10th February: Tom and Jerry

This date in 1940 saw the first appearance of the Cat and mouse characters, Tom and Jerry. Here are 10 things you may not know about them.

1. The first ever Tom and Jerry cartoon was made to be shown in cinemas. It was called Puss Gets the Boot. In it, Tom is called Jasper and Jerry is called Jinx.
2. When it became clear the cat and mouse shorts were a success, it was decided to change the name of the cat and mouse. Studio employees were invited to suggest names and the winner was drawn out of a hat. Animator John Carr was the winner, with Tom and Jerry. He won $50 as well as having his suggestion used.
3. There have been 163 short films featuring Tom and Jerry, some made as recently as 2005.
4. The characters haven't always looked the same. Tom's appearance has evolved considerably while the Dogs, Spike and Tyke, are sometimes Grey and sometimes tan - but Jerry has not changed all that much.
5. The musical scores were written by Scott Bradley and featured jazz, classical, pop music and songs from musicals.
6. Tom and Jerry themselves rarely speak in the cartoons, although most of the other characters do.
7. The cartoons have caused controversy, especially in the US, because of the character "Mammy Two Shoes", an archetypal fat black servant (inspired, it's been said, by the actress Hattie McDaniel, who played "Mammy" in Gone With the Wind). In the US, they went so far as to edit her out and replace her with a fat Irishwoman (possibly also racist) or a slim white woman. More recently though, in new edition DVDs, Mammy Two Shoes is back, and the DVDs include a disclaimer by Whoopi Goldberg, saying that it's still wrong to stereotype, but it's also wrong to blot out the evidence that such prejudices once existed.
8. The cartoons have also been criticised for the amount of violence in them, and for glamorising smoking.
9. Jerry's little nephew is called Nibbles.
10. The BBC gave Tom and Jerry regular slots in their programming, but found Tom and Jerry to be very useful when there was any kind of schedule disruption leading to a gap between programmes. They could put on a Tom and Jerry cartoon which they hoped would stop people from switching over to the other side.