The Van Beuren Corporation

In 1920, the Keith-Albee organization formed Fables Pictures for the production of the Aesop's Film Fables cartoon series with Paul Terry, who himself owned 10 percent of the studio. Amedee J. Van Beuren bought into Terry's studio in 1928. Terry ran the animation studio while Van Beuren focused on other parts of the business. Van Beuren wanted to make cartoons in the then-new sound format but Terry, already accustomed to silent-film economics, was reluctant. Van Beuren released Terry's first sound cartoon Dinner Time (1928) (a month before Disney's Steamboat Willie) through Pathé Exchange, which later became part of RKO Radio Pictures. Van Beuren broke away from Terry and formed his own company, Van Beuren Studios, releasing through Pathé. Terry started his own Terrytoons studio, while Fables alumnus (and eventual Terrytoons storyman) John Foster took over the animation department.

The early sound Van Beuren cartoons are almost identical to the late silent cartoons: highly visual, with little dialogue and occasional sound effects. Bandleader Gene Rodemich and his assistant and successor Winston Sharples supervised the music. The company's main cartoon characters were "Tom and Jerry", a tall-and-short pair of stylized humans, usually vagrants who attempted various occupations. They share no relation to MGM's more successful cat-and-mouse Tom and Jerry, and the older series was renamed "Dick and Larry" (by home-movie distributor Official Films) and more recently "Van Beuren's Tom and Jerry". Van Beuren was keenly aware that successful cartoons often featured animated "stars", and urged his staff to come up with new ideas for characters. Cubby, a mischievous little bear, resulted.

In 1932, Van Beuren planned to release a series of wild-animal shorts featuring celebrity explorer Frank Buck. RKO executives were so impressed by these Van Beuren shorts that they decided to combine them into a feature film, Bring 'Em Back Alive. This was a very successful business move, but it left both Van Beuren and RKO with a void in their short-subject schedule. Van Beuren, forced to act quickly, found an existing series of two-reel comedies: Charlie Chaplin's 12 productions for the Mutual film company, produced in 1916-17. Van Beuren paid $10,000 each for the shorts, and assigned his animation department to create new music and sound effects for the silent films. Gene Rodemich and Winston Sharples assembled new orchestral scores. RKO released the Van Beuren Chaplins from August 1932 to July 1934. Chaplin did not own these films; author Michael J. Hayde discloses that Chaplin had declined several opportunities to purchase them.

The Van Beuren Corporation acquired and produced live-action features such as Adventure Girl (1934) and two more Frank Buck safaris, Wild Cargo (1934) and Frank Buck's Fang and Claw (1935). Other Van Beuren live-action productions included a "Van Beuren Vagabond" travelogue series, a series of novelty shorts narrated by the radio comedy team Easy Aces (Goodman Ace and Jane Ace), and musical comedy shorts featuring Bert Lahr or Shemp Howard, and other musical or comedy acts.

Animation:

Aesop's Fables (1921–1934)

Cubby Bear

Sentinel Louey