U.M. & M. TV Corporation

Last updated
U.M. & M. TV Corporation
Company type Film distributor
IndustryTelevision
Founded1954;70 years ago (1954)
Defunct1957;67 years ago (1957)
FateAcquired by National Telefilm Associates
Successor National Telefilm Associates

U.M. & M. TV Corporation was an American media company best known as the original purchaser of the pre-October 1950 short films and cartoons produced by Paramount Pictures, excluding Popeye and Superman . The initials stand for United Film Service (which once employed Walt Disney and other animators many years earlier), MTA TV (Motion Picture Advertising Service) of New Orleans, and Minot T.V.

Contents

Operations of the three above-mentioned companies were consolidated into a new company, U.M. & M., in October 1954. The companies were previously producing TV commercials. Matty Fox, head of Motion Pictures for Television, signed a ten-year agreement with U.M. & M. to handle sub-distribution of its TV series. [1]

U.M. & M. handled the physical distribution of the television series Paris Precinct and Sherlock Holmes , and others. It did not market the shows, leaving the actual syndication to Guild Films.

Deals

In 1955, Paramount Pictures announced it was selling its short films and cartoons, and even a few of its features, including the Max Fleischer animated features Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes to Town .

Represented by A. W. Schwalberg, a former Paramount sales executive, U.M. & M. won the bid on December 28, 1955, buying 1,600 short subjects for $3.5 million. [2] [3] U.M. & M. got most of the pre-October 1950 material that Paramount put up for sale except for the Popeye cartoons (including the Betty Boop cartoon Popeye the Sailor ), which were sold to Associated Artists Productions and are now owned by Warner Bros. through Turner Entertainment Co., and the Superman cartoons, due to their rights reverting from Paramount to National Periodical Publications (now DC Comics) after the studio's film rights to the character expired.

The material that U.M. & M. obtained from Paramount also included many live action short subjects, such as Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington shorts from the 1930s. Burns and Allen shorts were also included, as well as an early short, Singapore Sue , featuring a young Cary Grant.

Other short subjects included in the sale included the following:

The latest-released cartoon in the package was the Screen Songs cartoon, Boos in the Nite, released September 22, 1950. A total of 513 animated productions (shorts and features) from Fleischer, Famous, and George Pal were included in the package. The package was eyed by NBC for airing nationally, but this deal apparently fell through. ABC would air a repackaging of many Paramount cartoons released after September 1950 once these cartoons were sold to Harvey Films.

Retitling and marketing the Paramount shorts

At the insistence of Paramount Pictures, who did not want their company name or mountain logo appearing on television at the time, U.M. & M. replaced the Paramount logo with its (usually) blue shield logo, and removed all references to Paramount Pictures, except for the phrase "Adolph Zukor presents". It is believed that U.M. & M. and NTA did not figure that TV viewers would link Zukor's name with Paramount Pictures, which Zukor founded. However, some U.M. & M. and NTA prints would indeed omit or black out Zukor's name.

U.M. & M. color prints of Paramount cartoons usually have the opening credits listed in yellow print on a red background. Eventually, U.M. & M. started preserving the original credits, but continued to remove references to Paramount, Technicolor, Cinecolor, and Polacolor since the television prints were done in either Eastmancolor or Deluxe. The Eastmancolor prints generally have faded to red.

For the black-and-white cartoons and shorts, U.M. & M. removed the Paramount logos from the original negatives and substituted its opening logo and an end card reading "A U.M. & M. TV Corp. Presentation" for the Paramount mountain. The Paramount copyright was replaced with the U.M. & M. copyright byline, but prints of Betty Boop cartoons have turned up with original Paramount copyright bylines on the Olive Films releases of Betty Boop.

U.M. & M. began marketing the Paramount shorts and cartoons, at the expense of the live-action made-for-television products it was already syndicating. The marketing included a Miss Cartoon girl [4] at their sales table at the NARTB convention in Chicago. Before all of the shorts could be retitled, National Telefilm Associates bought out the U.M. & M. package in May 1956 for $4 million. [5] The U.M. & M. copyright notices continued to be present on the NTA prints. The shorts were syndicated under NTA's Panorama of Entertaining Programs, as well as sold for home movie distribution.

For this reason, the majority of the color cartoons purchased by U.M. & M. appear with NTA titles, though a select few circulate with U.M. & M. openings and closings. Most Little Lulu cartoons circulate with U.M. & M. openings however. A few feature a revised U.M. & M. logo with the original credits intact, though all references to Paramount and Technicolor are blacked out. These prints contain the only titles where the word "Corporation" in the U.M. & M. copyright is actually spelled out, and not abbreviated "Corp."

NTA acquired the Republic Pictures name in 1984, and through several acquisitions was eventually merged into Paramount Pictures, which in turn was owned by Viacom (which brought Paramount in 1994). At the end of 2005, Viacom split itself into two corporations, one called Viacom (still owning Paramount Pictures), and the other called CBS Corporation. As a result, what would become Melange Pictures, LLC, a division of Paramount Pictures, now owns the theatrical distribution on behalf of Paramount Animation — all the more ironic since Paramount Pictures originally released the classic shorts in the first place — while Trifecta Entertainment & Media (inherited from CBS Television Distribution) owns the television distribution on behalf of Paramount Television Studios to the U.M. & M./NTA/Republic/Melange library, and Olive Films (under license from Paramount Home Entertainment) owns the home video distribution. Viacom and CBS re-merged on December 4, 2019, as ViacomCBS (later renamed Paramount Global).

However, restoration of the original Paramount openings to the black and white cartoons and shorts would be difficult, since U.M. & M. actually altered the original black-and-white negatives, although with today's CGI technology it is possible to authentically recreate such titles. The UCLA Film and Television Archive has restored many of the classic Paramount cartoons, complete with their original titles.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paramount Pictures</span> American film studio, subsidiary of Paramount Global

Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film and television production and distribution company and the namesake subsidiary of Paramount Global. It is the sixth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States, and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fleischer Studios</span> American animation studio

Fleischer Studios was an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures, the parent company and the distributor of its films. In its prime, Fleischer Studios was a premier producer of animated cartoons for theaters, with Walt Disney Productions being its chief competitor in the 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Fleischer</span> American animator and inventor (1883–1972)

Max Fleischer was a Polish-American animator and studio owner. Born in Kraków, Poland, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios, which he co-founded with his younger brother Dave. He brought such comic characters as Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen, and was responsible for several technological innovations, including the rotoscope, the "follow the bouncing ball" technique pioneered in the Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes films, and the "stereoptical process". Film director Richard Fleischer was his son.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Betty Boop</span> Animated cartoon character

Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character designed by Grim Natwick at the request of Dave Fleischer. She originally appeared in the Talkartoon and Betty Boop film series, which were produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. She was featured in 90 theatrical cartoons between 1930 and 1939. She has also been featured in comic strips and mass merchandising.

<i>Talkartoons</i> Series of animated cartoons

Talkartoons is a series of 42 animated cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures from 1929 to 1932.

<i>Superman</i> (1940s animated film series) Series of animated short films

The Fleischer Superman cartoons are a series of seventeen animated superhero short films released in Technicolor by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman, making them his first animated appearance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Famous Studios</span> Defunct American animation studio

Famous Studios was the first animation division of the film studio Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1967. Famous was established as a successor company to Fleischer Studios, after Paramount seized control of the aforementioned studio amid the departure of its founders, Max and Dave Fleischer, in 1942. The studio's productions included three series started by the Fleischers—Popeye the Sailor, Superman, and Screen Songs—as well as Little Audrey, Little Lulu, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Honey Halfwitch, Herman and Katnip, Baby Huey, and the Noveltoons and Modern Madcaps series.

<i>Noveltoons</i> 1943-67 American animated film series

Noveltoons is a series of cartoons produced by Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios from 1943 to the end of the studio during 1967. The series was known for bringing the characters from Harvey Comics to life, such as Casper the Friendly Ghost, Wendy the Good Little Witch, Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey, and Baby Huey. All shorts from Baby Huey and Little Audrey are included. It was the successor to the series Color Classics produced by Fleischer Studios. Several Noveltoons feature characters which originated in Color Classics. This series was also similar to the two series from Warner Bros., Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, in that it features several recurring characters with one general title.

Color Classics are a series of animated short films produced by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures from 1934 to 1941 as a competitor to Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies. As the name implies, all of the shorts were made in color format, with the first entry of the series, Poor Cinderella (1934), being the first color cartoon produced by the Fleischer studio. There were 36 shorts produced in this series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Associated Artists Productions</span> Former production company

Associated Artists Productions, Inc. (a.a.p.) later known as United Artists Associated was an American distributor of theatrical feature films and short subjects for television. Associated Artists Productions was the copyright owner of the Popeye the Sailor shorts by Paramount Pictures, and the pre-1950 Warner Bros. Pictures film library, notably the pre-August 1948 color Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated shorts, and the black-and-white Merrie Melodies shorts from Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, excluding Lady, Play Your Mandolin!.

<i>The Popeye Show</i> American animation anthology series

The Popeye Show is an American cartoon anthology series that premiered on October 29, 2001, on Cartoon Network. Each episode includes three Popeye theatrical shorts from Fleischer Studios and/or Famous Studios. The show is narrated by Bill Murray, who gives the audience short facts about the history of the cartoons as filler material between each short. Animation historian Jerry Beck served as a consultant and Barry Mills served as writer and producer. A total of 45 episodes were produced, consisting of a total of 135 shorts.

<i>Gabby</i> (film series) 1940-41 American film series

Gabby is a short-lived Max Fleischer animated cartoon series distributed through Paramount Pictures. Gabby debuted as the town crier in the 1939 animated feature Gulliver’s Travels produced by Fleischer. Shortly afterward, Paramount and Fleischer gave Gabby his own Technicolor spinoff cartoon series, eight entries of which were produced between 1940 and 1941. Gabby was voiced by Pinto Colvig, the voice of Walt Disney's Goofy, Pluto, and Grumpy and Sleepy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Telefilm Associates</span> Defunct American television syndicator (1954–1984)

National Telefilm Associates (NTA) was an audio-visual marketing company primarily concerned with the syndication of American film libraries to television, including the Republic Pictures film library. It was successful enough on cable television between 1983 and 1985 that it renamed itself Republic Pictures and undertook film production and home video sales as well.

<i>Popeye the Sailor</i> (film) 1933 American film

Popeye the Sailor is a 1933 animated short produced by Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Publix Corporation. While billed as a Betty Boop cartoon, it was produced as a vehicle for Popeye in his debut animated appearance.

Seymour Kneitel was an American animator, best known for his work with Fleischer Studios and its successor, Famous Studios.

<i>Christmas Comes But Once a Year</i> 1936 cartoon

Christmas Comes But Once a Year is a 1936 animated short produced by Fleischer Studios and released on December 4, 1936 by Paramount Pictures. It is part of the Color Classics series. The cartoon features Professor Grampy, a character from the Betty Boop series; this is the character's only appearance without Betty. An edited version was featured during the Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special in 1988, as the featured short shown by the King of Cartoons.

This is a list of the 122 cartoons of the Popeye the Sailor film series produced by Famous Studios for Paramount Pictures from 1942 to 1957, with 14 in black-and-white and 108 in color. These cartoons were produced after Paramount took ownership of Fleischer Studios, which originated the Popeye series in 1933.

<i>Popeye the Sailor</i> (film series) 1933 American film

Popeye the Sailor is an American animated series of short films based on the Popeye comic strip character created by E. C. Segar. In 1933, Max and Dave Fleischer's Fleischer Studios, based in New York City, adapted Segar's characters into a series of theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. The plotlines in the animated cartoons tended to be simpler than those presented in the comic strips, and the characters slightly different. A villain, usually Bluto, makes a move on Popeye's "sweetie", Olive Oyl. The villain clobbers Popeye until he eats spinach, giving him superhuman strength. Thus empowered, Popeye makes short work of the villain.

<i>Toon In with Me</i> American live-action/animated anthology comedy television series

Toon In with Me is an American live-action/animated anthology television series created by Neal Sabin for MeTV and MeTV Toons. It previously also aired on MeTV Plus until the launch of MeTV Toons. A special preview episode aired on January 1, 2021, with the main series officially debuting on January 4, 2021.

References

  1. Box Office October 9, 1954 issue
  2. Adams, Val (1955-12-28). "STUDIO MAY SELL 1,600 FILMS TO TV; Paramount and UM&M Near Accord on Sale of Movie Shorts for $3,500,000 (Published 1955)". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2020-10-14. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
  3. Box Office, December 3, 1955, page 36.
  4. Broadcasting April 23, 1956, page 22
  5. Box Office, May 19, 1956 page 22