One day in February, 1930, Bill Turner telephoned me at my apartment in New York City. Bill, at that time, headed an embryo story group at the Max and Dave Fleischer Animation Studio. Bill said, "Grim, how would you like to get back into animation?" I had been away from animation for more than a year. The last cartoons I had worked on were for silent pictures.
In November, 1928, the Colony Theatre in New York ran Walt Disney's STEAMBOAT WILLIE with sound. It was a sensation. It caused an explosion in the animation milieu. Animation became transformed from a giveaway bauble into legitimate theatre entertainment. It suddenly achieved social status. In a few years it would have top billing on the marquees of movie houses.
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