Walter Lantz Productions - History

History

The studio was formed originally as Universal Studio Cartoons on the initiative of Universal movie mogul Carl Laemmle, who was tired of the continuous company politics he was dealing with concerning contracting cartoons to outside animation studios. Walter Lantz, who was Laemmle's part-time chauffeur and a veteran of the John R. Bray Studios with considerable experience in all elements of animation production, was selected to run the department.

In 1935, the studio was severed from Universal and became Walter Lantz Productions under Lantz's direct control, and in 1940 Lantz managed to gain the copyright for his characters. The cartoons continued to be distributed by Universal through 1947, changing to United Artists distribution in 1948-49, and by Universal again from 1951 to 1972.

Walter Lantz began his cartoon in 1929. But by 1935, control of Universal was slipping from the hands of founder Carl Laemmle and his family. Financial difficulties, the spending habits of Carl Laemmle, Jr. (who headed Universal since 1928), and the production of the costly and lavish remake of the 1929 part-talkie musical Show Boat all contributed to the downfall of the Laemmle regime. By the end of the year, the stockholders had had enough. The Laemmles were finally forced out and John Cheever Cowdin became Universal's new president. With the change in management, Lantz seized the opportunity to ask Universal for permission to make his studio independent. Universal agreed and on November 16, 1935, Lantz broke off and claimed the studio for his own, even though it remained on the Universal lot.

By 1940, when the studio starting to use Technicolor produced some clashes between Lantz and the management at Universal Pictures, whom didn't like that their animation department was offering an apparently better output than their features, so they decided to cut in early 1940 Lantz's weekly advance. This left Lantz scrambling for alternative sources for funds, forcing him to shut down the studio for a while. Crazy House, a Andy Panda cartoon was produced during the closure and is recognized as Lantz's first fully independent cartoon. He later managed to secure a seven-year contract with Universal and reopened shop again.

In 1947, Lantz went to renegotiate his seven-year Universal contract with Matty Fox, The New Universal's Vice President. But the deal was interrupted when new ownership transformed the company into Universal-International and did away with most of Universal's company policies. The new management insisted on getting licensing and merchandising rights to Lantz's characters. Lantz refused and withdrew from the parent company by the end of 1947, releasing 12 cartoons independently through United Artists during 1948, into the beginning of 1949.

Under the deal with United Artists, Lantz was supposed to receive percentages of box-office receipts to pay for the production costs of his cartoons. Unfortunately, UA attributed a very small portion of the dollar amounts to Lantz's shorts from the features. The result was that Lantz exceeded his standing loan of $250,000 from Bank of America (he had left Irving Trust in 1942). It did not help that UA was, at the time, a struggling studio attempting to reestablish its position in the industry. So, at the recommendation of BAC president Joe Rosenberg, Lantz decided to temporarily shut down his studio until the loan was reduced. He would then ask Universal to reissue his older films during the hiatus, a request that was accepted by Universal President Nate Blumberg.

In 1950, the Walter Lantz studio opened its doors once again. The first effort the studio put out was a brief sequence featuring Woody Woodpecker for the George Pal feature Destination Moon released on June 27, 1950 Lantz then renegotiated with Universal for seven cartoons to be released the following year, provided that they all feature Woody Woodpecker. Lantz and his crew immediately set to work on the new batch of shorts. It should be noted that two of these new films – Puny Express and Sleep Happy – were previously storyboarded by Ben Hardaway and Heck Allen during the United Artists period. In 1951, the new cartoons were finally released and became instant hits with audiences. They were so successful, in fact, that Universal commissioned six more shorts for the following year. Overall, 1951 marked the beginning of a new era for the Walter Lantz studio.

During the 50s Because of the practice, the theatrical cartoon business was suffering and losing money. By 1956 there were only seven animation producers in the short-subjects business, and by the end of the decade that number would dwindle down to three. Walter Lantz and his distributor, Universal Pictures, knew that the only way to subsidize the rising costs of new shorts was to release their product to television. Norman Gluck from Universal's short-subjects department made a deal with the Leo Burnett Agency to release some older Lantz product on television. Burnett handled the Kellogg's cereal account, and Lantz soon met with the Kellogg's people to sign the contract. Lantz admitted that he was only working in the medium because he was “forced into TV” and “cartoons for theaters would soon be extinct.”

The Woody Woodpecker Show debuted on ABC on the afternoon of October 3, 1957. The series was seen once a week, on Thursday afternoons, replacing the first half hour of the shortened Mickey Mouse Club. Lantz integrated his existing cartoons with new live action footage, giving the show an updated look that satisfied both viewers and Lantz himself. The live action & animation segments created for the show, called ‘A Moment with Walter Lantz’, featured an informative look at how the animation process for his “cartunes” worked as well as how the writers came up with stories and characters. The live-action segments were directed by Jack Hannah, who was fresh from the Disney Studio where he had done similar live-action/animation sequences for the Disney show.

By the 1960s other movie studios had discontinued their animation departments, leaving Walter Lantz as one of the only two producers still making cartoons for theaters (the other studio was DePatie-Freleng Enterprises).

From 1967 to the studio's closure in 1972, Universal distributed the Lantz cartoons as packages, and theaters would play them in no particular order. Lantz finally closed up shop in 1972 (by then, he later explained, it was economically impossible to continue producing them and stay in business as rising inflation had strained his profits), and Universal serviced the remaining demand with reissues of his older cartoons. Bye Bye Blackboard, a Woody Woodpecker cartoon was part of the final slate of cartoons made at the Walter Lantz studio. Thirteen were completed for the 1972 season: one with Chilly Willy, four starring the Beary Family, and the rest with Lantz' star character, Woody Woodpecker. Upon discovering that it would take a decade for his shorts to show a profit, Lantz himself decided to shut down company operations, and threw a farewell luncheon with his staff at the announcement.

The biggest characters for the studio were Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Chilly Willy, and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The music-oriented Swing Symphony cartoons were another successful staple, but ended after swing music dried out.

Throughout the studio's history, it maintained a reputation as an animation house of medium quality. Lantz's animated shorts (dubbed "Cartunes") were considered superior to those of Famous Studios and Terrytoons, but they never gained the artistic acclaim of Disney, Warner Bros., MGM, or UPA. However, the studio benefited from gaining talent from the other studios who were tired of the management there and usually found the Lantz studio a more enjoyable working environment. Tex Avery was just one of the many talents Walter Lantz Productions benefited from on the rebound.

After Disney's success with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Lantz studio planned to make its own feature, Aladdin and His Lamp featuring the comedy duo of Abbott and Costello, but after Mr. Bug Goes to Town failed at the box office, it never made it to actual production.