Official Films was a home movie distributor founded by Leslie Winik in 1939 to produce educational shorts. Soon, after buying the Keystone Chaplin library, they found themselves in the home movie business. They obtained several Van Beuren cartoons, mostly Felix the Cat cartoons.
Official retitled the Van Beuren cartoons and changed the name of Cubby Bear to "Brownie Bear". The human Tom and Jerry characters were renamed "Dick and Larry" to avoid ...
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Official Films was a home movie distributor founded by Leslie Winik in 1939 to produce educational shorts. Soon, after buying the Keystone Chaplin library, they found themselves in the home movie business. They obtained several Van Beuren cartoons, mostly Felix the Cat cartoons.
Official retitled the Van Beuren cartoons and changed the name of Cubby Bear to "Brownie Bear". The human Tom and Jerry characters were renamed "Dick and Larry" to avoid confusion with the cat and mouse Tom and Jerry from MGM.
Official became the first syndicator of theatrical cartoons for television, in 1950. They also syndicated live action television series such as Peter Gunn, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Stu Erwin Show and My Little Margie.
In 1969, Official changed their name to Official Industries. Today, their library is controlled by International Creative Exchange.
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