Bray Productions

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Bray Studios
)

Not to be confused with
Bray Studios (UK)
.
Bray Productions
Company typeAnimation
IndustryMotion pictures
PredecessorEmile Cohl Pictures
Founded1912; 112 years ago (1912)
FounderJohn Randolph Bray
Defunct1928; 96 years ago (1928)
FateBankruptcy
SuccessorWalter Lantz Productions
Bolivar Productions
Out of the Inkwell Studios
Headquarters
New York
,
United States
Key people
John Randolph Bray
Earl Hurd
Paul Terry
Max Fleischer
Dave Fleischer
Walter Lantz
OwnerJohn Randolph Bray

Bray Productions was a pioneering American

interwar era,[1][2][3] becoming a springboard for several key animators of the 20th century, including the Fleischer brothers, Walter Lantz, Paul Terry, Shamus Culhane and Grim Natwick
among others.

History

The studio was founded sometime before 1912 by

Carl Anderson, later known for the comic strip Henry
, directed The Police Dog from the beginning of the company.

The year 1915 brought Earl Hurd and Paul Terry; the former became J. R. Bray's business partner and directed Bobby Bumps, the latter was employed under duress and directed Farmer Al Falfa. The brothers Max and Dave Fleischer joined in 1916. In 1918, the rival International Film Service studio folded and owner William Randolph Hearst licensed Bray to continue the IFS series, which included Jerry on the Job films adapted from Walter Hoban's comic strip. Many staff members of the former studio transferred to Bray, and most of the new cartoons were directed by the same man who directed them for IFS, Gregory La Cava.[citation needed]

Bray's goal was to have four units working on four cartoons at any one time; since it took a month to complete a film, four units with staggered schedules produced one cartoon a week for use of the "screen magazines" (a one-reel collection of live-action didactic pieces and travelogs in addition to the cartoon, that was played before the feature). Bray started with Pathé as his distributor, switched to Paramount in 1916, and then switched to Goldwyn Pictures in 1919.

Of the units, one produced his Colonel Heeza Liar, one produced Hurd's Bobby Bumps, and one produced non-series cartoons, usually topical commentaries on the news directed by Leighton Budd, J. D. Leventhal, and others. The fourth unit was the one that kept changing hands. It produced Terry's Farmer Al Falfa in 1916, until Terry left a year later, and the Farmer went with him. It then produced Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell until 1921, when Fleischer left, taking Koko the Clown with him. The influx of IFS series at the same time broke up the four-unit system — in 1920 there were ten series going simultaneously, with Heeza Liar in hiatus from 1917.

Bray was constantly looking to expand his studio. He financed the semi-independent studio of

U.S. Army. These did so well that after the war, Bray was swamped with orders from the government and big business to make films for them.[citation needed
]

Over a period of years, Bray moved the focus of his company from entertainment to education, putting Leventhal and E. Dean Parmelee in charge of the technical department. Dr. Rowland Rogers became educational director, while Jamison "Jam" Handy was put in charge of a Chicago–Detroit branch for creating films for the auto industry, Bray's largest private client.

Poster for a 1926 Bray Studios film short, Monkeys Prefer Blondes

The 1919 move from Paramount to Goldwyn also included a re-incorporation of the studio, now called Bray Pictures Corporation. The studio was putting out more than three reels of screen magazines per week, as well as educational and training films. Bray Pictures also made the first cartoon made in color,

Walt Lantz (co-producer/director) and Hugo Riesenfeld (composer) in 1927 for Movietone, in between the releases of Don Juan and The Jazz Singer
and coincidentally shortly before Bray Pictures' demise.

The expenses quickly outweighed the revenue, and in January 1920,

Goldwyn Picture Corporation
, with two cartoons released a week, which meant a much bigger workload than most were willing to take.

The result was a massive exodus of talent, including Max Fleischer and even Earl Hurd, which also led to an increasingly poor output which led Goldwyn to drop Bray Pictures. In the wake of this setback, Vernon Stallings took over as Bray's entertainment production supervisor, being replaced by Walter Lantz by 1924. Stallings directed Krazy Kat and the revival of Heeza Liar, while Lantz directed Dinky Doodle. Among the big names who passed through the studio were Wallace Carlson, Milt Gross, Frank Moser, Burt Gillett, Grim Natwick, Raoul Barré, Pat Sullivan, Jack King, David Hand, Clyde Geronimi and Shamus Culhane.

J.R. Bray paid little attention to the animation side of things during the 1920s, focusing instead on beating

automobile
industry, as an independent entity from 1928 until 1983. Max Fleischer, after being ousted from his own studio in the early 1940s, worked for Handy and later on Brayco in the 1940s and 1950s.

Series produced by Bray Productions

  • Colonel Heeza Liar (1913–1917, 1922–1924): directed by J. R. Bray 1913–1917; Vernon Stallings 1922–1924[4]
  • The Police Dog (1914–1916, 1918): directed by C. T. Anderson[5]
  • The Trick Kids (1916): directed by Alexander Leggett[6]
  • Plastiques (1916): directed by Ashley Miller
  • Bobby Bumps (1916–1922): directed by Earl Hurd[7]
  • Farmer Al Falfa (1916–1917): directed by Paul Terry[8]
  • Silhouette Fantasies (1916): directed by C. Allen Gilbert[9]
  • Miss Nanny Goat (1916–1917): directed by Clarence Rigby[10]
  • Quacky Doodles (1917): directed by F.M. Follett[11]
  • Picto Puzzles (1917): Sam Lloyd
  • Otto Luck (1917): directed by Wallace A. Carlson[12]
  • Goodrich Dirt (1917–1919): directed by Wallace A. Carlson[13]
  • Out of the Inkwell (1918–1921): directed by Max Fleischer and Dave Fleischer
  • Hardrock Dome (1919): directed by Pat Sullivan[14]
  • Us Fellers (1919–1920): directed by Wallace A. Carlson[15]
  • Jerry on the Job (1919–1922): directed by Gregory La Cava, Vernon Stallings, (Inherited from International Film Service)[16]
  • Lampoons (1920): directed by Burt Gillett[17]
  • Ginger Snaps (1920): directed by Milt Gross
  • Shenanigan Kids (1920): directed by Gregory La Cava, Burt Gillett, and Grim Natwick (Inherited from International Film Service)[18]
  • Krazy Kat (1920–1921): directed by Vernon Stallings (Inherited from International Film Service)[19]
  • Happy Hooligan (1920–1921): directed by Gregory La Cava, Bill Nolan (Inherited from International Film Service)[20]
  • Judge Rummy (1920–21): directed by Gregory La Cava, Burt Gillett, Grim Natwick and Jack King (Inherited from International Film Service)[21]
  • Technical Romances (1922–1923): directed by J.A. Norling, Ashley Miller, and F. Lyle Goldman[22]
  • Ink Ravings (1922–1923): directed by Milt Gross[23]
  • Bray Magazine (1922–1923): directed by Milt Gross
  • Dinky Doodle (1924–1926): directed by Walter Lantz[24]
  • Un-Natural History (1925–1927): directed by Walter Lantz and Clyde Geronimi[25]
  • Hot Dog Cartoons (1926–1927): directed by Walter Lantz and Clyde Geronimi
  • A McDougall Alley Comedy (1926–1928): directed by Joe Rock, Stan DeLay and Robert Wilcox

References

  1. ISBN 0-226-11667-0
    (2nd edition, paperback, 1993)
  2. ISBN 0-89950-460-4
    (library binding, 1990)
  3. ISBN 0-452-25993-2
    (1980, 1987)
  4. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  5. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  6. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  7. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  8. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  9. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  10. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  11. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  12. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  13. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  14. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  15. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  16. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  17. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  18. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  19. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  20. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  21. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  22. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  23. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  24. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  25. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7
    . Retrieved June 6, 2020.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bray_Productions&oldid=1218704109"