Rudolf Ising

 Rudolf Ising's career was almost entirely intertwined with Hugh Harman's. The two both worked in Kansas City for Walt Disney, stayed behind at first before joining Walt in California, worked for Warner Bros. before being fired, and for MGM before being fired again, and then rehired. In fact, the two worked together much longer than they worked apart. They were even born in the same month of the same year. However, Ising's career wasn't all also just Harman's career, Ising had a few accomplishments of his own. As I've already made a post about Hugh Harman and many of the things he did Ising did too, things that happened to both of them will be kept brief; a more in-depth analysis can be read here.

Rudolf Ising was born in Kansas City, Missouri on August 7th, 1903, the same month as Hugh Harman. In 1922, Ising saw a newspaper ad for an animator in Kansas City from Laugh-A-Gram. Ising answered the ad, and there he met Hugh Harman. Laugh-A-Gram would go bankrupt in 1923, and while much of the former staff went west to work at Disney's new studio in California, Harman and Ising stayed behind to form their own studio. This did not last, and Ising and Harman went west too in 1925 to work for Disney on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons. When Charles Mintz, who distributed the Oswald cartoons took control of Oswald in 1928, Ising and Harman would go to work for his studio on the new Oswald cartoons, before being removed themselves in 1929. Harman and Ising would form their own studio, Harman-Ising Productions, in 1929 with the character Bosko. Bosko was a caricature of a black boy, which while would be highly offensive today, was considered appropriate at the time. Harman and Ising made a test film, "Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid", with Ising himself starring in the cartoon as the animator interacting with the cartoon Bosko. The film was shown to Leon Schlesinger, who had a deal with Warner Bros. Schlesinger liked the cartoon, and signed Harman-Ising to make Bosko cartoons for Warner Bros in January of 1930. The series, titled Looney Tunes, would be wildly successful, and a sister series would start in 1931 titled Merrie Melodies. With two series, Harman would be assigned to direct the Looney Tunes, and Ising would be assigned to work on the Merrie Melodies. The first Merrie Melody, Lady, Play Your Mandolin would feature the new character Foxy. After a dispute with Schlesinger over financial disputes, Schlesinger cut ties with Harman-Ising in May and formed his own studio, while Harman and Ising kept the rights to Bosko. After a very short stint with Van Buren, Harman-Ising would sign a deal with MGM to distribute their cartoons there.

 

Starting in 1934, Harman and Ising made cartoons for MGM. These were color cartoons, which
Schlesinger wouldn't do for financial reasons. This ended up backfiring, as their series, Happy Harmonies, would regularly go over budget, and following a dispute about a distribution contract, MGM would fire them in 1937, replacing them with their own animation division. Ironically, MGM would rehire Harman and Ising in 1938 after all of the people they replaced them with didn't work out. Apparently, following them being rehired, Harman-Ising went bankrupt. Harman and Ising seemingly didn't work together as much in this period, but both created some fairly popular cartoons. Ising created his own character, Barney Bear. Barney Bear was said to be partially based on Ising himself. Ising also produced the first ever Tom & Jerry cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot. Ising actually got much of the credit for Puss, despite William Hanna and Joseph Barbera really making the cartoon. Nevertheless, the cartoon was wildly successful, more successful than any cartoon MGM made prior. Ising would not return for other Tom & Jerry cartoons, as Hanna and Barbera got their own unit at MGM. Ising would direct the cartoon The Milky Way in 1940 however, which would be nominated for an Oscar. Ising would leave MGM the year after however to join the war effort, making films as part of the 18th Air Force Base Unit (First Motion Picture Unit). Harman also left MGM the same year to form his own studio. 

After the war, Ising would join Harman at his own studio, which would reform as Harman-Ising Pictures in 1946. Ising would presumably work on Harman's King Arthur project, which never came to be, and Harman-Ising would mostly create education films before Harman retired in the late 50's. Ising would continue working in the industry however, working on the bridging sequences on MGM's Tom & Jerry TV package before retiring in the 1970s. He would die on July 18th, 1992 at the age of 88.

 

Sources

Reed, Josh. “Biography: Rudy Ising.” AnimationResources.org - Serving the Online Animation Community, 11 Jan. 2012, https://animationresources.org/biography-rudy-ising/

“Rudy Ising.” Rarebit Early Animation Wiki, http://rarebit.org/?people=rudy-ising.

Yowp, Don. “Booting a Puss and an Animation Career into High Gear.” Tralfaz, 3 Nov. 2018, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2018/11/booting-puss-and-animation-career-into.html. 

Yowp, Don. “MGM Odds and Ends, Part 1.” Tralfaz, 9 Oct. 2021, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2021/10/mgm-odds-and-ends-part-1.html.