Back around 1975-1977 there was a 3rd-rate non-union animation studio in New York that many of my friends worked for. It was called Tele-tactics and I know very little about the place, except that they produced commercials, industrial films and at least two animated specials so obscure they are not listed anywhere on the Internet, on IMDB, nor in any history books.

The specials were Days of Liberty (1976, pictured above) which was tied into the bicentennial and ran on New York’s WABC on July 4th that year, and Why the Bears Dance on Christmas Eve, which was telecast on December 12, 1977.

Mark Mayerson, Yvette Kaplan, Tom Sito, John Lopez, Kim Miskoe, Kevin Petrilak, David Burd, Eric Eiser and Bob Lusk got there start there. Veteran cartoonist Milt Stein worked there; Selby Kelly, Tony Eastman, Chuck Harriton, and even John Canemaker is rumored to have toiled there. Dan Haskett designed and directed his first animated film, an industrial short Journey to Nutrition-land (Man, I’d kill to see that one!).

In 1978, the company’s founder, 40-year-old Barry Drucker, had a massive heart attack on the sidewalk outside the studio (located at 19th Street and 5th Avenue) and died. The studio died with him and all its work has completely drifted into obscurity.

Well, not all its work. The studio did produce one classic commercial – this long-running Tootsie Roll spot:

If any readers recall these productions, or better yet, if Tele-tactics veterans reading this have any memories to share – we historians would be very grateful.

Jerry Beck

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