The Origins and Lively Life of Tom and Jerry across Time
Tom and Jerry did not begin as a cat and a mouse in MGM cartoon movies and comics in the 1940s, but over a century before as risque characters in early 19th century London, in popular fiction written by Pierce Egan. His Life in London (first published in 1821 as a series in newspapers) portrayed two rakes despoiling the London scene, and was so popular that a play and spinoffs immediately appeared, these imitative forms continuing through to the cartoons from mid-20th century United States that we know well.
“Tom and Jerry” became a term for riotous behavior in England, as well as where mayhem was engendered: little beer selling establishments that sprang up in the 1830s were called Tom and Jerry Shops. However, the extant evidence indicates that the cocktail itself was invented in the United States. It is featured next to the mint julep in Charles Joseph Latrobe’s famous travelogue, The Rambler in America. In a description of drunken comportment at a Tallahassee Florida anti-temperance meeting in 1833, Latrobe writes as follows:
So, the Tom and Jerry cocktail, that which you imbibe at the Tom ‘n Jerry Party, is itself a 19th century invention, and, being so inventive a people, yet another American contribution to world peace. Read all about it in the following links and text.
1. A free Google E-book of Pierce Egan’s Life in London: Or, The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and His Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom, Accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in Their Rambles and Sprees Through the Metropolis
2. A brief scholarly biography of Egan https://www.dib.ie/biography/egan-pierce-a2898
3. A scholarly account of Egan and his creation of the Tom and Jerry characters in the Regency.
EganintheRegency
4. A calendar for the Adelphi Theatre in London, showing the craze for Tom and Jerry theater in the 1820s. AdelphiTheatre
5. Free prints of the Cruikshank illustrations accompanying the book and newspaper editions.
CruikshankIlustrations
6. The Gutenberg Edition of The True History of Tom and Jerry or, The Day and Night Scenes, of Life in London from the Start to the Finish which is the mid19th century politician and writer Charles Hindley’s later discussion of the “tedious” work in its setting. HindleyonEgan
7. A dubious Wiki account but there is the current libation. TheCocktail
8. Proof that the Tom and Jerry alcoholic beverage existed in the United States by 1833. Latrobe’s account:
The Bangor Daily Whig and Courier, on 15 July 1841, published a temperance ditty called “Death’s Allies.” It condemned, among other libations, the blessed Tom and Jerry. 1841Reference
9. Further evidence of its antebellum American origins: Esteemed Arizona State University Professor of History Phil VanderMeer swears that he has seen archival proof of the following incident: in 1846, Henry Eddy, an Illinois state representative from Shawneetown, rose in the halls of the state legislature and began speaking. It immediately “became obvious to us all that Eddy was not in a fit condition at that time to address the House.” The next day he explained that since it had been a cold morning he “had taken a stiff horn of ‘Tom and Jerry'” to warm himself and it “flew to his head.” “I never did such a thing before, and but for the d—d ‘Tom and Jerry,’ would not have done it then.”
…and should we need a bit more, let’s have Nathaniel Hawthorne speak of Boston drinking, from his American-Notebooks, the entry for 7 May 1850: — tipplers, either taking a solitary glass, or treating all round, veteran topers, flashy young men, visitors from the country, the various petty officers connected with the law, whom the vicinity of the Court-House brings hither. Chiefly, they drink plain liquors, gin, brandy, or whiskey, sometimes a Tom and Jerry….
10. An excellent article on the history and delight of the Tom and Jerry as cocktail and as material culture by Eric Felten of the Wall Street Journal FeltenontheTnJ
11. A thoroughly cool article by David A. Brewer of Ohio State on the Regency mania for Tom and Jerry. That mania inspired Thackeray, who had a grim assessment of Egan’s literary talents, to say of Robert and George Cruikshank’s illustrations that “the pictures—oh! The pictures are noble still.” The article has interactive maps, the illustrations scattered through, and a bunch of worthwhile observations on the whole London scene. BreweronEganandLondon
12. Tom and Jerry were used in theater and cartoons well before the cat and mouse we know from Hanna and Barbara of MGM, which began in the 1940s. Here are descriptions with links to earlier cartoon movies.
Even the later version MGM version is now getting along in years…..
13. “Life in London from Egan to Dickens: Regency Innocence versus Victorian Experience” by Stephen Carver. 2013
Life in London from Egan to Dickens: Regency Innocence versus Victorian Experience
A well-written and entertaining piece that sets up the Regency fops as city lovers and fun lovers, in contrast to Dickensian, Victorian gloom. Thackery was the main pack leader in the attack on Egan. Carver concludes, “Life in London craze had run its course. Tom and Jerry moved to the New York stage and had a lethal cocktail named after them, which William Hanna appropriated for his famous animated characters a century later, keeping, in some small way, the innocence and anarchy of Egan alive and kicking.”