Bridges history column: This composer was behind 'Tom and Jerry' musical scores

Texas musician Scott Bradley was never widely known outside of the studio, but his music was the heart of some of the most iconic American cultural icons of the twentieth century, most notably, the famed cartoon duo of Tom and Jerry.

Bradley was born in Russellville, Arkansas, in 1891.  He developed a love of music early and taught himself.  By the 1910s, he headed to Houston to put his musical talents to work.   He found work as a conductor for orchestras and theaters throughout Southeast Texas as well as radio stations.  At the same time, he continued to write his own music.  Though he was a successful musician, Bradley still took lessons from more experienced musicians to fine-tune his own craft.

By the early 1920s, California was rapidly becoming the heart of the entertainment world.  Bradley left Texas in 1926 to become a conductor for a Los Angeles radio station.  In 1929, he was hired by The Walt Disney Studio as a staff musician.  However, Walt Disney had a falling out with some of his staff in 1930.  One of Disney’s chief animators went to form his own cartoon studio for which Bradley worked for several years.

By the 1930s, the cartoon short feature had become a staple part of the moviegoing experience.  Seeing the success of Disney and others with the growing popularity of animation, Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Studios decided to form its own cartoon studio in 1937 to compete.  Bradley was quickly hired to help provide the music.

In 1940, MGM animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera created the Tom and Jerry cartoon, though they were originally named Jasper and Jinx.  Bradley went on to write and conduct the large orchestras for the music in the 114 original cartoons made between 1940 and 1957.

Since Tom and Jerry almost never spoke, most of the stories relied on Bradley’s music to set up and underline the different jokes, playful tensions, and transitions from one scene to the next.  The physical humor and lack of dialogue helped make the cartoons immensely popular around the world as Bradley’s music needed no translations.

One 1947 cartoon in particular, “The Cat Concerto,” placed music at the center of the episode as Tom played a concert pianist whose piano happened to be Jerry’s home.  Jerry got his revenge against Tom by making it difficult for the desperate cat to finish.  Thanks to Bradley’s music direction, the cartoon won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, the fourth consecutive Academy Award for Tom and Jerry.

Bradley also composed the musical score for the 28 Barney Bear cartoons made by MGM between 1939 and 1954.  Bradley would also go on to provide the music for the 24 Droopy cartoons produced between 1943 and 1957 and the Screwy Squirrel cartoons made in the late 1940s.

In 1957, MGM closed its cartoon studio as part of a corporate restructuring effort.  Though MGM would continue to produce cartoons, the large budgets were gone and an entirely new group of directors, animators, and musicians were hired.  Bradley’s contract was cancelled; and at the age of 65, he decided to retire.  In those nearly two decades of the first batch of Tom and Jerry cartoons, Bradley was part of a team that earned eleven Academy Award nominations and won eight Academy Awards for the cartoons.  Overall, he composed 250 cartoon music scores.

Bradley died at his home in California in 1977 at the age of 85 as a new generation of youngsters discovered in television reruns the cartoons he helped bring to life.  A compilation album of his musical scores from some of these cartoons was released in 2006.  Today, these cartoons continue to be seen on television and on video daily in homes around the world.

Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan. He holds a doctorate from the University of North Texas. Bridges can be reached by email at drkenbridges@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Bridges: Scott Bradley composed music of cultural cartoon icons