Seymour Reit

Infobox Writer
name = Seymour Reit


imagesize =
caption =
pseudonym = Seymour Reit, Sy Reit
birthname = Seymour Victory Reit
birthdate = Birth date|1918|11|11
birthplace = New York City
deathdate = Death date and age|2001|11|21|1918|11|11
deathplace = New York City
occupation = Writer, cartoonist
alma_mater = New York University
notableworks = Casper the Friendly Ghost

Seymour Victory Reit (11 November 1918 – 21 November 2001) was the author of over 80 children's books as well as several works for adults.cite web|title=Obituary: Seymour Reit|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2001/dec/24/guardianobituaries.books|accessdate=2008-08-16|date=2001-12-24|work=The Guardian] Reit was the creator, with cartoonist Joe Oriolo, of the character Casper the Friendly Ghost.cite web|title=Seymour Reit, 83; Drew Cartoon Ghost Casper|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/18/local/me-15930|accessdate=2008-08-16|date=2001-12-18|work=Los Angeles Times] Reit started his career working for Fleischer Studios as an animator; he also worked for Jerry Iger and Will Eisner as a cartoonist, and for "Mad Magazine" and several other publications as a humorist.

Biography

Reit was born in New York City on 11 November 1918 (Armistice Day; this was the source of his middle name "Victory"). He showed an early talent for art, winning a drawing contest at the age of 12. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School and New York University, where he drew cartoons for humorous college magazines. He graduated at the age of 19 and soon landed a job for $25 a week at Fleischer Studios in Miami. He worked as an in-betweener and inker on the 1939 animated film "Gulliver's Travels", and later became a gag writer for the "Popeye" and "Betty Boop" cartoon series, among others. He also anonymously produced comic strips for Jerry Iger under the Fiction House label. Reit attended New York University with future "Captain Marvel" writer William Woolfolk; Reit helped launch Woolfolk's career as a writer of comics by introducing him to Jerry Iger and Will Eisner.cite web|title=William Woolfolk, 86, Writer Behind Comic-Book Heroes|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B03E1D71531F93AA3575BC0A9659C8B63|accessdate=2008-08-16|date=2003-08-09|work=New York Times]

Reit served in World War II in a U.S. Army Air Force camouflage unit tasked with defending the West Coast from a Japanese invasion, and later served in Europe after D-Day. He later wrote a book, "The Amazing Camouflage Deceptions of World War II", drawing on his wartime experience. It contains a version of the urban legend which claims that British aviators taunted the German Army by dropping a wooden bomb on a decoy airfield the Germans had built.cite web|title=Lip Bomb|url=http://www.snopes.com/military/woodbomb.asp|accessdate=2008-08-16|date=2005-10-01|work=Snopes (Urban Legends Reference Pages)]

After the war, Reit did cartoon work for "Archie" and "Little Lulu", and wrote gags for some of the new "Casper" animated shorts that were being produced. He also wrote for the TV series "Captain Kangaroo". In 1950 he started working for the publications department of the Bank Street College of Education in New York, and also scripted industrial films and radio shows. In the late 1950s, he began submitting work to "Mad Magazine", ultimately contributing over 60 pieces.cite web|title=Seymour V. Reit, 83, a Creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A02EFD9163EF934A25751C1A9679C8B63|accessdate=2008-08-16|date=2001-12-17|work=New York Times]

The Friendly Ghost

Casper first appeared in an unpublished story "The Friendly Ghost" written by Reit in 1940; cartoonist Joe Oriolo provided the illustrations, and the two sold all rights to the story and character for $200 to Paramount Pictures's Famous Studios division (a unit formed from the remains of Fleischer Studios). Paramount's animated short "The Friendly Ghost" based on Reit's story was released in 1945 as part of their Noveltoons series; it was well received and "Casper" eventually developed into an extensive franchise. In all, Casper has appeared in 55 animated theatrical shorts, hundreds of comic books, multiple television series, and several film adaptions, including a 1995 movie produced by Steven Spielberg.

Although Reit did not earn any royalties from the "Casper" franchise, he was content with his character's success: "All I have are some nice memories and a little nostalgic sadness that I am not part of the movie. I'm not mourning or grieving over what I might have lost with Casper. It was fun. I did the story. It has a lot of cachet."

Books

Reit wrote over 80 books, primarily for children, on a variety of historical, technical, natural, and other subjects. One of his titles for adults, "The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa", written in 1981, is about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. In the book, Reit asserted that there were "two" genuine "Mona Lisas" in the world: the one in the Louvre, and an earlier version of the work painted by Leonardo Da Vinci which was being held in a bank vault in New Jersey (the so-called "Vernon Mona Lisa").cite web|title=Nonfiction in brief|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CEFD9163BF935A15754C0A967948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2|accessdate=2008-08-16|date=1981-07-26|work=New York Times] A long-planned movie adaptation of the bookcite web|title=At the Movies|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6D81638F931A35750C0A966958260|accessdate=2008-08-16|date=1990-03-02|work=New York Times] has never materialized, although the Internet Movie Database lists a movie by the same title tentatively planned for 2009.cite web|title=The Day They Stole the Mona Lisa (2009)|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229426/|accessdate=2008-08-16|year=2008|work=Internet Movie Database]

Selected bibliography

In addition to those listed here, Reit wrote several books for Golden Press, publishers of the Little Golden Books series, and dozens of other children's books for assorted publishers.

References

External links

* [http://books.google.com/books?q=inauthor%3A%22seymour+reit%22 All books under author name "Seymour Reit"] at Google Book Search

Persondata
NAME= Reit, Seymour
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Reit, Seymour Victory
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Writer, cartoonist
DATE OF BIRTH= 1918-11-11
PLACE OF BIRTH= New York City
DATE OF DEATH= 2001-11-21
PLACE OF DEATH= New York City