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- FilmFair was a British animation studio, mainly producing series aimed at children. They were most notable for the production of the shows The Wombles and Paddington. The production company and its back catalogue was purchased by Canadian company Cinar. There was another FilmFair... starting in Hollywood about 1960, and operating until, I think, the late-70s. This was one of a number of studios set up to make television commercials in that era... and the company was in the big time almost immediately, producing spots for Bank of America, Kellogg's, Max Factor, Laura Scudder, and the like, winning a number of awards. It was at first chiefly an animation house, but moved quickly into live action also. The leader of the company was Gus Jekel, who left Ray Patin Productions to create this. In its first days, the studio had a number of famous animation people on staff, ... Ken Champin, Manny Perez, Irv Anderson, Hawley Pratt, some of whose names you see in credits on the old Warner Brothers cartoons. In my couple of years there (1961-64) younger guys were coming along, who became major people in the field ... Gordon Bellamy, Fred Wolf, Jimmy Murakami... Indeed, Anna Lois Ray headed the ink and paint department, and her husband, Tom Ray, who was still at Warner, occasionally brought over new WB cartoons to try out on the FilmFair people at lunch. I was probably the least restrained laugher at Pepe Le Pew, Millicent the Giraffe, etc... Gus's twin brother, Bill, was an investor in the place, and active in other Hollywood enterprises (He and Gus later founded the very successful Jekel Winery, bought out by Coppola, I think). FilmFair's first studio was in what had been a film lab on McCadden, about a block below Santa Monica. As live action production coordinator, I had a desk in a big room that I usually shared with director Hank Ludwin, but when the place was very busy, the room filled up with animators, too. One day, twin brother Bill Jekel, who wasn't often around, came into the filled-up room, and spent a couple of minutes examining stuff on a shelf in the corner. After he bustled out, one of the animators said "Who was that?" Without missing a beat, another said "That was Heckle. "* It was fun to share the place with a gang of talented, funny people. The company later moved into what had been a motel out on the Valley side on North Cahuenga, adding a nice stage to the complex. The animators there all had offices with private baths... for a while, until the cost of maintenance and cleaning became too much, and the water was turned off in most of those rooms. When visitors were in the building, Hawley Pratt used to open the door to the bathroom at the back of his office, and shout outrageous orders to an imaginary gang of workers out of sight back there. Just a practical observation that must have applied to FilmFair in the UK as well... hardly anybody ever spelled the company name right, as one word with the second F capitalized: FilmFair. Most mail came addressed to Film Fair, Filmfair, FilmFare, Filmfare, or Film Fare. Great establishment in a great era. --Nels Winkless Those too young may not recall the cartoon characters Heckle and Jeckle. It was a good line at the time.
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