Eddie Selzer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edward "Eddie" Selzer (born January 12, 1893 in New York City , New York , † February 22, 1970 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American film producer . He was best known for his work as a producer at Warner Bros. Cartoons , which is part of the Warner Bros. film and television company , and where he was active as a producer in around 380 different animated short films from 1944 to 1957. During his engagement with Warner Bros. he received five Academy Awards and was nominated for him seven more times.

Life

Born in early 1893 in the increasingly growing New York City, Selzer didn't really make his breakthrough in the film business until 1944. After the takeover and purchase of the cartoon studio from Leon Schlesinger , which at that time was still running under the name Leon Schlesinger Productions , Jack L. Warner appointed him as the studio manager of the studio that went down in history under the name Warner Bros. Cartoons . Unlike his predecessors Selzer was not a single under his care as a production manager in the film credits mentioned neither in pre nor in the credits . But not much is known about Selzer's personality or his business acumen. The well-known cartoonist and cartoon director Chuck Jones describes Selzer in his autobiography Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist as a somewhat disturbing and obnoxious person who often tried to interfere in the work of others without any sensitivity or sensitivity To have recognition for animated cartoons.

According to other sources, there is even talk that the equally famous illustrator and producer Friz Freleng almost dropped out of the production team, as he had already crashed several times with Selzer because he said that the merging of Sylvester and Tweety was not really feasible or useful idea was. The argument between the two even went so far that Freleng put his crayons on Selzer's desk and told him that he should draw the cartoons if he was very familiar with this work. According to reports, Selzer apologized to Freleng on the same evening, which in turn was beneficial for the rest of the film's history. After Freleng continued his work, both won the " Oscar for Best Animated Short Film " at the Academy Awards that year in 1948 for the cartoon So a Sweet Birdie , which was the first film that made Sylvester and Tweety appear together in one movie. Before that, both were only seen in separate productions. But two years earlier, a film under the production management of Selzer and directed by Freleng was nominated for an Oscar in the same category ( Without love, life is empty ) and at the 1947 Academy Awards, there was also a nomination for in the same category the film Goshawk is looking for chicken , which, however, was directed by Robert McKimson . Another nomination followed at the 1949 Academy Awards for the film The Award-Winning Mouse Catcher .

Finally, 1950 was also a successful year, when they won two Oscars at the Academy Awards of the same year and were nominated in another, whereby this film was withdrawn before the award and the actual nomination and was therefore not counted among the official nominations. Selzer won the Best Animated Short Film category with the film Thick Air , with the character Pepé le Pew in the lead role, as well as the Best Documentary Short Film category , where the election ended in a draw, and Richard de Rochemont with his film A Chance to Live received an Oscar in the same category. As already mentioned, the film Disguise Artist was initially also counted among the nominees for the category Best Animated Short Film , before Selzer withdrew it and thus invalidated an official nomination. Another controversy arose in 1954, when Selzer told director Robert McKimson, after the premiere of Devil May Hare , the first film with Taz (the Tasmanian Devil), that the character of Taz was too grotesque for a recurring character and therefore wanted to withdraw the character from the program. According to some film historians, Selzer only changed his mind after his actual boss Jack L. Warner commented on it and said that Taz received great recognition from the audience and should therefore be continued.

Furthermore, according to some film historians, it was Selzer, who was considered humorless, who said that camels could not be funny, which in turn prompted Freleng to draw the cartoon about Sahara Hare . In addition, these same film historians believe that, based on the opinion that bullfights cannot be funny, the cartoon Bully for Bugs was created by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese . It was also reported that one day when Selzer saw a group of animators laughing at a storyboard , he stormed into the room and shouted, “What the hell has all this laughter to do with the making of animated cartoons? "( Eng. " What the hell has all this laughter got to do with the production of animated cartoons? "). In addition, other actions are known in which he expressed his displeasure with cartoons, whereby he did not understand, for example, what was funny about a French-speaking skunk (alluding to Pepé le Pew ).

This was followed by another nomination for the film From A to ZZZZ at the Academy Awards in 1954 , which shows the dreamy schoolboy Ralph Philipps , who repeatedly becomes a daydreamer during class and, after having been admonished by his teacher, again before the Tafel falls asleep and continues to daydream afterwards. In 1955 there was another nomination for the film Sandy Claws , in which Tweedy is taken to a stand by his mistress, the Granny , where he is chased again by Sylvester, who is, however, repeatedly stopped by the waves in the sea at Tweedy to approach. Another award finally came in 1956 when the film Speedy Gonzales was voted best film in the category Best Animated Short at the 1956 Academy Awards . After Selzer ended his engagement with Warner Bros. in 1957, two more films, with which Selzer worked as a producer, took part in the Academy Awards of the same year . It was Birds Anonymous with an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film Award and Tabasco Road nominated in the same category for an Oscar.

Eddie Selzer finally died in 1970 at the age of 77. After his death, the five Oscars he won were handed over to the crew behind Selzer in the production of the cartoons. The last Oscar won for Birds Anonymous was given to Mel Blanc , the voice actor for Warner Bros.

Awards and nominations

Awards
Nominations
(The film was withdrawn by Selzer before the award ceremony and the actual nomination and is therefore not one of the official nominations.)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ CARTOONS ARE NO LAUGHING MATTER; The Time, May 12, 1997 , accessed January 9, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Selzer, Eddie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Selzer, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film producer
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1970
Place of death Los Angeles , California