The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 79

LOW-DOWN More than 20 things you'll need to know CAT-TRICKS A 1 Tom and Jerry celebrate their 50 years of screen life with the pub- ication this week of 4 a book POOR TOM Things that have happend to Tom over the years include: being flattened with a hammer, having a piano dropped on his head, being used as a violin, being blown up in a gas oven, having his tail stuck in a light socket, swallowing a woodpecker, being flattened by a bull, eating a stick of dynamite, being put in a washing machine, being with a fore word by co- creator William flattened by an anvil, hav That's 9,360 frames for a typical six-and-a-half-minute cartoon. 1 7 Each six- or seven-minute Tom and Jerry cartoon took Hanna and Barbera about six weeks to complete. The voice of Tom yelling was provided by Bill Hanna himself. 18 In order that Tom and Jerry aged convincingly, every two years Hanna and Barbera made minor adjustments to the pair of them. Jerry put on weight and lost his originally long eyelashes.

Tom's jagged fur was 7 Fred Quimby, ex-salesman and head of the first MGM cartoon studio, produced all Tom and Jerry films until 1955. He had no sense of humour and knew little about animation. 8 In the early years, the mouse never started the conflict, which fell to the bullying cat. And, as with all goodies and baddies, the cat got it in the end. 9 Tom and Jerry had human antecedents.

In 1932 Joe Barbera scripted Wot A Night, a black and white cartoon featuring two men, one fat and one thin, called Tom and Jerry. Hanna: Tom and Jerry: 50years of Cat and Mouse. 2 The celebrations so far have included a revamp of the pair-today the duo wear sunglasses, Hawaiian shirts and trainers- and an army of kitsch Tom and Jerry accessories ranging from tattoos to battery-operated toothbrushes. 3 William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, below (with producer Fred Quimby, centre) made their ing his whiskers pulled out, being chopped up with scissors, being iWrTTT- WS i Bin II smoothed out, his eyebrows became wilder, his grey ears became pink inside and his white face grey with a white mouth. 1 9 Tennis star Monica Seles, below, was inspired by Tom and 1 0 An earlier historical precedent for Tom and Jerry was set in 1821, when Pierce Egan produced a magazine entitled Tom and Jerry; or, Life in London, about two heroes and their fast life in the capital.

It caught the public imagination and spawned a number of sequels as well as a series of successful stage shows. 1 2 The music for Tom and Jerry, composed by Scott Bradley, was guillotined, and being ejected into outer space. THINGS THAT MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED TO TOM IF TOM AND JERRY WAS STILL BEING MADE Being microwaved, being put in Magimix. WARNING TO CHILDREN Don't try these with the cat at home. NICE MICE (who have appeared in the series): Nibbles or Tuffy (Jerry's French-speaking orphan cousin).

Muscles (Jerry's cousin). Uncle Pecos (Jerry's uncle), Topo (Italian mouse, champion of justice). COOL CATS Toots (Tom's girlfriend). Shorty and Meat-head (Tom's pals). Lightning (ginger cat who's good at catching mice), Mechano (mechanical cat), George (Tom's cousin, afraid of mice).

BEST OF THE SPOOFS Dr Jekyll and Mr Mouse (1947); The Invisible Mouse (1947); Tfte Two Mousefceteers 1 954); Robin Hoodwinked (1 958); Carmen Get ft! (1 962); Much Ado About Mousing (1 964) Bad Day at Cat Rock (1965) The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off (1965); O-Solar Meow (1 967) and Purr-Chance to Dream (1 967); Cannery Rodent (1 967); The Mouse From H.U.N.G.E.R. (1967). lacked sparkle. Then, from 1963-67, Chuck Jones produced 34 cartoons in which the pair became sugary and sentimentalised. 1 4 Being sacked from Tom and Jerry proved a blessing in disguise for Hanna and Barbera, who formed Hanna-Barbera Productions and began making cartoons for television.

It became the most successful cartoon studio in the world, with stars including Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear. 1 5 The original Tom and Jerry series included two characters named Butch. The first was an alleycat rival of Tom's (sometimes also known as Meathead), the second was a canine adversary, aka Spike the bulldog. first cat and mouse cartoon in 1940. Called Puss Gels the Boot, it featured a moon-faced cat called Jasper and an unnamed mouse.

Although it received a lukewarm reaction from MGM studio staff, audiences loved the cartoon, which subsequently earned an Oscar nomination. 4 The first Tom and Jerry cartoon proper, The Midnight Snack, was released in 1941. The names Tom and Jerry were picked out of a hat at MGM Studios. 5 Bill Hanna started out in the cartoon industry making coffee and sweeping up, gaining experience along the way as a story man. Although he later admitted, '1 was never a good artist', his razor-sharp timing and sense of direction were essential to the success of Tom and Jerry.

6 Joe Barbera, a former bank clerk, could draw a storyboard so fast that it would take two people to pin the drawings up on the board while he was making them. His sense of humour and his ability to sketch ideas were the envy of his colleagues. 1 6 Tom and Jerry is satirised in the cult American television cartoon series The Simpsons. The stupider Jcny: '1 used to pretend I was the cat chasing the tennis ball which was she said. 20 In 1975 Hanna and Barbera revived Tom and Jerry for a television series.

The new version was to be non-violent, ordered ABC executives, who were worried about parents' reactions to the enthusiastic old rough and tumble. The new series cast Tom and Jerry as friends, and used plotlines which involved helping others and solving mysteries. It flopped. members of the Simp notoriously difficult to play and often used the 12-tone technique invented by Arnold Schoenberg, above, in 1912. 1 3 The closure of MGM's cartoon studio in 1957 marked the end for Hanna and Barbera, who made the last of their 1 14 cartoons in 1958.

In the early Sixties, Gene Deitch made another 13 Tom and Jerry cartoons: they UNSOLVED Why doesn't someone put son family are addicted to 'Itchy and Scratchy', a grotesquely violent cat-and-mouse cartoon. 1 6 Every second of Tom and Jerry animation uses 24 frames of film. Jerry through the Mag imix?.