A NOTE ABOUT OUR PRINT:

No negatives are known to exist of the Jerky Journey cartoons. Our download is from the only existing 35mm color print. It is missing several frames at the beginning and end of the film. The color looks faded or muted, but it’s actually close to its original appearance. It’s no coincidence that the film features a Green river and a Red river. Republic’s “Trucolor,� which was similar to Cinecolor, featured a limited color palette using a two-strip (red and green) process.

Credits

Production Company: Impossible Pictures
Released April 15, 1949 by Republic Pictures
Produced, written and directed by Leonard Louis Levinson
Designed by Art Heinemann
Painted by Peter Alvarado and Robert Gribroek
Special Effects by Miles Pike
Narrated by Frank Nelson
Photographed in Trucolor

Film Notes

“Little Known Visits to Lesser Known Countries by Completely Unknown People.�

Writer and producer Leonard Lewis Levinson created Hollywood’s smallest animation studio in 1948 when he sold Republic Pictures on the idea of a series of gag travelogues. The series, dubbed Jerky Journeys, (“Authentic Travelogues About Imaginary Places�) revolved around verbal humor, painted stills, and long pan backgrounds in place of animation, action and slapstick. Levinson also convinced Republic that he could make four short subjects for the modest sum of $46,787. Republic was eager to promote its Trucolor process, and had previously invested $20,000 in a single Bob Clampett cartoon (It’s A Grand Old Nag, 1947). The Jerky Journey’s must have seemed like a bargain.

Levinson’s Impossible Pictures Inc. (whose logo was an image of a cuckoo coming out of a sundial!) was set up in Hollywood with offices at the landmark Crossroads of the World at Sunset Blvd. and Cherokee Ave. He partnered with animation layout designer Art Heinemann and utilized the talents of animation veterans Peter Alvarado, Paul Julian and Robert Gribbroek, all moonlighting from their day jobs at Warner Bros. Cartoons. Effects animator Miles Pike (Fantasia, Pal’s Puppetoons, etc.) was called upon to create the minimal animated movements.

The Jerky Journeys are done in the style of a narrated slide show. Frank Nelson (best known as one of the foils on The Jack Benny Program) provided most of the voices. Only four Jerky Journey cartoons were produced: Beyond Civilization to Texas (3/15/49), The 3 Minnies: Sota, Tonka & Ha-Ha (4/15/49), Bungle in the Jungle (5/15/49) and Romantic Rumbolia (6/15/49). Each one was filmed to a running time of ten minutes, given sneak previews in Los Angeles, then pared down to a tight seven minutes.

The 3 Minnies is an interesting early experiment in limited animation. While it had no immediate or lasting impact on the medium, echos of the techniques pioneered here can be seen in later UPA, Hanna Barbera and Jay Ward cartoons. Levinson was only interested in illustrating his prose, and doing so in the cheapest way possible. Reliance on dialogue, animation cycles, repeated backgrounds and recurrent musical cues kept costs down. However, he had the help of several of the best artists in the business, and their contributions elevate this short from simply a forgotten footnote in animation history to being a truly significant find. Rarely have the background painters been placed in the spotlight, and here they steal the show. —Jerry Beck

About the Director: Leonard Louis Levinson

Leonard L. Levinson (1904-1974) was a prolific comedy writer, who wrote over ten books (ranging from cookbooks to dictionaries), several theatrical plays, many radio shows and songs. He started his career as newspaper journalist, then as show biz reporter for Variety, before becoming a gag writer and press agent. Levinson found success as a lyricist and writer of vaudeville revues, eventually working his way into radio, writing numerous episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly and The Great Gildersleeve, among others.