A cel featuring Binko the Bear Cub from Hot Toe Molly. All illustrations are courtesy of Rollin & Margaret Nesmith/Binko Animation Art.

There are few gaps and mysteries in the history of the animated cartoon. Even lost cartoons are well-known enough to be documented, and while recent animation archaeology has turned up some undeniable treasures, very few true surprises have been unearthed which makes the story of the lost studio of Romer Grey all the more intriguing.

Never heard of Romer Grey? Don't feel bad, you're not alone. The son of Western writer Zane Grey, Romer Grey's career consisted chiefly of adapting his father's works for film and writing some Western stories of his own. In fact, his cartoon studio, which was up and running for barely a year between the summers of 1930 and 1931, seems to be the only of his ventures that was not fed on oats. Still, the Romer Grey studio deserves a place in the history of animation, not for the cartoons it produced (only two of which were completed, though never exhibited), but rather for providing entry into the business for a number of artists who would go on to rank among the industry's all time greats.

The Start Up
The talent roster Grey managed to assemble for his studio reads like a Golden Age who's who: Preston Blair, Pete Burness, Ken Harris, Jack Zander, Bob McKimson, Tom McKimson, Cal Dalton, Bob Stokes, Al Gordon, Paul Allen, Stanley Overton, Lou Zukovsky, Volney White, Andy Partridge, Frank Powers, Bob Simonds, Bruce Smiley and Riley Thompson. For many of the artists, several of whom (like Romer Grey himself) were barely out of their teens at the time, it was their first experience with animation.

An animation drawing by Tom McKimson of a eunuch from Arabian Nightmare.

With financing coming from Romer's mother, socialite Lina Grey, who presided over a fund-raising luncheon to raise the initial capital, Romer Grey Pictures, Ltd. was officially launched in the spring of 1930, and set up shop in the garage in the back of Zane Grey's palatial estate in Altadena, California, just north of Pasadena. From there the 20 year-old entrepreneur prepared to take on the likes of Disney, the Fleischers, Walter Lantz, Charles Mintz, Paul Terry, and the upstart operation that had just been assembled by Hugh Harman, and Rudy Ising for producer Leon Schlesinger.

Possessing no artistic ability himself, Grey hired Volney White to supervise the studio and lured brothers Tom and Bob McKimson away from Disney, where they had been assisting Norm Ferguson and Dick Lundy, respectively. Despite their youth, Tom was 23 and Bob just 19, the McKimsons had more experience than most of the Grey staff and guided the hands of the newer animators, some of whom were recruited directly from local art schools.