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).