Clutch Cargo is an animated television series produced by Cambria Productions and syndicated beginning on March 9, 1959. Notable for its very limited animation, yet imaginative stories, the series was a surprise hit at the time, and could be seen on 65 stations nationwide in 1960. A television program (US), television programme (UK) or simply television show is a segment of programming in television broadcasting. ... Cambria Studios was the West Hollywood animation production studio most famous for its wide usage of the Syncro-Vox technique of animation developed by Edwin Gillette, who was a co-partner in the studio. ... In the television industry (as in radio), syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast programs to multiple stations, without going through a broadcast network. ... is the 68th day of the year (69th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Plot

The stories centered around Clutch Cargo (voiced by radio actor Richard Cotting), described as "a writer and pilot with a muscular build, white hair and rugged good looks". As was typical of adventure serials, Clutch Cargo was sent around the world on dangerous assignments. With him on the assignments were his young ward Spinner and his pet dachshund, Paddlefoot. Actress Margaret Kerry, who provided the look, style and movement of Tinker Bell in the 1953 Walt Disney Studios production of Peter Pan, provided both the voices and lips of Spinner and Paddlefoot. Live-action footage of an airplane was used as well, specifically that of a rare 1929 Bellanca C-27 Airbus. The attention to detail shown to the aircraft in the series is no doubt due to the fact that the creator of the series, Clark Haas, was a pioneer jet pilot.¹ The dachshund is a short-legged, elongated dog breed of the hound family. ... Margaret Kerry (born Peggy Lynch, 1930, Los Angeles) is an American actress, motivational speaker and radio host best known for her 1953 work as the model for Tinker Bell in the Walt Disney Pictures animated feature, Peter Pan. ... For other uses, see Tinker Bell (disambiguation). ... January 7 - President Harry S. Truman announces the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. ... Disney redirects here. ... This article is about the play by J.M. Barrie. ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation is an American aircraft design and manufacturing company. ... The Bellanca Aircruiser (originally the Airbus) was a high wing, single engine aircraft built by Bellanca Aircraft Corporation of New Castle, Delaware. ... Clark S. Haas, Jr. ...

Hal Smith, the voice of Owl in Disney's Winnie the Pooh shorts, and "Otis Campbell" on The Andy Griffith Show was the voice of Clutch's grizzled, pith-helmeted friend Swampy, as well as numerous other characters. Hal Smith can refer to a number of different people. ... The Andy Griffith Show is an American television series that aired on CBS from October 3rd, 1960 to April 1st, 1968. ...

In all, fifty-two Clutch Cargo adventures were produced and then serialized in five five-minute chapters each. The first four chapters naturally ended in cliffhangers with the fifth chapter concluding the adventure. Haas explained the format of the show: "Each story is done in five five-minute segments so the stations can run one a day on weekdays, then recap the whole for a half-hour Saturday show. It's flexible and works very well."² For other uses, see Cliffhanger (disambiguation). ...

Technique

Because of budgetary limitations and the pressure to create television animation within a tight time frame, the show was the first to use the "Syncro-Vox" optical printing system. Syncro-Vox was invented by television cameraman, and partner in Cambria Studios, Edwin Gillette (1909-2003) as a means of superimposing real human mouths on the faces of animals for the popular "talking animal" commercials of the 1950s. Clutch Cargo employed the Syncro-Vox technique by superimposing live-action human lips over limited-motion animation or even motionless animation cels. Syncro-Vox (sometimes spelled Synchro-Vox) is a filming method which combines static images with moving images, the most common effect of which is to simulate talking lips on a photograph of a celebrity or a cartoon drawing. ... Edwin Ted Gillett (August 11, 1909, Chicago, – September 30, 2003, Los Angeles) was a cameraman and inventor. ... See Cel programming language for the programming language A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. ...

To further cut costs, Gillette and special-effects man, Scotty Tomany supplemented Syncro-Vox with other time- and money-saving tricks. Haas explained, "We are not making animated cartoons. We are photographing 'motorized movement' and-- the biggest trick of all-- combining it with live action. This enables us to produce film at about one-fifth what it costs Hanna and Barbera. Footage that Disney does for $250,000 we do for $18,000."³ Hanna-Barbera was an animated cartoon production company that dominated television animation during the second half of the 20th century. ... Disney redirects here. ...

Gillette and Tomany simulated action not by animation but in the real-time movement of either the camera or the cel itself. Other live-action shots were superimposed as a means of adding a certain degree of realism and to keep production costs down. For example, footage of real smoke was used for explosions.

Gillette said, "We are constantly discovering new dimensions. We have used real balloons to simulate bubble gum, developed windmills that really turn-- mechanically; and Scotty can come up with the darndest snowstorms you've ever seen-- on a turning drum. With a camera capable of zooming, walkers that jog, and judicious cutting away from costly animated movement we manage to do things which otherwise would be impossible. With fewer than a dozen men we produce the equivalent of a half-hour film every week."⁴

Occasionally traditional animation was also employed in the series, notably in the episode The Lost Plateau, in which brief segments of animated dinosaurs stood out. The character Paddlefoot, with his scratching and comical movements, was singled out as the most common cause of "skyrocketing" animation costs at Cambria.

The musical soundtrack to Clutch Cargo was, in its own way, as limited, and yet as inventive within those limitations, as the animation was. Jazz musician Paul Horn provided a score using nothing more than bongos and a flute. This is an article about the jazz musician Paul Horn. ... Bongos Bongo drums or bongos are a percussion instrument made up of two small drums attached to each other. ... â™  This article is about the family of musical instruments. ...

Haas summed up the lasting appeal of Clutch Cargo: "Let's face it, Clutch is a square. But there's a place for him. One thing about this kind of business: It's fun. That's because what you can do is limited only by your ingenuity."⁵

Legacy

Perhaps because of its unique style, Clutch Cargo has been referenced and parodied many times in contemporary pop culture. In 1990, clips from Clutch Cargo were run on The Higgins Boys and Gruber, one of the first shows to air on the Comedy Channel (later Comedy Central). In 1994, the film Pulp Fiction included a scene in which a character was watching Clutch Cargo. And finally, for the past several years the late-night television talk show Late Night with Conan O'Brien has frequently included fake interviews with celebrities in which live video of the impersonator's lips is superimposed over a still photo of the celebrity; this routine has consequently been referred to as "Clutch Cargo". The Higgins Boys and Gruber was a cable television show that aired on weekday afternoons during the last few months of 1990. ... Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel in the United States. ... Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film by director Quentin Tarantino, who cowrote the film with Roger Avary. ... Late Night with Conan OBrien is an Emmy Award-winning American late night talk show that is syndicated worldwide. ...

The person in the Max Headroom Pirating Incident can be heard humming the theme song, pausing halfway to say "I still see the X", a reference to the last episode of Clutch Cargo. (Some people hear the line as "I stole CBS", but reasoning for him saying that is less clear.) Max Headroom impostor in his video The Max Headroom pirating incident was a television signal hijacking in Chicago, Illinois on the evening of November 22, 1987; it is an example of what is known in the television business as broadcast signal intrusion. ...

A nod to Syncro-Vox is used in the talking pirate painting seen in the opening sequence of the SpongeBob SquarePants television program, and briefly on the alien clone of Daffy Duck in the 1990's Warner Brothers cartoon short Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers. This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. ... Warner Bros. ...

Clutch Cargo's is the name of a club in Pontiac, Michigan.^[1] Pontiac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan named after the Ottawa Chief Pontiac. ...

The DVD release of the Disney/Pixar film The Incredibles includes a short cartoon called "Mr. Incredible & Pals" featuring Mr. Incredible and Frozone animated in Clutch Cargo style. The Incredibles is a 2004 American Academy Award-winning computer-animated feature film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures, centering around a family of superheroes. ...

DVD releases

On March 22, 2005, Brentwood Home Video (BCI Eclipse LLC) released the entire Clutch Cargo series in two 3-DVD box sets. Each volume contains 26 5-part episodes, and extras including one episode of Cambria Studios' other two Syncro-Vox series, Space Angel and Captain Fathom. is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Cambria Studios was the West Hollywood animation production studio most famous for its wide usage of the Syncro-Vox technique of animation developed by Edwin Gillette, who was a co-partner in the studio. ... Space Angel was an animated science fiction television series produced in the United States from early 1962 through 1964. ... Captain Fathom was an animated television series produced in 1965 by Cambria Studios. ...

Cover Art	DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date	Additional Information
	Volume 1	26	March 22, 2005	The Story of Clutch Cargo Clutch Memorabilia Clutch & Company: Mini-biographies and details of the cast 1959 Facts and Trivia Bonus Syncro-Vox Cartoon episode
	Volumne 2	26	March 22, 2005	The Making of Clutch Cargo Politically Incorrect As Seen in Pulp Fiction 1959 Trailers Bonus Syncro-Vox Cartoon Episode

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 433 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (529 × 733 pixels, file size: 234 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) // This image is of a DVD cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the DVD or the studio... is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 81st day of the year (82nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Episode list

Footnotes

• Note 1: Margaret Kerry: Memorabilia & Collectibles
• Note 2: "Don't believe your eyes! How 'Clutch Cargo' cuts corners as a television comic strip." TV Guide December 24, 1960, p.29.
• Note 3: Ibid., p.28.
• Note 4: Ibid., p.29.
• Note 5: Loc. cit.

References

1. ^ Hear Here: Clutch Cargo's. Sultan Management (2007-01-14). Retrieved on 2007-08-19.

• Clutch Cargo at toonopedia.com
• "Don't believe your eyes! How 'Clutch Cargo' cuts corners as a television comic strip", TV Guide, December 24, 1960, pp. 28-29.
• Erickson, Hal. Syndicated Television; The First Forty Years, 1947-1987. p.119. ISBN 0-7864-1198-8
• Terrace, Vincent. Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials, 1937-1973. New York, New York Zoetrope. 1986. p.96-97. ISBN 0-918432-69-3
• Jack and Jill magazine, Feb. 1961 issue, 6-page Clutch Cargo comic strip.
• Outré magazine #5.

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 231st day of the year (232nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 358th day of the year (359th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• List of animated television series

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External links

• Clutch Cargo at the Internet Movie Database
• Toon Tracker's Clutch Cargo Page
• Toonopedia's Clutch Cargo page
• Clutch Cargo at TV.com