The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer: American Animation Pioneer

582 Pages·2017·28.08 MB·English

by  Ray Pointer

The Art and Inventions of Max
Fleischer
American Animation Pioneer
RAY POINTER
Foreword by Jerry Beck
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE
BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE
e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2741-0
© 2017 Ray Pointer. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover illustration by Dick Huemer, digital composite by Shi Briggs
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Dedicated to all Fleischer fans
past, present, and future.
Acknowledgments
The following individuals generously shared their time, recollections, and
personal affects over the years, without which this book would have been
incomplete.
Joe Adamson, Ford Banes, Michael Barrier, Jerry Beck, John Canemaker,
Harvey Deneroff, Gene Deitch, Ryan Englade, Beatrice Fleischer-Stone,
Bernard Fleischer, Bernie Fleischer, Joe Fleischer, Mark Fleischer, Richard
Fleischer, Seymour Fleischer, Campbell Ford, Eric Goldberg, Frank
Goldman, Stanley Handman, Jameson Handy, Dr. Richard Huemer, Bob
Jaques, J.B. Kaufman, Bob Kennedy, Tom Kneitel, Ruth Kneitel, Stephen
Kroninger, Miles Kreuger, Mark Langer, Todd Levine, Eli Levitan, Fraser
MacClean, Virginia Kneitel-Mahoney, Leonard Maltin, John McElwee,
Russell Merritt, Joseph Neola, Jack Ozark, Jeannie Gayle Poole, Madeline
Prager, Mark Punswick, Steve Rivers, Michael Sporn, Tom Sito, Tom
Stathes, Beatrice Fleischer-Stone, Dave Tendlar, Jack Theakston, Myron
Waldman, Joyce Fleischer-Weinberg, Larry Weinberg, Sandra Weinberg,
Berny Wolf, Stephen Worth (Animation Resources), and Don Yowp.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Foreword by Jerry Beck
Prologue
Introduction
1. The Formative Years
2. The Birth of a Career
3. The Inkwell Studio
4. Fleischer Studios, Inc.
5. The Queen of the Animated Screen
6. Betty Boop on the Couch
7. The Fleischer Factory
8. The Popeye Plant
Color Insert
9. The Spinach Lid Blows Off
10. Picking Up the Pieces
11. Setting Sail for Miami
12. Stormy Seas Ahead
13. The Ship Wreck
14. The Change of Command
15. Separate Courses, New Directions
16. Recommissioned
17. Raising the Inkwell
Filmography
List of Animators
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
List of Names and Terms
Foreword by Jerry Beck
“Wanna Be a Member?”
The animated films of Max Fleischer cast a magical spell on all who grew up
with them—and that would be almost everyone raised in the 20th century. Max
was one of a handful of cartoonists who emerged in the 1910s—inspired by
Winsor McCay’s Gerie the Dinosaur—who could foresee a future in moving
drawings, a.k.a. animated cartoons. But he would become more than a
cartoonist, pioneering a new art form. He was an innovator, an inventor, as well
as an entertainer, who kept his eye as much on the audience as he would on the
artists and technicians who brought his ideas to life.
His name and fame would become known far and wide—associated with
popular entertainment and animation, rivaled only by Walt Disney. But unlike
Disney, the full story of this man and his many accomplishments are really only
coming to light now. I grew up, like Ray Pointer did, watching silent Koko the
Clown, the Jazz Age Betty Boop, and action-packed Popeye cartoons on
television, where their indelible images were forever burned into our young
minds.
The Fleischer cartoons were dark. They reflected the harsh realities of their times
— particularly the depths of The Depression Era. But they also made us laugh
and gave us hope. It was a different point of view from the rosy one Disney and
his Hollywood contemporaries were painting in glorious Technicolor.
Even the critics of the day noticed Fleischer was the flipside of Disney. And
indeed, the Fleischer universe was populated by individuals straight out of the
diverse immigrant culture that surrounded that studio in New York City. Wise-
guys and Con Men, obese hippos and “gangsta” gorillas, tattooed sailors and a
sexy bitch named Betty (she was originally a dog!) These were the denizens of
Fleischer’s world.
Fleischer’s studio simply had no feel for the optimism and blue skies common in
other cartoons. Fleischer’s take on Disney’s Silly Symphonies was the Color
Classics, and they were the stuff of nightmares. Who can forget the miser
threatening to burn out the tongues of two innocent urchins in Little Dutch Mill,
the gigantic phallus-like anteater snout chasing Ants in the Plants, and a
psychotic Greedy Humpty Dumpty? I can’t. As kids we loved it. And as adults,
we’ve admired it. Fleischer cartoons were subversive and surreal—exactly what
cartoons should be. Thanks, Uncle Max!
Inspired by The Fleischer Studio, author Ray Pointer grew up to study
animation, and become a professional artist, writer and producer—even leading
to meeting Max Fleischer himself. The lessons learned from absorbing these
cartoons propelled him into a distinguished animation career. His passion for the
Fleischer Studio became a life-long quest to explore the man behind the magic.
This book is the result of Ray’s decades of research—and no one knows the facts
and figures better.
So sit back, relax, turn on some hot jazz and open a large can of spinach. The
Fleischer brothers were a true American success story and their work is
unforgettable.
Jerry Beck is an animation historian and the author of many books,
including The Animated Movie Guide and The 50 Greatest Cartoons. He
teaches at Cal Arts in Valencia, California, and blogs at
www.cartoonresearch.com
Prologue
For decades, the history of animation has been dominated by the
accomplishments of Walt Disney, leaving the impression that he alone had
invented the medium. In reality, the medium of animated cartoons was the
result of pioneering inventors, one of the most prominent being Max
Fleischer. Fleischer’s career as an artist/inventor preceded Disney by a
decade, having developed many of the techniques that are still in use in
some form today. But as Disney’s star shone brighter in the 1930s,
Fleischer became overshadowed by many accidents of fate and big
business.
Fleischer’s role as “Artist-Inventor” served a dual purpose. While his
presence provided the basic plot for Out of the Inkwell (1919–1927) and
The Inkwell Imps (1927–1929), his inventions made the cartoons possible.
Aside from their novelty, there was a modern sophistication that stressed
the anxieties of urban America combined with elements of surrealism and a
type of organic progression. As a result, the Fleischer cartoons were rough
rather than refined, commercial rather than consciously artistic. But in their
unique way, their artistry was expressed through a culmination of the arts
and sciences. Fleischer was an avid student of these disciplines, and his
vision of animation was an application of technology and cartooning
combined with a deliberate violation of natural physics. His philosophy
was, “If it can be done in real life, it isn’t animation.” To fully realize this
perspective, one needs to look to the events in Fleischer’s life that formed
this concept.