New start
It has become 1946. World War II is over. The time of reconstruction is dawning. There is a need for all kinds of things but nothing. Joop Geesink sees the growth potential of advertising film. His concept is to combine the desire for entertainment with an advertising message. After all, the audience has endured years of misery and any form of entertainment is welcome.
Business-wise, Geesink has to make a fresh start. He no longer works with Toonder and has received an economic reprimand from the Purification Commission because of his work for the German Kultuurkamer. Fortunately, he got the powerful Philips concern on his side! Notably, Sies Numan sees the international communication potential of the puppet film medium.
A depleted but highly skilled and motivated group of employees is available. Joszef Misik, Jan Coolen, Theo Doreleyers and Wim Gomes form the core of the studio. They learned their trade from George Pal. Although no archive of the workforce has survived, the number of employees quickly grows to about 20 and more. Joop sees that technical and creative talent is needed, and takes on new staff very easily.
Wow effect
In the late 1940s, animation technology is developing at a rapid pace. The Joop Geesink staff are true pioneers. Not only puppets are perfected but almost all productions with any budget are filmed in Technicolor. Realise that it will take until the 1960s for the first Dutch feature film to appear in colour. Use is made of the very laborious Technicolor system, which has a laboratory in London. Several 35 mm feature film cameras are converted for shooting.
The moviegoer is invariably bowled over by the beautiful colour films, those charming puppets and sets and the increasingly beautiful animations and moving camera. It all adds up to a wow effect! Joop Geesink reaps the benefits of this.
Dollywood
In 1946, the name ‘Dollywood’ was used on a film title for the first time. Because of Joop's name recognition, flair and enormous perseverance, he acquires new commissions fairly quickly. The studio is located on Beursstraat in Amsterdam. Soon it employs about 35 people. A newspaper reports this. Contact with Sies Numan of Philips still exists and Numan mediates the transfer of several former Pal employees. They now work for Geesink. A series of films for Dutch companies makes the studio a major international phenomenon. Film titles known today include: ‘The Big Four in Conference’ (1946) , “Honig Works”,(1947) ’A visit to Bols (1947), and others.
Passing Disney
Anyone watching the film ‘Visit to Bols (1947)’ now will probably criticise its pacing and numerous details. But, add to this the ‘wow effect’ described above, in a period when even basic livelihood provisions were particularly scarce, it makes it understandable why this very short film allowed Joop Geesink to beat his rival Walt Disney at an (advertising) film festival. Although the article in question does not clarify which film Walt Disney submitted for the competition, it should be clear that the Disney studios are not used to wrapping a commercial message in a short film. Joop Geesink does nothing but interact cinematically in this way.
Technical innovation
Philips turns out to be a generous client. Yet it is not always opulence. During the production of ‘The Three Musketeers’ for Philips, there is almost no money left for salaries. Closure of the studio threatens. It becomes a (business) life-saving meeting with diamond dealer Jacques Lopes Cardozo, who invests a sum of 10,000 guilders in the company. A weekly wage is then 50 guilders. Cardozo will remain a driving force in the background for many years, both business-wise and morally.
From 1947, Harry Tolsma comes to head the production department where the puppets are made. Under his hands and guidance, puppet technology develops to an unprecedented high level. The number of employees involved in making and dressing the puppets in this department alone rises to 10 people.
Successes follow one another
In 1948, Joop Geesink receives a commission from Honig to make a new film: Honig's Ideal. Assignments like this are badly needed, as around 50 employees have to be given a pay packet with money every week. These are financially uncertain times. The studio employees have to wait and see what they receive in salary and if they receive any. Joop sends the secretary wearing a nice skirt to collect an advance payment. Or he goes himself. Then the employees are called together: ‘Um, ... You are single, so you get fifty guilders. And eh ... you are married, so you receive a hundred. Right?’ A simple form of payroll, but very uncertain.
In 1949, the studio is doing well. So do the employment contracts. Joop Geesink wins several awards and starts recruitment campaign for his company. He tours several major cities and invites industrialists to free film screenings. Naturally, with films from his studio. To offer a total package, Joop also wants to open an animation department. This is brought to him, so to speak.
Joop Geesink in front of the studio door. ‘My first contract’
Joop Geesink with one of his puppets (1945)
The Big Four in Conference (1946).
Advertisement in professional trade journal for the just-opened comics department (1949)
Geesink grows into a well-known film producer, a celebrity.
Joop Geesink sells his film ideas based on striking drawings (storyboarding)
Marten Toonder stops commercial work
Around 1949, former business partner Marten Toonder's advertising cartoons went bad. He wants to focus on comic strips and, in addition, still has ambitions for a full-length cartoon. Marten Toonder closes the commercial cartoon department and many employees transfer to Joop Geesink's Dollywood. This is done with a different application procedure, which is described below.
The technical innovations that the studio develops arise not so much from a cinematic insight on Joop Geesink's part but more from his uninhibited imagination combined with the cleverness of his team. In fact, Joop doesn't know anything about cinematic technology, and therefore doesn't know anything about the technical problems the makers face. Unlimited by any kind of knowledge and restraint, ideas bubble up knowing ‘My lads will make it’. These ‘ lads’ have had their work cut out for them here. A beneficial side effect is that now there is more money coming in and more room to invest in equipment and technology.
Application procedure
The team of employees transferring from Marten Toonder includes a highly qualified group of all-rounders. One of them is Henk Kabos. He and his team are a creative asset to Geesink's Dollywood. Joop knows the people from the days of Marten Toonder's short-lived partnership.
Henk Kabos has a lot of experience in cartooning with the Tom Poes films. In addition to Henk Kabos, Geert Knoef, Joop Bekker and Mary Oostendijk, among others, will join the team. However, Joop Geesink does not hire them without a struggle. A remarkable job interview is held by Joop Geesink. He is familiar with the people and knows their qualities. This suits Joop nicely, because the day after their job interview at Dollywood, Joop Geesink has an appointment scheduled at detergent manufacturer Persil in Belgium. But Geesink has yet to make a film plan. So, if Henk Kabos now just makes a storyboard that is approved by the client, the entire cartoon crew can stay. This procedure shows that Geesink has no problem putting high pressure on his employees from the very first moment. The plan succeeds.
The result is the cartoon SOS Snowman in Danger (SOS, Sneeuwman in gevaar) - 1949 by Henk Kabos. He and the team, therefore, are allowed to stay by Geesink.
Around 1950, Geesink has a team of 15 cartoonists. Joop sees that among the cartoonists are the best animators, also for puppet films. Henk Kabos will later concentrate on designing and directing puppet films. He will supervise a few more cartoon productions, but most cartoon assignments will be handled by Mary Oostendijk .
Furthermore, Geesink has a live-action film crew this studio will be named ‘Star Film’. There is also a comics department, named Art Studio.
New location
Dollywood Studios has since moved into vacant barracks behind the Cinetone studios. Geesink is back at the former location of ‘The Ghost Train’, where he once got his first experience working in film.
With its explosive growth, the studio complex has become a cosy mishmash, with several barracks, interconnected with corridors, lofts, studios and offices criss-crossing each other. Joop Geesink employs his brother Wim as business manager. The latter introduced the maxim that clients had to pay an advance for the film. Earlier, this rule did not exist and clients could withdraw just before completion.
All stops open
During 1949/1950, Joop Geesink and Philips top executive Sies Numan focus on the ultimate production that will demonstrate all the technical registers of the studio. In 1951, this film premieres: Kermesse Fantastique (1951). This film is released as part of the 60th anniversary of Philips. This production was worked on for about a year and a half and is ‘the state of art’ for puppet film at the time. The Philips slogan used at the end of the film is ‘Triumph of Technology’. Joop Geesink subtly claims this slogan and then links it to his studio's capabilities.
In Kermesse Fantastique, the possibilities of expression developed for the otherwise rigid puppet heads are abundantly shown. This film pulls out all the stops, but some feel it is over the top. For Joop Geesink, this film is a unique sample card.
Joop Geesink Technique
The films Joop Geesink sells to the United States tend to have a high level of technical finish. Thereby good storylines, well-directed and tightly animated combined with a high entertainment value. For this reason, American advertising agencies speak of the Joop Geesink Technique to indicate the level of quality desired.
Fortunately, Joop has excellent representatives in the United States, here the name Joseph (Joe) S. Forest should certainly not go unmentioned. Joe delivers many orders from American clients. But, Jop Geesink also regularly travels himself to convince customers of his fun ideas. Moreover, when, during the conversation, it turns out that the ‘puppet film’ concept is too expensive, Joop, with his quick-witted mind, quickly has an alternative plan ready. This, too, commands respect from his customers.
Advertising trade magazine ‘Ariadne’ Makes extensive mention of the award for ‘A Visit to Bols’ (1947).
‘A Visit to Bols’ (1947).
Kermesse Fantastique (1951).
Joop Geesink (L) and Sies Numan (R) on the set of Kermesse Fantastique (1951)
Made promotional posters for advertising films such as Kermesse Fantastique that were hung in the windows of cinemas, next to the posters of the main films. This poster was designed by Joop Geesink.
Joop Geesink explains the film production process. (1955)
Competition
More talent comes to Geesink during this period. And that is just as well, because there is plenty of work! For the next little story, we go back in time a few years.
A few years earlier, in 1946, the English Signal Film starts a high-quality puppet film studio, This forms formidable competition for Joop Geesink's studio. Signal film brings the former art director of the then-fugitive George Pál, Jan Coolen to London. He goes to London with former colleagues Koos Schadee and Frans Hendrix. The studio lasts until the end of 1951 and then closes its puppet film doors. At Philips, Sies Numann breathes a sigh of relief as he wishes to keep the talent in the Netherlands. He manages to motivate this trio to apply to Geesink. Also joining this queue is Dopey Scheffer, who brings from the former British studio the concept for plastic doll limbs. The concept was originally developed by Ministry of Defence in collaboration with plastic surgeons to provide -after WW2- mutilated soldiers with functional prostheses. This included, for example, a PVC hand, which was fitted with metal wires in the fingers. This allowed the wearer to clamp the fingers around a cup. However, how these PVC prosthetics were made, Dopey did not know. Henk Kabos and Harry Tolsma incorporate this new element into the production technique of the ultimate animation puppet. On the other hand, the arrival of the Signal Film team, in turn, gives Joop Geesink new selling points to potential customers.
The economy is starting to pick up more and more. We have arrived in the early 1950s.
The previously discussed Philips assignment for Kermesse Fantastique provides the studio with a fabulous budget of 400,000 guilders. Currently, that would represent a budget of around 1.5 million euros. Work for a year and a half. The film is a joint project between Geesink and Numann. Both gentlemen can put their ideas into this and there is plenty of budget.
Volume
For now, Joop Geesink can easily handle the competition. He has an easy ‘chat’ and is therefore a welcome guest at parties, or as a guest speaker at trade meetings. He can fully promote his studio. In addition, the studio grows like crazy. When the first lustrum is celebrated in 1951, which quite coincidentally coincides with the 50th anniversary of his biggest customer Philips, Dollywood already has over 50 employees on the payroll and the studio is able to work on five different productions simultaneously. This guaranteed output of puppet and cartoon films helps ensure customer loyalty. In the following years, the number of employees grew to no less than 150. Investments were made in an in-house (black-and-white) film laboratory and dozens of technical specialists. Joop Geesink has gathered a very extensive team of creative people and has its own advertising agency, a comics department, illustration department, cartoon, live action and, of course, the puppet film.
SOS Snowman in Danger (SOS - Sneeuwman in gevaar) (1949)
SOS Snowman in Danger (SOS - Sneeuwman in gevaar) (1949)
Amiculous
Joop can be very amicable with you. Especially if he is satisfied with your work. As soon as you don't meet his expectations, you have to take the rap. Driven as he is himself, he revels in his people. For him, it is normal for employees to continue working even outside regular working hours. You shouldn't complain about that. Just work and shut up. Apart from that, the combination of "creativity" alongside "commerce" always causes friction.
It is understandable that not everyone is pleased with this employer mentality. It results in quite a bit of staff turnover. The people who mostly stay are the real artists. People who work to create something beautiful. They see a prime opportunity to develop their talents. These artists hardly realise that they are working on a disposable product called ‘advertising’.
Joop sees the talent and encourages people to develop it further. The salary is not always in line with the market, but they get a lot of creative freedom.
Joop Geesink around 1952.
Joszef Misik (top) animates a scene from Story of Light. Cameraman Jan Bouwman.(bottom)
Three times is the charm
In 1953, Joop gets married for the third time.
He marries the English Irene Mitchell, a widow with 1 child. Joop brings with him his children Rob and Nelleke. From this marriage, daughter Louise Geesink is born in 1954. Louise turns out to have inherited her father's talent for drawing.
Joop Geesink realises that making puppet films does bring him a lot of name recognition and thus customers. With the medium of high-quality puppet film, Geesink has a unique commercial concept on his hands. He also sees that the downside of puppet film is that it is an expensive medium to advertise with, as production is labour-intensive. For this reason, he also makes advertising films in cartoon technique and with regular actors.
Joop wants to make something more permanent than disposable advertising. To this end, he comes up with the plan to make a feature film. So feature film branch Starfilm makes a feature film with Dollywood. Het The Wondrous Life of William Pearl (Het wonderlijke Leven van Willem) This first full-length feature film appears in cinemas in 1953 with Wim Sonneveld in one of the leading roles. The film, directed by Gerard Rutten and set designs by Henk Kabos, has a budget of 200,000 guilders. Unfortunately, it is not a success and the film makes a loss of 70,000 guilders. It leads to serious conflicts with the director, who leaves the production early.
The financial loss is still somewhat absorbable. Far greater is Joop's loss of confidence in director Gerard Rutten. Members of the film tell us that assistant director Ronnie Erends had to finish the film. Rutten lacked oversight in big productions. This is end of collaboration with Rutten as a feature film director. It is also end of all current and future plans for full-length films by Geesink.
Joop will continue to consider alternative productions besides the puppet film on an ongoing basis. He also seeks it in filmed puppetry. He calls it ‘Dancing Fingers’ (see image below) He also tries puppetry, as in the great reconstruction exhibition E55. Joop Geesink creatively furnishes several pavilions at this exhibition. A TV studio is recreated for Philips, where the public can watch the (puppet) show ‘Doggywood’ live, featuring dogs and cats as human characters. For the Dutch Dairy Agency, a ‘dark ride’ will be created. An attraction where the audience is guided along the Milky Way in a trolley. This phenomenon is fairly new in 1955 and the phenomenon is named ‘viewing train’.
It cannot be ruled out that the creative and commercial potential of this exhibition would later give Joop Geesink the idea of developing an amusement park of his own with sponsored pavilions. But, more on that later.
Impression of the exhibition Expo'55
Joop Geesink working in his office. (c.1950)
Joop Geesink receives clients at his office (1955).
(From NZB's ‘Dairy Journal 1955’)
Light films
Customers see the exclusivity of the medium and increasingly demand a clause in the contract that for a certain period Geesink is not allowed to make similar productions for competitors. Don't impose such demands on Joop Geesink. The challenge for him is to sign the competition clause on the one hand and bring in those competitors on the other.
It happens around 1954 that Geesink acquires a major commission for General Electric . A 10-minute puppet film about the history of light. The Story of Light follows the development of lighting. From primeval man with burning branches to modern man with fluorescent light in the 1950s. There was a hefty budget, but General Electric demanded the competition clause here.
Joop Geesink knows Sies Numann at Philips who also produces lamps. From the same period comes the Philips film Light and Mankind with an almost identical story, style and storyboard. No big deal, one client in the US and the other in Europe. Given the great distance between the two continents, it was clear that no one would see both films.
Some day, the client from America announces himself to see how the production is going...
Joop, in all haste, has parts of the studio boarded up where the competing Philips film is being shot. The client is impressed by the signs ‘Top Secret’ and dares not ask any questions. Next time handle it a bit more skillfully.’ Geesink does not appear to have much respect for his customers in that respect. History does not tell whether Joop's friend and client Sies Numann of Philips was aware of this overlap when Philips awarded the contract.
Still from "Story of Light" (1954)
Still from "Light and Mankind" (1954)
Big Bang
Then comes a mega-sized order from the United States. A true commercial hit on the horizon.
The reason is the Dollywood animated film ‘Story of Light’ (1954) for US General Electric opens with a stunning opening scene through the oodern era. A similar film was also made for Philips. The films provide the convincing selling point that Joop Geesink's Dollywood is capable of a pretentious project. In collaboration with publisher Time-Life, an ambitious film series about the origins of the Earth is being launched. The first title will be called The Earth is Born. In a planned four-part film of 12.5 minutes each full of special effects, the creation of the Earth is to be realistically portrayed. The theme is: From Big Bang to prehistoric times. This series of high-tech trick films would pull the studio out of the financial doldrums. A large production hall measuring 30 x 15 metres is being rigged for this film series.
This ambitious project obviously requires a special creative mind to drive things artistically. This responsible is found by American co-producer: Zack Schwartz (1913-2003).
Schwartz is an American filmmaker, animator, art director and production designer who was active in the animation industry between the 1930s and 1950s. He initially worked at Disney, where he was involved as art director on ‘Fantasia’ (1940), specifically the segment ‘The Sorcerer's Apprentice’, among others. After briefly staying at Screen Gems (1941-1943), he co-founded United Productions of America (UPA) in 1944, a studio that became known for its innovative style and influence on animation history. Understandably, Time Life and US producer Trans Film approached him as director for The Earth is Born.
The film's budget The Earth is Born is not documented, but it must have been huge. Yet Geesink loses a quarter of a million guilders on the first part alone. (The value of a quarter of a million guilders from 1954 would probably be 1.5 million euros in 2024. ) The reason for this financial disaster lies in a very rickety employment contract with the American Disney director, mr Schwartz. He has a contract on ‘day rate’ with no end date set. The director reportedly abused his day rate, rejecting numerous scenes time and again. Consequence: The collaboration with TIME-LIFE as well as the film series are cancelled. But worse: The studio hits the brink of bankruptcy. Philips stands surety for 300,000 guilders. Friend and diamond dealer Jacques Lopes Cardozo is also important here as guarantor. The credits fortunately do not have to be drawn down, but the planned film four-part about the Big Bang is folded.
The editor of this article was once allowed to see the final editing of the first part at the Geesink studios. Unfortunately, the film reel has not been recovered after various reorganisations of the studio.
Unfortunately, orders for puppet films are still coming in. Joop Geesink emerged as a developer of series commercials. In the mid-1950s, for instance, a series of dozens of stop-motion films were made for the beer brand MacKenson. Virtually all sports were depicted. This gave enormous continuity.
A ‘dark ride’ was made for the Dutch Dairy Agency. In 1955, it was called a ‘viewing train’. Souvenir booklet, front cover.
Souvenir booklet to the experience with the viewtrain. This is the inside of the booklet. On the far right is a wheel that can be used to conjure up changing pictures behind the window.
The press was particularly impressed by the spectacular project ‘The Earth is Born’.
Newspaper article from Utrechts Nieuwsblad, July 1953. Translation of the article can be found elsewhere on this website.
The TV medium is relatively new; especially in the Netherlands. Joop Geesink is already looking for affordable alternatives to puppet film, while maintaining its entertainment value.
Article in the Telegraaf (1951)