[dd74]

Oh, man! Yeah, I lot of animation was a take-off of comedy of the times. Parodies were huge at WB in the '30s and '40s. Then in the '50s, when TV came more into play, the humor level dropped off significantly.

Some of the stuff we have, you will NEVER, EVER see on Cartoon Network or any other station. I'm talking about racially sensitive cartoons, subject matter stuff, sex, you name it.

If you know, for example WB's "Tortisse Wins By A Hare," directed by the great Bob Clampett, there is a mass "suicide" scene (all comedic, of course), at the end, where three ancillary characters blow their heads off with one shot from an enormous revolver. That's been X'd out completely from any sort of programming. Whomever owns a cel of that scene, is probably sitting on an easy $10K.

Hence, your old "Lady and The Tramp" stuff is probably worth a small fortune. The market in animation art is coming back real strong.

We went on a cruise about two months ago and decided to check out the art auction onboard. What little OPC animation art they had, (good stuff, mind you. Not this Michael Jordan/Bugs Bunny; Tiger Woods/Taz mock-up crap), was going for BIG BUCKS. There's real knowledgeable people out there, who are sweeping this stuff up.

Here's a perspective: 20 yrs. ago at Disneyland, you could walk into one of the Main Street stores and buy an OPC "Snow White" for $10, maybe $20. Now they're worth on average $5K.

Price values like that extend to other art markets as well.