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Leon Schlesinger (May 20, 1884 – December 25, 1949) was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the Golden Age of American animation. Schlesinger was born 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 and Art in 1919, where most of his business was producing title cards for silent films. As talking pictures ("talkies") gained popularity in 1929 and 1930, Schlesinger... MORE

Leon Schlesinger (May 20, 1884 – December 25, 1949) was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the Golden Age of American animation. Schlesinger was born 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 and Art in 1919, where most of his business was producing title cards for silent films. As talking pictures ("talkies") gained popularity 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. 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 LESS