Doof Artist Profile: Abigail Lombard: Doof Exotic Dancer

The Doof image has inspired many Doof artists and Doof writers. Today, we focus on a Doof dancer. An exotic Doof dancer to be specific. Abigail Lombard. Enjoy!

Abigail Lombard was born Helen Fournier in 1922 to parents who owned a small but prosperous bakery in Paris, France. At an early age, Helen possessed a creative mind and was drawn to the world of the Parisian advante garde and especially idolized the flamboyant Kiki. Little Helen was also drawn to the world of American movies and instantly became enamored with the Doof image after seeing Doof cartoons. She developed a fantasy about the Doof. She fantasized the Doof entering her person to live there and be her guide and inspire her. Helen, at the age of 12, gave herself temporary henna Doof tattoos. She placed them all over her body, changing the location of the tattoo weekly. This practice she would continue for the rest of her life. She

claimed the tattoo was a mark the Doof left as he swims around her being. Abigail also loved to dance and her parents encouraged her to take up ballet. Her parents were thrilled having a ballerina in the family until they learned that their daughter wanted to study exotic dancing instead of ballet. This decision strain their relationship with their daughter but Helen felt her art would be best expressed with pasties and not slippers. She moved out of the bakery, change her name to Abigail Lombard and moved into the world of the Paris cabaret scene. Because of her uniqueness she was immediately hired as a dancer. She used

the Doof image in clever costumes and she became well known for her unique Doof inspired strip teases. Eventually she came to the New York, wanting to be a exotic dancer on Broadway. After a few years she migrated to the west coast and settled in San Francisco, where she finally got to dance on Broadway. In the fifties she became engrossed in the Beat generation where she was exotic dancer and had brief affairs with writers, painters and book sellers. In the sixties she became a hippie and an exotic dancer and had brief affairs with writers, painters and rock musicians.In the

seventies, Abigail became a feminist and an exotic dancer and had brief affairs with writers, painters and politicians. In the Eighties, Abigail became a hair stylist, retired from exotic dancing and got married to a ex-biker with a dog named Duke. She cut hair and told stories about

her life until her death in 2003.

The History of Doof Merchandise: Part One

The image of the Doof was once considered a valuable commodity and was used to promote various types of products for consumers to consume. By all indications using the Doof as an endorsement to sell merchandise was not a sound idea.

Doof Wonderments

In the aftermath of the fiery demise of Music-toons Productions, a somewhat phoenix rose out of it ashes. One of the now unemployed sales force, a man by the name of Arturo Sukini created a small fortune from the salvaged image of the Doof.

Sukini, who everybody called Sal, was a smart and resourceful man. Losing his job at the studio was not a great setback. He was a salesman and knew that all he needed was a product to sell. He remembered befriending in a bar an out of work chemist, Earl Headly. He looked up Headly, offered him a business opportunity and together they developed a line of medical salves and ointments. In 1939, Doof Wonderments was in business. As the story goes, it was the salesman's use of the Doof image to represent the brand that fueled sales. He saw how Mickey Mouse’s image was very successful and he banked on the Doof to appeal to the public as well. Doof Wonderments products made a modest profit for the two men at first but things quickly ended with tragedy. It was discovered that many of the

chemicals that Headly used, when mixed with each caused strange abnormalities to the people who were using them. People were literally losing the use of arms and legs and the dead

appendages were wilting off their bodies. Soon people began protesting and demanding refunds from the company. Getting no response from the company, an angry mob stormed the Wonderments factory and set fire to it. The two owners made their way out a back door and into a waiting car that was never seen above the equator again. Afterwards, the victims, their families and the people who supported them formed a grass root political group, Doof Culture and tried to get their voice heard in Washington about regulations on cure-alls, but with the declaration of war by Japan on the United States, the group disbanded as many of its members enlisted in the armed forces.

Miracle Toy Company

Doof Wonderments spawned Miracle Toy Company, which manufactured Doof toys for children. Although it boasted that the toys were made in the United States, the toys were made in Usa, a tiny province of China. The toys hit the market and it wasn’t long before 12

children were diagnosed with radiation poisoning in 1940. It was believed that the materials used in the manufacturing of the toys were rare and radioactive. The children developed strange mental abilities and after a week of terrorizing the little southern town that they lived in, were herded off by the government to a top secret installation in Nevada. The toys were quickly taken off the shelves in the spring of 1941, the company was quickly sued and was forced to closed down due to the power of the Doof Culture political party.

The Spirituality of the Doof Image

The Doof Museum of Culture and History is honored to post an essay on Doof Spiritualism by the renowned historian and heavy thinker, Dr. Hyram W. Standoff, Phd. Dr. Standoff is one of the leading authorities in a variety of important fields of studies. He has written award winning essays on such topics as Sexuality in the Male Super Hero, Why can't Birds and Bees Mate and the essay that would be considered his benchmark, Yellow is the Color of a Banana, not a Coward. Dr. Standoff has written about Doof culture and published a book, Season of the Doof, which claimed that the happy go lucky Doof, star of many Music-toons cartoons was based on a spirit or enity that people found to be of a mystical nature and had a touch of magic. Dr. Standoff is currently fielding offers for university posts. if you or your friends know of one, please let the good doctor know.

The Spirituality of the Doof Image

by

Dr. Hyram w. Standoff, Phd.

If you were to ask the question, Do you remember where the Doof came from?, to the man on the street, he would readily agree that the origin of the Doof image would be in the animated cartoons produced by Music-toons Studios in the late 1920’s. Mr everyman would also remember the image of the Doof adorning the labels of Doof Wonderments health products.

As fate would have it, products from these companies would be the cause of nine deaths, five disfigurements and a score of people with rash and allergy problems. The families of these victims pulled together and tried to seek justice from the companies that brought misery to their love ones. Eventually their group blossomed into a small grass roots organization that tried to bring change to the country but the beginning of US involvement in WWII ended its power. Using the Doof image as the groups insignia gave it’s image a power that elevated it from being a humorous cartoon pitchman to being a symbol of hope for the struggle of the common man. It became spiritual.

Strange picture from the 1860’s was found in Wisconsin of an union soldier in full uniform and holding his rifle is standing next to a wall that has a Doof drawn on it. The story of the soldier was that when he went off to fight in the war he never got there and disappeared forever. How is it that an image of the Doof be so far back in history.

To make the matter more mysterious, a photo turned up of General Robert E. Lee in a history book and if you look close at the photo, the general is wearing a jewel brooch that has a distinct image of a Doof on it. There must have been a magical notion about the image and maybe it was for good luck or protection.

As for all the unexplained sightings and beliefs of the Doof spirit being able to grant good luck and clearness of vision, there was always people who saw an opportunity in the vulnerability of people and their beliefs.

The strangest case non withstanding, appears to be a petroglyph found the island of Malta, in the mysterious ruins of Hagar Quim. The ruins are said to be 2000 years older that the pyramids of Egypt.In a small corner of the existing encampment, next of what could be a doorway, a small doof like image was discovered carved into the limestone. tests suggest that

the carving was made by the same tools as the other decorations found on the site. Archaeologists who have been working on the site are working on a theory that the whole settlement was a matriarchy and the symbol that resembles the Doof had something to do with fertility.

Doof cults, whose beliefs vaguely resemble the ones they base their creed system on, still exist today and cases and documentation of Doof phenomenon are still being recording by the authorities, reluctantly. Doof phenomenon has it small space in society’s need for the unexplained just like the legend of Big Foot or the belief in U.F.O.s. It is a god given right.

Two Strange Cases of Doof Phenomenon

This photo shows a cloud formation that resembles a Doof. It was taken in 1995, after a major snow storm that dumped more than 7 feet of snow. This photo was taken on the day it finally cleared.

This old photo, Taken in a church down in Mexico, shows a strange light reflection that shows the Doof image. Could it really mean that the image of the Doof is more that just a cartoon Character?

Music-Toons Animation Studio

The Doof Museum of Culture and History is happy to have in its archives, more artifacts and history from the early animation studio, Music-toons. Although we have posted before about this tragic studio, new evidence is always being uncovered, so we are updating you about the little cartoon factory where it is believed that the image of the Doof was born.

Writers and animators at the Music- toons studio go over

story boards for the next ten films. these sessions would

last well into the night. Some of the most brilliant minds

of the industry were at not at these meetings.

A Revised History on Music-toons Productions.

There were only a handful of animation studios in the late 1920’s, such as the great animation studios like Max Fleisher and Walt Disney, making animated cartoons which were shown as a novelty before main feature movies in theaters all over the country. The country went wild for their cartoons. Although these cartoons were hits with audiences, they became very expensive for the theater owners. So there were a smaller group of animation studios that created less expensive cartoons as an option to those more thrifty theater owners. The most prolific of this small group was Music-toons Productions, whose production during a five year run in 1929 almost topped Disney in bookings, only to see everything go up in smoke in 1933.

It all began when two brothers from New York, Guido and Salvador Campilli, came west to Hollywood looking for the golden goose in the glamorous world of movies, although for a while they did not know this. The brothers,who were identical twins and of Italian descent, came out first to Los Angeles to learn the contracting business from a family uncle. The family of the brothers that sending the two boys to California would be a good thing and Guido and Salvador could yet again get a fresh start. All this changed when Guido and Salvador attended a Hollywood party and met a few Hollywood starlets. The brothers knew right then that they wanted to be in the movies so they told the family that they wanted to run a movie studio. The family could not refuse them. Because of the family’s standing back home in the olive oil business, Salvador and Guido were not given a big movie studio like they wanted, they hand to settle for a small animation studio that was given to the family as payment for a favor from a former business associate. In a few weeks the doors of Music-toons production was opened for business. This took place in the fall of 1925.

Because of their reasonable cost and the sure-fire methods of the sales force, which never lost a booking, it wasn’t long before Music-toons cartoons were being shown in most of the movie houses in New York. The cartoons were becoming popular. Media critics were generous and one named Music-toons, “The little studio that could”. The cartoons were not only cheap but they were good. Some of this success would be due to the fact that the studio had under contract an artist who was a top notch storyboard artist, animator, background artist, cel painter and a budding director. This jack of all trades name was Lester Cloud. Cloud was a talented young naive visionary of animation direction and his unique character development was way ahead of its time. Cloud quickly established for the studio a line of of characters that to this day critics say transcended the cartoon medium.

Soon Music-toons were being featured in theaters across over the United States. It seemed like every movie theatre had to show them. Inspired by all the success, Cloud worked furiously, making sure that there were many future cartoons up on the storyboards waiting to be made.

Music-toon cartoons were making a lot of money for the Campelli brothers and that was making the family back home very happy. Then something happened and a change came over the brothers. More money started being transferred from the general funds into the brothers personal expense accounts and payroll ballooned with the addition of 10 new secretaries, five for each brother. The family back home took notice the profits of the studio were dipping. This information got back to the brothers and they thought it best to fix things before the family had time to think it over. So they now wanted the studio to step up efforts an make the cartoons half the time. They sent out the sales force to increase bookings. The overworked and underpaid writers were told only give the most skeleton of storyboards to the animators and the animators were recycling cels just to get the cartoon done on time. They worked on a non existent budget. It was never spoken out loud but it was widely known that Salvador and Guido were also spending suitcases full of money, betting on the ponies and nights out with female company. The brothers also were prone to have terrible arguments and money was spent to pay for damage from their public fights. The family of Guido and Salvador was very distressed when they finally found out why their monthly profits were dwindling. A short time later, on a moon less night, the family came to visit. The brothers were convinced to move back home and the family took over the operations. Within a week, a fire broke out in every single building on the lot at the same time. Almost everything was destroyed. The Los Angeles police department reported that they found the fire was caused by a natural disaster.

Music-toons Photo Archive

Guido Campilli in front of the gate to Music-toons studios.

His brother Salvador took the photo, just before the two

brothers got into a fist fight.

The busy animation studio. These men worked 13 hour days

in order to get eight minutes of film per week. Cartoons

needed to be new and fresh for the movie going audience.

Luca Brasi, animator, worked for Music-toons for

two years. Although his drawing skills lack finese

and a total lack of talent, Luca was never criticized

for his work. Oddly, Luca was awarded many three

day vactions during his tenure.

Two of Music-toons top salesmen, Tony Degracy and Enzo

Dalton. Their unorthdox sales techniques yield dividends in

theater bookings for the entire time Music-toons was in business.