Jules Bass

Julius Caesar Bass (September 16, 1935 – October 25, 2022) was an American director, producer, lyricist, composer, and author. Until 1960, he worked at a New York advertising agency, and then co-founded the film production company Videocraft International, later named Rankin/Bass Productions, with his friend, Arthur Rankin Jr.  He joined ASCAP in 1963 and collaborated with Edward Thomas and James Polack at their music firm and as a songwriting team primarily with Maury Laws at Rankin/Bass.

Early life
Bass was born in Philadelphia on September 16, 1935. During his teenage years, he caught scarlet fever and nearly died from the disease. He attended New York University before being employed by an advertising agency.

Career
Bass started working with Arthur Rankin Jr. at the American Broadcasting Company in 1955.  Rankin was an art director and Bass was a copywriter. The pair initially made television commercials, before moving onto television series and movies when they established Videocraft International in 1960. They released their first syndicated television series, The New Adventures of Pinocchio the same year, animated in stop-motion. In 1961, Videocraft produced a cel-animated series called Tales of The Wizard of Oz, which was expanded into their first prime-time network special, Return to Oz, on NBC in 1963.

They renamed the company to Rankin/Bass Productions before they produced the long-running stop-motion special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964). Its success paved the way for the theatrical feature Mad Monster Party (1967), TV specials like The Ballad of Smokey the Bear (1966), Santa Claus is Comin' to Town (1970) and Here Comes Peter Cottontail (1971).  Traditional hand-drawn animation was employed in features like The Wacky World of Mother Goose (1967), specials like Frosty the Snowman (1969), and series like The King Kong Show (1966).  Bass shared the director credit with Rankin for the aforementioned productions.  Their later collaborations included the hit cartoon ThunderCats (1985–1989) and The Wind in the Willows (1987).

Bass wrote the lyrics for many of the films he directed, collaborating with composer Maury Laws. This began with his first solo directing project, the live-action/stop-motion feature The Daydreamer (1966). Bass also wrote for some of the company's specials and series under the pseudonym "Julian P. Gardner" (a moniker Rankin also sometimes used; it combined "Jules" with the name of one of Rankin's sons), some of which include The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow, The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus, and the Emmy Award nominated The Little Drummer Boy, Book II. With Laws, he wrote songs performed by Fred Astaire, Danny Kaye, Mickey Rooney, Ed Wynn, Patty Duke, Ray Bolger, Shirley Booth, John Huston, Roddy McDowall, Danny Thomas, José Ferrer, Vincent Price, Phyllis Diller, Boris Karloff, and the Vienna Boys' Choir. Bass also adapted the verse of J. R. R. Tolkien, approved by the Tolkien estate, into musicalized lyrics for the first completed film adaptation of The Hobbit, in 1977. The animated feature, produced for NBC, was awarded the Peabody Award.

Bass stopped directing and producing films in 1987. He later authored a series of children's books, based around the character of Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon and Cooking with Herb.  He also wrote fiction for adults including Headhunters, which was adapted into the 2011 Selena Gomez feature, Monte Carlo.

Personal life
His first marriage was to Renee Fisherman.  Together, they had one daughter, Jean Nicole, who predeceased Bass in January 2022.  They eventually divorced.  His second marriage, to Sylvia Bass, also ended in divorce.

Bass died on October 25, 2022, at a retirement home in Rye, New York.  He was 87 years old.

Filmography

Films

 The Daydreamer (1966) (solo)
 The Wacky World of Mother Goose (1967) (with Kizo Nagashima)
 The Little Drummer Boy (1968)
 Frosty the Snowman (1969)
 The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
 Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1976)
 The Hobbit (1977) (TV movie)
 The Return of the King (1980) (TV movie)
 Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July (1980) (TV movie)
 Pinocchio's Christmas (1980)
 The Last Unicorn (1982)
 The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1985) (TV movie)

Other film work
 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) (co-producer)
 Marco (1973) (co-producer)
 Bushido Blade (1981) (executive producer) (Rankin Jr. as producer)
Sources:

Television series

Showrunner
 Silverhawks (1986)

Other work
 ThunderCats (1985–1989) (executive producer)

Writings
 Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon, 1999, Barefoot Books. 
 Cooking with Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon: A Cook Book for Kids, 1999, Barefoot Books. 
 Headhunters, 2001, 
 The Mythomaniacs, 2013, Eltanin Publishing.

References

External links

 
 

1935 births
2022 deaths
American animated film directors
American animated film producers
Animation composers
Animators from Pennsylvania
Rankin/Bass Productions
Film producers from New York (state)
American film score composers
American lyricists
American male film score composers
New York University Stern School of Business alumni
Writers from Philadelphia
Writers from New York City
Film directors from New York City
Film producers from Pennsylvania
Songwriters from New York (state)
Songwriters from Pennsylvania
American male songwriters