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February 19th - Mighty Mouse

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A Year in Comics - February 19th

Mighty Mouse


Paul Houlton Terry was born on February 19th 1887 in San Mateo in the US State of California.  Raised in San Francisco, he started out working as a newspaper photographer and cartoonist in 1904, alongside his brother John Terry.  Before World War I, Paul Terry made the move from San Francisco to New York, where he started working with the New York Press.

While working there, Paul Terry saw Gertie the Dinosaur, an early animation by Winsor McCay.  This made him interested in animation, and while still working with the New York Press, Paul Terry made his first animation film, Little Herman, in 1915.

In 1916, Paul Terry started working at the J.R. Bray Studios, where he directed and produced a series of animated films, centering on the character of Farmer Al Falfa, but within the year, he left to set up his own studio, Paul Terry Productions.  However, after completing a number of films, Paul Terry closed the studio, enlisting with the US Army to fight in World War I.

After being demobbed, Terry started the Fable Studios in 1920 in a partnership with Amadee J. Van Beuren.  This went well for a number of years, however towards the end of the decade Van Beuren pressured the conservative Terry into experimenting with sound.  While this resulted in a sound cartoon, Dinner Time (September 1928), released two months before the Walt Disney studios released their own first sound film, Steamboat Willie (November 1928), the disagreement between Van Beuren and Terry over the implementation of new technology led to the pair to go their own ways in 1929, with Terry setting up his own Terrytoons studio.

Between 1929 and 1955, Terrytoons would go on to produce numerous cartoons.  While never as prestigious as rival Disney, Terrytoons, with its limited financial means, would go on to introduce some revolutionary techniques, such as cel animation, a process that allowed individual body parts to be animated, saving both time and money.  However, at the same time, Terrytoons were slow to switch both to sound cartoons and colour animation.

Terrytoon's most famous character would be Mighty Mouse, which debuted as Super Mouse in the 1942 animated feature Mouse of Tomorrow.  While originally a thinly-veiled caricature of DC Comics Superman, Mighty Mouse would go on to become a 'hero' in his own right, featuring in 77 cinematic shorts made between 1942 and 1954, and an additional three made between 1959 and 1961.

With the advent of television, the use of theatrical shorts fell out of use, and Paul Terry decided to sell both his animation studio and film library in 1955, after which he retired.  Following Paul Terry's retirement, the Terrytoons studios went on to produce new cartoons for television, before the studio was disbanded in 1968.

Paul Terry passed away in New York City on October 25th 1971.

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61st entry out of ?

February 18th - La Guerre des Lulus by kanyiko <- Back to February 18th ---------- Forward to February 20th ->  February 20th - Haiopeis by kanyiko
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