A is for Atom

A is For Atom won at least nine awards for the John Sutherland studio as it propagandised how atomic energy was great for all humanity.

Tony Rivera, formerly of Disney and Lantz, and later of Hanna-Barbera and UPA, was the designer for this animated short, with art direction by Gerry Nevius and Lew Keller. Characters in this cartoon are drawn with huge atom symbol heads living in Element Town. Narrator Bud Hiestand explains the elements are numbered according to how many protons they have in their nucleus.

The animation shows Hydrogen has one proton, oxygen has eight, gold (“he’s rich,” explains Hiestand, hence the tycoon outfit) with 79, and uranium with 92. He’s the heaviest in protons, so he’s depicted as heavy.



Hiestand then reveals there are families of atoms with the same protons, but different numbers of neutrons. We see the uranium family, the tin family popping up from inside their home, while the tentative aluminum, all alone, quickly falls back into its coffee pot.



The film was copyrighted in 1952 but was released theatrically the following year. General Electric paid for its making, with Arnold Gillespie and Emery Hawkins credited with animation and MGM veteran Carl Urbano as the director.