Paul Julian (1914-1995) did not spend much of his life in the Wabash Valley or in Sullivan County, Indiana; but, for sure, he was somebody we can claim as one of our own. Paul Julian was a background artist /painter who
worked at Warner Brothers, United Productions of America (UPA) and
Hanna-Barbera. At Warner Brothers he worked primarily with director Friz
Freleng’s unit on the Sylvester and Tweety Bird cartoon shorts. Paul Julian
studied art with Lawrence Murphy, Milliard Sheets and attended the Chouinard
Art School. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Julian>
Paul Julian was a 3rd cousin to our Thompson family. Paul’s
grandmother was Cora May (McKinney) Hull, a 1st cousin to Walter E Thompson of Shelburn. Cora May was the daughter of Margaret Jane (Thompson) and
John Marts McKinney. Our common ancestors were James Washington Thompson and
Beulah Ellen Hunt of Hamilton Twp., Sullivan County, IN.
In 1892, Cora married Dan Hull of Clark County, Illinois - from
over on the west side of the Wabash River. The Hull family moved to South Bend,
Indiana for work; and later moved out to the Pacific coast along with several
members of the McKinney clan. Paul’s mother, Esther Hull Julian (1893 - 1979), was herself
an accomplished artist in California, where she taught at the Santa Barbara School
of the Arts. (ref: California Plein-Air Movement)
Throughout her life, Esther stayed in contact with her mother’s “country cousins” Eck and Evie – our great aunts Ethel May Wright and Evalina Minger – who were about the same age as Esther.
Throughout her life, Esther stayed in contact with her mother’s “country cousins” Eck and Evie – our great aunts Ethel May Wright and Evalina Minger – who were about the same age as Esther.
Significant Projects:
“THE TELL TALE HEART” is the 1953 animated adaptation based off the
cult-classic novel by Edgar Allen Poe.
This was the first cartoon to be X-rated in Great Britain under the
British Board of Film Censors classification system (adults only; but more like our R). It was narrated by
James Mason and produced by UPA. In 2001, the U.S. Library of Congress deemed
the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in
the National Film Registry.
The “Design & Color” is credited to Paul Julian. According to UPA,
the art style was derived from Eugene Berman, scenic and ballet designer of
NYC's Metropolitan Opera.
"HANGMAN" is a 1964 award-winning animated film produced by Les Goldman, directed by Paul Julian and featuring cut-scene animation ‘animatic’ by Paul Julian; based on the 1951 poem of the same name by Maurice Ogden, and recited by actor Herschel Bernardi. The linked version has been digitally revived from a mix of archive footage on the internet, by George Pinkava.
<https://archive.org/details/the_hangman_1964>
Other Projects:
Paul was an artist for Warner Brothers on their “Looney
Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” series at the height of their popularity, and was
the background artist for many of their classic cartoons; particularly the “Sylvester
and Tweety” series. It was said that Julian set the Warner Brothers house style
(and the standard) that all the other painters followed at Warner Brothers in
the 1940s. He is also acknowledged as the originator of the “Roadrunner’s”
familiar “hmeep-hmeep” call sign. (Paul
insisted that “hmeep” is the correct spelling of the sound).
Paul worked at UPA (United Productions of America) on many
projects, including the 1951 critically acclaimed “Rooty
Toot Toot”, an alternative twist to the old story of Frankie and Johnny. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE8_ddz0XvI>
. . . she
parried his moustache with the pin . . . ; Piccoli (1953)
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Paul Julian illustrated Philippe Halsman’s childrens book Piccoli (1953). Halsman was famous as a
photographer for LIFE Magazine, and as a longtime colleague of
Salvador Dali. Halsman created the
character Piccoli as the heroine of a
series of fairy tale adventures that he told his young daughters at bedtime.
Paul Julian collaborated with filmmaker Roger Corman, for whom Paul did many of the title design animations for Roger’s B-Movie classics. These include "Swamp Women" (1955), “The Beast with a Million Eyes" (1955), "Not of This Earth" (1957), "Attack of the Crab Monsters" (1957), "The Terror" (1963) and "Dementia 13" (1963).
Paul’s final project was background artist for “FernGully: The Last Rainforest” (1992)
Sources:
Ref: Internet Movie Database – IMDB <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0432213/>
