Shameless Plug for My Favorite Book #4 - Stupidity
The man, Ray Katz, in the story is a “business manager” at an animation studio. Having encountered other individuals with similar titles, I am in no way surprised that he is a complete idiot.
“Anyone but Ray Katz would gather then that flipping a sheaf of drawings is the classic test for the animator. Having completed a series of drawings for a given piece of action, before the in-between drawings are added, the animator becomes his own test camera by flipping his drawings, just as he did in grammar school. However, this constant and repetitive flipping by every member of every unit, sixty or seventy people, continued to be a mystery, a puzzlement, an enigma to Mr. Katz.
Eighteen years of observation eventually bore fruit: Mr. Katz decided to avoid licking this whole matter of flipping by joining it. He too, would flip.
No sooner said than done. One fine memorable morning, with the enormous confidence born of sheer ignorance, he strode into our music room, where two directors and story men had joined our composer Carl Stalling to go over the score of a soon-to-be-recorded film. The music of this film, thirty or forty pages of bar sheets, rested comfortably on the desk top as Ray Katz walked in, determined to become one of the boys: if they could flip, he could flip. Casually, he picked up the unoffending music score and, under the fascinated and glazed gaze of those present, moved to the window for better light and carefully flipped the music score two or three times. Then, nodding and grunting his appreciation of the artistry therein, he departed, clucking to the group on his way out. The term “dumbfounded” found new meaning that day, as did “delight.”
And that is how it came about that every succeeding music score was presented to Mr. Katz to be flipped for his endorsement and his professional and artistic approval.”
