22 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY august 1-7, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com room in the beginning of her time there, drawing frames for the series Scooby-Doo, Where are You? She was one of the first people to draw Scooby, designed by Iwao Takamoto. Harvey produced frames of animation for other Hanna-Barbera shows, including The Flintstones, and says she later worked as an animator on the animated series Jeannie, inspired by the TV show I Dream of Jeannie. Back then, animation was done by hand by artists like Harvey. Today animation is created through computers. (Harvey is a self-proclaimed luddite.) Harvey also worked on films by Hanna-Barbera Productions: She animated Charlotte the spider in Charlotte’s Web (1973), and worked on the film Heidi’s Song (1982). Dail is also credited on the film as a layout artist. ••• Harvey and her husband Maurice had met each other in art school in England, then again in Toronto, where they dated. Maurice made it to Los Angeles before she did. In fact, she says she thought the relationship might be over, not knowing that he had spent a year looking for a job for her so she could join him. They married after she moved to Los Angeles. At the beginning of her time in L.A. there was little money. Animators lived in little studio apartments in North Hollywood with no televisions to view their work. “We would get up on Saturday morning and go down to The May Company (a now-defunct department store) and walk across to the televisions, 20 different kinds of televisions for you to look at. We would see the shows we hadn’t had a chance to see,” she says. “It was a wonderful period of my life.” Working for animation studios isn’t steady—there are breaks between TV seasons and movie productions. So the two artists, Harvey and her husband, opened their own art studio and gallery in North Hollywood. They taught classes in painting, while simultaneously taking any work they could find. They did the design and illustrations for magazines, including for Disney. Harvey edited an art instruction book, Landscape/Seascape in Acrylics, by Maurice. She and Maurice also began rescuing animals during this time. “I started picking up poor little things that were going to be put down,” Harvey says. She would find homes for them, but “when you can’t find a home for this one, you keep them. We had a house full of animals, eventually,” she says with a laugh. In the early ’80s, Harvey and Maurice decided they wanted to focus on their fine art careers exclusively. Maurice had paintings showing in Carmel, and they eventually moved to Carmel Valley. Harvey taught classes at the Carmel Foundation for years, while doing her own painting and taking on various projects, including illustrating a children’s book called Find the Magic. Harvey continued her habit of picking up “poor little things” after moving to Carmel Valley. (One of the first dogs she rescued there was named ScoobyDoo.) She placed small advertisements in the newspaper about her rescue efforts and the need for homes for the dogs and cats she was rescuing. The ads included her home phone number. One night the phone rang, and Harvey picked it to find it was Doris Day calling. Harvey didn’t believe it at first. Day said she knew someone wanted a golden retriever and she heard Harvey might have one available. The more Day spoke, the more Harvey came to realize it was the famous singer and movie star. “I was so surprised it was her,” she says. The two became a team, with Harvey finding dogs that needed new homes and Day paying for veterinary services and finding the homes. They worked together for over 30 years. “We were the best of friends,” Harvey says. They would meet every Monday at the Crossroads for lunch, discussing their rescue operations. “I could find more dogs, but she could find more homes,” Harvey says. “It all worked very nicely.” ••• Maurice passed away in 2019 at age 91, leaving Harvey in her 80s bereft after decades of marriage. Just a few weeks later Day died at age 97, but Harvey could hardly think about it as she was mourning Maurice. Her friend of over 70 years, Dail, died in 2022, another hard loss. After Maurice died, Harvey worried she would have to move and give up her animals, but friends came to her rescue helping her to remain in her home, and continue supporting her today. She’s planning on teaching another painting class at the Sunny Bakery Cafe in Carmel Valley Village soon, and she continues to create her own work. (Harvey goes to Sunny Bakery daily for lunch, where they specially prepare vegetarian dishes for her.) As Harvey reflects back on her animation career, she marvels at the staying power of the most famous of all the characters she helped bring to life, Scooby-Doo. The TV series spawned many more shows and films, including live-action movies. A live-action drama series is reportedly in the works for Netflix, to premiere next year. “He still lives. I see him on packages in the supermarket,” Harvey says. “It’s amazing to me.” During her long career as an artist, Harvey illustrated a children’s book called Find the Magic, about a young mouse and his friends who discover magic inside books. “I could find more dogs but [Doris Day] could find more homes. It all worked very nicely.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==