Julius Caesar Bass (/bæs/; September 16, 1935 – October 25, 2022) was an American director, producer, lyricist, composer and author.
He joined ASCAP in 1963 and collaborated with Edward Thomas and James Polack at their music firm and as a songwriting team primarily with Maury Laws at Rankin/Bass.
Its success paved the way for the theatrical feature Mad Monster Party (1967), TV specials like The Ballad of Smokey the Bear[11] (1966), Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town [12](1970) and Here Comes Peter Cottontail[13] (1971).
Traditional hand-drawn animation was employed in features like The Wacky World of Mother Goose[14] (1967), specials like Frosty the Snowman[15] (1969), and series like The King Kong Show (1966).
[18] Bass also wrote for some of the company's specials and series under the pseudonym "Julian P. Gardner" (a moniker Rankin also sometimes used; it combined "Jules" with the name of one of Rankin's sons), some of which include The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow,[19] The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus,[20] and the Emmy Award-nominated The Little Drummer Boy, Book II.
[21][22] With Laws, he wrote songs performed by Fred Astaire, Danny Kaye, Mickey Rooney,[1] Ed Wynn, Patty Duke, Ray Bolger,[23] Shirley Booth,[24] John Huston,[25] Roddy McDowall, Danny Thomas,[26] José Ferrer,[27] Vincent Price,[1] Phyllis Diller, Boris Karloff,[28] and the Vienna Boys' Choir.