Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Van Beuren Studios: Powerful Animated Studio For A Short Time 1928-1936

   Amadee Van Beuren (pronounced Van Burr-en) bought Fables Studio and renamed it Van Beuren studios in 1928. During the Golden Age Of Animation his studio was the least known, yet it packed a serious punch. Van Beuren was a business grad and a great businessman which this post is about.  If asked what Van Beuren Studios was famous for, most people today would probably look at you with a blank stare, not knowing that the little-known production company also helped lead the pack when it came to classic cartoons of their time. Van Beuren Studios was located across the street from Fleischer Studios, one of his biggest competitors of that time.   Like many non-Disney/Warner Bros. cartoon studios, critics and historians generally tend to give Van Beuren the footnote treatment, writing off the cartoons as cheaply produced drivel—but this isn't quite true. He put together some great shorts (Cartoons) that made great headway during the time. He also hired a few animators from competitors that also made a difference at the studio, giving them some free will. The studio produced cartoons featuring Felix the Cat as part of its Rainbow Parade series: The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg, Neptune Nonsense, and Bold King Cole, all released in 1936. Van Beuren released his films through RKO Pictures. In 1932, Van Beuren purchased Charlie Chaplin's 12 Mutual Film Company comedies for $10,000 each and re-released them through RKO Radio Pictures. Chaplin, not owning the rights to his Mutual Films, had no legal recourse against Van Beuren or RKO. Here is a list of production work that Van Beuren Studios produced during their brief 1928 - 1936 history.

 Animation:

Live-action:

   
    Amadee Van Beuren became ill in 1936 and business contract falling through forced Van Bueren to close the studio.





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Saturday, January 15, 2022

10 Nosey Things You Might Want To Know About The Legendary "Walt Disney"

 

In this blog post about Walt Disney history facts: There is no specific timeline of events, just random history moments that you might not have read or heard about "Walt".

1. During World War 1, Walt drew patriotic cartoons for his high school newspaper.

2. At 17 Walt wanted to run away with his best male friend to join the Red Cross. Parents found out, and that ended that.

 3. Walt was court-martial by the Red Cross, yes, he finally got to join up. The whole story on this topic: Tap side bar picture of Walt Disney.

 4. Walt got real sick with influenza in his teens but recovered.

 5. Walt altered his birthdate on his passport application from 1901 to 1900 so he could serve his country.

 6. Walt worked at the local post office in his hometown in Marceline, Missouri.

  7. Walt's real family last name was D'Isigny which the family changed many years later to Disney.

   8. Walt got paid $40 dollars per wk as a cartoon animator, that's like $500 per wk today (Big Bucks) for just starting out as a young working man.

   9. Walt wanted to name Mickey Mouse, Mortimer but his wife persuaded him not to and said call him Mickey. Thank you, Mrs. Disney!

   10. Walt did not allow woman to become animators early on. An infamous letter from Mary Ford might have changed all that. Retta Scott got hired in 1942 as the first woman animator for Disney. See (Pic) of her on side bar of this blog for more info about her.

    Well of course there is more nosey history facts about Walt and maybe I will update this blog post later.

                             BJ/ 🙈🙉🙊

   

 



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Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Cartoon History Funny: How The Earth Will End

This post is short and sweet. Another little cartoon history moment, I just wanted you to see this 1928 cartoon made by Inkwell Studios animator Alfred Weiss and produced by Max Fleischer. This is funny but lets you peer into the minds of people's thoughts about the world ending compared to today. Similar?? What do you think?.....The cartoon short is "Ko Ko's Earth Control" So here it is...
Alfred Weiss /  Head of Inkwell Studios, Weiss began releasing sound cartoons in 1929, with soundtracks recorded at Metropolitan Studios. Some were reissues of silent Inkwell cartoons with newly added soundtracks.
Max Fleischer / The silent KoKo films were extensions of the first animated films in which live action artists would bring drawings to life, implementing another of Fleischer's inventions, the Rotograph. The Rotograph was a system for combing live action and animation.

The Fleischer Brothers went on to produce many memorable characters utilizing other techniques they invented, including Betty Boop and Popeye.
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Thursday, January 6, 2022

Real Humans Inspired Some Cartoon Characters



Well, let's take a look at some cartoon history facts to find out. Do you remember "Yosemite Sam" cartoon? and Red Skelton, actor/comedian that had his own television show from 1951-1971 who always ended his show with the words " God Bless". In one of his movies, he played Sheriff Deadeye who inspired Yosemite Sam. Can you tell the resemblance? The eyebrows and the mustache, you need to see the clip from YouTube...


Disney's Tinker Bell was just a sweet little fairy (1953) that I would envision being the tooth fairy putting money under my pillow after I lost a tooth, of course it was my mom that put the money there, 😏 I was a little boy. "I can't help it; I was Disney mesmerize as a kid". Anyway, Margaret Kerry was a model/actress that the inspiration for Tinker Bell came about for Disney's animated movie Peter Pan. Kerry was behind the movements of the animated character for the movie that most people my age (69) and younger remembered and loved. Didn't you love Tinker as a Kid? I know I did, and I was a small boy. Lol



Mr. Magoo was one of the funniest animated cartoons ever made. Won an academy award for best animation short films 1954/1956. John Hubley the creator of Mr. Magoo was inspired by W.C Fields actor/comedian's looks, so Mr. Magoo was created in 1949. John Hubley also said his uncle Harry Woodruff had some input of the creation of Mr. Magoo. The nose and eyebrow are spot on. "What do you think" ?





The "Captain Hook" character in Peter Pan (1953) cartoon movie was also inspired by real person...Hans Conried/comedian. Conried was only to be the voice of Captain Hook, but later on Disney staff thought he was Captain Hook human model in the flesh. One staffmember on the project insisted that Hook should be a darker villain, but this was rejected for fear of scaring younger audiences. They decided to keep Captain Hook a more comical figure. So, Hans Conreid provided the looks and personality of Hook.





You remember "Archie Comics" and later on animated cartoons. Archie and his side kick Jug Head, "for crying out loud". Of course, you old timers remember Mickey Rooney/actor and you younger folks probably remember him in the "Black Stallion" (1979), but he was a star back in 30's and 50's, my grandmother use to say," look at his little, short butt" and laughing her head off. Sorry, just reminiscing 💭. Back to history... Mickey Rooney played a fictional role by the name of Andy Hardy, a love-stricken teenager that inspired the role of Archie. There were a few more I could add to this post, but maybe later....gotta make a run! / BJ 🙈🙉🙊



"Popeye" the sailor man was base off a real person by the name of Frank Fiegel. The creator of Popeye knew a man in Chester, Illinois who he based his cartoon character after. He smoked a pipe and was somewhat of brawler. I did a full blog post on Mr. Fiegel on this website and its pretty interesting story. Just go to the older post tab and check it out. / BJ 🙈🙉🙊 





































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