My parents were married on December 24, 1931. They met while
both were working at Fleischer Studios. They remained completely devoted to
each other through raising three children and dealing with the sometimes-challenging
politics of the animation business.
My dad had married Ruth Fleischer, the boss’s only daughter. When
they met, my father Seymour was a young animator at Fleischer Studios. Another Fleischer animator, Shamus Culhane, in his autobiography, Talking Animals and Other
People, notes: “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.”
In another post I’ll share more about my mother. She was in
some of Max Fleischer’s very early films, including roles in his short-lived
and little known completely live action series ‘Carrie of the Chorus.’ Before
working at the studio she had been dancing ‘on the road’ in an all girl
troupe. In the late 1920’s she joined the staff of Fleischer Studios as an
inker, progressing to head of the Coloring Department- and then to head of the
Inking Department.
In an interview with historian Mike Barrier my mother talked about working at
the studio “When I met Seymour, everyone became involved in the romance…It was
a family; everybody knew what everybody was doing. The great part of it was,
after work, we didn’t just all go away and forget each other.” This was a
close-knit staff that spent considerable time together outside the office .
As they started life together it was with the background of
the Great Depression, which began with the stock market crash of October 1929.
Although many bussinesses closed or struggled to survive, this was not true of
the movie business. Films and animated cartoons were an inexpensive escape from
the troubles of daily life. In fact, there was so much creativity and technical
progress during this time (at a number of animation studios) that the 1930’s is
often referred to as “The Golden Age of Animation.”
Seymour’s Letter of Contract from Fleischer Studios (below)
shows the typical salary of an animator in the early1930’s….eighty dollars a
week. The second letter reflects the huge success and popularity of Fleischer
films that allowed a bonus to be distributed to employees Christmas 1931.
