Art Moore

Arthur (Art) Moore-cartoonist, animator, novelist, and poet was born on August 13, 1914 (Anaheim, CA). He seemed to find success in whatever field he went into. Raised in Los Angeles, as a student at Hollywood High School his cartoons were already appearing in the city's leading newspaper, The Los Angeles Examiner. Impressed by the wry, but very funny take on life reflected in his cartoons, the Examiner hired him full-time as soon as he graduated. In 1939 his cartooning led to employment at Walt Disney Studios, where he became an animator. After working on Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck shorts, Art became part of the team working on Disney's most famous feature film projects, including Fantasia (1940), Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). His work at Disney continued until December, 1941, when he, along with a number of other Disney animators, was inducted into the U.S. Army Signal Corps where, as Director of Animation, he spent the war years producing animated training films for World War II troops. Returning to Los Angeles after the war, Lt. Moore and two of his Disney "buddies" opened their own animation studio in Hollywood. "Royal Titles" provided titles for the film industry and created animation for commercial films. As television developed, Art founded "Arthur Moore Studios," which created a number of children's cartoon series, including the 150 episodes of The Adventures of Spunky and Tadpole (1958), which appeared on national television from the late 50's to the mid-60's. Art was also beginning his writing career at this time. He was the writer as well as creator of his children's cartoon series, he had a monthly column in Film Magazine, and had started writing short stories. After several of his short stories were published and a publisher showed interest in his first novel, Art put his animation career behind him, closed his animation studio, and made the switch to "author." And he was a successful author. Art had 73 novels, 130 short stories, 15 children's books, and dozens of poems published over a span of thirty years, beginning in the early 60's. He was known for his thoroughly researched historical novels, although he also wrote in other genres, including spy thrillers, westerns, mysteries, and science fiction. His mystery and detective stories, many of them published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, displayed his delightfully sardonic sense of humor, as did his lifetime of published cartoons. In the late 1980's, Parkinson's disease began slowing down Arthur Moore's writing career, and it was this illness that eventually led to his death. He left a large number of unpublished works.