From Rose Bond’s excellent essay about Oregon animation history, which was written for an ASIFA conference:
Any discussion of the roots of Portland animation must reach back to the 1920s when a young newsreel filmmaker named Lew Cook created a film circa 1925 with clay characters called The Little Baker. Cooks five minute black and white escapade of a piece of dough coming alive would serve as inspiration for perhaps the worlds best known clay animator, Will Vinton.
The Little Baker shot on 35mm nitrate garnered little attention outside a small group of technical film guys but it was saved along with Lews Webfoot Weekly Newsreels, highlights of Oregon history, in the film archives of the Oregon History Center when Lew Cook became the Centers film archivist.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Michele Kribs Honored by Oregon Historical Society | Oregon Movies, A to Z // Apr 25, 2011 at 6:50 pm
[...] the first preservationist/archivist to work for OHS. That honor goes to the man who trained her: Lewis Clark Cook, a director-turned -film-archivist who inspired both Will Vinton and Jim Blashfield, both of whom [...]
2 Oregon Cartoon Institute Public Meeting @ 5th Avenue Cinema/Sunday, Feb. 12, 2:00 PM/FREE | Oregon Movies, A to Z // Jan 27, 2012 at 6:59 pm
[...] is a rare screening of The Clay Baker, a stop motion animation short by early Portland filmmaker Lewis Clark Cook (1909 – 1983). We will also screen a ten-minute profile of Cook, made for OPB in the early [...]
3 Oregon Cartoon Institute Public Meeting/Feb. 12 @ 5th Avenue Cinema « Anne Richardson // Jan 27, 2012 at 8:20 pm
[...] is a rare screening of The Clay Baker, a stop motion animation short by early Portland filmmaker Lewis Clark Cook (1909 – 1983). We will also screen a ten-minute profile of Cook, made for OPB in the early [...]
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