What do Alex Raymond, Carl Reiner, Jay Leno, Buffalo Bob Smith, Walter Lantz and Paul Terry have in common? Nothing – except they are all honorees of a plaque on the New Rochelle Walk of Fame. On Saturday, April 27th 2013, seven new notables were inducted into the Walk of Fame. The ceremony was held as part of the celebration of the 325th Anniversary of the founding of the city in Westchester County N.Y.
The New Rochelle Walk of Fame is located on the Library Green located at the town’s Public Library, 1 Library Plaza in downtown New Rochelle. The other 2013 inductees included cartoonist Neil Brinkley; author E.L Doctorow; actor and director Rob Reiner; and animator Paul Terry and his anthropomorphic superhero Mighty Mouse. I’m sorry that the image of the plaque above is unreadable. If any of our New York area readers can get us a better photo (and the Walter Lantz one), we’d appreciate it.
Mighty Mouse, cartoon hero, and Paul Terry, animator. Terry established the Terrytoons animation studio is what is now the Kaufman Building in 1939. In addition to Mighty Mouse, the studio created other famous characters including Heckle and Jeckle, Gandy Goose and Deputy Dawg.
Interesting to note that Walter Lantz received this honor years before Terry (Lantz was born in New Rochelle). Terry established his studio in New Rochelle in the 1930s and there it lasted until the early 1970s – almost 50 years. The town has paid tribute to the Terrytoon studio several times over the past 40 years. This time its permanent.
Here is the video of the April 27th ceremony:
Here’s a 1951 photograph of some of the employees in the New Rochelle facility – the Terrytoon chorus heard in almost every cartoon of that era, about to record a track… perhaps for an Aesop’s Fable cartoon like Happy Valley (1952), embed below.
(Thanks, Wynn Hamonic)
Jerry Beck is a writer, animation producer, college professor and author of more than 15 books on animation history. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon Movies and Disney, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He has curated cartoons for DVD and blu-ray compilations and has lent his expertise to dozens of bonus documentaries and audio commentaries on such. Beck is currently on the faculty of Cal Arts in Valencia, UCLA in Westwood and Woodbury University in Burbank – teaching animation history. More about Jerry Beck [
Boy, can you tell from 0:43 to 1:00 that Jim Tyer was one of the animators on “Happy Valley”!
Jerry: Another cool entry! I guess when Carl Reiner went in, they included the fictional Rob Petrie from the Dick Van Dyke show.Was there any connection between the fact that the Petries lived in New Rochelle and that the real life Dick Van Dyke hosted the CBS Cartoon Theater,which aired Terrytoons?
Carl and Rob lived in New Rochelle in the 1950s, when the elder Reiner was writing on “Your Show of Shows”.
The studio used to try and cultivate good relations with the city. My father grew up in New Rochelle in the 1930s – 1940s and remember Terrytoon animators coming to school assemblies and making sketches of the characters on big pads on easels. Too bad nobody thought to save them.
Also, I. Scheib, who did all the Terrytoons music (and was one of my father’s neighbors), would come to the schools and play piano recitals of his tunes.
How you think this story makes me feel? According to this story, my rude upending of the Terrytoons’ fairy tale didn’t even exist!
Oh Gene! You know I (and all of us who do Cartoon Research) love your unique role in the studio’s history. Tom Terrific and Mighty Manfred should put their footprints in New Rochelle cement! 😉
I grew up in new rochelle in the 50’s and sixties. The house two doors down was used for exteriors for Carl Reiners house in the pilot for what would become “the dick van dyke show” which starred Carl Reiner and was not called “the dick van dyke show”.
When i went to college , i told people i was Jerry and millie’s kid.
When i went to Hollywood, i ended up working alongside larry mazzeo (matthews) Who played Richie Petry. I told him i grew up down the street from him.
As proud as we were to be living in rob poetry’s neighborhood, the fact that heckle and jeckle and mighty mouse were somewhere nearby was even more fascinating.
New rochelle was also home to dave berg of mad magazine, and many of the people who appeared in his lighter side pieces had the names and faces of real life new rochellians.
Buffalo bob smith, of howdy doody fame, owned a liquor store next to his brother Vic’s shoe store where we got our shoes. Howdy was usually passed out in the back.
will we ever see a release of these old Terrytoons and Mighty Mouse in a clean, organized DVD format? Don’t you think that Mighty Mouse alone would be in a big enough demand to justify whatever corporation owns them putting out a DVD set and realizing a profit. Any hope for this?
We keep hoping.
As an optimist I always hope. As a realist, I know that Paramount (who owns the rights) has no interest at this time to release the Terrytoon library on DVD. It doesn’t help that the DVD market has dried up.
A few years ago I tried to get the studio to release them, ala the “Looney Tunes Golden collections”. After several pitches, they agreed to the idea of releasing the Bakshi Mighty Mouse TV cartoons. On that set we squeezed a few “classic” Terrytoons in as bonus material. The sales were “not what they hoped”… and that’s the end of that – for a while.
Just a thought
I also really hope for a Terrytoons DVD. Even a single disc!!
If there ever is a Mighty Mouse DVD I should be a collector’s focused thing. It should not be a dvd of all the Mighty Mouse cartoons in a row. That will be way to hard to watch. Mix it up with a bunch of toons from the different periods
I hope for a DVD as well. I’d even be happy to buy downloads from iTunes or Amazon if they were clean.
Very cool! My family has roots in New Rochelle, and my sister and brother-in-law still live there. I’m forwarding the URL, as I’m sure they’ll be interested.
I wonder how many Terrytoons employees are still living in New Rochelle. Both my parents, Doug Crane and Maureen Hurley Crane, are still there.
Rose, I’ve been trying to reach your father to interview him on my webcast program that spotlights creative legends in the cartooning industry but wasn’t exactly sure as to how and reach him. Also,..I’m not sure that he’d even be interested, although I’d love to have him on. I know that he would have fantastic stories to share as well as advice for aspiring artists of today.
If he’d like to check out the show, he can do so here: http://boing.libsyn.com/
My contact info should be accessible on the site or simply here:
togotooner@gmail.com
Thanks!
Todd, oh does he ever have stories….he says he won’t tell most of them in public but he’s got ’em. Anyway, I’ll forward your info on to my dad so you two can chat.
Hello! I just bought a cartoon/illustration by bob crane. Your dad I assume. Can you tell me about him?
Scott, my dad is animator and cartoonist Doug Crane. Sorry I can’t help with info on Bob Crane. I did have an Uncle Bob but he wasn’t an artist.
I’ve been waiting for the Terrytoons Mighty Mouse to come out on DVD for years! I guess my kids and now my grand kids will be out of luck when it comes to those wonderful cartoons. Its really a shame, because there is a lot of garbage put out on DVD every year and i would bet that most of the Baby Boomers would love to own the Terrytoons Mighty Mouse collection to share with their Grand Kids.
My grandfather, Anthony “Sonny” Lantz, was Walter Lantz’s first cousin. My entire family was born and raised in the East end of New Rochelle. Just noticed yesterday that there is a new painting of Walter Lantz alongside Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee at the New Rochelle Train Station
Jerry, are you still looking for clearer photos? I can snap some the next time I’m in New Rochelle to see my parents.
Yes! That would be nice! Thank you!
Wow this is an abandoned thread. Grew up in New Rochelle-Rosevelt Elementary, ALJHS, NRHS. I was long in the tooth before I realized that kids in all the cities across the US did not turn on the tV to watch shows set in their towns depicting their dads commuting to work in the city by train. (and their mom doing the wife thing). When I was 14 I spent the summer with a bunch of kids from Nashville. When they asked where i came from, and I said New Rochelle, every one of them said, “DickVanDyke Show”. i was floored. Wait, didn’t they watch shows depicting their dads commuting to work in Nashville? Bob Smith’s brother ran a shoe store next to Big Top/Shopwell. I think Portia rode the same school bus (briefly). And I thought kids in every US city watched shows that depicted life in their own community. Nope