Let’s You and Him Fight Backgrounds

Olive Oyl’s in the way, but look past her and enjoy the buildings in the background of this scene from “Let’s You and Him Fight” (1934). The Fleischer cartoons of that time are full of street scenes where everything looks like it’s melted.






And a couple of interiors.




The background artist was, unfortunately, uncredited. A travesty,

The Key to Jack Benny

Humans are complex and contradictory people. That’s the reason you read news stories where people are shocked to find they have a relative who’s committed some kind of major crime.

So is it really possible to know someone? Even if you haven’t met them?

One of Jack Benny’s biographers thought so.

Marcia Borie got together with Hickey Marks, Jack’s brother-in-law and producer, to write a book. Borie felt she found the key to Jack whereas Benny’s own family had not. Cynics might suggest the claim was a good hook to publicise one’s book.

Borie’s book found Jack Benny was the nice man everyone said he was. But why was he that way? Borie thought she found out.

This is from the Orange County Register, April 16, 1978.

Jack Benny: Heart, Soul Found In Book
By GARY LYCAN
Marcia Borie would have you believe she did little more than assist Mary Livingstone and her brother Hilliard Marks in writing Jack Benny (Doubleday, $10.) After all, she reasons, her name won’t sell books so her involvement is unimportant.
The truth is, however, Ms. Borie is a gutsy, seasoned journalist who became convinced midway into her research that neither Jack Benny’s wife nor his brother-in-law “knew him as well as I intended knowing him. I lost my parents when I was a teenager, and every so often I would wonder when my mother was 17, would she do this or that. I realized when you’re alive you don’t just sit with people and ask what were you like at age three or did you like peas and carrots, you just take it for granted they’ll always be around. So it was not out of arrogance, but ignorance, I decided to go to Waukegan, Ill. That’s where I found the key to this man.”
This is the best of the books on Jack Benny. Anecdotes are sprinkled throughout a detailed narrative of Benny from birth to death. Marks’ expertise was comedy, not biography, so he hired Ms. Borie. Mary Livingstone participated in the book after Marks and Ms. Borie signed with Doubleday.
“(Irving) Fein’s book was out, and she didn’t particularly care for it," said Ms. Borie in a luncheon interview at the Beverly Hills Hotel Polo Lounge. “And (Milt) Josefsberg’s book was out, but she had no feeling one way or the other about it. It was more like a textbook for how to be a gag writer. She knew ours would be the family biography, the heart and soul of her husband, and she damn well wanted to see it be the best book it could be.”
The mention of Fein disturbed Ms. Borie. He was Benny’s long-time manager, but when it was pointed out he appears nowhere in the Marks book, she indicated neither Benny’s widow nor brother-in-law are on friendly terms with Fein. “I didn’t even know that Irving Fein was coming out with a book until three months after I had signed a contract. I felt betrayed. I went to Mr. Marks and he said Fein’s a this and a that. Now, Irving Fein may be the nicest man in the world, I don’t know him personally, I only know what my experience has been relative to the book. I think I mentioned he was a pallbearer. If not, we’ll throw it in the 15th printing.”
So much for what is not in the book. Ms. Borie is eager to stress what is in the Benny book and to re-emphasize the collaboration by her and Marks, based on sales, worked. “He (Marks) did not physically write most of this book. I mean we would get together daily and discuss things. He’s a comedy writer. He did not know how you start a chapter one, how you end it and start chapter two.
“But we discussed every word of that book together. Sometimes we had knockdown, drag-out fights, because I think any collaboration is like a marriage. Sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn’t. But Mr. Marks would always listen. Mary had no decision at all in the writing. All she wanted was an accurate picture of her husband.
“It was my idea to go to Waukegan. Marks wondered ‘why?’ But people closest to a person don’t know that person. For instance, why was Jack Benny the only non-ethnic comic? He never traded on his Jewishness. He was non-ethnic because he came from a non-ethnic community in the Midwest. He was more Waukegan than Hollywood.
“We (her and Marks) saw Jack’s sister in Chicago. Then we rented a car and drove to Waukegan. I left Mr. Marks off at the home of a southern cousin and said I wanted to go around town for four or five hours. And I walked and I walked. I touched every flower, every blade of grass that was different than I had seen before, and I went to the first place where he lived. I looked out over Lake Michigan. I went back to the little synagogue where his parents had worshipped and I went to the Waukegan Sun-News, where they were re ally excited a writer had come from Hollywood to look through their morgue. I found myself giving a lecture on writing a biography about someone you don't even know.
“And when I came back I said to Mr. Marks I have the key that unlocks the door to Jack Benny. He didn’t know what I was talking about. I wasn’t spinning my wheels. I was pinning down who Jack Benny was.”
Proof that she was on the right track came after she wrote the first chapter on Benny returning home to a parade in his honor. “I came across a letter from Jack saying ‘that was the happiest day in my life when they shoveled that spade of ground. Imagine, me, who dropped out of school. What would my mother and father think.’ Without knowing that letter existed, I assumed that had to be a culmination, at least to that point, of his life, to have left that town a third-rate vaudevillian, with his mother dead, his father disappointed in him and to come back a legend, honored in a parade. That had to be a high point in a man's life.”
There are scores of Benny stones in the book — his friendship with Clark Gable, his marriage at 33 after having a girl in every port the time he first held his hand up to his face after Mary scratched the side of his cheek with her fingernails, the fond memories of their daughter Joan who was anxious to talk of the joy of having Jack for a father but was ignored by the media after the comedian’s death on Dec. 26, 1974.
“When we started writing, she (Mary) was still in very deep mourning. Sometimes she would be talking in the present tense then she would get that look in her eyes and say, ‘Gee, I thought I just heard Jack coming in,’ and then she would stop herself. And it was very painful at first. We would start the sessions by saying ‘Mary, how nice you look today,’ and then ease gently into conversation about Jack. After the mourning was further behind her, she became keenly interested,” said Ms. Borie. To date, she and Marks have been assigned the bulk of publicity interviews. A rare exception was Mary Livingstone’s conversation with Johnny Carson on the NBC-TV Tonight Show.
Jack and Mary Benny had planned to adopt more children after Joan. Marcia Borie: “Strangely enough, no one had told me that Mary had lost a child. In a remote clipping in the Academy library, I found a short item which was headlined. ‘Mary Benny Miscarriage.’ I went to Mr. Marks and asked if he knew about it. He said yes, but didn't think to tell me. No, this is not stupidity on his part. He is a comedy writer. He doesn’t think in narrative, which is my job. I know the woman reader wants to know about episodes like this. I asked Mary and she said they were considering adopting a little boy when she found out she was pregnant. But she had always had a low blood sugar condition and she lost the baby. It took up only a few paragraphs, but it was a very human moment.”
Most people agree Jack Benny was not in awe of anything. There was never any pretense. He was happy eating in an expensive restaurant or a McDonalds. About the only thing he didn't like was standing in line at airport terminals. Which is to say when you’re profiling an entertainer of his star status, his very normalcy made him abnormal. Far from dull, the Mary Livingstone-Hilliard Marks-Borie book accents Jack Benny’s zest for life. It may be the best Hollywood biography to come along for years to come.
“I am happy they're having the joy of this,” said Ms. Borie. “I, God-willing, will go on to other books, but Mary had only one husband and one book. Hilliard Marks had only one famous brother-in-law and probably one book. I am surprised it’s doing as well as it is. It’s not salacious. There is nothing filthy about it. I was resigned to the fact this would be accepted as a warm book. I mean there was nothing here to manufacture, to titillate. If they want breakdowns, let them go to ‘Vivien Leigh.’ Jack Benny was a damn decent person and that’s all there was to it.”

One of Ms. Borie’s statements struck me as odd.

…why was Jack Benny the only non-ethnic comic? He never traded on his Jewishness. He was non-ethnic because he came from a non-ethnic community in the Midwest.

Setting aside the generality of “only,” the answer doesn’t strike me as true. He was non-ethnic because his act never was a broad dialect act, just as Fred Allen’s act or W.C. Fields’ act had nothing to do with their ethnic origin. Jack became a stand-up comedian while in the Navy and did jokes about general things the audience could understand. He was no different on the vaudeville stage of the ‘20s. Must someone automatically do stereotyped Jewish routines because of their personal religious beliefs?

But, then again, I don’t know Jack Benny. Frankly, I don’t think any of us ever will. But having been entertained for years by recordings of his radio shows, I’m sure willing to agree with Ms. Borie’s conclusion that he was a decent person. I’d be disappointed if it were otherwise.

1936: A Cartoon Year in Review

1936 was one of the years of change in the animated cartoon industry. Walt Disney signed a distribution deal with RKO, jumping up a notch from United Artists. That’s even though RKO owned 50% of a company in New York, Van Beuren Corp., which made cartoons and live action shorts. The Van Beuren cartoon studio quickly died and Amadee Van Beuren reorganised his company.

Not far away in New Rochelle, Paul Terry eased out his former partner and grabbed some of the cream of the Van Beuren employees. And on the other coast, Ub Iwerks suddenly stopped making cartoons for North American theatres after an abortive attempt to expand his operation and then move it to New York.

The Film Daily reported on much of this in its editions of 1936. We’ve already posted what happened at the Schlesinger studio that year, so let’s post selected stories about the others. Due to length—and this is already long—I’ve skipped the reviews and some feature articles “written” by people like Walt Disney, Charlie Mintz and Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising about cartoons in general. I’ve also left out a bunch of items about merchandising deals. There were a bunch of them about licensed Scrappy stuff. Columbia was sure pushing him.

While everyone today talks about the Iwerks studio, the trades in the day referred to it as Celebrity Productions, the name of Pat Powers’ distribution company. You’ll notice virtually nothing about some of the studios.

Two curious items. One involves a film series called “Marty Monk.” Whether it got made, I have no idea. The Big Cartoon Database reports on an earlier series in 1931. Even more curious is a political cartoon called “The Amateur Fire Brigade.” It was made in 1935. It depicted the Republican elephant sleeping while the Democrats run off with prosperity. A donkey dips into a pork barrel while recovery burns on a stove. Miss Liberty puts out the fire as the Fire Department (led by FDR) uses its hoses to soak the rich. Who animated it? Beats me. Jam Handy maybe? If anyone knows, I’d love to hear the answer.

January 3, 1936
British Firm to Make Ad Films for Celebrity
Stanley S. Neal, head of Revelation Films, Ltd., largest British producers of business films, said yesterday that he will make arrangements with Celebrity Pictures, Inc. [sic], for production of nine color cartoons for advertising purposes and that while here he will endeavor, at the request of two national British advertisers doing business in this country, to line up theater bookings for business films. ...
Neal said he paid British theaters from $15 to $300 weekly for use of business films and that during 1935 his company produced 27 shorts which brought revenue conservatively estimated at $750,000 to theaters. Neal said his company's biggest success in business films had been obtained with a color cartoon produced by Celebrity Pictures for Booths Chemists, Ltd., the largest drug store chain in the world.

January 15, 1936
Max Flesicher, producer of “Popeye” and “Betty Boop,” left yesterday for a mid-winter vacation in Miami. He will return to New York about February 15.

January 16, 1936
Essaness Puts on Cartoon Shows
Chicago — First of a series of “Giant Cartoon Shows,” matinee programs of animated shorts for children, will be offered Saturday by the Essaness circuit at the Devon, Embassy, Biograph, Davis, Irving and Vic theaters.

Deco-Frost Signs "Scrappy"
"Scrappy" candy cake decorations now are being manufactured by the Deco-Frost Products Inc. of New York, under a preferred license recently granted by the franchise department of Columbia Pictures, which controls the merchandising rights to the juvenile animated cartoon character.

January 20, 1936
Jewelers Sign "Scrappy"
Silverman Brothers, Inc., of Providence, manufacturers of novelty metal jewelry, have signed with Columbia to manufacture a new juvenile line of stamped metal "Scrappy" jewelry in four colors. The other characters in the Columbia animated cartoon series also will be used on the jewelry, which will be distributed nationally in chain stores.

January 30, 1936
Schlesinger to Film NBC Radio Feature
West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY
Hollywood—"Death Valley Days", for five years a popular NBC radio feature, has been acquired for filming by Leon Schlesinger, producer of "Merrie Melodie" and "Looney Tune" cartoons for Warners.

February 1, 1936
Ralph Wilk column from Hollywood
Additional nominations for Academy awards will be announced Feb. 6. First candidates to be named cover the short subject division. These nominations are: Harman-Ising's "Calico Dragon" and Disney's "Three Orphan Kittens" and "Who Killed Cock Robin?" in the cartoon field

February 3, 1936
Phil M. Daly column from New York
• • • LOOKS AS if "Scrappy" . . . Columbia's animated cartoon character . . . has stolen the spotlight in the exhibition of the Bermuda Trade Development Board . . . which will start tomorrow eve and continue throughout the month in the British Empire Building at Radio City . . . there will be a "Scrappy's Going to Bermuda" section . . . with talks on the art of drawing and modelling Scrappy in crayon, paint, soap sculpture and wood cutouts by foremost artists and members of the city Board of Education . . . to be given every Saturday morn before school teachers and the general public . . .

February 5, 1936
80% of Van Beuren Lineup Ready for April Release
More than 80 per cent of the Van Beuren Corp. product for 1935-36 release through RKO will be completed and ready for release by April 1, according to President Amedee J. Van Beuren. . . .
By April 75 per cent of the "Easy Aces" [Jane and Goodman Ace live action] series and the "Rainbow Parade" cartoons in full Technicolor also will be finished.

February 6, 1936
Appeals Cartoon Decision
An appeal taken by Helen Kane in her infringement action against Paramount and Max Fleischer, cartoon producer, from a lower court decision will be argued in the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court next month. The actress charges that Betty Boop, a character in Fleischer cartoons, infringes upon her rights.

February 19, 1936
Gets First Color Cartoon
George H. Callaghan has received the first of a new series of "Marty Monk" color cartoons entitled "The Paper Hanger."

Chicago—Action of the Ohio sponsors in banning the animated cartoon, “The Amateur Fire Brigade,” satirizing the New Deal, will be fought to a finish, according to Raymond Pitcairn, national chairman of the Sentinels of the Republic.

February 21, 1936
Scrappy-Bermuda Exhibit
Roger Albright, assistant to Carl E. Milliken of the Hays Office, will deliver a talk on "Cultural Overtones in Present Day Motion Pictures" as part of the Scrappy animated cartoon exhibit at the Bermuda Festival, British Empire Building, Radio City, tomorrow.

February 26, 1936
P. A. Powers to Produce "Reg'lar Fellers" Comics
In addition to a fourth series of ComiColor Cartoons already planned for 1936-37, P. A. Powers will expand the activities of his Celebrity Pictures by producing a new cartoon series based on the Gene Byrnes newspaper strip, "Reg'lar Fellers", under a deal made by Charles Giegerich of Celebrity. Both series will be produced under the directorial supervision of Ub Iwerks.

February 28, 1936

Celebrity Gets Screen Ad Deal
Following the showing of a test reel made for the Boots Pure Drug Co. of England, Celebrity Productions has signed a contract with Revelation Films, Ltd., London, industrial film company, whereby Celebrity will make a series of cartoon comedies for a full business promotion campaign. Deal was arranged by Stanley Neal, representative of Revelatoon Films, with P.A. Powers of Celebrity.

Scrappy Sells 436,000 Lamps
Final figures received this week from General Electric Co. revealed that the Scrappy license secured by that company from Columbia, covering the animated cartoon character, resulted in the sale of over 436,000 Christmas tree lamp shades. General Electric has the license to also market Scrappy dishes, cups and saucers, lamps and toys.

March 3, 1936
Will Produce One Cartoon Feature a Year Besides Shorts
West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY
Hollywood — Deal was closed yesterday whereby Walt Disney, now producing the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons for distribution through United Artists, will release through RKO Radio, starting with the 1936-37 season. He will make one cartoon feature a year in addition to the series of Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony subjects.
The deal was arranged by M. H. Aylesworth, Leo Spitz and Ned E. Depinet for RKO Radio, Walt and Roy Disney and Gunther Lessing for the Disney organization. Contract runs for a period of years. First of the Disney feature cartoon is "Snow White" now in work. It will be produced in the three-component Technicolor.

Moser-Terry Cartoon Unit Undergoes Reorganization
Frank Moser, president of Moser-Terry, Inc., producers of the Terry-Toon cartoons for Educational, has resigned to devote his time to painting, and Terry has acquired Moser's interest and succeeded him as president of the firm, to be known hereafter as Terry-Toons, Inc., it was announced yesterday following a meeting of the board of directors.
Harvey B. Day was elected vice-president in charge of sales; Philip Scheib, musical director, was named second vice-president, and William W. Weis[s] secretary-treasurer.
Terry and Moser have been associated in cartoon production for 15 years. The reorganization will be followed by an expansion of the Terry-Toon staff and the acquisition of larger quarters in the Pershing Square Building at New Rochelle.
Moser will take an extended vacation before turning his attention to painting.

March 6, 1936
Academy Award: Outstanding Short Cartoon, “Three Orphan Kittens,” (Walt Disney).

March 9, 1936
Phil M. Daly column
• • • AND NOW to get some Names into the kolyum complaints have reached this dep't that we don't get enough names in . . . Arthur Kay, the character voice of the Terrytoon Cartoons, also voice recordings on Max Fleischer and Van Beuren cartoons, and a gent who has scored and is scoring brilliantly in radio, vaude and nighteries with his fine characterizations of pop entertainers.

March 10, 1936
Disney Short in Dual Premiere
Walt Disney's "Orphans' Picnic," Mickey Mouse cartoon released through United Artists, will have a dual premiere in Radio City, opening tomorrow at the Center Theater and next day at the Music Hall.

James B. Turbett Dead
Detroit — James B. Turbett, 62, vice-nresident of Jam Handy Picture Service, died last week in Atlanta. Turbett, pioneer in the animated cartoon field, had been with the company for 20 years and before that was with the Bray Studios and the original Edison Film Studios.

March 12, 1936
113 ONE-REELERS SET BY PARAMOUNT
Eighteen shorts in color, representing three series, will be included in Paramount's short subject program for 1936-37, which will consist of 113 single-reel subjects, states Lou Diamond, in charge of this type of production for the company. The color part of the lineup will be made up as follows: six Musical Romances, six Color Classics and six Popular Sciences.
The cartoon series will comprise: 12 of Popeye the Sailor, 12 Betty Boops and six Screen Songs.

John Nolan Dead
Long Branch, N. J. — John Nolan, 66, father of William Nolan of Hollywood, creator of the movie cartoon, "Krazy Kat," died a few days ago at his home here. He had been associated with his son in drawing the animated cartoons.

March 17, 1936
School for Animators
West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY
Hollywood — Don Graham and George Drake will be in charge of a temporary school that Walt Disney will establish in New York to select 50 cartoon animators for his studio. Carter Ludlow, studio publicity man, will handle the business details.

March 18, 1936
More Space for Terry-Toons
Stimulated by a new contract for a series of cartoons to be released by Educational Pictures, Terry-Toons, Inc., has signed a lease doubling its space in the Pershing Square Building. Remodeling is already under way.

Phil M. Daly column
• • • SHORTLY SPEAKING . . . with a first class school for animators now zooming on the Disney lot in California those progressive brothers Walt and Roy Disney are now planning on opening another school in New York City to be run by none others than Don Graham and George Drake from which they will eventually select fifty animators . . . When you see one of those Silly Symphonies or Mickey Mousies on the screen little do you realize, Mr. Exhibitor, the magnitude of the studio and the tremendous amount of work connected with the producing of one of these shorts . . . but take it from one who knows . . . it's colossal as 'twer . . . and now that Donald the Duck has had his first birthday he will probably be cutting up shines and need more animators to keep him either in or out of trouble . . . then again speaking at length . . . there is that feature Snow White cartoon all in color and all Disney . . . you gotta hand it to those boys . . . cartoons may come and cartoons may go but for our dough "THE THREE LITTLE PIGS" will go on forever

March 24, 1936
George Gordon Promoted
Paul Terry, continuing the reorganization of the company making the Terry-Toon cartoon series for Educational, announces promotion of George Gordon to head the animation department. Gordon has been on the Terry-Toon staff for six years.

March 25, 1936
Seek Cartoon Animators
Search for cartoon animators to work for Walt Disney Productions has brought to New York Carter Ludlow, George Drake and Don Graham, executives of the company. They are interviewing applicants at headquarters in the RKO Building, where they intend to operate for two months. [Note: a later story said one of the applicants who was hired was a commercial artist named Les Novros].

March 26, 1936
25 A, 25 B PICTURES ON RKO '36-37 LIST
Radio Pictures plans for production of 50 features for 1936-37 release include 25 A and 25 B pictures, it was stated yesterday by an RKO spokesman.
Radio's annual convention is scheduled for the first week in June. Radio will probably distribute all of the Van Beuren product next season except the color cartoons, but has made no deal yet.

March 30, 1936
Phil M. Daly column
• Mickey Mouse, in person, is slated to appear under sponsorship of Fanchon & Marco at the current San Diego Fair in a Mickey Mouse circus, which will tour the country . . . Walt Disney has agreed to allow Mickey and his cartoon pals to join the circus biz, in replica, of course . . . After the San Diego appearance, the Mickey Mouse circuit will play Fort Worth at the Texas Frontier Exposition and eventually reach the World's Fair in New York in 1939
• • • BANK AND thermometer novelties, bearing the names and likeness of "Scrappy," animated cartoon star on the Columbia roster, will be manufactured by Zell Products Co.

April 2, 1936
To Set Van Beuren Deal
Completion of a deal for RKO distribution of Van Beuren product next season, with the exception of the Gullett [sic] color cartoons, awaits the return next week from Hollywood of A. H. McCausland, representative of the Irving Trust Co., RKO trustee.

April 4, 1936
Heads Terry-Toon Story Dept.
Mannie Davis, who has been associated with Paul Terry for 15 years, has been promoted to head the story department of Terry-Toons as the latest step in the re-organization and enlargement of the staff making Educational's cartoon series.

April 10, 1936
Kane Suit for $1,000,000 Argued in Appellate Div.
Decision was reserved by the Appellate Division, New York, yesterday after hearing arguments on a $1,000,000 action brought by Helen Kane against Paramount and Max Fleischer, cartoon producer. In her suit, Miss Kane charges that her stage character has been infringed and her civil rights violated. Attorney Louis Nizer was counsel for the respondents; Samuel Weltz represented the plaintiff.

April 11, 1936
Van Beuren plans 32 shorts for RKO
[no mention of cartoons]

April 20, 1936
New Scrappy Toys For N. Y. Toy Fair
THE Gong Bell Manufacturing Company of East Hampton, Conn., and 200 Fifth Avenue, New York City, one of the country's oldest and best known toy manufacturers, have just been granted a license by Columbia Pictures Corporation to manufacture a complete line of wooden and metal pull toys and telephones, using the name and likeness of Columbia's famous cartoon character, Scrappy. A comprehensive advertising campaign is being prepared by the Gong Bell Mfg. Co. with the assistance of Columbia Pictures. It is stated, that the Scrappy line will be finished in time for display at the New York Toy Fair. —Columbia Pictures.

April 21, 1936
DIMENSION ILLUSION PROCESS IS SHOWN
A third dimensional illusion process developed by the Fleischer studios was explained and demonstrated yesterday by Max Fleischer, head of the company. Fleischer did not claim actual third dimension but said his devjee tricked the eye into thinking it saw depth. Further experiments are now being made.
Fleischer has partly solved the difficulties of third dimension by developing a camera with a finity of only six feet. In other words the lens will not photograph beyond this distance. Miniature sets are built on angles to conform with this six-foot perspective and the animated characters are photographed several inches in front of the sets. The platform holding the set is constructed as part of the camera and must be in slight motion to give the desired effect.
Experimental shots taken with the new process have been incorporated in many of the recent Fleisher cartoons, released by Paramount. According to Fleischer, unsolicited letters have convinced him that he is on the right track.
The process is not yet practical for ordinary motion pictures as the plane of action is limited to left and right and up and down. Figures walking away from the camera would increase in size due to the short perspective of the camera and figures walking towards the lens would become smaller. The real secrets of the system are contained in the camera which is to be patented before further details are released.

April 28, 1936
New Series of Cartoons Is Planned by Celebrity
A new series of cartoons adapted from the widely-syndicated newspaper comic strips "Reg'lar Fellers" will be added to the output of Celebrity Productions for the 1936-37 season.
Under present plans Celebrity proposes to produce a series of six "Reg'lar Fellers" cartoons in addition to a fourth ComiColor series, but it has not yet been decided whether "Reg'lar Fellers" will be in black and white or in color. The ComiColors will continue to be processed in Cinecolor.

Disney Has 201 Artists
In one year 201 artists are employed at the Walt Disney studio, animating
Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons. Working hours total 259,888.

Plan 6 Color Ad Cartoons
Under agreements already closed with large commercial organizations, Celebrity Productions will make at least six color cartoons designed for advertising purposes during the coming season.

April 28, 1936
Finishing Cartoon Series

The last ComiColor cartoon on the current schedule of Celebrity Productions is now in work, with completion expected far in advance of original listing. All the shorts are made in Cinecolor.
ComiColors are adaptations from popular fairy tales and childlore. Completed subjects, called by Celebrity, "million dollar titles," are "Humpty Dumpty," "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," "Tom Thumb," "Dick Whittington's Cat" and "Little Boy Blue." Each short has a counterpart in school reading of lower class elementary school pupils.

April 30, 1936
SOVIETS WANT MORE U.S. FILMS, EQUIPMENT
Acting on a request from Moscow that he purchase more U. S. pictures, V. I. Verlinsky, Amkino president, will take along prints of four features and seven Disney cartoons when he leaves May 28 for the Soviet Union.

May 2, 1936
Cartoon Decision Upheld
The Appellate Division yesterday unanimously affirmed the decision of Judge McGoldrick in favor of Paramount and Max Fleischer in the action brought by Helen Kane. Miss Kane sued for $250,000 charging that her stage character had been infringed and her civil rights violated in the Fleischer "Betty Boop" cartoons.

May 7, 1936
Fleischer Wins Judgment
Judge Woolsey of the U. S. District Court, New York, yesterday granted Fleischer Studios, Fleischer Art Service and Joseph L. Kallus a judgment for $5,450 against Ralph A. Freundlich, Inc., Ralph A. Freundlich and Sol J. Freundlich, doll manufacturers. Infringement upon the cartoon character, Betty Boop, through dolls was charged. Phillips & Nizer, attorneys for the plaintiffs, were awarded $15,000 as counsel fees.

May 13, 1936
After Cartoon Talent
Gordon Wilson, general manager for Harman-Ising, producers of "Happy Harmony" cartoons for M-G-M, arrives in New York tomorrow from the coast to interview talent, particularly gag men, as well as to close distribution arrangements for a 50 per cent increase in Harman-Ising cartoons.

May 18, 1936
Celebrity May Transfer Cartoon-Making to N. Y.
The P. A. Powers ComiColor Cartoons and the new series of "Reg'lar Fellers" cartoons for 1936-37 may be made in New York instead of Los Angeles, according to new production plans being considered by Celebrity Productions. Harry A. Post, vice-president of Celebrity, is en route to the coast to confer with Cartoonist Ub Iwerks on the practicability of moving the entire animating plant to New York or the advisability of separating production, with the new "Reg'lar Fellers" series to be made in New York while the ComiColors would continue to be produced at the Beverly Hills studio.

May 27, 1936
Ralph Wilk column
One of the subjects in the "Going Places" series is "How A Cartoon Is Made," produced at the Walter Lantz studio. The picture has met with such success that various newspapers are using full pages, made up of stills from the subject.

May 28, 1936
With the engagement of John Herman to create ideas and gags, Paul Terry has now increased his Terry-Toon staff 50 per cent since the reorganization of the company making Educational's cartoon series. Herman for twelve years was assistant to Rube Goldberg.

June 10, 1936
Carol Tevis, who speaks the lines for Minnie Mouse in the Walt Disney cartoon, will be seen in "Sing, Baby, Sing," musical now in production at 20th Century-Fox, with Adolphe Menjou, Ted Healy, Alice Faye and Patsy Kelly in the featured cast.

June 13, 1936
A complete cartoon will be broadcast on Sam Taylor's "Hollywood Highlights" program on WOR this eve the cartoon is Harman-Ising's "Old Mill Pond," featuring colored entertainers in "swing" rhythms the sound from the film will be carried from the Astor screen to the studio for re-broadcast.

June 16, 1936
4 More Artists Added To Terry-Toon Staff
With the addition of four more artists to the Terry-Toons staff, the cartoon organization is now 60 per cent larger than it was when Paul Terry started his reorganization in the Spring.
Dan Gordon, brother of George Gordon, Terry-Toon's director of animation, has joined the Terry animation staff, and will also contribute story ideas. Herb Roth, contributor to newspaper comic sheets for 20 years, will furnish stories and gags. Arthur J. Zander [Jack Zander] and Carlo Vincignerra [Carlo Vinci] are animators.
Dan Gordon was director of animation for Van Beuren, and Zander and Vincignerra were ace members of his staff. [Note: Carlo’s last name was “Vinciguerra”].

July 13, 1936
BESSIE MAES, animator connected with the Max Fleischer studios, went to Minneapolis last week to lecture on animated cartoons at the University of Minnesota summer session.

August 20, 1936
Five "Happy Harmonies" in Production
Five Happy Harmonies cartoon subjects are now in work at the Harman-Ising laboratories for M-G-M release. In addition to "The Old House" and "Circus Days" are "The Fox Hunt," featuring the two little pups; "To Spring" a musical fantasy based on Grieg's composition of the same name, and an untitled subject presenting a mouse in a sort of Jekyll and Hyde characterization.

August 23, 1936
Belgian Color Cartoons
Brussels—Le Dessein anime European has been formed by a French-Belgian-Italian syndicate for the production of color cartoons, using a new Belgian color process. The first production will be "The Discovery of America."

August 27, 1936
Finish "Toonerville Picnic"
"Toonerville Picnic", cartoon comedy in Van Beuren's Rainbow Parade for RKO Radio release, has been completed. [Note: this was the final cartoon made by Van Beuren].

August 28, 1936
Giegerich Quits Celebrity
Charles J. Giegerich, sales manager for Celebrity Productions, has resigned and is making new plans. He stated yesterday that he is considering two proposals and also thinking of opening his own office to handle, nationally and internationally, independent pictures, including a new series of cartoons. No successor to Giegerich will be appointed.

September 3, 1936
Disney Music Deal
Walt Disney has signed a contract with E. B. Marks, music publisher, giving Disney reproduction rights to the Marks catalogue of more than 11,000 titles, and like access to more than 60 catalogues affiliated with or controlled by Marks. Dailey Paskman represented the music company in negotiations. Disney will use the music in his cartoon comedies.

September 4, 1936
Disney Gets Gold Medal At Venice Film Exposition
The 1936 gold medal award of the International Cinema Exposition at Venice for the year's best animated cartoons was awarded to Walt Disney, whose entries included "Mickey on Ice," "Three Orphan Kittens" and "Who Killed Cock Robin?", the United Artists office was advised yesterday by cable. This is the third successive year that Disney has taken the medal.

September 14, 1936
New Friedlander Firm Starts Operation Soon
Fortune Film Corp., a new firm headed by Al Friedlander, formerly vice-president of First Division Exchanges, Inc., and J. K. Chapman recent secretary-treasurer of that company, has taken over the Van Beuren space on the 22nd floor of the RKO Building in Radio City and will start alterations around Oct. 15, when alterations will be completed.

September 16, 1936
Dean of Cartoons
The oldest cartoon character on the screen will soon be cutting a birthday cake. Twenty years ago this fall Paul Terry created his Farmer Al Falfa, the comic hayseed who has appeared frequently in the Terry cartoon creations ever since. In celebration of the event Terry now has in production a picture titled "Farmer Al Falfa's Twentieth Birthday" for the Terry-Toons series he is making for Educational, and in which Al Falfa appears occasionally in company with the new cartoon star, Kiko the Kangaroo.

Popeye Clubs Increase to 300 in Year
Popeye Clubs are having an anniversary. In slightly over a year they have multiplied from one to 300. Membership in the clubs fluctuates between 300 and 1,500 youngsters. The kiddies are taking their memberships seriously, according to reports from exhibitors. They report en masse to the theater on days when the Sailor Man is on the screen.

Wayne King has recorded the new Mickey Mouse eighth birthday song for Victor Records. It was specially composed with the aid of Irving Berlin for the celebration of Mickey’s eighth birthday party, which is to be celebrated Sept. 25-Oct. 1.

September 18, 1936
The new series of ComiColor Cartoons will be distributed by Big Feature Rights exchange.

10 Radio Programs in Tie-up On Mickey Mouse's Birthday
Hookups with 10 nationwide radio programs already have been arranged in connection with the eighth birthday of Mickey Mouse to be celebrated the week of Sept. 25. Programs include Guy Lombardo and other orchestras on WABC, WEAF and WJZ, as well as Kate Smith, Burns and Allen and other popular radio attractions. Walt Disney, producer of the cartoons for United Artists release, also will be interviewed by Cecil B. DeMille on the Lux hour next Monday. Irving Berlin’s song, "Mickey Mouse's Birth-Day”, written specially for the occasion will be heard on the Gillette Community Sing program tomorrow night, with 104 stations in the hook-up.

September 26, 1936
Filmusic, Inc., rendering a comprehensive service to producers in the preparation and adaptation of music to films, is fortunate in securing Winston Sharples to take charge of all synchronization and recording Winnie is aces in his line as he proved while musical director for Van Beuren Corp. [Note: Filmusic is, as far as I know, the original company that later released the Jack Shaindlin stock music used on early Hanna-Barbera cartoons].

October 28, 1936
Fix Jan. 5 as Trial Date for Vitacolor-Cinecolor
Trial date of Jan. 5 has been fixed in a patent infringement case brought by Max B. DuPont Vitacolor Corporation against Cinecolor, Inc., in the U. S. District Court at Los Angeles. This suit involves four patents on "natural" color film and the process of making it.
Notice has been served on Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Celebrity Productions, and Scientific Film Laboratories that they will be held responsible with Cinecolor for alleged infringement in connection with color shorts and cartoons manufactured for them by Cinecolor. The notice was sent by Eugene Overton of the Los Angeles law firm of Overton, Lyman and Plumb, representing the Vitacolor corporation.

October 29, 1936
“TURKEY DINNER," the first of the new cartoon series featuring Meany, Miny and Moe, the monkies which Walter Lantz is producing for Universal, will be released within the next 10 days. To take care of their increased production of 26 cartoons, the Lantz organization has had to double its staff, which now numbers 100.

November 6, 1936
Phil M. Daly column
• • • THE RELEASE by Educational of the next Terry-Toons cartoon on Nov. 27 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the oldest cartoon character on the screen . . . Farmer Al Falfa . . . twenty years ago when Paul Terry was beginning his film career, he first presented this hayseed character . . . Farmer Al now shares starring honors in Terry-Toons with Kiko the Kangaroo and Puddy the Pup . . . his anniversary picture will be titled "Farmer Al Falfa's Twentieth Anniversary"

Detroit Tavern Starts Films With 16 mm. Cartoons
Detroit—Marking the first invasion of the local film field by a beer garden, Fisher's Tavern on Washington Boulevard is offering 16 mm. pictures, largely animated cartoons. Gabriel S. Coldwater, Detroit fire marshal, made a check up at the reported request of H. M. Richey, general manager of Allied Theaters of Michigan.

November 11, 1936
Connecticut Houses Bid For Kids With Giveaways
New Haven—In an effort to recapture juvenile patronage, houses in the State are resorting to giveaways. The Devon and Thomaston Theaters, and the Park, Allingtown, are among the first to introduce Saturday afternoon drawings of a doll and a wagon, boy and girl prizes. The Fishman houses in New Haven and Fairfield will run Scrappy Cartoon matinees, distributing the puppet shows which are a Columbia-Pillsbury tieup. The Hamilton, Waterbury, has a long run of Saturday matinees planned, with the President medallion series as prizes. The Liberty, Bridgeport, operated by J. Corwel, is distributing candy to children from 2 to 5.

November 17, 1936
George Hirliman, Grand National Producer, and Amadee Van Beuren are understood to be discussing formation of a new company to produce shorts. Continental Pictures is mentioned as the name of the new company. [Note: Condor Films announced December 16th RKO still owns half of the Van Beuren Corp., which will be part of the new company].

December 2, 1936
$500,000 Asked in Cartoon Suit Against Paul H. Terry
Frank H. Moser, cartoonist of Hastings-on-Hudson, had filed suit in the Supreme Court, White Plains, against Paul H. Terry, president, and William M. Weiss, secretary-treasurer of Terrytoons, Inc., Earle W. Hammons, president of Educational, and the corporation of Moser & Terry, for $500,000 or restoration of his half interest in the firm, was learned yesterday when Justice Raymond E. Aldrich reserved decision in a motion to examine Hammons before trial. Moser claims he was jockeyed into selling his interest in the firm for $24,200 on allegations that the company was in a bad way and that Hammons might not renew the contract for distributing the cartoons. A short time later, he alleges, he learned that Hammons had renewed the contract and that the corporation made a profit of $140,728 in 1935. All the defendants deny the charges.

David Fleisher, brother of Max, the cartoon producer, has purchased a home in Miami Beach.

Molly Turns Into Bowling Pins

Can someone explain something to me? Why does Molly Moo Cow have a man’s baritone voice?

On second thought, skip it.

If it weren’t for public domain video releases, and maybe Leonard Maltin’s “Of Mice and Magic,” few animation fans would have heard of Molly. She was part of the Van Beuren cartoon stable, yet another result of the theory that if you give a character some expressions and move it around on film, you’ll impress everyone with artwork and that will equal entertainment.

It appears four Molly Moo Cow cartoons were released—all within months of each other in 1935-36—before the character was quietly retired. “Molly Moo Cow and Rip Van Winkle” was the third. It features some good animation of Molly smiling, frowning, shouting, making 360° turns. And none of it entertaining. The most interesting and imaginative thing in the cartoon is a variation on the old Oswald-splits-into-multiple-Oswalds-when-hit routine that Disney did in the ’20s. Molly is bowling. The bowling ball hits her and she turns into pins.






The pins twirl in mid-air then down they come, forming poor old Molly.









Why the brown colour change? You’d have to ask Burt Gillett or Tom Palmer, the only people who got a credit on this besides composer Win Sharples. The studio had good writers at this point, Joe Barbera and Dan Gordon among them. Whoever the animators were on this cartoon—Carlo Vinci and Jack Zander were at Van Beuren—they didn’t stay much longer. The studio closed in 1936 as RKO decided to release real Disney cartoons, not third-rate imitations.

Duck Soup to Nuts Exit

Porky Pig and Daffy Duck made a great combination in the 1940s. Daffy outsmarted Porky and, in the process, pulled off funny dialogue and tricks that came out of nowhere. He was both casual and vivacious (Bob Clampett stretched his emotions more than the other directors). Unfortunately, he became an egotistical patsy in the ‘50s but that’s another story.

Friz Freleng’s “Duck Soup to Nuts” (released in 1944) has a string of great routines that flow one into another. It also has an interesting animation effect. Porky rushes off camera to get a bucket to bail out the lake that Daffy’s in. Note the multiple pig eye.








Tedd Pierce wrote the story and the animation credit on the original prints of the cartoon went to Dick Bickenbach. Looks like Paul Julian painted the backgrounds.

Adults Say The Darndest Things

Mel Blanc related in his book how the American Tobacco Company had someone prowling the radio studio of “The Jack Benny Program,” ensuring that anyone who was smoking, was smoking a Lucky Strike. Even other American Tobacco brands were verboten.

Mel tended to exaggerate but the story has the ring of truth, as others who worked in the old days of network radio shows tell similar stories of how ridiculous the sponsor’s stranglehold got to be.

The situation occasionally, and quite unexpectedly, leaked out onto the air. I’m sure it got a laugh every time, especially from radio people who were glad someone broke the stupid taboo. Here’s columnist John Crosby, no fan of giveaway shows, on November 11, 1947. And he unexpectedly griped about one of his radio favourites.

Radio In Review
Quiz Answers Boost Competitors Goods
By JOHN CROSBY
The other day a pair of surprisingly conscientious urchins were seated on the curb in the small town near where I live, rehearsing the spelling they had apparently just acquired in school.
“Spell ‘kid’,” said one urchin. “T-H-E,” said the other. The first one nodded gravely. “Now spell ‘the’,” he said. For some reason this reminded me strongly of the contestants in radio quiz contests.
Now and then a quiz master trying desperately to provoke a contestant into emitting exactly the right word will get instead exactly the wrong one. On Guess Who, a quiz sponsored by the National Dairy Products Company, the master of ceremonies, Happy Felton, likes to ask questions which call attention to his sponsor’s line of work.
“What cow,” he asked the other night, “started the Chicago fire?”
“Elsie?” said the contestant inquiringly, the way those people do. Elsie is not only the wrong answer but is a name never mentioned even in whispers on that program. Elsie is the pet cow and chief advertising device of one of National Dairy Products’ foremost competitors—the Borden Company.
TRYING TO work the sponsor’s products into quiz questions is always a bit hazardous and the results are frequently unexpected.
Bob Hawk, another quiz emcee, once asked a girl to name something beginning with the letter M which you need to make mayonaise.
“Mother,” said the girl.
However, when you don’t want a product—particularly somebody else’s product—the contestants come right out with it. On the Give and Take show, the master of ceremonies asked the name of the author of The Razor’s Edge.
“Gillette,” said the man.
I’m not making these answers up. People said them with every evidence of sincerity. The innocence of all knowledge of quiz contestants has driven the producers of quizzes to incredible lengths of ingenuity. They frame questions in such a way that no mental activity of any sort is required beyond the fairly routine impulse from the brain needed to open the mouth. Still the contestants miss. Last season on Hollywood Jackpot, Kenny Delmar asked a girl: “What does yatata yatata yatata mean? Is it a Siamese word or is it a slang word meaning too much talk?”
IN OTHER words, the girl was not expected to strain her intellect thinking up definitions. The definitions were provided, one of them wildly implausible. Still, the girl was floored. There was a period o£ painful silence. “Will you repeat the question?” she asked finally. She got it right after a little coaching.
The quiz profession in radio is a nice way to earn a living but it is fraught with all sorts of perils. One of the worst of them was experienced just the other day by Walter O’Keefe, the emcee on Double or Nothing. O’Keefe was chatting with an ex-war nurse about her experiences in the late conflict. Carried away by the memory of those virile days, the girl began speaking a'pure Anglo-Saxon popular with .soldiers and with Hemingway but never, never, employed on the air.
O'Keefe shouted: “I hope you win the grand slam prize,” and hustled her away. At Columbia Broadcasting System, the switchboard lit up like a Christmas tree with calls from complaining listeners. Hadn’t been anything like it since Orson Welles staged his invasion from Mars in 1938. I bring it up here only because the same company, Campbell Soup, which doesn't have very good luck on these things, was the sponsor both of the Welles show nine years ago and the Double or show.
EVEN THE amateurs have trouble with other amateurs. Recently Sadie Hertz, the Brooklyn woman who has been winning prizes on quiz shows for 10 years, was made guest emcee on Daily Dilemmas on WOR in New York. For the first time, Sadie was on the other end of the questions and on the wrong end of the gifts. One of the first persons to face her was an ex-GI.
“Ya married?” asked Sadie.
“Yes.”
“Any children?”
“Yes, one.”
“How long ya married?”
“Fifteen days.”
Speaking of stunts that didn’t come off as planned, I might as well report on the opening performance for the season of the Fred Allen show. The guest was Jay Jostyn (Mr. District Attorney). Just as a gag, Allen opened his show with Mr. District Attorney’s theme song instead of his own. Several dozen National Broadcasting Company stations around the country, figuring something was amiss, pulled their switches and threw the program off the air. Countless listeners, including this one, just turned off the radio.

Crosby must have been stewing about the Allen opener. It happened a month before this column appeared in print. The premise, and it was solid from a satiric standpoint, was the characters from “Mr. District Attorney” were hunting for Allen on a charge of murdering radio comedy. The show was sponsored that season by Tenderleaf Tea. Allen might have guaranteed himself some laughs if he blurted out his character was named “Lipton.”

Rock-A-Bye Bear is Still Sleeping

Tex Avery made several cartoons where characters run outside and react to inflicted pain so someone inside isn’t disturbed. “Deputy Droopy” seems to get the most attention because of Ed Benedict’s flat character designs. I much prefer “Rock-A-Bye Bear” (released 1952). The story by Heck Allen and Rich Hogan is far more satisfying (at the end of “Deputy Droopy,” suddenly all the characters develop hearing problems out of nowhere). The little dog who has been terrorising Spike gets his.

Joe Bear hires Spike for a nice, cushy job—keeping his house quiet and not waking him during hibernation time. A jealous beagle tries to make a racket and pin it on Spike so he can get the comfortable job. The situation builds to where the beagle blows up the house—but the bear doesn’t wake up. Here’s the little dog’s take when he sees his plan failed. One frame per drawing.












Ah, if only the cartoon was restored and released. You’d be able to get the effect of the take better.

The credited animation crew is Walt Clinton, Grant Simmons and Mike Lah. Avery revisited the idea again at the Lantz studio in “The Legend of Rockabye Point” (released in 1955), a fine cartoon even though the animation’s a few steps below his work at MGM.

Stale Popcorn

Am I missing something, or is “The Popcorn Story” one of the most inane cartoons ever made?

Maybe there’s some kind of symbolic allusion to the 1950s arms build-up, and building a bigger, more powerful bomb to accomplish the ends of corporate America. But all I see is a six minute cartoon that reaches the surprising conclusion that corn which you can eat is made into popcorn, which you can also eat.

The cartoon features only two characters, neither of whom are likeable. One is a speechless, almost-expressionless dolt and the other is an arrogant tycoon (Jim Backus using his Magoo voice) whose bombast and flowery vocabulary becomes tiresome pretty quickly. And we’re supposed to believe this pillar of industry would be willing to invest in a completely impractical, Rube Goldberg-esque shoe-shine contraption (in a town where no one wears shoes) from someone he publicly spanked for stupidity.



The story is by Bill Scott (I suspect he came up with the puns, like having the corn-growing dolt named “Shuck”), Phil Eastman and Bob Russell. I suppose the laugh highlight is supposed to be the businessman being abused by the machine but I found the whole concept to be implausible to begin with. The best gag is when the dolt tries to power his bicycle by lighting a load of corncobs in a barrel, and it simply powers him over the handlebars and into the ground. The set-up and timing reminded me of a gag in a Roadrunner cartoon (and Chuck Jones wouldn’t have a blank look on the coyote’s face like the dolt).

Bill Hurtz designed the backgrounds, with colour by Jules Engel and Herb Klynn. Let’s look at some of those.








The popcorn industry probably loved this short. Theatre patrons likely rushed to the snack counter to buy their product to avoid sitting through this cartoon.

Handwriting of the Stars

All kinds of newspaper stories were written about Jack Benny over the course of his career—reviewing his films and radio show, dissecting his comedy, interviewing him about his time in show business and eulogising his life.

Perhaps the most unusual story appeared in newspapers in January 1975 when a syndicated columnist analysed his handwriting.

Joanne Romine did this for a number of celebrities in the mid-‘70s. She found Don Rickles and Lynn Redgrave “complex.” Frank Sinatra was “an intensely deep feeling man.” Phyllis Diller “will listen to the ideas and opinions of others.” Bob Newhart is “inscrutable.” What were her conclusions about Jack Benny?

Jack Benny used wit to hide tenderness
By JOANNE B.ROMMINE
Copley News Service
Jack Benny, the late, great comic, accomplished more in 39 years than most people accomplish in 80! Let’s take a peak at his writing and see if we can determine some of the characteristics that contributed to his success.
His writing revealed an unusual amount of drive and determination. (Check the long, heavy down stroke on his Y.) Once he set his sights on a goal, there was nothing, save an act of God, that could keep him from attaining that goal. He could survive sorrow, disappointment, even temporary failure, and keep right on trucking. When he was discouraged, only his loved ones ever knew because he’d bluff his way through until enthusiasm returned.
He was a warm, friendly affectionate man, tending to be somewhat conservative in his show of affection. He was inclined to conceal his tenderness by wrapping it in a witty remark, but he really was a tender-hearted person. His feelings could easily he hurt by the casual comments of others. (Note the big loop in the stem of his D.)
He had his low moments, and because of his intense feeling nature, low was “bottom” to Jack. However, his love of people and life, and a keen interest in the world around him soon put him hack in action.
He was no slouch mentally. If he hadn’t pursued a career in entertainment, he could have excelled in the field of scientific research. He was a man with a lot of questions and he looked for answers, not being content until he found them.
Jack Benny was honest and forthright in his dealings with others. He could be direct and frank He would avoid trying to hurt others whenever possible by softening his statements with diplomacy. Since his integrity was unquestionable... it really must have been true ... he was only 39 years old ... or he never learned to count!
A wonderful man ... at any age.