Best and Worst Cartoon Businesspeople

[frizfrelengfan]

I thought it would be interesting to name the best and worst businesspeople in classic cartoons regardless of the quality of their cartoons. Here is what I came up with.

Best:

Walt Disney - He built an empire up from a mouse.
Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising - Their cartoons are derivative of Disney, but they started three cartoon series (Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies, Happy Harmonies) for two studios (WB and MGM).
Walter Lantz - He ran a theatrical cartoon studio for 45 years, and he was successful showing them on television too.
Paul Terry - He produced cartoons like McDonald's produces burgers, and when he saw TV looming on the horizon, he sold out lock, stock and barrel to CBS and retired a millionaire.
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera - They parlayed Tom and Jerry into the most successful television animation house in history, making mediocre cartoons using cut-rate techniques.

Worst:

Max and Dave Fleischer - Great innovators and animators, but they allowed their studio to self-destruct in the early '40s.
Ub Iwerks - Made good cartoons, but couldn't be successful (despite borrowed help) unless he worked for Disney (and was very successful there).
Charles Mintz - He fired Disney. What else can you say?
Pat Sullivan - Went out of business when he refused to make sound cartoons.

[Geezil]

On which side of the fence would this discussion leave Amadee J. Van Beuren? It's hard to say.

But there is one other thing of which I'm certain in this case:



Paul Terry - He produced cartoons like McDonald's produces burgers[...]
If forced to test that comparison under duress, I'd much rather watch a batch of Terrytoons (yes, even a Luno or two) than bite into a Mickey D's pumice-flavored hockey puck [LEGAL DISCLAIMER: The preceding opinion does not necessarily reflect that of any GAC administrator, moderator, or any other participating member apart from the author of this post] any day.

[BloodyChamp]

Lantz made a pile of good cartoons, but did he do well finacially? I always thought not because he had to close at one point and ran it into the ground at the end.

[Tom Stathes]

You all knew I was going to bring him up, or did you?
John Randolph Bray- the Ford of animated cartoons. Although he was THE major studio in the 10s/20s or close to it, his animation sect failed by '28 or thereabouts. The man went on to pursue educationals and other business venues and judging from a mid-70s interview I read, the 'winter' of his life was modest but happy.
What do you say?
-Tom

[Ray Pointer]

Lantz made a pile of good cartoons, but did he do well finacially? I always thought not because he had to close at one point and ran it into the ground at the end.

The reason Lantz closed shop was that there simply was no market for cartoon shorts any longer, and it took ten years to recoup the expenses.
The other reason is that his product in the late years was not terribly good, as we have discussed in past threads. He was a lone survivor, however, continuing to produce theatrical cartoons on a continuing basis longer than anyone. In all, he had been in the business non-stop for 60 years.

Lantz ended up well off to the extent that he was a major donor to The Stein Eye Clinic at UCLA--one of the foremost Eye Clinics in the world. In 1996, I was seen there for a detached retina, and my operation was under the careful supervision of a surgeon from the Stein Clinic. The success of my operation has a double meaning since it was through "watching" Walter Lants on the WOODY WOODPECKER SHOW then seen Thursday afternoons on ABC, that I learned how animated cartoons were made. I was able to use what I learned in making my first cartoons at age 11. The other side of the issue is that this man who taught me about cartoon production was a major contributor to the eye clinic that saved my left eye. In this way, I am doubly grateful to Walter Lantz, and he definately was a successs in many ways.

[Mr. Semaj]

Seymour Kneitel/Isadore Sparber/Sam Buchwald - All succeeded Max & Dave Flesicher when their studio crumbled in 1942. They had a tendency to remake a lot of Fleischer stories into color, and while most of their cartoons were okay, they all followed a fixed formula, which showed no sense of innovation or ambition. Plus, they all died during the studio's lifespan, and their successors, Howard Post, Shamus Culhane, and Ralph Bakshi, only kept the studio alive for another three years, before it finally closed in 1967.

Leon Schlesinger/Eddie Selzer/John Burton/David DePatie - Nurtured nearly all of the talent of Termite Terrace, from the creation of Porky Pig in 1935, all the way to final miscellany produced in 1964.

As for Walter Lantz, I don't think he had a definitive creative style, but he sure seemed to know a lot about talent. I always view his cartoons as having an assortment of people from Disney, Warner Bros. and MGM. Heck, there was even a time when I confused a Jack Hannah cartoon with one of his from Disney. :o

BTW, did Lantz ever fully regain his money from his later shorts?

[Debbie]

When I saw the title "Best and Worst Cartoon Businesspeople", I immediately thought of Scrooge Mc Duck (if you consider a duck a person, that is) until I read the thread...:shame:

[Studio Toledo]

The reason Lantz closed shop was that there simply was no market for cartoon shorts any longer, and it took ten years to recoup the expenses.
The other reason is that his product in the late years was not terribly good, as we have discussed in past threads. He was a lone survivor, however, continuing to produce theatrical cartoons on a continuing basis longer than anyone. In all, he had been in the business non-stop for 60 years.

Lantz ended up well off to the extent that he was a major donor to The Stein Eye Clinic at UCLA--one of the foremost Eye Clinics in the world. In 1996, I was seen there for a detached retina, and my operation was under the careful supervision of a surgeon from the Stein Clinic. The success of my operation has a double meaning since it was through "watching" Walter Lants on the WOODY WOODPECKER SHOW then seen Thursday afternoons on ABC, that I learned how animated cartoons were made. I was able to use what I learned in making my first cartoons at age 11. The other side of the issue is that this man who taught me about cartoon production was a major contributor to the eye clinic that saved my left eye. In this way, I am doubly grateful to Walter Lantz, and he definately was a successs in many ways.
Your story sure touches me! I only hope I'll have one like that someday. :)

[J. J. Hunsecker]

I say the best is Leon Schlesinger because he left the talent alone to creat the cartoons as they saw fit. He definitely wasn't a meddler. That's a rarity in the film business. On the down side he was tight-fisted with the money.


Walt Disney was also one of the greatest producers in the business. He would be considered a bad businessman today because he was more concerned with creating a quality product, whcich cost more money to make. He spent money to train his artist, gave them freedom to experiment, andpushed them to do better work. The only negative side to this was that Walt did not give creative control to his directors the way Leon Schlesinger did. All that talent served Walt's vision, and sometimes his vision of what a good cartoon was could be rather conservative and corny.

The rest fall somewhere in the middle.

I think Charles Mintz and Paul Terry were two of the worst. Mintz was one of those bullying types of producers who try to intimidate the artists in the name of the bottom line. Terry admitted he produced sh--, but it made him money. His schedules and budgets were tight, the cartoons relied upon repitition and stole jokes from other, better cartoon studios. He was successful, but I don't think that is the only criteria for being a good producer.

[That 70s Mom]

When I saw the title "Best and Worst Cartoon Businesspeople", I immediately thought of Scrooge Mc Duck (if you consider a duck a person, that is) until I read the thread...:shame:

The first one I thought of for "worst" was the guy in One Froggy Evening!

[Debbie]

The first one I thought of for "worst" was the guy in One Froggy Evening!

At least I'm not the only one who thought this was going to be about characters as opposed to actual people...and while he's kind of out of the golden age of cartoons, Mr. Spacely from the Jetsons is one I thought of for worst...(And he beat Donald Trump to the catchphrase "You're fired!!!")

[JDWeil]

Among the best:

Leon Schlesinger: Even though he wasn't an artist, he knew how to run a studio, knew what his audiences liked, and could deliver a quality product.
Walter Lantz: Lantz was a survivor, and he how to play in Hollywood politics. Few people have lasted as long as he did in this business.
Paul Terry: Terry's experience goes back even farther than Lantz's and he knew when to get out.
Walt Disney: Uncle Walt doesn't need any explanations. Of course, he got a lot of from brother Roy Disney.
J. R. Bray: Even though the Bray studios left the theatrical field in 1927, it managed to survive well into the '90's as a industrial film supplier. As for J.R. himself, he managed to survive to age 99 outlived all his critics, and his studio still functioning.


Among the worst:

Fred Quimby: Quimby nearly ran the MGM animation department into the ground during its first years, and spent the remainder in the background. According to published reports, he had absolutely no sense of humor. Makes you wonder how he could run a cartoon factory.
Ub Iwerks: Iwerks was certainly no administrator, he finally found his niche in special effects, but that was after his studio closed.
Stephen Bosustow: It was said of Bosustow, of every ten ideas that he got, nine of them nine of them ruined UPA and the tenth saved it.
and the winner is...
Those Columbia execs who sabotaged Screen Gems (Charlie Mintz included): Despite all the talent that was brought in to improve things, they still couldn't save it. That's why it was so forgotten.


Honorable mention to :
Amadee J. Van Beuren: The Van Beuren Corp. was forced to close because they had lost their distributor, RKO to Walt Disney. That, coupled with Van's health problems was the reason that the studio had a short life span.
Ralph Bakshi: Even though Bakshi has the onus of having two cartoon studios shot out from under him (Paramount, Terrytoons) the reasons for it cannot be laid to him. Those were the decisions from the higher-ups.
Pat Sullivan: Sullivan had the first international cartoon star from his studio(Felix the Cat) and made that feline into a cash cow. His statement about sound may have been a misstep but he wasn't the only one to make it. Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg of MGM also felt the same way. MGM converted to sound only on the orders of Nick Schenck and was the last major studio to do so.

[frizfrelengfan]

I don't know how I came to omit Schlesinger, but he must be listed among the best.

And I don't know where I'd put Kneitel/Sparber/Buchwald. I understand that their cartoons were successful financially, and remember that I said regardless of the quality of the cartoons, so I guess this would put them on the "good businessmen" list.

[frizfrelengfan]

The first one I thought of for "worst" was the guy in One Froggy Evening!
Sometimes free beer works. ;)

[Mr. Semaj]

I think Walt Disney should also be credited for establishing CalArts Institute, the art school where many of today's contemporary artists emerged from.

[Bugsmer]

Your story sure touches me! I only hope I'll have one like that someday. :)

Why would anyone want a detached retina?:p

[absolutpaul]

By most accounts Jay Ward was a good businessman. He got a pretty raw deal on the Rocky Show when it was made, and a lot of his ideas were too offbeat to be successful, but he ran his own independant studio for many years, became a wealthy man and produced a still-profitable library of cartoons.

[rodney]

The reason Lantz closed shop was that there simply was no market for cartoon shorts any longer, and it took ten years to recoup the expenses.


What about when he was forced to close his studio for a year, leaving no cartoons for the 1949 season? Lantz was literally the first person I thought of when I saw the subject of poor cartoon businessmen. Not only because the studio shut down for that year, but because of the constant revolving door of talent that he let slip through his hands. Maltese, Avery, Hannah, Davis and Marcus just to name a few left as quickly as they came due to budgets smaller than other studios and a general lack of innovation.

One need only look at the mid-60's shorts directed by Marcus to see that even with a drastically reduced market for theatrical shorts and tiny budgets (often said to be barely more than TV), that funny cartoons could still be made. It's only in the post-1966 shorts that we really see the material that's given Lantz his lousy reputation.

[Thad]

I'd love to why Lantz had to close shop in 1948/49. Wouldn't you think the popularity of "The Woody Woodpecker Song" that year would have given Lantz a big cash flow?

[doctoon]

At Terrytoons, Bill Weiss also deserves kudos. When he took over for Terry, he kept the studio facility running until 1968. Weiss guided the studio through phases that killed other animation shops--CinemaScope, Gene Deitch's unpopular characters (except Sidney), switching from Technicolor to DeLuxe, massive television output, staff turnover (deaths of Rasinski, Kuwahara, Bartsch; Bakshi's arrival and departure).

During this time the studio still made characters that clicked, unlike Paramount, who had just as much turmoil but couldn't develop a popular new character.

[Studio Toledo]

Why would anyone want a detached retina?:p
Yeah, that's something not to have.

[JDWeil]

I'd love to why Lantz had to close shop in 1948/49. Wouldn't you think the popularity of "The Woody Woodpecker Song" that year would have given Lantz a big cash flow?


In 1947 Lantz went to Universal in order to renew his contract. Universal had been going through one of its periodic ownership changes around that time, and Lantz discovered that not only did U-I (Universal-International) want to renew its contract but that they also wanted the ownership rights to all of Lantz's characters. Well, Lantz picked up his brushes, walked out and signed with United Artists. Well, on paper, the deal that Lantz had with UA was even better that the one he had with Universa. Not only did he have the same terms, but he even got his films back after their theatrical run. But there was a down side to all this. The UA that Lantz dealt with was not the UA the the other Walt had dealt with back in the '30's. United Artists in the '40's was a studio in the doldrums. They hadn't had a hit film in years. The only name producer on their roster was Lantz and he didn't make features. So what happened is that UA cooked the books to boost their features at Lantz's expense.which meant that the money wsn't coming in at the rate that Lantz had expected. So Walter went back to the banks to get extentions on his loans. But the bankers told him, "You've got three films out in the theatres now, so shut down, wait till you get some money back from them, and then we'll talk. And that's what Lantz did. He phased out production slowly so that the last film being made (Drooler's Delight) was in the can then he closed down and remained shuttered for the next 18 months.