Frank Moser

 

Frank Moser was an early pioneer in the industry, co founding Terrytoons, one of the first major animation studios, and animating on a good number of their early cartoons.

Moser was born on May 27th, 1886 near Oketo, Kansas. He attended Lily Creek School, a country school in town, followed by high school as Marysville High School. Even from a young age, Moser was interested in making cartoons: at Marysville, he enjoyed drawing and playing basketball and would draw on books and school tablets. at the commencement address, he drew comedic representations of the words of the school's motto, "Dilligence, Victory, and Reward", which "caused roars of laughter from the audience".  He was also on the school baseball team.

A cartoon by Moser from April 2nd, 1912.

After graduating, Moser would go to the Albert T. Reid Art School in Topeka from 1907 to 1908, followed by the Cummings School of Art in Des Moines, Iowa from 1908 to 1910. Moser would win a scholarship at Cummings in May of 1910 from the Art Students' League of New York. While at Cummings, he also drew for local paper "The Des Moines Register" with J. N. Darling, better known by his pen name Ding. Ding would leave the paper in January 1912, and Moser would take over. Despite high praise from readers, Moser would too leave later in 1912, going to an art school in New York City. Moser would begin drawing for the New York Globe, starting a series, "In The Short Pants League" and illustrating another series, "In Our School". Moser would work for the Globe for four years. In 1915, Moser did some animations for the Edison Company, which appear to be the first animated cartoons he did. A year later in 1916, he would found the animation department at International Film Services (which appears to have been connected to or is Bray Studios, another early animation studio), where he animated cartoons like "Krazy Kat", "Jerry on the Job" and "Happy Hooligan".

At International Film Service, Moser met Paul Terry, who was working at the studio at the same time. While it appears Terry left to form his own studio later in 1916, Moser would stay at International Film Service until at least 1919. When Terry founded another studio to make Aesop's Fables cartoons, Moser followed, and the two made 240 Aesop cartoons alongside fellow pioneer Amadee J. Van Buren

After a dispute with Van Buren, Terry and Moser would found their own studio in 1929, which would become Terrytoons. Moser, Terry, along with their staff of 34 (and an orchestra), would churn out cartoon after cartoon, something that would become a key aspect of the studio. While their cartoons were, in retrospect, considered vastly inferior to the works being done at other studios like Disney, Moser and the studio were able to stay afloat during the Great Depression. However, the good times would not last. Moser would have a falling out with Terry in March 1936, after Terry (in Moser's opinion) swindled him out of his 50% share in Terrytoons. Moser would sue Terry in December 1936 in an attempt to regain his share in Terrytoons, or get $500,000 in damages. Moser would lose the suit in July 1937, and while still listed as an animator on the census in 1940, barring recycled footage in a cartoon from 1945, it appears he retired from the animation industry. Moser would paint with oil colors and water colors for the rest of his life, having his work shown in galleries across the country. Moser would die on September 30th, 1960 at the age of 78.

"Hastings on Hudson, New York", a piece by Frank Moser.

Even while working at Terrytoons, Moser never forgot about his roots in Kansas. Moser said in an interview for the Marshall County News that many ideas from the cartoons he worked on came from his life on the farm near Marysville and Oketo. In fact, as he put it, "I get most of them from the farm." He would visit Marysville in 1956, where he hadn't been since a previous visit on the way to Hollywood in 1939.

Sources

Guise, Byron E. “Love For Drawing Got Frank Moser Into The Animated Cartoon Studios.” Marshall County News, 26 June 1931.

“Marysville High School Graduates a Banner Class of Seventeen.” The Marysville Advocate, 23 May 1907. 

"Thoughts of the Absent Ones"  The Marysville Advocate, 2 Dec 1915.

Holtz, Allan. “Ink-Slinger Profiles: Frank Moser.” Stripper's Guide, 23 Mar. 2013, http://strippersguide.blogspot.com/2013/03/ink-slinger-profiles-frank-moser.html. 

“Won Art Scholarship.” The Marysville Advocate, 12 May 1910. 

"Moser's Cartoons" Des Moines Tribune, 15 Jan 1912 

“Paul Terry.” Lambiek.net, https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/terry_paul.htm.

Yowp, Don. “The Other Guy at Terrytoons.” Tralfaz, 14 Sept. 2019, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-other-guy-at-terrytoons.html.