Wednesday, May 25, 2011

NEW YORK 1905 - 1955

That's Manhattan above, and the lit up area is old-time Broadway. Oh, to have been young and creative and in New York in the half century that spanned 1905 to 1955! And since I'm in the animation industry, I can't help wondering what would have happened if American animation had stayed there, and not moved to the West coast.

Hollywood was undergoing an amazing creative leap of its own during that time,  so animation wasn't exactly an orphaned child during that time, but imagine what might have come about if our kind of artists had been able to imbibe the air of New York City for an additional several decades.  It was a time when almost every creative craft in the city was experiencing a Golden Age.


Think of the girlage that abounded in New York in those days!!! What with Broadway, the Rockettes, vaudeville, dance joints, the night clubs...the city was teeming with dancing legs! Imagine how THAT would have inspired cartoonists!


Restaurants played a key role. Every creative trade in NY had its own place to dine, however humble. Animators would have done the same. Everybody needs a place to go after work, so you can try out new ideas and vent about how stupid the bosses are.



Above the Algonquin Round Table. Yes, even intellectuals of that era were moved to abandon their books and find a public place to rant and be witty. The Beats preferred to eat in diners.




That's (above) Tin Pan Alley, where composers pitched themselves to music publishers, and where songwriters and musicians hung out. 

Then there were the Harlem night clubs. Man, the music that must have gone down under those rooftops! Clampett got the idea for "Coal Black" while visiting LA's "Club Alabam." Imagine if he'd had gotten a taste of The Cotton Club!


New York was the capital of vaudville.


Vaudeville was important because acts were judged by audience response. If they didn't like you, they let you know.


When an audience failed to respond the chastened crew held a crisis meeting as soon as the curtain came down, and the act was modified. Immediate audience response keeps you sharp. Surely animation would have benefited from proximity to that. 


Then there was the Jewish Theater (above). Eventually it lost its best people to vaudeville and serious drama but it gave a lot of first rate people a venue to perform in while they were getting used to the New World. Live theater wasn't as big a deal in LA.


And burlesque! A lot of slapstick comedians got their start there. Imagine how much our industry could have learned from those people (and imagine how much fun the learning would have been if the lessons were punctuated by girls taking their clothes off).


New Yorkers were fanatically devoted to sports, and there were plenty of venues. The audiences were as fun to watch as the athletes. Famous boxers like Slapsy Maxie Rosenbloom (above) were regulars at the big bars and night spots. So were mobsters. 


New York press agents were a big deal in those days and some of them threw big parties. Everybody who was anybody then had friends who were press agents, even if they had no professional bond. That's because a lot of good writers got their start as press agents, and they were interesting conversationalists who always seemed to know what was going on around town. Hmmm....come to think of it, LA had its share of press agents too.

I left out a bunch of other creative types: actors, novelists and play writes, competitive newspaper reporters, fine artists, classical musicians, cartoonists, poets, politicians, photographers, radio and TV people...geez, it would be a long list. Like I said, almost every creative craft in New York experienced a Golden Age in the era that spanned 1905 to 1955. If animation people had had the opportunity to hobnob with all those people, what would have been the result? If animation had stayed in New York during that time, would our Golden Age have been... even more golden?


13 comments:

  1. I wish we could go back in time.

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  2. A fabulous post (especially since it's about my beloved city.) I have to say I still love this city even though it's trying hard to look like malls in the suburbs. There's little original to shopping on Fifth Avenue when all the shops can be found in Peoria.

    Whenever I wish to have been arond in those days of a newly developing animation industry, I remember that penicillin hadn't been invented and many - if not most - people died of pneumonia. Today, the environment gives us cancer.

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  3. Anonymous12:19 PM

    That's quite a notion there! I think the cartoons would have gotten much racier had they stayed in New York, though the infamous Hays Code of 1934 might have put an end to that for the most part. Maybe if animation hadn't migrated to the West Coast, perhaps the creators of these animated films would have been more inclined to do what comics strips did, and make their films outright caricatures of the culture around that time and a funny, yet at the same time, a powerful social tool. That's just the way I see it.

    One of these days, I really need to visit New York City again. They have a really gritty, raw culture up there, though back when I was younger, I wasn't able to appreciate it as much as I do now. That kind of thing fascinates me, you know?

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  4. Great post Eddie! I've been the NYC a few times and loved it. One of the few cities I want to live in. I love the first half of the last century, at least from all the stuff I have seen. Fashion styles, movies, music and general lifestyles of the time. Seems amazing to me.

    Although, However much I love the past and however much I allow it's ghostly past to influence my work I don't dwell on living in it too much, nor do I really care to if I had to choice. I mean think about it. Besides all the scientific breakthroughs that have made all our lives easier, even creatively there is so much opportunity.

    Sure, maybe back then when animation was growing it was easier to get a job and you got to be apart of something new and exciting, but these times are new and exciting too! With the advances in technologies and the amazing vastness of the internet if you strive hard enough, you don't need to work with big executives to make a deal (unlike the first half of the 20th century) you can get make it on your own!

    So I say take the 21st century for what it's worth! Embrace it!

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  5. Great post, Eddie! One also wonders about ta certain animation studio that relocated to Florida...

    Technically, I live about 45 mins. outside Manhattan (there on a regular basis). Love NYC!! I think animation would have benefitted greatly, had some of the studios not relocated. Even though attempts have been made to suburbanize the city, I think the city itself has a built-in resistance factor.

    Why just yesterday afternoon, I was in Manhattan and looked up at a beautiful building from 1900...thinking wow! Imagine all of the action that building has seen (assigning personification to a building--in a cartoony way)!!

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  6. Anonymous5:56 PM

    what kind of music do you like eddie big band jazz avant garde PUNK

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  7. Remember seeing something on tv with the late great Jerry Orbach, talking about being an off broadway actor in the 50's, and bar/ club hopping all night long, every night. No one had any money, but it was still possible to do. Not so anymore.

    this is what its come to

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  8. I guess in that time Cartoonists and cartoon producers could gage audience reaction by seeing when people laughed or gasped in the theater.

    The transition to television made it harder for Cartoonists to know what people like, the only way to judge now is by online reviews or ratings, which only tells you what critics think and how many people watched, not what joe public thinks

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  9. Michael: New York City is copying suburban shopping malls!!!???? I'm so sorry to hear that!

    Thomas: Good point! The law against smoking in New York parks is silly.

    Anon: My taste in music? I listen to every style except hip hop. I do have a few hip hop songs on my ipod, but that's because they're tied to a fun dancing style like "The Percolator."

    Damiano: Admiring aspects of the past isn't the same as being trapped in it. I love new technology, the more the better, I just like old stuff, too.

    I see the past as existing in the present, as if it was a country you could visit like France or Japan. Consulting it is a way to broaden your experience and stimulate your imagination.

    Scrawney: There's got to be a way to increase the audience feedback and sense of risk and immediacy in animation, but I don't know what it is. I do have a couple of half-baked thoughts on the subject, and maybe I'll blog about them one of these days.

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  10. Tought you'd like this, Eddie: Brilliant art theorist loved 'Ren and Stimpy'
    http://toonamir.blogspot.com/2011/05/denis-dutton-loved-ren-and-stimpy.html

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  11. Amir: WOW! What a treat! It was great to see Denis Dutton in person, and his discussion of what we like about art was music to my ears. Many thanks for the link!

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  12. I'm delighted that you enjoyed it!

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  13. Anonymous10:35 AM

    Do not forget polio. 1905-55 was the golden age of that disease. I'll bet Jonas Salk was a big cartoon fan.

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