Famous Studios

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Famous Studios was the animation studio owned by Paramount Pictures after the company foreclosed on Fleischer Studios and ousted Max and Dave Fleischer in 1942. Isadore Sparber, Dan Gordon, and Max Fleischer's son-in-law Seymour Kneitel became the new heads of the studio, which was moved from Miami back to New York by 1943.

Although the studio still carried much of the staff from the previous regime, animation fans and historians note that its films soon diverged from the previous style. Many of them deride the company style for being highly formulaic and largely oriented towards a children's audience with none of the artistic ambition or sophistication that the previous management strove for.

Continuing series from the Fleischer period included:

Popeye the Sailor
Superman
Screen Songs (resurrected in 1947)

Major series started under the new management included:

Baby Huey
Casper the Friendly Ghost
Herman and Katnip
Little Lulu (which was eventually replaced with an imitation called Little Audrey)

In 1955, Paramount sold most of their pre-1950 shorts and cartoons, except for Popeye and Superman, to U.M.&M. T.V. Corp. for television distribution. The Popeye cartoons were acquired by Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.), and the Superman library went to Motion Pictures for Television, producers of Adventures of Superman television series.

In 1959, Paramount sold their remaining cartoon film library and the copyrights to their established characters to Harvey Comics. Unfortunately, their attempts at replacement characters proved unsuccessful. By the end of 1967, even the hiring of the promising young Ralph Bakshi, who produced several experimental short cartoons, could not prevent the studio from closing down for good.

Today, the following companies own different components of the animated library:

Warner Bros.--Superman cartoons (via DC Comics), and Popeye (via Turner Entertainment)
Classic Media--1950-1962 cartoons (the Harvey Comics/Noveltoon era)
Republic Pictures (via Paramount Pictures)--theatrical rights to the pre-1950 shorts (except Superman and Popeye)
CBS Paramount Television--television rights to the pre-1950 and post-1962 shorts
Lionsgate Home Entertainment (under license from Republic)--home video and DVD rights to the pre-1951 shorts (except Superman and Popeye), although official re-releases have yet to be announced
Paramount Pictures--theatrical rights to the post-1961 shorts

Note: A majority of the pre-1950 shorts are now in the public domain. For more information on the fate of the Paramount cartoon shorts, see the Fleischer Studios article.

The Famous name was previously used as Famous Players Film Company,one of several companies which in 1912 became Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, the company which founded Paramount Pictures. It was used again in the early 1970s as Famous Music Group which owned,manufactured and distributed the Dot,Paramount,Acta,Neighborhood and Sire Records labels which was owned by Gulf and Western who also owned Paramount at that time.