Created by Gus Arriola, the famous cartoonist behind “Gordo”, “ELEMENTARY AND PYLON EIGHTS” was a WWII Cartoon that was intended to be shown to pilots as part of basic flight training. The film features “Wilbur Right” and “Wilbur Wrong” demonstrating how to do basic maneuvers correctly and incorrectly.
Gustavo “Gus” Arriola (July 17, 1917 – February 2, 2008) was a Mexican-American comic strip cartoonist and animator, primarily known for the comic strip Gordo, which ran from 1941 through 1985.
Gus Arriola was born in Florence, Arizona, the youngest of nine children. Arriola’s father, Aquiles Arriola, had been born on a hacienda in Sonora, Mexico. Gus’s mother died when he was a baby, and he was raised by an older sister in a Spanish-speaking household. He learned English by reading the Sunday comics. His family moved to Los Angeles, California, when he was eight years old. He first studied art formally in Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, California. Immediately after high school he spent a year working on Krazy Kat for Screen Gems, then three years animating Tom and Jerry and Lonesome Stranger for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a “sketch man”, before leaving to start his own comic strip. During World War II, he directed training films for the United States Army while continuing to produce Sunday Gordo cartoons. After his early strips were criticized for Hollywood-style cultural stereotypes, Arriola realized that his was the only periodical work in American mass media that depicted life in Mexico and modified the strip to be more sympathetic. A much thinner and contemplative Gordo eventually became a flirtatious tour guide, whom Arriola often described as an “accidental ambassador” for Mexican culture. The strip introduced America to such now-popular words and phrases as “hasta la vista,” “amigo,” “piñata,” “compadre,” “muchacho” and “hasta mañana,” as well as Mayan, Aztec and Mexican customs, history and folklore.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
