Harold Elsworth Lockwood

Hal Lockwood lived a well-traveled life, with lots of adventures, and enjoyed them with many friends who he remained close to throughout the years. His art spread throughout many different formats and comics, and illustrations that many of us know of today. Here is just a small excerpt of some of his history. Harold Elsworth Lockwood, 98, of Stanford Connecticut, passed away Friday, September 15, 2017. He was born May 31, 1919 in Stamford Connecticut to the late George Edward Lockwood, Born 1898 – May 1, 1965 & Margaret Kotches Lockwood, born April 17, 1899 – September 16, 1987. Hal was a loving husband, and true friend, a self-taught cartoonist, animator, writer and Pilot, a career that spanned 60 years. After graduating High School, Hal did as any other teenager did and found odd jobs here and there, until he found his first big opportunity. In July 1939 Hal was employed as a colorist with Fleischer Studio, in Florida where he worked on Gulliver’s Travels. This is also the same studio where Popeye and Betty Boop movie cartoons originated. During this work he had the opportunity to work with a new process in the art of animation called rotoscope. While living in Florida Hal and his friend Harry Asovitch did puppet shows at the local hotels. He also had a close friend who residing in Florida, named Russ Smiley, who was a brilliant illustrator and did beautiful illustrations of sea life and later went on to write several books. Hal later was visited by a friend, who was in the Army. Hal tried on his military uniform and felt his next step should be to join the Army and worked in the Army Pictorial Center during World War II. Hal was also a Pilot and was able to fly the military observation planes. Russ and Hal worked at Fleischer studio, fished, and hunted together before going into the service. On March 9th, 1942 Hal joined the Army. In August 1943 while in the service he married a WAC named Patricia Kair in Stamford, CT. They had two kids together. Jeffery George Lockwood, born September 16th, 1944 and Randall Hal Lockwood, born September 14th, 1948. In the 1940’s Hal worked on a wide variety of humor and funny-animal comic books for a low-rent publisher Ace Periodicals, including Professor Penguin, Nutty Squirrel, Pat & Mike, Marmaduke Monk, and many others. In the summer of 1944 Hal was involved with the covers and the complete story and art for a new comic book entitled “MonkeyShine Comics”. During this time, he also began doing a six-page story with an original teen character, whom he created, called Jerry the Jinx, with a different publisher. November 27th, 1945, Hal received an honorable discharge at the separation center, Fort Monmouth, NJ. After leaving the military, Hal moved to New York where he worked in a studio office. He later returned to Florida in April of 1956 and stayed with Russ and Marjorie Smiley, where he would work with Soundac, Inc. (“sound in action”) as an animator. Soundac, co-owned by Jack Schleh and Bob Buchanan, was then animating the kid’s TV show known as “Colonel Bleep”. Hal noted the unique style in which Soundac animated and illustrated. In his notes, he mentions the Soundac way was the epitome of “thinking BIG” and “working Small”. While at Soundac, Hal was given several of the TV commercials projects as well as some special “series” spots that were being developed to sell independently. Hal and Patricia were divorced on January 24, 1958. Hal decide to move back to Florida. Hal meet Judy through some mutual friends and on June 1st, 1958 Hal married the love of his life Judy Klinkenberg in Florida, at the Plymouth Church in Miami. After not finding much work in Florida, Hal and Judy headed north to New York City in hopes to find more work. In November 1962 Hal joined Academy-McLarty, a film production company, as an artist/animator. The owner of the company was Franz Hartmann. It was within this company he worked with several friends, “Bud” Norton Hemedinger-a local Buffalo artist, Bob Esslinger-a cartoonist-animator, Norm Ross-the sound recording expert, and Jim Vormelker- a Camera Man. It was here, he worked on a project for the Air Force with these close friends, which was an animated film. This film was about how to safely install or remove a nuclear bomb from its place beneath a fighter aircraft. Hal talked about this project and all it took to get all the drawings on cell’s and get them painted by the deadline needed. It is here where he noted the tireless work he did with Esslinger on getting the dozens and dozens of cells completed. It was close work Hal did with Norm Ross to get the mouth movements of the characters and the sound just right. Hal took great pride in this film and all the hard work within this film. He worked for this production company until August 1965. It was a hard decision for Hal to leave Academy-McLarty, as he had become close friends with Franz Hartmann, and this decision weighed heavily on him, to leave such a close friend. After his work with Academy-McLarty, in September 1965, Hal ambitiously looked-for work with Norwood Studios in Washington D.C. It was after a letter, flight, phone calls, and interviews, Hal was hired onto the job. After accepting this job, Hal and Judy moved to Gaithersburg, MD. It was with Norwood where he met Bill Sturm, an Artist-Animator. While at Norwood studios, he worked on government films, one being for the US Navy. Following their time in MD, Hal and Judy bought a T-Bird, and headed south to Mexico City, on vacation to spend some time with friends. At that point Hal had to return to Connecticut after receiving the news that his father had passed. February 1969- Hal and Judy moved to Texas. To work for AV corporation for 10 years and ended his work with them in 1979. While he was there he worked on numerous projects including medical, as well as NASA. Hal did Freelance work from 1979-1981. Judy notes what a lovely time this was as she would come home to the smell of a freshly cake to have with supper. In May 1981 Hal started working for Transco as an artist, where he met his friends Charles Jones, Michael Puig, Johann Kohl, David Woher and Joe Jacques. Hal started out illustrating slides for presentations and ended up becoming head of the department. This is where he worked on various presentations including the annual stockholder meetings and was responsible for the creation and development of images for safety programs, and the pipeline division, such as Pipeline Pete. Hal retired in October of 1986 and moved to Mexico. There were drawn to the area of Ajijic, due to his close friendship with Arthur “Herb” Stever, who resided there with his wife Luz M Stever, and their two children, Arturo, and Melissa. Arturo and Melissa referred to them as Uncle Hal and Aunt Judy. While in Mexico Hal and Judy become close friends with Raul Angulo Coronel, and his wife Lee. Raul is an artist in the pottery/ceramics field, and has written several books, The Cortez Coins and Man of Clay. Also, in Mexico Hal met Cy and Betty Green, Cy was responsible for building numerous homes in the Ajijic area, and Betty was a decorator. Hal and Judy spent most of their time socializing with others in the area. While there Hal ventured out in to his acting career as Louie “Lay Off” Lamont, in the play “Night Court”, which was meet with rave reviews. They also enjoyed various travels around Mexico. Hal and Judy both loved Mexico and the local art and culture. – Hal started to have trouble with his stomach and after attempts to resolve the problem in Mexico, he flew back to Houston where he found he had stomach cancer and had to have half of his stomach removed and the fly back and forth over the next months for eight chemo treatments. Hal and Judy would later return to Texas and moved to Weimer just outside of Columbus. After spending about five years there, they decided to move to Buchanan Dam and bought a small house there, but the opportunity arose to purchase a house on the water, so they moved within the subdivision to a larger house with a view of the water and the dam. The large lot and hill up from the water created challenges and so they were off to Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. They moved to the village in 2006 and lived there until 2016, when their health required them to move to West Shores a senior living community. While here Hal celebrated his 98 Birthday and their 59th Wedding Anniversary on June 1. Good Luck and Safe Travel, Dear Friend.

Harold Elsworth Lockwood

May 30, 1919 - September 15, 2017