Steve Hoffman
06-21-2008, 08:01 PM
I've been a fan of American animated cartoons since I was three. In those days, TV stations here in LA had a lot of time to fill and they were always showing old cartoons from the 1930's. This is how I first saw BOSKO & BUDDY (Vitaphone), SCRAPPY (Columbia) and the Paramount cartoons like BETTY BOOP, POPEYE, etc.
They showed these old cartoons all the time, each and every day. CBS which actually bought the rights to Paul Terry's MIGHTY MOUSE, etc. only showed them once or twice a week while the local stations here in LA showed their ancient black and white cartoons every day for hours.
There was a guy, a really nice guy (that I last had a chat with at a Garbo screening at the Academy Theater a few years ago) who's name is Tom Hatten. He hosted a kiddie show here on KTLA every afternoon for years and he played Popeye cartoons. There were a few kids on the show and they would draw stuff from the "squiggles" that Tom would start their drawing pads with. At any rate, it was a very popular show. Ask anyone who grew up here back then, they watched POPEYE.
http://latvlegends.com/TomHatten/TOMHAT.htm
The one thing I remember from watching him is that he had a loyalty. Not to a cartoon character (POPEYE) but to a certain studio. The studio that made the ORIGINAL Popeye. He would always say (and I remember this well) that even though the opening credits for the Popeye cartoons were changed "for TV use", the name of the person who made the cartoons was MAX FLEISCHER. For years, he made sure that we kids knew that if it didn't say FLEISCHER on it (or didn't have the sliding ship doors at the start) it wasn't a "real" Popeye.
I loved those cartoons. Later (say when I was four or so) I realized that other cartoons that they showed on TV also had that unmistakable "look" and sound of Max Fleischer (Betty Boop, etc.) It's fair to say that after 1966 when TV went all color, most of these (if not all) of these great black and white cartoons VANISHED FROM THE TELEVISION SCREENS forever.
Us kids remembered though and when we grew up we looked in vain for books about the cartoons we loved. There were none, nada. Zilch. So, people of our generation (like my buddy Leonard Maltin) simply WROTE them. Here are the first three and every fan of animation should have these on the bookshelf:
CREATORS OF LIFE, A HISTORY OF ANIMATION by Donald Heraldson, 1975, Drake Publishers.
THE FLEISCHER STORY by Leslie Cabarga, 1976, Nostalgia Press.
OF MICE AND MAGIC by Leonard Maltin, 1980, McGraw Hill. (This is the American animation BIBLE!!!)
These books I devoured hungrily back then. Finally I could learn about these forgotten cartoons and who made them.
When I read Cabarga's THE FLEISCHER STORY back in the 1970's I realized with a shock that MAX FLEISCHER had been this guy's idol since childhood. I thought I was the only one. Guess not. A few years later I realized that Richard Fleischer (the director of Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea") was Max's son.
Richard Fleischer died a few years ago, quite an old man but before he did he had published by the University Press Of Kentucky a little memoir he had written about his father.
Please note that Richard was an intensely private person. That any book would be published about his obscure and long forgotten father at all was a miracle, especially one HE wrote. I think Richard found it hard to write about his dad's history, after all, what happened to Max (with Paramount) was quite painful to him and the entire family.
At any rate, I recommend this little book. Get the hardback while it's still available. It's full of little tidbits about Max that I love. Apparently in 1955 Disney called for a meeting with son Richard in regards to him directing the Jules Verne novel "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" and Richard listened to the offer and told Walt: You know who I am, correct?"
Walt said "Yes, we know."
Richard said he'd have to call his father (Walt's biggest competitor in the 1930's) to ask his permission to do this. Loyalty. Walt understood. Richard called his dad and of course Max said "Sure, do the picture."
If he had said no, Richard would have passed on it (his big break in the movies). He loved his dad. And you will love this book.
"OUT OF THE INKWELL" by RICHARD FLEISCHER.
http://www.amazon.com/Out-Inkwell-Fleischer-Animation-Revolution/dp/0813123550/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214103287&sr=8-3
Oh, in the new Popeye (legit) DVD set is a piece of color film made by short subject producers Fairbanks & Carlisle (as part of the Popular Science series of color shorts (Distributed by Paramount) that shows the Fleischer Studios in Miami during production of Popeye's Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp in 1939. This footage was totally unknown just 15 years ago. We first saw it in a screening room about a decade ago (a bunch of us animation nuts) and right at the end in glorious color "poof", there was Uncle Max. Much to my surprise my eyes filled with tears. It was so unexpected to see my idol like that. When the lights came on (the entire thing probably lasted 8 minutes) I realized that everyone in the screening room was wiping their eyes. Amazing.
At any rate, this footage is worth seeing. I have it on a Gulliver's Travels DVD as a little bonus (unauthorized, I'm sure). I love watching that 8 minutes of film. The entire studio was so obscure and Paramount did it's best to wipe it from human memory that we are happy to get even eight minutes of live footage. Try and see it.
They showed these old cartoons all the time, each and every day. CBS which actually bought the rights to Paul Terry's MIGHTY MOUSE, etc. only showed them once or twice a week while the local stations here in LA showed their ancient black and white cartoons every day for hours.
There was a guy, a really nice guy (that I last had a chat with at a Garbo screening at the Academy Theater a few years ago) who's name is Tom Hatten. He hosted a kiddie show here on KTLA every afternoon for years and he played Popeye cartoons. There were a few kids on the show and they would draw stuff from the "squiggles" that Tom would start their drawing pads with. At any rate, it was a very popular show. Ask anyone who grew up here back then, they watched POPEYE.
http://latvlegends.com/TomHatten/TOMHAT.htm
The one thing I remember from watching him is that he had a loyalty. Not to a cartoon character (POPEYE) but to a certain studio. The studio that made the ORIGINAL Popeye. He would always say (and I remember this well) that even though the opening credits for the Popeye cartoons were changed "for TV use", the name of the person who made the cartoons was MAX FLEISCHER. For years, he made sure that we kids knew that if it didn't say FLEISCHER on it (or didn't have the sliding ship doors at the start) it wasn't a "real" Popeye.
I loved those cartoons. Later (say when I was four or so) I realized that other cartoons that they showed on TV also had that unmistakable "look" and sound of Max Fleischer (Betty Boop, etc.) It's fair to say that after 1966 when TV went all color, most of these (if not all) of these great black and white cartoons VANISHED FROM THE TELEVISION SCREENS forever.
Us kids remembered though and when we grew up we looked in vain for books about the cartoons we loved. There were none, nada. Zilch. So, people of our generation (like my buddy Leonard Maltin) simply WROTE them. Here are the first three and every fan of animation should have these on the bookshelf:
CREATORS OF LIFE, A HISTORY OF ANIMATION by Donald Heraldson, 1975, Drake Publishers.
THE FLEISCHER STORY by Leslie Cabarga, 1976, Nostalgia Press.
OF MICE AND MAGIC by Leonard Maltin, 1980, McGraw Hill. (This is the American animation BIBLE!!!)
These books I devoured hungrily back then. Finally I could learn about these forgotten cartoons and who made them.
When I read Cabarga's THE FLEISCHER STORY back in the 1970's I realized with a shock that MAX FLEISCHER had been this guy's idol since childhood. I thought I was the only one. Guess not. A few years later I realized that Richard Fleischer (the director of Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea") was Max's son.
Richard Fleischer died a few years ago, quite an old man but before he did he had published by the University Press Of Kentucky a little memoir he had written about his father.
Please note that Richard was an intensely private person. That any book would be published about his obscure and long forgotten father at all was a miracle, especially one HE wrote. I think Richard found it hard to write about his dad's history, after all, what happened to Max (with Paramount) was quite painful to him and the entire family.
At any rate, I recommend this little book. Get the hardback while it's still available. It's full of little tidbits about Max that I love. Apparently in 1955 Disney called for a meeting with son Richard in regards to him directing the Jules Verne novel "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" and Richard listened to the offer and told Walt: You know who I am, correct?"
Walt said "Yes, we know."
Richard said he'd have to call his father (Walt's biggest competitor in the 1930's) to ask his permission to do this. Loyalty. Walt understood. Richard called his dad and of course Max said "Sure, do the picture."
If he had said no, Richard would have passed on it (his big break in the movies). He loved his dad. And you will love this book.
"OUT OF THE INKWELL" by RICHARD FLEISCHER.
http://www.amazon.com/Out-Inkwell-Fleischer-Animation-Revolution/dp/0813123550/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214103287&sr=8-3
Oh, in the new Popeye (legit) DVD set is a piece of color film made by short subject producers Fairbanks & Carlisle (as part of the Popular Science series of color shorts (Distributed by Paramount) that shows the Fleischer Studios in Miami during production of Popeye's Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp in 1939. This footage was totally unknown just 15 years ago. We first saw it in a screening room about a decade ago (a bunch of us animation nuts) and right at the end in glorious color "poof", there was Uncle Max. Much to my surprise my eyes filled with tears. It was so unexpected to see my idol like that. When the lights came on (the entire thing probably lasted 8 minutes) I realized that everyone in the screening room was wiping their eyes. Amazing.
At any rate, this footage is worth seeing. I have it on a Gulliver's Travels DVD as a little bonus (unauthorized, I'm sure). I love watching that 8 minutes of film. The entire studio was so obscure and Paramount did it's best to wipe it from human memory that we are happy to get even eight minutes of live footage. Try and see it.