Kenneth Muse
Encyclopedia
Kenneth Lee Muse was an American
animator
. He is best known for his work on the Tom and Jerry
series at MGM
.
, where he was Preston Blair
's assistant on Fantasia
(he helped animate "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" scenes). He also provided animation for various Mickey Mouse cartoons such as Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip (1940), Mickey's Birthday Party
(1942) and Symphony Hour
(1942).
Muse left Disney during the 1941 strike there
and joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
's animation department in 1941, along with fellow animators Ray Patterson
, Preston Blair
, Ed Love
, Walter Clinton, and Grant Simmons. He was assigned to the Hanna
- Barbera
unit, where he remained for 17 years. He first provided animation for the eighth Tom and Jerry short, Fine Feathered Friend
(1942), as well as the very last Hanna-Barbera Tom and Jerry, Tot Watchers
(1958), and nearly 120 other shorts in between. Muse also animated Jerry Mouse dancing with a live-action Gene Kelly
in the 1945 musical Anchors Aweigh
.
When MGM closed their animation studio in 1957, Muse joined his former bosses at their new company, Hanna-Barbera
. He was one of the most prolific animators working for Hanna-Barbera's classic period of the late fifties and early sixties. He animated many important shows and sequences, including all of the short pilot The Flagstones, from which The Flintstones
series was sold, as well as the original opening and closing titles of the series (the instrumental "Rise and Shine" titles, seen in the first two seasons, rather than the later, more familiar "Meet the Flintstones" titles). Muse also animated all of the first-produced episode of the series, "The Swimming Pool" (during the first season, episodes were assigned to one animator, who had only about four weeks each to complete them). Other early episodes animated entirely by Muse include "Hot Lips Hannigan", "The Monster From The Tar Pits", and "The Tycoon" (the J.L. Gotrocks episode). Muse also animated the opening and closing titles for Top Cat
(1961). Over a period of three decades, he provided animation for nearly all of Hanna-Barbera's animated television series, including The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958), The Flintstones
(1960), The Yogi Bear Show
(1961), Top Cat
(1961), The Jetsons
(1962), Wacky Races
(1968), Hong Kong Phooey
(1974), Jabberjaw
(1976), and Challenge of the SuperFriends (1978). He helped Disney as assistant animator with Ben Burgess for The Fox and the Hound (1981), but he was uncredited.
Muse was the stepfather of singer-songwriter Judee Sill
, with whom he had a strained relationship.
Muse died on July 26, 1987, his seventy-seventh birthday, in Templeton, California
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
. He is best known for his work on the Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
series at MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
.
Biography
Muse worked briefly at Walt Disney StudioWalt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
, where he was Preston Blair
Preston Blair
Preston Blair was an American character animator, most noted for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation department...
's assistant on Fantasia
Fantasia (film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...
(he helped animate "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" scenes). He also provided animation for various Mickey Mouse cartoons such as Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip (1940), Mickey's Birthday Party
Mickey's Birthday Party
Mickey's Birthday Party is a cartoon made by Walt Disney starring Mickey Mouse in 1942, in which Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar and Clara Cluck throw a big party for Mickey where the mouse's wild rhumba dancing rules the day...
(1942) and Symphony Hour
Symphony Hour
Symphony Hour is a 1942 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon depicts Mickey Mouse conducting a symphony orchestra sponsored by Pete. The film was directed by Riley Thomson and features music adapted from the...
(1942).
Muse left Disney during the 1941 strike there
Disney animators' strike
The Disney animators' strike was a labor strike by the animators of Walt Disney Studios in 1941.-History:The 1930s led to a rise of labor unions in motion pictures as in other industries such as The Screen Actors Guild which was formed in 1933. Animators of Fleischer Studios went on strike in 1937...
and joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
's animation department in 1941, along with fellow animators Ray Patterson
Ray Patterson (animator)
Raymond "Ray" Patterson was an American animator, producer, and director. Patterson was born in Hollywood, California, and was the brother of animator Don Patterson.-Early career:...
, Preston Blair
Preston Blair
Preston Blair was an American character animator, most noted for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation department...
, Ed Love
Ed Love
Edward H. Love was an American animator who has worked at various studios during the golden age of animation. He is well known for his work at Disney , MGM , Walter Lantz , and his work on television shows such as Yogi Bear and The Flintstones.Love won a Golden Award at the 1984 Motion Pictures...
, Walter Clinton, and Grant Simmons. He was assigned to the Hanna
William Hanna
William Denby Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century. When he was a young child, Hanna's family moved frequently, but they settled in Compton, California, by...
- Barbera
Joseph Barbera
Joseph Roland Barbera was an influential American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century....
unit, where he remained for 17 years. He first provided animation for the eighth Tom and Jerry short, Fine Feathered Friend
Fine Feathered Friend
Fine Feathered Friend is a 1942 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 8th Tom and Jerry short released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and reissued for re-release in 1949. It was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby...
(1942), as well as the very last Hanna-Barbera Tom and Jerry, Tot Watchers
Tot Watchers
Tot Watchers is the 114th one reel animated Tom and Jerry short, created in 1957, produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera with music by Scott Bradley. The short was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on August 1, 1958, over a year after it was produced...
(1958), and nearly 120 other shorts in between. Muse also animated Jerry Mouse dancing with a live-action Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly
Eugene Curran "Gene" Kelly was an American dancer, actor, singer, film director and producer, and choreographer...
in the 1945 musical Anchors Aweigh
Anchors Aweigh (film)
Anchors Aweigh is a 1945 American musical comedy film directed by George Sidney in which two sailors go on a four-day shore leave in Hollywood, accompanied by music and song, meet an aspiring young singer and try to help her get an audition at MGM...
.
When MGM closed their animation studio in 1957, Muse joined his former bosses at their new company, Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
. He was one of the most prolific animators working for Hanna-Barbera's classic period of the late fifties and early sixties. He animated many important shows and sequences, including all of the short pilot The Flagstones, from which The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
series was sold, as well as the original opening and closing titles of the series (the instrumental "Rise and Shine" titles, seen in the first two seasons, rather than the later, more familiar "Meet the Flintstones" titles). Muse also animated all of the first-produced episode of the series, "The Swimming Pool" (during the first season, episodes were assigned to one animator, who had only about four weeks each to complete them). Other early episodes animated entirely by Muse include "Hot Lips Hannigan", "The Monster From The Tar Pits", and "The Tycoon" (the J.L. Gotrocks episode). Muse also animated the opening and closing titles for Top Cat
Top Cat
Top Cat is a Hanna-Barbera prime time animated television series which ran from September 27, 1961 to April 18, 1962 for a run of 30 episodes on the ABC network. Reruns are played on Cartoon Network's classic animation network Boomerang.-History:...
(1961). Over a period of three decades, he provided animation for nearly all of Hanna-Barbera's animated television series, including The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958), The Flintstones
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
(1960), The Yogi Bear Show
The Yogi Bear Show
The Yogi Bear Show is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions about a fast-talking picnic basket stealing bear named Yogi. The show debuted in syndication on January 30 and ran for 33 episodes until December 30 in 1961 and included two segments, Snagglepuss and Yakky...
(1961), Top Cat
Top Cat
Top Cat is a Hanna-Barbera prime time animated television series which ran from September 27, 1961 to April 18, 1962 for a run of 30 episodes on the ABC network. Reruns are played on Cartoon Network's classic animation network Boomerang.-History:...
(1961), The Jetsons
The Jetsons
The Jetsons is a animated American sitcom that was produced by Hanna-Barbera, originally airing in prime-time from 1962–1963 and again from 1985–1987...
(1962), Wacky Races
Wacky Races
Wacky Races is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera. The series features 11 different cars racing against each other in various road rallies throughout North America, with each driver hoping to win the title of the "World's Wackiest Racer." Wacky Races ran on CBS from September...
(1968), Hong Kong Phooey
Hong Kong Phooey
Hong Kong Phooey is a 16-episode Hanna-Barbera animated series that first aired on ABC Saturday morning from to . The main character, Hong Kong Phooey, is a superhero who uses Chinese martial arts to fight crime. Hong Kong Phooey is the secret alter ego of Penrod "Penry" Pooch, a "mild-mannered"...
(1974), Jabberjaw
Jabberjaw
Jabberjaw is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera and aired from September 11, 1976 to September 3, 1978 on ABC.-Premise:...
(1976), and Challenge of the SuperFriends (1978). He helped Disney as assistant animator with Ben Burgess for The Fox and the Hound (1981), but he was uncredited.
Muse was the stepfather of singer-songwriter Judee Sill
Judee Sill
Judee Sill was an American singer and songwriter. The first artist signed to David Geffen's Asylum label, she released two albums, then worked briefly as a cartoonist before dying of drug abuse in 1979.Her eponymous debut album was released in late 1971 and was followed around eighteen months...
, with whom he had a strained relationship.
Muse died on July 26, 1987, his seventy-seventh birthday, in Templeton, California
Templeton, California
Templeton is a census-designated place in San Luis Obispo County, California. The population was 7,674 at the 2010 census, up from 4,687 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
.