Toiling With Leon

One of the wonderful things on the internet is scans of old movie, radio and trade magazines. And one of the annoying things on the internet is the same thing.

The annoying part is many of these were posted years ago in days of low bandwidth and low resolution. There are many, many wonderful photos in these publications that are maddening because they are poorly reproduced.

Here’s an example from Motion Picture Herald of January 11, 1936. It’s from the Leon Schlesinger Christmas party of 1935. I don’t believe it was published anywhere else.



Yes, you can click on the picture to enlarge it, but you’ll see a lot of dots and smudges. Grrrr.

I haven’t tried to identify everyone in the picture, but I’ll point out ten people below. I do not guarantee accuracy.

1. Standing in front of the Christmas tree is Leon Schlesinger.
2. This is Bernie Brown, who got a rotating musical credit but was in charge of the sound department. Still, Brown had been a musician in the 1920s.
3. None other than Ray Katz, Leon’s brother-in-law.
4. This murky head unmistakably belongs to Friz Freleng.
5. Charles Martin Jones.
6. My guess is this is Bob Clampett.
7. The incomparable Tex Avery.
8. The partial head of Bob McKimson.
9. The Pride of Portis, Kansas, Tubby Millar.
10. Bugs Hardaway.

I think I can spot Jack King, Norman Spencer and Art Loomer but am not certain, so I’ll leave them alone.

Trade publications featured full and half-page ads for the various studios, including those that made cartoons. We’ve featured a number of them over the years on this blog; Schlesinger took out a full-page ad for Old Glory. No doubt you have seen others on animation sites. Here are a couple of examples. It’s a shame they were cut off when scanned. The only colour is red because, I understand, it was cheaper for magazines to use red ink instead of other colours.



Some half-page ads. If only Buddy were this interesting on screen.



Old publications are pretty much where animation history can be found today. The people who made the cartoons can’t speak. They’re dead. (Okay, with a few fortunate exceptions from the later years). Articles on studios, biographies, release dates, reviews, they all have information (the most handy things are studio and union newsletters). That isn’t including government data—census reports, World War One and Two draft cards, birth, marriage and death certificates—that wasn’t readily available until the internet came along. Even city directories can supply historical data. We’ve reprinted all kinds of information from those sources on this blog. The only regret is not all of it is on-line.

Here’s an example to round out this post. The Film Daily published a year book containing almost everything you wanted to know about the North American film industry for a particular year. Let’s focus on the Warners cartoons and see what we find.



This is for 1933, before Leon Schlesinger and Harman-Ising had their falling out. While Schlesinger isn’t mentioned (he was the go-between from Warner Bros. and H-I), his brother-in-law Ray Katz is. Because cartoons in the early ‘30s were singing/dancing affairs, Hugh and Rudy employed a dance director. Keith Scott has written about him elsewhere (back east, Jack Ward performed the same duty at Van Beuren and, later, Fleischer).



1934. Schlesinger had set up his own studio on the Warners lot. Ferd Horvath, later of Disney, is “art director.” What that entailed is unclear; if he designed characters or oversaw backgrounds and layouts. And while King, Duval and Freleng all got supervisory credit on screen, King, perhaps oversaw in-betweeners and other aspects of animation.



1935. Bugs Hardaway was directing some cartoons; he had come over from Ub Iwerks. Art Loomer was also one of the studio’s background artists (Chuck Jones wasn’t enamoured of him). Tom Armstrong ended up working for Disney.



Tex Avery is here! He bumped Bugs Hardaway back to the story department. This is from 1936.



The studio address changes from a different spot on the Warners lot to the corner of Van Ness and Fernwood. This is the building familiar to all Warner Bros cartoon fans, featured in You Ought To Be in Pictures (1940). This is from the 1937 edition.



In the 1938 Year Book, we see the wily Leon had made two fine additions to his staff the year before. Carl Stalling replaced Norman Spencer (Milt Franklyn took over from Norman Spencer, Jr. as arranger) and Frank Tashlin was hired to direct. Rose Horsley seems to have worked endlessly to get Leon, Porky Pig, the Avery travelogue parodies and Bugs Bunny in the popular and trade press. Bob Clampett, technically with Ray Katz Productions, is listed for the first time, as is Cal Howard who, I believe, only co-directed three cartoons. He hightailed it to the Fleischer studio in Miami.



1939 is missing, so this summary is from 1940. Friz is back, Hardaway is at Walter Lantz. Steve Milman would carry on as the overseer of the in-betweeners into 1954. He was 74 when he retired. Milman had been a purser on a steamer, then joined the 354 Ambulance Co. in World War One and, afterward, became a newspaper cartoonist in San Francisco. Schlesinger hired him in 1937. He died Jan. 19, 1963 (the Year Book is correct; there is only one ‘l’ in his name).
The “Art Directors” are a bit of a puzzle as only three are listed, though there are four directors. Johnny Johnsen painted Tex Avery’s backgrounds. John McGrew was Chuck Jones’ layout artist. Bob Holdeman (who left animation before the end of the year) was with the Freleng unit. Dick Thomas was sketching the backgrounds for Clampett, but doesn’t rate a mention.



The only change in 1941 was Len Kester becoming Freleng’s background artist. He never got screen credit. Kester eventually found his way (in October 1944) to Moray-Sutherland as the studio's head designer.



The surprise, for me, in the 1942 Year Book is Don Towsley’s name. I didn’t know (as of this writing) that Towsley was there. As Johnny Johnsen was briefly with Clampett before leaving for Avery’s unit at MGM, and McGrew stayed with Jones until entering the military, I can only guess that Towsley worked with Freleng (McCabe inherited Clampett’s old unit, meaning Dick Thomas was his background artist and Dave Hilberman handled layouts). Evidently Towsley left Disney briefly then returned. His name can be found on Clampett’s It’s a Grand Old Nag for Republic in 1947, and you may have noticed his name on Jones’ Tom and Jerrys at MGM in the ‘60s (Among his TV animation was the final Huckleberry Hound cartoon, TV or Not TV in 1962). Towsley spent some time in New York in the 1950s, designing and producing for TV Graphics. He died in 1986, age 74.



1943 sees Frank Powers departing as ink-and-paint boss. The 1940 Los Angeles Directory states he was married to a woman named Calvie and was a cartoonist. The 1950 U.S. Census shows the two were in San Bernadino, where he was managing a restaurant. Matching on-line data states John Francis Powers was born Feb. 14, 1898 in Muncie, Indiana and died Nov. 22, 1980 in Bakersfield, California. George Winkler was the brother of Margaret Winkler and had been involved in cartoons his brother-in-law, Charlie Mintz, released through Columbia/Screen Gems. He was fired as General Manager and Schlesinger picked him up. The Budapest-born Winkler was gone from the studio by 1950, working for a company that sold unclaimed freight.
As for the “Art Directors,” Hilberman had been at Disney, spent some time at Screen Gems and left for Schlesinger’s studio in the middle of 1942. His time after Warner Bros., especially at UPA, is documented in Mike Barrier’s Hollywood Cartoons. Sasanoff was paired with Clampett, Julian with Freleng, putting Heineman with Jones before he moved over to the Lantz studio in June 1943. Pietro A. Shakarian notes that Jones and Heineman designed Private Snafu for the Army-Navy Screen Magazine cartoon shorts.



Another surprise for me is in the 1944 Year Book, where Curt Perkins is now the art director for Tashlin. Perkins started in the animation business with Walter Lantz in 1936. He also worked on Bob Clampett’s It’s A Grand Old Nag and later on Clampett’s Beany and Cecil TV cartoons. You can see an interview with Perkins here. Tom McKimson was in Clampett’s unit and Bernyce Polikfa (married to Eugene Fleury) collaborated with Jones.



Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in mid-1944 but continued marketing its characters. The 1945 Year Book is missing, so the blurb above is for 1946. The Art Directors are now the layouts artists—Morley with Jones, Wood with McKimson, Smith with Davis and Pratt with Freleng. Morley was the first secretary of the Alliance of Television Film Producers in 1951.



The only change in 1947 is Bob Gribbroek has replaced Richard Morley.



1948. A moment of silence for the death of the Art Davis unit.



No change at the start of 1949. There was at the end. Schlesinger passed away on Christmas Day that year, age 65.

Leon’s cartoons, sometimes despite the best efforts of their current owner, live on. And their fans who have an historical bent, dig on to find more information about them and their makers. Maybe along the way, they can find some higher-resolution photos.