Leon Schlesinger

Leon Schlesinger was an American film producer, remembered for founding Leon Schlesinger Studios, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the Golden Age of American animation. He was also a distant relative of the Warner Brothers. As head of his own studio, Schlesinger served as the producer of Warners Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from 1930, when Schlesinger assumed production from his subcontractors, HarmanIsing, to 1944, when Warner acquired the studio.

Schlesinger was born in Philadelphia. After working at a theater as an usher, songbook agent, actor, and manager , he founded Pacific Title amp Art Studio in 1919, where most of his business was producing title cards for silent films. As talking pictures replaced them in 1929 and 1930, Schlesinger looked for ways to capitalize on the new technology and stay in business. Some film historians claim that he helped finance the Warner Brothers first talkie, The Jazz Singer . He then secured a contract with the studio to produce its brandnew Looney Tunes series, and he signed animators Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising to create these cartoons with their Bosko character as the star.

Source: Wikipedia