Postby Frank Flood » Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:56 pm
In the 1925 or so period, there were not too many animators in Los Angeles. Most of the professionals were in New York working for J.R. Bray, Paul Terry (Aesop's Fables), Max Fleischer (Out of the Inkwell), Pat Sullivan (Felix), Bill Nolan (Krazy Kat) and the like. Walt Disney was unusual for setting up an animation studio in California in this era, but it probably speaks more to his ambitions to make live action comedies. In this early stage, he probably did not plan on becoming, well, Walt Disney. If Disney had done any animation work for Sennett in this period, we probably would know about it.
Lantz ended up out west a year or two later not to animate, but to make comedies for Bray, whose cartoon business had withered away. If I recall correctly, Walter worked at both Sennett and Roach after Bray, and ended up doing some work at Universal (on The Gumps?), which led to his return to cartoons. It would not be surprising for him to have knocked off a little animation at the same time.
The Bray comedies seem to be a mishmash of films from a number of different producers, including Joe Rock after he had been supplanted at Standard Cinema/FBO by Larry Darmour. Were some of these pick ups of unreleased comedies? There were some experienced comics like Jack Cooper, Andy Clyde, William Irving, Wanda Wiley, Perry Murdock, Buddy Messinger and Lew Sargent involved, and mystery films like HER SALTY SUITOR, written by the well known scenarist, X. Spence. Obscure.
Frank