Eddie Selzer

Who was Eddie Selzer?

Edward "Eddie" Selzer was an American film producer, most noted as the producer of Warner Bros. Cartoons from 1944 to 1957.

After the studio was purchased from Leon Schlesinger in 1944, Selzer was assigned studio head by Jack Warner. Unlike his predecessor, he did not take any on-screen credit as producer. Much of what is known about Selzer's personality and business acumen is from Chuck Jones' autobiography, Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist. In it, Jones paints Selzer as an interfering bore with no sentiment or appreciation towards animated cartoons.

Some historians also claim that Friz Freleng nearly resigned after butting heads with Selzer, who did not think that pairing Sylvester the cat and Tweety was a viable decision. The argument reached its crux when Freleng reportedly placed his drawing pencil on Selzer's desk, furiously telling Selzer that if he knew so much about animation, he should do the work instead. Selzer backed off the issue and apologized to Freleng that evening, a wise decision on two fronts: Warner Bros. did not lose the talents of Freleng to a competing studio, and Tweetie Pie, the very cartoon that first paired Sylvester and Tweety together, went on to win Warner Brothers' first Academy Award for Animated Short Film, in 1947, with Tweety and Sylvester proving to be among the most endearing duos in Warner Bros. cartoons.