Throwback Thursday #TBT: Inside The Lines

On April 17, 2005, ASIFA-Hollywood celebrated the publication of Martha Sigall’s book, Living Life In Side The Lines: Tales From The Golden Age of Animation, and a special birthday celebration at the Van Eaton Animation Art Gallery in Sherman Oaks.

Written with warmth, humor, and a touch of nostalgia, Living Life In Side The Lines: Tales From The Golden Age of Animation is a rarely told story of what it was like to be a part of a team of artists who were creating masterpieces of animation. Martha recalls her lifelong friendships with writer Michael Maltese, animators Ben Washam, Ken Harris, Herman Cohen, Paul Smith, Bob Matz, and many others. She writes of her experiences of being a woman in a male-dominated industry, particularly during the war years when she was one of the first women camera operators in the industry.

Martha is the last remaining soul who worked (as a teenager) at the fabled Termite Terrace. Her stories of her career at Leon Schlesinger, MGM (alongside Hanna, Barbera and Tex Avery), with Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, etc. are collected in her book – and this event was a rare chance to meet her in person!

Her son, Bob Sigall, recorded the video below in her home studio in Culver City California in June of 2009.