Thursday, March 06, 2025

Video: Milton Caniff Tours The Museum of Cartoon Art, Rye Brook, NY (1986)

 

Via InfraMajin:

"A short video piece that aired between programming on NYC PBS station, WNET-13, in 1986. The Museum of Cartoon Art was located in the impressive, castle-like William E. Ward House, and was founded and run by cartoonist Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey, Hi & Lois) and his sons.

"One of the all-time great and influential cartoonists, Milton Caniff (Terry & The Pirates, Steve Canyon) would pass away in 1988 (at age 81), only a couple of years after this video was shot.

"Sadly, the museum closed in 1992, and though its holdings were relocated to Boca Raton, Florida, re-opening (with an expanded collection) there in 1996, as The National Cartoon Museum (and later, The International Museum of Cartoon Art), the newer incarnation also eventually closed its doors in 2002, due to lack of sufficient funding. 

"Pretty depressing, considering how much newspaper strips, comic books and cartoon animation have been big portion of our pop culture in the last century or so, and especially now, when nearly all of our biggest, most-popular films these days are based on (or heavily influenced by) comic books. 

"Anyway, the video brings back a lot of fond memories, as I visited the Rye Brook location often, between 1984-87. The first Sunday of every month featured guest lectures by famous cartoonists (there was a high population of cartooning pros living in the NY/NJ/CT tri-state area at that time), so I was lucky to see and meet such notables as Caniff, Mort Walker, Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Wendy & Richard Pini, Rick Veitch & Stephen Bissette, animation great James 'Shamus' Culhane and others. The museum was just as fun and interesting as it looks in the video."

 


 

Related:

The International Museum of Cartoon Art & Big Boy


Mort Walker 1923 - 2018

 

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