Eddie Selzer

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 known primarily for his work as a producer at Warner Bros. Cartoons, which belongs to the film and television company Warner Bros., and where he was active as a producer in some 380 different animated short films in the years 1944 until 1957. During his involvement with Warner Bros., he received an Academy Award five times and has been nominated a further seven times for him.

Life and career

The beginning of 1893 was born in the increasingly growing New York City Selzer came only in 1944 to his real breakthrough in the movie business. After the acquisition, and the purchase of the cartoon studios of Leon Schlesinger, which was led at that time still under the name Leon Schlesinger Productions, called him Jack L. Warner to the studio head of Warner Bros. cartoons under the name of incoming in the story the studio. In contrast to his predecessors, Selzer has been mentioned by any single supervised by him as a production manager in the film credits, either in pre- or in the credits. But even on Selzer's personality or his business sense is not very much known. The well-known illustrator and animation director Chuck Jones describes Selzer in his autobiography Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist as one in some ways disturbing and obnoxious people who tried often to interfere in the work of the other, without even any sensitivity or to have recognition for animated cartoons.

According to other sources is even talked the talk that the also famous artist and producer Friz Freleng had almost dropped out of the production team, as he was already several times crashed with Selzer, because this meant that the interaction Let Sylvester and Tweety a not really feasible or useful idea was. The dispute between the two even went so far that Freleng put his crayons on Selzer's desk and told him that but he should draw the cartoons, but he well knew his way with this work. According to reports, Selzer said to have apologized to Freleng on the same evening, which in turn was also for the further advantage of film history. After Freleng continued his work, both won in 1948 at the Academy Awards the same year the "Oscar for Best Animated Short Film " for the Cartoon Such a sweet birdie, which was the first film that made appeared together in a movie Sylvester and Tweety. Previously, both were seen only in separate productions. But two years earlier, a film under the production guidance of Selzer and directed by Freleng was nominated for an Oscar in the same category ( Without love life is empty) and even at the Oscar ceremony in 1947 was followed in the same category was nominated for the film goshawk looking chicken, but in which Robert McKimson has directed. Another nomination followed at the Oscar ceremony in 1949 with the film The award-winning mouser.

Success was finally the year 1950, where the same won two Oscar at the Academy Awards the same year and was nominated in another, this film was withdrawn before the ceremony and the actual nomination and was thus not included among the official nominees. So Selzer won as a production manager in the category of Best Animated Short Film with the film Beloved skunk with the character Pepé le Pew in the lead role, as well as in the category of Best Short Documentary, where the choice, however, draw ended and Richard de Rochemont with his film a Chance to Live an Oscar received in the same category. As already mentioned, the film Canary Row was also initially counted among the nominees for the category of Best Animated Short Film, but withdrew before him Selzer and as an official nomination made ​​invalid. Additional controversy occurred in 1954, when Selzer director Robert McKimson after the premiere of Devil May Hare, the first film with Taz ( Tasmanian Devil ), said that the figure of Taz was too grotesque for a recurring character and the figure therefore wanted to settle out of the program. According to the view of some film historians Selzer changed his mind only after his real boss Jack L. Warner delivered its Opinion and said that Taz a wide recognition received by the public and therefore should be continued.

Furthermore, it was, according to some film historians, also regarded as humorless Selzer, who said that camels can not be fun, which in turn Freleng prompting the cartoon to Sahara Hare to draw. In addition, these same film historians believe that because of the opinion that bullfights can not be fun, even the cartoon Bully for Bugs had arisen in work of Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese. Furthermore, it was reported that Selzer one day when he saw a group of animators who laughed at a storyboard was stormed into the room and was screaming: " What the hell Has all this laughter to do with the making of animated cartoons? "(Eng. " What the hell has all this laughter to do with the production of animated cartoons? "). Additionally, there are further actions are known in which he expressed his displeasure over cartoons, where he, for example, did not understand what in a French-speaking skunk (in reference to Pepé le Pew ) was funny.

This was followed at the Oscar ceremony in 1954 a further nomination for the film From A to ZZZZ showing the dreamy schoolboy Ralph Phillips, who during the lesson once again becomes a daydreamer and after he has been warned by his teacher, one more time before the table asleep and after that falls into more daydreams. 1955 was a further nomination for the film Sandy Claws, in which Tweedy from his mistress, Granny, is taken to a level where it is once again being chased by Sylvester, but which is always stopped by the waves in the ocean at Tweedy get hold. Finally, a further distinction came in 1956 when the movie Speedy Gonzales was elected at the Academy Awards in 1956 for best film in the category of Best Animated Short Film. After Selzer ended his involvement with Warner Bros. in 1957, took two more films in 1958, worked at the Selzer as a producer, part of the Academy Awards that year. Here Birds Anonymous was awarded Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars in the category and Tabasco Road nominated in the same category for an Oscar.

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

Awards and nominations

• Oscars 1948: Awarded the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film What a sweet birdie
• Oscars 1950: Awarded the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film Beloved skunk
• Oscars 1950: Awarded the " Academy Award for Best Short Documentary " for the short film So Much for So Little ( draw with A Chance to Live by Richard de Rochemont )
• Oscars 1956: Awarded the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film Speedy Gonzales
• Oscars 1958: Awarded the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film Birds Anonymous

• Academy Awards 1946: Nominated for the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film Without love, life is empty
• Academy Awards 1947: Nominated for the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film Goshawk looking chicken
• Academy Awards 1949: Nominated for the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film The award-winning mouser
• Academy Awards 1950: Nominated for the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film Canary Row

• Academy Awards 1954: Nominated for the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film From A to ZZZZ
• Academy Awards 1955: Nominated for the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film Sandy Claws
• Academy Awards 1958: Nominated for the " Oscar for best animated short film" for the short film Tabasco Road