Acme Corporation
The ACME Corporation is a name for the fictional corporation in the Looney Tunes and Disney universe, appearing in various Warner Bros. cartoon shorts, where it was used as a running gag. Origin. Acme originates from the Greek (ακμή, English transliteration: "akmē") meaning summit, highest point, extremity or peak. It is not an acronym standing for either "A Company Making Everything", "American Companies Make Everything", or "American Company that Manufactures Everything", as is falsely believed. During the 1920s, the word was used widespread in the names of companies and businesses because it was listed first in the alphabetized  business telephone directories, such as the Yellow Pages, and also implied being the best. Also, products' names began to contain it, such as anvils, in early Sears catalogues. In the cartoon, it is used in an ironic sense because the products are often failure-prone or dangerously explosive. Subsequently, it began to be depicted in films, starting with the silent era films such as the 1920 "Neighbors" with Buster Keaton and the 1922 "Grandma's Boy" with Harold Lloyd, continuing with TV series, such as in early episodes of "I Love Lucy" and "The Andy Griffith Show", comic strips and  cartoons, especially those made by , and commercials. It briefly appeared in the Walt Disney Donald Duck episode "Cured Duck" released in 1945. It also appears as the ACME Mining company owned by the villain Rod Lacy in the 1952 Western "The Duel at Silver Creek" and in a 1938 short "Violent Is the Word for Curly" where The Three Stooges appear as gas station attendants at an "Acme" Service Station. The other cartoon franchises that used this name include Pink Panther Show, the popular show of the time. The name Acme was used on several episodes of the show's  first installment in 1969, one of them being "Pink Pest Control". Warner Brothers animator Chuck Jones described the reason 'Acme' was used in cartoons at the time: Whistles and traffic lights. A whistle named 'Acme City', made from mid-1870s onwards by J Hudson & Co, followed by the "Acme Thunderer", and "Acme siren" in 1895, were the early brand names bearing the names with the word 'Acme'. At the time the Acme Traffic Signal Company produced the traffic lights in Los Angeles, the city where Warner Bros. was making its cartoons. Instead of today's amber/yellow traffic light, bells rang  as the small red and green lights with "Stop" and "Go" semaphore arms changed — a process that took five seconds. Fictional depiction. The company is never clearly defined in "Road Runner" cartoons but appears to be a conglomerate which produces every product type imaginable, no matter how elaborate or extravagant—most of which never work as desired or expected (some products do work very well, but backfire against the coyote). In the "Road Runner" cartoon "Beep, Beep", it was referred to as "Acme Rocket-Powered Products, Inc." based in Fairfield, New Jersey. Many of its products appear to be produced  specifically for Wile E. Coyote; for example, the Acme Giant Rubber Band, subtitled "(For Tripping Road Runners)". While their products leave much to be desired, Acme delivery service is second to none; Wile E. can merely drop an order into a mailbox (or enter an order on a website, as in the "" movie), and have the product in his hands within seconds. In film and TV. Examples which specifically reference the Wile E. Coyote cartoon character include: