William Randolph Hearst - Text
William Randolph Hearst was born on 29 April 1863 and died on 14 August 1951. A businessman and newspaper magnate, Hearst was also behind the development of the third animation studio in New York in the 1910s, the International Film Service (IFS). Founded in 1915, the IFS took up the baton with respect to Hearst’s use of comic strips, as he was one of the first to publish these kinds of stories in his newspapers. The ambition of this studio was to adapt successful comic strips from Hearst’s newspapers and turn them into animated films to promote his publications (the film productions initiated by Hearst served above all to increase the circulation of his papers).
Hearst’s promotional films were made with lesser means than those of rival studios, particularly that of John Randolph Bray. The animation is scanty, and the films resemble filmed comic strips, without any real movement on the part of the characters. The studio’s production declined in 1918 before the IFS re-opened in 1919 as a branch of the Bray studio.
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Animators who worked for the International Film Service: Vernon Stallings, Walter Lantz, Ben Sharpsteen, Jack King, John Foster, Grim Natwick, Burt Gillett and Isadore Klein.
Series produced by the International Film Service: Krazy Kat, Happy Hooligan, Jerry on the Job, Bringing Up Father, The Katzenjammer Kids.
