Tom and Jerry from Flirty Birdy, 1945

The draftsmanship and expressiveness of the MGM animators in the 1940s were every bit as great as Disney artists at their best. This scene from Flirty Birdy has been my favorite since I first saw the nearly complete sequence in c. 1982. At that time I bought what I considered to be the best or most interesting drawings from the scene. Several years later I met and became friends with the original owner of this and many other complete MGM scenes. It turned out that he had kept the very best drawing from this sequence, and he sold it to me. Now, over 40 years later, I acquired 2 more, very expressive drawings which round out the group of drawings from favorite sequence.


In this drawing Tom shows his disgust with his mouse-butt sandwich.