A cat and mouse duo answering to the monikers of Tom and Jerry, the first creations of late animation pioneers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, had their debut in a 9.15-minute MGM animated short released on this date in 1940, entitled Puss Gets The Boot (in which they were first known as Jasper and Jinx!). The duo would chase each other from the Hollywood Bowl to Hungary to out space and back, and would capture the delight, and the laughter, of audiences around the globe, garner enough Academy Awards to make any movie star selfishly smug, and star in motion pictures, television series and comic books.

Happy 67th Anniversary, Tom and Jerry!

...but only Rudolf Ising got on-screen credit for "Puss Gets The Boot" because Hanna and Barbera were working for HIS animation unit at MGM. It was their idea, and they directed it, but Ising got sole credit. When producer Fred Quimby discovered that Ising wasn't even involved in ANY stage of that production, he offered Bill and Joe a chance to produce more "cat and mouse" cartoons under their own animation team. And they did, for the next 16 years!