10) The Giving Tree…

In 1973 I was working at Stephen Bosustow Productions when the studio produced the animated version of The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I was in awe of Silverstein’s talent, even though I found The Giving Tree to be a maudlin story of codependency. The late Charlie Hayward, a really kind and generous person, was the animator and director. It was upon Silverstein’s insistence that the film was done as a line drawing with a monochromatic background. I don’t think this mandate sat well with Charlie or the producers, Stephen and Nick Bosustow, but their hands were tied by contractual obligations. 

Because of the way the story unfolded and the rush to complete the film in time for Academy consideration, the film had to be shot from start to finish in one marathon camera session. I was the cameraman on the project, holed up in the Oxberry camera booth. It was a somewhat stressful situation because any mistakes meant that camera work would have to start all over again from the beginning. There were no mistakes on my part, but when my supervisor came by to check on me and the equipment, he foolishly introduced a hair in the camera’s aperture.

If you watch the film, you can see the hair turn up sometime into the story. 

The Bosustow studio had a ping pong table set up at the rear of the building where employees could play during break time. I’ll never forget the look of surprise on Shel Silverstein’s face when an errant ping pong ball hit him squarely in the forehead.

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