in 1929, Paul Terry founded his new studio in New Rochelle, New York. Though generally considered a "budget" studio, Terrytoons had its share of popular characters. Even Paul Terry admited "Disney is the Tiffany's in this business, and I am the Woolworth's."
Terry lead off his new company with his popular
Farmer Al Falfa series, distributed by
Educational Pictures Corporation. This series spun off to
Puddy the Pup in 1935 and
Kiko the Kangaroo a year later. Sensing financial trouble with Educational Films, Terry moved his home distibution over to Castle Films, and 20th Century Fox took over theatrical distribution.
By the fourties, the studio really hit it's stride. Popular original series such as
Super Mouse/
Mighty Mouse and 1946's
Heckle and Jeckle made a real name for the little studio on the East Coast.
By 1955, Paul Terry retired, and sold his studio outright to
CBS, with Fox continuing the theatrical distribution. Budgets continued to decline, and Gene Deitch was brought in to run the studio for two years. Deitch was fired in 1958, Bill Weiss took control of production. Under Weiss' supervision,
Heckle and Jeckle and
Mighty Mouse went back into production.
In addition to the three main directors of the Terry era who were still involved as animators and directors, two
Famous Studios stalwarts were brought on board, Dave Tendlar and Martin Taras. Other new theatrical cartoon series included
Hector Heathcote,
Luno and
Hashimoto, all of which later migrated to television. The studio began producing the
Deputy Dawg series strictly for television in 1960.
The Adventures of Lariat Sam was also created for the Captain Kangaroo show.
The final moments for Terrytoons were in the late sixties, under Ralph Bakshi. He left in 1966 for Paramount, and the studio wasa closed in 1968.
