January-March 1943 Paramount planned on bringing Famous Studios back to New York almost from the word go. All in all, the experiment down south was largely considered a failure. Paramount’s…
November-December 1942 The end of a rough year for Paramount’s animated cartoon studio. A year of change for them – and the whole world. Here’s the view from these long…
July-October 1942 We have a slight gap here, with no panels for the month of August. Maybe the change in the studio’s name, which finally took effect in the screen…
May-June 1942 In May 1942, behind the scenes in Miami, the animators and personnel at Fleischer plant were told that Seymour Kneitel, Isadore Sparber, Sam Buchwald and Dan Gordon now…
As in all American media at the time, Paramount pushed a sense of patriotic duty in 1942’s advertisements. Popeye was doing his part for the war effort; now exhibitors should…
November-December 1941 As America entered World War II, the Fleischer studio faced its own upheaval. By the end of December 1941, Dave Fleischer had left the studio, and Max was…
September-October 1941 We’re in the homestretch of the Fleischers’ reign now. There’s a fascinating history behind how Paramount got the deal to do the Superman cartoons (a series the Fleischers…
The hawking of Popeye’s Navy pictures is now in full-swing. At this point, the sales department gave up on putting a positive spin on the Fleischers’ original characters and concepts….
Despite the earlier reassurance he was too valuable to send to war, Popeye did indeed enter the service, donning a white Navy uniform and retaining it for the rest of…
March-April 1941 Not much to boast this week. The misfires were unfortunately becoming prevalent in the Popeye series. Flies Ain’t Human (released on April 4th) set a standard for appropriating…
