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The Southern Israelite Page 11 . . . Out Of The Inkwell The Man Who Created Cartoon Movies By MEYER F. STEINGLASS author of this article s you into the studio of \rmricas best-known air.mated - cartoon - ist. Max Fleischer, the ator of the internation ally famous animal car- )on movies. In this fascinating narrative Mr. Steinglass tells how the il’usion of motion and life is produced from two- dimensional drawings by the inventive and re sourceful mind of the master movie cartoonist of the world. In this in terview-sketch you are permitted to peep behind the screen of your favor ite shadowland entertain ment. —The Editor. world he has created is but a Irtd square inches in area, but within ramped limits Max Fleischer, dean of im; led-cartoonists,” has translated the tein theory into graphic form, por- d the story of evolution with suffi- accuracy to make the Fundamental ly i into a war dance and give life to • rica’s funniest animal comedies. It ' >t the usual thing for one whose -ss demands an intensive study of whits of rnimal life and their in ti n on the pattern of human be- in the more prosaic channels of d lve into the complex mazes of ah truse theory in physics. >me time ago, whm front page in the newspapers everywhere re- that thousands of New Yorkers ■t rnud the American Museum of 1 Hitory to witness a film pre- n of the Einstein relativity theory, her chuckled. The film had- hit its On the same small field he used lepicting the humble exploits of ’ the cat he had succeeded in syn- hng an intelligible picture of the t themes of the world-famous matical formula. That rare com- 111 of almost antithetical interests, accounts for the six patents Mr. -cher holds, is responsible for the 'Pment of the animated-cartoon in- ry. ,e principle of the “living” cartoon, which Fleischer perfected while art ed't >r of the Popular Science Monthly more than ten years ago, is identical with the general theory of motion pic‘u"es, i.e., stills of various positions of a moving body which when run off in quick succes sion reproduce the original action. That 's all very well for bodies that have the property of mobility. But what of a lifeless pen-and-ink sketch of a clown or a cat ? How are they to be made to walk, and act, and talk like human beings? Mr. Fleischer has looked into that funda mental problem with the k -en eye of the scientist, and has emerged with a process now in universal use. He reduced the art of creating the illusion of life from the inert, two- dimensional drawings of hulls, bears, cats, dogs and the more common inhabitants of the zoo to the stereotyped ways of an industry. A highly fascinating industry. In addition to the novel intricacies of its methods of procedure, of which even the most humdrum production system abounds, the manufacture of animated cartoons in the Fleischer Studio requires the collaboration of about a hundred per sons. That in itself is no startling inno vation, mass production methods have made it a commonplace fact for thousands of men and women to co-operate oil one product. But when a hundred young men and young women must work one week to produce a seven-minute motion-picture record of a simple animal story the scenes behind the scenes must be of some extra ordinary interest. Although the idea of drawing the inter mediate positions of a limb in action was the groundwork for early animated cartoons, the raw technique of artists pro duced at best a wooden, jerky photo graphic record of the drawings. To over come this serious defect Fleischer con ceived the idea of using motion photo graphs of humans as models, with the result that animated cartoons suddenly attained a flexibility and spontaneity exceeding the most optimistic expecta tions. S > far, indeed, has this art progressed that its smooth, faultless workings have condemned it to be taken for granted with no more ado than in the case of (ircta (iarbo’s undulatory movements. Such if a too profound philosophical aside be permitted me—is the fate of all perfectly executed devices. Yet n >th;ng has been quite so enthralling an experi ence as tb • visit I made to Mr Fleischer’s studio, the largest cartoon studio in the world, several days ago. From the conversation I had with Mr. Fleischer, a genial man of 43, 1 learned the general facts about his cartoon factory. His studio was equipped to put out fifty-two “talkart'Mms” a year at a production cost of $1,750,000, in addition to song cartoons featuring the now uni versally known “bouncing ball." 1 hese pictures are exhibited in five thousand theatres in the United States and any number of motion picture houses from the Hebrides to Ceylon. Of the making of "animated cartoons" there is no end. No less than 16,000 and often 20,(KM) individual drawings are needed for a full length animated cartoon comedy. ()ne scene, which was being photographed as I looked on, required thirty camera photos for two uncanny- looking birds to drink one ordinary choco late soda. All of which, when projected on the screen, would not cover any more than about two seconds of action. Max Fleischer The production of a cartoon comic is of necessity a job for mass industrial methods, for the combined efforts of eighty artists are required to complete one film a week. Of these thirty-five are in effect authors, directors, dialogue writers and costumers rolled into one. Here no one personality can be said to be reflected in the noble adventures of Bimbo the cat or Bimhiua, the fragile heroine whom the villian treats in chiro practic fashion. Somewhere on the floor Dave Fleischer, brother of Max and director in charge of production, is disturbed by the intru sion of an idea. He summons the staff, outlines his plot. Some of the staff make suggestions for changes or addi tions, omissions. Then an oral scenario is sketched, scenes are doled out. Jones will have the opening scene, Cohen the scene following, ami so on What will transpire in the part of the story as signed t > them is hazy. The “chief ani mator" must supply the action. Wherein imagination enters as the principal asset to the draughtsman, imagination not arbi trarily chained by the laws of physics ami biology. The more his fancy defies the limitations of reality, the more "gags” or impossible forms animate and inanimate life assumes, the more diverting will the artist’s w »rk be. I f, let us say, a cloud suddenly spr ruts wings or in gray weather is transmogrified into a sprayer the artist wh > conceived the idea will be dubbed "clever." Seriously contemplated, such phenomena or "gags” are, in truth, manifestations of poetry. They are meta phorical conceptions of nature ami animal life. They rival the verse of Arthur (Continued on page 23)