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Willard Maas died January 2, 1971, four days after his wife, Marie Menken. He was sixty-four years old. Maas was one of those dynamic personalities worthy of intensive psychological and sociological study. His "behind the scenes" involvement with a major portion of the writers, critics (literary and cinematic), poets and independent fimmakers of our day was phenomenal in itself. He was a curious, captivating man.
Twenty years before the rise of the underground film, Willard Maas began making films whose themes in a major way, and whose techniques in a lesser way had tangible influence on that recent development. Whether his work will endure remains to be seen, but in the historical chain of causes and effects, he has certainly left a lasting impression.
In his penthouse in Brooklyn Heights overlooking the harbor on a sunny afternoon in March, 1970, he gave me the interview printed here for the first time.- George S. Semsel
SEMSEL: Willard, you studied literature and taught it for a good many years. You also have published two volumes of poetry, written many poems and articles, and have had no little notice for your writings. What brought you from this work into film?
MAAS: Norman McLaren, a very close friend, was connected with the Guggenheim Foundation where Marie Menken, his wife was working. When WW2 came, he went to Canada, and I, supposedly, had to get some kind of defense job. Marie and I made three or four films in just one weekend, one of them an animation called BOMBS FOR BULLETS. I made up a lot of scripts, claiming I had done films. These were shown to the Signal Corps and Marie got a job in the miniatures division and I, of all places, landed in the animation division. I couldn't draw a damned thing. I used to pretend to draw every day, and George Baker, the English poet who was staying with us at the time, would execute all these things at night and I would go back with them in the morning. Finally one day somebody came around asking me to do a quick job in animation. I was exposed and going to be fired, but the head of the division said: "Hello no! We'll promote him instead."...