Sing, darn ya, sing-a-long to Max Fleischer’s famous bouncing ball.

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March 7, 2024

Max Fleischer produced the hippest animated cartoons ever.

The only person who comes close and even misses by a country mile is Ralph Bakshi.

Now languishing in studio vaults because they don’t fit with any current release patterns and are in black and white are the famous Sing-a-long to THE BOUNCING BALL CARTOONS which, frankly, are marvellous and marvellous fun.

Max was erased from active animation after 1942.

Paramount gave him the boot.

That was a pattern in the Fleischer family.

Max’s dad was one of the best, probably the best, tailors in New York. He was invited to set up shop in a new mall.

The mall owners found a reason to give Max’s dad the boot.

Then they set up their own tailor shop.

Max’s biggest stars were Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor and Superman.

Some of the Betty Boops have been restored. Thanks to Warner Archive all of the Popeye and Superman cartoons have been restored.

But the bulk of Max’s massive output is gathering dust in vaults.

I like the post Fleischer Famous Studios Paramount cartoons but there is something elemental missing.

To me they are like the people in THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) after they’ve been turned into pod people. Especially Popeye.

There are good books on the Fleischer Studio:

Reading books, no matter how good they are, is no substitute for seeing the movies.

The books make me want to see the movies.

The biggest inspiration for my work is the original Paris Cinematheque of Henri Langlois which began, with Langlois and Claude Chabrol, out of an old house in Paris.

After decades the Cinematheque was given a glorious building by the French government which then kicked Langlois out.

This resulted in a world wide scandal.

Reluctantly Langlois was let back in but…

There are two types of people.

There are the wild men and women, always viewed as crazy, who do things.

Then there are the tame but quietly vicious people who almost always run things.

The problem is the meek inherit the works.

I have gathered most of the Max Fleischer animated films into the CineForum archive, including Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, because I want to see them.

The local Toronto animation community gives my work the cold shoulder.

That’s fine by me.

The best always stand apart from the rest.

America’s first original composer, Scott Joplin, not allowed to join the American Federation of musicians because his music was whore house music.

Jazz was born in those whore houses.

Louis Armstrong, the greatest of the great, was born in a brothel.

Sarah Hampson, in THE GLOBE AND MAIL, described The CineForum as a “brothel of cinematic ideas.”

“It is good taste not bad taste which is the enemy,” said Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.

I’m firmly with them.

Hampson opens with, “Here,” says Reg Hartt, “ushering me past grimy French doors to a wooden institutional chair in a narrow, black-painted room at the front of his dilapidated Victorian row house on Bathurst Street in Toronto.

Jane Jacobs wrote that while old ideas are sometimes found in new buildings new ideas by necessity are found in old, run down (dilapidated) buildings.

Old ideas may be found at THE BELL LIGHTBOX and TIFF.

New ideas are found at The CineForum aka The Public Enemy.

Clearly she did not have a good time here. Frankly, I doubt she has had a good time anywhere.

In a nutshell, however, she sums up the attitude of many of the folks who think themselves the best of what this city has to offer.

They are far from it.

I remember when years ago I was invited to teach at one of Canada’s most respected universities. I was told, “You will like it here. We get the ones with money.”

David Mamet writes, “Where in the wide history of the world do we find art created by the excessively wealthy, powerful, or educated?”

Myself and The CineForum (aka The Public Enemy) have been called everything Jane Jacobs wrote about in THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES.

More than that Mrs. Jacobs’ children tell me, “Our mother loved you.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YonLUG7gRyY

It has been observed more than once that of all the teachings of history the clearest is this: that those who seek to realize ideal aims by force of law are always unscrupulous and always cruel.

It is unscrupulousness and cruelty which led to Henri Langlois getting is ass kicked out of The Cinémathèque française. It is this same unscrupulousness and cruelty which got Max and his father kicked out of their studios.

This dilapidated row-house in Toronto is home to many things.

One of the things it is home to is an animation archive with a massive collection of Max Fleischer Studio films.

Leave here singing.–Reg Hartt

I brought Max Fleischer Studio animation artists Grim Natwick and Shamus Culhane to Toronto. Additionally I brought Warner animation directors Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett to Toronto.

Here are important videos with these artists:

Grim Natwick at Reg Hartt’s CineForum. Toronto 1980

Grim Natwick at Reg Hartt’s CineForum, Toronto 1982

Grim Natwick’s 100th Birthday Party 1990

Reg Hartt presents Shamus Culhane, Toronto, 1986 Intro by Madeline Pengelly

Reg Hartt presents Shamus Culhane, Toronto, 1986 2

Reg Hartt presents Shamus Culhane, Toronto, 1986 4 Intro by Ellen Besen

Reg Hartt presents Shamus Culhane at Sick Kids Hospital Toronto 1986

Reg Hartt presents Shamus Culhane, Toronto, 1986 plus My Daddy, The Astronaut

Reg Hartt presents Shamus Culhane at Sheridan College

Talking with the legendary animator Shamus Culhane part 1 with Ira H. Gallen

SHAMUS CULHANE ANIMATOR PART 2: DRAWING & INKING 1989

SHAMUS CULHANE PART 1

SHAMUS CULHANE PART 2

SHAMUS CULHANE PART 3

SHAMUS CULHANE PART 4

SHAMUS CULHANE PART 5

Reg Hartt Presents Bob Clampett at The John Leach Animation Studio Toronto 1979.

Reg Hartt Presents Bob Clampett Animation Workshop

Friz Freleng at Reg Hartt’s Cineforum, Toronto, Canada, 1980.

Reg Hartt Cineforum

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