Benjamin Ashby Clopton, Junior (July 27, 1906 â€" November 19, 1987)
was an artist best known for his work on Walt Disney and Harman-Ising
animated cartoons.Clopton was the fourth child of Benjamin Ashby and
Hannah Olivia (Eklund) Clopton. His parents married in 1897 in the
Gallatin Valley of Montana and settled between Deep Creek and Grayson,
near Townsend, Montana, in 1910, where the family owned a ranch and
raised dryland wheat. He attended the University of Missoula in the
mid-1920s.Clopton left for California in January 1927 for what was
supposed to be a few months Instead, he was hired by Walt Disney in
February and began working under animator Ub Iwerks as an
in-betweener. His first cartoon was Alice's Three Bad Eggs. Clopton
assisted Iwerks in drawing the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane
Crazy, in late April, 1927, but left the Disney studio in the middle
of May to join Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising, who had been hired from
Disney to make cartoons for Charles Mintz under contract with
Universal Studios. Clopton directed six Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
cartoons in 1928-1929.Mintz lost distributorship of the Oswald
cartoons in 1929. Harman and Ising then formed their own studio and
signed a deal with Leon Schlesinger in 1930 to create the Looney Tunes
series. Clopton took a job with Iwerks' studio until 1933, when
Scheslinger refused to renew Harman and Ising's contract, started his
own studio, and hired staff. Clopton was among the animators and his
first film credit is on Buddy the Gob, released January 13, 1934.
Clopton is credited on sixteen cartoons through 1936, when he left for
the Walter Lantz studio. Clopton's name is on three cartoons released
in 1937. His name appears for a final time on screen as an animator on
Gulliver's Travels, released in 1939 by the Fleischer Studios.
was an artist best known for his work on Walt Disney and Harman-Ising
animated cartoons.Clopton was the fourth child of Benjamin Ashby and
Hannah Olivia (Eklund) Clopton. His parents married in 1897 in the
Gallatin Valley of Montana and settled between Deep Creek and Grayson,
near Townsend, Montana, in 1910, where the family owned a ranch and
raised dryland wheat. He attended the University of Missoula in the
mid-1920s.Clopton left for California in January 1927 for what was
supposed to be a few months Instead, he was hired by Walt Disney in
February and began working under animator Ub Iwerks as an
in-betweener. His first cartoon was Alice's Three Bad Eggs. Clopton
assisted Iwerks in drawing the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane
Crazy, in late April, 1927, but left the Disney studio in the middle
of May to join Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising, who had been hired from
Disney to make cartoons for Charles Mintz under contract with
Universal Studios. Clopton directed six Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
cartoons in 1928-1929.Mintz lost distributorship of the Oswald
cartoons in 1929. Harman and Ising then formed their own studio and
signed a deal with Leon Schlesinger in 1930 to create the Looney Tunes
series. Clopton took a job with Iwerks' studio until 1933, when
Scheslinger refused to renew Harman and Ising's contract, started his
own studio, and hired staff. Clopton was among the animators and his
first film credit is on Buddy the Gob, released January 13, 1934.
Clopton is credited on sixteen cartoons through 1936, when he left for
the Walter Lantz studio. Clopton's name is on three cartoons released
in 1937. His name appears for a final time on screen as an animator on
Gulliver's Travels, released in 1939 by the Fleischer Studios.
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