John Lamb (producer)

For other people with the same name, see John Lamb (disambiguation).
John Lamb
Photo by Zack Cordner, 2017
Born
John Charles Lamb

August 1952
California
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Artist, Author, Animator
ChildrenGabby Lamb
Awards
  • Emmy®
  • Academy Award®
Websitehttps://johnlambinstallations.com/

John Lamb is an Emmy® and Academy Award® winning American artist.

Lamb created among the first American animated surfing and skateboarding cartoons, and the first American animated, rotoscoped music video.

In the early 1970s, Lamb's animation appeared in two seminal surf movies. The Forgotten Island of Santosha by Larry and Roger Yates featured Lamb's first animated film Secret Spot (1974),[1] while Five Summer Stories by McGillivray-Freeman Films (1975) featured Lamb's animated short Rocket 88.[2][circular reference]

Secret Spot introduced Willy Makitt, Lamb's trademark surfer. Secret Spot features an aerial maneuver where the surfer rides up the face of the wave, into the air, and lands back on the wave to continue surfing. This maneuver was pure imagination at the time, and is now a standard trick in the world surf community. Rocket 88 also features Willie Makitt doing a "shuvit" maneuver, which would later become a standard trick among skateboarders. The "shuvit" maneuver shows Willy Makitt kick-flipping the surfboard, causing it to spin - he then lands it to continue the ride. In 1975, Willy Makitt was licensed by Hang Ten and featured on their fiberglass skateboards, which can be seen in an NBC newscast on the "new" skateboarding phenomenon.[3]

In 1976, Lamb created a psychedelic animation sequence for the feature film documentary Spinn'in Wheels, by Chris Carmichael.[4] The title sequence includes a blond-haired guy blazing a joint, while snaking up a mountain road in his yellow Porsche (modeled after Chris Carmichael's own Porsche). At the top, he steps out of the car barefooted, grabs his skateboard and bombs the hill at top speed. Going so fast, he flies off the road into mid-air, and through Spinn'in Wheels logo. The film includes surfing and skateboard greats, like Rabbit Bartholomew, Larry Bertleman, Bruce Logan, Brad Logan and many others.

In 2010, Lamb and Secret Spot were honored by the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, CA with a permanent installation. Hand painted by Lamb, with a bigger-than-life wave scene and classic hot rods, tikis, palm trees and jungle scene, the iconic Willy Makitt is featured at the peak of the giant wave. The Secret Spot installation plays host to art openings, premieres and surf extravaganzas of all types at the groundbreaking museum. The installation also features the work of Brett Hazzard, who created the "footprints in the sand" and breathtaking beach effect, that completes the installation's unique experience. See the mural's start and sky-bending finish on YouTube.[5]

  1. ^ "Forgotten Island of Santosha".
  2. ^ "Five Summer Stories".
  3. ^ Skateboarding Phenomenon NBC News report by Jack Perkins (1975), 4 March 2023, retrieved 2023-05-03
  4. ^ IMDB
  5. ^ Secret Spot at the California Surf Museum, 13 May 2020, retrieved 2023-05-03