ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the studio’s executive producer, Stephen Bosustow. Based on memories and recollections of Bosustow and UPA employees, as well as articles from the international and national press; it delineates the executive producer’s attitude in administering the company. As a business man, Bosustow ensured the day-to-day operations, found clients for the production of animated films, and handled the distribution of the theatrical shorts by negotiating and renegotiating the Columbia agreement. As an artist and art lover, he left his employees to work in the most creative of conditions, without imposing his presence. And as a unionist, he acted as a catalyzer by encouraging the employees to work in small teams of interchangeable artists, who express themselves and experiment with alternative audiovisual styles different from the standards of the moment. An analysis of Bosustow’s merits, limits, and gaps helps to assess him as UPA executive producer and UPA as an artistically successful animation studio.
