The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1951-07-26
In The
Background


That wonderful fooliShneSS, the
animated cartoon, is passing a
notable anniversary about nov.
Paul Terry, granddaddy of the
business, is working on his one
thousandth animated reel. That's
right: One thousand animated
cartoons. That is a lot Of BAN.
powie and sock even when you've
spread it over 80 years.
But Paul Terry and his crew
are going right on 10 number
l,00l The saturation point in the
public taste for mayhem Is not
yet. Terry turns out one Of these
animated cartoons every two
weeks--Varying the diet with a
stable Of characters: Mighty
Mouse, Hccklc and Jeckle the
Magpics, and so on.
Once in while, Terry says,
you've also got TO throw in a mus
ical reel to break up the monot-
ony Of head hastings and uproar.
a musical animated cartoon IS
maybe a new art form. Spring
blossoms on the screen with
Technicolor splash, and the wind
mills dance. You knoW--you'Vc
seen them.
Paul Terry loves musicals
because even though he knows
the comic value of custard pies,
he's a sentnnentaIist at heart. One
things for sure: nobody ever gets
seriously hurt in an animated
cartoon.
Hammers and buxE.saws
infliet no permanent damage.
And 1t is lovely world where
You can laugh al somebodY
else's misery without Temorse:
the ending is always happy.
This. of course, is the secret
of the success of animation.
Paul Terry now is SIS. and he
has made more movies than any
body else, anywhere. lie started
out in 1915. His career actually
began on the newspapers in San
Francisco, where he was born and
brought up. He began drawing
cartoon strips early in the cen
fury, and he was doing a strip for
the old New York Press when he
decided to try animation.
Terry made that first picture
hilnself--from beginning to end.
That meant drawing several hun
dred pictures, and pbotographing
each one. This is still the technique
Of animated cartoon production.
But these days it takes a battery
Of aninators and artists. and there
are several thousand pictures per
reel.
Terry's first one was called
Little Herman" and it showed a
magician doing tricks. Terry sold
il to a producer by assembling
an audience of kids for the tryout.
The kids were convulsed. The
producer didn't think little Her
man was very funny, but he heard
the kids laughing and he bought
il. The kids, and the rest of us,
have been laughing ever since.
Ferry's fame was built on his
series of cartoons based on Aesop's
fables He made AGO of these
despite the fact that the original
heSop told only 220 fables. AeSop
slbuld have lived longer. Terry
says.
Terry is now, after SO years. a
movie mogui complete with Cad
lilac but you'd never guess il TO
talk to him. For one thing. he's
never gone TO Hollywood. His big
olti.faShioned studio is still in
New Rochelle. a suburb of New
York in which many famous old
time movies were made. Terry
and his boys are alone there now,
and they like il. Trouble with
Hollywood" he says, is you lose
touch"
At 65, Terry is a little portly
and endlesSly genial. He still di-
rectly superviScs production. with
faiherly affection He talks and
and feels in terms of laughter and
people, and there is none of the
bFazen sickness of Hollywood on
broadway. A single vice president
keeps the books, and he is allowed
to- wear a bow tie.
These days, music makes ami
mated cartoons, They start with d
Story-then write the music and
make the picture fit the music
And here Tcrry'S key man is Phil
Scheib---a composer OF apparent
~ Indefinite resources He has
scored every Terry cartoon since
1929 eight minutes Of music ev-
cry two weeks.
The Terry -Scheib combination
is pretty fabulous success in the
entertainmknt busincss-or the
the arts, if you like, They even
eollabOratc for fun, Terry wrote
lyrics for a sentimental ballad
called, The Miracle" Phil set il
20 music.
Three years ago they went t.
great expense TO have il tape-rc-
corded by a big orchestra and a
metropolitan basso,
Why? Because they liked il,
They went TO the trouble of get
ing It published only recently
whatever they do IFS because they