Commercials at Animation, Inc.

A few weeks ago, we posted frames of animated commercials reprinted in Television Age magazine. We’re going to post a few more below, this time from 1958.

The frame to the right is, of course, not a cartoon. But Arnold Stang has a connection to animation so I thought I’d include this one. Plus, I love Arnold Stang. No, I don’t know where to find the commercials on-line.

This frame was also used in trade ads for Sarra, with the caption: “It's quite a stunt to slice off the top of a man's head and make it funny! SARRA does it with trick photography and Arnold Stang's head and histrionics. In a series of 60-second and 20-second live action commercials for Scripto Pens, Stang ‘talks off the top of his head’ while the announcer's hands demonstrate ‘coloressence’ and other features of the product. A technical feat produced by SARRA for SCRIPTO, INC., through DONAHUE & COE, INC.”

The one problem with the on-line copies of Television Age is the resolution is not very good. The reproduced frames are not very sharp and some are too dark. For example, you can barely tell that Happy Joe Lucky is riding a horse and the pack of Lucky Strikes in his hand is very fuzzy. But the frames do give you an idea of the animation styles employed in the different commercials.



Pelican was run by Jack Zander, Academy by Ed Gerschman, ex-UPA business agent, Playhouse by Ade Woolery and Animation, Inc. by Earl Klein, whose name appeared in a few cartoons when he was in the Chuck Jones’ unit at Warners.

The company and Klein were profiled in the April 7, 1958 edition of Television Age. By this time, among the animators were Irv Spence and Ed Barge. Bob Kurtz was later a creative director with the company. Someone had a brown nose after writing this. Oh, Earl, tell potential clients again how much money of theirs you won't spend.

Originality builds Animation
Earl Klein’s youthful firm finds excitement in creating commercials
May 1 of this year marks the third anniversary of Animation, Inc., of Los Angeles—three years that have seen the youthful film production company grow from a trio of employes to a staff of 20, and from a handful of clients to a list boasting such important tv-advertising names as Heinz, Johnson’s Wax, Campbell’s, Kroger and Betty Crocker, among others.
Animation, Inc., has a staff of talented people who produce film commercials that not only entertain and sell products, but consistently win top art and advertising awards, as well. Naturally, also, the company uses up-to-the-minute techniques such as xerography or a new color transmission off black-and-white film. But, in the case of the success enjoyed by the fledgling concern, the catalyst seems to have been the dominant personality of president Earl Klein.
No doubt about it, when Earl Klein left Storyboard, Inc., after producing a number of award-winning commercials, and formed his own animation studio, his individualistic approach met resistance from the advertising agencies. “I enjoy the thrill and excitement of creating,” he has said. “An imaginative producer must find it frustrating when the agency assumes all responsibility.”
Constantly voicing his opinion that a film made with imagination and originality would get attention favorable comment from the public— resulting in name and product recognition—Earl Klein finally succeeded in convincing several agencies. Among these was W. B. Doner & Co., Detroit, for which Animation, Inc., produced several award-winning films for Speedway Petroleum. Other early clients were Standard Oil of Ohio and Bank of America. Films are still made at the studio for both Speedway and Standard Oil, and the spots made originally for the Bank of America had an inventiveness and ingenuity that foretold the “offbeat” spots used by many such firms today.
In the past few years, the number of animated films used on tv has increased considerably—and the number of producers has almost doubled. With a high mortality rate in the field, Earl Klein’s background has enabled him to build his company surely and steadily.
Now just 41, Mr. Klein was born in Cleveland and studied at the Cleveland School of Art, the Chicago Art Institute and the Meinzinger Academy of Detroit. He began his animation career as an assistant at the Jam Handy studios in Detroit.
In 1936 he joined Max Fleisher’s unit in Miami as a designer, working on Gulliver's Travels and Popeye shorts. In 1941 he worked at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, as a supervisor on Air Corps training films. He continued this phase of his career after moving to California the following year, when he also did design work on Bugs Bunny cartoons at Warner Bros.
From 1949 to 1953 he served as art director for the Raphael G. Wolff Studios. Eventually he became a freelance designer and worked for UPA Pictures, Academy Productions and John Sutherland Productions, among others.
In February 1954 Mr. Klein formed a partnership with John Hubley and organized Storyboard, Inc. Within a year, commercials produced by the company had won three of 10 awards, including a gold medal, from the New York Art Directors Club and six awards from the Detroit Art Directors Club.
Finally, in 1955, in an effort to gain even more creative freedom, Earl Klein set up the fast-growing Animation, Inc. Always on the watch for ways to hold down costs and increase service to his clients, Mr. Klein’s studio became the third—others are Walt Disney Studios and UPA—to use the xerography duplicating process. This electronic transfer technique permits the use of soft lines in animated drawings, rather than the customary solid blacks and hard lines. The process has been used in the prizewinning Betty Crocker and Kroger commercials.
“Xerography is a time- and money-saving step forward,” says Mr. Klein. “It’s a touch of automation to what is still essentially a hand-crafted industry.” He admits such techniques have only limited applications. “The personal touch,” he states, “is still a much-wanted quantity in the animated film. Animation cannot go into mass production techniques without losing this necessary factor.”
Virtually all of the commercials produced by Animation, Inc., have borne Earl Klein’s stamp of originality —a simplified graphic visual treatment with an unusual soundtrack using either clever rhythmic musical effects or novel voice delivery. Cases in point: Johnson’s “buzz-z-z” bee or the bass-voiced Kroger cow mooing “No-o-obody” in answer to the question, “Who but Kroger?”
In addition to a number of tv commercials now shooting at Animation, Inc., two “first-time” projects are being developed. In association with Transfilm, Inc., Mr. Klein is preparing a 16mm film requested by the Museum of Modern Art for Fortune Films. Entitled The Decisive Decade, the film deals with American economy over the next 10 years and is the company’s initial such sales-promotion venture. Decade will be produced in color, an operation which adds about 20 per cent to the over-all cost, according to Mr. Klein.
With the Universal Broadcasting System, Animation, Inc., is preparing a first commercial in a new technique that will utilize specially prepared art on black-and-white film to transmit a color picture. Present plans call for the licensing of the system to interested parties.
With these and other ideas for future expansion, Earl Klein’s Animation, Inc., seems sure to achieve a still greater measure of success.

Animation, Inc. lasted until about September 1964. In that month’s issue of Film World and A-V News, Klein announced he was shutting down, and had recently sold his studio and sound stage to Westheimer Company, an optical production house. Klein decided to devote his time to fine arts at his studio in San Juan Capistrano. Animation, Inc. won 50 advertising and art awards during its 9 1/2 years of existence.

Here are a few more frames from commercials of 1958. You’ll notice one from Grantray-Lawrence, the Grant Simmons/Ray Patterson company. Gene Hazelton was the company’s art director and I suspect he designed that commercial. Whether the Transfilm commercial is mixed animaton/live action, I don’t know, but that sure looks like Don Knotts and, you know, he has a cartoon connection, too.