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MGM Shut Down Its Hit Cartoon Department by Telephone in 1957

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation Department 1950s Studio System Archive: verified 4/5 wildness

In 1957, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer abruptly dismantled the animation department responsible for Tom and Jerry, one of the most celebrated cartoon series of the era. The studio ordered Hanna and Barbera's business manager to close the unit and notify the staff of their layoffs by telephone, giving the employees no advance warning. The decision stunned Hanna and Barbera because the Tom and Jerry cartoons remained enormously popular and had won seven Academy Awards. MGM's executives, however, were increasingly focused on the economics of television: re-releasing older cartoons cost far less than producing new theatrical shorts, and the studio concluded that animation was no longer a worthwhile investment. The sudden shutdown ended Hanna and Barbera's seventeen-year MGM partnership with the theatrical unit, but it also forced them into an independent venture. Later that year they founded Hanna-Barbera Productions, turning an impersonal studio dismissal into the beginning of the television-animation empire that would produce The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, and dozens of other series.

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MGM Shut Down Its Hit Cartoon Department by Telephone in 1957AI concept artwork

Archive Record · 1950s

Studio System4/5 wildness

MGM Shut Down Its Hit Cartoon Department by Telephone in 1957

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation Department / 1950s

In 1957, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer abruptly dismantled the animation department responsible for Tom and Jerry, one of the most celebrated cartoon series of the era. The studio ordered Hanna and Barbera's business manager to close the unit and notify the staff of their layoffs by telephone, giving the employees no advance warning. The decision stunned Hanna and Barbera because the Tom and Jerry cartoons remained enormously popular and had won seven Academy Awards. MGM's executives, however, were increasingly focused on the economics of television: re-releasing older cartoons cost far less than producing new theatrical shorts, and the studio concluded that animation was no longer a worthwhile investment. The sudden shutdown ended Hanna and Barbera's seventeen-year MGM partnership with the theatrical unit, but it also forced them into an independent venture. Later that year they founded Hanna-Barbera Productions, turning an impersonal studio dismissal into the beginning of the television-animation empire that would produce The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, and dozens of other series.

Archive: verified

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Glasser initially pleaded not guilty to the California obscenity charges, but the case never reached a full trial. Before proceedings could go forward, he reached a plea agreement under which his company pleaded no contest to creating a public nuisance and paid a $1,000 fine. In exchange, the remaining obscenity charges against the defendants were dropped. The prosecution later became part of the public narrative surrounding Showtime's Family Business, the reality series that began in 2003 and followed Glasser, his mother Lila, and his cousin Stevie as they operated the Seymore Butts company. On the program, Glasser used the legal battle as a springboard for an Internet-based telethon that raised money for freedom-of-speech causes, transforming what might otherwise have been a narrowly focused obscenity case into a recurring argument about censorship, adult entertainment, and the limits of criminal law.

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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation Department / 1950s

MGM Shut Down Its Hit Cartoon Department by Telephone in 1957

Studio SystemArchive: verified4/5 wildness

In 1957, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer abruptly dismantled the animation department responsible for Tom and Jerry, one of the most celebrated cartoon series of the era. The studio ordered Hanna and Barbera's business manager to close the unit and notify the staff of their layoffs by telephone, giving the employees no advance warning. The decision stunned Hanna and Barbera because the Tom and Jerry cartoons remained enormously popular and had won seven Academy Awards. MGM's executives, however, were increasingly focused on the economics of television: re-releasing older cartoons cost far less than producing new theatrical shorts, and the studio concluded that animation was no longer a worthwhile investment. The sudden shutdown ended Hanna and Barbera's seventeen-year MGM partnership with the theatrical unit, but it also forced them into an independent venture. Later that year they founded Hanna-Barbera Productions, turning an impersonal studio dismissal into the beginning of the television-animation empire that would produce The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, and dozens of other series.

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