Norman Cobb

(1903-1955)

Norman William James Cobb was born on 13 July 1903 in Clapton, East London, the second son of Fred J Cobb, a school attendance officer, and his wife Clara. He started work with the Olympic Kine Trading Company in Acton as a laboratory assistant. It seems likely that he worked in the titling departmant.

In i926 he was hired by the Ideal Film Renting Company to provide animation for their Singsong film series, made in response to the huge popularity of the Ko-Ko Song Car-tune series made by the Fleischers in New York and released in the UK by Pathé from 22 March 1925. The format of the Fleischer films involved a short intro animation featuring Ko-Ko the Clown preparing to conduct the song, then a bouncing ball travels over each line of the song to help synchronise the cinema orchestra and the singing audience. The lyrics are then repeated a further two times, with an animated character replacing the ball and interacting with the lettering to humerous effect.

No copies of Ideal's Singsong series seem to have survived, but it appears that they followed a similar format, with the bouncing ball replaced by a bouncing Ideal logo. Ideal had hired noted cinema score arranger Horace Shepherd to provide scores to accompany the films, and he worked closely with Cobb, incorporating "quaint and novel effects" (The Bioscope, 17 June 1926) into the scores which presumably worked with the animation.

The series was announced in the trade press on the 10 June 1926, and full page advertising began on the 24 June. The text of the first ad reads:

In August three more titles were announced to complete the declared series of twelve films. These were all popular music-hall numbers — Vesta Tilley's The Midnight Son, Ella Shields' Burlington Bertie and Sir Harry Lauder's Stop Y'r Ticklin' Jock. Although the Singsong cartoons seem to have been a success Ideal did not make any further series.

The arrival of sound meant the end of Horace Shepherd's successful career as an arranger and conductor of scores for cinema orchestras, and he was keen to find ways to exploit soundfilms. In 1930 Norman Cobb suggested they make a series of sound cartoons. Horace formed a production company, Horace Shepherd Ltd, in June 1930 and contracted with distributors in France and Germany, as well as M-G-M's British distribution company (distributors were required by the Cinematograph Film Act, 1927, to have a specified quota of British-made films on their books), planning to record English, French and German language versions. The central character of the proposed series of 12 cartoons was a talking dog called Bingo, and Norman was hired to provide the animation, while Horace would record the music, dialogue and effects.

In November Norman was formally employed to supervise the production of 12 cartoon fims (picture only) on a salary of £10 a week and a commission of 25 per cent. of the net profits on all but the first cartoon, on completion of which he would receive £100.

The schedule required Norman to complete a film a month, but initially he found himself unable to manage this, and the costs per film increased from the estimated £300 to something nearer £500. The first film was registered as British under the Film Act by M-G-M on 9 December 1930 as Bingo Cartoons No. 1. It does not seem to have been shown to the trade or reviewed, but on 20 January 1931 numbers 2, 3 and 4 in the series were shown in MGM's viewing theatre. The Kinematograph Weekly (22 January 1931) reported:

     BINGO CARTOONS. British (U). Syn. 800 feet each. Release date not fixed. –Three of a new series of British cartoons, "Bingo in Balahula," "Bingo Breaks Loose," and "Bingo the Battling Bruiser," were shown. Although they are strongly reminiscent of American efforts and are rather lacking in polish, they are, nevertheless, quite ingenious and have fairly amusing themes. The music and sound effects synchronise well with the action, and help a little to create the desired effect. Useable Quota shorts.

The term "Quota" refers to the aforementioned Act, which also required exhibitors to show a set quota of British films. The Bioscope, in its Box Office Film Reviews section, gave the cartoons closer scrutiny:

     "BINGO IN BALAHULA" (M.-G.-M.) Bingo Cartoons No 2. Length: 800 feet approx. Release Date: Not fixed. Certificate: U. Drawn by Norman Cobb and produced by Horace Shepherd, who was responsible for the music score, these cartoons follow the adventures of Bingo, the pup. The drawings are crude, and the synchronisation of words and music leave a lot to be desired. In No. 2, the pup has a rough time with African natives, but he wins through by catching the king of beasts on a giant "fly" paper. For juvenile audiences.
     "BINGO BREAKS LOOSE" (M.-G.-M.) Bingo Cartoons No 3. Length: 800 feet approx. Release Date: Not fixed. Certificate: U. Bingo breaks out of prison, makes good in a circus and is finally yanked back again. Mildly amusing.
     "BINGO THE BATTLING BRUISER" (M.-G.-M.) Bingo Cartoons No 4. Length: 800 feet approx. Release Date: Not fixed. Certificate: U. To please his lady love, the pup goes into training for a big fight. After considerable repetition he engages in a farcical bout but takes the knock-out from the girl. Limited appeal.

Horace Shepherd Ltd was running into debt. The German distributor had pulled out because a change in the German film quota law, or kontingent, had made the distribution of such foreign shorts unprofitable and the French distributor had not yet provided the company with any account of moneys due. M-G-M were not willing to advance money to the company against future receipts, and the company was unable to gain further financing. A fifth cartoon was filmed but on 23 March 1931, before the soundtracks could be recorded, the company received a compulsory winding-up order, following a creditor's petition. At the credtors and shareholders meeting on 22 April 1931 the company's liabilities were given as £2,111, against assets expected to produce £1,417, and the company went into liquidation.

Norman Cobb joined National Screen Services Ltd (the British offshoot, in 1926, of the American National Screen Service Corporation) a company specialising in film trailers and other specialist shorts for cinema and advertising, as head of the art department. He would also have worked with the trick effects and animation cameras, which were specially designed and made by the company, according to an article in Kinematography Weekly, 8 October 1936. When the production facility at Broadwick House was bombed during the War a new production studio was established at Perivale, West London. Here Norman was in charge of the small studio and part of the special production team, producing and directing specialist and advertising films. His film Picking up the Threads, a recruiting exercise by Lancashire cotton mill company Fothergill and Harvey showing the processes invoved involved, is praised in the Kinematograph Weekly on 3 May 1945, and his name is mentioned in two articles about NSS in the same trade paper, on 8 October 1936 and 5 June 1952.

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Filmography (animated films only)

Links to Other Sites

YouTube: Bingo Chez Malikoko French version of Bingo in Balahula.

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