Print Cartoons by Pioneer Animators: The Sports Cartoons of H.M. "Jerry" Shields

             Hugh Michael "Jerry" Shields (1884-1939) was the king of the "crude but funny" style among the first gen. animators in NYC. He had a lifelong reputation as a hard drinker, fast worker, and talented cartoonist. However, he was actually one of the very first men working in the animation business, and an important and tragic figure in the Terry brothers story.

                                                           Oakland Tribune, 1/16/1910

                                                    
                                                            Oakland Tribune, 1/15/1910

           Born and raised in Oakland, California, Shields was the son of Irish immigrants and grew up a farm boy. On the 1910 Census, he was listed as a lodger in an apartment in Alameda County. His occupation was listed as newspaper cartoonist. At the time, he was drawing sports cartoons and some more realistic illustration for the local Oakland Tribune.


                                                             Oakland Tribune, 2/23/1910

                              
                                                               Oakland Tribune, 2/27/1910

            Around 1911, Shields met John Coleman Terry (1880-1934) and began experimenting with animation. Art Babbitt, who worked with both men in the early 1930s, recalled their early process:  “Original drawings were laid flat on the ground and shot in sunlight. There were no pegholes for registry. The period of Jerry Shields was about 1911". Terry and Shields formed the Movca Film Service in September 1914, claiming to possess “an invention that is claimed to be a great improvement over present methods in the manufacture of comic cartoon films.”

                                                          Oakland Tribune, 2/6/1910

               
                                  This one (above) actually stars a caricature of Shields. Cool!


                                                         Oakland Tribune, 3/27/1910

                       
             In 1916, John Terry moved Movca to NYC and brought along Shields and fellow San Fransisco newspaper cartoonist Gustavo Bronstrup as animators. Bronstrup returned to California when Movca folded, but Shields and Terry stuck around New York, incorporating a new studio with the properties and staff of Hearst's recently defunct International Film Service in late 1918. In the early 1920s, John Terry's little brother Paul hired Shields away to animate for his new Aesop's Fables studio. He stayed with Paul Terry for the remainder of his career.

                                                            Oakland Tribune, 4/30/1910

                                                        
                                                        Oakland Tribune, 5/8/1910

          In 1929, Paul Terry left Fables to found the Terrytoons studio with partner Frank Moser, and Shields was one of the few animators who followed. As the 30s wore on, young animators at Terrytoons such as Bill Tytla, Jack Zander, and Connie Rasinski came into their own, turning out complex footage utilizing then new animation principles such as overlapping action. In contrast, Shields' Terrytoon footage of the 1930s seems frozen in the early 1910s style, and looks more and more out of place every year. While some would call his work sub par, others such as myself find Shields' style of drawing and timing funny, personal, and expressive. I tend to think of him as something of a "funky folk animator".

         
         Sadly, the aging Shields of the late 1930's seemed to take his percieved inferior abilities as an artist quite hard, and this, coupled with his alcoholism, led to a deep depression. Note that in the February 6th 1910 cartoon Shields draws himself jumping off a tall building, something he actually did on May 31st 1939. Spooky.

Monkey Doodle 2: Horse Cops

Horse Cops (Van Beuren, 1931) is one weird cartoon. It's the only fable/VB cartoon to give Director credit to John McManus, who'd been at fables since the Terry era.  Most interesting though, is that the last minute appears to have been farmed out to his brother in law, Les Elton. It even seems to include the same voice actor who did the Yiddish monkeys in "Monkey Doodle".  My guess: this was some kind of contractual obligation that VB had to turn out quickly, explaining the short run time as well as the odd credits. 

                                 Watch it here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVEkiuHUF-8

Heavy Press for Fables Cartoons in 1921/1922

        Newly formed U.S. distributor Pathe Exchange began releasing Paul Terry’s Aesop’s Film Fables in May 1921, and seemed determined to make sure it would be a successful series that would run for many years. This was ensured through payoffs to theater managers of the Keith Albee chain, and heaving advertising, particularly in New York papers. Some of these press snippets portray Paul Terry as a sort of wise cracking character, likely the work of freelance gag writers that were kept on the Fables payroll, a tradition that lasted into the John Foster era.

                                                          NY Tribune 6/19/1921

“Mice in Council” is the second offering of the animated cartoon series of “Aesops Fables Modernized” created by the cartoonist Paul Terry and produced by Fables Pictures. It has been set for release by Pathe June 26. The marvelous skill of the artist in animating his subjects is further enhanced by his sense of humor, giving the animals human attributes, and having them perform antics of a highly imaginative sort.

 

NY Tribune 6/26/1921

“The Rooster and the Eagle”

Owing to the great interest due to the approaching international bout between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier, Pathe has scheduled “The Rooster and the Eagle”, of the animated cartoon series, “Aesop’s Fables Modernized”, for release July 3, the day following the big fight. The offering, produced by Fables Pictures, has a boxing bout, cleverly conceived by cartoonist Paul Terry, and settles the fistic championship in the animal kingdom. “The Rooster” is the Georges Carpentier of the picture, showing France’s national bird, Chanticleer, in action in the squared circle of the barnyard. Jack Dempsey, America’s champion, is represented by “The Eagle”, and enters the fray with triumphant results.

(As the cartoon predicted, Jack Dempsey easily won his fight against Carpentier, which took place July 2nd 1921 at Boyle’s Thirty Acres in Jersey City, a huge wooden arena built especially for the fight- CJ)

NY Evening World 10/31/1921

Just the Name!

Paul Terry, cartoonist, encountered a chemist friend recently. “You’ve cartooned a lot of insects in your film fables,” said the chemist. “GIve me a name for my new compound. It is a terror to insects.” “Why not call it Bugaboo?” asked Terry.

NY Evening World 11/5/1921

Screenings, By Don Allen

Paul Terry, the cartoonist who draws all the funny animals and humans for “Aesop’s Film Fables” is called upon to answer many queer questions every day. The average film fan knows nothing whatever about the mechanics of animated cartoons, so he asks Terry. “Some one asked me the other day why I put more animals than humans in my drawings” said Terry. “I answered in the words of the butcher, who was asked how much horse meat he put in his rabbit sausage and said “Fifty-fifty - one rabbit and one horse.” “That’s as near as I could come to answering that questioner”.

NY Evening World 3/10/1922

Screenings, By Don Allen

SAUCE FOR THE GEESES

Ran into Paul Terry, the film cartoonist, who draws all sorts of things for Aesop’s Film Fables, yesterday, and he proudly handed us the following essay on Geese. He says it was written by a young nephew. Judge for yourself: “Geese is a low heavy-set bird composed mostly of meat and feathers. His head sets on one end and he sets on the other. A geese can’t sing much on account of the dampness of the moisture. There ain’t no between to his toes and he carries a toy balloon in his stomach to keep him from sinking. Some geese when they get big are called ganders and have curls to their tails. Ganders don’t have to set and hatch, but they just loaf and go swimmin’ and eat. If I was a geese I’d rather be a gander.”

NY Evening World 6/24/1922

REPARTEE

Paul Terry, who draws those clever “Aesop’s Film Fables” and Major Jack Allen, the wild animal roper, were casting repartee back and forth in the studio yesterday. “I suppose you’re a native son of Terryville, Conn.” opined the Major. “No” answered Terry, “I’m from a different Terry-torry.” “I’m from Baltimore” quipped Major Jack. “Oh,” shot back the cartoonist, “I thought they named Allentown, Pa., after you.” Then the radios became crossed and we heard no more.

NY Evening World 7/5/1922

Paul Terry, who pens “Aesop’s Film Fables” for the screen, acted as best man for Herb Roth, the newspaper artist, when Herb stepped into double harness recently.

NY Evening World 7/13/1922

Paul Terry, the screen cartoonist, has drawn so many of Aesop’s Film Fables that he
talks in epigrams.

NY Evening World 10/6/1922

Oh! Oh!

Paul Terry, the film cartoonist, was yesterday joyously showing about the copy of an essay on “The Frog” written by a Chicago school boy, and sent to the artist by a school teacher friend. Here’s what the boy wrote: “What a wonderful bird the frog are! When he stand he sit, almost! When he hop he fly, almost. He ain’t got no sense, hardly! When he sit he stand, almost!” Reads something like a subtitles, doesn’t it?


Next: NY animation pioneer profiles: John Foster 

                            Above: Henry Cat and the Pathe Rooster celebrate their anniversary in a 1925 ad.

A Terrytoon Xmas

Here are some rare christmas cards by various Terrytoon artists, some better known than others. These were copied from originals owned by animator "Red" Auguston, who received them while animating at Terrytoons in the late 1930s and early 40s. Thanks Red!


                                                                         Bill Bailey 

Bill Weiss 

Director "Connie" Rasinski

Storyman Don Figlozzi

Animator Jose Carreon

John Phelps

Rocco Alietto

Conductor and Composer Phil Scheib

Storyman Al Stahl 

Two Studio Cards

Paul Terry (the lettering on the tags on the tree looks like Paul's handwriting)

Carlo Vinci (dated 1937)

And one more from the Terrys. 

Comparison: Vet Anderson as Animator and Print Cartoonist

Probably one of my favorite animators is Jesse "Vet" Anderson (1875-1966), a cartoonist who carried his wild, gritty drawing style with him all throughout his long career. Here's a complete run (minus one example which has already been posted online) of his wild strip "Hardy Hiram" from the NY Herald, 1902. Sorry about the poor quality, I was working from ancient microfilm and sometimes this is the best you can do.

And here's a few of his stylish caricatures, from the same paper, same year:

Now here's some framegrabs of Vet's wild animation. It really has to be seen to believed.... the way he moves his characters around really sticks out like a sore but wonderful thumb. I immediately noticed it when I began watching the Lantz Oswalds, but didn't realize it was Vet's work until I saw the same style in a few scenes of Ted Eshbaugh's Wizard of Oz cartoon on which Vet is credited. Soon after I started to notice his work in earlier Fleischer and Aesop's Fables cartoons. 

Vet's scene in "The Hair Mail" (Lantz, 1931) 

Does the expression above look familliar to you? 

That's because he'd been using it for at least 30 years. Don't ya love the way the guy draws mouths?

Typical Anderson beasts in "The Fisherman" and "The Clown" (Lantz, Both 1931) 

Some Horrifying Vet scenes from "Grandma's Pet" (Lantz, 1931)

      This is the kind of footage only a grizzled, 56 year old veteran of the Spanish-American War could turn out.

                                           Lastly, here's some of Vet's animation for other studios:

                                        Vet scene in Ted Eshbaugh's "The Wizard of Oz" (1933)

And this quick scene in "Hide and Seek" (Fleischer, 1931) looks like Anderson to me.