A Van Beuren Production: A History of the 619 Cartoons, 875 Live Action Shorts, Four Feature Films and One Serial of Amedee Van Beuren Paperback – October 15, 2020

Despite what the book's subtitle suggest, this is not an A to Z guide, instead most of the live action and animated cartoon shorts are covered in chapters and there are a lot pics, the live action features are in two chapters, one has all three Frank Buck features and the other has Adventure Girl (1934) and one is on the serial The Last Frontier (1932).There is a filmography that is basically titles and years of release and it is organized by series titles. While some Van Beuren cartoon shorts are part of a series, examples are Aesop's Fables, Tom and Jerry (not to be confused with the cat and mouse, The Little King, others, such as Molly Moo Cow and Felix the Cat (who was originally a cartoon star of the silent era) never were.The author's option to do a history makes sense, as the documentary shorts might have been dull to read about if they had individual entries in a look it up book, and there is a great look it up two volume book that covers cartoon shorts and features that includes the Van Beuren shorts, but the entries are on the terse side.A great read as a studio history. Just do not expect it to be a look it up book.

I knew Van Beuren was a cartoon producer but had no idea of all the other items me brought to life. The live action films I'd never heard of before. This is an excellent and well researched book about a cartoon (and live action) producer almost forgotten.

Animation scholars need to look no further than this book

a well written book

Hal Erickson has done it again! The definitive scholar of such topics as television animation, TV syndication and "Laugh-In" applies his erudition, wit and scholarship to one of the more obscure and misunderstood aspects of animation and popular culture history: the productions in multiple media of Amadee Van Beuren. It contains full discussion of Van Beuren's career and achievements, with lavish use of illustrations and photos. Another feather in the cap in the career of Erickson and his wonderful publisher, McFarland and Co.