A Talk Show For Mary Hartman's Town

“Only the certifiably embalmed will fail to laugh out loud several times along its outrageous way,” is how the New York Times ended its review of a summer replacement show in 1977.

There were mixed feelings in the critical world about Fernwood 2 Night. It satirised the left, the right, the obliviousness of the average American and so much more. It remains one of my favourite shows of all time.

Still there were people who thought “You can’t make fun of something *that* way.” One was the Associated Press’ Jay Sharbutt. Here’s what he wrote several days after the show’s American debut on July 4, 1977.

Mary Hartman Spin-off tacky
By JAY SHARBUTT
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The late Lenny Bruce was frequently tasteless and frequently funny. A new show, “Fernwood 2Night,” is only half that. It’s frequently tasteless. At least its first two chapters are.
It’s Norman Lear's 13-week summer series that opened July 4 as a follow-up to his “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” which closed Friday.
The new daily venture, syndicated to about 30 markets, is a spoof of TV talk shows like “Tonight” on which Johnny Carson occasionally stars. It is set in mythical Fernwood, Ohio, on mythical Channel 6.
Its star is Martin Mull, the fine satirist, guitarist and foe of the last decade's folk music. He plays Barth Gimble, a glib, smirking host who is on the lam from the law in Miami, site of his last TV show.
(Mull once played Barth’s brother, Garth, who in a rousing “Hartman” episode fatally impaled himself on an aluminum Christmas tree.)
The first “Fernwood 2Night” served mainly to introduce the regulars, including Barth, who nervously works on a day-to-day contract.
The others are his vacuum-headed co-host Jerry Hubbard (Fred Willard) and middle-aged Happy Kyne (Frank DeVol). Happy runs a four-piece band which sounds as if it uses leftover notes from Art Linkletter’s House Party. Happy also shamelessly plugs his hamburger chain, the Bun n' Run.
So far, so good. But one opening-day guest was a classical pianist in an iron lung. Another was a befuddled motorist, of Jewish heritage, booked to show Fernwood's mainly Anglo-Saxon residents what a real Jew looks like.
Barth introduced him and decried prejudice and stereotypes of Jews. His announcer later told the guy: “You look just like the rest of us. It’s as plain as the nose on your face.”
After this and the iron-lung pianist, I was surprised they didn’t bring on a blind Sicilian to dance the tarantella in a china shop.
On the much milder Show No. 2, in a segment called “Bury the Hatchet,” they brought on a Catholic priest and his non-Catholic parents. Seems they wanted him deprogrammed from a cult, the Catholic Church.
His verge-of-hysterical mother sobbed: “We want our son Joey to be taken away from the Catholics and to be given back to us so we can clear his mind of all that silly mumbo-jumbo.”
Audience applause gave the nod to the padre. The losing parents got free eats at "Home of Hotcakes" and a choice of a deluxe garden rake or ''two pounds of Mix-N-Match nails and screws."
This is called piercing social satire. But there were some actual funnies, like the MirthMaker version of disco-dom's "Shake Your Booty" in Western Swing Polka style, and a 5-year-old torch singer's "I Didn't Know the Gun Was Loaded."
Ditto the guest professor who, having studied harmful effects of synthetic fibers, opined: "Leisure suits cause cancer."
But such nifty goods were swamped by the deliberately tasteless wares, gross outs, if you will, that seemed aimed at starting protests pouring, publicity pumping and ratings rising.
I suspect such will happen as word of the shocking things they get away with on “Fernwood 2Night” gets around. But nightly outrage can wear thin, and I bet severe Nielsen droop will occur within three weeks.
It’ll happen this way: Reasonably massive gripes by offended viewers in Week One; an ominous lull in Week Two and, in Week Three, a small but fetal sound that goes, “Ho-hum.”

One writer spent more time talking about the star than giving his opinion of the show. This appeared in the Newark Advocate, July 9, 1977.

Lunacy still lives in Fernwood
By LEE MARGULIES
Los Angeles Times Service
HOLLYWOOD — Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman is gone but its comical spirit lives on in all its glorious lunacy and tackiness in Fernwood Tonight, the nightly talk show that premiered recently. Where else would you expect to see a pianist in an iron lung, a huckster who bills himself as a consumer advocate so he can knock the competition and push his own product, the owner of a health food restaurant who says she eats no meat “except for burgers,” a Vietnamese refugee whose book about life in the United States is called “Yankee Doodle Gook,” a scientist who claims leisure suits cause cancer?
What must be made clear about Fernwood Tonight, for those who haven’t yet seen it and may not have guessed already, is that it is a fictional talk show. The host, the announcer, the guests — they’re all played by actors working from scripted material. Zaniness prevails as they enact what the series creators envisioned as the sort of squalid talk show that a TV station in Mary Hartman’s hometown would put on.
“It's the talk show equivalent of Bowling for Dollars,” proclaims Martin Mull, the painter-turned-songwriter-turned-nightclub performer-turned-actor who stars in Fernwood Tonight as Barth Gimble, the alternately earnest and embarrassed host.
The idea for the show sprang from the fertile mind of Norman Lear, who wanted to do something new for summer rather than rely on reruns when the syndicated Mary Hartman soap opera was scheduled to take a break. He liked the concept of maintaining the Fernwood setting so the frame of reference for the humor would stay the same and characters from Mary Hartman could appear as guests.
"Much as the evening news was worthy of being lived in our stories on the fictional Mary Hartman, the conversation and small talk among celebrities and authors on talk shows can be reflected in a fictional talk show," explains A1 Burton, a vice president of Lear's TAT Communications. “We’re not spooling it we’re just doing our version of it.”
Later, of course, it developed that Mary Hartman would not be returning in its present form in the fall, so now Fernwood Tonight is bridging the gap between it and its successor, Fernwood USA.
To host the new series they chose Mull, who had played Garth Gimble, a wife beater, earlier in the season on Mary Hartman. Burton had seen his musical-comedy nightclub act and felt the style was just right. “The quality that kept coming through was how likable he was in spite of the fact that all the time he was playing an obnoxious, surface character — a guy who should be despicable but is extremely likable,” he recalls.
Lear caught the act and agreed but there was a slight problem. Garth had been killed off, impaled by a Christmas tree. So Mull was brought back to Mary Hartman as Barth, Garth's twin brother, to establish him for Fernwood Tonight. On the new show Bart occasionally makes reference to things that happened on the old one — particularly with regard to his brother's death — but a knowledge of the Mary Hartman story lines is by no means a prerequisite for watching Fernwood Tonight.
Although a newcomer to acting — Garth was his first whack at it — Mull says he is comfortable starring in the series because the character of Barth is the same persona he had developed in his nightclub act. He's cocky, cynical, sarcastic, lecherous, larcenous — “just about every bad quality you can think of but in small amounts," the actor explains. “They're forgivable because he doesn't have the strength to bring any of them out.”
Mull has taken a circuitous route to get where he is today. He earned a master's degree in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1967 but made money by working as a backup musician on guitar. He began writing his own material and, after a year on the songwriting staff at Warner Bros. Records, formed a band and began to perform. Because his songs were basically comical, he says, he found he had to explain them to audiences, and through that process evolved a stage character and funny act. He has recorded five albums, including the current "I'm Everyone I Ever Loved" on ABC Records.
In the wake of a divorce, he moved to California from New York last February to continue performing and to try his hand at TV writing. The acting assignment on Mary Hartman came out of the blue a few months later and now he's caught up in it, hoping one day to move into motion pictures not only as a performer but as a writer and director too.
But first there is Fernwood Tonight (or Fernwood 2Night, as the sign on the set says), for which he has high hopes. "I think it may catch the imagination of the American people," he says. "My hope would be that it would be to Mary Hartman what Mary Hartman was to television at that time, that next step that people could really get behind."
Reaction from the studio audiences and around Lear's offices has been so strong that even before it went on the air there was talk of keeping it going beyond this initial 13-week run, perhaps to be sold separately from Mary Hartman-Fernwood USA. But no decision on the matter is expected until next month. Says Mull: "I haven't discussed this with anyone but what I'd like to see when Fernwood USA comes on in the fall is for it to run four nights a week and this would run on the fifth. Maybe what we need is a Fernwood Broadcasting Corp. It would carry all our programming: Mary Hartman, Fernwood USA, Fernwood Tonight ... and then there could be a Fernwood Today, Fernwood Tomorrow, The Fernwood Evening News ... even The Fernwood Tyler Moore Show."

Forever Fernwood (nee Fernwood USA) was a lesser show than its predecessor Mary Hartman. And Fernwood 2 Night was revamped into a lesser show. Lear wanted big name guest stars, so he moved the show out of Fernwood. He lost track of the appeal of the small-town oddballs and iconoclasts that made Fernwood 2 Night appealing. It didn’t need big names. The small ones made the show a hit.

Dog and Cat Fight a la Tyer

After an establishing shot of an antique shop in The Helpful Genie (1951), director Connie Rasinski cuts to a shot of a dog and cat being told by their owner (played by Dayton Allen) to behave. They don’t. Instead, they grow two heads and five legs.



“Here, here, stop that!” says the owner. There’s a pause in the fight, though some short movements are animated on twos. Then the dog licks the cat to show his friendship.



Jim Tyer takes up a good portion of the start of the cartoon. There’s solid animation of the dog chasing the cat, a neat take when the Genie comes out of the lamp, and a few gags you’ll recognise as variations of ones from other cartoons.

Bugs' Fingers

There were great finger artists at Warner Bros. Ken Harris and Virgil Ross both did an expert job of Bugs Bunny moving and twisting his fingers. And someone in the Frank Tashlin unit could do it, too.

Here’s an example from The Unruly Hare, released in 1945 almost five months after Tashlin left for the Sutherland-Moray studio.



Tashlin holds Bugs, while Elmer’s eye looks down. Tashlin then holds everything for 24 frames (one second) before Bugs’ finger reacts.



Cal Dalton, Izzy Ellis, Dick Bickenbach and Art Davis would have been the animators on this short. The uncredited background artist is unmistakeably Dick Thomas.

I Had Four Wives

Ol’ Buck Benny needed to do more than blaze a six-shooter if’n he were to rout those mangy varmints on the other networks.

In the 1958-59 season, Jack Benny was up against Maverick on ABC. He had what may have been a decided disadvantage. James Garner and his six-shooter were on every week. Benny was still alternating weeks; every other week, CBS aired Bachelor Father. And Maverick had something different than pretty much every other horse opera—Garner was amusing; the show had a lighter touch than Cheyenne, Tales of Wells Fargo or just about any other Western on the air that season (and there were plenty of them).

So that meant Benny had to counter-programme. Usually that meant filling the screen with some huge motion picture guest star. But of November 2nd, he tried something else—wives of big-name stars.

Here’s a syndicated story that appeared in papers just before the broadcast aired.

Four Wives For Benny!
By HAL HUMPHREY
HOLLYWOOD—"Now, look. I want all four of you to relax on this show. If you break up or forget a line, it's all right. I don't want you to rehearse too much either. That would spoil everything."
Four very attractive women looked rather baffled as they heard these instructions from the star of the show in which they were to play important roles. After all, this was their TV acting debut, and each one had a husband who would be watching with extremely critical eyes.
The women?
Mrs. Bob Hope, Mrs. Dean Martin, Mrs. Ray Milland and Mrs. David Niven.
The star (of stage, screen, radio and TV)?
Jack Benny, who else?
There just isn't anyone else who would have the nerve and audacity to hire four amateurs for key roles on his TV show unless it was Ted Mack.
Playing themselves in this Sunday's Jack Benny Show, the Mes-dames Hope, Martin, Milland and Niven descend upon Jack as a committee for the improvement of Beverly Hills. To this committee of lovely ladies nothing would improve their fair city more than the removal of Jack's 1910 Maxwell. Knowing Jack's pecuniary habits, they resort to chincancry right off.
When Mal Milland and Hjordis Niven told their husbands they were doing Jack's show, the reaction was, "You crazy? That's a live show!"
Dean Martin had let wife Jean believe it was on film. After she heard it was "live" she was about to chicken out.
Dolores Hope seems to have no fear of the medium "live" or dead and in the rehearsal I caught, she was punching across the lines like a veteran.
Her only worry is that the Toluca Lake chamber of commerce won't cotton to her being classed as a Beverly Hills resident and Dolores is quite serious about this, too. She wasn't placated when someone suggested they wouldn't hear about it.
"I've already heard so much comment about our being on this show, and we haven't even been on yet. I believe more people must watch Jack than they do Bob's show," she stated.
And now it's a question of who is going to feel most injured—Toluca Lake or Bob.
"I think it's going to be a funny show because of the girls," Jack said to me. "If it isn't, what are they gonna do? Throw me out of show business?"

Dolores Hope went on despite a fever the night before. Niven took his wife to Austria and Sweden immediately after the show. Mal Milland, according to Jack’s daughter Joan, was one of the most beautiful women she ever saw, more so than any movie star.

The New York Daily News called it his best show of the season and praised Mel Blanc in a supporting role. Louella Parsons noted in her column: [L]eave it to Bob Hope to throw in the “ad-lib” that broken them all up. Showing up with David Niven to take a bow at the end of the program, Bob whispered to Dolores, “Did you get your money yet?” To which Jack yipped, “No—but you’ll make me do three free shows for you for this!”

As for the ratings showdown, Jack beat Garner with a 22.9 rating, compared to 22.1 for Maverick and 7.8 for Northwest Passage on NBC. Maverick, however, ended the season at number six, with Jack not even in the top 20.

George Rosen of Variety may not have been surprised. His opinion, in a column November 5, 1958, was that “the very best in television...more than likely won’t even show up when the Top 10 laurels are distributed and when the season’s cumulative batting averages are tallied.” His argument was the number of viewers was not in direct proportion to the quality of the show.

It’s an argument still being made 63 years later.

MGM Odds and Ends Part 2

The middle 1940s were pretty much a golden time for the MGM cartoon studio. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera kept batting out Tom and Jerrys and picking up Oscars (okay, MGM executive Fred Quimby actually picked them up at the Academy ceremony). Tex Avery scored big with Red Hot Riding Hood; Metro even paid for full-page ads in the trades about it. And there was praise for the mixed live action/animation segment in Gene Kelly’s Anchors Aweigh.

There were some setbacks. Like all other cartoon studios, MGM was losing people to military service. George Gordon was made a director for a short period then quit to work for Hugh Harman. Quimby couldn’t decide whether to keep a third unit. Avery’s unit underwent a complete change within a few years; Irv Spence was moved to the Hanna-Barbera unit, Ed Love was fired by mistake by Quimby, Preston Blair and Ray Abrams were put into a third unit (Blair returned for a few cartoons with Avery after it was disbanded). And finished cartoons sat on the shelf for months and months because there wasn’t enough Technicolor film stock to make prints.

Here’s a look at some studio activities from 1943-47 as found in the pages of The Hollywood Reporter. You may notice a few unfamiliar titles of cartoons put into production. That’s because they never existed. The stories were publicity plants by MGM. The studio PR people made it up. No Tender Wolves. The name “Wally Wolf” was an invention of a studio news release. One cartoon that did exist was one made for Spanish-language audiences. It was on-line at one time but has disappeared.

Some titles were changed. As best as I can tell, Nuts in May became Screwball Squirrel. Some Skunk was changed to The Uninvited Pest while Strange Innertube became the ho-hum named Innertube Antics starring a dog that Hanna and Barbera put in two shorts before sticking with Tom and Jerry. House of Tomorrow was shelved and revived a number of years later.

A number of the photocopied pages are faded so a couple of stories are unreadable. Portions of stories not dealing with the studio have been deleted.

February 3, 1943
Nominations in the short subjects division of the Academy Awards, are announced today. Final judging, made by the distributed companies, will be at a special showing tonight at 8 p.m. at the Filmarte Theatre. ...
Cartoon: “All Out For V,” Terrytoons, 20th Century-Fox; “Juke Box Jamboree,” Walter Lantz, Universal; “Tulips Shall Grow,” George Pal Puppetoon, Paramount; “Pigs in a Polka,” Merrie Melodies Series, Warners; “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” Walt Disney, RKO Radio; “The Blitz Wolf,” MGM.

March 19, 1943
MGM will launch a series of cartoons featuring stories well known to the citizenry below the border. First on the agenda is “Panchito y el Lobo,” or “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” adapted from the universally popular fable. Spanish main titles will be used in all instances, with American sub-titles, since each subject is intended for release in the United States as well as foreign countries. The entire series will be under the supervision of executive producer Fred Quimby.

March 29, 1943
Tony Pabian, cartoon director formerly with MGM, has joined the Hugh Harmon Productions. Harman starts a three-reeler in color for the U.S. Public Health Service today at Talisman.

April 1, 1943
For its Fourth Victory Loan Drive, starting April 15, the Canadian government will distribute MGM’s cartoon, “The Blitz Wolf,” which was also used as a war bond sales stimulant in this country. W.H. Burnside, director of production for the National Film Board of Canada, is here making arrangements for 195 (16mm.) and 65 (35mm.) prints. The negative was furnished gratis by MGM.

April 7, 1943
MGM’s short subjects schedule during April provides for at least one release in each series, a record never previously attained.
Included are . . . MGM Cartoon “The Boy and the Wolf,” April 24.

April 15, 1943
Nathaniel Elliott, MGM cartoon studio veteran, has been inducted in U.S. Army, reporting at Fort MacArthur.

April 26, 1943

More than 52 shorts produced by major studios have been landed in Algiers and are being shown to soldiers and natives as representative American entertainment. The one and two-reelers were selected by Robert Riskin, as chief of the OWI’s Overseas Bureau, and went across by plane and boat. Some were in the first troop-carrying vessels to reach North Africa. ...
Among the shorts are ...
MGM: “Waterbugs,” “Little Cesario,” “Flying Bear,” “Dance of the Weeds,” “Prospecting Bear,” “Alley Cat,” ... “Puss ‘N’ Toots.”

May 13, 1943
All previous print quotas on MGM shorts have been topped by the order for “Sufferin’ Cats,” the cartoon which is getting concurrent bookings with “The Human Comedy” from coast to coast. Print order has been hikes to 250, an all-time high for this unit. It is the 15th release in the Tom and Jerry series that began in 1940 with “Puss Gets the Boot.”

May 18, 1943
With Mexican Vice Consul Ernesto A. Romero as guest, MGM previewed Spanish versions of six James A. FitzPatrick Traveltalks Friday for Latin American consular representatives and the Office of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. In a speech following screening, Romero extended the official thanks of his government for the pictures.
Subjects shown were “Exotic Mexico,” “Picturesque Patzcuaro,” “Modern Mexico City,” “Land of Arizaba,” “Mexican Police on Parade” and “On the Road to Monterey.” An MGM cartoon, “Panchito y el Lobo,” was also screened.

May 25, 1943
During the past two weeks MGM shorts and cartoon departments have topped all previous recrds for a similar period by previewing eight subjects.
Included were “Inflation,” starring Edward Arnold; Pete Smith’s “Seeing Hands” and “Dog-House”; John Nesbitt’s “That’s Why I Left You” and “Don’t You Believe It”; Tom and Jerry Cartoons “Yankee Doodle Mouse” and “The Lonesome Mouse,” and the Miniature, “March of Music.”

June 3, 1943
With “Yankee Doodle Mouse” as its special Fourth of July release, MGM celebrates the third anniversary of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. The series is made by Fred Quimby, with co-directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

June 30, 1943
With the largest backlog of product in history, MGM’s short subjects department is now gearing itself for 1943-44 program.
Pictures available for early release include...”One Ham's Family” and “War Dogs,” cartoons.

July 8, 1943
With animation completed on 10 cartoons, MGM producer Fred Quimby has studio personnel engaged on the 1944 program. Pictures soon to go before camera include “War Dogs,” “Million Dollar Cat,” “Baby Puss” and “Bodyguard,” directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera; “What Buzzin’ Buzzard,” “Nuts in May” and “Screwball Baseball,” directed by Tex Avery; “Stork’s Holiday,” “Strange Innertube” and “Worst Aid,” directed by George Gordon.

July 14, 1943
Coline [sic] Miles, color model director for MGM’s cartoon studio since its beginning, has resigned to assume the financial secretary’s post of the Screen Cartoonists Guild, succeeding Pepe Ruiz who will enter the armed forces. Jean Higgins replaces Miles at the studio.

July 23, 1943
Forthcoming releases from MGM’s short subject department indicate the widest variety of product ever to emanate from that unit during its 17-year history. ...
Comprising the final group on the current year’s schedule are...cartoons, “War Dogs,” “Stork’s Holiday” and “What’s Buzzin’ Buzzard?”...Among the miniature product in preparation are...16 cartoons in Technicolor.

July 28, 1943
In keeping with an established policy, MGM will give a two-week vacation to its cartoon employees from Aug. 20 to Sept. 7, during which time the studio will be closed for renovation and the installation of a new camera.

August 5, 1943
In preparation of photographing its 1943-33 product consisting of 16 subjects, the MGM cartoon studio is installing new camera equipment to facilitate projection of both stationary and moving backgrounds on the table field. Another feature is the new prismatic view finder and matte synchronizer.

August 23, 1943
Cal Howard, MGM cartoonist, has temporarily forsaken his trade to turn tunesmith. He is penning a ditty for songstress Lena Horne and has temporarilt titled it "Moonlight Sinatra."

September 9, 1943
MGM reopened its cartoon studio yesterday following a two-week vacation period. Twenty-two pictures are in stages of production, including the 1943-33 output of 15 which are completely animated.

September 16, 1943
“Wintertime,” the 20th-Fox production starring Sonja Henie, will be featured on the Friday night program for the Motion Picture Country House. “Dumb Hound[ed],” a comedy [sic], and “Benjamin Franklin, Jr.,” a cartoon [sic], both from MGM, complete the program.

September 22, 1943
Because of the press of Government work, Hugh Harman has signed George Gordon, for five years with the MGM cartoon department, as an animation director.

MGM has a neat treat in the offing for the nation’s gourmands, as well as those who have lost their ration books. One scene in its new cartoon, “What’s Buzzin’, Buzzard?” will feature a luscious, sizzling steak—full screen size and in Technicolor yet!—follow by a title, reading, “Three Minute Intermission for Drooling!”

September 30, 1943
The Animated Film Producers Association has been formed by the local cartoon studios to effect a closer-knit organization and to decide blanket policy matters for all industry relations. Walt Disney Productions, Leon Schlesinger Productions, Walter Lantz Productions, Screen Gems, Inc., MGM cartoons and George Pal Puppetoons are the members. ...
Fred Quimby makes the 16 MGM cartoons. The studio makes training films but none in animation. Approximately four each of the Tom and Jerry Series, Barney Bear Series, and four Squirrely Squirrels, plus for general subjects, comprise the total.

Maj. Rudolph Ising has moved back to Hugh Harman Productions to supervise a series of training films which he will make for the Air Force. Robert Allen will direct them.

October 19, 1943
With 20 subjects in various stages of production, MGM enters an intensive schedule with its cartoon studio. Included in the group, under the producer guidance of Fred Quimby, are 16 one-reelers comprising the entire output for 1943-44. The additional four films represent the remaining releases on the current program.
The Tom and Jerry characters, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, will be starred in “Baby Puss,” “Zoot Cat,” “Million Dollar Cat,” “Bodyguard,” “Puttin’ on the Dog,” “Kitty Foiled,” “Mouse Comes to Dinner” and “Tee for Two.” In a special slapstick series, directed by Tex Avery, are “Screwball Baseball,” “Nuts in May,” “Little Heel-watha,” “The Shooting of Dan McGoo,” “Screwy Truant,” “House of Tomorrow” and “Screwball Squirrel.” The balance of the product is “Strange Innertube,” “Worst Aid,” “Bear Raid Warden,” “Bedtime for Barney” and “Some Skunk.”

October 21, 1943
Kay Thomson, Metro music department employee, has been upped to post of head arranger on the company’s three “Tom and Jerry” cartoons for next season.

MGM musical director Scott Bradley has created an original all-swing score for five jive stories developed by the cartoon studio. Subjects include “Zoot Cat,” “The Shooting of Dan McGoo,” “Million Dollar Cat,” “Kitty Foiled” and “Baby Puss.”

December 16, 1943
Riding in tandem with the initial single bill bookings of MGM’s “Madame Curie” will be the Tom and Jerry Technicolor cartoon, “Yankee Doodle Mouse,” produced by Fred Quimby. Last year another T & J pen-and-inker, “Puss ‘n’ Toots,” accompanied the Garson-Pidgeon Academy Award winner, “Mrs. Miniver,” in key run engagements.

December 23, 1943
MGM’s color cartoon, “Red Hot Riding Hood,” has been given a four-page spread in Parade Magazine, a Sunday supplement published by the Chicago Sun.

December 27, 1943
As part of a government quota, MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby is releasing one subject monthly for the U.S. Army screen magazine sequence, “It’s No Exaggeration.” Reels are distributed all over the world.

January 24, 1944
Following a preliminary screening of short subjects at which members of the Short Subjects Branch of the Academy acted as judges, the following pictures have been nominated for screening in the final judging, Feb. 15, at the Marquis Theatre.
Cartoons: Columbia, Dave Fleischer “Imagination”; MGM, Fred Quimby “Yankee Doodle Mouse”; Paramount, George Pal “The Five Hundred Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins”; RKO, Walt Disney “Reason and Emotion”; Universal, Walter Lantz “The Dizzy Acrobat”; Warners, Leon Schlesinger “Greetings, Gate.”

February 7, 1944
Fred Quimby To Produce Navy Medical Corps Film
(story unintelligible)

February 28, 1944
Quimby Navy Short
(story unintelligible)

March 8, 1944
Fred Quimby, producer of the Academy award winner, “Yankee Doodle Mouse,” will host 18 members of the MGM Tom and Jerry unit tonight in celebration of being the first cartoon studio to win an Oscar in competition with Walt Disney.

March 29, 1944
A cycle of stark mad, cartoon sillies, produced by Fred Quimby, is in the offing at MGM, bearing the tell-tale titles of “Happy Go Nutty,” “Screwy Truant,” “Batty Baseball,” “Bats in the Belfry” and “Screwball Squirrel.”

May 2, 1944
With the production finale of MGM’s current cartoon schedule in the offing, producer Fred Quimby is preparing the 1944-45 program to be launched for release in October.
Already in animation are five Tom and Jerrys, including “Tee For Two,” “Love Boids,” “Quiet Please,” “Springtime for Thomas” and “Mouse in Manhattan.” William Hanna and Joseph Barbera are co-directors. In the Skrewy Squirrell [sic] series are “Wild and Wolfy,” “Jerky Turkey” and “Sue Steps Out,” directed by Tex Avery.
Supplementing the foregoing group will be an additional eight subjects to complete with the customary output of 15, all of which are in Technicolor. Production to meet the U.S. Army and Navy commitments will continue for the duration.

May 16, 1944
Citing MGM’s Technicolor cartoon, “Batty Baseball,” as an outstanding example of musical scoring, Sigmund Spaeth, president of the National Association of Composers and Conductors, recently discussed the technique employed, following a screening for the membership. Scott Bradley is credit with the score of the cartoon, produced by Fred Quimby.

July 21, 1944
As a test engagement, 15 Tom and Jerry cartoons have been booked to play the Fox California theatre, San Bernadino, on a single day, July 29. Boxoffice receipts will determine the more extensive billing of all-cartoon shows on the West Coast. Similar programs have met with outstanding success over Interstate Circuit, Texas, controlling 160 theatres.

August 16, 1944
MGM has delivered to the Navy a three-reeler, “History of Balloons,” which combines live action and animation. Film was produced by the studio cartoon and shorts units.

August 17, 1944
MGM’s cartoon studio has installed a new camera featuring a turret rack-over device for the color-filter wheel, making it possible to change from Technicolor to black and white.
Also developed is a stop motion apparatus which includes a series of gears permitting a choice of six different exposure speeds as compared with a single speed on the old cameras.

August 25, 1944
Taking advantage of the current trend toward single billing which has given the one- and two-reel market a new impetus, MGM will make available during the next few months more than 25 percent of its annual featurette program, according to a statement made yesterday by shorts executive Fred Quimby.
With Jerry Bresler in charge of short subjects production, releases will include...”Bear Raid Warden,” “Big Heel-Watha” and “Puttin’ on the Dog,” produced by Fred Quimby.

September 8, 1944
Inaugurating plans of the Cartoon Producers’ Association for greater intra-industry cooperation, Walt Lantz has borrowed five employees from competitive studios. Loaned to Lantz by Walt Disney are Nino Carbe and Howard Dunn, both background animators, and three special effects animators, Joseph Creaturo, Robert Bemiller and Sidney Pillet, by Fred Quimby.
All five men are working on “Enemy Bacteria,” feature which Lantz is producing for the U.S. Navy, in association with Universal.
Under the Cartoon Producers’ Association plan of cooperation, members will undertake to employ animators and other personnel on lay-off at other studios during “slow” periods.

September 25, 1944
MGM’s cartoon stars, Tom and Jerry, have been drafted for Fire Prevention Week, Oct. 8-14.
In “Holy Smoke,” a four-page pictorial folder, 1,000,000 of which will be distributed, the comic characters are used to illustrate the household fire hazards that destroy life and property. The Tom and Jerry series is produced by Fred Quimby.

October 6, 1944
With “Solid Serenade,” a musical, scheduled for immediate detailing, MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby has 19 Technicolor subjects in various stages of production.
Being photographed are “Mouse Trouble” and “The Shooting of Dan McGoo.” Painting and inking unit is coloring “Getting the Air” and “The Mouse Comes to Dinner.” In process of animation are “Jerky Turkey,” Swingshift Cindy,” “Mouse in Manhattan,” “Flirty Birdy,” “Quiet Please,” “Hick Chick,” “Northwest Hounded Police,” “Wild and Woolfy,” “Springtime for Thomas,” “Lonesome Lennie, “Milky Waif,” “Mouse Trappers,” “Tee for Two” and “House of Tomorrow.”
Of the group, 10 are in the “Tom and Jerry” series, co-directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

October 26, 1944
Scott Bradley, musical director for MGM cartoons, will address the National Film Council and Western Music Educators Conference at the Carthay Circle Theatre, Saturday on the subject of “Music for Cartoons.” To illustrate his talk the cartoons, “Bear Raid Warden” and “Dance of the Weed” will be screened.
On the same program are composers William Lava, who will use Warners’ “I Won’t Play” to discuss his musical theme, and Hanns Eisler, who lectures on the Rockefeller Grant film, “White Floats.” The forum has been arranged by Alice Evans Field, of the MPPDA.

October 27, 1944
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, is preparing “The Mice Follies,” the latest travesty in the Tom and Jerry series, for early production. William Hanna and Joseph Barberra [sic] will co-direct.

November 6, 1944
Shooting started Friday [3rd] on the principle dance sequence of MGM’s “Anchors Aweigh,” In it Gene Kelly does an entire routine with two cartoon characters which will be penciled in later by the animation department.

November 4, 1944
Don Shafer, who recently severed connections with MGM as head of cartoon background department since 1938, Saturday signed long term deal with Hugh Harman Studios to function as chief of color background dept.

November 7, 1944
With the recent installation of rear-view projection on MGM cartoon studio cameras, Producer Fred Quimby announces that more than 1,000,000 feet of Technicolor film photographed all over the world for the James A. FitzPatrick Traveltalk series now becomes available for cartoon background material.
Technically, the method to be used corresponds with the process screen now employed for live-action production and will permit cartoons to feature authentic locales.
The first subject to have the advantage of the new device will be “Mouse in Manhattan,” of the Tom and Jerry series, co-directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The cat and mouse stars will caper in front of actual scenes showing many of New York’s famous landmarks.

November 8, 1944
William Nolan, formerly with MGM cartoons, has been selected as head animator by Morey and Sutherland productions on “Pepito Serenade” for U.A.

December 5, 1944
To introduce MGM’s new Spanish dialogue features cartoon producer Fred Quimby has made “Leo Masters Spanish,” a one-reel Technicolor subject starring the famous lion trademark.
The voice of Carlos Ramirez is used for vocal renditions during the film which was co-directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. One hundred forty-five prints are being shipped to 21 Latin American countries for theatre screening two weeks in advance of “Gaslight,” the first of the Spanish versions.

December 6, 1944
Promiscuous travel receives a polite rebuke in the MGM cartoon, “Jerky Turkey.” As the pilgrims reach American shores they are greeted by a Neon sign, reading, “Was This Trip Really Necessary?”

December 20, 1944
To relieve the present production pressure which is the greatest in MGM cartoon history, Producer Fred Quimby yesterday announced the forming of a new cartoon unit consisting of a director, four animators and assistants, story and gag writers, and layout and background men.
The move is occasioned by the extra footage requirements for the special live-action and animation sequence in the Technicolor musical, “Anchors Aweigh,” in which Gene Kelly performed a spectacular dance routine with cartoon characters and background. The regular staff is now engaged in preparing this.
In addition, a record number of 16 subject for the new 1944-45 program are in various stages of production. Tex Avery, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna comprise the directorial roster.

January 25, 1945
Seventeen pictures have been entered by seven companies for top honors in three Short Subjects classifications in the Academy Awards. Pictures are:
Cartoons: “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” Pal-Paramount; “My Boy Johnny,” Terry-20th-Fox; “Mouse Trouble,” Quimby-MGM; “Swooner Crooner,” Warner Bros.; “The Dog, Cat and Canary,” Screen Gems-Columbia; “Fish Fry,” Lantz-Universal; “How to Play Football,” Disney.
Final judging of the nominated films will take place the night of Feb. 6 at a special screening at the Marquis.

February 2, 1945
MGM’s latest Tom and Jerry cartoon, “The Mouse Comes to Dinner,” has been booked to run with “National Velvet” at the Los Angeles, Egyptian and Fox Ritz.

February 15, 1945
With the opening of “Unwelcome Guest” at the Guild, 4-Star, United Artists and Fox Wilshire today, MGM cartoons will be playing simultaneously in eight Los Angeles first-run houses, a record. “Mouse Comes to Dinner” with “National Velvet” is at the Egyptian, Fox Ritz and Los Angeles theatres, while “Polar Pest” accompanies “The Keys of the Kingdom” at the Carthay Circle.

March 16, 1945
Academy Award nominees.
Cartoons: “And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” Paramount, George Pal Puppetoon. “Dog, Cat and Canary,” Screen Gems, Columbia. “Fish Fry,” Universal, Walter Lantz, Producer. “How to Play Football,” Walt Disney, RKO. Walt Disney, Producer. “Mouse Trouble,” MGM. Frederick C. Quimby, Producer. “My Boy, Johnny,” 20th-Fox. Paul Terry, Producer. “Swooner Crooner,” Warner Bros.
Winner: “Mouse Trouble,” produced by Frederick C. Quimby.

May 8, 1945
MGM announces the temporary curtailment of short subject production following completion of its current schedule, retained on the releasing lineup for the forthcoming season will be Pete Smith Specialties, John Nesbitt’s Passing Parade, MGM Cartoons, and the James FitzPatrick Traveltalks.
As during the past, MGM’s News of the Day will be issued twice weekly.

May 18, 1945
Release of short subjects already completed is being severely hindered by the lack of raw stock for release prints, it was learned yesterday, with the disclosure that most of the major distributors are behind in varying degrees on their miniature releases. Most of the Technicolor subject series are lagging.
Raw stock supplies are being turned over to important features, while the shorts are shelved until the footage crisis passes.
MGM has only delivered two of its 12 FitzPatrick Traveltalks for this season; of its 16 color cartoons scheduled, only one has been issued, and there is one two-reeler from last year’s program to be delivered.
RKO is late on some of the Walt Disney subjects, in Technicolor, but up to date on its black-and-white releases. Warners, Paramount, 20th-Fox and Columbia are similarly affected, mostly, however, in the color reels.

May 23, 1945
Fred Quimby, cartoon producer and short subjects executive, yesterday signed a new term contract with MGM.
Joining the company in 1926, Quimby organized the shorts program and later launched the MGM cartoon studio which, under his guidance, has won three Academy Awards in four years, the Oscar-honored group including “Mouse Trouble,” “Yankee Doodle Mouse” and “The Milky Way.”

June 15, 1945
Mrs. Alberta Lah, wife of Michael Lah, MGM cartoon animator, presented her husband with a seven-pound, 14-ounce daughter yesterday at the California hospital.

June 28, 1945
The MGM Cartoon Studio has begun production on a new Technicolor cartoon, entitled “Mop-up,” which is being made in connection with the Western Division of the U.S. Signal Corps, Photographic Center. The cartoon, which is being produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, responsible for the “Tom and Jerry” series, will appear in the Army and Navy Screen Magazine.

July 2, 1945
With the curtailment of MGM’s short subjects product, Jerry Bresler, former in charge of shorts production, has been appointed an associate of M.J. Siegel, studio executive.
Fred Quimby, currently MGM’s cartoon chief, is to retain that post and in addition assume charge of all short subjects production.

Tom and Jerry, the only cartoon stars to win the coveted Academy Award twice, are celebrating their fifth anniversary this year. MGM is launching a special booking drive for representation in theatres throughout the country, Sept. 24-30. Fred Quimby produces the series.

July 6, 1945
In a forum sponsored by the University of California, Scott Bradley, musical director for MGM cartoons, will address the Music Institute at Santa Barbara College July 14.

October 10, 1945
MGM is making a Technicolor cartoon travesty, “Our Vine Street Has Tender Wolves,” to star animation stars Red Hot Riding Hood and Wally Wolf. Fred Quimby will produce and Tex Avery will direct.

October 12, 1945
Following the success of the Technicolor sports cartoons, “Bowling Alley Cat” and “Tee for Two,” MGM has in preparation “Oh, Say Can You Ski” and “Tennis Racketeers” as Tom and Jerry starring animation reels. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera co-direct and Fred Quimby produces.

October 15, 1945
Heralded by shouts of “Vive Leo!” and “Vive la France!” MGM’s Technicolor cartoon, “The Early Bird Dood It,” lived up to its title by being the first MGM film to be seen by French audiences since the Nazis entered Paris.

November 2, 1945
MGM yesterday revealed plans to create two new units in its cartoon department to augment the three groups now turning out the Tom and Jerry, Barney Bear and Red Hot Riding Hood releases.
Working with producer Fred Quimby in developing the expanded program, which will include musical briefies as well as travesties on features such as the studios’ recently announced “Our Vine Street Has Tender Wolves,” are directors Tex Avery, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna.

November 7, 1945
Eugene Moore reports back to his former job as cameraman in MGM’s Cartoon studios this week.

November 26, 1945
Tommy Ray, U.S. Army staff sergeant for four years, returned last week to MGM cartoon studio as a unit animator.

December 4, 1945
Vonda Bronson Wise, after 33 months with the Waves, has returned to MGM’s cartoon studio.

December 5, 1945
Fred Quimby, MGM shorts producer, is organizing a new cartoon unit which will be staffed entirely with returning servicemen. They will be assigned to the Barney Bear unit under the supervision of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, co-directors of the “Tom and Jerry” series.
A second unit will produce a musical series of cartoons, the first of which will be “Tale of Vienna Woods.”

Kathleen Coyle, former Wave, rejoins MGM’s cartoon studio as a painter and inker.

December 28, 1945
Producer Fred Quimby played host to 125 MGM cartoon employes at a Yuletide masquerade party.

January 2, 1946
Inaugurating a new series of classes at the University of California’s cinema department, will be the animation courses which will be given in co-operation with MGM’s Cartoon studio.
For the courses, to be given at the USC campus, producer Fred Quimby, and directors Tex Avery, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna will lecture on the art of animation.

MGM announced yesterday a preliminary studio screening will be held immediately to determine its entries in the short subjects division for this year’s Academy Award competition. Subjects under consideration include Peter Smith’s “Badminton” and “Fala” at Hyde Park; MGM Cartoons’ “Mouse in Manhattan” and “Swingshift Cinderella”; three John Nesbitt shorts, two Carey Wilson Miniatures, and two James FitzPatrick pieces.

February 11, 1946
Carl Urbano and Arnold Gillespie, who were animating directors for Harmon-Ising Pictures, Inc., before war disrupted the company's production, have rejoined the newly reorganized firm.
Two additional animating directors—Ed Love and Bernie Wolf, both of whom worked with Rudolph Ising in the A.E.F.—have joined Harmon-Ising.

March 8, 1946
Four repeated were scored in last night’s Academy Awards. ...
Producer Fred Quimby scored again in the cartoon division with “Quiet, Please.” Last year his “Mouse Trouble” won.

Cartoons: “Donald’s Crime,” Walt Disney, RKO. Walt Disney, Producer; “Jasper and the Beanstalk,” Paramount. George Pal, Producer; “Life With Feathers,” Warner Bros. Eddie Selzer, Producer; “Mighty Mouse in Gypsy Life,” 20-Fox. Paul Terry, Producer; “Poet and Peasant,” Universal. Walter Lantz, Producer; “Quiet, Please,” MGM. Frederick Quimby, Producer; “Rippling Romance,” Columbia. Screen Gems, Producer.

March 27, 1946
MGM yesterday took steps to protect exhibitor interests as well as its own producer-distributor interests in a federal court suit seeking to end alleged pirating of 33 mm. cartoon shorts for unauthorized 16 mm. distribution.
In an action filed by attorney Adrian Kragen, of Loeb and Loeb, MGM named Hugh Harmon Productions, Harmon-Ising Films, Hollywood Film Enterprises and its president, William Horsley, charging infringement of patent rights, and asking damages based on accounting of profits from 12 cartoon subjects.
Kragen asserted that the films were produced exclusively for 35 mm. distribution and that subsequently all12 found their way into 16 mm. channels, actively distributed by Hollywood Film Enterprises. The 12 films were: “Tales of the Vienna Woods,” “Bosco’s Parlor Pranks,” “Hey-Hey Fever,” “Lost Chick,” “Little Old Bosco in Bagdad,” “Poor Little Man,” “Old Plantation,” “Run Sheep Run,” “Old Home,” “Little Old Bosco and the Pirates,” “Circus Daze” and “To Spring.” The case has been assigned to judge Jacob Weinberger’s court.

April 2, 1946
William Hanna, who co-directs MGM’s “Tom and Jerry” cartoons, has been invited to lecture at USC’s animation class tonight.

May 1, 1946
MGM cartoon directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, creators of the Tom-and-Jerry series, have 15 animations now being inked for 1946-47.

May 14, 1946
To meet the growing trend all over the country towards running single instead of double features, MGM has given Fred Quimby, executive in charge of cartooning, authority to hire more than 100 additional members for his present cartooning staff, which will be reorganized for a heavier production schedule. Present release dates call for 16 MGM cartoons a year. When the new staff is complete, the cartoon department will move to new quarters on the lot and enjoy better facilities than are presently available. There are four series with separate production groups operating at the studio now. They are “Barney Bear,” produced by an all-veteran staff; “Red Hot Riding Hood,” an “George and Junior,” which Tex Avery produces, and the “Tom and Jerry” series which received its third Academy Award this year.
Orton Hicks, head of MGM’s globe-girdling 16 mm. operation, will distribute all MGM cartoons in reduced 16 mm. and in several languages. Cartoons also will be featured in the “Metromobile” traveling road-show circuits.

May 15, 1946
“Forever Embers” is scheduled for an early release by MGM as the initial cartoon in the new Tex Avery series of George and Junior stories. George and Junior are two wayward bears who romp through the first vehicle spreading propaganda for the Forest Service.
MGM cartooning department plans to tie up with the Department of Agriculture on exploitation and offer studio facilities and cartooning department for fire-prevention posters.

June 19, 1946
“The Yegg and I,” latest Tom and Jerry cartoon to be produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at MGM sounds faintly familiar to exhibitors who are currently booking “Forever Ember” which Hanna and Barbera finished last month.

July 17, 1946

Tom and Jerry, MGM’s cat-and-mouse combo, will go classical in their next short. Chopin’s 24th Prelude will serve as a background for “Cat’s Concerto.”

August 14, 1946
With a new term contract at MGM as a cartoon director, Tex Avery is going ahead with plans for a cartoon series burlesquing works of Shakespeare. First of the series, “Romeo at Joliet,” begins work today.

August 16, 1946
Following its annual custom, MGM cartoon studio will close for its vacation period Aug. 19. Production will resume Sept. 3.

September 9, 1946
Active again after its annual vacation, the MGM cartoon studio resumes work today on the heaviest production schedule in its history.
A total of 20 Technicolor cartoons are in various stages of production. Eight one-reel cartoons are in the final stages of production, including three “Tom and Jerry” cartoons directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, three Tex Avery-directed shorts, and two “Barney Bear” cartoons, co-directed by Michael Law [sic] and Preston Blair.

October 10, 1946
Cartoonist Tex Avery has been signed to a new term contract with MGM after completing five years with the studio. He is currently working on a series of shorts burlesquing Shakespeare, the first of which is “Romeo at Joliet.”

December 6, 1946
For the first time in the history of its cartoon studio, MGM is announcing, by title, the complete program comprising 16 subjects, at the beginning of a sales season.
Launching the 1946-47 schedule, under the production guidance of Fred Quimby, will be “Henpecked Hoboes,” introducing George and Junior, new pen-and-ink stars. Leading the line-up on the slate of the three-time Academy Award winners, Tom and Jerry, is “The Cat Concerto.” Others in the T&J group include “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse,” “Cat Fishin’,” “Part Time Pal,” “The Invisible Mouse,” “Salt Water Tabby,” and “Kitty Foiled.”
Additional releases on the lengthy program are “Red Hot Rangers,” “Hound Hunters,” “Slap Happy Lion,” “King Size Canary,” “What Price Fleadom,” “Little Tinker,” “The Bear and the Bean,” and “The Bear and the Hare.”
Fourteen cartoons have been completed and are now at Technicolor for prints.

January 27, 1947
Fourteen nominations of Short Subjects for the Academy Award presentation night, March 13, were announced yesterday by Jean Herscholt. Preliminary screenings won the nod for five one-reelers, four two-reelers, five cartoons. ...
Cartoons: “The Cat Concerto,” Fred Quimby, MGM; “Chopin’s Musical Moments,” Walter Lantz; “John Henry and the Inky Poo,” George Pal-Paramount; “Squatter’s Rights,” Walt Disney; and “Walky Talky Hawky,” Edward Selzer-Warners.

January 31, 1947
With famous musical compositions planned for MGM cartoons, Pete Smith’s decision to stick to comedy and John Nesbitt’s Passing Parade story on “Paricutin,” MGM’s short subject program for late 1946-47 will offer innovations, according to Fred Quimby, head of MGM’s short subject department.
Compositions from Brahms, Foster, Schubert, Strass and Tschaikowsky, will be used in a series of musical cartoons following the unusual audience reception of the current “The Cat Concerto,” which features the “Second Hungarian Rhapsody.”

February 10, 1947
U-I has started a drive to get 25 percent more for cartoon rentals, and Walt Lantz, who makes the product in question, hopes it succeeds. The alternative may be going out of business, he says, because of rising costs but static rentals.
Other cartoon makers face the same spectre, says Lantz, who is president of the Cartoon Producers Assn., and MGM and Warners, who also make subjects here, are conducting the same drive.

March 14, 1947
Academy Award winners.
Cartoons: “The Cat Concerto,” MGM, Fred C. Quimby, Producer.

April 18, 1947
MGM is preparing to make a series of live-action and animated cartoon subjects, utilizing a new process developed by the studio, Fred C. Quimby, head of the short subjects department, said yesterday. While declining to reveal the mechanics of the new process, Quimby said that it had been devised after extensive experiments and that the results were far better than anything seen to date. The new series will be two reels in length and will feature Margaret O’Brien, Elizabeth Taylor and Butch Jenkins.
Quimby said that MGM was not effecting and retrenchment in the making of its shorty subjects, despite the fact that rentals for shorts were not keeping pace with features in view of the skyrocketing production costs. He warned, however, that the future of the cartoon industry rested with the exhibitors and that unless exhibitors, as a whole, were willing to pay more for them, cartoons, by necessity, may be halted. He said that a few circuits realized the situation, and had upped their shorts terms, but that theatres as a whole resisted attempts to get higher rentals. MGM, Quimby said, was going ahead with making high-quality shorts and cartoons on the premise that only by making the best will it be possible to convince exhibitors that the subjects deserve higher rentals. Five musicals for the Tom and Jerry series are now in work.
The subject of shorts is expected to play an important part in MGM’s forthcoming sales meetings.

April 24, 1947
Beginning May 7, the MGM cartoon team of “Tom and Jerry” will be making 32 simultaneous Manhattan appearances. “The Cat Concerto” is playing with “Monsieur Verdoux” at the Broadway; “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse” is showing at the Capitol with “Duel in the Sun,” and 30 Loew’s theatres in New York and will open May 7 with “Salt Water Tabby.”

May 23, 1947
For the first time in the history of the short subjects department, MGM finds it necessary to order four answer prints on each cartoon produced in order to cover the first runs in Los Angeles and New York. Previously one answer print, held in New York until release dates provided the quota, would suffice, but the demand has increased in such a measure that the additional prints are now required.

June 2, 1947
William Delatorre and Richard Shaw, former members of Walt Disney’s staff, have joined MGM’s cartoon department where they will direct the Barney Bear Technicolor cartoon series under the supervision of Fred Quimby.

July 15, 1947
With 70 percent in Technicolor, MGM will release during the 1947-48 season a total of 48 short subjects, in addition to 104 issues of News of the Day, according to an announcement yesterday by Fred C. Quimby.
The Technicolor Pictures include two of four two-reel “MGM Specials,” 16 MGM Cartoons,: six FitzPatrick Traveltalks,” six “MGM Gold Medal Reprint Cartoons,” and two of six John Nesbitt Passing Parade reels, a total of 34 in color compared to 14 in black and white.
Of the 48 shorts on the new season schedule 26 have been completed, including Golf Medal reprints.

August 14, 1947
MGM cartoon studio will close production on Saturday for the annual two-week vacation for the entire staff. They will return to work Sept. 2 when a heavy production schedule has been set.

October 27, 1947
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has increased the series schedule from eight to 12 for the 1947-48 season.

December 19, 1947
With the cooperation of MGM, the film story of “Operation Highjump,” the navy’s recent exploration of the Antarctic under command of Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd, has been prepared for the screen. The expedition, the largest and most successful ever to penetrate the icy continent, was photographed in detail by navy photographers. Their exposed film was made available to MGM to be whipped into a feature-length picture, with the necessary editing, inserts, commentary, color, music and sound. From the original 150,000 feet of film, MGM editors have brought the picture down to 5500 feet.
O.O. Dull was producer on the documentary. Explanatory sequences with animated maps and charts were supplied by the MGM cartoon department, under the direction of Fred Quimby.

Getting Burned

Hey, how about a good, old-fashioned crotch burning?

In I Wish I Had Wings (1932), a thieving black chick (well, his mother was a hen) does it to a scarecrow chasing him, thanks to a convenient gas torch. Hey, the scarecrow’s just doing its job!



The charred scarecrow doesn’t stick around to find out why cartoon producers had a fetish for crotch and butt violation gags. He gets out of there.



So long, folks!



Ham Hamilton and Paul J. Smith are the animators for Rudy Ising, with Frank Marsales picking up the tempo for a quasi-jazzy score at the end.

Hugh Harman's War Against War

If Hugh Harman surpassed Walt Disney at any time during his career, it would have been with his anti-war cartoon Peace on Earth, released after Europe had plunged into war in 1939.

The art direction is outstanding and it’s a shame the only person credited on it is Harman. I would love to know who was responsible for the backgrounds. There’s effects animation, too, with snow and rain.

Here are some of the shots as a grandfather squirrel explains how mankind annihilated itself in wars. Cannon with huge wheels would soon be a thing of the past, if they weren’t already.



Maybe it’s because the grandparents of adults in 1939 would have been more often rural than urban, but Mel Blanc’s grandpa squirrel sounds like some old-timer from down on the farm. Blanc’s endless jawing of “Peace on Earth” is annoying after a while, but considering the rest of the cartoon, it can be forgiven.

You can see more art in this post and this post, which also tracks the making of the film, some contemporary reviews, and Fred Quimby’s opinion.

Johnny On Johnny and Tonight

Johnny was the King of Late Night.

Even though Jack Paar was fascinating to watch and Steve Allen was more versatile, Johnny Carson sewed up the title, and not just because of length of time he hosted the Tonight show. Viewers loved the comedy, whether it was Carson trying to dig himself out of a bad writing hole during a monologue, one of his corny old sketches read off the cue cards, or someone on the panel doing something unexpected, people in huge numbers loved watching him. They lament his absence today, criticising the current late night hosts for too many political jokes and wooden interviews.

Here’s Johnny in a feature interview that appeared in papers March 1, 1976. He had a long way to go yet. He didn’t walk off the stage at NBC in Burbank until May 22, 1992.

Variety keeps Carson recharged
By MARILYN BECK
HOLLYWOOD – The sound of a tennis bail can be heard in the Johnny Carson estate — where tropical vegetation frames a modernistic structure of redwood, stucco and glass — and manicured lawns meander past a swimming pool to acres of wooded grounds.
Johnny and third-wife Joanna are completing their morning's match. Later, he'll take another turn on the courts with comedian Harvey Korman, then change from tennis whites to slacks and shirt for the drive through Bel Air's rarified air to smog-enshrouded NBC-Burbank — where his "Tonight Show" is taped.
His work centers around his nightly 90-minute video offering that occupies his time 37 weeks a year for which he reportedly receives an annual gross income in excess of $3 million.
He rarely sees the press. "The number writers love to do, is about the amount of time I take off from Tonight ' They don't seem to realize I spend more time in front of the cameras in four weeks than most performers do in a year. I'm on the air four days a week, six hours every week — except for the 15 weeks I'm on vacation And, let me tell you, after 14 years, I need that amount of time to recharge."
HIS FAVORITE form of recharging comes from playing tennis, relaxing in Scottsdale, Ariz., or getting together with a small group of friends at his Los Angeles estate.
Joanna and I aren't caught up in the Hollywood goer-outer syndrome. In this town, if you wanted to be part of that circle, you could be going to two, three different openings at night. But that's not my scene. I've got a small circle of people I feel close to socially — a few actors, a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist. And I'd rather be with them, or at home reading."
Reading comprises a large bulk of his work for “Tonight.”
"It's important for me to stay on top of current issues. I get on stage, and I have to know what's going on in the world."
He is as controlled and his demeanor as casual-cool as the Johnny Carson about 15 million people watch each night on TV. But hackles are almost visible when he refers to critics "who evidently expect my show to be ‘Omnibus’ or ‘Meet the Nation.’ Programs like that are a hell of a lot easier to host. You get on air, ask the interview subject a question — then sit back.
"MY FORTE is comedy — and I put together a nightly comedy-variety show. Which is a hell of a lot of hard work. Besides, what's wrong with comedy? I never saw Jack Benny being socially relevant. 'Tonight' gets into relevant issues, but I don't want to spend all my time debating capital punishment.
"What's the future for those who do? You keep hearing about startling new shows going on the air. Then they unveil with the same thing that's been done dozens of times before: interviews with prostitutes wearing masks, FBI informants, a group of homosexuals, civil rights leaders. And where do they go the week after that?"
Johnny Carson is going into his 15th year of "Tonight Show" glory in October, and says it isn't getting any easier.
"It keeps getting more difficult to keep the show fresh, to come up with things we haven't done before.
"Look, I don't even like to hear 'Tonight' referred to as a talk show. David Susskind, William F. Buckley, David Frost — they had talk shows. They'd come on, say good evening, ask questions of a guest — then relax while the answers poured out.
"I'M DOING a 90-minute variety show every night. And that's not easy — which isn't the public's business, or its problem. I don't tell them about the hours I spend on the phone each day with my writers and producers, about the work I put in on my opening monologue, about getting to the studio at 2 in the afternoon to go over format and concept."
The show is — like such TV offerings as the Mike Douglas Show and the Merv Griffin Show — structured in advance.
"We don't use cue cards or have dialogue written, but we certainly do block out areas of discussion we'll go into with guests. No one can put four people on stage with no idea of what he'll talk about — and come off brilliant Unless you've got a Buddy Hackett, a Don Rickles, a Bob Newhart. With them, it's put ‘em on — and let 'em go."
He seems confused when I mentioned former "Tonight Show" guests who maintain Johnny is a master at the put-down, at withering with a glance, an acid-tongue retort.
"I've never been unfair," he says. "I want my guests to look as good as possible, so the show will be as good as possible. I don't want it to be bland, and I'll challenge statements of guests at times. But put them down, never. If I did, they wouldn't show up, would they? "WE'RE NOT ever looking for new trends for the program. They just happen. Television has undergone incredible change, much of which we on the inside are too close to the picture to realize is ever happening. It's like having an outsider come into your house and tell you how much your child has grown. And suddenly you realize, my God, he has at that. Do you realise things we talk about on air now — that we couldn't mention a few years ago when you weren't even able to bring up the word ‘marijuana’ in discussion.
"What's taste? There aren't any more rubes out there. People are pretty much the same, city after city. And there's no Mr. Average mythical person I'm playing to. I've just got to follow my own personal guide-lines.
"It would be a matter of bad taste to kick a guy when he's down. Sure, all those headlines were funny at first about Wilbur Mills and that stripper. But when you learn the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has emotional problems, that he's an alcoholic, well, you lay off. It wouldn't be fair to make him the butt of jokes — just as it wouldn't have been fair to continue the Agnew cracks after he was indicted. As I said, it's a matter of taste.
"Sure, there are days when I wake up and think, 'Oh, God, I've got to psyche myself up and go before the cameras again today.' But that's the way with any job, I'm sure. The President must wake up sometimes and think: ‘I don't want to meet with that dippy congressman this afternoon.’
"But I enjoy Tonight: If I didn't, I'd quit. Once I did almost quit — but then I realized I didn't know what the hell I'd do with my time.
"If anyone told me 14 years ago I'd be doing 'Tonight' this long, I would have told them they were crazy. All I can tell you now that for me I guess it will be pretty much like Jimmy Durante has said: ‘The audience tells you when it's time to pack it in.’"