Leon Schlesinger

Leon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger, playing himself in the 1940 Looney Tunes short You Ought to Be in Pictures.
Born	(1884-05-20)May 20, 1884 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	December 25, 1949(1949-12-25) (aged 65) Los Angeles, California
Cause of death	Viral infection
Occupation	Film producer
Years active	1919–1944
Spouse(s)	Berenice Schlesinger

Leon Schlesinger (May 20, 1884 – December 25, 1949) was an American film producer, remembered for founding Leon Schlesinger Studios, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the Golden Age of American animation. He was also a distant relative of the Warner Brothers. As head of his own studio, Schlesinger served as the producer of Warner's Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from 1930, when Schlesinger assumed production from his subcontractors, Harman-Ising, to 1944, when Warner acquired the studio.

Schlesinger was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia. After working at a theater as an usher, songbook agent, actor, and manager (including the Palace Theater in Buffalo, New York), he founded Pacific Title & Art Studio in 1919, where most of his business was producing title cards for silent films. As talking pictures ("talkies") replaced them in 1929 and 1930, Schlesinger looked for ways to capitalize on the new technology and stay in business. Some film historians claim that he helped finance the Warner Brothers' first talkie, The Jazz Singer (1927). He then secured a contract with the studio to produce its brand-new Looney Tunes series, and he signed animators Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising to create these cartoons with their Bosko character as the star.

Schlesinger was a shrewd businessman with a keen eye for talent. When Harman and Ising left Warner Bros. with Bosko in 1934, Schlesinger set up his own studio on the Warner Bros. Sunset Boulevard lot at the corner of Van Ness and Fernwood. He wooed animators away from other studios, including some of those who had departed with Harman and Ising including Bob Clampett. One of these was Friz Freleng, whom Schlesinger promoted to oversee production of Looney Tunes and to develop the sister series, Merrie Melodies. Freleng's talent quickly shone through, and Schlesinger's hiring of Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin further increased the quality of the studio's output. He later added Carl Stalling and Mel Blanc, and collectively these men created such famous characters as Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Schlesinger largely took a "hands off" approach to the animation unit, allowing his directors freedom to create what they wished, provided that the resulting films were successful. Schlesinger sold Pacific Title & Art Studio in 1935 to concentrate on his animation studio.