The Van Beuren Corporation was a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

studio that produced theatrical cartoons as well as live-action short-subjects from the 1920s to 1936.

History

In 1920, the Keith-Albee organization formed Fables Pictures for the production of the

Aesop's Film Fables ''Aesop's Fables'' (later renamed ''Aesop's Sound Fables'') is a series of animated short subjects, created by American cartoonist Paul Terry. Produced from 1921 to 1933, the series includes '' Closer than a Brother'' (1925), '' The Window Was ...

cartoon series with Paul Terry, who himself owned 10 percent of the studio. Producer Amedee J. Van Beuren bought out the studio in 1928, retaining Terry and renaming the business after its new owner. Van Beuren released Terry's first sound cartoon '' Dinner Time'' (1928) (a month before Disney's '' Steamboat Willie'') through

Pathé Exchange Pathé Exchange, commonly known as Pathé, was an American film production and distribution company, largely of Hollywood's silent era. Known for its groundbreaking newsreel and wide array of shorts, it grew out of the American division of the m ...

, which later became part of

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

. Terry ran the animation studio while Van Beuren focused on other parts of the business. In 1929, Terry quit to start his own

Terrytoons Terrytoons was an American animation studio in New Rochelle, New York, that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1929 to 1973 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in name only). Terrytoons was founded by P ...

studio and John Foster took over the animation department. Van Beuren released his films through

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

. The early sound Van Beuren cartoons are almost identical to the late silent cartoons: highly visual, with little dialogue and occasional sound effects. Bandleaders

Gene Rodemich Eugene Frederick Rodemich (April 13, 1890 in St Louis, Missouri – February 27, 1934 in New York) was a pianist and orchestra leader, who composed the music for numerous films in the late 1920s and early 1930s, mostly cartoons and live-action sho ...

and

Winston Sharples Winston Singleton Sharples (March 1, 1909 – April 3, 1978) was an American composer known for his work with animated short subjects, especially those created by the animation department at Paramount Pictures. In his 35-year career, Sharples s ...

supervised the music. The company's main cartoon characters were " Tom and Jerry", a tall-and-short pair, usually vagrants who attempted various occupations. They share no relation to

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

's more successful Tom and Jerry, a cat and mouse, and the older series has been renamed "Van Beuren's Tom and Jerry" and "Dick and Larry" in various future incarnations. Van Beuren was keenly aware that successful cartoons often featured animated "stars," and urged his staff to come up with new ideas for characters. Cubby, a mischievous little bear, resulted. In 1932, Van Beuren planned to release a series of wild-animal shorts featuring celebrity explorer Frank Buck. RKO executives were so impressed by these Van Beuren shorts that they decided to combine them into a feature film, '' Bring 'Em Back Alive''. This was a very successful business move, but it left both Van Beuren and RKO with a void in their short-subject schedule. Van Beuren, forced to act quickly, found an existing series of two-reel comedies:

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is conside ...

's 12 productions for the Mutual film company, produced in 1916-17. Van Beuren paid $10,000 each for the shorts, and assigned his animation department to create new music and sound effects for the silent films. Bandleader

and Rodemich's assistant and successor

assembled new scores. RKO released the Van Beuren Chaplins in 1933-34. Chaplin did not own these films; author Michael J. Hayde discloses that Chaplin had declined several opportunities to purchase them. The Van Beuren Corporation acquired and produced live-action features such as ''

Adventure Girl ''Adventure Girl'' is a 1934 American adventure documentary directed by Herman C. Raymaker, based on dialogue written by Ferrin Frazier, starring and narrated by Joan Lowell. The screenplay is based on the autobiography of Lowell, ''The Cradl ...

'' (1934) and two more Frank Buck safaris, ''Wild Cargo'' (1934) and ''Frank Buck's Fang and Claw'' (1935). Other Van Beuren live-action productions included a "Van Beuren Vagabond" travelogue series, a series of novelty shorts narrated by the radio comedy team

Easy Aces ''Easy Aces'' is an American serial radio comedy (1930–1945). It was trademarked by the low-keyed drollery of creator and writer Goodman Ace and his wife, Jane, as an urbane, put-upon realtor and his malaprop-prone wife. A 15-minute program, ...

(

Goodman Ace Goodman Ace (January 15, 1899 – March 25, 1982), born Goodman Aiskowitz, was an American humorist, radio writer and comedian, television writer, and magazine columnist. His low-key, literate drollery and softly tart way of tweaking trends ...

and Jane Ace) and musical comedy shorts featuring Bert Lahr,

Shemp Howard Samuel Horwitz (March 11, 1895 – November 22, 1955), known professionally as Shemp Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He was called "Shemp" because "Sam" came out that way in his mother's thick Litvak accent. He is best known as the ...

, among others. Van Beuren remained unsatisfied, and agreed to license the popular comic-strip character ''

The Little King ''The Little King'' is a 1930-1975 American gag-a-day comic strip created by Otto Soglow, telling its stories in a style using images and very few words, as in pantomime. Publication history Soglow's character first appeared on June 7, 1930, in ...

'' and the radio comedy act, Amos 'n' Andy to adapt into animated cartoons. Neither series was successful. Van Beuren then hired

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film pr ...

director

Burt Gillett Burton F. Gillett (October 15, 1891 – December 28, 1971) was a director of animated films. He is noted for his Silly Symphonies work for Disney, particularly the 1932 short film '' Flowers and Trees'' and the 1933 short film ''Three Little Pig ...

and animator Tom Palmer to create a new series of color cartoons. These "Rainbow Parade" cartoons featured established characters:

Felix the Cat Felix the Cat is a cartoon character created in 1919 by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer during the silent film era. An anthropomorphic black cat with white eyes, a black body, and a giant grin, he was one of the most recognized cartoon charact ...

, Parrotville Parrots, Molly Moo-Cow, and the Toonerville Trolley gang.

Closure

These full-color Van Beuren efforts were well received, and Van Beuren had finally succeeded in sponsoring a popular cartoon series. However, RKO entered into a deal to distribute new color cartoons produced by industry leader

. RKO, no longer needing Van Beuren's cartoons, abandoned the Rainbow Parade shorts. Amadee J. Van Beuren fell ill during this time. In July 1938 he had a stroke that would eventually lead to his death on November 12, 1938 by heart attack. During his recovery from his stroke, Van Beuren closed his studio rather than accept unionization that had caused the studio problems in 1935.pp. 116–117 Black, James Eric ''Walt Kelly and Pogo: The Art of the Political Swamp'' McFarland, 30 Dec 2015 The Van Beuren library was sold to various television, reissue, and home-movie distributors in the 1940s and 1950s, including Unity Pictures, Walter Gutlohn/Library Films, Commonwealth Pictures, and

Official Films Official Films, Incorporated (Inc.) was founded by Leslie Winik in 1939 to produce educational shorts. Soon, after buying some negatives of public-domain Keystone Chaplin films, the company found itself in the 16mm/8mm home movie business. It obta ...

. The library eventually lapsed into the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

Productions

Animation: *

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with his name have descended t ...

Cubby Bear The Cubby Bear is a sports bar, eatery, and music venue in Chicago, Illinois. The Cubby Bear is located at Addison and Clark Streets across from Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. It was established in 1953 and is formally known as the ...

* Amos 'n' Andy *

* Rainbow Parade (color series) *

* Molly Moo-Cow * Burt Gillett's Toddle Tales * Tom and Jerry * Toonerville Trolley * Parrotville Live-action: * James the Cat * '' Stung'' (1931) * '' Bring 'Em Back Alive'' (1932) * ''

'' (1934) * '' Wild Cargo'' (1934) * '' Fang and Claw'' (1935)

References

External links

Full list of Van Beuren cartoons
from the Big Cartoon Database

Swiss Trick on Archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Beuren Corporation, The American animation studios Mass media companies established in 1921 Mass media companies disestablished in 1936 American companies established in 1921 1921 establishments in New York City 1936 disestablishments in New York (state) American companies disestablished in 1936