Working for the Fleischers (continued)
An Interview with Dick Huemer by Joe Adamson
(page 3 of 3 pages)

  Adamson: Did this affect you very
seriously?
  Huemer: Not personally, no. I didn't
own any stock. I didn't understand it.
Who did? The animation industry
looked awfully bad at that time too. Dls-
ney, of course, had already entered the
field, and had done some Oswalds.
They were far superior to anything
anybody had done, in my estimation.
And we -- me, Harrison and Gould -
used to go seek them out, find out
where they were running and study
them. And, bad as they look today -
and I've seen them recently, and they
are pretty bad -- they were tremen-
dously superior to our things. That was
our opinion as craftsmen of the busi-
ness. I was with Fleischer again when
sound broke on the scene; and the
Skeleton Dance took New York by
storm, and naturally everything went to
sound.
  Adamson: You didn't stay with the
Fleischers long after sound came in.
  Huemer: Well, I was in and out of
Fleischer's several times. I left to go into
the Associated Animators. Then I came
back again. Then I left to do my comic
strip. Then I came back once more. And
then I left to go with Charlie Mintz. The
last time I left Max said, "All right now,
this is the last time you're gonna leave!"
He didn't really mean it. He was a
lovely guy. I loved Max. He said,
"That's a fine thing, leaving me ... but
this is the last time you're gonna do it to
me." Ben Sharpsteen had been touting
me to Walt Disney. (There were only
about 50 of us animators in the world,
you know, and I was one of them.) And
when Walt Disney came to New York
on a business trip he looked me up with
the idea of me coming to work for him. I
invited him to dinner. He didn't know
New York, and so I took him to a place
called The Chili Villa, which even to
this day I think served the finest Mex-
ican food I've ever eaten. Simply mag-
nificent. I took Walt and his wife Lily
there to talk things over. It was under-
stood right away that I would consider
working for him, even before we went
to dinner. But I wasn't absolutely sure.
He said, "Yes, let's talk anyway." So we
went to Chili Villa on 45th Street. And
all through the meal I don't think Walt
addressed five words to me. He sat and
brooded, and ate this heavenly food,
and never said anything about how
great it was, or much of anything else.
So I spoke mostly to his wife. And I
thought, "This is certainly a strange
guy. I mean nobody has ever done this
to me in my life." Well, later I found out
that he was in very deep financial trou-
ble, and was brooding. He had some
serious setback. Something about the
business end of his studio, I think. Ob-
viously, that's why he'd come to New
York. So that was my weird introduc-
tion to Walt Disney. I finally agreed to
work for him, but a day later I got a bet-
ter offer from Mintz and decided to take
that. When I called Walt up and told
him, there was silence for a while.
Finally he said, "Well, okay, but you'll
be very sorry." And I was. Because I
should have gone with him right then
and there. I would have had a better
time, and I'd have enjoyed working in
the business with a real genius.
Although I must say the money he
offered wasn't nearly comparable to
what Mintz was going to pay me.
 We did Scrappy and Toby the Pup for
Mintz. The first series we did was Toby
the Pup. Sort of a nondescript character.
A little black beast, that walked on its
hind legs, and had a big mop of black
hair. A weird dog-like thing with long
ears. I don't believe there are any of
these still in existence.
  Adamson: Was he sympathetic?
Who created him?
  Huemer: Sid Marcus created him. He
and I came out to start the series. We
had left Fleischer's together. And when
Mintz moved his New York operation
to Caliiornia, we went along with him,
and started Toby the Pup. Mintz also
brought Harrison and Gould out here to
continue Krazy Kat, which they had
been doing. Both series ran concur-
rently.
  Sid Marcus and I directed and did our
own stories. But we also had to animate
at the same time. Once we'd roughly
laid the picture out, and timed it, why,
there wasn't much else but to animate
it. After all, we were still our best
animators, certainly better than any
neophytes we could then hire. Harrison
and Gould did the same. They animated
most of their Krazy Kats.
  Adamson: Did you have pre-
recorded sound?
  Huemer: Yes, occasionally.
  Adamson: So, you were pretty
sophisticated by this time.
  Huemer: Yes, technically we were
comparable to all the other studios.
After I left Mintz, they went on for
many years doing Krazy Kat and
Scrappy mostly. So my leaving didn't
ruin them.
  Adamson: What did you think of
what you turned out at this time?
  Huemer: Not much. Some of the
Scrappys were all right. But they didn't
compare to Disney's cartoons. Let's put
it that way.
  I went with Mintz in 1930, and stayed
until 1933. When Mintz tried to pare our
salaries during the Depression we
decided to strike. And so I left Mintz.
But instead of going on strike, I went
over to Disney's at last. I had greatly
regretted turning him down, as he had
predicted.
  Adamson: Was there much
difference in salary?
  Huemer: There was quite a come-
down in salary for me -- almost half.
Walt was not one for paying big salaries
at that time. I'm sure he would have but
he couldn't afford it.
  Adamson: Mintz was?
  Huemer: Mintz was, simply because I
had the reputation of being one of the
experienced men he would need to start
a new project. He underpaid the rest of
the staff as did everybody else, in those
pre-union days.
  Adamson: What was it like, working
for Mintz?
  Huemer: In some ways very agree-
able. Sid and I as well as Harrison and
Gould had complete freedom to ani-
mate whatever ideas came to us. You
see, there were two kinds of producers
in our business. There were the guys
who had come up from the animation
board and were therefore completely
creative in a technical sense. Men like
Disney, and the Fleischers, and Terry,
and so forth. And then there were the
businessmen and promoters who were
conversant with the infighting tactics of
the motion picture jungle. Men who
knew how to wangle releases and take
care of the headaches that more crea-
tive people find so hard to deal with.
Mintz was such a promoter, and a
damned competent one. So as long as
we delivered on time and appeared to
be doing a good job he left us pretty
much alone. So I must say that besides
the fact that I secretly kind of longed to
go with Disney, my years with Charlie
Mintz—if not artistically a triumph—
were at least pleasant. [END]

 

From Funnyworld, No. 16, Winter 1974-75. © 1975 by J. Michael Barrier, by whose permission this article is reprinted. Read Mike's new book, Hollywood Cartoons, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999.

 

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