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<HEAD><TITLE>Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Clutch Cargo </TITLE> <script language="JavaScript"></script> <META name = "author" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "description" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "subject" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "keywords" content = "comic books animated cartoons animation comics comix syndicated comic strips"> <META name = "publisher" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "format" content = "text/html"> <META name = "language" content = "EN"> </HEAD><BODY> <body onload="if (self!= top) top.location = self.location"></body> <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="0000EE" VLINK="551A8B"> <TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=310 VALIGN="CENTER"><IMG GALLERYIMG="NO" ALIGN="LEFT" HEIGHT=296 WIDTH=300 ALT="A Clutch Cargo promotional sticker." SRC="clutch.jpg"> <TD VALIGN="CENTER"> <H1>CLUTCH CARGO</H1><FONT SIZE=4> <B>Original medium:</B> Television animation <BR><B>Produced by:</B> Cambria Productions <BR><B>First Appeared:</B> 1959 <BR><B>Creator:</B> Clark Haas <FONT SIZE=3> <! BEGIN DONATION CODE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="993366"><CENTER> If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, <BR>Please contribute to its necessary financial support. <BR><A HREF="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1237L0BCY25QA" TARGET="_blank">Amazon.com</A> or <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=don%40toonopedia.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_cod e=USD" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> </FONT></CENTER><HR> <! END DONATION CODE> <P><A NAME="cont"> Some old-time animated TV characters, like <A HREF="winkydnk.htm">Winky Dink,</A> are remembered for their historical importance. Some, like <A HREF="terrific.htm">Tom Terrific,</A> are remembered for being great despite  <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="#cont"><FONT SIZE=2><I>continued below</A></FONT> </TABLE> <CENTER><! BEGIN ADSENSE "LEADERBOARD" CODE> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <! END ADSENSE CODE></CENTER> <P><TABLE><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> limited budgets. Some, like <A HREF="yogi.htm">Yogi Bear,</A> are remembered for their long-lasting appeal. And some, like <A HREF="flintstn.htm">The Flintstones,</A> are remembered because they're still around. <P> Then there's Clutch Cargo, who debuted on March 9, 1959, and is remembered for exploring depth of meaning in the phrase "limited animation". Even in an era of low production values, he stood out from the crowd. The animation, if you're generous enough to call it that, was so limited, that for many, the amazing spectacle of it seems to have blotted out every other aspect of the show. Quite a few young viewers watched it less for whatever thrills it may have offered, than so they could get together with their friends the next day and ridicule it. <P> And yet, like <I><A HREF="nancy.htm">Nancy's</A></I> Ernie Bushmiller, it has its admirers, who cite good stories and art (even if the latter didn't move very much), and are willing to overlook its obvious faults. In any case, its place in animation history is secured by the fact that, long anticipating <I><A HREF="mightor.htm">The Mighty Mightor,</A> <A HREF="jquest.htm">Jonny Quest</A></I> et al., it may have been the first cartoon in American television to emphasize adventure over humor. <P> Cambria Productions, which produced Clutch, had some clever ways of getting around the lack of budget for making the characters move. If an explosion rocked the scene, they'd shake the camera. If there was a fire, they'd blow real smoke across the drawing. Best-remembered of all is the technique they used to simulate lip movement — they'd film <B>real</B> lips speaking the lines, then superimpose them on the drawings using a process called Synchro-Vox. This was a patented technique invented by cameraman Edwin Gillette (possibly inspired by <A HREF="avery.htm">Tex Avery's</A> <I>Speaking of Animals,</I> where animated lips were added to live-action creatures), and is still in use, most notably in Conan O'Brien's late-night TV show and the opening of <I><A href="spongbob.htm">Spongebob Squarepants.</A></I> <P> The series was created by <A HREF="glossary.htm#cartoonist">cartoonist</A> Clark Haas, whose only other animation credits are <I><A HREF="spangel.htm">Space Angel</A></I> and <I><A HREF="cfathom.htm">Captain Fathom,</A></I> also from Cambria. In comics, he served stints ghosting <I><A HREF="timtyler.htm">Tim Tyler's Luck</A></I> and the Sunday version of <I><A HREF="sawyer.htm">Buz Sawyer.</A></I> He also had a short-lived strip of his own, <I>Sunnyside,</I> which Wheeler-Nicholson, Inc., distributed from 1949-51. <P> Clutch had more in common with the heroes of newspaper comics than just the cartoonist behind him. Like <A HREF="kerry.htm">Kerry Drake,</A> he was a white-haired adventurer. Like <A HREF="b_baxter.htm">Barney Baxter</A> and <A HREF="tailspin.htm">Tailspin Tommy,</A> he was a two-fisted aviator. Like <A HREF="br_starr.htm">Brenda Starr,</A> he was a writer. Like <I><A HREF="redryder.htm">Red Ryder,</A></I> he was an adult hero who had a kid tagging along. <P> Clutch's voice, and presumably lips, were provided by Richard Cotting, who has no other known credits in animation. Clutch's young sidekick, Spinner, was voiced by Margaret Kerry. Her cartoon credits are also fairly sparse, consisting mostly of a later Cambria Productions character, one of the mermaids in <A HREF="disney.htm">Walt Disney's</A> <I><A HREF="peterpan.htm">Peter Pan,</A></I> and another Clutch Cargo character, the dog Paddlefoot. The most famous actor to work on the series was Hal Smith, who did Clutch's unkempt pal, Swampy. His much more extensive voice credits include Goliath (in <A HREF="daveygol.htm">Davey & Goliath</A>), Owl (in <A HREF="pooh.htm">Winnie the Pooh</A>) and <A HREF="gyro.htm">Gyro Gearloose</A> (in <A HREF="duktales.htm">DuckTales</A>). <P> Clutch's five-minute episodes were syndicated to TV stations for use in locally-produced shows where a host would introduce cartoons and sometimes do skits between them. A whopping 52 episodes were made, representing a triumph of budget over production values. They ran for a few years, repeated over and over like most cartoons on TV, but after a while, programmers seem to have forgotten they ever existed. <P> But nobody who saw it will ever forget the bizarre juxtaposition of still drawings with real, moving human lips. <P ALIGN = "RIGHT">— DDM <P><A HREF="index.htm">BACK</A> to <I>Don Markstein's Toonopedia</I> Home Page <BR><A HREF="today.htm">Today in Toons:</A> Every day's an anniversary! <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE BANNER CODE><CENTER> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </CENTER><! END ADSENSE CODE> <TD WIDTH=10><TD WIDTH=180 VALIGN="TOP"> <! BEGIN ADLINKS CODE><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><! END ADLINKS CODE> <P><! 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