Harman-Ising Productions

Background

Harman-Ising Productions was an American animation studio that was founded in 1934 by former Leon Schlesinger Productions employees Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising when they signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to start a new series of Bosko shorts after he quit Van Beuren. The studio closed in 1937 when the Happy Harmonies series ran over budget. In that same year, Harman and Ising were fired from MGM, and they established its own in-house animation division MGM Cartoons. The studio was later resurrected in the 1950s to produce shorts and commercials.

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)

Logo: Superimposed in the credits, we see 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.

Music/Sounds: None, just the intro/outro of the short.

Availability: Rare. 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)

Logo: 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.

Music/Sounds: 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)

Logo: On a blue sunburst background are the words "A Hugh Harman (or "Rudolf Ising") PRODUCTION". Below are the MPDA 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.

Music/Sounds: The theme of the cartoon.

Availability: Extremely rare. 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).