MGM Odds and Ends Part 3

The MGM cartoon studio went through some changes in the third quarter of its existence (1948-52). The biggest one involved director Tex Avery taking a little over a year off to deal with emotional issues, returning in 1951. When Dick Lundy came over from the Walter Lantz studio to fill in, Avery’s writer, Rich Hogan, got out of the animation business. This period has some of my favourite Avery cartoons: Magical Maestro, Lucky Ducky (“Technicolor Ends Here”), Bad Luck Blackie, Little Rural Riding Hood (“Kissed a cow”) and a bunch of others.

The other change was a two-parter. MGM decided to save money by getting rid of its third unit, the one directed by Preston Blair and Mike Lah. Both men returned to the Tex Avery unit, though Blair’s stay was brief. Metro then released some of the cartoons made for Harding College by John Sutherland Productions. The first was Meet King Joe (on screens as of May 28, 1949, 4½ months after the last Blair-Lah cartoon, Goggle Fishing Bear).

Let’s look at news from the studio through the eyes of the Hollywood Reporter. One thing noticeable in the squibs is producer Fred Quimby managed to get his name into almost all of them. In his book, director Joe Barbera was rather dismissive of Fred C., saying he napped most of the time he was actually in the building.

The articles feature a glistening array of shorts that existed in press-release name only. They were never made or even contemplated. They were simply an attempt to keep the studio’s name in the trades. The idea that bizarrely-coloured animation was re-used in Sleepy-Time Tom (1951) is another phoney bit of information (by the way, is that Paul Frees at the end of the cartoon?). Conversely, some things were not reported, including Avery’s departure and the signing of the deal with John Sutherland.

I haven’t figured out which cartoon Bob Shamrock voiced. His actual name was Bob Shannon and he died in Los Angeles in 2000. Merle Coffman is Red Coffey/Coffee, who took his duck voice to the Hanna-Barbera studio and appeared on the Huckleberry Hound and Quick Draw McGraw shows. Jimmy Weldon was hired when the duck was re-designed and given his own segment on The Yogi Bear Show.

March 22, 1948
Academy Award Candidates
Cartoons: “Chip An’ Dale,” Walt Disney, RKO. Walt Disney, Producer.
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse,” MGM. Frederick Quimby, Producer.
“Pluto’s Blue Note,” Walt Disney, RKO. Walt Disney, Producer.
“Tubby the Tuba,” Paramount. George Pal, Producer.
“Tweetie Pie,” Warner Bros. Edward Selzer, Producer.
Winner: “Tweety Pie.”

May 10, 1948
Fred C. Quimby, MGM cartoon producer and head of the company’s short subject production, was signed to a new five-year contract. Quimby has been an executive with MGM for 23 years, 12 years at the studio in charge of short subjects production and 11 years as general short subjects sales manager in New York.

July 6, 1948
MGM will produce 48 short subjects for its 1948-49 program, William F. Rodgers announced over the weekend. ...
The 48-short subject program, six less than last year, comprises four two-reel subjects and 44 one-reelers. The latter include 16 Technicolor cartoons, four Gold Medal reprint cartoons in Technicolor.

July 15, 1948
The entire personnel of the MGM cartoon department, under the direction of Fred C. Quimby, will start their annual two-week vacation tomorrow. The unit has been taking its annual vacation at the same time each year for the past ten years, a plan put into effect by Quimby after the first year of operation.

September 13, 1948
For the 1948-49 season MGM will release 16 cartoons, eight of which will star Tom and Jerry. This is the largest number of that series ever to appear on the studio’s shorts program for a one-year period.
The increase is bases on sales department and exhibitor demand, and was determined after conferences between sales chief William F. Dodgers [sic] and cartoon producer Fred Quimby.

October 4, 1948
Leaving his Ars Gratia Artis cage, MGM’s famous trademark, Leo the Lion, has roared into the field of acting. Feeling animated roles are his meat, Leo debuts with cartoon stars, Tom and Jerry in “Jerry and the Lion,” which William Hanna and Joseph Barbera co-direct and Fred Quimby produces. Plans are to star Leo in his own cartoon series in the future.

November 4, 1948
Fred Quimby started production yesterday at MGM on new Tom and Jerry cartoon series featuring foreign locales. First cartoon of series to be completed will be “Cheese Heaven” with locale in Holland. “Mouse in Mexico” and “Cat in Calcutta” are next on the production schedule.

November 29, 1948

MGM has scheduled four short subjects for December: “Mouse Cleaning,” Tom and Jerry cartoon [remaining are live action].

December 15, 1948
Sharp and prolonged negotiations between Screen Cartoonists Guild and the “big five” cartoon studios have ended in agreement to extend the guild’s present pact without change for another year, or to Nov. 1 next, SCG made known yesterday.
Until their last meeting at which the accord was reached, the guild sought a cost-of-living increase and the studios demanded a surrender [missing word] arbitration clause in the pact. Studios are MGM, Disney, Warners, Paramount and Lantz.

January 14, 1949
MGM’s animated department, under direction of Fred Quimby, has 18 cartoons in various stages of production. Ten of the group are in the Tom and Jerry series, and all 18 are in Technicolor. This year’s entire release schedule will be filled by these cartoons, and Quimby is heading plans for 1950’s animated production list.

February 9, 1949
“For every state, a Tom and Jerry” is the new policy of MGM’s cartoon department, producer Fred Quimby announced yesterday. “Mouse at the Mardi Gras” will plug Louisiana and “Ski Jump Tom” will plug Sun Valley, the follow up on “Texas Tom.” Chamber of Commerce promotion is planned in each state.

February 11, 1949
Academy Award Nominations
Cartoon
“The Little Orphan,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Fred Quimby, Producer.
“Mickey and the Seal,” Walt Disney, RKO Radio, Walt Disney, Producer.
“Mouse Wreckers,” Warner Bros. Edward Selzer, Producer.
“Robin Hoodlum,” United Productions of America, Columbia. United Productions of America, Producer.
“Tea for Two Hundred,” Walt Disney, RKO Radio, Walt Disney, Producer.

February 22, 1949
MGM’s “Lucky Ducky,” produced by Fred Quimby, has been voted “The Best Cartoon of 1948” in the annual poll conducted by Canada’s new Liberty Magazine.

March 14, 1949
With 23 one- and two-reelers in the can, comprising the balance of its 1949 shorts program, MGM finds itself in the best position of its 25-year history, according to Fred Quimby, shorts executive. At Technicolor, reading for printing, are eight cartoons.

March 25, 1949
Academy Award Winners
Cartoon: “The Little Orphan,” MGM, Fred Quimby, producer.

April 1, 1949
Long shot gamble of Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, is paying off. Prior to the Academy award voting, Quimby asked for postponing bookings on the Tom and Jerry “The Little Orphan,” except in New York and Los Angeles. Now that the short has won the fifth Oscar for Quimby, MGM is booking it in 500 theatres simultaneously on April 30, setting a new record for the company’s featurettes.

May 11, 1949
Its merchandising plan for Tom & Jerry cartoon characters heretofore limited mostly to comic books, MGM has now embarked on a broad plan of pushing by-products from the series. According to Fred Quimby, licenses have been given to manufacturers of ceramics, games, dollars, balloons, T-shirts, ties, belts and suspenders.

June 6, 1949
MGM will release a program of 46 short subjects during the 1949-50 season...Program will include 16 Technicolor cartoons (including the Tom & Jerry series); four Gold Medal reprint cartoons in Technicolor.

August 10, 1949

Fred Quimby, MGM short subjects department head, yesterday readied three cartoons for early release. The one-reels are: “The Cat and the Mermouse,” slated for Sept.; “Little Rural Riding Hood,” Sept. 17, and “Love That Pup,” Oct. 1.

August 23, 1949
Another debut this week of the Mary Kaye Trio performing for its first film sound track, a cartoon at MGM.

September 29, 1949
Roy Williams, story director at Walt Disney studio for 18 years, has been added to the story staff of MGM’s Cartoon Department, it is announced by Fred Quimby, producer.

October 19, 1949
Screen Cartoonists Guild next week will ask all cartoon producers for a straight 15 percent wage increase for all animators and allied workers, including those getting over minimum pay, and a system of “bonuses” to be paid temporary workers in lieu of sick leave, holidays and severance pay.
Negotiations will be undertaken with the Animated Film Producers Assn., headed by Donar Dyer, of Disney, chairman, and which includes Warners, Disney, MGM, Walter Lantz and George Pal. When the pay scale and other working conditions are set in the formal agreement with the association, they will likewise apply to television cartoon producers, according to William Littlejohn, business agent for the guild. Animators now get $125 for a forty-hour week.
The Guild is seeking to set up pro rata benefits for those employed less than a year and laid off. It will ask for four percent of gross pay for severance; two percent for holidays; four percent sick leave for women and two percent for men.

October 20, 1949
Bud Stefan, the soda jerk on the Fibber McGee show, narrated a 35 mm. color film strip for children called “Christopher Mouse”; William Hanna wrote it. All profits will go to the St. Michael of the Angels Episcopal Church in Studio City. (Note: this was not a cartoon but I include it here because of Hanna's involvement. Read about it on the Yowp blog.)

October 24, 1949
MGM’s Tom and Jerry cartoons will soon be syndicated newspaperwise throughout the country.

December 6, 1949
An elaborate exhibit, featuring every phase of cartoon production, will be made available by MGM to theatres, starting Jan. 1, when it will be shown for the first time at Loew’s State Theatre, New York.
Complete cartoon story will be shown, starting from the idea inception on a drawing board. Steps such as music and exposure cue sheets, animation and background layout, a finished scene in pencil, together with final colored ones, will all be shown.

December 8, 1949
Because of a misunderstanding on repair instructions on a Technicolor camera through which filters were set in the wrong way, MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby got a sequence in strange pastel shades when he filmed “Hollywood Bowl Cat.” There was a moss green mouse, a magenta cat and a shell pink stage for Hollywood Bowl, so Quimby is using it as a dream sequence in a new cartoon, “Sleepy Time Tom.”

December 30, 1949
AP’s “Tom and Jerry” comic strip bows Feb. 6.

January 5, 1950
Fred Quimby, head of MGM shorts production, submits these titles of forthcoming “Tom and Jerry” cartoons: “Mouse Mops Up,” “Spick and Span,” “The Big Sweep,” “The Clean Years.”

January 17, 1950
“I’ll Be Skiing You,” is announced by Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, as the latest in the cartoon series covering sports subjects.

January 30, 1950

Jerry Mann, currently appearing in the stage show, “Oklahoma,” has been signed by MGM for the voice of “Casanova Cat” and “Love in Gloom,” Tom and Jerry cartoons.

February 3, 1950
Schedules have been set by Fred Quimby for three MGM cartoons. They are “The Flying Cat,” Feb. 15; “His Mouse Friday,” March 1, and “Magical Maestro,” March 5.

February 15, 1950
Academy Award Nominees
Cartoons
“Canary Row,” Warner Bros. Cartoons, Edward Selzer, producer.
“Magic Fluke,” United Productions of America, producer; Columbia.
“For Scent-Imental Reasons,” Warner Bros. Cartoons, Edward Selzer, producer.
“Hatch Up Your Troubles,” MGM; Fred Quimby, producer.
“Toy Tinkers,” Walt Disney, RKO Radio; Walt Disney, producer.

February 21, 1950
Producer Fred Quimby has enlisted Leo, the lion trademark of MGM, as the newest actor of MGM Technicolor cartoons. Leo will step out of the traditional circle of the Metro trademark to appear with Tom and Jerry in “Our Pal Leo.”

February 22, 1950
New York. – Formation of Hollywood Enterprises, Inc. to engage in merchandising of commercial royalty tieups is announced by William Ferguson, former exploitation manager of MGM, and Edward Carrier. New firm, with offices in the Paramount Building, also will function as international representatives for producers and distributors.
Hollywood Enterprises already has closed contracts to serve as exclusive royalty tieup agents for Metro’s MGM cartoons.

February 28, 1950
MGM has signed William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, co-directors of the “Tom and Jerry[”] cartoon series, to an unprecedented straight eight-year contract, Fred Quimby, head of the shorts department, confirmed yesterday. Hanna, a story man, and Barbera, an animator, first joined MGM in 1937. When Quimby teamed them in 1939 to co-direct their own unit, the two first created the cat and mouse characters.

March 6, 1950
Following signature of an eight-year contract last week, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera have been assigned 10 Tom and Jerry Technicolor cartoon subjects for this year by MGM shorts department head, Fred Quimby.

March 8, 1950
Use of excerpts from Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus” in the MGM Technicolor cartoon, “Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl,” met with such favorable exhibitor reception that producer Fred Quimby has schedule[d] a new subject called “Strauss Mouse.”

March 17, 1950
Two new MGM short subjects have their world premiere with “Key to the City,” opening tomorrow at the Egyptian and Loew’s State. They are Pete Smith’s “Wrong Son,” human interest treatment of the subject of child adoption, and “The Cuckoo Clock,” Technicolor cartoon produced by Fred Quimby.

March 31, 1950
“Tom Van Winkle” has been scheduled by Fred Quimby for production as an MGM Technicolor cartoon.

April 10, 1950
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has scheduled “Ventriloquist Cat,” “The Cuckoo Clock” and “Safety Second” for May, June and July release, respectively.

April 12, 1950
W.F. Rogers, MGM general sales manager, after consultation by phone with cartoon producer Fred Quimby, is alerting the distribution department to make a blanket booklet of the Tom and Jerry cartoon, “Safety Second,” for “saturation” coverage the week of July 4. Booklet tells in an amusing way how to avoid juvenile injuries through fireworks burns.

April 13, 1950
Bob Shamrock will do the voice of Jimmy Durante for an MGM cartoon.

April 18, 1950
Pinto Colvig, former comedy story constructionist for the MGM cartoon department, has returned to the studio in a new capacity. Now known on the radio as “Bozo the Clown,” Colvig has signed with Fred Quimby, cartoon producer, to do the Voice of the Seal in “The Little Runaway,” a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

April 26, 1950

This week is said to be the first time in L.A. theatre history that one brand of cartoons has shown in eight local first-runs in one week. The record goes to Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, whose “Jerry and the Lion” is showing at the Chinese, Los Angeles, Uptown and Wilshire; “Yankee Doodle Mouse” at the Fine Arts; “Safety Second” at the Egyptian and Loew’s State.

May 25, 1950
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, is rushing a print of “Yankee Doodle Mouse” through the Technicolor laboratory. Cartoon is set to pay with “The Third Man” at Grauman’s Chinese, Loyola, Wilshire, Uptown and Los Angeles theatres.

June 15, 1950
Debut of MGM Records into novelty platters with “Tom and Jerry Circus Album,” based on cartoon characters of Metro Technicolor shorts produced by Fred Quimby, has resulted in top sales with disks being spotted at top of various best-selling lists.
Accompanied by a 16-page color book of Tom and Jerry, the album is the first in a series of children’s appeal albums to be offered by MGM Records.

June 20, 1950
Lillian Randolph, the “Madame Queen” of the “Amos ‘n’ Andy” radio show and also appearing on the “Beulah” and “Goldilocks” shows, has been signed by Fred Quimby to “voice” a featured character in a new MGM cartoon, “Cat of Tomorrow.”

June 21, 1950
Technicolor lab is rushing prints on MGM’s “Yankee Doodle Mouse” and “Safety Second.” Cartoon producer Fred Quimby has placed these in the exchanges to be available for Fourth of July bookings.

The film industry will be represented at the World Boy Scout Jamboree, Valley Forge, Pa., July 1-6 by the “Tom Cat,” “Jerry Mouse,” “Droopy the Dog” and “Barney the Bear” patrols. The 38 boys in the patrols are from troops in the Venice, Santa Monica, Ocean Park, Westwood and Culver City areas. The insignia representing famous cartoon stars were arranged by Scoutmaster Reg. Cochrane, Troop 48 Culver City, with Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer.

June 26, 1950
An increase to 72 percent next season in MGM shorts filmed in Technicolor is announced by Fred Quimby, shorts producer. The figure includes 22 color cartoons and eight James FitzPatrick “People on Parade.”

June 29, 1950
Following up the Tom and Jerry “geography series” and “sports series,” MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby is starting a dance series. The first will be “La Conga Cat,” scheduled for immediate production. Other titles in preparation are “Charleston Cat,” “Marimba Mouse,” “Polka Puss” and “Square Dance Tom.”

July 5, 1950
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has scheduled two Tom and Jerry subjects on the popular subject of sleep. They are “Sleepy Time Tom” and “Good Yawning Tom.”

July 6, 1950
“Albert in Blunderland” will be the fourth and last, for 1950, of a special cartoon series, “Fun and Facts About America,” distributed by MGM. Fred Quimby announces it as an August release. Others have been “Meet King Joe,” “Make Mine Freedom” and “Why Play Leapfrog?”

July 10, 1950
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, announces that his department will take its usual annual vacation en masse from July 28 until Aug. 14. Only a maintenance and repair crew will stay on.

July 27, 1950
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, huddled yesterday with Sam Tate, studio maintenance head, on plans for refurbishing and remodeling the cartoon building when all employees leave July 28 for a “mass” two-week vacation.

August 3, 1950
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, has added four more titles to what he called “The United Nations Series.” These are “Cuban Cat,” and “Mountie Mouse” (Canada), Tom and Jerry subjects, and “Caballero Droopy” (Mexico) and “Chilly in Chile,” starring Droopy. Already in production are “The Two Mouseketeers” (France) and “Tom and Jerry in Dutch” (Holland).

August 15, 1950
Story of “Hickory, Dickory Doctor” has been okayed by Fred Quimby for an early start as an MGM Tom and Jerry cartoon.

October 4, 1950
MGM’s cartoonery has latched onto the flying saucer gimmick with Barney Bear set for “Flying Disk Jockey.”

September 7, 1950

World premieres of two MGM shorts will be a feature of the opening of Dore Schary’s “The Next Voice You Hear” at Four-Star Theatre next Tuesday. They are the cartoon, “George the Goldfish,” [sic] and a James A. FitzPatrick MGM Technicolor Traveltalk, “Touring Northern Ireland.”

[repeat of UN cartoon details from August 3rd]

September 8, 1950
Marie Francois, 6, and her French accent have moved over from MGM’s feature, “An American in Paris,” to the cartoon department. Fred Quimby has signed Marie’s voice for Tom and Jerry cartoon, “The Two Mouseketeers.”

September 11, 1950
Fred Quimby has set three Barney Bear cartoons for immediate production at MGM. They are “Cobs and Robbers,” “Busybody Bear” and “Gopher Bear.” Two Tom and Jerry cartoons with Hawaiian background, “Cruise Cat” and “Waikiki Kitty,” also have been scheduled by Quimby.

October 19, 1950
The program of shorts to be released by MGM in 1950-51 is about three-fourths completed, according to Fred Quimby, who returned yesterday from New York conferences with general sales manager W.F. Rogers.
All 16 of the new cartoons for the new season are either finished, editing or filming. In addition, six Gold Medal Reprints, making a total of 22 cartoons, will be finished.

November 6, 1950
Fred Quimby has signed a new MGM term contract to continue as head of the short subject department and cartoon producer. It marks the 25th anniversary for Quimby at MGM and his 37th year in the short subject field.

November 28, 1950
Paul Frees, radio actor and currently working at RKO in “The Thing,” has become the voice of MGM cartoons. He recently completed doing Barney Bear in “Busybody Bear” and he is now at work for the Tom and Jerry cartoon “Cruise Cat.”

December 7, 1950
Universal’s “Phantom of the Opera,” triple Academy Award winner in 1943 will be screened Sunday at the Academy Award Theatre. The feature was honored for the best color cinematography, color art direction and color interior decoration. “Yankee Doodle Mouse,” MGM Award-winning cartoon, also will be presented at the screening.

December 12, 1950
MGM cartoon department is readying a series of Tom and Jerry mystery comedies under producer Fred Quimby. First short on the list will be “Private Catseye.”

December 19, 1950
MGM’s next “Tom and Jerry” cartoon subject, “First Class Scout,” will deal with Boy Scout activities.

January 5, 1951
New York. – Formation of MGM Cartoon Character Enterprises to handle licensing of products utilizing Tom and Jerry and other cartoon characters is announced by Fred Quimby, head of MGM short subjects. Max Weinberg will be in charge of the new division.

January 31, 1951
The MGM cartoon department has switched to acetate “cells” exclusively in the making of its product, according to Fred C. Quimby, head of company’s short subject department. The new type “cells” eliminate fire hazard.

February 9, 1951
Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, will make eight “Barney Bear” subjects this year, compared with two annually for the past 11 years.

February 13, 1951
Academy Award nominations
Cartoons
“Gerald McBoing-Boing,” United Productions of America, Columbia; Stephen Bosustow, executive producer.
“Jerry’s Cousin,” MGM; Fred Quimby, producter.
“Trouble Indemnity,” United Productions of America, Columbia; Stephen Bosustow, executive producer.

February 15, 1951
A cartoon strip with a GI slant will be made by MGM’s Fred Quimby for 700 Army, Navy and Marine Corps papers.

February 18, 1951
A.H. Tremann, owner of the new Strand Theatre, Preston, Minn., made it an “all MGM premiere” of his new theatre by billing Red Skelton and Arlene Dahl in “Watch the Birdie,” Pete Smith’s “Sky Divers” and the MGM cartoon “Daredevil Droopy.” In honor of the occasion, Tremann received congratulatory wires from Skelton, Miss Dahl, Pete Smith and Fred Quimby.

February 22, 1951
Valley Forge, Pa. – MGM’s “Stars in My Crown” took first honor among motion pictures in the annual Freedoms Foundation awards presented here this morning “for outstanding contributions to a better understanding of freedom by the things which they write, do, or say.” ...
Third places, $200 and medals, went to...MGM’s “Albert in Blunderland.”

April 3, 1951
The book of six “Tom and Jerry” cartoons, tied together as “The Adventures of Tom and Jerry,” proved so successful in a three-week run at the Marcel Theatre that manager Jim Nicholson will repeat the innovation with a new set of MGM subjects next month. The MGM sales department also will try to have the idea adopted in other double-feature situations.

April 12, 1951
Fred Quimby, MGM short subjects head and cartoon producer, has radio-phoned from Paris that he will remain in Europe for a month after the end of the United Nations Film Conference on Saturday [14th].

April 26, 1951
Paul Frees has made his third recording as the new voice of MGM cartoon character Barney Bear.

April 30, 1951
Fred Quimby returns to his desk at the MGM cartoon studio today following his trip abroad. He was Hollywood’s representative at the 18-nation film conference called by UNESCO in Paris.

May 24, 1951
MGM cartoons are being given a musical change of pace from classical to popular. First in the new format is “Juke Box Mouse.” Dealing entirely with popular music, it follows a long series of cartoons featuring classical tunes.

May 25, 1951
MGM’s short subjects program for 1951-52 includes 32 one-reelers and two special two-reel subjects.
The single reel subjects include 16 MGM cartoons in Technicolor, 10 Pete Smith Specialties and six Gold Medal reissue cartoons in Technicolor.

June 25, 1951
Fred Quimby and his entire short subjects department at MGM will go on a two-week vacation starting Aug. 6. Pete Smith and his crew will be off the last half of August.

June 29, 1951
After a year’s illness, director Tex Avery has returned to work in Fred Quimby’s cartoon department at MGM.

July 12, 1951
An entire year’s lineup of MGM cartoons can be booked at one time for the first time since the company has been making these shorts, according to producer Fred Quimby. Quimby has ready the 1951-1952 program, which starts Sept. 1, finished Technicolor prints for 16 out of the 22 scheduled subjects. This unusually early availability has boosted advance sales of the product to a new high, Quimby says.
Tom and Jerry subjects ready include “Slicked Up Pup,” “Nitwitty Kitty,” “Cat-Napping,” “Flying Cat,” “Duck Doctor,” “Triplet Trouble,” “Smitten Kitten,” “Little Runaway,” “Fit to Be Tied,” “Push Button Kitty.”
The 1951-1952 program will start off with the cartoon “Car of Tomorrow,” being rushed for release during Automobile Show time in September. Other MGM cartoons ready to go are “Inside Cackle Corners,” “Droopy’s Double Trouble,” “Musical Maestro,” [sic] “One Cab's Family” and “Rock-a-Bye Bear.”

July 26, 1951
“State Fair,” 20th-Fox’s 1945 Academy Award winner starring Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain, Dick Haymes and Vivian Blaine, will be screened Sunday at the Academy Awards Theatre. Also being screened on the same program is “Quiet Please,” 1945 cartoon winner produced by MGM.

August 2, 1951
Fred Quimby’s MGM cartoon department takes its en masse two-week vacation tomorrow night. Immediately on return of the cartoon workers, a similar mass vacation is set for Pete Smith and his short subjects staff.

August 7, 1951
Hal Elias, assistant to Fred Quimby, is the sole occupant of the MGM cartoon department building during the current two-week mass vacation. Elias is supervising changes in facilities and equipment.

Paul Frees, who recently did roles in RKO’s “The Thing” and Paramount’s “A Place in the Sun,” has resumed his MGM cartoon chores as the voice of Barney Bear.

August 21, 1951
The two sections of MGM’s shorts division did a switch yesterday, with Fred Quimby and 120 members of the Cartoon Department returning to work from a mass two-week vacation and Pete Smith’s unit, in turn, taking off for a fortnight.

September 12, 1951
General Motors chairman Alfred Sloan has wired MGM’s Fred Quimby for a special preview of “Car of Tomorrow,” Technicolor cartoon, for GM executives in Detroit. The subject is being released Sept. 22 to hit the auto show season.

September 13, 1951
Concert pianist Jakob Gimpel has been signed by Fred Quimby to play the Johann Strauss music for a new MGM Technicolor cartoon, “Johann Mouse.” Stan Freberg will narrate the subject.

September 26, 1951
Ten features that won “Oscars” in 1946, along with several award-winning shorts, have been scheduled by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for showing in its 19th series of Sunday evening screenings at the Academy Award Theatre beginning next Sunday. ...
“The Seventh Veil,” starring James Mason and Ann Todd, will be screened Oct. 21...”Cat Concerto,” award winning MGM cartoon, will also be shown.

October 2, 1951
Dawes Butler [sic], creator of the voice of Beanie in TV’s “Time For Beanie,” and Colleen Collins, radio’s “girl of a thousand voices,” have been signed by Fred Quimby for vocal work in MGM’s Technicolor cartoon, “Little Johnny Jet.”

October 17, 1951
Stan Freberg, character actor has been signed by Fred Quimby to comment on the life of Johann Straus for a new Tom and Jerry cartoon “Johann Mouse.”

November 14, 1951
J.G. Lindstrom, head of the Film and Communication section, Public Information Division of the United Nations, yesterday conferred with Fred Quimby, head of MGM Shorts Department, regarding a new cartoon, “Peace on Earth,” which has just started in production, as well as other subjects of possible United National interest. Lindstrom was accompanied by Scott Hanson, Hollywood resident representative of the United Nations.

November 27, 1951

Concert pianist Jakob Gimpel performed seven Johann Strauss waltz numbers in the MGM Technicolor cartoon, “Johann Mouse,” produced by Fred Quimby.

January 17, 1952
The entire year’s cartoon program for MGM has been shipped to exchanges seven months ahead of schedule, the first time this has happened, according to producer Fred Quimby.
Six months ago, Quimby stepped up the pace of production and as a result all cartoons due from MGM until Sept. 1, the end of the production year, already are in the exchanges.
Included are 15 Tom and Jerry cartoons and seven others.

January 18, 1952
Sixteen different licensees manufacturing 63 different products have been signed up for tie-ups with the MGM Tom and Jerry cartoon characters. Fred Quimby, producer, says the articles range through 23 kinds of Tom and Jerry pottery and chinaware, toy autos, coin banks, ties, mufflers, suspenders, scarves, T-shirts, puzzles, dolls, belts, viewers for motion picture film, and other promotions.

February 4, 1951
Scott Bradley, after 15 years as composer and musical director for MGM’s cartoon department, will play the role of John Philip Sousa in “The One Piece Bathing Suit.”

February 12, 1952
Academy Award Nominations
Cartoons
“Lambert, the Sheepish Lion,” Disney-RKO. Walt Disney, producer.
“Rooty Toot Toot, United Productions of America-Columbia. Stephen Bosustow, executive producer.
“Two Mouseketeers,” MGM. Fred Quimby, producer.

March 21, 1952
Academy Award Winners
Cartoon: “Two Mouseketeers.”

April 7, 1952
The Academy Award winning Tom and Jerry cartoon, “The Two Mouseketeers,” has been set as a joint bill with “[Singin’ in the] Rain” at the Egyptian Theatre here and in over 100 other engagements throughout the country over the next three weeks. National Screen Service has prepared a special trailer on the team of the two pictures.

April 15, 1952
Two more Tom and Jerry cartoons in the group planned by Fred Quimby, MGM cartoon producer, with a view to promoting international good will have been placed in work. They are “My Friend Toto,” with an Italian background, and “The Londonderry Ghost,” British subject.
Already released in the series, undertaken by Quimby after serving as delegate to the UNESCO conference in Paris last year, are “The Two Mouseketeers” and “Johann Mouse.” Others in preparation concern Denmark, Sweden, South America and Mexico.

April 18, 1952
Fred Quimby’s next Tom and Jerry “costume cartoon” for MGM following the successful “Two Mouseketeers” will be “Scaramouse.”

May 1, 1952
Merle Coffman, impersonator, has been signed by Fred Quimby to do the voice of a baby duck in MGM’s Tom and Jerry cartoon “Just Ducky.”

May 15, 1952
It’s a boy for James E. Paris [Faris], MGM cartoon film editor.

June 10, 1952
MGM’s short subject slate for 1952-52 will include two two-reelers, to be released as specials, and the following one-reelers:
Sixteen MGM Cartoons in Technicolor, six Gold Medal Reprint Cartoons in Technicolor, 10 Pete Smith Specialties, eight FitzPatrick Traveltalks in Technicolor and four Prophecies of Nostradamus.

June 24, 1952

MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby has placed a new Tom & Jerry, “Baby Butch,” in production.

July 7, 1952
MGM’s two short subject units split the month of August with their usual “mass vacations.” Fred Quimby will let all his cartoon workers go the first two weeks, while Pete Smith and his writing and production staff will leave the last two weeks.

July 22, 1952
Although the current releasing season still has two months to go, all 22 MGM cartoons produced by Fred Quimby and the Pete Smith Specialties have already had local first runs at the Egyptian, Loew’s State, Four Star or Orpheum Theatres.
Pre-release bookings are already set for the new 1952-1953 product which normally would not appear in Los Angeles until September.

July 30, 1952
About 150 theatres of the Interstate Circuit in Texas will stake a “12th Birthday Party” for MGM’s cartoon characters, Tom and Jerry, according to word received by cartoon producer Fred Quimby from Bob O’Donnell, head of the circuit.
The stunt proved so successful at one Dallas house that it was decided to duplicate it throughout the circuit.

August 5, 1952
The 21st Sunday evening series of screenings sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its members will start Aug. 10 and run through Nov. 9, with programs devoted to films that figured in the 1948 Academy Awards. ...
Nov. 2: “The Naked City,” Mark Hellinger-U-I... “The Little Orphan,” MGM cartoon, will also be shown.

August 6, 1952
The MGM cartoon department’s first provisions for direct 16mm filming of animated subjects are being installed while the department, headed by Fred Quimby, currently is taking its annual two-week mass vacation.
Entire new equipment for 35mm photography also is being installed as part of improvements being made in the department.

August 8, 1952
MGM cartoon characters Tom and Jerry will have co-starring roles opposite Esther Williams in “Dangerous When Wet,” Technicolor musical set to role this month.
The cat and mouse, who made their debuts with live actors in “Anchors Aweigh,” will perform an underwater ballet with Miss Williams and swim to music with cartoon fish, octopi, and sea horses.

August 25, 1952
Fred Quimby’s MGM cartoon department, back at work after their annual two-week mass vacation, started on two new Tom and Jerry subjects, “Mouse for Sale” and “Broncho Peso.”

October 15, 1952
Joseph Barbera, whose new dramatic comedy, “The Maid and the Martian,” opens tonight at The Gallery Stage, authored last year’s Academy Award cartoon, MGM’s “Two Mouseketeers.” Gordon Hunt directed the new comedy, with performances to be given nightly except Mondays.

December 17, 1952
Fred Quimby has scheduled “Touche Pussy Cat!” as a sequel to the Academy Award cartoon, “The Two Mouseketeers.”

December 19, 1952

Fred Quimby, MGM shorts head, has scheduled new national releases for January as follows:...Technicolor cartoons “The Missing Mouse” and “Barney’s Hungry Cousin.”

December 23, 1952
Fred Quimby today previews six months’ output of Tom and Jerry Technicolor cartoons with four executives of Whitman Publishing Co., Dell Publishing Co. and Western Printing & Lithograph, who publish the Tom and Jerry comic magazines.

December 26, 1952
Fred Quimby has completed production of “Puppy Tales,” a new MGM Tom and Jerry Technicolor cartoon. Into its place on the drawing boards goes “Down-Hearted Duckling.”

Betty White

“A demure little eyeful, endowed her characterization with appeal and coquetry” is how the Los Angeles Times described the performance of a young singer in a musical comedy at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in March of 1940.

The name of the performer was Betty White.

She has died at age 99.

I should state there is no indication this is the same Betty White beloved by millions upon millions of people starting at the dawn of network television. She never mentioned it in her autobiography, and it’s not mentioned in uncountable newspaper articles about her, but she did so much over the decades she may very well have forgotten it (or perhaps put it out of her mind). But wouldn’t that description fit an 18-year-old Betty White?

As a kid in the ‘60s, I saw Betty White on The Match Game, Password, You Don’t Say and so on, and asked myself “What does she actually do? She’s only on game shows. Doesn’t she act?”

This, of course, was years before she launched a third career as a comedy actress on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Golden Girls and a number of other shows. How was I to know her small screen career began in 1939 on experimental TV (likely W6XAO) and that she had at least five regular shows to her credit by 1958?

Here’s Variety of December 3, 1948 at the start of her actual career. Her station had signed on less than three months earlier. (Haynes is not to be confused with singer Dick Haymes).

DICK HAYNES JOKE SHOP
Thursday, 8.00 p.m., KLAC-TV
With strong format and brisk pace, action rolls steadily, but program is bogged down with oft-repeated gags. Betty White and Tod Cook, supporting Haynes, manage vocal chores well.
Relying greatly on grimacing and gag followups to strengthen his material, Haynes' routine hits occasionally but generally it's wan material. Stronger repartee with off-stage voice of Walter Craig would help in boosting show.
More new material is needed in Joe Lowe's script to heighten interest. Camera director Joe Landis managed well, but was caught short on momentary occasions by bad focusing. Sponsored by Grand Ranges, commercials are simply done, but could be more effective with close-shot views of product.

KLAC was pretty good for Betty White. It was the home of her next show, which she ended up taking over in 1950 (for Western Home Furniture) when the host left. It was there she developed her own sitcom that Guild Films syndicated in the U.S. and Canada. That resulted in a network show. Here’s a profile of her career to date in The American Weekly, a newspaper magazine supplement, of August 15, 1954.

TVs Cinderella
BY LIZ WILSON
HOLLYWOOD EDITOR
Early last January the bigwigs of the National Broadcasting Company in New York City gathered around a conference table and pondered what appeared to be an imponderable—where to find, for a daytime coast-to-coast television spot, a brand-new personality with the homey warmth of a Mary Margaret McBride, the cheerful folksiness of a Kate Smith and the humor and good looks of an Arlene Francis. You know . . . a sort of female Arthur Godfrey.
Frederic W. Wile, Jr., NBC's vice-president in charge of solving unsolvable cases, took a plane to Los Angeles, the source of persistent rumors about the talents of a comparative unknown named Betty White. He'd hardly settled in his hotel before the tele-victims of Miss White's charms began bowling him over with extravagant claims.

Mr. Wile, a hard-headed businessman, crossed his fingers and auditioned Betty White and the next thing he knew he was making Betty White claims of his own to the bigwigs back home.
Less than a month later—on February 8, 1954—Betty White made her first appearance on the new Betty White Show, a national program originating from the NBC television studios in Burbank, California. A few weeks later she signed a contract with NBC guaranteeing her $1,000,000 over a five-year period.
That's the way things have always happened—and still happen—to Betty.
Hewing to a multiple-job schedule that would floor most entertainers, TV's Cinderella girl speeds from one chore to another with unruffled poise, an engaging chuckle and a rare aptitude for delivering the right words at the right time. Such is her aplomb that she actually welcomes the opportunity to ad lib for minutes on end a theatrical effort that makes the average performer sweat and gives even a master improviser like Groucho Marx pause for thought.
It was not always thus. Four years ago Betty, getting $5 a show on local TV, knew there must be easier ways to make a living.
"But nobody would tell me what they were." she says. "My parents had move from Oak Park, Illinois, to Los Angeles when I was two. Now, lo these many years later, I began to wonder whether I ought to go back. Things couldn't be any worse in Oak Park."
Her first brush with the drama occurred at the Horace Mann High School in Los Angeles.
"That's where the ham in me first showed. I wrote, directed, produced and starred in a tear-jerker called Land of the Rising Sun. I could hardly wait to graduate and foist myself on a panting public. And do you know what? The movie casting directors had the nerve to tell me I wasn't photogenic."
So Betty set her sights on radio, where one didn't have to be photogenic.
After weeks of pavement pounding she landed a commercial on The Great Gildersleeve Show. She got $5. She did a lot of commercials after that but, whether she sang, acted or read them, the fee was always $5. Then she switched to TV and she did some more commercials . . . for $5 apiece, of course. "It was kind of nice," she remembers wistfully. "I never had to worry about the income tax."
On November 7, 1949, a great thing happened to Betty. Al Jarvis, a local disc jockey, called her. He was starting his own TV variety show and wanted Betty to be his Girl Friday. At $5 a week? Oh, no—$50!
The show was on the air five hours a day five days a week. Betty rounded up guest stars, pushed props, answered mail, kept commercials straight. When Al Jarvis moved on to greener pastures she took over temporarily, pending the hiring of a replacement for him. Her sparkle and wit pushed the show right up to a top rating. The "temporary" job was hers to keep.
A five-hour-a-day stint, however, didn't keep her busy enough. In her spare time she dreamed up a young married couple situation comedy called Life With Elizabeth and sold it—with herself as its star—to a local TV station. Distributed by Guild Films, it won her the 1952 "Emmy" award of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as TV's outstanding female personality.
Between The Betty White Show and Life With Elizabeth, she's just about the busiest girl in Hollywood. She used to get up at 5 a. m., five days a week, to prepare for her NBC morning stint. Last month it shifted to an afternoon time spot. Betty now telecasts "live" to the East at 4:30 p. m. (1:30 Coast time), and the show is kinescoped to Coast audiences three hours later, at 4:30 Coast time. Now she can sleep till 7, get to the studio at 10 and work till 6 p. m.
Life With Elizabeth, which has 102 outlets reaching an audience reportedly 90 per cent women, is rehearsed on Thursday and filmed on Friday (sometimes through to 3 a. m. Saturdays at the Burbank though it's not an NBC show. On these days her scramble to fit in The Betty White Show is a show in itself. "I spend most of my life at NBC," she says. "But I like it. I go home at night and say to myself, 'In a few hours, now, I can go back to work.'"
How can she just get up in front of the camera and talk? "It's easy," she says. "Nothing can throw me after my Al Jarvis training. If a guest doesn't show up I just look at the audience and say. This isn't the way I planned it. but this is it.'"
Unmarried at 28 ("What time do I have for romancing?"). Betty lives with her parents in a rambling Brentwood bungalow. She has three dogs a St. Bernard, a poodle and a Pekingese, Bandy, after whom Bandy Productions, the independent outfit which produces Life With Elizabeth, is named.
She never forgets a name, never shows temperament, positively sings her "hellos" and is never too busy to share a laugh or a cry. This life-can-be-beautiful attitude, her infectious smile and her spontaneous giggle endear her to co-workers tired of catering to prima donnas.
"She's as cooperative as Jimmy Durante," they say, than which there is no greater praise.

Betty bombed with a sitcom in 1957 called Date With the Angels and was re-formatted into a live prime-time variety show that lasted about four weeks. Her consolation was she was chosen “most glamorous business woman of the year" by the Hollywood Business and Professional Woman's club.”

For about the next decade, she was a “television personality.” She appeared on television and, well, appeared. She was living away from Hollywood in New York state during that time, thanks to her marriage to game show host Allen Ludden; the wedding may have been the most well-known thing she did in the ‘60s.

We’ll leave the last words to Ludden in a column for the Associated Press that appeared on July 22, 1966. The two of them had a happy marriage (and re-location to the West Coast) that ended with his death in 1981.

Allen Ludden Hailed as Mr. Betty White
By ALLEN LUDDEN
(For Cynthia Lowry)
EDITOR'S NOTE — It takes a strong, secure, well-adjusted fellow to marry a well-known woman in show business. Allen Ludden did just that and here tells, without a whimper, what it's like to be — but only occasionally— hailed as Mr. Betty White. And Betty wasn't sure he should write this column.
NEW YORK (AP) – Among the many notable things that have happened to me since the advent of a little television game called Password has been the fact that I am called so many different things. You may take that any way you wish, but what I mean is that people call me different names.
Because they see me on the tube in the afternoon, they associate me with my electronic neighbor Linkletter and I'm hailed as "Art". So, I answer.
Because I emcee a game shew, they call me "Bud," as in Collyer.
Because I wear glasses and belong to that venerable group known as television hosts, I get "Bill" for Bill Cullen, I guess.
But the one I enjoy the most is "Hey, there's the guy who married Betty White!" It's been three years now since Betty and I married and I've become something of an authority on Betty White fans.
Let me make it clear at the outset that I have nothing but the heartiest respect for these people. Obviously I respect their taste. I married the girl! Most of them took upon me as a Johnny-come-lately. They've known her much longer than I have.
There is a very large group who remember Betty from the "Al Jarvis Days". She was doing a 5 1/2-hour daily local show in Los Angeles. There weren't many television sets to begin with (I kid Betty about being a star of the silent TV) and it was a local show. Yet these people turn up all over the country.

When we married we had 9,000 cards and at least 6,000 of them mentioned Al Jarvis. They usually went on to mention "Life with Elizabeth," too, because off of her Al Jarvis friends followed on to that series. They were joined by armies of new and vigilantly faithful followers.
A lot of them must have been about 10 at the time, but they I loved "Life with Elizabeth." I've read some of the scripts just lately, and the reason those shows were so popular is that they were very, very funny.
Betty is constantly amazed to have teen-agers today come up to her to tell her that her's was their favorite show when they were kids.
Then there are the hard-core fans or, even better, friends, who have known Betty through "Life with Elizabeth", "Date with the Angels", and "The Betty White Show", which was her daytime NBC network show.
These are the people from all over the country who know about her love of animals, her jokes, her favorite songs, her wide streak of sentimentality, her curiosity.
They follow Betty's every move. They write regularly. Their generosity is embarrassing. But their affection is so genuine and their intentions are so right, one could only be touched by their gestures.
I think I can safely say that most of the hard-core fans are glad that Betty and I married. At the time of our marriage in fact, many wrote to say that they had picked me out for her.
That was not true of them all. There was another group that came in later, a nighttime group, the "Jack Paar" group. Not all of them were Ludden-oriented. As a matter of fact, it got a bit sticky on several occasions, but time has a way of taking care of those things.
Now when I hear somebody yell, "Hey, there's the guy who married Betty White!" I just smile, keep moving and don't even think about ducking.

All this could have made up an entire career for many. For Betty White, it was only just beginning.

Eyes on the Earth

Bugs Bunny opens a hatch on a spaceship. His eyes react. These drawings are one per frame.



What does Bugs see? The Oit disappearing into the distance.



This is from 1948’s Haredevil Hare, the debut of the little Martian and his dog (both with helmets and skirts like the Roman god Mars. The unnamed Martian has a different voice than in later cartoons.

Phil Monroe, Ben Washam, Ken Harris and Lloyd Vaughan are the animators with Bob Gribbroek designing Mars and Pete Alvarado painting it.

Mirror Monkeys

There’s no plot in Monkey Madness (1930), just monkeys and other characters moving and making noise in time to the beat of the soundtrack.

There is a lot of reused animation in this Disney short. And a lot of mirror-image animation where the character on one side of the screen is the same as one on the other side, just in reverse. In the case of the monkey, the design is modified slightly because one character is female.



Even the reflections are mirror images. There's an awful lot of kissing in this cartoon.



I generally don’t mind plotless musical-type shorts of the first couple of years of the 1930s but this one is devoid of any real humour. The Fleischer studio, with their little surprise gags popping up, were way ahead of this.

Disney paid to use a song in this short. It opens with “Abba Dabba Honeymoon,” though its lyrics about a monkey and a chimp are not heard.

The Not-All New Groucho For 1961

Your long-running TV show is going off the air. What do you do?

If you’re Groucho Marx, you do just you did on television. You insult people.

You Bet Your Life finished a long run in 1961. Groucho had some spare time. In an interview with United Press International, he explains what was on his mind for the future. And he didn’t have good news for his fellow comedians.

This appeared in papers on February 9, 1961.

Groucho Folds Hit Show for New One
By VERNON SCOTT
UPI Hollywood Correspondent
HOLLYWOOD (UPI)—Groucho Marx announced today he is folding his popular "You Bet Your Life” television show after 12 dazzlingly successful years.
The deadpan comedian isn’t leaving video, however. He’s cranking up a new quiz-interview series titled "What Do You Want?” which is scheduled to replace "You Bet Your Life” next fall.
How does Groucho feel about killing off the longest-running show in NBC history?

“I don’t feel anything,” he said, puffing on a cigar.
“TV is a good racket. The show paid well and wasn’t too much work. It’s been darn good to me. When we started on radio I had no idea it would last 14 years.”
It was rumored the mustascheoed comedian would switch to situation comedy next season.
“Not me,” he exclaimed. “That means working five days a week in some drab studio. On my show I only work a few hours one day a week. Every Wednesday night I show up at the studio at 6 o’clock to discuss the contestants. Then I go out to dinner and return at 8:30 to film the show until 10:30.
“I don’t want to work any harder than that. I don’t have to.”
Groucho again will lean heavily on humor in his new show.
“We’ll have all different kinds of people on the program who have a good answer to ‘What do you want?’ ” he said.
“Maybe we’ll have a gambler who wants to expose card sharks, or a husband, or a mother searching for a missing son.
“But I’ll have to be funny. When viewers tune in to see a comedian they feel cheated if he doesn’t make them laugh.
“In fact that’s the trouble with TV today, there’s hardly any comedy left on the air except for a few Westerns. I have to stay up late to see who’s on Jack Paar’s show if I want to see comedy.
“And situation comedies aren’t funny at all. They’re all right for kids, but they just aren’t funny. They can’t be because sponsors are afraid of offending someone. And I can’t blame them, maybe. Maybe I'd feel the same way if I were trying to sell a product on TV.
“One of the reasons these new comedy records are selling so well is that people can't find laughs on television. It's just not a comedian's medium.
“In the days of vaudeville a comic would walk on stage and say anything he pleased without worrying about offending anyone. We'll be as funny as possible on the new show and at the same time try not to step on anyone's toes.”

Groucho appeared in something different for him the same year. This appeared in papers on October 26, 1961.

Groucho Plays It Straight
By VERNON SCOTT
HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 24 (UPI)—"I always thought acting was a racket and now I'm sure of it," Groucho Marx said today.
The caustic Marx brother came to this conclusion after completing the first straight dramatic role in his long (40 years) career in show business.
"I deliberately looked for a serious acting role to prove one of my own theories," he explained.
"My thought has always been that there are thousands and thousands of good straight actors and only 50 good comedians. When I say 50 I'm being generous. Actually there are many fewer than 50 good comics around."
Groucho turned to serious acting by degrees. He will be seen first as a narrator of a Dupont Show-of-the-Week for NBC Nov. 22 in which he is heard more than seen.
In a segment of the "GE Theater" he essays the role of a strict father who refuses to grant his daughter permission to marry.
"Acting is easy compared to comedy," he said.
"In a drama you aren't being tested on every line. You can talk for 15 minutes with no reaction from the audience and nobody gets critical. But a comedian has to get a laugh every 40 seconds or he's in trouble. "
I've come to a point in life where I can afford to gamble with my career. I don't have to worry about money anymore. From here on the things I do will be for fun."
Groucho's TV show left the air after 14 years of rampaging success. He refuses to accept situation comedy series offered him.
"I'm too old for that," he said.
"Now I watch reruns of the show, but I don't get any fun out of it. The real enjoyment was in doing the programs before a live audience.
"Norman Krasna and I wrote a play, 'Time for Elizabeth,' and I'd like to do it as a movie. Broadway doesn't interest me after all these years.
"But no matter what happens I'm not going to sit around doing nothing. And I won't retire, if nothing else works out I may take a job as a writer in one of the studios.
"So far I haven't missed the activity of a weekly TV show, but I imagine I'll be getting restless before long.
"Right now I'm busy writing another book. I like the title—'Confessions of a Mangy Lover.' I'm not saying if it is autobiographical."

Hidden Reference, Sutherland Style

There are a couple of inside jokes in What Makes Us Tick, a 1952 John Sutherland cartoon produced for the New York Stock Exchange.

As the camera slides down a piece of machinery, little tags appear. Some are gag tags but two are named for people involved with the cartoon. Earl Jonas was the studio's production manager; he later served the same capacity for Chuck Jones at MGM. Ed Starr was the background artist for this short. Starr has been at Disney and, according to his nephew quoted on puertovallarta.net, marched into Disney’s office and quit, then smashed and buried every piece of Disney artwork he had at his home. He spent some time at Columbia, painting backgrounds for the inexplicable Kongo-Roo and other cartoons before the studio closed in 1946.



“Hawky” refers to Emery Hawkins, who animated part of this cartoon. While the studio had a “Higgy” (Bill Higgins) animating on this short, I don’t think it had anyone with the name “Smoe.”

George Gordon, Carl Urbano, Gerry Nevius and Arnold Gillespie are also credited on this short, with the music by Gene Poddany. Bud Hiestand is the narrator, with typical John Q. Public and a newsboy played by Herb Vigran.

Pull the Wool

Beaky, the Bashful Buzzard, swoops in to an innocent lamb (note the long eye-lashes) after his brothers capture sheep to bring them home for dinner.

The camera cuts back and forth on the lamb and Beaky, moving in closer.



Things don’t go according to plan. The lamb can’t be moved from her place—but her wool can.



The simpleton returns the wool and gets bashed with a brush for his trouble.



Bob Clampett directed The Bashful Buzzard from a story by Michael Sasanoff. It was released in 1945.

The Modest Man Was 39

Not only was Jack Benny’s death front page news, papers made space for sidebar stories, too. That’s how beloved Benny was to millions of people when he passed away December 26, 1974.

Here’s one of the many side stories that appeared in print. It’s from syndicated columnist Marilyn Beck, who managed to reach many of Jack’s long-time celebrity friends and get them to speak. She saw Jack a few weeks before he died.

Benny Was a Likeable, Charitable Guy
By MARILYN BECK
HOLLYWOOD—Although the thought of death frightened him, Jack Benny died the way he wanted to die—looking forward to his next work assignment.
"Work keeps me young; I never want to retire," the grand old trouper told me recently. He was just 49 days short of his 81st birthday when the end came; yet he was still acting like a "kid" of 39 until a few months ago.
Even a collapse and a hospital siege last October couldn't keep him down for long. The spring in his step had been dulled a bit, but the mind and the sparkle in his eyes seemed as lively as ever when he snapped back to prepare his annual NBC "Farewell" special, and to get ready for February co-starring stints with Walter Matthau in the MGM film adaptation of "The Sunshine Boys."
The last time I saw him, when he arrived at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Dec. 8 to receive the Outstanding Lifelong Achievement Award from the Hollywood Women's Press Club, he told me: "I still feel like I'm 39."
BUT AS IT turned out, his days were numbered, and the press club event would mark his final public appearance. Stricken with stomach pains before he had a chance to accept the award, he was rushed to doctors who would discover several weeks later their famed patient was suffering from inoperable cancer of the pancreas.
Paying a visit to his Beverly Hills home on Thursday night, while he slipped into his final, sedated sleep, were such famed friends as Frank Sinatra, Gov. Ronald Reagan, Danny Kaye, Rosalind Russell, Johnny Carson, and Bob Hope. It was Hope who summed up the sadness of the crowd by saying: "We'll be lost without him. Jack's got one of the most charitable hearts there's ever been in this business."
Hope also made the undeniable point: "This is the beginning of the end of an era; guys who started out together in vaudeville, who've been close all these years—and who've always been there to step in for one another at a minute's notice."
It's amazing, actually, that so many of the old crowd are still around, Bob realizes.
HOPE IS 71, George Burns (Benny's closest buddy, who underwent open heart surgery in August) is 79. Along with 84-year-old Groucho Marx and George Jessel, who's in his late 70s, they formed the group of cronies whose friendship spanned over half a century. They shared vaudeville bills in the ’20’s, went on to vie as radio comedy kings of the ’30’s — and have spent much time together during their twilight years in kibitzing sessions at the Beverly Hills’ Hillcrest Country Club, reliving the old days and the ribald stunts they’d pulled.
Jessel came close to collapsing when informed of Benny’s death. “We were friends for over 50 years,” he said. “And I’m destroyed over this. But I know that if there's a place where the good go — there will be a place for Benny.”
Though Jessel has delivered the eulogies of many filmland notables, Benny requested last year that Bob Hope handle such a task for him. At this point Bob is wondering what anyone can say that’s not already known about the gentle man who added so much to all our lives — who kept millions laughing and listening to his radio “family” that included his wife, Mary Livingstone, Rochester, Dennis Day and Don Wilson. And which fostered the gags that would become legend about Benny’s stinginess, his Maxwell automobile and his assaults on the violin.
ACTUALLY, he started out in vaudeville as a "straight" violinist, practiced religiously on the instrument even during all those years we laughed at his fractured treatment of "Love in Bloom," and in recent times raised millions for charity through violin performances with symphony orchestras.
Services will be held Sunday at Hillcrest Memorial Park, Los Angeles. He leaves behind a wife of 47 years who retired from show business in 1950; an adopted daughter, Joan; and four grandchildren.
The man who accomplished so much in a long life time and left only one thing undone, he had completed only three chapters of his autobiography at the time of his death. "It's really not important if I finish the book," he told me last fall. "After all, what does the world really care about the life and opinions of Jack Benny?"
Modesty was one of the most endearing qualities of the man born Benjamin Kubelesky in Waukegan, Ill., on Valentine's Day, 1894.

From all of us here at the Tralfaz blog, here’s a cheery holiday song from Preston Ward, circa 1952. (Artwork by Tom McKimson, supplied by Devon Baxter).

A Ham for the Holidays

The closest Tex Avery got to a Christmas cartoon was One Ham's Family (released in August 1943), where the mean widdle pig outsmarts the wolf (both played by Kent Rogers) dressed as Santa.

The typical Tex Avery wolf notices the pig looking up the chimney for St. Nick. He shakes his head so violently, his eyes get left behind (okay, it’s really smear animation).



As this is a war time cartoon, there’s a meat ration-point gag. Didn’t most of these kinds of gags get cut in the post-war re-releases?



Later, the wolf dresses up as Santa Claus and gets bashed around by the Red Skelton piggie stand-in.

Kent Rogers, by the way, was dead 11 months after this cartoon was released, killed in a WW2 training exercise.