Tag Archives: Jay Ward Studios

What was it like working on Rocky & Bullwinkle in Mexico City in the early 1960s?Darrell Van Citters tells you on his blog The Art of Jay Ward in the fist of a multi part series.

From the site:

During the writing process on The Art of Jay Ward Productions, I put out an all points bulletin on the Internet looking for a few artists who had either worked directly for Jay Ward in Hollywood or for Val-Mar/Gamma Productions in Mexico, the subcontractor for all animation production on the Jay Ward series.  One of those artists was Frank Hursh, an American painter who had headed up the background department at the Mexican studio in the early 1960s, a crucial period in the history of the Ward studio.

Admittedly, my request was a long shot and I had low expectations for any kind of response.  However, while the book was at the printer’s, I received a phone call from Frank’s daughter, Holly, responding to my posting which she had just discovered while searching on the Internet.  She was calling from Mexico with her father standing right next to her.  While it was too late to include any new information or art from Frank, it wasn’t too late for me to ask questions or to find out that his memoirs had been published in a bilingual book in Mexico.  Later I found out that Frank had photos of the personnel and studio from it’s heyday along with a few pieces of original art.  It’s unlikely there will be a second edition of The Art of Jay Ward Productions so I’ve decided to highlight Frank Hursh and his time at the Gamma studio with a multi-part blog post.

You can read the whole post here.