Len Korobkin R.I.P.

Sad news, I got word from Len Korobkin's son Daniel, that my friend Len passed away Monday afternoon (April 26th, 2021). He was a writer on all of the early Rankin/Bass Productions including The New Adventures of Pinocchio and Tales of the Wizard of Oz. Then he moved on to their 1965 feature film Willy McBean and His Magic Machine and was given screen credit for additional dialogue. The most famous Production he is known for, is writing the Rankin/Bass feature film Mad Monster Party? (The only writing credit IMDB gives him credit for? Always incomplete). Len was the one who told me that Forest Ackerman did not participate in the writing and Harvey Kurtzman was brought in at the end, to punch up the humor and add a few gags. When I appeared at The Shag Stores a few years back, I tried to arrange for Len to be there, but the timing did not work out. He was always very nice to me and I made sure he had copies of his work over the years. Daniel says: My dads primary career was as an entertainment lawyer. He had a successful 60+ year career representing artists in the music and film industry. Great husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. Pillar of his community in Los Angeles. #Leonardkorobkin #Rankinbassproductions #madmonsterparty
 

Happy October!

 

Rankin/Bass' Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town is fifty in 2020! These last three years have been the best years in my Rankin/Bass history!

I have been signing many Santa/Daydreamer books lately and I think the fans realize that this one is Fifty this year!   I am planning some panels on the Anniversary of this classic TV Special and also maybe some appearances with The Daydreamer Animagic figures!   These last three years have been my finest in my Rankin/Bass career!   Two NEW books and also two of my very favorites, many more quality appearances than in the past 10 years before (Just flip through the appearance section of our new Frosty book)!   We have some really exciting appearances scheduled for 2020 too, that range coast to coast!   Also in the last three years I appeared on a television show and a film (See IMDB Rick Goldschmidt).  I have several new Awesome products to bring to my booth in 2020 too!  Looking forward to it!

WIKIPEDIA and IMDB

     I have never given WIKIPEDIA or IMDB much thought over the years and never used them in writing my books.  Some RANKIN/BASS fans would occasionally email me and asked is this true?  I read it on WIKIPEDIA or IMDB and 9 times out of 10, it was wrong.  I decided to take a look at what WIKIPEDIA had up on Arthur and Jules about a week ago and I found all sorts of errors.  They list one film for Arthur and Jules' filmography and they made many.   They have Arthur listed as Supervising animator on THE FOX & THE HOUND and THE BLACK CAULDREN?????

     I made several attempts (after registering there) to correct and add to the incorrect information, without any luck at all.  I emailed one of the people at the site and told them what was happening and that I am Arthur and Jules' biographer and they said it was reverting, because I was capitalizing some of the words....untrue (like much of their site).   It turns out that WIKIPEDIA has many programs in place that revert changes back to the original, incorrect information.   Several of my historian friends have had the same problem as I.  Why would anyone want to support a site with all sorts of errors?

     For the correct information on Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass, pick up my books and/or keep visiting my blog.  We hope to have www.miserbros.com back up in the near future too :)