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As I interviewed other members of the Disney staff during research for my book Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age, I grew used to hearing fierce criticism of almost all the directors (only Wilfred Jackson was largely immune), but the hostility to Geronimi was uniquely broad and comprehensive. Not even Ben Sharpsteen was the target of so much abuse. Highly vocal animators like Milt Kahl and Ward Kimball spoke of Geronimi with undisguised contempt. Kahl, for instance, in my interview with him posted here, said that "anyone with anything on the ball at all had trouble with Geronimi, because he was a drone, an absolute no-talent. I don't think there'd be anybody in the business who wouldn't tell you that." Geronimi, he declared, was an "illiterate ignoramus."
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Milt Gray and I interviewed Geronimi on November 5, 1976, in Newport Beach, at the very end of one of my hurried trips to California to record interviews with animation veterans for Hollywood Cartoons. We had just interviewed Wilfred Jackson at his home on Balboa Island, and we were running late; Geronimi was pacing his front yard impatiently when we arrived. As was my standard practice, I sent the transcript of the interview to Geronimi for his review, and he made extensive but mostly minor changes, notably replacing the word "stuff" ( a euphemism, I'm sure) with more specific nouns.
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