In the history of animation, Disney is the name most commonly associated with

the industry by a majority of people; however, it was Max Fleischer who was once the
king of the animated short film, pioneering techniques and rousing controversy within the
industry. Despite his studios successes and popularity, everything was all taken away in
the early 1940s as Fleischer lost his studio to Paramount Pictures. It may be perceived as
a sudden loss, but the writing was on the wall- social, political, and economic events
occurred prior to the end which spelled the end of Fleischer Studios. From employee
strikes, the introduction of the Hays Code, and the rise of the Disney Studios popularity,
to personal rifts between the studio itself and between Max and his brother Dave, the
studio that produced the Superman short films soon found itself going from hero to zero.
Undoubtedly, the first major sign that Fleischer Studios was headed for cataclysm
was the coming of the Hays Code and censorship in Hollywood. Fleischers cartoons
during the 1920s became known for dark humor, dirty jokes, urban themes, and sex,
particularly in relation with the Betty Boop character. However, even as early as 1907,
before animation had gotten off the ground, censorship boards were popping up around
the country (Cohen 11). The first of these was founded in Chicago, followed soon by the
first state board in Pennsylvania in 1911, and by 1922 these were joined by Ohio, Kansas,
Maryland, New York, and Virginia. It was 1922 when Hollywood looked into a national
censorship board in response to a series of scandals. They formed the Motion Picture
Producers and Distributors of America (or the MPPDA), headed by Will H. Hays. Karl
Cohen mentions that Censorship was not a high priority for Hays. His main concern was
to protect the film industry from further repressive local, state and federal legislation
(11). In time, the board became known as the Hays Office. Before the infamous Hays

code, the MPPDA preached self-regulation, and during this time characters such as Betty
Boop thrived. Common features of a pre-code Betty Boop cartoon included gags and
imagery that would eventually become censored. Thats not to say that Fleischer had no
boundaries, even if business dictated that the edge of acceptable content be constantly
tested. Cohen mentions that animator Shamus Culhane would tell of how he pushed the
limits, saying:
I drew Betty Boop in Bamboo Isle topless doing a hula-hula with her top
garnished with flowers. Paramounts office almost had a convulsion when
they first saw it, and so did the Fleischers. But it was too big a sequence to
cut out, so it remained. I dont know how the Fleischers or Paramount
mollified the Hays Office, but as far as I know the film was never
censored. (17)
In 1930, the Hays Office revised their set of regulations due to lax enforcement. Pressure
from members of the public, such as church groups, led to a call for mandatory national
censorship. Once the code began to be enforced in 1934 (Dial 312), changes came
gradually, rather than all at once. Cohen mentions that Myron Waldman has said that he
never saw a specific memo from the Hays Office, but that hed hear about changes
through the higher-ups at Fleischer Studios and Paramount, coming down along the chain
of command (20). Maxs son, Richard, said that everybody was unhappy with what
happened to Betty. She started out as a popular star with innocent sex appeal and ended
up looking like a schoolmarm (22). In reality, the Hays Code was only one source of
pressure to tone down the grittier, more vulgar style of earlier cartoons. The other was
Disney.

There is no denying that Walt Disney films are and have been extremely popular.
For Fleischer Studios, this meant strict competition, and a need to change with the times.
Karl Cohen reveals that Myron Waldman suggests that if the code had not changed
Betty, the studios trend towards cute, realistic art would have done so eventually (23). It
has even been said that the studio had Disneyfied their cartoons, making them tamer to
appeal to the same audience as the Disney films, and that their first color, feature-length
film, Gullivers Travels in 1939, featured the protagonist as a fluorescent and rotoscoped
Gulliver (who) looks like a relative of Snow White (Klein 59). They even created a
similar series of short films akin to Disneys Silly Symphonies, called Color Classics.
These changes resulted in a handful of effects on the company. One was the alienation of
their former fan-base, who, according to Richard Fleischer, made complaints from the
public about the changes in (Betty Boops) looks and demands that the studio restore her
youthful appearance (Cohen 22). The other effect was financial in nature. Given
Disneys exclusive access to the three-color Technicolor format for making color
cartoons, Max Fleischer was forced to make such cartoons by way of the Cinecolor twocolor process, though according to his son Richard, he had a secret process involving
special filters which resulted in a look almost indistinguishable from Technicolor. He also
invented a special 3D technique with Johnny Burkes which he called the Stereoptical
process, a device similar to Disneys multi-plane camera, yet predating it by several
years (Fleischer 84). However, this process was expensive, causing many short films to
go over-budget. Though it was quite popular, the 3D camera system had to be restricted
to only a few short films rather than all of them. According to Mark Langer, Fleischer
Studios also operated as a business differently from Disney. Max and his brother Dave

were not as central to the core direction of the company as perhaps they once were,
controlling things rather loosely. They also didnt have as stable a workforce as Disney,
as even during the time between Ub Iwerks departure in 1930 until their 1941 strike,
they maintained training and educational programs which allowed them to keep a fresh
roster. States Langer of Disneys studio, People did not leave for greener pastures- there
were no greener pastures (8). In contrast, 1930 marked the departure of many of
Fleischers key animators, including Dick Huemer, Sid Marcus, George Rufle, and
George Stallings, with Ted Sears and Grim Natwick leaving the following year. All of this
was only worsened for Fleischer Studios by a strike of their own in 1937.
The late 1930s brought many changes for Fleischer Studios. Pressure from
Paramount Pictures and the public led to their need to produce a feature-length animated
film. To this end, Paramount financed a new studio in Miami, and Fleischer Studios was
effectively split in two. This, along with an increased workload, put pressure on the staff.
Not only were they expected to get their work done, but they also had a haphazard array
of extra training and classes available to attend, most of which staff simply did not have
the time to attend (Langer 8). When the time came to strike, many employees felt they
were being stifled creatively. According to Harvey Deneroff, Strike leader Harry
Lampert, in reaction to this situation, stated that one of his reasons for leaving animation
was that the experience of working in the field was a narrowing one and that an artist
could wind up finding himself qualified only to work in animation, while his skills in
other areas atrophied (5). Due to the working conditions, being cramped both physically
and creatively, as well as mounting pressures, the staff demanded higher salaries, with
talks of labor unions having been common for at least several years. Eventually, workers

at Fleischer took up with the Commercial Artists and Designers Union, a Popular Front
organization. Due to the demand for more Popeye cartoons, Fleischer implemented a
speedup on production, an action that the new union reacted to with a slowdown. After
several attempts going back and forth with demands, members of the union left on strike,
picketing in front of the New York studio. The strike began on the 7th of May 1937, and
lasted over five months, with only modest success. Most strikers had, according to Maxs
son Richard, run out of steam and money, and had little choice but to take what they
could and return to work (Fleischer 92). Though the strike finally ended, tensions did not.
With the advent of the new Miami studio, Fleischer was hiring at full force. The studio
itself was extremely expensive, pulling in at least $300,000 of Paramounts money, set to
be the worlds most advanced animation studio. Their feature-length film, Gullivers
Travels, proved to be a modest success; however, Paramount dictated that Fleischer
needed to produce a second feature at half the budget (Dial 325). It also became apparent
at this time that differences between brothers Max and Dave were becoming more severe,
as they were seeing their productions going in different directions, and their personalities
were clashing (Fleischer 109-110). They also were requested to produce a series of
Superman short films, which Fleischer was reluctant to do due to the cost, time, and
effort required to produce such a cartoon. They asked for a budget of about double the
amount of any other animated short to create their test film, and were surprised to find
Paramount accepted (Fleischer 104-105). The shorts were fairly successful, but
Fleischers second feature, Mr. Bug Goes to Town, was anything but; Fleischer Studios
had already owed Paramount on their first feature, but the extraordinary failure of their
second pushed their fate over the edge. The real crushing blow occurred on December 31,

1941, when it was announced Dave Fleischer, Maxs brother, would be leaving to take a
position at Columbia Pictures supervising their cartoon productions division. Eventually,
Paramount launched their takeover of Fleischer Studios, which longtime Fleischer staff
member Myron Waldman suggested that Paramount executives grew tired of losing
money (Dial 328). In late May of 1942, Paramount finally seized Fleischer Studios and
renamed it Famous Studios, continuing many of Fleischers popular franchises such as
Popeye and Superman under the new banner.
Fleischer Studios was always a family company, but as it turned out at the end, a
somewhat dysfunctional one. Unfortunately, as the studio grew too large and too distant
from itself in the end, with major landmark tragedies along the way, its fate was
inevitable. Despite traveling down a bumpy road, filled with huge success and incredible
blunders, theyre still seen as having been a major driving force behind the animation
industry, and many of their characters and creations remain popular today.