How it all started
When I first moved from Minnesota to Los Angeles, I met up with an old high school friend from back home, Larry Anderson, who was a magician/actor. He introduced me to a guy by the name of Jack Shafton, who at the time happened to have his studio next to the premier maker of magic props, Johnny Gaughan. This is where Larry's employer, Mark Wilson had his Magic props made. Jack had a Company called Showcraft that made Props for TV shows, TV Commercials and amusement parks - or whoever needed something made.
I showed Jack my portfolio, which was just a bunch of drawings at that point and Jack gave me a job as an apprentice. I was just basically helping him and the other people that worked there with anything and everything. They taught me to make molds and even costume work. One day I’d be making a plaster mold of a head that one of the sculptors had made for a walk around costume of Burger King and pouring neoprene in the mold for the head base and the next day I’d be making his shoes or Painting his face and setting the hair on his head. It was a little bit of everything, but my favorite part of that job was watching the sculptors, when they were around, working in water clay.
Jack knew everyone in the industry and when he needed anything sculpted he hired top notch studio sculptors that were between movie jigs. That’s where I first met my lifelong friend and Mentor Mike McCracken who was one of the Disney sculptors that sculpted a lot of the dark ride Characters from the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. He later settled into being a Prosthetic make up artist. Mike has passed away, but I’m still friends with his son Mike jr. who is also a sculptor and Prosthetic make up Artist.
I met Don Chandler there as well, the sculptor of Jaws, with whom I later worked on the 1976 version of King Kong for Dino De Laurentiis, sculpting the 40 ft Kong. I also met Pat Newman there, a lifelong studio sculptor who I would later work with practically everywhere I went.
I was, to say the least, an enthusiastic zealot of a kid when it came to sculpture, that hung on their every word gleaning as much information from them that I could. These sculptors were my idols and they were so generous with their time and information that I don’t think I could have wished for a better education as a sculptor. I couldn’t believe I was getting paid for it and this was only the beginning.
Sometimes Mike would even stop by my house after work to see what I was working on and critique my sculptures.
I realize now that my life may have turned out very differently if I hadn’t met Jack Shafton. Jack called himself a Jack of all trades, master of none; but that guy knew how to do everything, he knew everyone in the studios and he was a very nice man.
My first major gig
One day Jack got this job to make the inflated version of the blow up space suit for Woody Allen’s movie, Sleeper. The suit that Woody and Diane Keaton ended up floating down a river in and on. So Jack told me to make it!
Of course I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but Jack told me step by step what to do, making a pattern and cutting it out of flexible sheet foam, gluing all the seams together, then spraying the whole thing with a rubber paint to make it water tight.
Once it was finished, Woody was supposed to come by and try it on but once he and his art director showed up for the fitting, they took one look at me and said, your Woody’s size - you put it on.
So then, I was the one trying it on while Woody and the other guy cracked jokes at my expense as I turned fifty shades of red. I actually thought it looked stupid, but they liked it and I guess the movie was pretty campy anyway.
A lot of interesting people showed up at Shafton’s place while we were creating a new puppet for Shari Lewis but I don’t think it ever saw the light of day. Maybe Lamb Chop got jealous!
I met John Chambers at Stafton’s. Chambers was a prosthetic make up artist and he and his crew are the folks that created all the Prosthetic Apes masks for the Planet of the Apes Movies.
I eventually left Jacks place for a different job but Jack kept popping up in my life and was directly responsible for me getting my first sculpting job with one of his many friends in the industry.
Thanks for reading my story! I hope to get back to all of you comments on my previous post soon.
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Thanks,I'll check it out.
Wow, I loved that suit and that film. The chemistry on screen was hilarious and it is cool to read about what was going on behind the scenes.
I have worked a bit in film myself and love that world. You really never know who you meet that will become such an important part to you career. So you always try and make friends and do your best with even the smaller tasks. You never know who is watching.
Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
I'm really a Woody Allen Film fan myself. I think it's just the absurd and silly nature he gives off that appeals to me. I have to say that when I met him and his art director as a young man for the reverse fitting they delighted in torturing me in the most matter of fact way. The more I turned red faced the more it spurred them on with the dead pan jokes.
I can see that he uses those same type of ideas and turns it on himself in his films.
I was always extremely friendly to everyone which always made me fodder for these kind of situations but also mostly well liked. I learned to appreciate these situations from both sides of the coin.
After reading what I just wrote it seams like a really weird thing to say but not incorrect.
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Ha, ha! Nice suit!