During this period television rarely showed anything animated except televisioncommercials and limited animation stuff made for the tube. Of course therewere daily cartoon shows that showed old Hollywood films, but nobody wasseriously interested in buying rights to artistic works. They wanted tokeep costs low and needed quantity, not quality, to fill all the air timebetween the commercials. Non-Theatrical Distribution From 1900 - 1960 Another small non-theatrical industry developed around p*rnographic filmsbefore WWI. Animators created Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure,around 1928. This funny hard-core cartoon may have been made for a privateparty honoring Winsor McCay by Walter Lantz, Rudy Zamora Sr., George Stallingsand George Canata. Other X-rated cartoons were produced in the 1920s and30s. The first non-theatrical catalog of education films was published by GeorgeKleine in 1910. He offered to lease 35mm films. Apparently his venture wasa failure and one account says he never recovered the cost of printing his336 page catalog. Kleine went on to import some of the first successfulfeature-length films from Italy just before WWI. In 1921 Kleine created a non-theatrical distribution system that brought"clean" films to schools, museums and other non-commercial users.He gave users of his "Cycle of Classics" free 35mm projectorsand charged a per reel fee plus 65% of the admission income. The venturewasn't too successful and was abandoned in 1928 with the coming of sound.His silent projectors had become obsolete almost overnight. The educational market slowly developed in the 1920s and 30s. Kodak introduced16mm safety film in 1923. In the 1930s home movie cameras were introducedalong with black and white reversal film stocks and Kodachrome film (1936).Bell and Howell and other companies vigorously marketed their 16mm soundprojectors.
Once upon a time there was a world without video tape. Thecommerce in animation was on film and there were dozens of distributorswho listed cartoons and independent animation in their catalogs. Schooldistricts and colleges were buying and renting almost anything animatedthat was "educational." A new theatrical show called The Tourneeof Animation was showing the latest and greatest films from around theworld. Animation was sometimes shown at museums, libraries and art houses.
Before explaining what film distribution was like at its peak in the 1960sand 70s, a quick look at the history of non-theatrical distribution andthe development of the 16mm format is in order. Distribution of films toplaces other than theaters (non-theatrical) began almost 100 years ago.Corporations were among the first to explore non-theatrical venues. A filmabout the Alaskan gold rush was made by the Northwest Transportation Companyin 1899 and shown at the Paris Exposition in 1900. By the early teens somesalesmen representing trade associations and corporations were travelingwith 35mm films and portable projectors. They presented free shows to promotetheir sponsors' interests.
To further promote 16mm as a format, Eastman Kodakwent into the film rental and sales business. In the 1930s they introducedthe Kodascope Library which contained 16mm prints of Hollywood featuresand shorts. Several sponsored animated films were made in the 1930s. General Motorspromoted itself in A Coach for Cinderella (1936), the first industrialproduced in Technicolor. It was produced by the Jam Handy Organization inDetroit. The company had already animated Down the Gasoline Trail (1935)for Chevrolet and they later produced other animated shorts. Handy is bestknown for their post-war live-action films that glorified the product linesof GM. In the late 1950s the company had a staff of 500 and made between150 and 200 films a year. Another animated gem from the 1930s is The Sunshine Makers. It wasdirected by Burt Gillett and Ted Eshbaugh in New York at the Van BeurenStudio. It promotes the consumption of milk and was in fact sponsored byBordens Milk. The period from the late 1920s to the 1940s saw the beginning of artistsin the U.S. using film as an art form. Among the first animated or partly-animatedfilms to be seen by the American public were works by Mary Ellen Bute. Herfilms were shown at Radio City Music Hall in the late 1930s and early 40s.Norman McLaren came to the U.S. from England in the late 1930s. He workedon one of Bute's films (Spook Sport), did work for what later becamethe Guggenheim Museum, and was commissioned in 1939 to do a short work forNBC-TV when it was an experimental station. In the 1940s the war brought on the rise of public information films (anothername for propaganda) and some of it was animated. The 16mm format was usedextensively by both the military and groups showing information films tothe public. Bugs Bunny was used to sell war bonds, Donald Duck remindedpeople to pay their income taxes on time and Minnie Mouse recycled kitchenfats for the war effort. After the war thousands of military surplus 16mm "JAN" sound projectorswere sold to schools and other institutions at low costs. This helped make16mm a more accessible format.
At the close of the war the company that was to become UPA made two animatedfilms for the United Auto Workers and CIO. Hell Bent for Election wasmade to get out the vote for Roosevelt in 1944 and Brotherhood of Man,1946, promoted racial tolerance. The latter was made to help the autoworkersintegrate factories in the south. Both films are admired today for theiruse of contemporary graphic design.
Another popular animated sponsored film for the non-theatrical market wasHugh Harmon's Winky the Watchman, 1947. It was made for a dentalassociation and it promotes the proper care of teeth. Harmon and his partnerRudolph Ising also produced a long animated work for Van de Camp Foods intheir Los Angeles studio.
Some of the animated films made in the 1950s now seem unintentionally funny,like the animated turtle that tells us to "duck and cover" incase of an atomic blast, or the atomic man in John Sutherland's A isfor Atom. John Sutherland Productions was formed in Los Angeles in 1945and produced a great number of propaganda/informational films over the years.
Among the best educational films were a science series sponsored by BellLabs. They hired Frank Capra to produce them and Dr. Frank Baxter was thehost. Our Mr. Sun (1955) featured animation directed by Bill Hurtzat UPA. Shamus Culhane (NYC) provided animated sequences for three BellLabs films: Hemo the Magnificent (1956), The Strange Case of CosmicRays (1957) and The Unchained Goddess (1958).
An early ad promoting the use of film projectorsin schools.
How Non-Theatrical Animation Worked
The basic sales tool for these companies was their illustrated catalog.In addition to the catalog, distributors often produced slick flyers andsupplements intended to promote an interest in a specific film or seriesof films. Educational film distributors also produced study guides to accompanysome of their films. Aggressive companies promoted their product lines atconventions, conferences and workshops. The annual Educational Film LibraryAssociation conference (EFLA) was a major trade show that was once attendedby thousands of film buyers. Most distributors who sold films provided free preview prints to reviewerswho wrote for the trade publications (Film News, EFLA Evaluations, Booklist,Film Library Quarterly, etc.) and to potential film buyers for librariesand school districts. Distributors also promoted their films by entering them in festivals. Printsales often increased after a film won a major prize. Festivals were alsoa way for school teachers and other film people to see new product. Hopefullythey would then ask their school district to buy a print of something theyliked. There was once a large number of distribution companies and they variedin size and focus. Some rented a full line of entertainment features andshorts while others specialized in well-made educational films. Some companieshad lots of animated shorts in their catalogs, while others had only a fewtitles or none. A few companies specialized in the importation and saleof shorts from Canada and other countries. Others produced their own productlines. A number of distributors specialized in films that required them to producethe work. Weston Woods Studios turns popular children's books into animatedshorts. They still acquire the film rights and then hire artists to do theartwork. Gene Deitch, who has headed his own studio in Prague since 1960,has animated several of Weston Woods' award-winning shorts. Contracts between distributors and animators is a subject that is somewhatdifficult to discuss as there is no such thing as a standard agreement.A contract might offer a payment based on a film's gross or on its' netprofit. A filmmaker could receive anywhere between 15% to 40% of the grossreceipts (25% to 30% was more or less the average around 1970) or 50% ofthe net profit. If a film with a net deal is a hit and the distributor ishonest the filmmaker can make a good deal of money. On the other hand, ifthe distributor pads the account with meals and gifts for his friends, etc.the filmmaker may get nothing. Some distributors mainly sold films to which they had exclusive rights.Other companies had some exclusive films to offer. They supplemented thatincome with the rental of films that they sub-distributed. They would buyor lease a print for a fixed price from another distributor or the producerof the film and put it in their rental collection. They kept whatever incomethe print produced for them. The creator of the film only made money fromthe sale of the print. Sub-distribution deals are non-exclusive so morethan one company could buy the print and rent it. Filmmakers made moneyby selling as many prints as possible. I found a contract dated January 15, 1982, between King Features SyndicateDivision and a non-theatrical distributor for the lease of a print of TheYellow Submarine. It called for the payment of $1,400 and allowed thedistributor to use the print for non-theatrical rentals. The contract prohibitedtheatrical or commercial use of the print including exhibition to a payingaudience. Distributors sometimes looked the other way if the film was rentedby someone who was going to ask for a "donation" at the door.The company rented the film for $100 in their 1982 catalog. An interesting contract was offered animators by Prescott Wright when heproduced The Tournee of Animation (1970 - 1986). The producer, Wrightand his associates, got 50% of the gross and the remaining 50% was splitamong the artists. About half of the money going to the animators was splitevenly and the remaining amount was split based on how long each short was.That meant a really short film got slightly less than a film a minute ortwo longer. As the cost of producing the show rose, the percentage the producertook changed to 55% and finally 60%. Another type of deal was offered by Mike Getz, who ran a midnight movieseries for many years. He paid $1 a minute per screening. I had one filmthat Getz showed many times. It turned a profit for me after I deductedproduction and print costs. When the print eventually came back it was coveredwith scratches and was barely usable, but it had made me a profit. The largest distributors in the country in the 1960s and `70s didn't goout of their way to handle unusual animated product. Films Incorporatedjust ended their film rental business and is now a video sales company.They used to rent features and shorts including MGM cartoons. They had exclusiverights to work from MGM, 20th Century Fox and other companies. At one timethey had eight offices across the nation to better serve their customers. Contemporary Films/McGraw Hill, founded around 1950, had a 384 page catalogin 1972. It included 20 films by Norman McLaren, a large selection fromZagreb, silhouette films by Lotte Reiniger, work by John Hubley, Jeff Hale,Jan Lenica, Alexander Alexeieff, Les Goldman, Halas and Batchelor, ErnestPintoff, Karel Zeman, Jan Svankmajer, Jiri Trnka, and dozens of other animatorsfrom around the world. The McLaren films rented for $12.50 or $10. Mostanimated titles rented from $10 to $15. United Artists' UA16 catalog #5 (1975) focused on the distribution of features,but it did devote space to early Warner Bros. cartoons (1930 - 1948), theFleischer Popeye cartoons, Woody Woodpecker (Lantz) and thePink Panther series. Most of their cartoons were available packagedin groups of three for $25. Individual titles rented for $20 each and an85 minute program called The Popeye Follies rented for $200. Another great selection was available from Ivy Film (NYC). They rented Paramountcartoons by the Fleischers (Betty Boop, Gabby, silent Koko, Color Classicsand Screen Songs), the George Pal Puppetoons, and animation from FamousStudios. Cartoons were rented on a sliding scale based on the size of theaudience. A Betty Boop rented in 1974 for $15 if the audience was under100 people. The top rate was $35 for an audience of over 500 people. Budget Films, founded in 1969, claimed to be "the biggest privately-ownedfilm archive in the world." They have ended their participation innon-theatrical distribution and now provide stock footage to the industry.Their 1979 catalog is 1 3/4" thick and contains over 800 pages. Theyrented vintage Hollywood cartoons from $5 - 10 each. Color Godzilla featuresrented for $32.50 and $34 and John Halas' Animal Farm rented for$37.50. In the 1980s they expanded their line to include a small selectionof independent animated shorts. In 1989 they rented Jankovics' Sisyphusfor $10, Steve Segal's Red Ball Express for $10, John Hubley'sThe Hat for $15, Frédéric Back's Crac! for $25and Richard Condie's The Big Snit for $25. Animal Farm andthe color Godzilla features were available for $50 each. Small Companies Had Great Animation Collections The above sales prices date from before the Hunt family in Texas tried tocorner the silver market in the 1980s. They drove the price of silver upto record highs, resulting in Kodak almost doubling the price of film stocks.When the price of silver finally fell, Kodak's prices didn't. When Kodaktook all of the silver out of their film stocks, the prices still remainedsteady and have since gone up. Needless to say, the lab cost of a 16mm printin the 1970s was considerably less than it is today. Working out of her home in Berkeley, California, Freude Bartlett openedSerious Business in the mid-1970s. The preface to her 1976 catalog said,"We are committed to film as an art form and our collection includesexperimental and documentary work... The independent filmmaker is an artist,reflecting and commenting on the world and its meanings." She offeredfilms by Scott Bartlett, Mary Beams, Stephen Beck, Adam Beckett, RobertBreer, Sally Cruikshank, Ed Emshwiller, George Griffin, Suzan Pitt Kraning,Pat O'Neill, Kathy Rose, Stan Vanderbeek and other artists. George Griffin'sone-minute long Trickfilm rented for $5 and sold for $35 while his4 1/2 minute The Club rented for $10 and sold for $100. Pat O'Neill'sSaugus Series (18 min.) rented for $25 and sold for $250. The companygrew for several years, but went out of business around 1980. When Serious Business closed many of the animators represented by Freudesigned contracts with Ron Epple's Picture Start. The company issued catalog#1 in 1981. It listed animated work by Jane Aaron, Karen Aqua, Skip Battaglia,Robert Breer, John Canemaker, Vince Collins, Sally Cruikshank, Larry Cuba,Paul Demeyer, Geoff Dunbar, David Ehrlich, Paul Glabicki, John and FaithHubley, Flip Johnson, Norman McLaren, Suzan Pitt, Gary Schwartz, MaureenSelwood, Henry Selick, Stan VanderBeek, and dozens of other artists. Theirrental and sales prices were similar to those of Serious Business and thecompany is no longer in business. Years ago I asked Sally Cruikshank about her non-theatrical distributors.She said that considering her work was short and that there was not a greatdemand for animated shorts on television or in theaters before features,she was quite pleased with the size of the checks she had gotten from SeriousBusiness and Picture Start. She indicated the checks were never for enormoussums, but her income from her films was several thousand dollars a year. There were other companies with interesting animation collections as well.Creative Film Society was founded by Bob Pike in 1957. The 1975 catalogoffered work by Scott Bartlett, Jordan Belson, Oskar Fischinger, Len Lye,Pat O'Neill, James and John Whitney, John Hubley, the Fleischer Studio,Ernest Pintoff, and others. Pike died in 1974. His wife Angie runs the companyfrom her home near Los Angeles. Two important supporters of independent animation have been the late CharlesSamu who imported outstanding animation from Eastern Europe, and PrescottWright who runs Filmwright in San Francisco. Wright produced and distributedThe Tournee of Animation from 1970 - 1986. He also rented individualanimated titles, produced a few animated works, and is presently activein animation as a teacher, producer and consultant to the industry. In the1970s he worked with Sheldon Renan to produce The International AnimationFestival, a television series which aired on public television for threeseasons. Another important figure in 16mm distribution was Bernice Coe who foundedCoe Film in 1971. Her main activity was to provide television broadcasterswith short films. She began by producing packages of shows for cable television.At one time she had the television rights to thousands of films. Beforeshe retired she helped place dozens of animated films by American independentanimators on cable television. There are other types of distributors that made/make animation availableincluding several film co-ops (Canyon Cinema is alive and well in San Francisco)and university film libraries that rent and/or sell films. Berkeley's ExtensionMedia Center continues to acquire works. One of their best selling titlesin the 1990s has been Pat Amlin's Popul Vuh, an animated hour longwork available on film and tape. The first blow to the industry was the termination (about 1969) of government-fundedprograms that enabled school districts to buy audio visual materials. Thefunds for visual literacy in the early `60s fueled the rapid rise of independentfilm. With this subsidy for the arts gone, the industry slowly decayed. In the 1980s the rise of distribution of films on video tape coupled withthe rise of film stock prices had an adverse effect on the industry. Formost consumers it no longer made sense to spend a great deal to buy a 16mmprint of a work when a video copy was available for less. At first distributorstried to keep video prices high enough so they could continue to earn aprofit similar to the income produced through film sales and rentals. Eventuallyvideo prices had to be cut to be competitive with companies selling tapesat mass market prices. You can still find rare material for sale on tapein the $50 to $100 range, but do these tapes sell well? The introductionof tape also changed America's viewing habits resulting in the decline ofticket sales at art houses. Another problem in recent years has been the rising cost of doing business.It costs thousands of dollars to produce and distribute a large heavy salescatalog. Printing and mailing prices have gone up over the years. If a company'sincome declines, at some point it just doesn't make sense to continue runninga business no matter how much the owner of the company loves film.
The educational film market grew rapidly in the 1960s. When the Soviet Unionlaunched Sputnik in 1957, the U.S. Congress realized something had to bedone to better educate the baby boomers. By the early 1960s Congress hadpassed the National Defense Education Act which gave enormous sums of moneyto school districts. Some of the money was for the acquisition of filmsand other types of audio visual materials like film-strips, slides and records.There was also a growing market for films at colleges, public libraries,military bases, prisons, churches and other institutions.
The Distribution Companies
The following discussion covers a few of the companies that distributedanimation in the 1960s and `70s. They were selected to give a fairly goodidea of how divergent one company was from another. One catalog from eachcompany was selected for the discussion. In the course of a few years acompany would add and drop titles, but no attempt was made to show how theholdings of the companies changed.
By the early 1970s there were several companies that specialized in experimentaland independently produced films. Probably the most visible of these companieswas Pyramid Films in Santa Monica. Their 1974 catalog was a slick 1/2"thick, 240 page volume. It listed films by Jordan Belson, Charles Braverman,George Dunning, Oskar Fischinger, John and Faith Hubley, Caroline Leaf,Norman McLaren, Dan McLaughlin, Frank Mouris, John Whitney, Michael Whitney,Stan Vanderbeek, and other animators. Fischinger's Composition in Bluerented for $10 and sold for $100. The Oscar-winning Frank Film rentedfor $15 and sold for $150. Pyramid is still in business, but the natureof their business has changed considerably in recent years.
The Decline Of 16mm Film Distribution
The 16mm market for animated films is not dead, but it certainly has shrunkin size to the point that it is close to becoming an endangered species.There are several reasons why distribution of 16mm film has declined.
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