Out of the Inkwell: Max Fleischer and the Animation Revolution

14. Because of Max and Dave’s personalities

Richard Fleischer 87 14 Because of Max and Dave’s personalities, Fleischer Studios was a wonderful, happy place to work. Max brought it great paternalistic warmth. He loved the studio and everyone in it, and they loved him back. Dave supplied the fun, the laughter, the devilry. The studio was a place of great camaraderie. Practical jokes were nonstop. The bowling club was extremely popular, and Max never missed an opportunity to play with the gang. Adding to the general feeling of friendliness was the treatment of all employees, particularly women. In the early 1930s, a time when women in animation studios were limited to the simplest, most menial jobs, with virtually no hope of rising beyond a managerial position, Fleischer Studios employed Lillian Friedman, the first woman animator, and two in-betweeners (assistant animators), Lillian Oremland and Edith Vernick, who later also became an animator. Another reason for the employees’ almost fanatical loyalty 88 Out of the Inkwell to the studio was also one of the things Max was most proud of: no one ever had to ask for a raise. Every employee automatically received one every six months. Bonuses and prizes were issued every year at the giant Christmas party, to which everyone was invited. My sister, Ruth, also worked at the studio and, in an interview with Mike Barrier, described it this way: “Nobody ate lunch; we all went to a big room and played poker. That was fun; I liked that. Then we went to Yorkville, the German area in New York; we used to go there to one particular beer garden on Saturday night—Keller’s, upstairs—and have the most fantastic parties. When Bill Turner got drunk, the first thing he did was the German dances, with these big German guys.” There was always a feeling of fun and conviviality at the studio. Even getting hospitalized was great sport since the animators always sent handmade get-well cards that were always hilarious—and almost always bawdy. Ruth says that when she met her future husband, the animator Seymour Kneitel, at the studio, the whole place avidly followed the romance. If she had a date with somebody else, nobody would talk to her the next day. She also points out that, in his office, Dave had a direct wire to the racetrack and a stockmarket ticker going all the time. He also kept a bookie in his office, and, what with the animators running in and out all day, it really became a betting parlor. The bookie was the most popular person in the studio. As far as Max was concerned, what went on outside the business was none of his concern. In fact, he approved of “his kids” whooping it up after work. But what was going on with Dave during business hours was something else. The bookie, Richard Fleischer 89 the stock ticker, Dave’s attitude and behavior, it all began to irritate Max. But, rather than cause friction between them, he didn’t make an issue of it. There was no question about it, however. The studio was one big happy family of almost 250 employees. Or so it seemed. Talk of unionization had been bandied about the studio for a few years without much interest being stirred. Everyone seemed satisfied with working conditions. Salaries, by the standards of the period, were in keeping with Disney’s and the other animation houses. It was with some surprise, therefore, that in April 1935 all the studio personnel received a pamphlet from an organization calling itself Animated Motion Picture Workers Union. It was, apparently, a fiery document calling for the employees to rise up and take over the studio. It also made a scurrilous attack on Max, blaming him for such poor working conditions, low wages, and long working hours that one employee, Dan Glass, died of tuberculosis as a consequence. The Dan Glass affair blew over when it was revealed in the monthly studio paper, Fleischer’s Animated News, that Max had been very concerned about Glass’s health and had, among other things, sent him on a week’s vacation at a New Jersey resort, all expenses paid. He had also organized a relief fund for financially distressed workers of which Glass was the first beneficiary. The Animated Motion Picture Workers Union was pretty much of a bust and got exactly nowhere with Fleischer Studios. However, the studio itself was...