U.M.&M. T.V. Corp.

U.M.&M. T.V. Corp. is best known as the original purchaser of Paramount Pictures' pre-October 1950 shorts and cartoons (excluding Popeye and Superman). The initials stand for United Film Service (which once employed Walt Disney and other animators many years earlier), MTA TV (Motion Picture Advertising Service) of New Orleans, and Minot T.V.

Operations of the three above mentioned companies were consolidated into a new company, U.M&M. in October 1954. The companies were previously producing TV commercials. Matty Fox, head of Motion Pictures for Television, signed a ten year agreement with U.M.&M. to handle sub distribution of its TV series.

U.M.&M. handled the physical distribution of television series Paris Precinct and Sherlock Holmes, as well as other series. They did not market the show, leaving the actual syndication to Guild Films.

U.M.&M. makes the deals

In 1955, Paramount Pictures announced they were selling their shorts and cartoons, and even a few of their features, including the Max Fleischer animated features Gulliver's Travels and Mr. Bug Goes to Town.

Represented by A.W. Schwalberg, a former Paramount sales executive, U.M.&M. won the bid in December of 1955, buying 1,600 short subjects for $3.5 million. U.M.&M. got most of the material that Paramount put up for sale. The Popeye cartoons (including his first appearance, the Betty Boop cartoon Popeye the Sailor, and the Screen Song Let's Sing with Popeye) went to Associated Artists Productions (and in succeeding years to United Artists, MGM and Turner Entertainment - today Turner is a division of Time Warner). The Superman cartoons were not included in the sale, as their rights had already reverted from Paramount to National Comics when the studio's film rights to the character expired; TV rights to those shorts were licensed by National to Flamingo Films, distributors of the Adventures of Superman television series.

The material that U.M.&M. obtained from Paramount also included many live action short subjects, such as Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington shorts from the 1930s. Burns and Allen shorts were also included, as well as an early short, Singapore Sue, featuring a young Cary Grant.

Other short subjects included in the sale included:

• Inkwell Imps: The Max Fleischer Ko-Ko the Clown cartoons that were originally distributed by Paramount.
• Talkartoons: Early Paramount sound cartoon series.
• Betty Boop.
• Screen Songs (except the last six entries which were sold to Harvey Comics).
• Speaking of Animals shorts produced by Jerry Fairbanks (now owned by Shields Pictures).
• Color Classics.
• Gabby.
• Stone Age Cartoons.
• Animated Antics.
• The Fleischer two-reelers Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and The Raven.
• All Noveltoons released prior to October 1950 (including three early appearances from Casper).
• Little Lulu cartoons produced by Famous Studios.
• George Pal Puppetoons.

The latest-released cartoon in the package was the Screen Songs cartoon Boos in the Nite, released on September 22, 1950. A total of 513 animated productions (shorts and features) from Fleischer, Famous, and George Pal were included in the package. The package was eyed by NBC for airing nationally, but this deal apparently fell through. Ironically, ABC would air a repackaging of many Paramount cartoons (excluding Popeye cartoons) released after September 1950 once these cartoons were sold to Harvey Films (now part of Classic Media).

U.M.&M.'s best-known holding may be the 1946 Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life. It was a failure upon original release, but after its copyright was not renewed properly in 1974 (in part due to a lack of interest in doing so by producer Frank Capra), it became public domain for nearly two decades. It was as a public domain film that it became a perennial holiday classic. The film's copyright was restored in 1993; this was accomplished by U.M.&M. successor in interest Republic Pictures being granted a copyright for the soundtrack.

The retitling of the Paramount shorts

At the insistence of Paramount Pictures, U.M.&M. replaced the Paramount logo with their (usually) blue shield logo, and removed all references to Paramount Pictures, except for the phrase "Adolph Zukor presents". It is believed that U.M.&M. and NTA did not figure that TV viewers would link Zukor's name with Paramount Pictures (of which Zukor was the founder).

U.M.&M. color prints of Paramount cartoons usually have the opening credits listed in yellow print on a red background. Eventually, U.M.&M. started preserving the original credits, but continued to remove references to Paramount, Technicolor, Cinecolor, and Polacolor since the television prints were done in either Eastmancolor or Deluxe. The Eastmancolor prints generally have faded to red.

For the black and white cartoons and shorts, U.M.&M. removed the Paramount logos from the original negatives and substituted their opening logo and end card "THE END A U.M.&M. T.V. Corp. Presentation" for the Paramount mountain. The Paramount copyright was replaced with the U.M.&M. copyright byline, but prints of Betty Boop cartoons have turned up with original Paramount copyright bylines.

The end of U.M.&M.

U.M.&M. began marketing the Paramount shorts and cartoons, at the expense of the live action made for television product it was already syndicating. Before all of the shorts could be retitled, National Telefilm Associates bought out the U.M.&M. package in May 1956 for $4 million, but the U.M.&M. copyright notices continued to be present on the NTA prints. The shorts were syndicated under NTA's Panorama of Entertaining Programs, as well as sold for home movie distribution.

For this reason, the majority of the color cartoons purchased by U.M.&M. appear with NTA titles, though a select few circulate with U.M.&M. openings and closings. Most Little Lulu cartoons circulate with U.M.&M. openings however. A few feature a revised U.M.&M. logo with the original credits intact, though all references to Paramount and Technicolor are blacked out. These prints contain the only titles where the word "Corporation" in the U.M.&M. copyright is actually spelled out, and not abbreviated "Corp."

NTA acquired the Republic Pictures name in 1984, and through several acquistitions was eventually merged into Paramount Pictures, which in turn was owned by Viacom (as it has been since 1994). In early 2006, Viacom split itself into two corporations, one called Viacom (who still owns Paramount Pictures), and the other called CBS Corporation. As a result, Republic/Paramount owns the theatrical rights — all the more ironic since Paramount originally released the classic shorts in the first place — while Trifecta Entertainment & Media (inherited from CBS Television Distribution) owns the television rights to the U.M.&M. library, and what is now Lions Gate Home Entertainment owns home video rights.

However, restoration of the original Paramount openings to the black and white cartoons and shorts would be difficult, since U.M.&M. actually altered the original black and white negatives. The UCLA Film and Television Archive has restored many of the classic Paramount cartoons, complete with their original titles.