Van Beuren Productions

Credits

Descriptions by
Henrynguye5

Compiled by
garfield13

Captures by
Henrynguye5 and RSX-798

Editions by
adynaske

Background

The Van Beuren Corporation was originally started out in 1921 as Fables Studio by Amedee J. Van Beuren and Paul Terry. It produced many of the cartoons and live-action short subjects. The company made its first sound cartoon, Dinner Time, which was released a month before Steamboat Willie was released. Paul Terry would later leave in 1929 to start out Terrytoons, while John Foster took over the animation department. Most of the cartoons were originally released by Pathé Exchange, before being absorbed into RKO Radio Pictures. The studio shut down for good in 1936 amidst failures, while Disney supplanted Van Beuren as RKO's primary cartoon supplier. Amedee J. Van Beuren would die two years later. In 1941, the film library was sold to Commonwealth Films. Its library would now fall into the public domain.

Logo (1928-1936)

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Visuals: Over the title card, we see the text "PRODUCED BY" and below it was "THE VAN BEUREN CORPORATION", with part of the "V" being extended to show part of a horizontal line.

Secondary Visuals:

• 1931-1932: On a curtain background is the text, reading "RKO VAN BEUREN", and the text "PRODUCTION" blurs in toward the center of the screen.
• 1932-1933: Same as before, except the text reads "A VAN BEUREN PRODUCTION" zoom in to the center of the screen.
• 1933-1934: On a marble background, the text "A VAN BEUREN PRODUCTION" spins onto the center of the screen.
• 1934-1936: On the same background preceding the credits, the text from before is shown in larger fonts, and "Production" is in lowercase.

Closing Visuals:

• 1930-1933: On a curtain background, there is a shield with the text "The End" and above it, there are two banners reading "A VAN BEUREN CORPORATION" and below it is was a ribbon-shaped banner with the text "PRODUCTION". Below it was the name of the distributor, reading either "A PATHÉ PICTURE", with the Pathe rooster between it (1930-1931), "RKO PATHE PICTURE" (1931-1932) or "RKO RADIO PICTURES, INC." (1931-1933).
• 1933-1934: On a grey background, there is a black circle with a grey banner reading "The End". Above is the text "A VAN BEUREN CORPORATION Production" and below the banner is the text "RKO RADIO PICTURE".
• 1934-1936: Same as the intro, but the text "The End" is in a different font, and below it is the text from before and a credit for RCA's High Fidelity Sound System is shown underneath the logo, and the show's title is above the logo.

Variants:

• On Toddler Tales, the text is in a different font.
• On Cinecolor episodes of Rainbow Parade, the text "in CINECOLOR" is shown below the logo.
• On Technicolor episodes of Rainbow Parade, the words were moved to the top of the screen to make room for the credits for the direction and music.
• In the logo's first year, the text reads as "AMEDEE J. VAN BEUREN", and it was placed on top, and "PRESENTS" is down below the logo.

Technique: A still, hand-drawn graphic.

Audio: The opening/closing theme of the cartoon.

Availability: Almost every Van Beuren cartoon is in the public domain, so they are rather easy to find. It was seen on Aesop's Fables, the Van Beuren's Tom and Jerry cartoons (no relation to the MGM cartoon series) and Rainbow Parade.