Toby the Pup cartoons on video?

[Pietro]

I was just looking online and found this interesting video called "Cultoons! Volume 1". Not only does it contain the rare Ub Iwerks ComiColor, "Little Black Sambo" or the rare, cult Van Beuren cartoon, "Goofy Goat Antics." But, I also noticed that they listed two cartoons, "The Museum" and "The Snow Man." Could these be the Toby the Pup cartoons?
Click here to look at it (http://www.facets.org/sysbin/asticat.cgi?function=buyitem&catname=facets&catnum=16767&next_href=javascript:history.go(-2);)

-Pietro

[Sogturtle]

Pietro~

One out of two ain't bad... "The Museum" is indeed a Toby the Pup cartoon by Dick Huemer, Sid Marcus and our beloved ART DAVIS. At the time the tape was made it was the only KNOWN surviving "Toby". (A couple more have turned up now overseas). This is the only one though on any tape, anywhere. "The Snowman" is a truly weird cartoon about a hellish snowman by Ted Eshbaugh made at his own independent studio... Eshbaugh is remembered as an authentic maverick who would also make the unique 3-color "Wizard Of Oz" (musical score by our Carl Stalling) with borrowed early Schlesinger, Lantz & Disney animators. He's also the auteur of the mini-classic "The Sunshine Makers" and the banned short "Cap'n Cub (Blasts The Japs)"!!! This last one and a b & w print of "Wizard of Oz" are also on the same Cultoon tape.

[Nelson]

Supposedly, there is only about two or three TOBY THE PUP cartoons that survive intact.The UCLA FILM AMD TELEVISON ARCHIVE, has one complete fully restored "Toby" cartoon in 35mm in their vault, but I forgot the title of the short.The "Toby" cartoons were produced by Charles Mintz and was released by RKO/RADIO PICTURES and the VAN BUEREN STUDIOS. Sid Marcus and Dick Huemer were the lead animators in the series.

[Pietro]

Originally posted by Sogturtle
Pietro~

One out of two ain't bad... "The Museum" is indeed a Toby the Pup cartoon by Dick Huemer, Sid Marcus and our beloved ART DAVIS. At the time the tape was made it was the only KNOWN surviving "Toby". (A couple more have turned up now overseas). This is the only one though on any tape, anywhere. "The Snowman" is a truly weird cartoon about a hellish snowman by Ted Eshbaugh made at his own independent studio... Eshbaugh is remembered as an authentic maverick who would also make the unique 3-color "Wizard Of Oz" (musical score by our Carl Stalling) with borrowed early Schlesinger, Lantz & Disney animators. He's also the auteur of the mini-classic "The Sunshine Makers" and the banned short "Cap'n Cub (Blasts The Japs)"!!! This last one and a b & w print of "Wizard of Oz" are also on the same Cultoon tape.

Jerry Beck told me that Ted was behind the 1934 Van Beuren cartoon, "Goofy Goat Antics." I think he came to Van Beuren shortly before Burt Gillett arrived. Ted left after he directed "The Sunshine Makers." 1934 is the correct release year of "Goofy Goat Antics," it's not 1931 nor is it 1933.

-Pietro

[Sogturtle]

Nelson and Pietro~

The print of "The Museum" (aka "Toby In The Museum") is minus the original title card and credits, and appears to be complete to the closing iris-out, but "THE END" title card is missing. As it stands it runs 5 minutes and 15 seconds plus the opening music and new title card made by Snappy. Thus it is complete save for these exceptions...

The cartoon looks INCREDIBLY like an early Fleischer Bimbo cartoon... And why not??? Since Huemer, Marcus and Davis were all former Fleischer-ites!! With that title-card gone you all but think you're watching a Bimbo toon! All three men animated on the Toby series but in all likelihood Huemer and Marcus were indeed the directors with Arthur Davis as lead animator. When the series died then Davis became a co-director with them on the Scrappy's for Mintz/Columbia. I honestly can't remember where the other two Toby's were found...

Eshbaugh came to Van Buren just before or around the same time as Gillette... Big mistake... Shamus Culhane and Joe Barbera both remember Gillette as an incredibly volatile (okay, unbalanced) boss. Jim Tyer was demoted from director to storyman (or so it seems) to make room for Gillette's pal TOM PALMER (fresh from his Schlesinger debacle). When Eshbaugh left he was briefly replaced by the very talented Culhane (newly arrived from sunshiney California). Incredibly Culhane thought Van Buren under Gillette looked much more promising than Iwerks' studio had!!! Shamus would eventually be terrified into running from the studio fearful for his life at the hands of Burt Gillette! Where Ted Eshbaugh had sought refuge in this period is a mystery to me. Gillette returned briefly to Disney then moseyed over to Lantz, and after leaving there reportedly lived out most of his life confined to a mental institution... Don't know if that is true or not...

If 1934 is indeed the year of release for Eshbaugh's RKO-Van Buren toon "Goofy Goat Antics" then it creates some strange anomalies... Because "Goofy Goat..." has the look of an early-thirties New York Van Buren effort, verrrrry simple designs and gags (G.G. honks his car horn, then removes and blows his own horns!). It is a very simple tale (story is inappropriate) of Goofy Goat driving to, and then arriving and participating in a recital/concert. Eshbaugh's 1933 independent "Wizard of Oz" features much more advanced animation and designs as well as story construction (course he had books to base the toon on). "Wizard..." was almost without a doubt made on the West Coast (Jerry Beck agrees with me on this), so we have to ask the question whether Eshbaugh had moved west and then back east in 1934, or did he have the animation done through the mail?? I'll put a strange theory forth here... His "Wizard of Oz" (to me) looks VERY MUCH like a "for hire" cartoon made by the early Schlesinger studio. The presence of Leon's animators Bill Mason, Frank Tipper, and Cal Dalton buttreses this strange notion... If it's not a "for hire" cartoon then the animators were moonlighting, and Schlesinger was the guy with all the non-compete clauses inserted into everybody's contracts with him... But don't know if he had those clauses in place in 1933. Either way we end up with Ted Eshbaugh directing a group of Schlesinger animators in a color cartoon that never got released theatrically.

[Sogturtle]

Was just looking at a Toby the Pup poster, this would make a great opening title card for "The Museum"... Interestingly enough down at the bottom it says "by Dick Huemer and Sid Marcus in collaboration with Artie Davis"!!! Soooo Art was ranking a name-check even on the posters!