Terrytoons – The Viacom Years
CBS had allowed 20th Century-Fox to distribute Terrytoons’ new cartoons to theaters, but Viacom dealt strictly with television syndication. Then Viacom acquired the studio.
Category Archives: Christopher P. Lehman
The Final Days of The Theatrical Cartoon Short
Watching a “Woody Woodpecker” cartoon from the early 1970s is a bittersweet experience. My column for this month is about how the press covered the last years of theatrical cartoon shorts.
Huck and Jim (Crow)
To be sure, television was a democratizing force in animation. It allowed African Americans to see cartoons in their homes, in contrast to being restricted to balcony seats at theaters.
Those MGM Jazz Frog Cartoons
Beyond producing cartoons starring humanoid versions of Bosko and Honey at MGM, Harman and Ising also specialized in films starring caricatures of black jazz musicians – as frogs.
Desegregation and the Cartoon Short’s Demise
“White flight” from desegregated theaters caused the demise of many theatrical cartoon programs in the South. As cartoon shows disappeared, the closings of cartoon studios accelerated in the late 1960s
“Klanimation”
Commercial animation during the silent era rarely addressed political movements – and staffers of the cartoon studios comprised part of the demographics that the Ku Klux Klan abhorred.
Quincy Magoo Meets Jim Crow
Steve Bosustow traveled to New Orleans to promote the premiere of UPA’s 1001 Arabian Knights. He spoke at Tulane University, which in 1959 had no African American students – ironic, considering UPA’s earlier work like Brotherhood of Man.
The Sundown Drive-In: Exhibition and Jim Crow in the Twilight of the Cartoon Short
Movie theaters for African American audiences were of second-run status. This was mandatory–not an option.
Segregation and the Selling of “Deputy Dawg”
Terrytoons’ Deputy Dawg aired on television during the last years of legal segregation in the early 1960s, and Jim Crow in the South significantly shaped the program.
Popeye the Jim Crow Man: Segregation and the Fleischer Studio in Miami
Studies of the Max Fleischer Studio’s years in Miami make note of the city’s strong ethnic segregation. For example, most of the staff lived in exclusive parts of the city.
