In late 1935, Schlesinger hired Columbia studio's fashion editor, a woman named Rose Joseph (during her first marriage, she was Rose Horsley) to get him ink. She succeeded. If you wander through the posts here, you’ll see plenty of squibs or stories about Schlesinger’s studio. That was the work of Rose Horsley, contacting columnists, editorial writers and whomever else could give the studio publicity.
When Walt Disney soaked up all kinds of newspaper and magazine space during the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I suspect Schlesinger figured he could Porky-piggyback on Disney’s success. Horsley got on the phone and worked her PR magic. Soon, Louella Parsons was writing about a Schlesinger feature (it never happened). And a couple of stories came out like one below from the Newspaper Enterprise Association, appearing in papers around June 23, 1937. It’s basically “Hey, there’s a cartoon studio that makes more cartoons than Disney.”
Schlesinger talks about his star, Porky, and celebrity imitators in his cartoons. Neither Joe Dougherty nor Sara Berner get mentioned by name in this story. The photo below accompanied the article. I think the cameraman is Manny Corral.
FANTASY
By PAUL HARRISON
HOLLYWOOD (NEA) — An animated cartoon factory is a much quieter place, and more efficient, than an ordinary movie studio. Without bellowing assistant directors and bleating players, life is pleasanter, if more purposeful.
It didn't take long for the animators to introduce machine-like efficiency into their realm of pure fantasy. I used to think that all such films were turned out painstakingly, picture by picture, by a lot of busy little gnomes named Disney, sitting cross-legged in a grotto somewhere.
Instead of that, the pen-and-ink and water-color epics represent just about the highest development of the unit system of production in Hollywood.
There are budgets and shooting schedules and production charts. There are producers and directors and art directors and story departments. From inception to preview, each picture has its own full staff of executives and technicians.
Studio “Grew Up”
In 1930, when he had a prosperous little studio turning out titles and trailer ads and such, Jack Warner suggested making cartoon films.
So Schlesinger started “Merry Melodies,” with a staff of 36 people. Now he has two studios, a staff of 170 workers, and a payroll of nearly a third of a million dollars a year.
This year he will make 20 Merry Melodies in color and 16 Looney Tunes in black and white. That's twice the number of cartoon shorts issued annually by Disney.
Schlesinger is a pleasant, solid man who reminds you a little of Hal Roach. He likes his work and get a kick out of his own pictures, although with a modesty that is peculiarly non-Hollywood he says he's just a businessman, and acclaims the artistry of Disney.
As a businessman, though, he doubts that full-length cartoon features ever will make money. Disney has 575 employes and will spend nearly $1,000,000 producing “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
A Star Is Born
Schlesinger's current pride is Porky, a pig that stutters.
“I discovered Porky two years ago,” he said. We had a picture about a schoolroom, and the pupils were a cat, a turtle, an owl, and all sorts of animals, including a pig. Well, the minute we saw that pig we knew we had something. It was just like spotting a promising personality among the extras or bit players in a regular movie.
"So we got busy and gave Porky screen tests and changed him a little in developing his character. And now he stars in 16 pictures a year, the 'Looney Tunes’.”
A stuttering character actor does the Porky dialog for a recording; then the record is speeded up so that the voice is about an octave higher when it reaches the film. Before they attained acting prominence Rochelle Hudson and Jane Withers worked for Schlesinger, dubbing in their voices for those of cartoon characters.
The Real Actor
Hollywood has scores of people capable of imitating voices, and the producer never has any trouble finding talent for impersonating, in sound, the Crosbys, Stepin Fetchits, Garbos and other celebrities whom he frequently satirizes in "Merry Melodies.”
If you saw "Coocoonut Grove" you'll recall that Katharine Hepburn was caricatured as a horse. Schlesinger has heard that she was delighted with the impudence and went to see the picture three times.
In cartoon shorts, he explained, the animators are the real actors. They’re the artists who sketch the action and expressions of the characters, and they work from complicated scripts, or charts, plotted by the directors.
On these charts the action of each scene is minutely described, and a certain number of "frames," or individual pictures, is allotted for each bit of action. On the screen you see 24 of these frames a second.
Also on the animator's chart is written the dialog, divided into syllables and each syllable indicated for a certain group of pictures so that the characters' lip movements will synchronize perfectly, as though they are actually speaking.
In fact, the animators actually try to reproduce the true lip movements; they use themselves as models, looking into mirrors to see how certain sounds are formed.
Leon managed to get into the papers other times during that year. Hubbard Keavy (who I believe was with the Associated Press then) quoted Schlesinger about censorship and that only one cartoon in the studio's history had been rejected and needed to be redrawn (a hula girl's skirt was too short). Even a holiday in Hawaii turned into a PR exercise as Schlesinger was presented by "fans" with a black pig with a pork-pie hat when he landed at Honolulu. Pictures made the papers.
Chuck Jones always characterised Schlesinger as a bit of a dolt, but it seems to me he was far more canny than that, and sought to showcase his cartoons and little outfit amidst the whirl of the PR machines of the big studios and Walt Disney as much as he could.
I think Chuck Jones just didn't like authority period- he also criticized Eddie Selzer, who to his credit gave the directors more prestige than Leon did.
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