One of the least known among todays special effect circles would have to be veteran all round effects man Roy Seawright. For decades from the early thirties Seawright headed the trick department at Hal Roach Studios where he provided a seemingly non stop array of ingenious gags, opticals and matte shots for Laurel and Hardy, The Little Rascals, Our Gang, the ‘Topper’ series and even prehistoric monster epics such as the original “ONE MILLION YEARS BC” – with many of those effects shots recycled in dozens of ‘B’ pictures over the years.
Roy Seawright had a very long and productive career in special effects and a very extensive filmography and detailed run down of his effects work may be found at:
http://theluckycorner.com/crew/seawright.html
Seawright was born in 1905 and through a series of events found himself employed at Hal Roach Studios in a number of varying capacities – mailboy, casting assistant, prop maker and animator. Roy’s own father worked at the studio and was tragically killed in a building accident constructing the new studio…
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A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX
Please Note: Now that I am all caught up with Matte & Effects Films Celebrated, I am going further back into the archives of Matte Shot – A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX to feature even more great articles from this great site.
This blog is intended primarily as a tribute to the inventiveness and ingenuity of the craft of the matte painter during Hollywoods’ Golden Era. Some of the shots will amaze in their grandeur and epic quality while others will surprise in their ‘invisibility’ to even the sophisticated viewer. I hope this collection will serve as an appreciation of the artform and both casual visitors and those with a specialist interest may benefit, enjoy and be amazed at skills largely unknown today.