American comics: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

"Extra number, extra number!"

“The Superman movie is coming to New York theaters!”

New York, early morning.

Newsboys walked through the streets waving copies of the Courier

"Superman movie?"

Take two cents and buy a newspaper from the newsboy selling it on the street.

The first thing that catches the eye is the content printed in huge black font on the front page - "Superman and Mickey"!

Following the title, you can see a figure wearing a blue tights, a red cape, and a big "S" symbolizing Superman on the shield-shaped logo on his chest, holding his head high. Next to him is Disney's iconic cartoon character Mickey Mouse, who is floating in the air while being pulled by the excited Pluto.

After more than half a month of Walt's hard work, the animated film about Superman and Mickey was finally completed.

Judging from the news from Disney, the response to the film after it was released in Los Angeles was enthusiastic. Although Hollywood is not keen on animated short films, as Disney's second color animated short film after "Flowers and Trees", film art and The Academy of Science still gave its approval.

Moreover, it is different from "Flowers and Trees".

The characters in "Superman and Mickey" are more modern, and the background of the story has been moved from the previous forest to the metropolis where Superman lives. At the same time, the design and details of the animated characters are better than the previous color short film "Flowers and Mickey". "Tree" is also more vivid.

If it weren't for the Oscars, it would have been determined that the first Best Animated Short Film Award would be awarded to "Flowers and Trees".

This is the first color film produced by Disney to affirm Walt's efforts and attempts in animation production.

Or "Superman and Mickey" is likely to replace "Flowers and Trees" in this honor.

At the Short Film Award, Walt also wrote a letter to express his apology to Colin.

Colin didn't care about this.

At this time, the Oscars were just an awards ceremony that existed in Los Angeles, and the scope of influence they could radiate was only in Hollywood.

Even if they award him an award, it is just a slightly special name for Colin, which is better than nothing.

What's more, he didn't participate much in the entire "Superman and Mickey", except for providing the role of Superman and some plot directions of the story. The rest of the animation production was all completed by Walt himself. Even if he won the award, the person who went on stage to receive the award would be Walt, not him.

Therefore, instead of worrying about the outcome of the Oscar Short Film Award, it is better to pay attention to the effect of "Superman and Mickey" when it is released in New York.

"Are you going to see a Superman movie?"

In front of the radio that morning, countless listeners heard such a question on the CBS "Mercury Theater on the Sky" radio program hosted by Orson Welles.

Welles himself is a loyal reader of "Superman" and had already raised questions on the radio when the comics were serialized and "Batman" appeared.

In addition, recently, CBS has completed contact with Colin and confirmed its intention to produce a radio drama.

Therefore, it became a matter of course for CBS to promote the release of his short film.

After all, the higher the popularity of the short film, the better it will be for CBS to produce a radio drama in the future.

Compared with newspapers, radio has a greater influence after all.

In particular, CBS has ranked first among the three major broadcasters in ratings for a long time. Through Wells' promotion, many readers who were originally unaware of the short film also learned about the film's upcoming release.

Of course, most of the listeners who listened to the radio during this period did not have enough money to go to the theater to watch movies.

Perhaps the only valuable thing in their home is the radio used to listen to the broadcast.

However, when they heard on the radio that the ticket price for "Superman and Mickey" was only 10 cents, they couldn't help but feel a little excited.

Affected by the Great Recession, the film industry's business was miserable throughout the year.

In New York City alone, more than a dozen movie theaters have closed, and the rest are just struggling to support themselves.

The decrease in the number of moviegoers has forced cinemas to drastically cut ticket prices in order to attract audiences to the theaters. The ticket price for a feature-length movie has been reduced from the original 30 cents to 20 cents. Even so, there are still a large number of moviegoers. The audience stayed away from the movie.

Considering the relationship between the "Superman and Mickey" animated short film, the cinema offered a ticket price of 10 cents. This price is already a huge concession for the cinema. Although "Superman and Mickey" is only a short film, the viewing time is It's not long, but the cost of color animation and sound production is also not low.

If not for the consideration, the film was released in Los Angeles to a favorable response.

At the same time, they are confident in the popularity of Superman, one of the protagonists in the short film, and movie theaters may not dare to offer such a ticket price.

Of course, although such a ticket price is given, it is not for the box office of the short film.

Cinemas actually don’t have any certainty.

1932 was an extremely difficult year for the film industry. Not only was the number of moviegoers significantly reduced, but also many films proposed by blockbuster venues that had originally placed their confidence frequently failed at the box office.

Currently, Paramount, which has suffered the most serious losses, has lost almost 20 million and is on the verge of bankruptcy.

The same is true for other studios. Although their respective losses are not as serious as Paramount, they are all in a state of loss, with the least losing nearly 4 million.

Movies are dead!

This is a slogan that has been circulating in Hollywood in recent times, and behind it is the cry of more than tens of thousands of unemployed employees and extras.

Cinemas have braced themselves for the possibility of losing money on animated shorts.

Even mainstream feature-length films have fallen into losses, let alone an animated short film that lasts only ten minutes.

However, on premiere night.

A large number of spectators surrounded the cinema, vying to see Superman on the big screen.

The cinema obviously did not expect this, or in other words, no one at this period expected that an animated short film would be sought after by so many people.

The cinema, which was ill-prepared, was immediately crowded with a large number of audiences who came to buy movie tickets.

Many uninformed people even thought this was another demonstration.

It is said that that night, more than dozens of police officers were at the scene to maintain order, and it took them two to three hours to ease the situation.

Shop windows around the cinema burst due to the large crowds, causing several minor injuries.

The last time something like this happened was when Chaplin's "City Lights" was released.

At the same time, all kinds of chaos occurred in the cinema.

Because we did not expect that there would be so many viewers, the theater did not prepare so many movie tickets. In addition, "Superman and Mickey" is an animated short film, so the viewing time itself is not long.

The first group of viewers came out of the cinema, the next group of viewers poured in, and then there was a steady stream of people who wanted to go in and watch the movie.

The ticket sellers at the cinema simply did not have time to handle such a huge number of moviegoers. It is said that later, all the staff and even the boss of the cinema joined in selling tickets, so that the surging audience could not overturn the cinema.

"... Too many people rushed into the cinema and told me they wanted a copy of "Superman and Mickey". We had no time to react. When we came to our senses, the whole cinema was already full of people. The audience came to see the movie. This was almost unimaginable for the movie theater during the Great Depression. It was not until that moment that I realized that we were in 'big trouble'..."

This was the answer given by the manager in charge at the time in the subsequent interview.

This shows how popular "Superman and Mickey" was when it was released.

The box office of 2.78 million US dollars is almost an amazing achievement for an animated short film.

And this is just the results in the United States. In fact, in the subsequent international market, "Superman and Mickey" has accumulated more than 5 million box office. From that time, the image of Superman was also popular outside the United States. well known in continental Europe.

The more far-reaching impact of the success of "Superman and Mickey" is that the success of the animated short film gave Disney more confidence in the production of animated films, and it was precisely because of this that the later "Snow White" was created. The birth of this classic feature-length animation.

Of course, when they decided to make this movie, everyone in Hollywood thought Disney was crazy.

Hollywood referred to the production of such 80-minute films as the "Disney Follies", and people at the time could not believe that audiences would pay and stay in the theater for more than an hour for what was then called a cartoon.

But Walt has his own insistence on this. The success of "Superman and Mickey" has proved to him that animation can also attract audiences. If "Superman and Mickey" can do it, why can't "Snow White"? They are also movies produced by Disney.

At that time, the only person who expressed support for Walt's decision was Colin Looper, the owner of the Courier.

Not only did he agree with Disney's determination to create feature-length animations, but he also provided financial assistance to avoid the worst chain break. Afterwards, it was proved that Disney and Colin's decision was correct. "Snow White" achieved unprecedented success and became the second animated film to achieve success in the international market after "Superman and Mickey". The first feature-length animated film.

…

"Give me a ticket to Superman and Mickey Mouse."

"10 cents."

In the cinema, I paid 10 cents for a movie ticket.

Colin glanced at the thin movie ticket in his hand, then turned to look at the huge queue behind him.

Three days have passed since the release of "Superman and Mickey", but the cinema is still packed with people.

Taking the movie ticket, he entered the theater through the crowd and found his seat. Colin sat down and listened to the discussion in his ears.

Under the influence of [Super Hearing], he can hear the sound of the entire theater without moving in his seat. Most of these viewers are loyal readers of Superman, and of course a small number of them are also fans of Mickey.

It is undoubtedly an exciting thing to see two of your favorite characters appear in an animated short film.

In anticipation of the audience, the lights in the cinema gradually dimmed, and then Mickey's big head appeared on the big screen, which was the opening sign of Disney animation.

"Superman and Mickey"

As Mickey's head dimmed, the title of the movie began to appear on the screen.

It is worth mentioning that there is a slight difference in the order of the titles of the short films in the versions released in Los Angeles and New York.

In the movie theater in Los Angeles, the name of the short film was "Mickey and Superman", while in New York where Colin was, it was changed to "Superman and Mickey".

This was an idea that both parties had discussed at the beginning of the animation design.

It was to highlight the difference in popularity in different cities.

As the headquarters of Disney, Los Angeles naturally had to focus on promoting Mickey, while in New York Colin naturally needed to focus on the fact that this was Superman's first appearance on the big screen.

A short story about the order of the short film names flashed through my mind.

In the movie, accompanied by the classic whistle of "Steamboat Willie", Mickey also appeared on the big screen of the theater.

Mickey: "Pluto, Pluto!"

In the kitchen, Mickey whistled while making breakfast, and suddenly felt that the house was a little empty. He turned around and called a few times in the direction of the other party's living room, but he didn't hear Pluto's response for a long time, so he tried to call a few more times with his hands on his waist.

Pluto: "Woof woof..."

Suddenly, a few faint sounds came.

Mickey: "Oh, Pluto, where have you been again?"

With Mickey's reproach, Pluto, covered in mud, ran back to the living room.

Looking at the dirty Pluto, Mickey was about to say something, but suddenly Pluto pulled his trousers and ran towards the basement.

Mickey: "Pluto, look at what you have done, you made a mess here!"

Looking at the messy basement, Mickey was a little angry.

Pluto: "Woof, woof..."

However, Pluto wagged his tail again, brought a poster and handed it to Mickey.

Mickey: "What is this?"

Mickey: "Superman?"

Taking the poster from Pluto's mouth, Mickey opened it and looked at the poster. The man was wearing a blue tights, a red cape, and a big "S" mark on the shield on his chest, holding a car high above his head, and then read out the name on the poster.

Mickey: "Superman? What is it? Where did you find this poster, Pluto?"

Looking at the Superman in the poster, Mickey's face was full of confusion.

He asked Pluto, who wagged his tail, barked at Mickey a few times, and then pushed open the entrance to the basement and nodded to Mickey.

Mickey: "Why don't I remember there is such an entrance in the basement?"

Looking at the entrance that suddenly appeared, Mickey's face showed a surprised expression.

However, before he could react, he was suddenly pulled by Pluto's trousers and fell to the entrance.

Mickey: "Blu~lu~to~"

Pluto: "Woof~woof~"

Please remember the domain name of the first release of this book:. Shuquge mobile reading website:

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