLE BOOK, and it depicts the tiger, Shere Khan, stalking his prey, just before his pounce.

This is an "Original" cel, actually used in the production; "Classic" cel art is usually something made from the "morgue" drawings of productions long finished, specifically as something to present or market - and often not "one of a kind". Most of the production cels, though "one of a kind", are not very good depictions of a character; cels are not meant to be individual portraits, after all, but rather as part of a series, a means to depict MOTION. The few, really choice ones were often presented to to VIP guests of the studio, or to production employees for merit. This one is a happy exception, and escaped the VIPs - It is of the sort that might have been presented to the voice actor, for example - but instead was discovered and purchased buy a fan and collector - indeed, a special fan and collector, in this case.

The item is being auctioned by an anonymous seller, who is in turn actually selling it on the behalf of an anonymous owner. This is not to hide anything, but is simply the way that eBay protects the privacy of its service users. There is a story behind this particular auction, and the art collection from which this cel comes.

Who is the seller? The person offering this cel is Glen Wooten.

For new furry fans who might not know him, Glen is perhaps better known as the husband of Terrie Smith, on of the fandom's best-known artists. Glen is a long-time Furry and SciFi/Fantasy fan, and runs a few art shows at other fan conventions around the country. He is also a preferred auctioneer, along with our own esteemed Chairman. And whenever the two of them are teamed up onstage to auction off artwork, they each try to top the other in getting record bids for the artists, and usually have great fun in the process. For the record, Uncle Kage happens to hold the current honor of gaining the highest bid ever for a piece of Furry Art, at $10,000 for a single painting, but Glen has hopes - and I'm hoping that BOTH will be doing the auction honors at AnthroCon this year. The point is - Glen Wooten is One Of Us, and you have my personal guarantee that any item he is selling on eBay is as advertised, and will be delivered as promised. But that isn't all - Glen is selling this item on behalf of its owner...

Who is the owner? The person who bought this cel so many years ago is none other than Fred Patten.

Again, for the benefit of new furry fans, please go to this link in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=Fred+Patten

Fred used to be a fixture at Furry Conventions, indeed at Anime Conventions, Science Fiction Conventions, World Cons, and Animation Screenings. Fred wrote - A LOT - about SciFi, Anime, Manga, Animation, and of course, Anthropomorphic (Furry) literature, art, comics and movies. Fred was one of the founders of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organisation, the first Anime Fan Club. Perhaps no other person is more responsible for bringing Anime and Manga to North America. Fred is essentially the keeper of the history of Fandom - Furry, SciFi, Anime - and pretty much wrote the definition of what Furry Fandom was, and pinpointed its start.

So - how "connected" is this guy to Furry Fandom? Fred is a member of ASIFA, the international animation organisation which presents the animation equivalent of the Oscars - the "Annie Awards" - and as a long-time member of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) - the world's oldest Science Fiction Club - is a respected friend of folks like Forry Ackerman (Creator of Vampirella, and literary agent for L. Ron Hubbard), Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven (GOH at at past FURther CONfusion) and Jerry Pournelle (Ditto).

Fred is also, by virtue of having written for comic books and industry trade papers, a respected member of the Comic Artist's Professional Society (CAPS), and a friend of Mark Evanier (AC2007 GOH), Scott Shaw! (AC2006 GOH), Stan Sakai (AC2004 GOH), Sergio Aragones (hmmm-something is missing here)...well, I hope you get the idea.

Fred has, sadly, been hit by misfortune. When the aerospace industry started to wither at the end of the 80's, it affected Fred's job as technical librarian at Hughes Aerospace in El Segundo - Fre was forced to take early retirement, which left him a limited pension and an annuity, but no medical coverage, until he qualified for Social Security and MediCare at age 65. Like many people in this situation, Fred was forced to gamble that his health would remain sound until then...

Fred lost that wager - in March 2005, he suffered a devastating stroke, losing the use of the right side of his body, and confining him to a wheelchair or a bed. He was hospitalised for several months, during which he lost his apartment, and his car (which he couldn't use now, anyway) and when he was released from the county medical center, it was to a convalescent hospital which would accept California State MediCAL payments for his expense. He now lives in a residential care facility in North Hollywood, converted from the home of a 1930's minor B-movie actor. He shares a room with a man who speaks no English and is palsied, in a place that I can fairly describe as a firetrap, built to warehouse those members of society that family members can no longer care for or control, and is reliant upon nurses to help him into and out of bed or his wheelchair, and dependent upon them for everything else. In return, the state garnishes all his income, save $35 a month, which pays for his computer access and the fee for the barber who comes to cut his hair every month.

Computer access? Oh, yes - despite effectively having only the use of one hand - his left - Fred maintains correspondence with Students and Fans of Animation, SciFi, and Furry literature around the world. The only visitors from Iceland or Australia or Japan that this little convalescent hospital has ever had have come to see and talk with Fred Patten. Fred goes through books like you or I go through Oxygen, and writes reviews of them. He is once again receiving sample DVD's of new Anime releases from Japan, with solicitations for a review (and a kind word).

Fred collected stuff - huge quantities of rare and surprising stuff. When his landlord let it be known that Fred's apartment had to be cleared out, due to non-payment of rent, several LASFS members volunteered to clean it out. What they found were stacks and towers of books, magazines, scripts, rare first-editions, DVD and video tapes of early anime, and a collection of aerospace artifacts from both our and the Russian space programs, things that several world-class aerospace museums would KILL to have; and then there was the storage facility full of books and early pulp magazines - and the OTHER storage facility, ALSO full of books and magazines, and correspondence from famous SciFi writers living and dead. In the end, over 800 BOXES of what were deemed research treasures were donated to the Eaton collection at the Library of University of California - Riverside, nearly doubling their collection, and making them the holders of the premier collection in the entire world of Science Fiction literature, correspondence, and ephemera.

And, Fred collected Art - Cover art from SciFi magazines, including nice Kelly Freas covers, promotional art for animation or fantasy movies, book covers and jacket designs, and of course original sketches, finished art, and animation cells from American and japanese productions. Not necessarily a LARGE Collection, like mine, but one of selection and quality that I can only hope that I might someday emulate.

Since Fred is essentially a Ward of the State, they pay for his living expenses, and only "medically necessary" medical treatments - meaning, "If he can survive without it, he doesn't get it". To both cover the expenses of things that the state won't pay for - like Fred's manual wheelchair, surprisingly enough - and minor things to make life a little more comfortable and bearable, Glen Wooten has been maintaining and managing a "discretionary fund", out of Fred's direct control (so the state can't garnish it). Thanks to contributions made to it, Fred has been able to get out of the convalescent hospital on occasion, to attend LOSCON, for example, and the 64th World Con, which was held in Anaheim, at which he was presented with a lifetime achievement award for contributions made to Fan Society (we were able to keep that a secret, as a surprise, while the Hugos were being given out), and he has even been able to attend the local Furry Con, CaliFUR, and AnimeLA, held in Burbank. And we VERY NEARLY were able to pull off a coup, with special efforts by Glen, Lance Ikegawa (Master of Fursuit design), the staff of FURther CONfusion, and a special assist from AnthroCon, to get Fred to FURther CONfusion as a surprise Guest of Honor - but health issues, and a misstep on my part, meant we had to abort the plan.

And health issues and conditions at the convalescent home continue to be a problem. To help, Fred has been willing to part with his art collection, and this is the first piece selected by Glen for auction.

By furry standards, the current bids are a bit daunting - but considering the premium character of this particular cel - all things considered, a $1,200 final price would still be considered cheap, and the current bid - about $400 as I write this - makes it within the reach of truly dedicated Furry Fans, particularly those of the Tiger Pursuasion. Here's a chance to own a bit of Disney History - with a small but direct connection to Walt - and it would only be fitting if a Furry Fan should win it. And who knows? If you win it, bring it to AnthroCon! Perhaps our Guest of "OK" might even be able to tell us more about it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. Besides being long, it pushes the limits of tolerance for what this forum is meant for, but I asked permission first, and am grateful to the forum admins for allowing me this indulgence.

In the end - Furry Fandom does take care of our own.