Iris the Bride

“Whaddya want, Mac?” screeched the drug store waitress at Jack Benny.

She was new amongst Jack’s secondary cast in the early ‘50s, but Iris Adrian had been around a lot longer than that.

Adrian left Hollywood where she grew up to become a show girl as the Depression hit. She left Broadway to return to Hollywood, where she had a steady career in movies with titles like Too Many Blondes and Gold Diggers of 1937. Benny hired her and pretty soon, TV producers had her typecast as a hardboiled waitress.

Her career in the ‘60s took her far away from the land of leggy, plumed dancers. She was hired to appear in squeaky-clean Walt Disney family comedies like The Shaggy D.A. and The Love Bug. But she was also a regular in Ted Knight’s quickly-cancelled 1978 sitcom where he played the owner of an escort service. I suspect her lifestyle in New York might have made her aware of such establishments in real life.

Here she is in part two of a feature profile in the Charlotte News published May 24, 1975 (Click here for Part 1). She talks about her time with Jack Benny and how Jack’s wife played a role in her career. The photo below accompanied the article.

‘I Was Always Getting Wed’
By EMERY WISTER
News Staff Writer
HOLLYWOOD — Iris Adrian wears a diamond ring on her hand and the gem itself looks as big as a silver dollar.
"You can call it a wedding ring if you want," she said. "I was always getting married, I would get lonesome for some guy I missed and I'd marry another.
"My first husband was worth $60 million or so he told me. He forgot to mention his grandmother had already left her money to someone else.
"Then I married another guy. He expected me to support him so that ended right away. Then there was a third marriage in their somewhere.
“I MARRIED my fourth and present husband, Fido Murphy, 23 years ago. This marriage wasn't any better than the others. We should have got rid of each other right away but we just got used to each other.
"I guess we got on because he was on the road most of the time. He still is. He's a coach to the Chicago Bears professional football team. I don't travel with him. He doesn't want me.
“There was one rich man I liked. He had millions and I really should have gone ahead and married him and to hell with honour.
"He finally married a dame with big feet. If there was one thing I couldn't stand it was a man whose feet were smaller than mine and his were."
Iris Adrian was dancing in high school when she was in the ninth grade. That's when she quit.
"I couldn't see much sense to it," she recalled. "What did I have to learn about George Washington's habits for? So I just dropped out of classes altogether."
"BUT WHILE I didn't want to study, I didn't mind working. Once I was sweeping the sidewalk in front of my house and a Hindu man called me a pig. He thought it was disgraceful that a woman should be doing that kind of work.
"I used to own a lot of real estate. At one time I owned four houses, but sold them. People were beginning to think I was some kind of madam."
It must have been 30 years ago that the late Jack Benny's wife Mary Livingstone called her on the telephone and asked her to go on Benny's stage show. This was after Benny's radio show had gone off the air.
Iris agreed and she and another actress were teamed as the Landrews Sisters, a takeoff on the Andrews Sisters, then, a top singing team.
"I stayed with Benny about 30 years," she said. "I guess he was about the nearest person to God I ever knew.
“He used to say to me 'why can't you think of me as just a boob and not a star?' But I never could. When he died I felt a little alone without him. We went all over the world together, saw every place worth seeing with him."
IRIS ADRIAN started young and, in her own words, tried to stay young. She was about 15 when she got her first job in Fred Waring's show.
"They called the show 'Rah-Rah Days.' I got the lead when Dorothy Lee became ill. That must have been about 1929."
Then came New York and later Hollywood and people like George Raft, Ray Milland, the Marx Bros. She can't remember it all but she does remember a man named Jimmy Durante.

“I could write a book about him. I remember he used to date a girl named Harriet Fish. Once he gave her a fur coat and a day or two later it was stolen. In those days men were accused of giving a girl a coat and then hiring some thug to steal it.
"I LOVED New York in those days. There weren't so many people in the world and it seemed like I knew everybody in town. Walter Winchell, Ed Sullivan and all those fellows would come to the restaurant where I liked to eat every night. Today I don't know anyone. And today's living has done something to men. They stopped cheating on their wives. They found TV is better.
"I don't go to the movies any more. I don't like 'em any more, and besides I'm too busy being interviewed about the good old days.
"Jack Benny gave me a wonderful party when I was 60. I don't mind telling my age. Like I said, I'm 62, and I don't look on my age as some disease I've contracted. If I say I'm 42, people will say 'Who does this old bag think she's kidding?' So then should I say, well, I'm really 48 and if you don't believe it, I'll punch you in the nose.
"Most people don't know this but Jack Benny contracted diabetes when he was just 56. It was the best thing that could have happened to him. It made him keep his figure and he was active right up until the time he died at 80."
TWICE A MONTH, Iris Adrian can be found standing in line at the unemployment office collecting a check for $180.
"Many of the old stars won't do this, but I'm going to do it. I get $90 a week but in order for me to collect, I still have to earn about $3,000 a year. I was offered a television series but I don't want to start that now. I'm not running out of money but out of time. You have to do something with your life when you're young.
"I don't want to go back to New York now. I don't know anybody there. All my friends have either died or gone to the chair.
"I never had any children, not by any of my marriages. I didn't want any. All the time I was married to my millionaire I was afraid I'd get pregnant and be stuck with him and the baby. I had to take care of mother and grandmother and they were enough for me."

Life at the Charles Mintz Studio

An office boy once claimed he was responsible for the Charlie Mintz cartoons making it onto the screen. Which may explain a lot about their lack of quality.

Actually, the office boy was kidding, and I suspect everybody at Screen Gems worked long and hard. But the Columbia releases don’t really show it. In the Mintz years, there were some funny cartoons at the outset in the ‘30s; who can dislike a cartoon with opening animation of an elephant playing his trunk like a saxophone? But by the time Mintz died at the end of the decade, something had gone haywire. The studio relied on show biz caricatures, and plots were someone undeserving got harassed. Even Mel Blanc’s voice work lacks amusement as he reads lacklustre dialogue. He yelled too often.

Things didn’t improve before the studio closed in November 1946, having been taken over by Columbia. Some animation was expertly done but there were too many cartoons that left you wondering “What did I just watch?”

Despite this, there were talented people and some of the cartoons shine through.

Here are a couple of stories about the Mintz operations. There were actually two studios in the ‘20s. Mintz’s brother-in-law George Winkler made Oswald shorts in Caligornia for Universal until it decided to sign a deal with Walter Lantz. In New York, another team made Krazy Kat cartoons. Mintz combined everyone on the West Coast in early 1930 and formally merged both corporate studios the following year.

This first story appeared in newspapers starting January 18, 1930.

Animated Cartoons Explained
NEW YORK—Animated cartoons form one of the most interesting novelties upon the screen. They represent an entirely different technic from the ordinary motion picture. The cartoon and the feature film both commence with a scenario and from that point diverge into different channels.
The Winkler Film Corporation from whose studio the famous Krazy Kat Kartoons issue is the oldest company in the industry devoted exclusively to the production of animated cartoons. For over fifteen years under the supervision of Charles B. Mintz, president of the concern, animated cartoons have been created in the Winkler Studios of New York and Hollywood. During that period nearly every animator of importance has worked for the firm at some time or another.
The Krazy Kat Kartoons, now being released by Columbia Pictures Corporation, are the creations of Ben Harrison and Mannie Gould. The two men work together plotting the antics of the educated feline and after having arranged a complete continuity turn it over to a staff of twenty animators, who make the separate drawings that go into the film.
It takes approximately 9,000 separate drawings made with pen ink to produce a six minute cartoon. Twenty men work for four weeks perfecting the extraordinary athletic maneuverings which go into these few minutes.
The introduction of sound has brought certain changes in the animated cartoon in the way of speech, synchronized scores and sound effects so elaborate that the drawings must be more carefully made in order to fit the music closely. Under Joe DeNat, musical director, a ten piece orchestra prepares and executes the musical score while four effect men under the direction of an expert in queer and unusual sounds provide the incidental noises. When the drawings are completed, they are filmed a drawing at a time. The completed animated action film is then synchronized with the speech, effects and music.

Here’s a feature story from the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News of May 28, 1936. The photos accompanied the article. It’s a shame these are scans of photocopies of the newspaper, not the actual photos. My thanks to Devon Baxter for supplying them.



Animating Cartoon Seen Snail-like in Pace
110 Specialists ‘Combine’ To Turn Out 7 Minutes Of Screen Allure
By MORTON THOMPSON
A man with a atop watch sits in his shirtsleeves at a draughtsman's desk. The ticking of metronome punctuates his pencil strokes. At the end of the board a cigaret burns unnoticed into the wood. A cartoon comedy has begun for the screen.
Five months later, 110 specialists will have developed the animated cartoon idea begun to those first nimble sketches into the finished screen product.
The man with the stop watch paces a rough draft of his ideas. He hands it to the studio’s staff of composers. Music is scored to fit each minute action.
A staff of animators continue the sketches. They leave many gaps. Dozens of draughtsmen fill in the progress of action in these gaps. A roomful of girls trace the completed drawings on celluloid. Other girls brush in color. A special camera department films the result in careful sequence. As cautiously as a surgeon times his strokes in an operation near a beating heart the cutting room crew edits the completed film. And at length, after many projections and executive conferences, the cartoon comedy is finished.
It will be set before on audience. It will run exactly 420 seconds.
Machine Precision
That is the story back of one of the cinema’s most popular short features— the animated cartoon comedy. Like a well drilled army of scientists, each move timed, each line exact, each detail as precise as a mathematical formula the work goes painstakingly and never-endingly on.
At the Charles Mintz Studio at 7000 Santa Monica Blvd., an institution which pioneered in the industry, such a picture of activity has been in progress for years.
Animated cartoons are costly. That seven minutes entertainment you saw on the screen cost from $15,000 to $22,000 to produce, Mr. Mintz disclosed.
His plant ran never satisfy the demand. Their goal is 26 pictures a year. Usually they manage to eke out 20 or 21.
Temperament Lacking
There are no problems of actors or director's temperament on an animated cartoon studio producer's mind, but there is a large staff of highly trained experts— artists if you like— working at constant tension and high speed, to be considered. And each has an inordinate pride in his work.
Mr. Mintz, for instance, will confide with a sympathetic smile that Joe De Nat, the studio composer, has a very important role to fill.
"The picture is made or marred right here in the music department," Mr. De Nat avers strongly.
Something in the same line is expressed with the same certainty by Ben Harrison, the man with the stop watch. “The picture,” he smiles confidently “is made or marred right here in the story idea department.”
And Art Davis, Sidney Marcus and Al Rose, the animators, will draw you aside to whisper that of course the really IMPORTANT work is the animator’s work and of course Eddie Killfeather, the arranger, and Bernie Grossman, the lyricist, smile tolerantly at this for they KNOW.
Credit Where Due
And over the entire scene Mr. Mintz and Jimmy Bronis, his assistant, grin benignly, “Come and see us again soon,” they urge. “Nice how the boys shoulder responsibility for the picture's success, isn’t it. We like to encourage them in their attitude. Naturally, you know, the picture couldn't get to first base without the producing staff.”
It would have made a very impressive speech if the office boy hadn't stopped us as we were leaving. He had his arms full of manuscript bundles and drawings, and he was evidently bound on some brisk errand into the labyrinth of drawing room.
"Say" he croaked “you ain't letting them big shots fool you are you? Where would they be,” he pleaded, “if it wasn't for me bringing the stuff around to them to get started on in the first place? All I gotta do is be five minutes late. Why the whole picture is made or . . .”
The man with the stop watch had already begun a new picture.

Fansites for all kinds of things have come and gone. Pietro Shakarian toiled on a site devoted to the Columbia cartoons, including post-Mintz. It’s not on-line anymore but has been preserved at Archive.org. And you can view Harry McCracken’s obsession with Columbia’s Scrappy series in our right-hand list of sites.

There are some very low res Columbia cartoons on a few of the video sites for you to check out. Perhaps some day we’ll see them treated better and DVD releases from 16mm or 35mm prints available. The demand may only be for die-hard classic animation fans, but the shorts deserve preservation and an examination by a new generation of cartoon lovers.

Is the Next Gag Going to Be Better?

Tex Avery pretty much invented the spot-gag cartoon. He got Oscar nominations for a couple. The idea was copied by every cartoon studio. It’s, therefore, really sad to see the master and inventor of the format fall so far by coming up with The Farm of Tomorrow.

For one thing, the picture smells of cost-cuts. There are plenty of static shots used to set up a gag. They’re nice-looking though. They have coloured outlines.



But the gags! Ouch. We get a bunch involving crossing a chicken with something. In this case, it’s a chicken and a parrot. It means when the chicken lays an egg, she can shout to the farmer “Come and get it!”



The best part is fans of Paul Frees, June Foray and Daws Butler get to hear their favourite voice artists.

MGM released this in 1954 after Tex had left the studio.

Cloud Choreography

It’s raining in the Flip the Frog cartoon The Cuckoo Murder Mystery (1930). Rain clouds are dancing in the sky.



They join together and twirl in a circle.



The clouds are now one semi-smiling cloud surrounded by lightning bolts.



Ah, that's how we get rain.



Ub Iwerks would have you believe he did this cartoon himself.

Archie Was a Carpenter

There are two transitions in show business that can prove difficult, and Robert Francis Hastings made both of them successfully.

He jumped from network radio to television, and he went from child stardom to an acting career as an adult.

“Three famous guests will appear on tonight’s ‘Barn Dance’ program over WHAM at 9:00 p.m.,” announced an ad in the September 23, 1939 edition of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. “Alec Templeton, wizard of the piano; Bobby Hastings, twelve-year-old singing wonder, and Johnny Burke, old-time vaudeville comedian, who for twenty years has been known as ‘The Man Who Won the War.’”

Hastings’ radio career took him from Nick Kenny’s WMCA programme in New York to the Barn Dance (in Chicago) to the title role in the Saturday morning radio show “The Adventures of Archie Andrews” through a circuitous set of circumstances. “Archie” started off on the Blue network on May 31, 1943, airing for 15 minutes on weeknights. Jack Grimes was Archie. It was rejigged and turned into a half-hour Friday night show on Blue, then shrunk back to a 15-minute daytimer, then expanded to a 25-minute show on Friday nights. Jack Grimes was still Archie until he turned 18 and the U.S. Navy claimed him in April 1944. Bert Boyer was now Archie. The show was had moved to Mutual and shrunk to 15 minutes again at the start of the year. Anyway, Archie began life anew on NBC on September 29, 1945. Charles Mullen was now Archie. Bob Hastings took over the role by April 1946.

I’ve found a Christian Science Monitor interview with Mullen at the time but poor Bob Hastings doesn’t seem to have received much publicity during his spell as Archie. That didn’t happen until his most famous TV role came along in 1962—toadying tar Lt. Elroy Carpenter on McHale’s Navy, a series he joined after the pilot episode for what was supposed to be a solo appearance. Here’s a United Press International story from September 9, 1964.

Hollywood Loser Is In Luck Now
By JOSEPH FINNIGAN
UPI Hollywood Correspondent
HOLLYWOOD (UPI)—Actor Bob Hastings, an all time Hollywood loser, has struck it rich, signing a seven year television contract which could make him a rich man.
Its good news to Hastings’ wife and their four children. The wife of a free lance actor sometimes never knows where hubby’s next paycheck is coming from.
In Hastings’ case, things weren’t that bad. He has been a regular on “McHale’s Navy” for two years, his title as a loser coming from the fact that he plays Lt. Carpenter, aide to the hapless Capt. Binghamton.
Lt. Carpenter seems always to get it in the neck as he pays for everybody else's mistakes. But even television's losers get a break in real life. Hastings good fortune is well deserved. He’s a talented actor and a nice chap.
Glad To Have Contract
"After two years I got a contract, said Hastings over cocktails in a Chinese restaurant across the street from Universal Studio. I’m happy about it. And with a wife and four children I’m glad to have it.”

Hastings’ enlistment in “McHale’s Navy” started out as a short term affair.
“I came in as a one shot guy and they decided to make me the captain’s aide,” Hastings said. “The first year I did about 24 shows out of 38 and the second year I did 36 out of 37. Then they decided to sign me. They had built the part up to my advantage. Now I’m putting money in the bank every week. I’m guaranteed 40 weeks work out of 52. Thank God, I’m working. I’ve been around a long time and this is the easiest work I’ve ever done.”
Hastings character of Lt. Carpenter could have been dismissed from the show after that first appearance two years ago. But since then, Hastings’ talented portrayal of the rule-reciting naval officer has made the character an integral part of the show.
Plays Fall Guy
“He’s become a down-the-line jackass,” said Hastings, describing the character. “He knows all the rules, goes by the book. ‘McHale’s’ crowd knows none of the rules and they come up smiling. I get it in the neck.
“A great asset to me in the show is that I work with Joe Flynn (Capt. Binghamton). Flynn is one of the finest comedians. He has great timing and I feel the way we have worked together has kept me on the show. It made my part important."
As we said, it’s good to see the loser win once in awhile. Bob gets batted around enough on that show. The least the television brass can do is give him a little financial security.

Here’s a column from the Newspaper Enterprise Association dated February 1, 1965.

Hastings Still Gets Nervous During Show
By ERSKINE JOHNSON
HOLLYWOOD (NEA)—After three years of regular stardom as dopey Lt. Carpenter of ABC-TV's "McHale's Navy," Bob Hastings says he's still nervous every time the director asks for action. But he's not nervous about being nervous.
He's happy about it.
"It is my theory," explains the boyish father of four, "that an actor can't give a good performance without being nervous. It keeps you on your toes. So I work this way. I only learn half of my lines, skim over the other half. So now as Carpenter I'm doubly nervous. I keep getting more scared all the time."
That Hastings' method is working for him is obvious. He made his debut on the show three years ago for only one appearance but quickly became a regular. Now, teamed with Joe Flynn, their scenes together have become show stealers.
Success, however, has also left him nervous—about money. He's earning more than he's ever made. “But,” he laughs, "I can't quite get used to it. I don't have the nerve to go out and buy a $200 suit. When my wife (former radio singer Joan Rice) and our four children go out to dinner, the kids know they each have a $1 limit.
"The other night we stopped at a fancy restaurant and when the menu arrived, the kids went into a panic. The cheapest dinner was $3.60. I noticed their panic and smiled, 'Okay, kids. $3.60 is the limit tonight, but no more,' Well, they looked at me like some kind of hero."
Bob Hastings has been in show business all his life, first as a singer on the National Barn Dance, then as an actor on network radio (Archie Andrews) and live television.
"Usually as an actor," he says, "I played fast-talking characters sort of in the Jack Carson style. This Carpenter role is something new for me. When I moved out to Hollywood from New York in 1960, things were slow for me. I played bit roles, such as a house painter on 'The Real McCoys.' I was sort of being typed as a smiling heavy when the role in 'McHale's Navy' came along."
He has a younger brother, Don Hastings, also an actor who has been starred for four years now on the TV soap opera, "As The World Turns." They often confuse fans. "Our voices are the same and we look somewhat alike and I'm getting letters now from curious people who write. 'How can you play a daily TV role in New York and also work with McHale's gang in Hollywood?'"
His idol as a comedian is Joe Flynn, who plays his captain in the series. "We have a lot of fun in that office," he grins. "Joe's always dreaming things up for me to do. I'm grateful to him for the way things have turned out on this series.

Hastings’ other well-known TV role was on a show that was a far cry from the tone of “McHale’s Navy.” He showed up periodically as Kelsey, the owner of the bar frequented (and later purchased by) Archie Bunker on “All in the Family.”

The role that Hastings should have got, but didn’t, was that of Archie Andrews. We’re talking about the cartoon version of Archie produced by the Filmation studio. Hastings was familiar to the people at Filmation as he had played Superboy in the studio’s “New Adventures of Superman” in 1966. Instead, Dal MacKennon was hired to impersonate Dick Crenna as Walter Denton on “Our Miss Brooks.”

Hastings did have more shots at starring as radio’s Archie, even though the series went off the air on September 14, 1949 before returning on Saturday nights at 7:30 on January 14, 1950 until April 1, then moving to 11:30 a.m. on May 13, and, well you get the idea. In later years, he and many fine actors appeared at various old time radio conventions where programmes of yester-year were re-created. Hastings passed away in 2014 at the age of 89.

Send Him Down!

Colour, design and effects animation make Heavenly Puss a treat, even if you’re not a fan of Tom and Jerry.

A cat taking reservations for the Heavenly Express tells Tom, who has died, he’d better Jerry’s forgiveness or he’ll miss the train and be sent to another destination.

Billy Bletcher is the Satanic bulldog here, with some fine expressions. Green eyes, green boots, green trident and wonderful shades of orange.



Look at the change in colour as the TV screen to Hell goes blank.



The usual crew animated this. It’s too bad Al Grandmain didn’t get a credit for the effects. The background painter deserved to be mentioned, too.

I don’t know who voiced the reservation ticket agent.

Boxoffice mentioned this in its September 25, 1948 issue as one of its releases for the coming season. Showman’s Trade Review of December 11th said it had “come off the drawing boards at MGM.” It was on screens July 9, 1949, and re-released Oct. 26, 1956, then again in 1965.

Porky's Bear Facts Background

A left-to-right pan shows Porky’s tidy farm compared to the one across the road in Porky’s Bear Facts, a 1941 cartoon by the Friz Freleng unit for Warner Bros.

Bob Holdeman apparently painted the background. Holdeman left the Leon Schlesinger studio some time in 1940.

Mike Maltese wrote the cartoon and, I’m presuming, supplied special song lyrics. Porky sings revised lyrics to the Sammy Cahn/Saul Chaplin song “The Girl With the Pigtails in Her Hair,” while the lazy bear in the rundown shack sings a modified “Heaven Can Wait,” a Jimmy Van Heusen/Eddie DeLange composition. Here’s a version of Porky’s song with the original words.

Tralfaz Sunday Theatre: The Photo That Won In a Walk

Vivian Vance and Bill Frawley just couldn’t shake being Ethel and Fred.

We all know them as the Mertzes on “I Love Lucy.” But they played another Fred and Ethel. At least, we can assume they’re a different Fred and Ethel because Fred, in this case, was a newspaper editor.

The year was 1959 and this gig was for charity. The United Fund of Alleghany County hired Vance and Frawley to appear in a fund-raising short called “The Photo that Won in a Walk.”

The star of the film is actually another familiar face from TV. Eddie Albert plays a jaded newspaper photographer who, as you might expect, quite suddenly becomes an old softie at the end, thanks to a girl played by child actress Tammy Marihugh.

Vance introduces the plot as Vivian Vance. And there’s no mention of Lucy, though I suspect might have imagined she was the person Ethel was talking to on the phone.

An article in the September 14, 1959 edition of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette mentions it was a new film and was to be shown at a pre-funding raising campaign rally the following evening. The local press reveals the short was appearing in theatres and was also broadcast on WIIC Channel 11 at 2:15 p.m. on October 23rd.

The short was directed by Nick Grindé, whose career went back to the silent era at MGM. There’s no indication where it was shot, though the executive producer was a local Pittsburgh filmmaker.

You can watch it below.

Iris the Showgirl

It’s quite a change from the Ziegfeld Follies to playing opposite That Darn Cat. But so went the career of Iris Adrian.

Iris played brassy dames in the movies. Jack Benny started using her on radio in the early ‘50s where she squawked insults at him from behind the counter of a drug store café. He put her in his stage one in a later incarnation of what started out as the Chicken Sisters act in the mid-‘30s. She appeared with him on TV. She was funny.

Given her background, it’s no surprise she was acquainted with hoods and gangsters. Feature stories were written about her in the ‘30s, but years later the Charlotte News interviewed her for a feature story that was split into two halves. I’m not sure when we’ll get around to posting the second half, but here’s the first from May 17, 1975. Her press agent must have been busy as I’ve found a few stories about her from roughly the same time.

Lucky Brought Her Chicken
By EMERY WISTER
News Staff Writer
HOLLYWOOD — The shapely young blonde with the innocent face of a child was reading a magazine in her living room when there came a knock on the door. There stood a man with a paper bag in his hand.
"It was Charlie Luciano, you know, Charlie Lucky, the fellow who was supposed to be running all those rackets," recalled Iris Adrian, still pretty at 62. "Charlie Lucky liked my mother and I. He was always coming to our house on Sundays. He would bring us chickens and other things to eat, and he had a chicken in the bag this day."
THAT WAS IN the early 1930s and Miss Adrian, who began her dancing career in high school in her native Hollywood, was in the chorus of the Ziegfeld Follies in New York.
Since that time she's danced in other Broadway shows, appeared in a few score motion pictures, and worked in a theatrical show starring the late Jack Benny.
Always a familiar face but seldom a star, Iris Adrian is still working, her latest role being in the new Walt Disney movie "The Apple Dumping Gang" to be released this summer.
"I started young," she said. "I went to Hollywood High School, and that's where they looked for dancers in those days. I won a perfect back contest when I was just 12 years old. I was a little too young to win a perfect front contest then.
"Women never worked in those days. My grandmother owned a lot of property in Hollywood. My grandfather even owned a town in Cororado he'd founded.
"BUT THEN CAME the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression, and times and fortunes changed. Iris Adrian Hostetter became the breadwinner in her family, and both her mother and grandmother looked to her for support.
At 18 she was dancing in the follies, the first woman in her family to have to work for a living.
"Let me tell you the girls in the follies were very sweet and virginal and pure," she said. "We had to be that way.
"Charlie Lucky was very solicitous of us. If one of his men started paying too much attention to any of us, he'd tell the fellow he would have to quit seeing us.
"We thought he was in love with us, but then we learned he owned a string of bawdy houses and didn't want us as competition.
"He'd say 'girls I want all of you to stay straight. But in ease you don't, I have a job for you.'"
IRIS ADRIAN danced in the follies a few years then went on to another top-rated show called "Hot-Cha-Cha." Meanwhile, Billy Minsky, the king of burlesque, was eyeing her figure. One night he came backstage to see her.
"How about coming with my show?" Minsky asked her. "I'll pay double what Ziegfeld is paying you." "For what?" she asked.
"For stripping," said Minsky. "That's what."
"I didn't know," she recalled. "I couldn't decide if I wanted to do that. So I went to Ziegfeld and asked what he thought about it. He said, ‘I'd rather you'd work for Ziegfeld.’
"So I never worked for Minsky. I never worked in burlesque. Now I sort of wish I had. I would have made a great stripteaser and made a fortune. But I was always a little above about it."
SO IRIS ADRIAN went on to the movies to play sweet young things and flappers. This was in the days when movies were still being made on Long Island near New York City.
"The last stage show ended at 4 am then I would get a short nap and go out to the studios. I didn't even bathe. I had to sleep some time so I just played dirty."

FLORENZ ZIEGFELD paid her $150 a week and that was a lot of money in those days. She picked up an extra $200 a week in the movies. Finally she was summoned to Hollywood for a grand salary of $750 a week.
"I finally got up to $1500 a week for the few movies I was starred in," she recalled. "I worked with people like George Raft, Bob Hope and Betty Grable. "She was the first star I knew who didn't have bandy legs or was cross-eyed. A lot of top movie people had things wrong with them.
"George Raft said he wanted me in one of his movies and took me to the Paramount Studio. Right away they said they wanted me for the lead, but Raft didn't like that. He wanted Carole Lombard and she got the job.
"I knew Jean Harlow, too. People were saying such had things about her and how could they be true? She was so tired all the time, she wouldn't have had time to do all the bad things people were saying she did.
IRIS ADRIAN was with Bob Hope in "Paleface" and "My Favorite Spy." She worked with Milton Berle in "Always Leave 'Em Laughing." She was with Elvis Presley in "Blue Hawaii" and went back into history for Cecil B. De Mille's story of Jean Lafitte "The Buccaneer."
More recently she played a role in the film version of "The Odd Couple" and also was in the Disney Studio's "That Darn Cat"
She'd always had a tendency to gain weight and in her early screen days went on diet pills. Eventually she became ill.
"I got thin too fast and got malnutrition. I decided to go back to the New York stage. Let's see, what the hell was the show? Oh yes, I remember now. It was Milton Berle's revue."

My understanding of the situation is showgirls tend to attract men and marriage proposals. Iris did. She talks about them in part two.

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.”