Martha Sigall

Filed under: People, ,

Full Name:

Martha Goldman Sigall

Occupation / Title:

Date of birth:

17/04/1917

Date of death:

13/12/2014

Birthplace:

Buffalo, New York.

Biography


Martha Sigall was an American inker and painter in the Golden Era of American animation. Moving to California as a young girl, Sigall happened to live around the corner from Leon Schlesinger’s Pacific Title and Art Company, where she first got a job as an errand girl. Becoming an apprentice painter in 1936 as a teenager, Martha went on to work as a cel painter and inker for over 40 years. 

Family and early life


Sigall and her family moved to California when she was in Junior High, happening to live directly behind the property owned by Leon Schlesinger. Happening to become a gofer for the animators taking breaks on the lot behind her house, Martha began hanging around the animation studio, until the building was sold to Schlesinger’s manager, Larry Glickman. 

Career outline


Sigall had a career spanning over 53 years in the animation industry, primarily as a painter and inker, working for all the major studios during the Golden Era such as MGM, Graphic Films, and Bob Clampett’s Snowball Studios. Striking on the picket lines during the Schlesinger lock out of 1941, Martha got a 5-dollar raise from Schlesinger, supporting her colleagues shortly after in the Disney strike that followed.

In 1943, the shifting managerial powers at Schlesinger studio led to Martha being willingly fired, taking up a position at Graphic Films the next day. Learning the mechanics of animation production during her time at Graphic Films, Sigall became a camera assistant during WWII, and was initiated into the Cameramen’s Union. After the war ended, her work permit terminated, as women were barred entry into the Cameramen’s Union at this moment in history. 

In 1946, Martha Goldman married Sol Sigall in Brooklyn, New York, shortly after returning to California, where Martha applied for a job at MGM. Rejoining some of her old colleagues from Warner Bros., such as Tex Avery, Ivr Spence and Tom Bryne, working as an inker, and later as a camera assistant to Jack Stevens. Witnessing the creation of Tom and Jerry, and William Hanna’s meteoric rise from a cel washer to animator, and then director, Sigall encountered many brilliant people during her time at MGM. 

After Sigall’s husband graduated from UCLA, Martha left MGM, with the intention of starting a family. Taking on freelance work from home, over the course of her long career in animation, Sigall has worked for companies such as Celine Miles Ink and Paint, DePatie-Freleng, Film Fair, Bill Melendez, and Hanna-Barbera studios. 

References:


Sigall, Martha. Living Life inside the Lines: Tales from the Golden Age of Animation. Jackson: U of Mississippi, 2005. Print.




Suggestions are not enabled for this post.