Casper first appeared in an unpublished story The Friendly Ghost written by Reit in 1940; cartoonist Joe Oriolo provided the illustrations, and the two sold all rights to the story and character for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."
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