PINSCHEWER FILMS LTD

(1938-1961)

Julius Pinschewer (1883-1961) was a German animator who pioneered the advertising film, setting up his own company in Berlin in 1912. By the end of the 1920s Pinschewer had achieved a near monopoly of German advertising film production, making his first sound cartoon in 1929. As a Jew, he was alarmed at Hitler's rise to power and left Germany, settling in Bern, Switzerland in 1934. He set up a new animation company, the Pinschewer Film-Workshop, and continued to make advertising films for customers across Europe. In 1938 he set up the UK company Pinschewer Films Ltd with offices in Bishopsgate, London, to provide advertising for the UK. The actual animation was done at the Berne studio.

British Animator/Director Harold Mack and his wife Pamela joined the Berne studio in 1949 to work on Willie Does His Stuff, a film for National Savings featuring the white elephant from the "If you don't need it - don't buy it!" poster campaign, who steps off his poster and, ceasing to be a white elephant, promotes savings stamps. A black-and-white "making of" promotional documentary, Willie Comes to Life, shows Mack at work. They left shortly after to join Martin Toonder's studio in the Netherlands.

Filmography (for UK)

Links to Other Sites

BFI Player: video of Willie Does His Stuff (1948): Directed for Pinschewer Films by Harold Mack.

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