Scott Bradley

One of the most important composers if not the best of cartoon music composers in Hollywood golden age of cartoons. Staff musician for Disney (1929), with Ub Iwerks (1930-34), music director for Harman-Ising, and, from 1937, with MGM. Scored more than 300 cartoons, highlighting the antics of Tom & Jerry, Droopy, Barney Bear, Screwy Squirrel, and George & Junior, and the one-shot gag films that were Avery's specialty. During the early 1930s, he also composed tone poems and oratorios, performed in concert in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Was the sole music director of MGM's cartoon studio throughout its history (1937-1957). In 1954 MGM terminated Bradley's weekly contract but retained his services as an independent contractor, paying him $1000 for each cartoon score. MGM closed its animation department in 1957 and Bradley retired.

In an 1977 interview with Mike Barrier and Milt Gray, Scott Bradley told them that in 1934 Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising were looking for a composer for their new cartoon: "they had a picture they wanted to do at Paramount Studios, and they were looking for someone to do the music. Frank Marsales was working for Rudy and Hugh, but his hand was injured. . . . I was at home and not working at the time, and they called me. I had never met them nor they met me. . . . I knew they were working with a small budget, so instead of charging them $500.00 for the job, I gave them the music for $250.00. ".

Shawn Roney, in his thesis A Frog, A Cat, A Mouse, A "Deranged Genius" and More: The Story of MGM Cartoons (1998), quoted his interview with Hanna:"I worked close with Scott Bradley because I did all of the timing of the Tom and Jerrys and did a lot of my work on bar sheets, where the actual notes were written down. . . . And he was always very cooperative and - in working closely with him - why, we could almost tell him exactly, or I could tell him exactly, what we had in mind and we wanted and he always seemed to be able to fulfill that. ... We worked with Scott on a daily basis. He was [a] much older man than we were; and as far [as] having any social life together, we didn't. But he was certainly a pleasure to work with and a great talent and a lot of fun.".