Harman-Ising Productions

Background

Harman-Ising Productions was an American animation studio that was founded in 1929 by former Walt Disney Productions employees Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. The studio produced the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from 1930 to 1933. Their contract ended around 1933 due to budget disputes with producer Leon Schlesinger. Schlesinger would form his own studio, Leon Schlesinger Productions to continue producing the cartoon series. In 1934, the studio signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to start a new series of Bosko shorts after he quit Van Beuren. In 1937, the Happy Harmonies series ran over budget and Harman and Ising were fired from MGM. MGM acquired the studio renamed it to their own in-house animation division MGM Cartoons. Harman and Ising would do freelance work, but in 1939, Harman and Ising would be rehired as producers for the studio. Harman left in 1941 to form another studio with Disney veteran Mel Shaw, while Ising would leave the studio in 1942 in favor of joining the United States Army Air Forces animation unit. Harman and Ising would later form another studio under the Harman-Ising Productions name in the 1950s to produce shorts and commercials. Their last project together was a pilot episode of a potential animated TV series titled The Adventures of Sir Gee Whiz on the Other Side of the Moon, which ended being unsold, and thus Harman and Ising retired in animation resulting in them closing their second studio.

At times, Harman and Ising used separate cards when they do productions separately. Those cards would be used at the beginning of cartoons at the time.

When Hugh Harman is without Ising, this card would appear during the opening titles, saying "A Hugh Harman Production".
When Rudolf Ising is without Harman, this card would appear during the opening titles, saying "A Rudolf Ising Production".

1st Logo (September 1, 1934-January 16, 1937)

Visuals: Superimposed in the credits, there are the words "HARMAN-ISING" appear on a symphony, with "HUGH" and "RUDOLF" above the company name. There is the letter "A" in script above it, and "PRODUCTION" below the logo.

Variant: Starting in late 1935, the word "CARTOON" is shown instead of "PRODUCTION".

Technique: None for the intro, except for the ending variant.

Audio: None, just the intro/outro of the short.

Availability: Seen on Happy Harmonies on Boomerang, Laserdisc and DVD releases as bonus cartoons on any features from Warner Home Video (now Warner Bros. Home Entertainment).

2nd Logo (February 13, 1937-March 12, 1938, 1951)

Visuals: A redrawn version of the 1st logo, except they are now in a yellow Futura-like font.

Variant: On Good Wrinkles, the text reads "ANIMATION BY" is shown above the logo.

Technique: Same as the first one.

Audio: Same as above.

Availability: Seen on Happy Harmonies on Boomerang as well as Little Buck Cheeser, as also seen on The Complete Harman-Ising MGM Cartoons Laserdisc box set and DVD releases as bonus cartoons on any features from Warner Home Video (now Warner Bros. Home Entertainment).

3rd Logo (April 15, 1939-July 17, 1943)

Visuals: On a blue sunburst background are the words "A Hugh Harman (or "Rudolf Ising") PRODUCTION". Below are the MPPDA and Western Electric Sound System logos.

Variants:

On the re-release print of The Little Goldfish (1939), the Rudolf Ising logo is on an underwater background.
On the re-release print of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (1939), the Hugh Harman logo is on a green background.
On the re-release print of The Blue Danube (1939), the Hugh Harman logo is smaller and the copyright stamp is in a 1950s style.
On the re-release print of The Fishing Bear (1940), the Rudolf Ising logo is on a pound background.
On Little Gravel Voice (1942), the Rudolf Ising logo is on a background with a red light.
On Bats in the Belfry (1942), the Rudolf Ising logo is seen on a church bell.
On Chips off the Old Block and Wild Honey (both released in 1942), the logo is on a simple red background.
On Barney Bear's Victory Garden (1942), the logo is on the same background used for the 1942-1946 MGM Cartoons end title.
On Bah Wilderness (1943), the logo is on a blue gradient background.

Technique: None.

Audio: The theme of the cartoon.

Availability: It can be usually seen when the MGM cartoons (especially Barney Bear) are reran on Boomerang. as also seen on The Complete Harman-Ising MGM Cartoons Laserdisc box set and DVD releases as bonus cartoons on any features from Warner Home Video (now Warner Bros. Home Entertainment).