By Rich Lynch: A few days ago, Nicki finally located something that I’d been trying to find for a very long time – the program book for the 1981 Mill Valley Film Festival.  And boy howdy, seeing it again brought back a lot of memories.

Back then I’d been out in California on a business trip that had extended over a weekend in early August.  So on the suggestion of my friend Maureen Garrett (who, at that time, was in charge of Lucasfilm Ltd.’s Star Wars Fan Club) I’d met up with her on a pleasant Sunday afternoon to take in some of the event.

Mill Valley is located in southern Marin County, just a few miles up the 101 from the Golden Gate Bridge, and in the early 1980s it was the home of Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic special effects studios.  So, as you’d expect, there was a Lucasfilm-related program item on the Festival’s schedule – special effects guru Richard Edlund gave a presentation that had included (to Maureen’s surprise) the effects-laden closing scenes from the recently released Raiders of the Lost Ark.  But I’d missed it! – it had taken place a couple days earlier.  No matter, there were plenty of other things of interest to me the day I was there, including one I had most wanted to see – a two-hour slide show-assisted talk by the great Bob Clampett.

Bob Clampett, as many of us are no doubt aware, was a famous animator and director of cartoon productions.  From the early 1930s to the mid-1940s he worked on the Looney Tunes series along with other renowned animators such as Friz Freling, Tex Avery, and Chuck Jones, and along the way creating the Tweetie Pie character that was a comedic foil to Sylvester the Cat.  And from the mid-1940s on, his claim to fame was the popular Beany and Cecil series, featuring Beany Boy (a yellow-haired lad who always wore a propeller beanie) and his pal Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent.  In his presentation, Bob brought us through his long history as an animator and creator, and a fascinating ride it was.  I remember that he didn’t really talk very much about other animators he worked with, preferring instead to tell us about his personal history.  And it was filled with anecdotes.  One of the more humorous ones was his efforts, during his time with Looney Tunes, to see what he could get away with in terms of putting stuff in the cartoons that would evade censors’ cuts.  He’d include some funny stuff he knew would be objectionable so that the censors would zero in on those instead of other more borderline gags – those other jokes were the ones that he’d actually wanted in the cartoons.

It was all really, really entertaining.  And I remember that it was over all too soon, at least for my liking.  By then it was mid-evening and dinner time for Bob and the several Festival staff who were with him, but he still took the time to sign autographs and chat with well-wishers.  That’s where I got my program book signed by him.  And that’s where Maureen took a photo of the two of us together – it’s one that I now treasure.

And then he was gone, in more ways than one.  I never got to see him again, and it was a huge loss to the world of animation when only three years later he died from a heart attack.  I remember that just as he and his companions were getting ready to leave the Festival, he said (and I paraphrase as best I can after all this time), “Hey, let’s go and get some dinner!”  Bob was looking at Maureen and me when he said that, so for a second or two my eyes widened by the prospect of breaking bread with him.  But then reality prevailed as he turned toward one of his companions and they all walked away.  And soon after that, I bade farewell to Maureen and began my trip back to Silicon Valley to prepare for the Monday workday.

It was all a very long time ago.  But whenever I look at that photo I still wonder, at least a little, if it really was an invitation for dinner.  I don’t get to know that, of course, but there are a couple things I do know – it was pretty special getting to meet Bob Clampett…and I’m never gonna lose track of that program book again!