Daily Christmas Card (#9)

Get ready for a treat! Virgina Mahoney has started building a virtual Fleischer History Museum online at the Fleischer Studios website.

The first exhibit is now open and its dedicated to “Christmas at Fleischer Studios”. Ginny writes:

“Since Christmas was a special holiday for them… a good time to show off their drawing skills, get together, be crazy, and party! This was a nutty group and this exhibit shows it. To visit the exhibit go to our website – Fleischerstudios.com – Click on the word ‘Museum’ near the top of the page (under Fleischer Studios) This will take you to our museum site– where you can click to enter our first exhibit ‘Christmas’. This is a ‘preview,’ an early look at our first exhibit. We plan to have an Official Museum Opening sometime in January.”

Ginny has posted 86 Fleischer staff Christmas cards, from the likes of Max and Dave Fleischer, Dick Huemer, Shamus Culhane, Al Eugster, Ted Sears, Dave Tendlar and dozens of others. In addition, she’s uploaded rare footage from the 1935 Fleischer Studio Christmas party, and the entire contents (24 pages) of the 1939, 40 and 41 Flipper Club menus and program books. These rare items contain articles by Pinto Colvig, Tedd Pierce and Dan Gordon, and rare artwork by Grim Natwick, Dave Tendlar, Gordon Sheehan and lots of lettering my the mysterious Fleischer/Famous calligrapher (the cover for the 1939 edition – thumbnail below right – gives a credit “Cover design by Arthur Greenbaum”. Is that the mysterious Fleischer lettering genius?).

All-in-all, this is a must-see; An early Christmas present from the Fleischer family to all of us who appreciate the artists behind the great Paramount cartoons.