The animation studio owned by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera created such classic television series as "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons" and "Scooby-Doo." Their first Hanna-Barbera cartoon, under the auspices of the MGM Cartoon Department, was February 1940's "Puss Gets His Boot." The cat's name was Jasper, but the mouse was anonymous. The two antagonists would soon receive their more famous permanent names Tom and Jerry, becoming one of animated films most popular characters. Their film debut was nominated by the Academy Awards for Best Short Subject Cartoon.
"Puss Gets His Boots" began a sixty year partnership between Hanna and Barbera. Hanna, a gag writer, was responsible for their cartoons' music and the timing of their jokes. He also oversaw the animators and assigned them for each segment drawn. Barbera was the creative force behind the stories' ideas and constructed the overall plots while providing the characters' appearances and the templates of the backgrounds. Together the two were personally involved in the production of their studio's shorts and feature films as well as the television programs well into the late 1990s.
As a young man Hanna had a penchant for drawing, even while working at a car wash. His talents secured a job with a subsidiary of Leon Schlesinger's 'Looney Tunes,' where he became head of inking and painting. He joined MGM in 1937 when the studio formed its new cartoon department. After his failure with 'Captain and the Kids' series, he found himself demoted to a story man, sitting at a desk opposite of Joseph Barbera. The Little Italy, Manhattan, New York City native Barbera displayed a knack for drawing beginning in the first grade. Upon selling his work to several magazines, he was hired by Fleischer Studios as an inker. After a stint with Terrytoons for owner Paul Terry, Barbera took a job with MGM, where he met Hanna sitting at a desk opposite him. Both worked alongside animator innovator Ted Avery.
MGM wanted to expand its roster of cartoon characters, motivating Hanna and Barbera to collaborate on two "equal characters who were always in conflict with each other." At first they thought of a dog and a fox before they settled on the intense rivalry between a cat and a mouse. They received the green light from MGM's short film department boss Fred Quimby. "Puss Gets The Boot" uses a series of Barbera gags. The mouse, initially named Jinx by the artists but is nameless in the cartoon, gets the domesticated house cat Jasper in trouble from its owner. Jasper breaks many of the house's delicate valuable objects in pursuit of the mouse. The maid in the house threatens to kick Jasper out if he breaks another thing. The mouse gains the upper hand when he threatens to drop more items near the cat.
Even though "Puss Gets The Boot" impressed viewers when it played in a few selected theaters, Hanna and Barbera's supervisor Quimby only yawned, and instructed them to work on other projects. Texas businesswoman Bessa Short wrote to MGM inquiring when she could expect to see another Puss cartoon. That letter spurred studio management to get the cat and mouse characters into their own series. An in-house MGM contest was held to name the feline and the rodent. Animator John Carr was the winner of a $50 cash prize with his entry naming Tom (the cat) and Jerry (the mouse) after a popular Christmas cocktail. The drink was named after two characters from an 1821 book 'Life in London.' Hanna and Barbera worked on Tom and Jerry cartoons for the next 17 years, producing 114 shorts. The cat and mouse won seven Academy Award Oscars, more than any other cartoon character in the history of animation, and was nominated 13 times. The pair also appeared in several MGM films including the 1945 musical "Anchors Aweigh" and Esther Williams' 1953 "Dangerous When Wet." To think it all began with Jasper the cat and an unnamed mouse who got the upper hand in "Puss Gets The Boot."
"Puss Gets His Boots" began a sixty year partnership between Hanna and Barbera. Hanna, a gag writer, was responsible for their cartoons' music and the timing of their jokes. He also oversaw the animators and assigned them for each segment drawn. Barbera was the creative force behind the stories' ideas and constructed the overall plots while providing the characters' appearances and the templates of the backgrounds. Together the two were personally involved in the production of their studio's shorts and feature films as well as the television programs well into the late 1990s.
As a young man Hanna had a penchant for drawing, even while working at a car wash. His talents secured a job with a subsidiary of Leon Schlesinger's 'Looney Tunes,' where he became head of inking and painting. He joined MGM in 1937 when the studio formed its new cartoon department. After his failure with 'Captain and the Kids' series, he found himself demoted to a story man, sitting at a desk opposite of Joseph Barbera. The Little Italy, Manhattan, New York City native Barbera displayed a knack for drawing beginning in the first grade. Upon selling his work to several magazines, he was hired by Fleischer Studios as an inker. After a stint with Terrytoons for owner Paul Terry, Barbera took a job with MGM, where he met Hanna sitting at a desk opposite him. Both worked alongside animator innovator Ted Avery.
MGM wanted to expand its roster of cartoon characters, motivating Hanna and Barbera to collaborate on two "equal characters who were always in conflict with each other." At first they thought of a dog and a fox before they settled on the intense rivalry between a cat and a mouse. They received the green light from MGM's short film department boss Fred Quimby. "Puss Gets The Boot" uses a series of Barbera gags. The mouse, initially named Jinx by the artists but is nameless in the cartoon, gets the domesticated house cat Jasper in trouble from its owner. Jasper breaks many of the house's delicate valuable objects in pursuit of the mouse. The maid in the house threatens to kick Jasper out if he breaks another thing. The mouse gains the upper hand when he threatens to drop more items near the cat.
Even though "Puss Gets The Boot" impressed viewers when it played in a few selected theaters, Hanna and Barbera's supervisor Quimby only yawned, and instructed them to work on other projects. Texas businesswoman Bessa Short wrote to MGM inquiring when she could expect to see another Puss cartoon. That letter spurred studio management to get the cat and mouse characters into their own series. An in-house MGM contest was held to name the feline and the rodent. Animator John Carr was the winner of a $50 cash prize with his entry naming Tom (the cat) and Jerry (the mouse) after a popular Christmas cocktail. The drink was named after two characters from an 1821 book 'Life in London.' Hanna and Barbera worked on Tom and Jerry cartoons for the next 17 years, producing 114 shorts. The cat and mouse won seven Academy Award Oscars, more than any other cartoon character in the history of animation, and was nominated 13 times. The pair also appeared in several MGM films including the 1945 musical "Anchors Aweigh" and Esther Williams' 1953 "Dangerous When Wet." To think it all began with Jasper the cat and an unnamed mouse who got the upper hand in "Puss Gets The Boot."