Hello my friends. I assume many of you who read my blog are like me, fans of early 1930's cartoons. They have a style all their own that is completely separate from anything that came before or anything since. Even in their crudest incarnations there was imagination and sheer embracing of being a cartoon, that I simply love about these films. Some of my first introductions to this period of cartoon history were the Walter Lantz cartoons and I still have a fondness for those films today. This following page from a 1933 issue of Universal Weekly celebrates the Walter Lantz Studio's two main cartoon stars Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Pooch the Pup. If you have trouble reading the page click on it and use your touch screen to zoom in.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Walter Lantz, "originator of young Oswald"? Shows how Universal was trying to claim complete ownership of the character by 1933. Completely ignoring Walt Disney, who created the character, and Charles Mintz, who (forcibly) took over the character from Disney and developed him for a brief period before handing him over to Lantz at Universal. Interesting how "Pooch the Pup" was considered such a significant new character when he is not one of the better-remembered characters today. And Oswald would probably be forgotten, too, if it weren't for the Disney connection.
ReplyDeleteHi Michael, Thanks for digging around in the Universal Weeklies to find this gem. While it doesn't surprise me that Universal didn't give credit to Disney and Ub Iwerks for originating Oswald, it's kind of shocking that they unabashedly give credit to Walter Lantz! Thanks again for sharing this with us!
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome, glad you enjoyed it. I was surprised to read that part too.
Delete