Screen Gems

Screen Gems is an American subsidiary company of Columbia Pictures Corp. that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation.

Animation studio: 1934 - 1946

Screen Gems was created in 1934, following Columbia's acquisition of Charles Mintz's Krazy Kat Studio, which produced Krazy Kat and Scrappy animated film shorts for Columbia. Screen Gems' animation output would later include series with titles such as Color Rhapsodies, Phantasies, and Fables, featuring characters such as The Fox and the Crow, Willoughby, Flippy, and Superkat.

Related Topics:
1934 - Charles Mintz - Krazy Kat - Scrappy - Film - Shorts - Color Rhapsodies - Phantasies - The Fox and the Crow - Willoughby

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The Screen Gems studio was notable for having several changes of guard, both in management and creative staff. After Mintz died in 1940, Frank Tashlin, Dave Fleischer, and the team of Ray Katz and Henry Binder all served as heads of the studio at various times. Notable animators, directors, and writers at the series included people such as Art Davis, Sid Marcus, Bob Wickersham, and, during its latter period, Bob Clampett.

Related Topics:
1940 - Frank Tashlin - Dave Fleischer - Ray Katz - Henry Binder - Art Davis - Sid Marcus - Bob Wickersham - Bob Clampett

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Screen Gems is also notable for being, in an attempt to keep costs low, the last American animation studio to stop producing black and white cartoons. The final black-and-white Screen Gems shorts appeared in 1946, over three years after the second-longest holdouts (Famous Studios and Leon Schlesinger Productions).

Related Topics:
1946 - Famous Studios - Leon Schlesinger Productions

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The Screen Gems cartoons were only moderately successful when compared to those of Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM. In this incarnation, Screen Gems ceased operations in 1946, though their animation output continued to be distributed for another three years. The studio's purpose was assumed by an outside producer, United Productions of America (UPA), whose cartoons, including Gerald McBoing Boing and the Mr. Magoo series, were major critical and commercial successes.

Related Topics:
Disney - Warner Bros. - MGM - 1946 - United Productions of America - Gerald McBoing Boing - Mr. Magoo

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