title: Golden age of American animation

text: When Disney's contract with RKO expired at the end of 1953, instead of renewing it as usual, Disney was concerned about the instability of RKO (due to owner Howard Hughes' increasingly erratic control of the studio) and started distributing films through the newly created Buena Vista Distribution subsidiary. This allowed a higher budget for shorts and features than the last few years of cartoons made for RKO dictated, which made it possible to make some of the cartoons in the new CinemaScope format. However, the budget per short was nowhere near as high as it had been in the 1940s as Disney had been focusing more on live action, television, and feature animation and less on short animation. In 1953, shortly after the switch from RKO to Buena Vista, Disney released its final Mickey Mouse short, "The Simple Things". From there, the studio produced fewer animated shorts by the year until the animated shorts division was eventually closed in 1956. After that, any future short cartoon work was done through the feature animation division until 1969. The last Disney animated short of the golden age of American animation, the Oscar-winning "It's Tough to Be a Bird!", was released in 1969.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Upon building Disneyland in 1955, Walt Disney regained a huge amount of popularity among the public, and turned his focus to producing his most ambitious movie: "Sleeping Beauty". "Sleeping Beauty" was filmed in Super Technirama 70 mm film and in stereophonic sound like "Fantasia". "Sleeping Beauty" also signaled a change in the style of drawing, with cartoony and angular characters; taking influence from United Productions of America (UPA). Although "Sleeping Beauty" was the second-highest-grossing film of 1959 (just behind "Ben-Hur"), the film went over budget, costing $6 million, and the film failed to make back its expenditure. The studio was in serious debt and had to cut the cost of animation. In 1960, this resulted in Disney switching to xerography, that replaced the traditional hand-inking.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The first feature film that used Xerox cels was "101 Dalmatians" in 1961 which was a box-office success. However, the Xerox resulted in films with a "sketchier" look and lacked the quality of the hand-inked films. According to Floyd Norman, who was working at Disney at the time, it felt like the end of an era.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: On December 15, 1966, Walt Disney died of lung cancer. The last two films he was involved in were "The Jungle Book" (1967) and "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (1977), since one of the shorts "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" was released during his lifetime, and he was involved in the production of "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day". The animated musical comedy feature, "The Jungle Book", and the live-action big-screen musical, "The Happiest Millionaire", were released in 1967, a year after his death, and "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" was released two years later, while "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" was released in 1977. "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" also won the 1968 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. After Walt Disney's death, the animation department did not fully recover until the late 1980s and early 1990s with the Disney Renaissance.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: One of Walt Disney's main competitors was Max Fleischer, the head of Fleischer Studios, which produced cartoons for Paramount Pictures. Fleischer Studios was a family-owned business, operated by Max Fleischer and his younger brother Dave Fleischer, who supervised the production of the cartoons. The Fleischers scored successful hits with the "Betty Boop" cartoons and the "Popeye the Sailor" series. Popeye's popularity during the 1930s rivaled Mickey Mouse at times, and Popeye fan clubs sprang up across the country in imitation of Mickey's fan clubs; in 1935, polls showed that Popeye was even more popular than Mickey Mouse. However, during the early 1930s, stricter censorship rules enforced by the new Production Code in 1934 required animation producers to remove risqué humor. The Fleischers, in particular, had to tone down the content of their Betty Boop cartoons, which waned in popularity afterwards. The Fleischers also had produced a number of "Color Classics" cartoons during the 1930s which attempted to emulate Walt Disney's use of color, but the series was not a success.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1934, Max Fleischer became interested in producing an animated feature film shortly after Walt Disney's announcement of "Snow White", however Paramount vetoed the idea. In 1936, Fleischer Studios produced the first of three two-reel "Popeye" Technicolor features: "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor" in 1936, "Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves" in 1937, and "Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp" in 1939.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1938, after Disney's success with "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", Paramount had given the Fleischers permission to produce an animated feature film and Fleischer studio relocated itself from New York to Miami, Florida in order to avoid organized unions, which became a threat to the studio after a five-month strike occurred among Fleischer Studio workers in late 1937. Here the Fleischers produced "Gulliver's Travels" which was released in 1939. It was a small success and encouraged the Fleischers to produce more.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In May 1941, the Fleischers gave Paramount full ownership of the studio as collateral to pay off their debts left from the loans they obtained from the studio to make unsuccessful cartoons like "Stone Age", "Gabby", and "Color Classics". However, they still maintained their positions as heads of their studio's production. Under Paramount rule, the Fleischers brought Popeye into the Navy and contributed to the war effort, and would gain more success by beginning a series of spectacular "Superman" cartoons (the first of which was nominated for an Oscar) that have become legendary in themselves.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Despite the success Superman gave the studio, a major blow to the studio would occur when the married Dave started having an adulterous affair with the Miami secretary. This led to many disputes between the Fleischer Brothers until Max and Dave were no longer speaking to each other. In 1941, they released "Mister Bug Goes to Town", unfortunately it was released a few days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, which caused "Mister Bug" to fail at the box-office. Shortly after the film's poor box office, Dave Fleischer, still maintaining his position as co-chief of his studio, had left Fleischer Studios to run Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems cartoons. Due to this, Paramount Pictures had expelled Dave and Max Fleischer from their positions as the head of the cartoon studio.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Paramount took over the Fleischer studio completely and brought it under the fold of their own studio, renaming it Famous Studios and continuing the work that the Fleischers began. Isadore Sparber, Seymour Kneitel and Dan Gordon were promoted to directors (Disney veteran Bill Tytla directed shorts in the mid- to late 1940s after Gordon left the studio), while Sam Buchwald was promoted to executive producer. Paramount also discontinued the expensive "Superman" cartoons in 1943, in favor of adapting "Little Lulu" to theaters.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Famous Studios continued to release Popeye shorts, which shifted to color in 1943 as well as creating "Noveltoons", an anthology short series similar to Fleischer's "Color Classics". Noveltoons introduced many notable characters such as "Blackie the Lamb", "Wolfie" (Blackie's main rival), "Casper the Friendly Ghost" (adapted from a children's story book), "Little Audrey" (a character similar to and replacing Little Lulu), "Herman and Katnip" (A cat and mouse duel similar to "Tom and Jerry"), "Baby Huey" (a large though dim-witted baby duck) and many other lesser known characters.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Famous also revived "Screen Songs", another series inherited from Fleischer's. As early as 1945, Famous continued the series all the way up to 1951, when they lost the right of the name and the “bouncing ball” term. The series was renamed "Kartunes" and would continue for two extra years, where it would finally be discontinued.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1951, Sam Buchwald died from a heart attack, leaving Sparber and Kneitel as the lead producers and directors. Dave Tendlar was promoted to director in 1953.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The departure of the Fleischers had an immediate effect on the studio: the Paramount cartoons of the war years continued to be entertaining and popular and still retained most of the Fleischer style and gloss, however animation fans and historians would note the studio's diverging tone after the end of the war, as the style was criticized for its highly formulaic story telling, lack of artistic ambition, violence, and its overall appeal towards children rather than both kids and adults.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: By the mid-1950s, Famous Studios was still releasing shorts but with tighter budgets. This was a standard industry practice at the time, since other animation studios were also releasing short films with tighter budgets due to the popularity of television. At the same time, the studio had really drastic changes. Paramount renamed the studio to Paramount Cartoon Studios, as well as discontinuing the Popeye shorts by 1957. "Spooky Swabs" (directed by Sparber, who died the next year) was the last Popeye short in theaters. Budgets for the shorts were so tight by the late 1950s, that the studio has to use limited animation techniques comparable to television animation at the time.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In the 1960s, Paramount continue to release thatrical cartoons, as well as teaming up with King Features Syndicate TV to co-produce "Popeye the Sailor" and other comic characters for television. After Seymour Kneitel died in 1964 from a heart attack, other animation veterans like Howard Post, James Culhane and Ralph Bakshi were hired to directed shorts late in the studio's lifespan. Cartoons produced during this period were "Swifty and Shorty", "Honey Halfwitch", "Comic Kings", the "Modern Madcaps" series and "Fractured Fables", all of which failed to revitalize the studio following the continious budget restraints.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In the winter of 1968, Paramount's new owners at the time, Gulf+Western, began the process to shutdown the cartoon studio. The shutdown was completed by December.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1929, former Disney animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising made a cartoon entitled "Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid", and tried to sell it to a distributor in 1930. Warner Bros. who had previously tried an unsuccessful attempt to set up a cartoon studio in New York in order to compete with Disney, agreed to distribute the series. Under producer Leon Schlesinger's guide Harman and Ising created "Looney Tunes" (the title being variation on Disney's award-winning "Silly Symphonies") starring their character "Bosko". A second Harman-Ising series, "Merrie Melodies", followed in 1931. Both series showed the strong influence of the early Disney movies.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After disputes over the money, Harman-Ising parted company with Schlesinger (who rejected their demands for raised budgets) in 1933, taking "Bosko" with them to work with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Schlesinger began his own cartoon operation under the new name Leon Schlesinger Productions, hiring Harman-Ising animator Friz Freleng and several others to run the studio. Animator Tom Palmer created a Bosko clone known as "Buddy" and answered to Walt Disney's use of color in the "Silly Symphonies" cartoons in 1934, and began making all future "Merrie Melodies" cartoons in color. However, since Walt Disney had an exclusive deal with Technicolor, Schlesinger was forced to use Cinecolor and Two Strip Technicolor until 1935 when Disney's contract with Technicolor had expired. In 1935, Schlesinger fired Tom Palmer and Buddy was retired.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In a 1935 "Merrie Melodie" directed by Friz Freleng entitled "I Haven't Got a Hat" was the first screen appearance of "Porky Pig". Also in 1935, Schlesinger hired a new animation director who proceeded to revitalize the studio: Tex Avery. Schlesinger put Avery in charge of the low-budget Looney Tunes in a low run-down old building the animators named "Termite Terrace". Under Avery, Porky Pig would replace the Buddy series and become the first Warner Bros. cartoon character to achieve star power. Also at "Termite Terrace" animator Bob Clampett redesigned Porky from a fat, chubby pig to a more cute and childlike character.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Unlike the other cartoon producers at the time, Avery had no intention of competing with Walt Disney, but instead brought a new wacky, zany style of animation to the studio that would increase the Warner Bros. cartoons' popularity in the crowded marketplace. This was firmly established in 1937 when Tex Avery directed "Porky's Duck Hunt". During production of the short, lead animator Bob Clampett elaborated the exit of the Duck character by having him jump up and down on his head, flip around and holler off into the sunset. This created the character of "Daffy Duck". After Daffy was created, he would add even more success to Warner Bros. cartoons and replaced Porky Pig as the studio's most popular animated character, and Bob Clampett took over "Termite Terrace", while Tex Avery took over the "Merrie Melodies" department.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The 1940 Academy Award-nominated cartoon "A Wild Hare" (directed by Avery) marked Bugs Bunny's official debut, as well as his first pairing with "Elmer Fudd" (Created by Chuck Jones that year). Bugs quickly replaced Daffy as the studio's top star. By 1942, Bugs had become the most popular cartoon character. Because of the success of Bugs, Daffy and Porky, the Schlesinger studio now had risen to new heights, and Bugs quickly became the star of the color "Merrie Melodies" cartoons, which had previously been used for one-shot character appearances. By 1942, Warners' shorts had now surpassed Disney's in sales and popularity.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Frank Tashlin also worked with Avery in the Merrie Melodies department. He began at Warners in 1933 as an animator but was fired and joined Iwerks in 1934. Tashlin returned to Warners in 1936, taking over direction of Merrie Melodies department. He returned in 1943 directing Porky and Daffy cartoons. He left in late 1944 to direct live-action films.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Avery left Warner Bros. in 1941 and went to work at MGM. Avery created "Droopy" in 1943 and many other characters during his 12-year career at MGM.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in August 1944. Edward Selzer was in turn named the new producer. By this time, Warner cartoons' top directors of the 1940s were Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and recently Robert McKimson, who took over Frank Tashlin’s unit after he left the studio. Their cartoons are now considered classics of the medium. They directed some of the most beloved animated shorts of all time, including (for Clampett) "Porky in Wackyland", "Wabbit Twouble", "A Corny Concerto", "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", "The Big Snooze", (for Freleng) "You Ought to Be in Pictures", "Rhapsody in Rivets", "Little Red Riding Rabbit", "Birds Anonymous", "Knighty Knight Bugs", (for Jones) "Rabbit Fire", "Duck Amuck", "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century", "One Froggy Evening", "What's Opera, Doc?", (for McKimson) "Walky Talky Hawky", "Hillbilly Hare", "Devil May Hare", "The Hole Idea" and "Stupor Duck".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Besides McKimson being promoted to director in the mid-1940s, Arthur Davis took over after Clampett in mid-1945, after being was fired by Selzer. Clampett went to work on "Beany and Cecil".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Many well known recurring characters were created by Jones, Freleng, McKimson and Clampett, and most instantly became popular at this time. This included "Tweety" (1942), "Pepé Le Pew" (1945), "Sylvester the Cat" (1945), "Yosemite Sam" (1945), "Foghorn Leghorn" (1946), "Marvin the Martian" (1948), "Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner" (1949), "Granny" (1950), "Speedy Gonzales" (1953), "The Tasmanian Devil (Taz)" (1954), and among others.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1948, Warners could no longer force theaters to buy their movies and shorts together as packages, due to the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case that year. It resulted to shorts of the early 1960s to have tighter budgets. Davis' unit was shut down in 1949 by Warners due to budget issues, causing him to move to Freleng's unit to become one of his key animators. Edward Selzer in 1958, retired, leading to production manager John W. Burton to take his place. David DePatie assumed producer in 1960 after Burton left the studio.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After more than two decades at the top, Warner Bros. shut down the original "Termite Terrace" studio in 1963 and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises assumed production of the shorts, licensed by Warner Bros. Most of the series’ main cast of characters were retired from theaters at this time, including Warners most popular star, Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck, however, would still appear in theatrical cartoons, mostly paired with Speedy Gonzales. Beside them, Porky Pig, Granny, Sylvester and the Goofy Gophers appeared in this era, but most appeared in just one or more shorts.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: 14 "Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner" cartoons were also commissioned, with the last 11 being outsourced to Format Films, under direction of former Chuck Jones animator Rudy Larriva. These cartoons were not well received, and were criticized for its lack of spirit and charm to that of Jones’ shorts.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After DePatie-Freleng ceased production of "Looney Tunes" in 1967, Bill Hendricks was put in charge of production of the newly renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts animation studio, and hired veterans such as Alex Lovy and LaVerne Harding from the Walter Lantz studio, Volus Jones and Ed Solomon from Disney, Jaime Diaz who later worked on "The Fairly OddParents" as director, and David Hanan, who previously worked on "Roger Ramjet". Hendricks brought only three of the original "Looney Tunes" veterans to the studio; Ted Bonniscken, Norman McCabe and Bob Givens. The studio's one-shot cartoons from this era were critically panned and are widely considered to be the worst in the studio's history: "Cool Cat", "Merlin the Magic Mouse", "Chimp and Zee" and "Norman Normal", despite the later gaining a large cult following, were said to be witless, crudely animated as well as having poor writing and design because of the extremely low budgets the crew had to work with by this time. Alex Lovy left the studio in 1968 and Robert McKimson took over. McKimson mostly focused on the recurring characters Alex Lovy had created and two of his own creation, "Bunny and Claude". The last of the original "Looney Tunes" shorts produced was "Bugged by a Bee" and the last "Merrie Melodies" short was "Injun Trouble", which shares its name with another "Looney Tunes" short from 1938. The Warner Bros.-Seven Arts studio finally shut down in 1969. A total of 1,039 Looney Tunes shorts had been created.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: A decade later, after the success of the film, "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie", which consisted predominantly of footage from the classic shorts by Jones, a new in-house studio to produce original animation opened its doors in 1980 named Warner Bros. Animation, which exists to this day.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: At first, Mickey Mouse was drawn by Walt Disney's long-time partner and friend Ub Iwerks, who was also a technical innovator in cartoons, and drew an average of 600 drawings for Disney on a daily basis; Disney was responsible for the ideas in the cartoons, and Iwerks was responsible for bringing them to life. However, Iwerks left the Disney studio in 1930 to form his own company, which was financially backed by Celebrity Pictures owner Pat Powers. After his departure, Disney eventually found a number of different animators to replace Iwerks. Iwerks would produce three cartoon series during the 1930s: "Flip the Frog" and "Willie Whopper" for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the "ComiColor Cartoons" for Pat Powers' Celebrity Productions. However, none of these cartoons could come close to matching the success of Disney or Fleischer cartoons, and in 1933, MGM, Iwerks' cartoon distributor since 1930, ended distribution of his cartoons in favor of distributing Harman and Ising cartoons, and Iwerks left after his contract expired in 1934. After his stay with MGM, Iwerks' cartoons were distributed by Celebrity Pictures, and Iwerks would answer to Disney's use of Technicolor and create the Comicolor series, which aired cartoons in two-strip Cinecolor. However, by 1936, the Iwerks Studio began to experience financial setbacks and closed after Pat Powers withdrew financial aid to the studio. After animating at Warner Brothers creating Gabby Goat and going to Screen Gems which was making cartoons for Columbia Pictures at the time, Iwerks returned to Disney in 1940, where he worked as the head of the "special effects development" division until his death in 1971.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After MGM dropped Iwerks, they hired Harman and Ising away from Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros and appointed them heads of the studio. They began producing "Bosko" and "Happy Harmonies" cartoons which were emulative of Disney's "Silly Symphonies". However they failed to make a success in the theaters, and in 1937 the "Bosko" and "Happy Harmonies" series were discontinued and MGM replaced Harman and Ising with Fred Quimby. After Quimby took over, he kept a number of Harman and Ising's staff and scouted other animation studios for talent (including Warner director Friz Freleng for a short period of time). He created an animated adaptation of the comic book series "The Katzenjammer Kids" which he re-titled "The Captain & The Kids". "The Captain & The Kids" series was unsuccessful. In 1939, however, Quimby gained success after rehiring Harman & Ising.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After returning to MGM, Ising created MGM's first successful animated star named "Barney Bear". Harman directed his masterpiece "Peace on Earth" in the meantime. Despite this, both men would leave MGM in 1941 and 1943 respectively, as Harman would develop his own studio with for Disney animator Mel Shaw, while Ising quit to join the U.S. Army.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After Ising left MGM, his unit was left vacant until it was picked up again by animator George Gordon. He continued the " Barney Bear " series as well as directing other shorts such as The Storks Holiday, and a few other shorts featuring an unnamed donkey. Gordon was left uncredited for direction for most of the cartoons he directed. He later left the studio in 1943, leaving the unit vacant once again.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In late 1946, animators Michael Lah and Preston Blair teamed up to exclusively direct more " Barney Bear "cartoons. Lah himself claimed to have finished Gordon's "The Unwelcome Guest", which was unfinished and also featured Barney. Both were able to give the bear a new life, as the tone of these cartoons were more familiar to the comedic slapstick from other cartoons from Hanna-Barbera and Tex Avery. In just three more years, Lah and Blair's directorial careers were abruptly halted as MGM dissolved the third unit, only leaving Hanna-Barbera and Avery's units left.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: By the 1950s, Tex Avery briefly departed MGM due to being overworked. Around the same time, Dick Lundy, who recently left Walter Lantz Production, was hired by MGM to fill the gap between Avery's departure. Barney Bear was once again commissioned for more cartoons, however, unlike the previous directors, Lundy changed Barney to speak full English, provided by Paul Frees. The manic style of direction from Avery's shorts is also noticeable in these shorts, as he was using Avery's unit. Upon late 1951, Avery returned to the studio, however, Lundy continued to direct Barney Bear shorts with his unit until 1954, where MGM finally canceled the Barney cartoons, as the studios would not direct any more cartoons featuring him.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1939, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera started a partnership that would last for more than six decades until Hanna's death in 2001. The duo's first cartoon together was "Puss Gets the Boot" (1940), featuring an unnamed mouse's attempts to outwit a housecat named Jasper. Though released without fanfare, the short was financially and critically successful, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) of 1940. On the strength of the Oscar nomination and public demand, Hanna and Barbera set themselves to producing a long-running series of cat-and-mouse cartoons, soon christening the characters "Tom & Jerry". "Puss Gets the Boot" did not win the 1940 Academy Award for Best Cartoon, but another MGM cartoon, Rudolf Ising's "The Milky Way" did, making "MGM cartoon studio" the first studio to wrestle the Cartoon Academy Award away from Walt Disney.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After appearing in "Puss Gets the Boot", Tom and Jerry quickly became the stars of MGM cartoons. With Hanna-Barbera under their belts, "MGM cartoon studio" was finally able to compete with Walt Disney in the field of animated cartoons. The shorts were successful at the box office, many licensed products (comic books, toys, etc.) were released to the market, and the series would earn twelve more Academy Award for Short Subjects (Cartoons) nominations, with seven of the "Tom and Jerry" shorts going on to win the Academy Award: "The Yankee Doodle Mouse" (1943), "Mouse Trouble" (1944), "Quiet Please!" (1945), "The Cat Concerto" (1946), "The Little Orphan" (1948), "The Two Mouseketeers" (1951), and "Johann Mouse" (1952). "Tom and Jerry" was eventually tied with "Disney's Silly Symphonies" as the most-awarded theatrical cartoon series. No other character-based theatrical animated series has won more awards, nor has any other series featuring the same characters.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In addition to classical Tom and Jerry shorts, Hanna and Barbera also produced/directed for "MGM cartoon studio" half a dozen "one-shot theatrical shorts" besides it, including "Gallopin' Gals" (1940), "Officer Pooch" (1941), "War Dogs" (1943) and "Good Will to Men" (a remake of Peace on Earth, 1955). Fred Quimby retired in 1955, with Hanna and Barbera replacing him in charge of the remaining MGM cartoons (including the last seven Tex Avery's "Droopy episodes") until 1958, when the studio shut down, ending all the animation productions, the duo started the "Hanna-Barbera" animated television series company afterwards.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Key to the successes of "Tom and Jerry" and other MGM cartoons was the work of Scott Bradley, who scored virtually all of the cartoons for the studio from 1934 to 1958. Bradley's scores made use of both classical and jazz sensibilities. In addition, he often used songs from the scores of MGM's feature films, the most frequent of them being "The Trolley Song" from "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944) and "Sing Before Breakfast" from "Broadway Melody of 1936".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Meanwhile, Tex Avery came to "MGM cartoon studio" in 1941 and revitalized their cartoon studio with the same spark that had infused the Warner animators. Tex Avery's wild surreal masterpieces of his MGM studio days set new standards for "adult" entertainment in Code-era cartoons. Tex Avery did not like to use recurring characters but did stay faithful to a character throughout his career at MGM with "Droopy", who was created in "Dumb-Hounded" in 1943. Tex also created "Screwy Squirrel" in 1944, but Tex was less fond of him and discontinued the series after five cartoons. He also created the inspired Of Mice and Men duo "George and Junior" in 1946, but only four cartoons were produced.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1953, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer closed down the Tex Avery unit. Avery also left the studio at the time, with MGM promoting Micheal Lah to take Avery's position to direct cartoons once again. Fred Quimby retired in 1955, with Hanna and Barbera replacing him in charge of the remaining MGM cartoons (including the last seven of Tex Avery's "Droopy" cartoons) until 1958, when the studio shut down the H-B unit, ending all the animation productions. The duo would eventually develop their own studio, Hanna-Barbera in 1957, inheriting most of the staff in the process.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After Charles Mintz was fired from Paramount & Universal he was still in charge of his own cartoon operation producing "Krazy Kat" cartoons for Columbia Pictures. After the failure of "Toby the Pup", which RKO Pictures discontinued in favor of Van Beuren Studios, He created a new series featuring a boy named "Scrappy", created by Dick Huemer in 1931. Scrappy was a big break for Mintz and was also his most successful creation, but his studio would suffer irreparable damage after Dick Huemer was fired from the Mintz Studio in 1933. In 1934, Mintz, like most other animation studios at the time, also attempted to answer Disney's use of Technicolor, and began making color cartoons through the "Color Rhapsodies" series; the series was originally in either Cinecolor or two-strip Technicolor, but moved to three-strip Technicolor after Disney's contract with Technicolor expired in 1935. However, the series failed to garner attention, and by 1939, Mintz was largely indebted to Columbia Pictures. As a result, Mintz sold his studio to Columbia. Columbia renamed the studio, which Mintz still managed, Screen Gems; Mintz died the following year.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Frank Tashlin and John Hubley, were Disney animators who left during the strike, and obtained jobs at Screen Gems, where Tashlin served as head producer while Hubley acted as director for studio. Tashlin helped Screen Gems gain more success by introducing "The Fox and the Crow", Screen Gems' biggest stars. Tashlin maintained his position until Columbia Pictures released him from the studio in favor of Dave Fleischer in 1942. The Screen Gems cartoons were only moderately successful and never gained the artistic talent of Disney, Warner Bros. or MGM. Columbia Pictures closed the studio in 1949 and started looking for a new cartoon production company.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1941, John Hubley left Screen Gems and formed a studio with former Disney animators Stephen Bosustow, David Hilberman, and Zachary Schwartz, who—like Hubley—had left Walt's nest during the animator's strike. The studio Hubley founded was a newer, smaller animation studio that focused on pursuing Hubley's own vision of trying out newer, more abstract and experimental styles of animation. Bosustow, Hilberman, and Schwartz named the new studio as Industrial Film and Poster Service, or IFPS. Artistically, the studio used a style of animation that has come to be known as "limited animation". The first short from the newly formed studio was "Hell-Bent for Election" (directed by Warners veteran Chuck Jones), a cartoon made for the re-election campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Although this new film was a success, it did not break the boundaries that Hubley and his staffers had hoped. It wasn't until the third short, Bobe Cannon's "Brotherhood of Man", that the studio began producing shorts aggressively stylized in contrast to the films of the other studios. Cannon's film even preached a message that, at the time, was looked down upon—racial tolerance. By 1946, the studio was renamed as United Productions of America (UPA), and Hilberman and Schwartz had sold their shares of the studio stock to Bosustow.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1948, UPA also found a home for itself at Columbia Pictures and began producing theatrical cartoons for the general public, instead of just using propaganda and military training themes; UPA also earned itself two Academy Award nominations for new cartoons starring "The Fox and the Crow" during its first two years in production. From there, the UPA animators began producing a series of cartoons that immediately stood out among the crowded field of mirror-image, copycat cartoons of the other studios. The success of UPA's "Mr. Magoo" series made all of the other studios sit up and take notice, and when the UPA short "Gerald McBoing-Boing" won an Oscar, the effect on Hollywood was immediate and electrifying. The UPA style was markedly different from everything else being seen on movie screens, and audiences responded to the change that UPA offered from the repetition of usual cat-mouse battles. Mr Magoo would go on to be the studio's most successful cartoon character. However, UPA would suffer a major blow after John Hubley was fired from the studio during the McCarthy Era in 1952, due to suspicions of his having ties to Communism; Steve Bosustow took over, but was not as successful as Hubley, and the studio was eventually sold to Henry Saperstein.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: By 1953, UPA had gained great influence within the industry. The Hollywood cartoon studios gradually moved away from the lush, realistic detail of the 1940s to a more simplistic, less realistic style of animation. By this time, even Disney was attempting to mimic UPA. 1953's shorts "Melody" and "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" in particular were experiments in stylization that followed in the footsteps of the newly formed studio.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Around 1952, Eric Porter proposed two cartoons to Columbia, but these were rejected and both cartoons are currently in the public domain.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1959, UPA released "1001 Arabian Nights" starring Mr Magoo, however, this was proved to be a failure, as this cost UPA their distribution deal with Columbia Pictures. they tried once more in 1962, UPA released "Gay Purr-ee" with the voice talents of Judy Garland, this time, with a distributor in Warner Brothers. In 1964, UPA decided to abandon animation and simply become a distribution company, where they would go on to distribute some of the "Godzilla" movies to America.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Prior to UPA's termination, Columbia struck a 10-year distribution deal with Hanna-Barbera, which had just left the freshly shut down Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoon Studio. This deal would mostly be involved with Columbia's TV division, Screen Gems, which ironically borrowed the name from the animation studio. In 1959, Hanna-Barbera produced the only theatrical series for Columbia, "Loopy De Loop". This series was a success, and ran until 1965. Hanna-Barbera also produced 2 movies for Columbia, which was "Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!" and "The Man Called Flintstone". Columbia's 10-year contract with Hanna-Barbera expired in 1967, and was not renewed, thus ending Columbia's association with Hanna-Barbera in every way.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1928, Walter Lantz replaced Charles Mintz as producer of Universal Studios cartoons. Walter Lantz's main character at this time was "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit", whose earlier cartoons had been produced by both Walt Disney and Charles Mintz. Lantz also started to experiment with color cartoons, and the first one, called Jolly Little Elves, was released in 1934. In 1935, Walter Lantz made his studio independent from Universal Studios, and the studio was now only the distributors of his cartoons, instead of the direct owners.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After seeing Disney's success of their first film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", Lantz planned to produce a full-length animation film based on the story "Aladdin", and should’ve starred the famous comedy duo Abbot and Costello. However, due to the financial bomb of "Mr. Bug Goes to Town", Lantz pulled the idea and the film was never produced.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In the 1940s, Oswald began to lose popularity. Lantz and his staff worked on several ideas for possible new cartoon characters (among them "Meany, Miny, and Moe" and "Baby-Face Mouse"). Eventually one of these characters clicked; his name was "Andy Panda", who aired in Technicolor. However successful Andy was, it was not until the character's fifth cartoon, "Knock Knock" that a real breakthrough character was introduced. This was none other than "Woody Woodpecker", who become Lantz's most successful creation. For most of the studios life at the time, Lantz and Alex Lovy directed most of the cartoons until 1942, when Shamus Culhane (a former Disney animator who recently had a brief stint at Fleischer Studios and Warner Bros.) took Lantz' and Lovy's role of director. As a result, the cartoons had a more denser and surreal direction, similarly more in line to the MGM Cartoons. Due to negotiation issues between Lantz and Universal Studios (renamed as Universal-International), Lantz withdrawals from his parent company and contracted to distribute shorts under United Artists between 1947 and 1949. The shorts in this period were noticeable for having better animation from the shorts released under Universal. This was due to being influenced by director and Disney Veteran Dick Lundy, as well as the arrival of more professional animations, such as Ed Love, Fred Moore and Ken O'Brien. This was also the era where "Andy Panda" was officially discontinued due to his waning popularity. In total, 12 shorts were released under United Artists.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Due to a plethora of issues between distributors and exceeding loans from Bank of America, Lantz was forced to close down his studio in 1949 in order to reduce said loans. It opened again in 1950 with a downsized staff, mainly because Lantz was able to sign a deal with Universal (known as Universal-International in this period) for more Woody Woodpecker cartoons, starting with 1951's "Puny Express". Woody would continue to appear in cartoons until the early 1970s.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Paul J. Smith, a Disney veteran who worked for Lantz in the 40s, returned to work for the studio for the majority of the studio's lifespan at this time as an animator, and later a director. Paul created "Chilly Willy", who first appeared in 1953, and became Lantz' second most popular character besides Woody. He would later be refined by Tex Avery in the following year, who left MGM earlier that decade. Avery himself would direct only 4 shorts during his time at Walter Lantz Productions, until finally leaving his career of directing animated shorts in 1956. Additional directional contributions included Don Patterson, Jack Hannah, and Sid Marcus. Alex Lovy also returned as role of director since the early 40s. Walter Lantz finally shut down the studio in 1973, saying that continuing to produce shorts would be impossible due to rising inflation, which seemed to have tightened his cartoons budgets by the late 1950s. However, for Walter Lantz, Woody Woodpecker's survival was lengthened when he started appearing in "The Woody Woodpecker Show" from 1957 to 1987, from which it entered syndication until 1990. NBC revived the show twice—in 1991 and 1992, and finally in 1997, Lantz sold all of the "Woody Woodpecker" shorts to Universal, then part of MCA.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Before Paul Terry created his own studio, he was employed by Bray Productions, where he created his first popular character, "Farmer Al Falfa". Later in 1921, he co-funded the Fables Animation studios with Amedee J. Van Beuren. Beuren however became anxious in the late 1920s due to the phenomenon of a new film format of pre-synchronized sound in film. Beuren urged Terry to produce films in this format, but refused, forcing him to fire Terry in 1929.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: After losing his "Aesop's Film Fables" series to Van Beuren Studios in 1929, Terry established a new studio called Terrytoons. Most of the staff of Fables Animation moved with him to the new studio, including Art Babbitt, who later became one of Disney's most known animators.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Terrytoons produced 26 cartoons a year for E.W. Hammons' Educational Pictures, which in turn supplied short-subject product to the Fox Film Corporation. Terry's cartoons of the 1930s were mainly black-and-white musical cartoons without recurring characters, except for "Farmer Al Falfa", who had appeared in Paul Terry's cartoons since the silent era. Educational foundered in the late 1930s, and Terry signed directly with Fox to distribute his pictures.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The 1930s and 1940s brought Terry's most popular and successful characters, "Gandy Goose" beginning in 1938, "Mighty Mouse" beginning in 1942, and "Heckle and Jeckle", developed by combining what was originally a husband-and-wife pair of mischievous magpies from the 1946 "Farmer Al Falfa" cartoon "The Talking Magpies" with Terry's notion that twin brothers or look-alikes had comic possibilities. Other characters include "Dinky Duck" in 1939, Dimwit the Dog (originally paired with Heckle and Jeckle), "Sourpuss" (usually paired with Gandy Goose) and among others. Terrytoons was also nominated four times for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film: "All Out for V" in 1942, "My Boy, Johnny" in 1944, "Mighty Mouse in Gypsy Life" in 1945, and "Sidney's Family Tree" in 1958.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Despite the success, Terry's cartoons are known to have the lowest-budgets out of any major studio at the time. Popular music for example was not used for the majority of the studio's life, as Terry refused to pay royalties, making music director Philip A. Scheib to compose original scores. Credits were also sparse. Until 1957, the cartoons only credited the director, the story writer and the music director. The cartoons were also experimental and lacked quality control, leading to animators animating in a very inconstant style (animator James "Jim" Tyer is well known for animating in a very loose and off-model style).


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Terry sold his company and its backlog to CBS in 1953 and retired. CBS continued to operate the studio for nearly 15 years afterward, with the studios now under management by Gene Deitch. The output divided between theatrical short cartoons and television series, as well as creating new characters such as "Tom Terrific", "Lariat Sam", and "Deputy Dawg", "Sidney the Elephant", "Gaston Le Crayon", "John Doormat", and "Clint Clobber" (who would be used again as Tom's human owner in Deitch's "Tom and Jerry"). Around this time, Terrytoons also began producing cartoons in CinemaScope.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: New staff members were also joined the crew, including former Famous Studios animators David Tendlar and Martin Taras, and Ralph Bakshi, who is considered Terrytoons most talented member of the studio. Terrytoons finally closed its doors in 1972, in which Bakshi moved to Famous Studios as a director, though it also closed that year.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1928, producer Amadee J. Van Beuren formed a partnership with Paul Terry and formed the "Aesop's Fables Studio" for the production of the "Aesop's Film Fables" cartoon series. In 1929, Terry left to start his own studio and was replaced by John Foster who took over the animation department, and renamed the studio Van Beuren Studios.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Van Beuren continued the Aesop's Fables series, and unsuccessfully tried a cartoon adaptation of radio blackface comedians "Amos 'n Andy". Other Van Beuren cartoons featured "Tom and Jerry" (not the cat and mouse, but a "Mutt and Jeff"-like human duo,) and Otto Soglow's comic strip character "The Little King". Frank Tashlin and Joseph Barbera were among animators who worked briefly for the studio during its short life.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1934, as other studios were putting cartoons in Technicolor to answer to Disney's "Silly Symphonies" cartoon series, Van Beuren Studio abandoned its remaining cartoons and answered Disney's use of Technicolor by creating the "Rainbow Parade" series, which was all color. However, the series was not a success, and by 1936, RKO Pictures, the owner of the Van Beuren Studio, closed the studio as RKO chose to instead distribute Disney cartoons.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1946, Republic Pictures incorporated a piece of animation by Walter Lantz into "Sioux City)", a western starring Gene Autry. That same year, Bob Clampett, who had just left Warner Bros., got to direct one cartoon with the title "It's a Grand Old Nag" before the company cancelled a potential animated series. In 1949, Republic started a new cartoon series called "Jerky Journeys", led by Art Heineman. The cartoons were not fully animated (only used for quick-paced sequences), but featured layouts and background designs by Robert Gribbroek, Peter Alvarado and Paul Julian, all of which were from Warner Bros. Republic discontinued the series after four cartoons were made.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Founded in 1948 by animator Jay Ward, Jay Ward Productions aired the first cartoon made for television, "Crusader Rabbit" and is also remembered for "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends" (1959–1964), as well as several iconic advertisements, such as those for breakfast cereals. Employing a limited animation style, the success of Jay Ward cartoons laid in its densely-packed visual gags and wordplay.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: While much of the focus in an animated cartoon is on the visuals, the vocal talents and symphonic scores that accompanied the images were also very important to the cartoons' success. As motion pictures drew audiences away from their radio sets, it also drew talented actors and vocal impressionists into film and animation. Mel Blanc gave voice to most of Warner Bros. more popular characters, including Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig (starting in 1937), and Daffy Duck. Other voices and personalities from vaudeville and radio contributed to the popularity of animated films in the Golden Era. Some of these (generally uncredited) actors included Cliff Edwards (also known as Ukulele Ike), Arthur Q. Bryan, Stan Freberg, Bea Benaderet, Bill Thompson, Grace Stafford, Jim Backus, June Foray, and Daws Butler.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Cartoons of this era also included scores played by studio orchestras. Carl Stalling at Schlesinger/Warner Bros., Scott Bradley at MGM and Winston Sharples at Paramount composed numerous cartoon soundtracks, creating original material as well as incorporating familiar classical and popular melodies. Many of the early cartoons, particularly those of Disney's "Silly Symphonies" series, were built around classical pieces. These cartoons sometimes featured star characters, but many had simple nature themes.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: For a great part of the history of Hollywood animation, the production of animated films was an exclusive industry that did not branch off very often into other areas. The various animation studios worked almost exclusively on producing animated cartoons and animated titles for movies. Only occasionally was animation used for other aspects of the movie industry. The low-budget "Superman serials" of the 1940s used animated sequences of Superman flying and performing super-powered feats which were used in the place of live-action special effects, but this was not a common practice.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The exclusivity of animation also resulted in the birth of a sister industry that was used almost exclusively for motion picture special effects: stop motion animation. In spite of their similarities, the two genres of stop-motion and hand-drawn animation rarely came together during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Stop-motion animation made a name for itself with the 1933 box-office hit "King Kong", where animator Willis O'Brien defined many of the major stop motion techniques used for the next 50 years. The success of "King Kong" led to a number of other early special effects films, including "Mighty Joe Young," which was also animated by O'Brien and helped to start the careers of several animators, including Ray Harryhausen, who came into his own in the 1950s. George Pal was the only stop-motion animator to produce a series of stop-motion animated cartoons for theatrical release, the "Puppetoon" series for Paramount, some of which were animated by Ray Harryhausen. Pal went on to produce several live-action special effects-laden feature films.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Stop motion animation reached the height of its popularity during the 1950s. The exploding popularity of science fiction films led to an exponential development in the field of special effects, and George Pal became the producer of several popular special effects-laden films. Meanwhile, Ray Harryhausen's work on such films as "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad", and "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" drew in large crowds and encouraged the development of "realistic" special effects in films. These effects used many of the same techniques as cel animation, but still the two media did not often come together. Stop motion developed to the point where Douglas Trumbull's effects in "" seemed lifelike to an unearthly degree.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Hollywood special effects continued to develop in a manner that largely avoided cel animation, though several memorable animated sequences were included in live-action feature films of the era. The most famous of these was a scene during the movie "Anchors Aweigh", in which actor Gene Kelly danced with an animated Jerry Mouse (of "Tom and Jerry" fame). But except for occasional sequences of this sort, the only real integration of cel animation into live-action films came in the development of animated credit and title sequences. Saul Bass' opening sequences for Alfred Hitchcock's films (including "Vertigo", "North by Northwest", and "Psycho") are highly praised, and inspired several imitators.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The major Hollywood studios contributed greatly to the war effort, and their cartoon studios pitched in as well with various contributions. At the Fleischer studios, Popeye the Sailor joined the Navy and began fighting Nazis and "Japs"; while the Warner Bros. studio produced a series of "Private Snafu" instructional film cartoons especially for viewing by enlisted soldiers. Even Disney was involved in the war effort, producing both satirical comedies such as "Der Fuhrer's Face", and commentaries such as "Education for Death".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The 1960s saw some creative sparks in the theatrical film medium, in particular from DePatie–Freleng Enterprises. Their first and most successful project was animating the opening titles for the 1964 film, "The Pink Panther", starring Peter Sellers. The film and its animated sequences were so successful that United Artists commissioned the studio to produce a Pink Panther cartoon series. The first short, "The Pink Phink", won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film of 1964. The studio also produced other successful cartoon series such as "The Inspector" and "The Ant and the Aardvark".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Meanwhile, Chuck Jones, who had been fired from Warner Bros., moved to MGM to produce thirty-four theatrical "Tom and Jerry" cartoons in late 1963. These cartoons were animated in his distinctive style, but they never quite matched the popularity of the Hanna-Barbera originals of the 1940s and 1950s heyday. However, they were more successful than the Gene Deitch "Tom and Jerry" shorts, which were produced overseas during 1961 and 1962.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: From 1964 to 1967, DePatie–Freleng produced "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" shorts under contract with Warner Bros. These cartoons can be recognized easily because they use the modern abstract WB logos instead of the famous bullseye WB shield concentric circles. The studio also subcontracted 11 "Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner" cartoons to Format Films. DePatie–Freleng ceased production of "Looney Tunes" and moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1967 to continue production of their "Pink Panther" cartoons producing the final original theatrical cartoon in 1977. The subsequent Pink Panther shorts 1978–1981 were originally produced for television and then released into theaters. In 1967, WB would resume production on their own cartoons, before shutting down the theatrical cartoon department altogether in 1969. In 1981, the studio was purchased by Marvel Comics and was renamed Marvel Productions.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: In 1946, the animation union of the time negotiated a pay increase of 25%, making the cartoons more expensive to produce on a general basis. After the 1948 verdict following the Hollywood Antitrust case, there was no longer a booking guarantee on the theatres for cartoons from any of the studios, making it a more risky business and because of this less resources were invested in the theatrical shorts, causing a gradual decline. By the beginning of the 1950s, the medium of television was beginning to gain more momentum, and the animation industry began to change as a result. At the head of this change were the tandem of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the creators of "Tom and Jerry." The new Hanna-Barbera utilized the limited animation style that UPA had pioneered. With this limited animation, Hanna and Barbera created several characters including "Huckleberry Hound", "The Flintstones", "Yogi Bear" and "Top Cat". With television's growing popularity, which included the Saturday morning cartoons, a much more significant decline began in movie-going in the 1960s. To face the competition from TV, the theaters did what they could to reduce their own costs. One way of doing so was booking features only and avoiding the expenses of shorts, which were considered unnecessary and too expensive. Those few shorts that found their way to the theaters despite this are often viewed by critics as inferior to their predecessors.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: This is a timeline of American animation studios' active production of regularly released cartoon shorts for theatrical exhibition. Some studios continue to release animated shorts to theaters on an infrequent basis. The colors correspond to the animation studio's associated theatrical distributor.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: Seven animated features from Disney ("Snow White", "Pinocchio", "Fantasia", "Dumbo", "Bambi", "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty") and


title: Golden age of American animation

text: several animated shorts ("Steamboat Willie", Betty Boop's take of "Snow White", "Three Little Pigs", "Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor", "Porky in Wackyland", "Gerald McBoing Boing", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "Duck Amuck" and "What's Opera Doc?") were each inducted into the National Film Registry. They were also part of animation historian's Jerry Beck's 1994 book survey of "The 50 Greatest Cartoons".


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The 1988 film " Who Framed Roger Rabbit" has honored both the golden age of American animation and classical Hollywood cinema. The film featured cameos of various characters from multiple studios, such as Disney, Warner Bros., Fleischer Studios, and Universal, among others. The film also contains the only time in cinematic history that Disney's "Mickey Mouse" and "Donald Duck" cross over with Warner Bros. Studios' "Bugs Bunny" and "Daffy Duck", respectively, onscreen.


title: Golden age of American animation

text: The 2017 video game "Cuphead" features an animation style inspired by the works of Disney and Fleischer from this period.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The 2004 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2004 season. The 100th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox and the National League (NL) champion St. Louis Cardinals; the Red Sox swept the Cardinals in four games. The series was played from October 23 to 27, 2004, at Fenway Park and Busch Memorial Stadium, broadcast on Fox, and watched by an average of just under 25.5 million viewers. The Red Sox's World Series championship was their first since 1918, ending the Curse of the Bambino.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The Cardinals earned their berth into the playoffs by winning the NL Central division title, and had the best win–loss record in the NL. The Red Sox won the AL wild card to earn theirs. The Cardinals reached the World Series by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best-of-five NL Division Series and the Houston Astros in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series. The Red Sox defeated the Anaheim Angels in the AL Division Series. After trailing three games to none to the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series, the Red Sox came back to win the series, advancing to their first World Series since . The Cardinals made their first appearance in the World Series since . With the New England Patriots winning Super Bowl XXXVIII, the World Series victory made Boston the first city to have Super Bowl and World Series championship teams in the same year (2004) since Pittsburgh in 1979. The Red Sox became the third straight wild card team to win the World Series; the Anaheim Angels won in 2002 and the Florida Marlins won in 2003.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The Red Sox had home-field advantage in the World Series by virtue of the AL winning the 2004 All-Star Game. In game one, Mark Bellhorn helped the Red Sox win with a home run, while starter Curt Schilling led the team to a game two victory by pitching six innings and allowing just one run. The Red Sox won the first two games despite committing four errors in each. The Red Sox won game three, aided by seven shutout innings by Pedro Martínez. A home run by Johnny Damon in the first inning helped to win game four for the Red Sox to secure the series. The Cardinals did not lead in any of the games in the series. Manny Ramírez was named the series' Most Valuable Player. While not a particularly competitive series, the 2004 World Series is ranked as one of the most memorable World Series of all time, and one of the most iconic professional sports moments from the 2000s due to its historical significance for Boston. The Red Sox and Cardinals faced each other again in the 2013 World Series, which the Red Sox also won, this time 4 games to 2.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The Red Sox had lost in the previous season's ALCS against the New York Yankees. The loss was mainly blamed on the decision by then-manager Grady Little to keep starting pitcher Pedro Martínez in the game in the 8th inning of Game 7, that resulted the win (and the 2003 American League championship in general) to rival New York via a walk-off home run, then Little was fired two weeks later.


title: 2004 World Series

text: During the off-season, the Red Sox hired Terry Francona as their new manager. They also signed Keith Foulke as their closer and traded for Curt Schilling as a starting pitcher. The Red Sox played two particularly notable games against the Yankees during the regular season. A game on July 1, in which they came back from a 3-run deficit to force extra innings, is best remembered for an incident in the 12th inning, when Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter made a catch on the run before hurling himself head-first into the stands. The Yankees won the game in the next inning to take an 8-game lead in the American League East. In the 3rd inning of a game on July 24, Red Sox pitcher Bronson Arroyo hit Yankees batter Alex Rodriguez with one of his pitches. As Rodriguez walked towards first base, he began shouting profanities at Arroyo. Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek positioned himself between the two players. After a brief argument, Varitek pushed his glove into Rodriguez' face, causing a bench-clearing brawl. The Red Sox eventually won the game thanks to a home run by Bill Mueller in the 9th inning. On July 31, the Red Sox traded shortstop Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs after he had spent eight years with the team. They acquired shortstop Orlando Cabrera and first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz in this trade. They won the wild card to earn a place in the post-season for the second year in a row.


title: 2004 World Series

text: In the divisional round of the playoffs, the Red Sox faced the second-seeded Anaheim Angels in a best-of-five series. They won Game 1 largely thanks to a 7-run 4th inning, and went on to sweep the series. In the 7th inning of Game 3, with the Red Sox leading by 4, Vladimir Guerrero tied the game for the Angels with a grand slam. However, David Ortiz won the series with a game winning home run in the 10th. In the American League Championship Series, the Red Sox lost the first three games against the top-seeded New York Yankees, including a 19–8 drubbing in Game 3, and were trailing 4–3 in Game 4 when they began the 9th inning. Kevin Millar was walked by Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. Dave Roberts then came into the game to pinch run for Millar and stole second base. Mueller then singled to enable him to tie the game. Another game winning home run by Ortiz won the game 6–4 for the Red Sox in the 12th inning. Ortiz' single in the 14th inning of Game 5 scored the winning run for the Red Sox, in what was, then, the longest post-season game in baseball history. Despite having a dislocated ankle tendon, Schilling started Game 6 for the Red Sox. He pitched for seven innings, and allowed just one run, during which time his sock became soaked in blood. In the eighth inning, Yankees third baseman Rodriguez slapped a ball out of pitcher Arroyo's hand, allowing the Yankees to score a run. However, after a discussion the umpires called Rodriguez out for interference and canceled the run. Fans then threw debris onto the field in protest and the game was stopped for ten minutes. The Red Sox won the game 4–2 and became the first baseball team to ever force a Game 7 after having been down 3 games to none. A 10–3 win in Game 7 brought the Red Sox to the World Series for the first time in 18 years.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Having failed to make the playoffs the season before, and with their division rivals (the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros) expected to be strong, the Cardinals were generally expected to finish 3rd in the National League Central. However, strong offensive seasons from Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds—during which they each hit more than 30 home runs and 100 runs batted in (RBI)—helped them to lead the league in runs scored. They also allowed the fewest runs of any team in the league. Four of their starters recorded at least 15 wins and closer Jason Isringhausen recorded a league-best 47 saves. They added outfielder Larry Walker in August and finished the regular season with the best win–loss record in the league at 105-57.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The top-seeded Cardinals faced the #3 seed Los Angeles Dodgers in the divisional round of the playoffs. Five home runs in Game 1 and no runs allowed by the bullpen in Game 2 helped the Cardinals to win the first two games. A complete game by Dodgers pitcher José Lima enabled the Dodgers to force a Game 4, during which a home run by Pujols won the series for the Cardinals. In the National League Championship Series, the Cardinals faced the #4 seed Houston Astros and won the first two games in St. Louis. However, the Astros tied the series in the next two games in Houston, before a combined one-hitter by Astros pitchers Brandon Backe and Brad Lidge gave them the series lead. An RBI single by Jeff Bagwell in the 9th inning of Game 6 tied the game and forced extra innings. In the 12th, Edmonds won the game for the Cardinals with a walk-off home run. Trailing in the sixth inning of Game 7, a game-tying RBI double by Albert Pujols followed by a Scott Rolen two-run home run and then an RBI single by Larry Walker in the 8th inning helped the Cardinals to a 5–2 win and their first World Series berth in 17 years.


title: 2004 World Series

text: By reaching the World Series with the Cardinals, Tony La Russa became the sixth manager to win pennants in both leagues. This was after La Russa had managed the Oakland Athletics to three straight pennants between 1988 and 1990 and winning the 1989 World Series. He would attempt to join Sparky Anderson as the only men to have managed teams to World Series championships in both leagues. He wore #10 in tribute to Anderson (who wore 10 while manager of the Cincinnati Reds) and to indicate he was trying to win the team's 10th championship.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The series was heavily discussed and analyzed by the American media prior to it beginning. The "Star-News" of Wilmington, North Carolina, compared the Red Sox and Cardinals position by position and concluded that the Cardinals were stronger in eight positions, the Red Sox in four and both teams even in one. They predicted that the Cardinals would win the series in seven games. Andrew Haskett of E-Sports.com gave high praise to the two teams' starting pitchers but also said that the Cardinals "took a serious blow" when Chris Carpenter was forced out of the series due to an injury to his arm. He also pointed out the ability of both teams to hit home runs, especially in the case of the Red Sox's David Ortiz and the Cardinals' Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds. While he praised the Red Sox defense, he called the Cardinals "one of the best defensive teams to ever walk onto a baseball field". Ultimately he concluded that the series would be close and that the Red Sox would win it.


title: 2004 World Series

text: John Donovan of "Sports Illustrated" praised both teams for how unexpected their reaching the World Series was, saying that they were "not supposed to be here". He also called the series a "blast from the past" because both teams were very old franchises and had twice previously met in the World Series. In a breakdown of how the two teams matched up, he concluded that the edge was with the Red Sox in pitching and the Cardinals in defense and batting. Ultimately he concluded that Schilling and Martinez would be the "key to [the] Series" and that the Red Sox would win in six games. Jim Molony of MLB.com, said he expected the series to play out very differently from the last time the two teams met in the World Series in . This was because both team offenses had been some of the best in the league during the season, while pitching had been very dominant in 1967.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Dan Shaughnessy of "The Boston Globe" said that "Bally's in Las Vegas set the Red Sox as 8–5 favorites to win the Series" and that there was "some sentiment in St. Louis that the NL champions have been disrespected". but also that Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein "Did not want to dis[respect] the Cardinals". Shaughnessy also quoted Schilling as having said: "There's a lot of good players in that [visitors] clubhouse over there. This isn't the time for us to be thinking about history. If we get three wins and 26 outs into the fourth win, I'm pretty sure it will hit us." Before the series began, Shaughnessy wrote a piece saying that although the Red Sox had beaten the Yankees, the series needed to be won, as it was the only way the Curse of the Bambino, which he had publicized based on the book of the same title in 1990, would end, and demeaning chants of "1918!" would no longer echo at Yankee Stadium. During the series, he wrote a piece about how much people in New England were thinking about loved ones who had spent their entire lives rooting for the Red Sox, hoping that one day, they would see their Red Sox win a World Series.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Both teams had lost in their previous World Series appearances in seven games. The Red Sox lost to the New York Mets in , while the Cardinals lost in to the Minnesota Twins. The Cardinals and Red Sox had not won the World Series since and respectively. When the two teams had previously played each other in the and 1967 World Series, the Cardinals won both series in seven games. Having won the All-Star Game, the AL had been awarded home-field advantage, which meant the Red Sox had the advantage at Fenway Park in four of the seven games in the series.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Local band Dropkick Murphys performed "Tessie", and a moment of silence was observed to remember local student Victoria Snelgrove, who had been accidentally killed by police two days earlier as Sox fans had celebrated winning the American League pennant. Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith, another local band, performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski threw the ceremonial first pitch. Kelly Clarkson sang God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Tim Wakefield made his first start of the 2004 postseason for the Red Sox, becoming the first knuckleball pitcher to make a World Series start since 1948, while Woody Williams, who had won his previous two starts in the post-season, was the Cardinals' starting pitcher. In the bottom of the first inning, Williams gave up a lead-off double to Johnny Damon, and then hit Orlando Cabrera in the shoulder with one of his pitches. After Manny Ramírez flied out, Ortiz hit a three-run home run in his first-ever World Series at bat. Kevin Millar then scored by virtue of a single by Bill Mueller to put the Red Sox up 4–0.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The Cardinals scored one run in both the second and third innings on a sacrifice fly by Mike Matheny to score Jim Edmonds and a home run to right field by Walker, respectively. However, in the bottom of the third, the Red Sox scored three runs after seven consecutive batters reached base, giving them a five-run lead. Dan Haren came in from the Cardinals' bullpen to replace Williams during the inning.


title: 2004 World Series

text: In the top of the fourth inning, Bronson Arroyo was brought in to replace Wakefield after he had walked four batters. Those walks, combined with a throwing error by Millar and a passed ball by Doug Mirabelli, allowed the Cardinals to reduce the lead to two runs. In the sixth inning, So Taguchi reached first on an infield hit and was allowed to advance to second when Arroyo threw the ball into the stands. Doubles by Édgar Rentería and Walker tied the game at seven. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Ramírez singled with two men on base, and a poor throw by Edmonds allowed Mark Bellhorn to score. Ortiz then hit a line drive that appeared to skip off the lip of the infield and hit Cardinals' second baseman Tony Womack with "considerable force". Womack immediately grabbed his clavicle as a second Red Sox run scored. He was attended to once play had ended and replaced by Marlon Anderson. A precautionary X-ray revealed that there was no damage.


title: 2004 World Series

text: In the top of the eighth inning, with one out and two men on base, Red Sox closer Keith Foulke came in to pitch. Rentería singled towards Ramírez in left field, who unintentionally kicked the ball away, allowing Jason Marquis to score. Walker also hit the ball towards Ramírez in the next at bat. Ramírez slid in an attempt to try to catch the ball, but tripped and deflected the ball for his second error in two plays, and the fourth Red Sox error in the game. Roger Cedeño scored on the play to tie the game at nine. In the bottom of the eighth inning, however, Jason Varitek reached on an error, and Bellhorn then hit a home run off the right field foul pole, also known as Pesky's Pole, for his third home run in as many games to give the Red Sox a two-run lead. In the ninth inning, Foulke struck out Cedeño to win the game for the Red Sox 11–9.


title: 2004 World Series

text: With a total of 20 runs, it was the highest scoring opening game of a World Series ever. With four RBI, Ortiz also tied a franchise record for RBI in a World Series game. Walker, making his World Series debut in Game 1, collected four hits in five at bats with a home run and two doubles. His four-hit outing tied a Cardinals World Series record, becoming the seventh overall and first to do so since Lou Brock in 1967, also against Boston.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Boston native James Taylor performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Game 2 and singer Donna Summer, also a Boston native, performed "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by the surviving three members of the famous Red Sox quartet that had faced the Cardinals in 1946: Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky (Ted Williams had died two years earlier).


title: 2004 World Series

text: Despite having a torn tendon in his right ankle, similar to Game 6 of the ALCS against the Yankees, Schilling started Game 2 for the Red Sox. Schilling had four stitches in the ankle the day before, causing him "considerable discomfort". He was not sure on the morning of Game 2 if he would be able to play, but after one of the stitches was removed, he was treated with antibiotics and was able to pitch.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Morris started for the Cardinals on three days' rest (one day fewer than is orthodox rest for a starting pitcher).


title: 2004 World Series

text: In the first inning, Albert Pujols doubled with two out, and Scott Rolen hit a line drive towards Mueller, who caught it to end the inning. Morris walked Ramírez and Ortiz in the bottom of the inning. Varitek then tripled to center field to give the Red Sox a 2–0 lead.


title: 2004 World Series

text: In the fourth inning, Pujols doubled again and was able to score on an error by Mueller. The Red Sox also scored in the bottom of the inning when Bellhorn doubled to center with two runners on base, to give them a three-run lead. Cal Eldred came in to relieve Morris in the fifth inning, after he had walked the leadoff hitter, having already given up four runs in the previous four innings. Mueller committed his World Series record-tying third error of the game, in the sixth inning; however, the Cardinals failed to capitalize. In the bottom of the inning, Trot Nixon led off with a single to center, and two more singles by Johnny Damon and Orlando Cabrera enabled two more runs to score to make it 6–1.


title: 2004 World Series

text: After six innings of allowing no earned runs – which gave him a total of 13 innings against the Yankees and Cardinals with only one earned run allowed on a torn ankle tendon – Schilling made way for Alan Embree, who pitched a scoreless seventh. Mike Timlin replaced Embree in the eighth, in which a sacrifice fly by Scott Rolen reduced the Red Sox lead to four. Keith Foulke then came in to strike out Jim Edmonds to end the inning and also pitched the ninth to end the game. For the second game in a row, the Red Sox won despite committing four fielding errors.


title: 2004 World Series

text: With the win, Schilling became only the fifth pitcher to ever win a World Series game with a team from both leagues, having previously done it with National League teams, the Philadelphia Phillies in 1993, and the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001. He later donated the bloody sock he wore during the game to the Baseball Hall of Fame museum. Much of the blame for the Cardinals' losses in the first two games was directed at the fact that Rolen, Edmonds and Reggie Sanders, three of the Cardinals' best batters, had combined for one hit in 22 at-bats.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Seattle Mariners designated hitter Edgar Martínez was presented with the 2004 Roberto Clemente Award, having announced his retirement one month before. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by arguably the Cardinals' best-ever position player, Stan Musial, and caught by arguably their best-ever pitcher, Bob Gibson. "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "God Bless America" were sung by country music singer Martina McBride and singer–songwriter Amy Grant respectively. During the game, a sign for the fast-food restaurant Taco Bell that measured and read "Free Taco Here", was hung approximately from home plate, over the left-center field bullpen. Taco Bell promised that, if the sign was hit by a home run ball, they would give a free "Crunchy Beef Taco" to everyone in the United States.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Once again, the Red Sox took the lead in the first inning when Ramírez hit a home run off former Red Sox pitcher Jeff Suppan. Pedro Martínez was the starting pitcher for the Red Sox, and in the bottom of the first inning, he allowed the Cardinals to load the bases with one out. Edmonds then hit a fly ball towards Ramírez in left field, who caught it on the run and threw to catcher Jason Varitek at home plate. Varitek tagged out Walker, who was attempting to score from third, ending the inning.


title: 2004 World Series

text: In the bottom of the third inning, the Cardinals had two runners on base with no one out. Walker hit a ground ball towards first base, and Cardinals third base coach José Oquendo signalled to Suppan on third to run to home plate. However, halfway towards home, Suppan "suddenly stopped". Édgar Rentería, who had been running from second base towards third, was forced to return to second when he saw Suppan had stopped. After stepping on first base, David Ortiz began moving toward Suppan, who had turned back toward third, Ortiz threw to third baseman Mueller, who tagged Suppan out. After the next batter, Albert Pujols, grounded to Mueller, the inning ended.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Trot Nixon extended the Red Sox lead to two in the top of the fourth, hitting a single to right field that scored Mueller, who had started the rally with a two-out double to left-center. Johnny Damon then led off the Red Sox's fifth inning with a double to right. Singles by Orlando Cabrera and Ramírez, to right and left respectively, scored Damon to make it 3–0. With two out, Mueller singled along the first base line, enabling Cabrera to score the Red Sox's fourth run. Suppan was replaced by Al Reyes, which meant none of the Cardinals three starting pitchers had finished five innings during the series.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Mike Timlin relieved Martinez in the bottom of the eighth inning. He finished with six strikeouts, three hits allowed and retired the last 14 batters he faced. The Cardinals avoided a shutout when Walker hit a home run to center field off Foulke in the ninth inning, but Foulke retired the other three batters he faced in the inning to secure the win for the Red Sox 4–1.


title: 2004 World Series

text: On the same day the Red Sox won Game 3, "The Boston Globe"'s Dan Shaughnessy wrote that, as this win brought the Red Sox on the verge of winning a World Series, he wondered how many people in New England were thinking about loved ones who had spent their entire lives rooting for the Red Sox and hoping that one day, they would see the Red Sox win a World Series.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Country music singer Gretchen Wilson, a life-long Cardinals fan, performed "The Star-Spangled Banner". Creed lead singer Scott Stapp sang God Bless America during the seventh inning stretch. Barry Bonds and Manny Ramírez received the Hank Aaron Award for the National and American Leagues, respectively. Former Cardinals players Lou Brock and Red Schoendienst threw out ceremonial first pitches along with Rashima Manning, from the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Clubs of America. A lunar eclipse was visible during the game – the first lunar eclipse to take place during a World Series game. The game was also played on the 18th anniversary of Game 7 of the 1986 World Series, which the Red Sox had lost at Shea Stadium to the New York Mets, despite taking a 3–0 lead into the sixth inning.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Damon hit a home run to right field in the first at-bat of the game on a 2–1 count to give the Red Sox the lead in the first inning for the fourth straight game; it proved to be the game-winning run. Ramírez singled in the third inning to give him a hit in 17 consecutive postseason games. Doubles to right by David Ortiz and to center by Trot Nixon, who narrowly missed a grand slam after swinging on a 3–0 count, scored two more runs for the Red Sox to give them a three-run lead. Cardinals starter Jason Marquis went six innings and allowed just the three runs. Marquis was the only Cardinal pitcher who went past five innings.


title: 2004 World Series

text: In the top of the eighth, Mueller led off with a single to right and Nixon followed with his third double of the game. Jason Isringhausen came in to pitch for the Cardinals with the bases loaded and nobody out, and was able to finish the inning without allowing a run to score. Kevin Millar pinch hit for the Red Sox starting pitcher Derek Lowe during this inning. It was the third straight game in which the Red Sox starting pitcher had not allowed an earned run.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Red Sox closer Foulke came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth. Pujols led off the inning by hitting a single through Foulke's legs and into center field. After Foulke induced Rolen into a fly out and struck out Edmonds, Pujols took second base, but no stolen base due to fielder's indifference. Édgar Rentería then hit a ground ball that bounced back to Foulke on the mound. Foulke threw it underhand to Doug Mientkiewicz at first base to end the game, and the Red Sox drought.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The series win was the Red Sox's first title in 86 years. They were also the fourth team to win a World Series without trailing in any of the games in the series, and the seventh to win it having previously been three outs away from elimination. With the win, pitcher Lowe became the first pitcher to ever win three series-clinching games in a single postseason having also won Game 3 of the ALDS against the Angels and Game 7 of the ALCS against the Yankees. Although the series was won in St. Louis, 3,000 Red Sox fans were present at the game, and many stayed after the final out to celebrate with the team, including going on the field when the team came back out of their dugout with the World Series trophy. Ramírez, who was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the series, said afterwards "I don't believe in curses, I believe you make your own destination. " Kevin Millar said that it was important to finish off the Cardinals in four and not let it go to a fifth game given the team's history.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The Cardinals offense struggled to find spark in the final three games. Pujols, Rolen, and Edmonds, the normally fearsome 3-4-5 hitters for the Cardinals, were six-for-45 with one RBI. The club batted .190 with a .562 OPS overall. Walker was one of very few exceptions, batting .357 with a 1.366 OPS. His two home runs accounted for the only two home runs hit by the entire Cardinals team. In the 2004 postseason, Walker scored 21 percent (14 of 68) of Cardinal runs.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The series was broadcast by Fox, and the announcers were Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Jeanne Zelasko covered the pre-game build up to all four games and the presentation of the World Series trophy.


title: 2004 World Series

text: An average of 23.1 million people watched Game 1. This was the highest television ratings for the opening game of a World Series in five years and had the highest average number of viewers since 1996. It was also the highest rated broadcast on any network in the past ten months. The ratings for the first two games were also the highest average since 1996, and the average for the first three games was the highest since 1999. Game 3 had the highest average number of viewers with 24.4 million, since 1996 when 28.7 million watched the Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees. It was also the Fox network's highest rating for a Game 3 of a World Series ever. Game 4 posted an 18.2 national rating giving the series an overall average of 15.8. This was the highest average in five years, and the average number of viewers of 25.4 million was the highest since 1995.


title: 2004 World Series

text: In terms of local radio, Joe Castiglione and Jerry Trupiano called the series for WEEI in Boston while Mike Shannon and Wayne Hagin announced for KMOX in St. Louis.


title: 2004 World Series

text: With the win coming eight months after the New England Patriots victory in Super Bowl XXXVIII, the event made Boston the first city to have a Super Bowl and World Series winner in the same year since Pittsburgh in 1979. A number of players from both teams won awards for their performances during the season. Manny Ramírez won the Hank Aaron Award and, along with Albert Pujols, a Silver Slugger Award, while Gold Glove awards were won by Mike Matheny, Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds. The American sports magazine "Sports Illustrated" honored the Red Sox with their Sportsman of the Year award a month later, making them the first professional team to ever win the award. For pitcher Curt Schilling, it was the second time he had won the award, having shared it with then-Arizona Diamondbacks teammate Randy Johnson in 2001.


title: 2004 World Series

text: This World Series win by the Red Sox continued a history of Boston teams beating St. Louis teams to win championships. Previously, in Super Bowl XXXVI, the New England Patriots had upset the St. Louis Rams' "Greatest Show on Turf" to win their first Super Bowl and herald a dynasty led by Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, the Boston Bruins had swept the St. Louis Blues in the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals (with Game 4 being remembered for Bobby Orr's Cup-winning overtime goal that sent him flying), and the Boston Celtics – when Bill Russell was still just a rookie – had beaten the St. Louis Hawks to win their first NBA championship in . With championship showdowns between teams from Boston and St. Louis seen in Major League Baseball, the NFL, NBA and NHL, it is the only showdown between teams from two specific locations, that has been seen in each of these four leagues. St. Louis would finally end Boston's dominance against them when the St. Louis Blues defeated the Boston Bruins in the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The Red Sox's win in the World Series ended the "Curse of the Bambino", which supposedly had afflicted the team ever since the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1919. Pitcher Derek Lowe and other players said that the team would no longer hear "1918!" at Yankee Stadium ever again. Kevin Millar said to all Red Sox fans: "We wanted to do it so bad for the city of Boston. To win a World Series with this on our chests, it hasn't been done since 1918. So rip up those '1918!' posters right now." Members of previous Red Sox teams who had fallen short immediately acclaimed the 2004 team, including Pesky – who had been the shortstop responsible for a fatal checking error that had allowed the Cardinals' Enos Slaughter to complete his "Mad Dash" to score the winning run in Game 7 at the old Sportsman's Park in 1946. Pesky watched the game from the visiting clubhouse and was immediately embraced by Millar, Wakefield, Schilling and others as a living representative of those previous teams as he joined the celebrations.


title: 2004 World Series

text: It also added to the recent success of Boston-area teams, following the Patriots wins in Super Bowls XXXVI and XXXVIII. With the Patriots having won Super Bowl XXXVIII the previous February, the Red Sox winning the World Series marked the first time since 1979 that the same city had a Super Bowl and World Series winner in the same year – the last city to accomplish the feat had been Pittsburgh, when the Steelers and Pirates had won Super Bowl XIII and the World Series respectively. The city would go on to record a decade of sports success from 2001 to 2011 with seven championships in the four major North American sports leagues (MLB, the NFL, the NBA and the NHL), including one in each league after the Patriots won two more Super Bowls, the Celtics won the 2008 NBA championship and the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011. Following the Bruins winning the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, "Boston Globe" columnist Dan Shaughnessy ranked all seven championships and chose the Red Sox' 2004 World Series win as the greatest Boston sports championship during the ten-year span.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Red Sox Manager Terry Francona became the third manager in four years to win a World Series in his first year as manager, following Bob Brenly of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks and Jack McKeon of the 2003 Florida Marlins.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Massachusetts US Senator, Boston resident and future Secretary of State John Kerry, who had been named Democratic presidential nominee in Boston that summer, wore a Red Sox cap the day after the series ended. He also said that the Red Sox had "[come] back against all odds and showed America what heart is". His Republican opponent, incumbent President George W. Bush, made a phone call from the White House to congratulate the team's owner John W. Henry, president Larry Lucchino and manager Terry Francona. The team also visited Bush at the White House the following March, where he gave a speech honoring their presence, in which he asked "what took [them] so long?" A future Presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, at the time Massachusetts Governor, ceremonially helped remove the Reverse Curve road sign on Storrow Drive that had been famously spray-painted to read "Reverse the Curse" as a further marking of the end of the Curse.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The day after the Red Sox win, the "Boston Globe" more than doubled its daily press run, from 500,000 to 1.2 million copies, with the headline, "YES!!!" right across the front page.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The Red Sox held their World Series victory parade on the following Saturday, October 30. The team was transported around on 17 duck boats equipped with loudspeakers so the players could talk to the spectators. Due to large interest in the parade, it was lengthened by officials the day before to include the Charles River, so that fans could watch from the Boston and Cambridge river banks. The parade did not however, include a staged rally. The parade began at 10 a.m. local time at Fenway Park, turned east onto Boylston Street, then west onto Tremont Street and Storrow Drive before entering the river. One of the lanes on Massachusetts Avenue had to be closed to accommodate members of the media filming the parade as it passed under the Harvard Bridge. Ramírez was handed a sign by one of the spectators part of the way through the parade, which read, "Jeter is playing golf today. This is better!" He held on to this sign for the rest of the parade, in a similar way to what Tug McGraw said after the Philadelphia Phillies won the 1980 World Series. Over three million people were estimated to have attended the parade, making it the largest gathering ever in the city of Boston.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The Red Sox were presented with their World Series rings on April 11, 2005, at a ceremony before the team's first home game of the 2005 season. Former Red Sox players Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Carl Yastrzemski were all present, as were the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra. During the ceremony, five red pennants were first unfurled at the top of the Green Monster, showing the years of each of the Red Sox' previous World Series wins. A much larger banner was unfurled that covered the entire wall and read "2004 World Series Champions". James Taylor, himself a Boston native and a Red Sox fan, performed "America the Beautiful", and 19 members of the United States Army and Marine Corps who had fought in the Iraq War walked onto the field. Moments of silence were held to honor the deaths of Pope John Paul II, who had died nine days earlier, and former Red Sox relief pitcher, Dick Radatz. The rings were handed out by the team's owner, John W. Henry. Former Red Sox players Lowe and Dave Roberts, who had joined the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres respectively during the off-season, were also present to collect their rings. The ceremony, which lasted around an hour, ended with stars from other Boston sports teams, including the Celtics' Bill Russell, the Bruins' Bobby Orr and the Patriots' Tedy Bruschi and Richard Seymour, throwing ceremonial first pitches. The presence of Bruschi and Seymour made evident the recent success of Boston-area teams. The day after the Red Sox won the Series, Shaughnessy and the rest of the news media said of the Red Sox home opener: "The team in the third-base dugout? The New York Yankees, Sweet." In a sign of respect, the Red Sox rivals came to the top step of the visitors dugout and gave the Red Sox a standing ovation. The Fenway Park crowd burst into cheers when Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera was introduced, breaking from the tradition of fans booing opposing players, due to him having blown save opportunities in Games 4 and 5 of the 2004 ALCS. Rivera was a good sport about it and laughed while waving his arms in mock appreciation of the fans.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The following August, Simon & Schuster published "Faithful", a book which collected e-mails about the Red Sox between American writers and Red Sox fans Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan during the 2004 season. In March 2005, Houghton Mifflin Company published "Reversing the Curse", a book by Shaughnessy, author of the bestselling "The Curse of the Bambino", chronicling the 2004 Red Sox season. ESPN's Bill Simmons published "Now I Can Die In Peace", a collection of his columns with updated annotations and notes, including columns for each of the last four games of the ALCS and each World Series game – with Game 4 being a running diary. The Farrelly Brothers altered the ending of their 2005 film "Fever Pitch" – which includes appearances by Damon, Nixon and Varitek – to coincide with the actual end of the series. They and their crew, plus stars Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon, flew to St. Louis and Barrymore and Fallon attended Game 4 in character, complete with the two of them running onto the field at Busch Stadium and kissing once the final out was made.


title: 2004 World Series

text: On May 28, 2014, the team reunited at Fenway Park as the Red Sox celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the historic championship as they hosted the Atlanta Braves. Ramirez threw out the first pitch to Varitek but was cut off by Damon in a reversal of Ramirez once cutting off Damon's throw from center field during a game.


title: 2004 World Series

text: On the Cardinals' side, the media expressed disappointment at the team's failure to win a game in the Series after recording the team's best regular season in over 60 years. Many reporters believed that the Cardinals had not played up to their usual standard, and much of the blame was directed at Rolen, Edmonds and Reggie Sanders, three of the Cardinals' best hitters, who had combined for one hit in 39 at bats in the series.


title: 2004 World Series

text: It also marked the last time that Busch Memorial Stadium would host a World Series. The Cardinals moved to the new Busch Stadium in their championship season of , which was their first since .


title: 2004 World Series

text: Both the Red Sox and Cardinals made the playoffs the following season. The Red Sox lost to the eventual champions the Chicago White Sox, in the American League Division Series, who would go on to end their own curse in the Curse of the Black Sox. The Cardinals, in a repeat meeting of the previous season's National League Championship Series, lost to the Houston Astros. However, the city of Boston would see more success when the New England Patriots won Super Bowl XXXIX, three months after the Red Sox won the World Series, giving the greater Boston area its third championship in 12 months, making it the first time since 1980 that any city had two Super Bowl winners and a World Series winner in a period of the same length.


title: 2004 World Series

text: Both teams also won one of the next three World Series in successive years; the Cardinals, as noted above, in , beating the Detroit Tigers in five games, becoming the first team since the New York Yankees in , to win a World Series championship in their first season in a new stadium (which the Yankees themselves would also do in ). Tony La Russa would achieve the distinction that he could not achieve in 2004 of managing World Series winners in both leagues. He would continue to wear number 10 to pay tribute to Sparky Anderson afterwards.


title: 2004 World Series

text: The Red Sox won the World Series the following year, sweeping the Colorado Rockies in four games. Tom Werner, chairman of the Red Sox, and team president Larry Lucchino said that the 2004 championship was "for the parents and grandparents who had suffered through the Curse of the Bambino", while 2007 was "for children, grandchildren, and for Red Sox Nation".


title: 2004 World Series

text: Both teams would meet again in the 2013 World Series, with the Red Sox winning the championship in six games. It was the first time Boston clinched the World Series at its home field, Fenway Park, since 1918. Boston would win an additional title in 2018 when they defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4 games to 1.