Ted Eshbaughs the Wizard of Oz in its original Beauty :)

[J. A. Boschen]

I finally picked up the 3-disc DVD set of the Wizard of Oz, and saddly the print that I was hoping to be on the DVD of the 1933 cartoon is not on there. So I feel obligated here to share these images

How I came accross these images is just by chance, and in a depressing way. My Grandmaother use to video tape a lot of old movies and documentaries. When she died (which was saddly last Easter ) I inherited a lot of these old 80's recordings. One of the programs that she recorded was a program entitled "Showbiz Goes to War" (probably made in early 80's). I being a fan of the World War II films decided to watch this. I was enjoyoing this program until they showed some clips of Judy Garland singing to GI's. To accompany her singing over the WIndow, the program suddenly showed these beautiful images of Ted Eshbaugh's Wizard of Oz cartoon to accompany Judy's singing. Here are some images of the scenes from the film that they showed. Enjoy.

[Studio Toledo]

Originally Posted by J. A. Boschen

I finally picked up the 3-disc DVD set of the Wizard of Oz, and saddly the print that I was hoping to be on the DVD of the 1933 cartoon is not on there. So I feel obligated here to share these images

How I came accross these images is just by chance, and in a depressing way. My Grandmaother use to video tape a lot of old movies and documentaries. When she died (which was saddly last Easter ) I inherited a lot of these old 80's recordings. One of the programs that she recorded was a program entitled "Showbiz Goes to War" (probably made in early 80's). I being a fan of the World War II films decided to watch this. I was enjoyoing this program until they showed some clips of Judy Garland singing to GI's. To accompany her singing over the WIndow, the program suddenly showed these beautiful images of Ted Eshbaugh's Wizard of Oz cartoon to accompany Judy's singing. Here are some images of the scenes from the film that they showed. Enjoy.

Almost makes you wonder where did these guys found their copy? Wished it was in my private collection and I just didn't know it!

[Ray Pointer]

I've heard that it was in some private collections. It also may be among the assets of Turner/Time-Warner since it owns the film rights. A similar thing happened over PETER PAN. When Disney acquired the film rights, they acquired the 1924 Paramount silent film starring Betty Bronson. Regarding the animated WIZARD OF OZ by Ted Eshbaugh, there was a public release at the time that announced it as a series, but this never materialized since the film rights were then in the hands of Sam Goldwyn, and they later passed on to MGM in 1938.

[JDWeil]

I tried the thumbnails. The thumbnails still are thumbnails in the enlargement

[J. A. Boschen]

Originally Posted by JDWeil

I tried the thumbnails. The thumbnails still are thumbnails in the enlargement

no, those are not thumbnails, they are the actual picture. What I did to fit more pictures on was arrange four pictures together in Power Point on 4 individual slides, and then saved each indivudual slide as a JPEG. This was so I could filt more pictures in one post instead of say four posts, since these posts have a size limit to the pictures you can put in. Sorry for incoveniance

[Jeff]

Nice. The style reminds me of some of those early Merrie Melodies one-shots. Dorothy reminds me of the girl in "Beauty And The Beast" (1934)

[Studio Toledo]

Originally Posted by Ray Pointer

I've heard that it was in some private collections. It also may be among the assets of Turner/Time-Warner since it owns the film rights. A similar thing happened over PETER PAN. When Disney acquired the film rights, they acquired the 1924 Paramount silent film starring Betty Bronson. Regarding the animated WIZARD OF OZ by Ted Eshbaugh, there was a public release at the time that announced it as a series, but this never materialized since the film rights were then in the hands of Sam Goldwyn, and they later passed on to MGM in 1938.

Thanks for the info and pics Ray! Would've been neat to have it as a series!

(not counting the TV shows that followed)

[Sogturtle]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Nice. The style reminds me of some of those early Merrie Melodies one-shots. Dorothy reminds me of the girl in "Beauty And The Beast" (1934)

Originally Posted by Studio Toledo

Would've been neat to have it as a series!

Jeff and Studio Toledo~

There's some good reasons why the style is like that of the earliest Schlesinger Merrie Melodies... Namely that some of Eshbaugh's animators ended up immediately seeking employment at Leon's... And you ask "WHY did they do that"??? Essentially because of the very failure of the planned series of MUSICAL and color Oz cartoons!

It wasn't till a couple (or so) years ago that I came to completely reject the universally accepted tale about Ted Eshbaugh's studio being New York based and this and his other few other early-Thirties toons being made on the East Coast [both Mr. Beck and Steve Stanchfield responded that they felt this was indeed possible... Subsequently, I even located a studio address for Ted in L.A. ]. But anyway, in that early-Thirties period, Eshbaugh had been scraping by in a fashion that John Hubley would later emulate... Spend a whole year making "for hire" projects, and then concentrate money and resources on making a single lone cartoon every year or so. In Eshbaugh's case he made a whole series of paper film-strips for children's projectors (no they were in no sense movies, but drawn filmstrips). Fascinatingly, he actually had his work on these billed as "Directed by Ted Eshbaugh Studios"... As such this would make him the only WEST COAST DIRECTOR to "direct" Popeye and Betty Boop during the Golden Age
And YES! As indicated above Eshbaugh's studio was indeed in Los Angeles so it was only a hop, skip and jump for his animators to bounce over to Schlesingers. When the Oz project collapsed Ted was easily tempted by Bert Gillette to come to New York and direct at Van Beuren...After exiting the madhouse that was the Gillette-run Van Beuren, he set up his independent studio again, but this time in New York, where he focused pretty much exclusively on for hire projects.

[JERRY BECK]

Originally Posted by Sogturtle

a couple (or so) years ago that I came to completely reject the universally accepted tale about Ted Eshbaugh's studio being New York based and this and his other few other early-Thirties toons being made on the East Coast [both Mr. Beck and Steve Stanchfield responded that they felt this was indeed possible... Subsequently, I even located a studio address for Ted in L.A.

I know that Pete Burness worked on several Van Beuren cartoons (GRANDFATHER'S CLOCK, PASTRYTOWN WEDDING, PARROTVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT) after his time at Ub Iwerks and before his steady job at Harman-Ising (for MGM). I do not think Pete went to New York to do this work - thus, there's strong evidence that he acquired this work through Eshbaugh in Los Angeles.

[Ray Pointer]

Adding to the west coast theory is the fact that Carl Stalling wrote the score for the Eshbaugh WIZARD OF OZ. On another note, notice that the lion is absent. And while there are some nice things in the cartoon, it is surprisingly crude in some ways for west coast standards of that time. It is especially surprising and disappointing that there is no dialog "to speak of," and the story as an adaptation is rather weak.