MEET MY MOM!

Collection: V. Mahoney

That’s my mom, Ruth (Fleischer) Kneitel--- born December 28, 1906 in Brooklyn, New York. It’s always amazed me that when she was growing up women in the United States did not have the right to vote. That wouldn’t happen until 1920, when she was 19 years old.

Since this is the month of her birthday I thought I’d share some of the interesting things about my mother’s life in animation. She was the daughter of an important animation pioneer, and in 1931 she married an animator! She even worked in early animation…

Ruth, Essie, Richard (Dick), Max.
Collection: V. Mahoney

At the time Ruth was born, her father Max had not yet begun his work in animation. (To learn more about Max Fleischer’s amazing career read Out of the Inkwell by his son, Richard Fleischer). Max had a vision that he could improve on the existing crude animation of the day. 

In 1915, when Ruth was nine years old, Max patented the Rotoscope… an invention that created more fluid movement of animated characters. Working together with his brothers, Max created the very first films using that Rotoscope. This event marked the beginning of his career in animation. Since Max had meager funds, he routinely used family in these early films…. aunts, uncles, kids… including Ruth and her younger brother Dick. From these modest beginnings the Fleischers became one of the many immigrant success stories. 

On the way to that success my mom didn’t miss an opportunity to be involved. 

Ruth testing some dance moves.
Collection: V. Mahoney

It was natural that Ruth, a fun loving gal, would want to be part of this exciting theatrical life. Trained as a dancer, by her late teens she was dancing on stage in vaudeville chorus lines. In 1925 Max even created a film, Ko-Ko Steps Out, that was built around Ruth and her dancing. In the film, Max is on screen while Ruth appears first on the screen with Max and then appears to jump from the screen to the stage where they interact. It was a combination of film and vaudeville! Here’s a newspaper review that tells a bit of the story. (Red Seal was a film company Max started in 1923 that produced live action comedies as well as animated films.) BTW- I’ve never found a copy of this film.

Newspaper report for Ko-Ko Steps Out
Collection: V. Mahoney

At the Studio, any event of note was worth a hand drawn cartoon—here’s one (below) they gave to my mother when she was appearing live with Ko-Ko Steps Out at a Rialto Theater in New Jersey. 

Drawing by FS staffer for Ruth, Jan. 1926
Collection: V. Mahoney

Below are some other photos of Red Seal pictures Max made that Ruth appeared in.

Max in center talking to Ruth who is wearing a coat and hat.

The reverse of this publicity photo from about 1924 reads: “Max Fleischer and a group of the prettiest chorus girls in New York, all of whom are engaged for his new series of two reel comedies, Carrie of the Chorus.” Ruth can be seen in this photo- she's wearing a coat and hat, and talking to Max. In this Carrie film Ruth plays the part of Carrie’s best friend. 

Ray Bolger photo with inscription to Ruth.
Collection: V. Mahoney

Ruth met Ray Bolger when they were both dancing on the same bill at the Paramount Theater. Bolger (later to become famous as the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz) became a close friend and occasionally Ruth’s on stage dancing partner. Bolger earned his very first film credit when he appeared in this Carrie of the Chorus film.

Publicity photo from Morning Judge. Collection: V. Mahoney'

Publicity photo from Morning Judge. Collection: V. Mahoney

The two photos above are from another of Max’s Red Seal films, Morning Judge, that was released in 1926. Ruth is on the left side of the first photo. In the second photo Ruth is in the middle, standing in front. I’ve never found a copy of this and have no idea of what is going on in this film!

Article about Rayburn troupe in St. Louis Star.
Collection: V.Mahoney

By 1926, when Max’s Red Seal venture was floundering, Ruth joined the Ned Rayburn traveling dance troupe as a chorus girl. Ned Rayburn was famous at the time for producing dancing stars. In the photo above Ruth is standing in the back row third from the left. When appearing on stage she sometimes used the name Ruth Dix…likely a play on the name of her younger brother Dick, who she adored. The Rayburn troupe danced in theaters all over the U.S. Ruth would have been about 20 years old at the time, and her parents, Max and Essie, were not at all happy to have her leading what they considered a wild and questionable life. 

Telegram from Ned Rayburn to Ruth forbidding her to smoke! Collection: V. Mahoney
(Click to enlarge for viewing)

Just how racy life was on the road is reflected in the 1927 telegram (above) from Ned Rayburn to Ruth.


When Ruth returned home from a Wayburn road tour her mother made it clear that she was NOT to go on the road anymore! But Ruth had no interest in sitting idly home, so she proposed that she’d consider staying only if she could work at Max’s Studio. Max reluctantly agreed….reluctant because he knew the Studio had a staff of basically crazy, wild people, and he worried Ruth might contribute too much to that craziness.

Lower portion of 1930-31 Fleischer Studios staff photo. Ruth (Fleischer) is far left, second row up from the bottom. (Click to enlarge for viewing) Collection: V. Mahoney

Much to Max’s surprise and delight, Ruth became a valuable asset. She worked her way up first to Head of the Opaquing (or painting) department and later she became Head of the Inking Department. She also wrote stories for a number of cartoons. Aside from her success in the office, she was still a girl that loved to party, so she was equally popular with the fun-loving staff.

The studio is where my parents met, my dad was an animator at the time. They were an unlikely pair since Ruth loved to dance and Seymour couldn’t dance at all. But he was such a nice guy. Ruth at first thought he had a sweetheart since she’d hear him on the phone saying.. ‘hello dear’… I’ll be home soon dear.’ Turned out he was talking to his mother! My dad was in his late teens when his father died, at which point he became the main support of his mother and sister. Animator Shamus Culhane wrote…"the marriage made no difference in Seymour’s status in the studio. He was never given, nor did he ever ask for, special handling from the management."

Family photo showing (l. to r.) Ruth, Kenny, Tommy, Ginny, Seymour.
Collection: V. Mahoney

My mom and dad married in December of 1931. Ruth continued to work at the studio until late 1932 while awaiting the birth of their first child, Tommy.  Two more children followed, myself in 1936 and Ken in 1941. In the photo above (circa 1945) we're all together in one of those fake photo set-ups. 

Although Ruth became a stay-at-home mom, she continued to write stories for cartoons and comic books, many of which were used! After my dad died in 1964 she became more active in the animation industry, working to promote a novel 3D process… but that’s another story!

CASPER…behind the scenes

Casper’s first film appearance was in The Friendly Ghost. Released in 1945 as part of the Paramount Famous Studios Noveltoon series Casper soon became so popular he earned a series of his own. He went on to star in 55 theatrical films for Famous Studios before that series ended in 1959. 

Casper, as his fans know, was a gentle ghost with no interest in scaring people. Real  ghosts mocked him for his mild manner, and humans were frightened by his translucent appearance.  But little children and animals quickly recognized that Casper only wanted to play and make friends.

Casper was unique among Famous Studios characters since he was an original creation and not based on another character (e.g Little Audrey was based on Little Lulu, and Herman and Katnip were similar to Tom and Jerry, etc.). 

In fact, there’s an interesting story about Casper’s origins (although a few details are a bit murky). Credit for Casper’s creation goes to both Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo. In 1939 Casper was featured in a children’s book they created together. Apparently Reit wrote the story and Oriolo illustrated the character.  The story generated no interest, so while Reit was away serving in the military, Oriolo- who at the time was working for Famous Studios-- sold the character and story to Famous Studios... for two hundred dollars!!! Who could have guessed that this character would eventually inspire a whole supporting cast of ghostly characters,  that it would generate over 55 theatrical cartoons, it’s own TV show, that the character would be sold to Harvey Brothers who then put Casper in comic books—and in 1995 Universal Studios would produce a highly successful computer generated Casper film! Neither Reit or Oriolo benefited beyond the initial $200 payment. In fact disagreement developed between the two over their respective roles in Casper’s development.

Click to enlarge image

Christmas Card from Harvey's. Date unknown. Collection: Virginia Mahoney

St. John’s publishing began producing Casper comics in 1949- and in 1952 the license for Casper comics was assumed by Harvey Comics. Harvey purchased Casper (as well as other Famous characters) outright in 1959 and all these characters soon appeared on the TV show Matty’s Funday Funnies. Some of the Casper films had previously been purchased in 1956 by TV distributor U.M.&M.T.V. Corp. When these films were packaged for television the original credits were often removed and replaced with new credits that included a reference to U.M.&M.T.V. Included below is a link to one such film A Hunting We Will Go, since it’s interesting that in the screen credit where it should have read Featuring Casper the Friendly Ghost, the ‘replaced’ credits instead read Featuring Caspers Friendly Ghost.

Interesting controversies among Casper fans have to do with whether Casper is actually a dead child! And if so…how did Casper die??  At some point the ‘dead child’ concept was replaced by the concept of Casper belonging to a particular class of supernatural beings…ghosts! However when Casper appeared in Harvey Comics in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s it appeared that Casper was a ghost because his parents were already ghosts when they married. It wasn’t until the 1995 Casper feature film that the ‘dead child’ idea was revived along with an account of how Casper had died…. of pneumonia at the age of twelve due to overindulging in a day of sledding! The film even disclosed Casper’s full name… Casper McFadden.

I’m including a few typed and hand-written Casper ‘story ideas.’ These are only a few of the over seventy five Casper story ideas I found among my dads things. Story ideas could be submitted by people who worked in the story department… or by anyone else in the Studio. If a story was used one could earn a few extra dollars. I love that often the stories submitted were totally hand-written— even the typed ones were pretty messy looking when measured against today’s standards. It didn’t seem to matter---

Click on any image to enlarge
The first 'story idea' below was written by one of Casper's creators, Seymour Reit. It's two pages long and was submitted together with three other stories. The note at the top indicates that all four were purchased for $100. and adds "additional sum if any used (to make up to $300)." Not dated. Collection: Virginia Mahoney

The story idea (and drawing) below were submitted by Dave Tendlar. Dave began working at Fleischer Studios in 1931, and worked there and at its successor, Famous Studios, until the mid 1950's. He worked as both an animator and Director. After Famous Studios he continued to work in animation for a number of other studios including Terrytoons and Hanna-Barbera. Note that both pages are on pegged animation paper, and that Casper is still looking chunky (later he became more sleek). Dated Sept. 12, 1949. Collection: Virginia Mahoney

This last story idea below is by my dad, Seymour Kneitel. As the boss he was always looking for ways to keep costs down-- he's titled this "Chisel angle for a Casper picture." It involves a clever re-use of old footage. Dated Nov. 12, 1956. (Thanks to the comments below from 'J. Lee' who points out this is likely the idea for the film Ghost Writers which was released in 1958- that films on-screen credit for direction is given to Seymour Kneitel, and for writing to Jack Mercer. I would guess that Mercer may have taken this brief premise and expanded it. Staff in those days were very versatile- in additional to writing stories, Jack Mercer was an assistant animator and the voice of Popeye!) Collection: Virginia Mahoney

PS: Seymour Kneitel directed many of the Casper films- next post will be more about some of the people behind the scenes who worked on Casper films.

THE FIRST WOMAN ANIMATOR!

In 1933 Lillian Friedman, while working at Fleischer Studios, became the first woman EVER to work as an animator at any studio.


From the early days of animation—and up until 1933—women were generally hired only in the lowly role of inker or opaquer. If talented and lucky they might advance to the position of inbetweener. But they NEVER worked as animators.


It was accepted thinking in the industry that women were not capable of the creativity required to be an animator, plus there was resistance to women entering this male dominated field. The article below from a Paramount 1936 promotional booklet includes the statement “Nobody knows just why, but women generally are not successful as cartoon animators.”


There’s also a telling 1938 letter that can be found online, typed on beautiful Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs stationary. It’s a response to Miss Mary V. Ford who wrote Walt Disney Productions concerning a job… the reply states “Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work is performed entirely by young men. For this reason girls are not considered for the training school....The only work open to women consists of tracing the characters on clear celluloid sheets with India ink and filling in the tracings on the reverse side with paint according to directions."

(click to enlarge for viewing)
Article from Paramount promotional booklet for "Popeye The Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor"  1936     Collection: Virginia Mahoney       
Popeye copyright 2011 King Features Syndicate, Inc. TM Hearst Holdings, Inc.

In 1933 Lillian Friedman, an employee of Fleischer Studios, became the very first female to be hired as a commercial animator at any animation studio. She had joined Fleischer Studios as an inbetweener in 1931 at the age of nineteen. Animator Shamus Culhane recognized that she was highly talented and advocated for her advancement to animator. It was no easy job to convince the other animators to accept a woman working in that position. In addition, Shamus points out in his book Talking Animals and Other People, he had to devise tricks to make her accepted in the all male environment… and even though Lillian achieved animator status she was paid considerably less then her male counterparts.  


The film below, Pudgy and the Lost Kitten, gives screen credit for animation to Myron Waldman and Lillian Friedman. This copy of the film has German sub-titles which I always thought reflected how popular these films were overseas- but 'The Crazy HR' has corrected me... "This was for many years a 'lost film,' meaning nobody knew about the existence of any copy of the cartoon. This has subtitles because it aired on the Channel ARTE during their show "Cartoon Factory." (ARTE is a German Channel)


                            Film: Pudgy and the Lost Kitten  

                                     Betty Boop and Pudgy copyright Fleischer Studios, Inc.


The Internet Movie Database (online) credits Lillian with animation work on 11 films made with Fleischer Studios between 1934 and 1938—and shows she received screen credit on seven of these films, and was uncredited for her work on the other four. However,  IMDb did not include her animation on Sindbad the Sailor which the above article attests to—or a reference elsewhere to her animation on Betty Boop’s A Language All Her Own.  So Lillian animated on a total of at least thirteen films, with six of them uncredited. The lack of screen credit is not unusual since generally, although several animators may work on a film, no more than two animators received  on-screen credit. Lillian remained at Fleischer’s until 1939 when she resigned to be with her family full time.

For work purposes animators at the time were assigned to ‘units,’ each unit run by a head animator. While working as an animator at Fleischer Studios Lillian worked in three different units, each headed by a different animator… Shamus Culhane, Myron Waldman, and my dad… Seymour Kneitel.

(When giving credit to trailblazing women  animators I should also mention Laverne Harding who in 1934 went to work for another famous studio, Walter Lantz, becoming only the second women animator in the industry.)

Sources:

Book: Talking Animals and Other People by Shamus Culhane
Popeye Paramount Promotional brochure for Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor 1936
Ray Pointer online comments
Disney rejection letter:
       http://www.flickr.com/photos/polaroid/632255233/
The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) 
Book: Who’s Who in Animated Cartoons by Jeff Lenburg

SEYMOUR, IZZY, E.G. LUTZ, and "THE BIBLE"

This past January I posted several pages from the Standard Production Reference, the Fleischer Studios document developed by Seymour Kneitel and Izzy Sparber for in-house use. Often referred to as "The Bible," this is such an interesting piece of animation history I've now posted the complete document on this blog. To view it go to the black bar near the top of this page and click on “The Standard Production Reference.”


Some Background:
In my dad’s library there was a copy of the book Animated Cartoons by E.G. Lutz. Prior to the development of in-house animation manuals, such as the Standard Production Reference, Lutz was the first and most important book that existed on animation and how to do it. First published in 1920 it covers the early history of animated film, technical information,  details on how to animate people and animals in various activities… walking, running etc, plus ideas on how to create comedy on film. Below I’ve posted a few spreads from Lutz to give an idea of the book early animator's such as my dad used as a reference. (FYI: click on images to enlarge for reading)

To view more images and information about this very interesting Lutz book see Michael Sporn’s excellent discussion on his animation Blog:  http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=2812

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SEYMOUR!

Another original card from Seymour and Ruth, who are yet again facing the Christmas season waiting for the birth of a baby. At the time Seymour was working for Fleischer Studios.

Christmas was a hugely important holiday for the Fleischer Studios people. Staff came from many different backgrounds, many of them were first generation Americans... and they represented many different religions. But no matter their background or religion, they all seemed to think Christmas was yet another great way to have a good time together.

They had a really big and crazy Christmas party in a rented theater or restaurant, exchanged these hand made and personalized Christmas cards with each other… and had a rousing good time. To see more about how Fleischer Studios staff celebrated Christmas, including more of the original Christmas cards created by staff... plus rare footage of a home made movie during one of these 1930’s Christmas parties….

go to…
Fleischerstudios.com

Click on the word 'Museum' near the top of the page (under Fleischer Studios).  This will take you to the Fleischer Studios Museum site where you can click to enter the exhibit, entitled 'Christmas.'

Enjoy and Merry Christmas… 
and watch this Blog in early 2012 for the next postings on some of the interesting ‘technical’ things Seymour was involved with. 

Famous Studios entry hall display, circa 1950.

In 1943 the newly formed Famous Studios completed it's relocation to New York City. Virtually all of their staff, which consisted of many of the original Fleischer Studios New York staffers, made the return move with them.  Famous occupied space in two buildings in the heart of New York City, at 25 and 35 West 45th Street.

If you had walked into the offices of Famous Studios in the 1950's you would have been been greeted in the entry hall by these cells (shown in the post below) depicting their most well-known characters. These are scans of those actual cells.