JERRY
BECK INTERVIEW: WRITING ABOUT ANIMATION'S RICH HISTORY
By Shannon Muir
Originally
published at this site
***
First off, I wondered what got Jerry
specifically interested in the history of animation. "When I was a comic book addict teenager,"
he replied, "I
noticed that the Bugs Bunny cartoons on TV seemed funnier than I thought they
were when I was a kid. The more I watched, the more I couldn't believe how
great these cartoon masterpieces were." Jerry later decided to make a career out of documenting the medium's
rich history. "After falling in
love with the Looney Tunes in my teenage years, I tried to read more about
them. How many were there? Who made these? There were no books on the subject. So I started to research them myself. I began by compiling a
master list of all old Hollywood cartoons... I met up with Leonard Maltin, who was teaching a history of animation class in
New York (around 1975). We became friends and I became his associate on his
book OF MICE AND MAGIC (which was published in 1980)."
Jerry's first book, The Warner
Brothers Cartoons (1981), came about when he "expanded my list of
Warner Bros. cartoons with my associate Will Friedwald into a book for Scarecrow Press." He continued, explaining that, "Scarecrow is a bottom of the
barrel, institutional & library books mainly, publisher. We sent them a
sample of our filmography. They agreed to publish it.
We couldn't get permission to use pictures of Bugs Bunny, so we published it
without any images. That book is still in print!"
"Most commercial book publishers are not that interested in animation
books unless it's tied into a very famous character, movie, or gimmick,"
Jerry noted when I asked, in his experience, what the demand for this kind of
material seems to be, "hence my books like THE 50
GREATEST CARTOONS or OUTLAW ANIMATION." As far as what's involved to research a book like this, "for any book about history, you have to love the subject and be
enthusiastic about the smallest details of its history." In Jerry's case, "I love the 1930s and 1960s
Warner Bros. cartoons, thus I enjoy researching them. Sometimes you have to
spend days and weeks researching the tiniest details, like release dates. Maybe
no one will notice, but I'm proud of the small things... I spend a lot of time
at the Academy library (in
When I asked Jerry what he enjoys most
about documenting animation history: "The more people know about animation
history, the more people want to see more and know more. It encourages more
interest and enthusiasm in the subject." However, as far as challenges, he notes that "it's not a very well
paying career, I'm sad to say, I'm an animation historian out of the love of
it. I make a living by doing freelance writing, and occasionally write and
produce animated films. I previously worked in film distribution, as an
animation executive (at Nickelodeon & others), and was a journalist for a
trade mag, KIDSCREEN."
Jerry feels animation history is an area
that other writers can still break in to. "There is plenty of opportunity. As long as animation continues to
be made, there will always be stories to be told about their creation. And the
whole story of animation's 100 year history has not been completely covered
yet. I want to read more about Terrytoons! I want to
see books about Fleischer, Bill Tytla, John Hubley and many others."
I greatly appreciate your time, Jerry,
for giving readers a glimpse into ways to keep animation's rich heritage alive
as non-artists.
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