"Melody Time: Little Toot" - Note From Author's Daughter

A short time ago, I posted two items (Storyboard 1 and Storyboard 2) from "Little Toot." In those postings, I noted that the story reminded me of my own struggle to win the attention of my father.

Recently, I received this unexpected email:

Hi there, Bob,

Loved finding your blog with the pastel design sketches from "Melody Time" and "Little Toot".

My dad was Hardie Gramatky and I know he would have loved that the story of a child (tug) trying to please his dad resonated with you too.

Linda Gramatky Smith

I really had not done too much research into the background of Little Toot and I was amazed at what I found! While Little Toot was a large part of Gramatky's work, his artwork is fascinating.

(Copies of Gramatky's artwork are from the California Waltercolor website.)

What struck me, as I looked at the paintings, was that the images look like the digital images I take when I over-expose to pull out shadow detail. An extremely interesting and identifiable style...


I would strong suggest that you take a moment to check out the Gramatky web site written by his daughter Linda. I found the site well designed and Linda mentioned that her son deserves all the credit.

And you should check out Jeff Pepper's post 2719 Hyperion on Gramatky...

By the way, last year a new version of "Little Toot" was released featuring restored artwork. I've put in my order for five copies.

Here is an example of Gramatky's nautical art from the 1930's that shows some of the elements that were later found in Little Toot...


Linda's note was yet another wonderful, an unexpected, benefit I've encountered after starting this "blog." I wanted to use this space to personally thank her for taking the time to look at some of the items on this site and in sending me a note...