''Pencil Mania'' is a 1932 animated cartoon in the

Van Beuren Studios The Van Beuren Corporation was a New York City-based animation studio that produced theatrical cartoons as well as live-action short-subjects from the 1920s to 1936. History In 1920, the Keith-Albee organization formed Fables Pictures for the ...

Tom and Jerry series that breaks the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cen ...

of theatre and film. The two main characters become animators in the film, and draw various cartoon scenarios against the blank background, and interact with them. The short was created by John Foster and

Vernon Stallings George Vernon Stallings (September 9, 1891 – April 9, 1963) was an American animation director and writer. He started working for Bray Productions in 1916 where he directed the Colonel Heeza Liar series of shorts, and the Krazy Kat shorts. He in ...

(credited as Geo. Stallings), with synchronization by

Gene Rodemich Eugene Frederick Rodemich (April 13, 1890 in St Louis, Missouri – February 27, 1934 in New York) was a pianist and orchestra leader, who composed the music for numerous films in the late 1920s and early 1930s, mostly cartoons and live-action sho ...

, distributed by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

and released through Library Films. The opening credits are played over the song "

I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover" is a song from 1927, which was written by Mort Dixon with music by Harry M. Woods. Original recordings were made during 1927 by Nick Lucas (No. 2), Ben Bernie (No. 3), and Jean Goldkette (No. 10). History ...

". Run time is 6:54. It is believed to be in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

References

External links

* * American animated short films 1932 short films Tom and Jerry (Van Beuren) 1930s American animated films American black-and-white films Films directed by Vernon Stallings 1930s English-language films Films about animation RKO Pictures short films RKO Pictures animated short films {{short-animation-film-stub