Ralph Bakshi on Deitch and Terrytoons

[cbrubaker]

Some of you might find this interesting.

Ralph Bakshi talks about his first job in animation over at Terrytoons, and Gene Deitch in particular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adkxRyDOgDI

[Studio Toledo]

Some of you might find this interesting.

Ralph Bakshi talks about his first job in animation over at Terrytoons, and Gene Deitch in particular.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adkxRyDOgDI
Shame it appears to cut off after 4 minutes worth, love to hear more!

[cbrubaker]

In 2005, on Ralph Bakshi's forum, I asked if he remembered Gene from his Terrytoons days.

Two years later, he finally answered the question, saying:

Very well. In fact we've been emailing recently. He lives in the Czech Republic nowadays. He moved away from the country in the 60's. He's been animating overseas, I think in Czech. When I had my first job, Gene had taken over Terrytoons as creative director.

Gene set in motion all the modern new character designers at Terrytoons. Jules [Feiffer] and Ernie Pintoff were brought in. They were from a very big studio in the 50's, UPA (Mr. Magoo). Gene came out of that studio.

He was trying to change Terrytoons into a modern design studio like UPA.

He and the older guys (Bill [Weiss], etc) got into a fight. They resented Gene. And there's Ralph, opaquing cells while a huge battle is going on. I had many conversations with Dietch. He had me freelancing for him.

He was very sincere with what he wanted to do. It was all very modern and no one at Terrytoons wanted to do that so they fired him. CBS that had bought Terrytoons had hired him. The older guys felt that the studio didn't care about them. I think it was wrongful resentment. I love the older guys but I don't think they were right about Gene.

He went to New York and opened up his own commercial studio. Then to Europe to make films. And he's been there ever since. He did some wonderful things.

He's got to be 80 years old or better. I'm shocked that he's still working. We just talk about the good old days. He remembers me quite clearly. Lots of nostalgia between two old men. (pauses as if in deep thought)

[Studio Toledo]

In 2005, on Ralph Bakshi's forum, I asked if he remembered Gene from his Terrytoons days.

Two years later, he finally answered the question, saying:
That's cool!

[cbrubaker]

Here's the whole podcast.

http://www.ralphbakshi.com/blog/archives/000126.html

There are various Terrytoons pics in it.

(I'll probably upload a James Hound short sometime this month. Look out for it)

[Studio Toledo]

Here's the whole podcast.

http://www.ralphbakshi.com/blog/archives/000126.html

There are various Terrytoons pics in it.

(I'll probably upload a James Hound short sometime this month. Look out for it)
Oh good!

[frizfrelengfan]

Bill Weiss, who ran Terrytoons for CBS, didn't know what he was doing when he fired Gene Deitch. Deitch was trying to do something different. But, CBS bought out Paul Terry because they wanted "children's programming," not because they wanted something different.

I can think of a couple of other instances where CBS mismanaged companies that they bought:



The Ideal Toy Company (creators of the American Teddy bear, many dolls, and ingenious board games such as Mouse Trap): CBS bought it in the 1970s from the founding Michtom family and all but dismantled it.
The New York Yankees: CBS bought them from the Topping and Webb families in the 1960s and they became one of the worst teams in baseball, improving only when George Steinbrenner bought the team.

Edit: I posted the above before I listened to the podcast. Maybe I should have listened to the podcast first. It was interesting to hear about the friction between the "old" Terrytoons artists and the "new" ones that Deitch brought in. Maybe the friction contributed to Deitch's firing (although in Deitch's autobiography he claims that Weiss hated him).

[Studio Toledo]

Bill Weiss, who ran Terrytoons for CBS, didn't know what he was doing when he fired Gene Deitch. Deitch was trying to do something different. But, CBS bought out Paul Terry because they wanted "children's programming," not because they wanted something different.

It's a case of wanting to go one way, but being told to go the other. You can't have it both ways that easily.

I can think of a couple of other instances where CBS mismanaged companies that they bought:



The Ideal Toy Company (creators of the American Teddy bear, the Chatty Cathy doll, and ingenious board games such as Mouse Trap): CBS bought it in the 1970s from the founding Michtom family and all but dismantled it.
The New York Yankees: CBS bought them from the Topping and Webb families in the 1960s and they became one of the worst teams in baseball, improving only when George Steinbrenner bought the team.

Shame what they did to Ideal.

Edit: I posted the above before I listened to the podcast. Maybe I should have listened to the podcast first. It was interesting to hear about the friction between the "old" Terrytoons artists and the "new" ones that Deitch brought in. Maybe the friction contributed to Deitch's firing (although in Deitch's autobiography he claims that Weiss hated him).
I guess we'll never know for sure. Either way, it was the most interesting point in the studio's history, and rather a very brief one at that.

[Ray Pointer]

I can think of a couple of other instances where CBS mismanaged companies that they bought:The Ideal Toy Company (creators of the American Teddy bear, many dolls, and ingenious board games such as Mouse Trap): CBS bought it in the 1970s from the founding Michtom family and all but dismantled it.

The New York Yankees: CBS bought them from the Topping and Webb families in the 1960s and they became one of the worst teams in baseball, improving only when George Steinbrenner bought the team.

Other CBS holdings seemed to do well in the 1960s. This included Columbia Records, and the publishing company, Random House, which owns the rights to the Dr. Seuss books, which explains why the various Suess specials ran on CBS. They owned them. CBS also had investments in Broadway shows. MY FAIR LADY was one of them. Given its success, the law of averages seemed to be in their favor with these examples. But we also need to take into consideration who the management was at the time and not blame the company itself for its failings.

[cbrubaker]

Die-hard Terrytoons might find this interesting. An article from Boxoffice boasting the 12 new cartoons that was being released in 1967.

[Studio Toledo]

[/list]
Other CBS holdings seemed to do well in the 1960s. This included Columbia Records,
I never know whether to call it Columbia Records or CBS Records given the distinction (course after the 80's it wouldn't matter once Sony got it's mitts on it).

and the publishing company, Random House, which owns the rights to the Dr. Seuss books, which explains why the various Suess specials ran on CBS. They owned them.
Yep, that's how I saw 'em!

CBS also had investments in Broadway shows. MY FAIR LADY was one of them. Given its success, the law of averages seemed to be in their favor with these examples. But we also need to take into consideration who the management was at the time and not blame the company itself for its failings.
True.