Rudolf Carl Ising was an American animator best known for collaborating with Hugh Harman to establish the Warner Bros.
15 Facts About Rudolf Ising
2.
In 1940, Ising produced William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's first cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot, a cartoon featuring characters later known as Tom and Jerry.
3.
Rudolf Ising was born in Kansas City, Missouri on August 7,1903.
4.
Rudolf Ising was married twice, first to Maxine Jennings between 1936 until their divorce in 1940, and later to Cynthia Westlake from 1941 until his death, with whom he had a son, Rudolf Ising, Jr.
5.
Rudolf Ising died of cancer in Newport Beach on 18 July 1992 and is buried at Pacific View Memorial Park in California.
6.
Rudolf Ising spent his teenage years working at a photographic studio before joining Walt Disney's Laugh-O-Gram studio alongside other Kansas City youths.
7.
Rudolf Ising soon became close friends with Hugh Harman, with whom he attempted to do a series of Arabian Nights-inspired cartoons after Disney left for Hollywood in the wake of the bankruptcy of his original studio before rejoining him in 1923 to work in his Alice Comedies.
8.
Soon thereafter, Harman-Rudolf Ising Pictures gained a contract with Leon Schlesinger at Warner Bros.
9.
Rudolf Ising eventually directed the first Merrie Melodies beginning in 1931, this being a series of heavily musical cartoons that initially featured recurring characters, the first of which, Foxy, bore such a resemblance to Mickey Mouse that Walt Disney asked Rudolf Ising to stop using the character after three shorts.
10.
Rudolf Ising's voice was often featured on several of these early cartoons, mostly as deep-voiced villains or caricaturing celebrities of the era.
11.
Just like they had done at WB, Rudolf Ising made one-shot musical comedies while Harman mostly directed shorts featuring a revamped Bosko.
12.
Rudolf Ising produced The Milky Way that year, the first non-Disney cartoon to win an Academy Award for Best Cartoon Short Subject.
13.
In 1942, Rudolf Ising left MGM to join the Army Air Forces film unit as animation supervisor.
14.
Rudolf Ising's final major work was a failed TV pilot named Sir Gee Whiz on the Other Side of The Moon in 1960.
15.
Harman-Rudolf Ising Studios closed in the early 1960s, after which Rudolf Ising took to painting, mostly to give Harman, who endured dire financial straits, some financial support.