I've been looking at some early Terrytoons (1930-32) and I'm wondering if anyone can identify who animated particular scenes. There's a huge variation in drawing and animating ability in these cartoons. There are scenes that harken back to the '20's and others that look like Terry animation from the '40's.

I know that John Foster, Art Babbitt and Bill Tytla were there during this time period. Do we know any specific scenes that these people did? For instance, in Farmer Al Falfa's Ape Girl, it looks like everybody on the cartoon took their turns animating the girl. Can we say with any confidence which scene might have been done by Tytla?

Who else was animating at Terry at this time and can we identify anybody's work?

I don't have any answers... but The Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan actually has "dope sheets" for several early 30s Terrytoons. I don't have copies... John Canemaker showed them to me when he was doing Bill Tytla research. Maybe next time I'm in New York I can copy off them.

I heard that Bakshi was working on a Psychedelic--like Sad Cat -- Farmer Alfalfa when the Studio closed in the sixties-- has anyone ever seen anything from this? By the way--I know Carl Urbano did some early uncredited work on Terrytoons, before his Barney Bear days-----

Hi!
Here are some of the animators I've been able to spot in this cartoon:
Opening & closing titles: Characters drawn by Frank Moser.
Argumentative married monkey couple, Gun-slinging monkey barber, Monkey kids fed from coconut udders: Jerry Shields. (The most "silent-looking" of Terry's veteran animators, his work appeared with very little change in motion and timing until the early 40s. He always animated the shots of two disdainful characters disapproving of another's performance, one holding his nose, usually before letting go with a barrage of tomatoes. Ralph Bakshi told me that, distraught over his inability to keep apace with the new standards of animation draftsmanship, he eventually walked off a building.)
Sequence with Ape Girl sitting amongst monkeys calling her dino, dino answering, Ape Girl walking down his tail, riding him, swinging on monkey swing and flying thru jungle: Frank Moser.
Ape Girl riding on giant trousered ape: Bill Tytla.
Ape Girl dives off his back into river, swims (with famous buttocks shot), skates using fish, swims upstream: Frank Moser.
Ape Girl surfaces astride hippo: Jerry Shields.
Ape Girl dives off hippo, dives & resurfaces into distance: Frank Moser.
Ape Girl puts fish in box, spanks one of them: Jerry Shields.
Ape Girl runs thru jungle into hut, puts clothes on line; Farmer Al Falfa rows in canoe, goes up a waterfall, shoots elephants from sky, alligators go underwater: Frank Moser.
Alligators trail Farmer Al Falfa, he seperates waterfall to save himself: Frank Moser.
Ape Girl lands atop Farmer Al Falfa, fights him, carries him home: Bill Tytla.
"Springtime" birds chirping, Farmer Al Falfa babysits & walks home with kids: Frank Moser.

Best Wishes,
Milt
The World of Knight! http://www.miltonknight.net

Milton, thank you very much! It's great to have animator identifications for that cartoon.

Can you identify work by Babbitt or Connie Rasinski in any cartoons from the early
'30's?

From the late '30's, can you identify any animation by the likes of George Gordon, Jack Zander,
etc?

Any Terry scene identifications from any time period would be most welcome.

Many thanks!

-Mark Mayerson

Milton's the man! Have you seen the jungle cartoon where the hunter
wrestles a gorilla? I wondered who animated that. It's really good.

See ya
Steve

Frank Moser's name could come up, since he animated most of the early B&W Terrytoons himself.

Hi, Mark;
I have been fortunate in coming to know the identities of some of these animators by discovering signed pieces of their work or by observations of their peers and of friends of my own. But, for me, it hasn't yet been so with George Gordon, Jack Zander or many others who we know worked there; I know their names, but haven't yet seen anything signed or identified, and I hate to make guesses.
One suspicious and stylish animator yet to be identified did the pig auctioneer in the late 30s THE BARNYARD BOSS; he also drew the lobby card for THE HEALTH FARM, illustrated in OF MICE AND MAGIC. (He also animated the gorilla fight (mentioned by bigshot) in 1937's THE BIG GAME HUNT. That cartoon was co-directed by Mannie Davis and George Gordon. I'm sure the work isn't Davis'. Could it be Gordon's...?
It should be kept in mind that John Foster had stayed with the Aesop Fables studio when Van Bueren and Terry broke their partnership in 1930 and didn't actually work on a TerryToon until 1933 or '34. I have yet to confirm this, but the animation of the eccentric dogcatcher in THE DOG SHOW (1934) may be his work.
Also between 1933 and '34, Mannie Davis was fired from Fables and came back to Terry. Probably because of Davis' input, certain Terrytoons highly resemble Van Beuren cartoons: Terry's THE FIRST SNOW (1935) reminds one of several early 'beasts-on-skates' Fables, SNOWTIME among them. Likewise, layouts in the 1935 Terry OPERA NIGHT are not very different from some in the first Cubby Bear, OPENING NIGHT, which had been directed by Davis. (And a similar swordfight setup would be used in Davis' 1944 TerryToon, GANDY'S DREAM GIRL.)
(Yes, they liked to repeat themselves at Terry's. They seemed devoted to making "prison break", "pirate kidnap" and "black sheep makes good" entries annual events during the 30s.) Other animators I've been able to spot, more or less:
Connie Rasinski animated the last portion of CATS IN THE BAG (1936), from where Puddy the Pup carries the rescued infant home. Disney unsuccessfully tried to hire Rasinski away more than once (as reported by Bakshi), and these cute, well-posed scenes give hints as to why. Also check out the scene in which the sailor swims after the mermaid and bumps his head in THE SAILOR'S HOME from the same year. (This cartoon is particularly charming.) For a good contrast between his work and Frank Moser's, compare two shots from ROLLING STONES (1936): the scene with the two puppies riding on the rails & singing is by Rasinski, while a subsequent one of the same pair continuing their song while walking along the track is Moser's.
Jim Tyer's work pops up impishly in scenes from two early 1935 releases, THE FIRST SNOW (puppy looks thru window at skating bird, puppies pile up in stack as they are bumped from their toboggans) and WHAT A NIGHT (Farmer Al throws his radio out of the window). Tyer scenes become scarce afterwards, then stop appearing altogether. One may gather that it was at that point that he moved west to work for the big "D".
The opening scene of Puddy and his master playing ball in SUNKEN TREASURE is by Isidore Klein.
After the closing of Van Beuren's studio in 1936, the Terry cartoons hired several of its staffers, and the character delineations occasionally bore a passing resemblance to the RAINBOW PARADES. Dan Gordon's character design of Molly Moo Cow appeared in FARMER AL FALFA's 20th ANNIVERSARY, among others. Carlo Vinci became a dynamic asset to the studio at this time. (He animated the sequence in the same year's KIKO AND THE HONEY BEARS in which the hunting dogs spot and chase the bears, who escape on a turtle.) Larry Silverman's work started appearing around the same period, but I'd have to watch some films again to remind myself where.
...And there are others I'm still working on positively identifying (such as the animation of Babbitt, Davis and Eddie Donnelly).
Best Wishes,
Milt
The World of Knight http://www.miltonknight.net

Wasn't George Rufle there at the time?

Hi Milton. Your list of scenes by animators is a goldmine. I'm going to go check out all those cartoons with your list in front of me to try and get a better handle on the individual Terry animators. Many thanks!

-Mark Mayerson

Milton is a goldmine himself. Check out his website...
http://www.miltonknight.net

See ya
Steve

Great post , Mr . Knight !

( why you do not me advise of your updates on your website as you did in the past ? I loooove it !! )

Milton,
I have to hand it to you. Not many people could decipher who animated what in such a primitive cartoon! Great job!

(BTW, I think Robotnik is the sexiest fat man too!)

Walked off a building because he couldn't keep up with Paul Terry's other animators! Yikes! What year did he die?