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Chapter 14: The Terry-fying Challenge
Obviously, producing new cartoons, and especially trying to create new characters and raise the standard of quality, money had to be spent. The archival shows Weiss was patching together cost virtually nothing to get on the air, and they were getting amazingly good ratings. I was doing 20th Century-Fox Cinemascope cartoons for an increasingly weakening theatrical market, with only a long-range hope of creating enough films to go onto television. Weiss was juggling and switching ancient cartoons from the vault, so as to make each week's installment seem like a new show. Clever.
So while I was working my tail off making a "renaissance," Weiss was taking the train each week to CBS headquarters downstream in Manhattan, and making it clear to the brass just who was spending their money and who was making money for them. I was cooked long before I knew it.
Weiss, along with virtually all of the 125-member staff, had resented my being there in the first place; a young outsider brought in as creative chief instead of one of the long-suffering staff. I am sure that Weiss was working on my ouster from the day I arrived. It took him just over two years to accomplish it.
I inherited a studio full of disgruntled, underpaid old veterans who had been led to believe by Terry that when he eventually sold the studio they would all get a cut. This was especially the case in respect to Bill Weiss. He told me himself that Terry had promised him 10%. In fact, no one got a nickel. Terry negotiated the CBS deal in secret, and just took the money and ran.
The morning it was announced, Tommy Morrison approached Terry saying, "Paul, I just read in the paper that you sold Terrytoons to CBS for $5,000,000! Can that be true?" "That's none of your goddam business!" said Terry. He then put on his hat and walked out. With all this bitterness, I was just another blow to the veterans' position. Many thought I would be firing them all, and they would be out in the cold. No champagne for my arrival.
Terry had years earlier purposely relocated the studio from New York City to New Rochelle, specifically to get out of the cartoonists' union jurisdiction, and thus hold down wages. Having heard about all this, I had actually pledged myself not to dump anyone. As old-hat as many of them were, I was determined to reform them, not replace them. Nevertheless, I was perceived by Weiss to be a threat to himself personally. He was right. If I had been successful at Terrytoons, I would have thrown him out. But he got me first.
The person I most wondered about when I got there was Paul Terry himself. What kind of a guy was he, to have such a low standard of work, and such low regard for the people who worked for him? The animators told me that in the early days he used to go around the studio, from animator to animator, carrying a ruler. He would measure each animator's stack of drawings, and when the pile was high enough, he'd say, "That's enough, put a The End sign on it!"
It took a long time for Terry to show up to look me over. But he did not linger to look at the newly decorated studio. He invited me out to lunch at his exclusive club, and drove me there and back in his big Cadillac. He could barely fathom what I was doing, but he was full of advice, namely that I should create a character based on Charles Lindbergh, "the greatest hero of all time." He seemed unaware that by the mid-50s few knew much about Lindbergh except that his baby was kidnapped. Terry was by that time pretty much out of it, and believed that the style and humor of the early part of the century was still valid. Perhaps he was right, but I didn't think so at the time. He was mainly delighted to be a millionaire, and how he had outfoxed everyone at the studio. A strange old dodo, of very moderate appeal.
ICXbEx
gtHxTsM
Though your tenure at Terrytoons was not commercially successful, I think you did succeed in making some ground-breaking films. I remember seeing some of your Terrytoons with Clint Clobber, John Doormat, Sidney and others on cable well over a decade ago and I wish I could see them again. ("Another Day Another Doormat" I remember being particularly good.)It's a shame old treasures like these are not preserved on video or DVD. Maybe someday we'll all be pleasantly surprised.
Wow, I can thank you at last.
I grew up in Victoria BC, the usual Saturday morning cartoon fan.
I watched a LOT of cartoons, like most of my generation. There is none that comes close for me to John Doormat. I remember seeing two of them and howling through them. I've never seen them since and would buy them if I could.
You're a flipping genius mate.
Cheers
John deBoer
I GREW UP WITH ALL THE GREAT CARTOONS FROM THE LATE 50'S AND UP. I STILL LOOK FOR ANY OF YOUR WORK TERRY TO SHOW MY KIDS. BELIEVE IT OR NOT THE WATCH IT MORE THAN THE JUNK THEY MAKE TO DAY. IT'S HAD TO FIND ALOT OF THE OLD CARTOONS UP HERE IN BOOKS OR VIDEOS, SO WHEN I FIND THEM I GET THEM TO SAVE FOR THE FUTURE. I DO ALOT OF VOL. WORK AT 3 SCHOOLS AND I TRY TO REINTRODUCE THE OLDIES TO THE CHILDREN. DON'T EVER STOP MAKING THE CLASSICS,AND IN MY EYES YOU NEVER FAILED IN YOUR WORK. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE.
When I was 4 years old, I believed that *I* was Tom Terrific and could change into any shape and be anything I wanted to be. Your Tom Terrific cartoon was a wonderful gift to the world, and sparked the budding imaginations of countless children. I would love to see it again, how??
Just another Tom Terrific lover, chiming in. He's one of my fondest memories of childhood.
Jim
TOM TERRIFIC WAS APTLY NAMED, SINCE IT'S ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL, MOST ORIGINAL, MOST CLEVER CARTOONS EVER PRODUCED. THE OPAQUE CHARACTERS, THE VERBAL PUNS, THE MINIMALIST MUSICAL SCORE, AND THE "SERIAL" PACKAGE ALL ADDED UP TO ANIMATED NIRVANA. THE MIGHTY MANFRED WAS A WONDERFUL, LOVABLE SIDEKICK (AND CUNNING COMIC RELIEF), AND DO-BADDIE CRABBY APPLETON EVEN INSPIRED A SUCCESSFUL ROCK BAND OF THE SAME NAME. THANK HEAVENS NOBODY'S EVER MESSED WITH "TOM TERRIFIC"!! HE'S ONE OF THE ALARMINGLY FEW CARTOON STARS WHO HASN'T BEEN DEGRADED IN THE HANDS OF A NEW STUDIO OR A NEW CAMPAIGN. YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MESS WITH PERFECTION!!!
My first animating stint was on TOM TERRIFIC, Gene, and what a pleasure it was working with you and Connie Rasinski, Bob Kuwahara, and Jim Tyer directing. I pass the old Terrytoons building nearly every day here in New Rochelle...(it's now a huge fresh fruit and veggie outlet)...and I swear that on some beautiful terrific days I can hear Tom saying..."You're TERRIFIC, Manfred !!!" And Manfred of course responds, "No...YOU'RE TERRIFIC, TOM".
45 years later, I'm still animating, and I can't think of another character that I enjoyed working on quite as much as TOM.
Thanks for letting the world know about Bill Weiss. When I'd been working at TERRYTOONS for eight years, out of a clear blue sky (I had finished my animation apprenticeship and was due to be classified a "master animator" with a $30 dollar a week raise to $176...) he fired me on an overcast Thanksgiving Eve. What a thoughtful, considerate, wonderful guy !!!
It was a pleasure and an inspiraton working with you, Gene....and altho Eli, and Connie and Bob and Jim and Lars and Artie Bartsch are gone, I'm so glad to see that YOU are -- not only still around, but still full of the fire and enthusiasm of old.
Thanks, Gene !
"So it was just another failure..." TOM TERRIFIC? Never. That sentence cannot stand. Not in ANY context. Granted, in a just world, the character would be referred to as "Gene Deitch's TOM TERRIFIC," and Mr. Deitch would be receiving royalties from Viacom's extensive but tasteful exploitation and licensing of the character in new cartoons, vidcassettes, dvds, t-shirts, graphic novels and off-broadway musical. Believe me, though the world seems to be run by the descendents of Bill Weiss and Crabby Appleton, TOM TERRIFIC was no failure. Not possible. No way. I mean no disrespect, but please delete the sentence; it is misleading, offensive and disturbing in its inaccuracy.
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