Meeting Saul
Bass
by Jilliana
Ranicar-Breese
Stan Hayward,
the film animator and originator of ‘Henry’s
cat’, used to ask me to come to his studio
in the Victorian building in Talgarth Road.
Stan was often hosting soirées in the 1970’s
and needed an assortment of nice looking females
to brighten up the evening.
I was one of the chosen ones. All of the men were
in film animation and I gather Stan was well
known but to me, he was my friend and anyhow I
was deeply involved with Philippe Amos who was
playing games.
I was quite depressed and began talking about my
worries to an older very Jewish looking American
from New York.
His name was Saul and I recall his ‘look’
today. He had sideburns and dark hair and was
dressed in a top quality expensive matching tan
leather jacket and bell bottomed trousers. He
looked amazing compared to the other men in the
room.
He listened patiently while I went on about
Philippe. I was besotted with him. Saul was like
a father figure, well he must have been around 50
I suppose and I was half his age.
He was a film animator too and was filming in
Elstree which was his reason for being in England.
Had I met him today I would have interviewed him
but I was a self centred silly girl in those days.
I went by looks then and Saul was no oil painting.
But his rich voice was seductive. He suddenly
became an attractive interesting man despite
having not one, but two prosthetic legs. He
walked but very stiffly. Poor man.
He surprised me by inviting me to Elstree. I had
heard of the name but had no idea where it was! I
was not going to reveal my ignorance so I
declined. Had it happened today, I would have
demanded a chauffeur driven car to take me.
Instead he proffered his business card and told
me to call him should I be in the City of Angels!
I carefully kept his card in a special box for
years.
Eventually I did go to Los Angeles and stayed in
the house of Tom Pollock in Laurel Canyon. I had
brought the card with me to call Saul up.
Tom’s eyes smiled and told me he was very
famous but didn’t say why. I looked again at
the card and saw there was no personal number,
only his office number.
I got cold feet and never phoned. Today of course
I would have seized the chance to interview this
interesting man with the rich cultured voice.
We didn’t have Google or the internet in
those days. Meetings were genuine and I like to
think that the famous graphic designer Saul Bass
had no ulterior motive.
28/11/24
written at nightingale.
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