Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio

Studio's opening title card, c. 1939–1942
Trade name	MGM Cartoons
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Animation Motion pictures
Predecessor	Harman-Ising Productions
Founded	August 23, 1937; 86 years ago (1937-08-23)
Founder	Fred Quimby
Defunct	May 15, 1957; 67 years ago (1957-05-15)
Fate	Closed
Successors	Studio: MGM Animation/Visual Arts Hanna-Barbera Library: Warner Bros. (through Turner Entertainment Co.)
Headquarters	Lancaster Avenue [1], Culver City, California , United States
Key people	William Hanna Joseph Barbera Hugh Harman Rudolf Ising Tex Avery Fred Quimby Preston Blair Michael Lah
Products	Animated theatrical short films
Owner	Loew's, Inc.
Parent	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was an American animation studio operated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) during the Golden Age of American animation. Active from 1937 until 1957, the studio was responsible for producing animated shorts to accompany MGM feature films in Loew's Theaters, which included popular cartoon characters Tom, Jerry, Droopy, Butch, Spike, Tyke, and Barney Bear.

Prior to forming its own cartoon studio, MGM released the work of independent animation producer Ub Iwerks, and later the Happy Harmonies series from Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising.^[2] The MGM cartoon studio was founded to replace Harman and Ising, although both men eventually became employees of the studio.^[3] After a slow start, the studio began to take off in 1940 after its short The Milky Way became the first non-Disney cartoon to win the Academy Award for Best Short Subjects: Cartoons.^[4] The studio's roster of talent benefited from an exodus of animators from the Warner Bros. and Disney studios, who were facing issues with union workers.

Originally established and run by executive Fred Quimby, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the creators of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, became the heads of the studio in 1955 following Quimby's retirement. The cartoon studio was closed on May 15, 1957,^[5] at which time Hanna and Barbera took much of the staff to form their own company, Hanna-Barbera Productions, then named H-B Enterprises.^[6]

Turner Broadcasting System (via Turner Entertainment Co.) took over the library in 1986 after Ted Turner's short-lived ownership of MGM/UA. When Turner sold back the MGM/UA production unit, he kept the pre-May 1986 MGM library, including the MGM cartoons, for his own company. In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Bros., which currently owns the rights to the pre-May 1986 MGM library via Turner Entertainment Co. and also owns the rights to much of Hanna-Barbera's library after Hanna-Barbera was absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation and replaced by Cartoon Network Studios in 2001 following the death of William Hanna.