I: A Writer's Progress (part one)–Michael Maltese, like so many other giants of animation, spent the first part of his life in New York City. Born in February 1908, he was raised, primarily by his mother, on the Lower East Side. His upbringing was poor and tenement-based, so his prospects for the future were limited. He spent part of his adolescence apprenticed to a plumber who installed pipes in new apartment buildings. One morning in January, Maltese arrived at a construction site to find that the suits he had left there the night before had frozen. He vowed at that moment that whatever his life's work, it could not involve thawing his clothes every day. Information about the early lives of many cartoon pioneers is vague and sometimes contradictory. In his book Hollywood Cartoons, author Michael Barrier tells us that Maltese's first job in animation (at the relatively mature age of twenty-seven) was at the Fleischer Studio. Meanwhile, in his book Chuck Amuck, director Chuck Jones claims that Maltese got into cartoons via Terrytoons, another New York City group. Jones claims that Maltese secured the job after commenting that the rickety Terrytoons elevator should carry a plaque reading "Good to the Last Drop". Despite the fact that Jones knew Maltese very well, Barrier gives a better account of Maltese's early career, so his version is probably the more accurate. According to Hollywood Cartoons, Maltese started at Fleischer as a cel painter and, during his year on the job, rose to the position of middleman. Maltese was eventually fired for asking to be promoted to assistant animator: a no-no in the rigid caste system of the early animation industry. After its decommissioning... in the middle of paper... graphic cartoons. Many people agree that Jones' Tom and Jerry is not particularly good, but the best are, of course, written by Michael Maltese. Chuck Jones (d. 2002) became a beloved elder statesman of animation, and there's no denying that his contributions to the medium were enormous. Even Jones, however, was willing to admit that his best work was done in collaboration with Michael Maltese. The list of great short films produced by these two men is long and impressive in its quality. An abbreviated version of that list appears below (along with links to the appropriate Wikipedia pages). Below this list are some of the best deals presented in watchable form. This is, of course, the best way to appreciate the Jones/Maltese legacy, through the films themselves. Michael Maltese died in February 1981 at the age of seventy-three..