It’s 1930. Binko was the star character of the Romer Grey cartoon studio. Binko had a problem. There was only a small number of distributors that could release cartoons. Ub Iwerks worked out something with MGM. Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising did the same with Warner Bros. (via Leon Schlesinger). Charlie Mintz connected with RKO for his Toby the Pup series. Universal already had Walter Lantz and United Artists wasn’t interested yet. That was it. There was no one left for Romer Grey.
The other numbers problem involved dollars. Grey didn’t have any, certainly not enough to bankroll an animation studio, try as he might. It was a problem that boiled up several years after Grey closed his studio. We’ll get there in a moment.
More than 20 years ago, Mike Mallory researched and wrote an excellent capsule history of Grey’s cartoon operation. You can read it HERE. To sum up, Grey’s father was Zane Grey, who very comfortably made a living writing western novels, enabling him to build a spacious estate in Altadena. His mother Lina got her socialite friends together to toss in some capital so her 20-year-old son could set up a cartoon studio in the family garage.
Grey assembled an animation staff with loads of potential; many would go on to better things. A story has been told about how Ken Harris, later a fine animator in Chuck Jones’ unit at Warners, was willing to pay Grey to work there. Jack Zander (later at MGM), Preston Blair (same) and Pete Burness (UPA) were on the staff. Lina Grey’s bankroll convinced two barely-experienced assistant animators to leave Disney and come over—Bob and Tom McKimson. And young Romer hired Volney White to supervise things.
White was a Coloradan; he and his brother Ray grew up in Greeley, attending College High School and the Colorado State College of Education, moving to Los Angeles in 1923. The 1924 Pasadena directory doesn’t say where, but gives his occupation as “cartoonist.” In 1929, he was a director at Liberty Pictures on South Myrtle Street opposite the Santa Fe station in Monrovia; the local paper reported on a break-in at the sound movie studio that year. Somehow he connected with Romer Grey.
Mallory’s story ends in 1990 with the surprise discovery of the studio’s records—including artwork—in boxes stored in the basement of the Grey mansion. “Unfortunately, no trace of film was found,” he says. But there was film. Binko’s Hot-Toe Mollie turned up in the Library of Congress collection and was released on DVD/Blu-ray in 2014 in Tommy Stathes’ Cartoon Roots series (along with other excellent and interesting cartoons).
And the story doesn’t end with the demise of the cartoon studio. Volney White wanted his money. So he sued.
Here’s how the Pasadena Post put it in a front-page story on May 21, 1932.
Son of Author Named in Film Cartoon Suit
$356,280 Damage Action Against Romer Grey Is Filed in Court
Damages of $356,280 were asked of Romer Grey, son of Zane Grey, noted Pasadena author, in a suit filed in Superior Court late yesterday by Volney White, artist, 1461 Woodbury road.
Cartoon at Issue
The artist charged that Mr. Grey defrauded him of rights to a motion picture cartoon, known as Binko-the-Bear Cub.
Two years ago, the complaint stated, Mr. White showed the writer a cartoon drawing of Binko and that later an agreement was made to produce animated cartoons for motion picture houses.
Company Projected
Mr. Grey, according to Mr. White, was to form a company, called Romer Grey Pictures, Inc., to manufacture and distribute the films. The artist, he declared, was promised 35 per cent of the profits, guaranteed to be in excess of $75,000 a year, $5000 worth of stock, $2000 in cash and a salary of $150 a week for drawing the cartoons.
The complaint stated no company was formed although Mr. White signed over rights to the cartoon and two pictures were made. At various showings of the picture, the complaint continued, the creator received no screen credit for his work.
Waits for Pay
At no time was he paid, although he worked forty-one weeks drawing cartoons, and he received no cash or stock, it was asserted.
In detail, Mr. White asked $350,000 damages, $6250 in salary and $30 compensation for the claim of a workman which he purchased.
According to Walter S. McEachern, attorney, several laborers who worked on the pictures, have laid demands for wages before the Labor Commission.
The wheels of justice turn ever... well, let’s skip the cliché and tell you it took 13 months for the case to get to court. The Los Angeles Times’ report on June 22, 1933 informs us two cartoons were finished, though I’d be interested in how White arrived at his dollar-figure.
ZANE GREY SON IN COURT FRAY
Artist Asks $756,250 Animated Cartoons
Contract Action Opens Today in Pasadena Court
False Representation Charge Made by Plaintiff
PASADENA, June 21.—Romer Grey, son of Zane Grey, famous novelist, is the defendant and Volney L. White, artist, the plaintiff in a $756,250 breach-of-contract damage suit scheduled to be tried here tomorrow in superior Judge Wood's court.
The complaint recites that Grey said he had formed a $50,000 corporation to produce motion-picture adaptations of White's drawings. The artist, it is asserted, was promised 35 per cent of the profits which Grey is said to have estimated should net White $75,000 the first year, and more later. The plaintiff also contends that he was promised $1000 cash in advance and that Grey had agreed to employ him at a salary of $150 a week.
"All of these representations were false and fraudulent," continues the complaint, "and were made solely for the purpose of inducing the plaintiff to assign to the defendant all rights to the films."
Two of the animated cartoons, according to White, were exhibited in Southern California theaters, but Grey refused to show any more. As a result, it is contended that the the cartoons, valued at $750,000, became worthless. White also asks $6250 he charges Grey owes him for services.
The court case took a day. White didn’t get anywhere what he wanted. This is what the Pasadena Post reported on June 24th.
CARTOONIST WINS $900
Volney L. White Compensated For Nine Weeks Spent Sketching For Romer Grey Comedy
Judge Walton J. Wood in the Pasadena Superior Court late yesterday awarded Volney L. White, cartoonist, a judgment of $900 against Romer Grey, son of Zane Grey, author, as the result of the lawsuit instituted by the artist. The judgment came after Judge Wood and attaches of his court had gone to the Tower Theater and had there viewed one of the cartoons based on drawings made by Mr. White as produced and animated by Mr. Grey and his associates. The animated cartoon showed Binko the Bear Cub straying from the path of good judgment and coming in contact with Hot Toe Mollie, a young woman of parts.
The plaintiff had asked for $750,000 for breach of contract plus $6250 for actual work done in producing the cartoons and drawings, some 15,000 of which were made for one picture. It was held by the court that all the plaintiff is entitled to is pay at the rate of $150 a week for the nine weeks spent in producing thousands of drawings for the feature. The other deal was held to be a partnership and as it was not shown the partnership had been profitable to either party in the way of producing revenue, nothing was awarded in the main issue.
In a story on June 23rd, the Times reported the judge hearing the case “preferring fishing to watching animated cartoons” but the paper had this to say the following day:
After viewing “Hot Toe Mollie,” first sequence in the “Binko” series, at a special showing this afternoon at the Tower Theater, Judge Wood announced from the bench he “enjoyed the picture and can’t see why it didn’t sell as it seems as good as any of the other animated cartoons.”
During the testimony, Grey revealed that he finally sold the only two film productions of his company to his mother, Mrs. Zane Grey, for $9500. His mother and father, he explained, had footed the bills for his picture enterprises.
Grey carried on being the son of Zane Grey and died in 1976. White continued his animation career. Bobe Cannon was the usher at his wedding in 1934. A Greeley newspaper report of September 3, 1938 stated Volney and brother Ray had been at Warner Bros. for five years (Volney eventually received screen credit as an animator in the Frank Tashlin unit) before they headed to Miami to work on Gulliver’s Travels. The 1940 Census shows Volney living in New Rochelle, New York; he directed several cartoons for Terrytoons. He returned to California by 1943. The North Hollywood directory the following year gives his occupation as “aeroworker” but the Voter Registration List states he was an “artist.” He might have been both. Military documents show he was a private who served six months from the start of June 1943 and record him as unassigned to an “aircraft casual detail” and with the First Motion Picture unit on the Hal Roach lot in Culver City.
After his discharge, it’s not clear where he worked but he remained in the Los Angeles area, where he died on December 23, 1966.
Fans of early sound cartoons can be happy this footnote in animation history has been restored for viewing, if nothing more than a curiosity. In some ways, it’s atypical of a 1930 cartoon. It’s mainly musical with animals playing makeshift instruments. There are some overlays (that move when they shouldn’t), which must have been daring for that year. Some of the characters look like something from a Disney or Harman-Ising cartoon of that era, and a few of the backgrounds are reminiscent of something in an Ub Iwerks cartoon. Binko is a non-personality (and a silent one) who, in Mickey Mouse fashion, gets the senorita in the end. We wonder after coming away with only $900, Volney White didn’t think he got it in the end, too.
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