Not the Jetsons

Hanna-Barbera always knew a good idea when they saw it.

Magazines like Popular Science speculated on technology and life in the future. The New York World’s Fair in 1939 and Seattle World’s Fair of 1962 focused on The World of Tomorrow. There was so much looking at how inventions would make things easier for us in the far-off world of, say, 1970 that Tex Avery spoofed it in his “Tomorrow” trio of cartoons.

All this found its way into The Jetsons in 1962. Staffers brought copies of various “future” magazine articles for design inspiration. Seattle’s Space Needle seems to have provided an idea or two to the artists.

There was another cartoon that looked at the Wondrous World Ahead. Your Safety First was a 1956 industrial short produced by the John Sutherland studio which speculated about what life would be like in the year 2000.

The cartoon starts with the main character at the office, his feet up on his desk, reading the Futureville Press. It’s on paper, but a special kind of paper. A headline scrolls across like a ticker on a building outside Times Square.



In 2000, there are peaceful Martians with a far-advanced version of the A bomb.



He turns the page. The ad for the steak gives off a meat aroma, while another for a women’s clothing place has a model turning to display her dress.



The next page brings an ad for new cars with Jetson-like bubble tops. The idea wasn't new. Popular Science showed off a bubble-top racer in its January 1952 edition.



Layout artists Gerry Nevius and Charles McElmurry may have been responsible for the designs. The director of the cartoon was former MGMer George Gordon. The writer was Norman Wright, who went from Disney to his own studio in the late 40s into the early 60s, so he must have done this on the side. As a side note, Wright produced an animated version of the 1952 book Hoppy, the Curious Kangaroo. Has anyone seen it?

The animation is by Cal Dalton, Ken O’Brien, George Cannata and Fred Madison, who became head of the Screen Cartoonists Guild a year later. And while the lead character here sounds like George Jetson, George O’Hanlon insisted he never acted in cartoons until The Jetsons. If you listen closely, especially after the first line, the man is voiced by Marvin Miller, doing a voice similar to his Captain Cosmic heard that same year in the Sutherland short Destination Earth.