I will be signing books during the broadcast tonight! ⛄️🎁❄️🎄🎅✍️

I was asked to be on a NEW collectors TV show this past weekend, where they remodel two rooms of your home. I can see now, that 2025 will be full of wonderful surprises!

Jon says he wrote about Maury Laws in his new book 📖! He said I am quoted as well 😁

Tonight on CBS TV for the 58th time on Network TV! Longest-running Highest-Rated TV special! 🎅

Jules Bass R.I.P.

 Jules Bass 1935-2022 

    Jules Bass was a complicated and private man, but he was also a very talented man. He was primarily known for his songwriting work with his partner Maury Laws. Maury usually wrote the music and Jules would write the lyrics, which would typically move the plot along, but this wasn't always the case. In the case of the classic song "One Star in the night," from their 1968 TV Special, The Little Drummer Boy, Jules wrote the music. Maury Laws recalled, "Jules would play this little song he wrote on the piano from time to time. When we got stuck on a song for The Little Drummer Boy, I suggested the song Jules would play on the piano and it fit perfectly." The music catalog of Rankin/Bass Productions is outstanding and Jules, along with Maury, had everything to do with that. In fact, Jules and Maury were both involved in the CD projects I worked on for Mad Monster Party and The Daydreamer. 

 

    In the mid-1970s, Rankin/Bass writer Romeo Muller decided to branch out on his own and wrote other animated television specials. Jules stepped in and became writer for specials like The First Christmas, The Little Drummer Boy, Book II, etc. He wrote these under the name Julian P. Gardner. Maury Laws recalled, "The P. Stood for Phoney, and Gardner was the first name of one of Arthur's sons." Often, Jules was given Director credit too, but this was mostly honorary. Arthur Rankin, Jr. was the only one of the duo who traveled to Japan, to oversee the animation production. In the case of the Animagic productions, the actual animators were the true Directors, as was the case with Tad Mochinaga for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Jules often worked with the East Coast voice actors in New York, such as Allen Swift, Rhoda Mann, Bradley Bolke, etc. Arthur often worked with the big name actors like Fred Astaire, Boris Karloff, James Cagney, etc. As the studio got bigger, Jules took on many roles and his dream was to bring a musical to Broadway. Two musicals were in development. One was called HUCK (Based on Huck Finn) and another was written by Romeo Muller called A Month of Sundays. A month of Sundays featured veteran voice actor Allen Swift in the cast and it introduced a great Bass/Laws song called "Elbow Room," which was later used in the TV Special The Mouse on the Mayflower. When the off Broadway show closed after ten performances, it hit Jules very hard. Maury Laws said, "Jules was never the same after that. It really broke his spirit." 

 

     I always remember the story Maury told me about his appearance in the Rankin/Bass TV film, The Bermuda Depths. Maury played a small role as Magnus' father. When his lab gets overtaken by the sea, Maury had to scream. Maury said, "Jules didn't like my scream, so he ended up doing the scream."

 

      Jules and Arthur both went over the blue lines to my first book, The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass: A Portfolio, and I remember Jules being very excited about it. I did conduct long interviews with Jules and I even taped one. He always preferred that Arthur speak for Rankin/Bass Productions publicly. Jules would often contact me for help with various projects over the years, and I always did the best I could. Arthur would always tell me, "Jules was very happy with the way you have promoted his books." Jules sent me signed copies of his Herb, The Vegetarian Dragon books. He released a novel called Headhunters, and many people don't know that was originally a TV script for an ABC FRIDAY NIGHT MOVIE, that never got made. After the book release, Nicole Kidman's company bought the movie rights and it was eventually made into a feature film called Monte Carlo starring Selena Gomez.

 

     I will definitely remember Jules for his inspiring work, that has meant so much to generations of people. His songs with Maury Laws, will live on forever! Every time Arthur called me, I would always ask about Jules. They saw each other for dinner regularly, and Arthur wanted to surprise Jules on Christmas eve 2012, with my 15th Anniversary edition of The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass. I know there was a lot of love between them. Jules was living in France, when we released my first book, but he moved back to New York and had a home built in Garrison, not far from Arthur's home there, so that said a lot. Jules Bass R.I.P. #Julesbass #Rankinbassproductionsofficial #Lyricist #Author #Director #Writer

 

 

July is starting off right!

I am doing a couple of podcasts on July 5th and to my surprise, have been in talks about another network television appearance (more info to come).

I am appearing at the Wheaton all-night flea market in August and then the Halloween all-night flea market in October!   Also doing the Southside Comic book show in September at Alan B. Shepard high school.  There will be some new releases of Rankin/Bass product that I will be discussing soon too!
 

Classic CBS TV!

Monday

Enchanted

I want to Thank all of the wonderful Rankin/Bass fans for our most successful season ever (and it is still going strong!)! I love making people happy and that is what keeps me going 😁 (you can't please everyone, but I try). Our printer had some issues with the supply chain debacle and the soaring inflation has hit us all, but still signing tons of books and loading up my mailman Larry's truck daily! The Anniversary of Arthur Rankin's passing is coming up and one of the last things he said to me was "I want to see it live on after I am gone." I won't forget that, nor will I forget Wes Garlatz's dedication to our cause either. The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass is stronger than ever, and for that I Thank You! www.miserbros.com #rankinbassproductions #January #booksigning #rudolphtherednosedreindeer #madmonsterparty #Thundercats #theHobbit #santaclausiscomintotown #silverhawks #animation #history #television #film #Sixpack ❄☃️🌨

Merry Christmas!

www.artovision3d.com 

Busy! Busy! Busy!

 I am getting an order about every 30 minutes right now!   If you want me for a Radio or TV Interview, just email me at Rickgoldsc@aol.com and I will get back to you!   Getting too many phone calls, Instant messages, etc.

Orders are popping like popcorn tonight! AND......I have been keeping up and ordered the right amount of supplies this year!

 

I am getting lots of interview requests with the Animagic figures re-appearance! Email requests to Rickgoldsc@aol.com #Rudolphtherednosedreindeer

 Email me at Rickgoldsc@aol.com for interview rerquests!

PBS' ANTIQUES ROADSHOW was Very Disappointing!

I am so sorry I told Rankin/Bass Productions fans to tune into PBS' ANTIQUES ROADSHOW tonight, because the piece that I saw, created a false narrative to what the Producers wanted you to believe.   I did multiple interviews for this show over the past year, so they can't say "We didn't know."  They even asked me to clarify on a few occasions, which I did.  In fact, they went out of their way to take the facts I relayed to them out of this segment.  At one point I got an email from someone that worked there, asking to order my book The Making of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town and The Daydreamer directly from me, instead of our website?   They never ended up ordering?!

 

In the segment, they called them "Production puppets" and "Screen used puppets" and they are neither.  I explain in my RetroFan Magazine article in issue #17 out October 13th, 2021 and I explained to Antiques Roadshow, the screen used puppets, more correctly called Animagic figures, stayed in Japan and many remained in the collection of head animator Tad Mochinaga.   You can see these photos in my book on Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and our Frosty the Snowman 50th Anniversary Scrapbook.   The Animagic figure of Santa in the TV Special had a smaller beard and lines in the beard that moved as his mouth did (Which you can clearly see in my book photos).  The publicity photo Santa has a much bigger and rounder beard, with no allowances for mouth movement.

 

The Animagic figures that appeared on Antiques Roadshow and were so badly appraised right from the start, were the Publicity only figures.   They were used for Publicity photos in New York and then they were put on display at NBC-TV in the Rockefeller Plaza for a short number of years.

 

While this host talked about his personal connection to the Animagic figures, I heard from the seller before Antiques Roadshow.   Then I appeared with the figures, after my friend Kevin Kriess bought them at many conventions and on television (2006-2009).  I helped coordinate the restoral with my friends Mark Caballero and Seamus and Robin Walsh at Screen-Novelties prior.  Kevin sold them to another friend of mine, Peter Lutrario.   I worked on the catalog for the 2020 auction,

through Profiles In History and I also worked on the exhibit at the Center For Puppetry Arts for this Holiday season.  This is the 20th Anniversary for my book The Making of the Rankin/Bass Holiday Classic:  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

    It was really disappointing to see this sort of fluff piece, after giving PBS, Antiques Roadshow and Detours so much of my time and the history of the figures!   I would never do an interview for them again... and again, I am sorry I promoted it originally!