Q1: Did Mel Blanc voice Tom Cat's screams in the cartoons?
A1: Mel Blanc voiced Tom’s vocalizations in early 1940s entries such as The Midnight Snack, but co-creator William Hanna recorded the most famous, sustained screams heard from 1942 through the late 1950s.
Q2: Why does the Tom and Jerry scream sound so high-pitched?
A2: William Hanna performed the yell in an unrestrained falsetto register. MGM sound engineers then cut the tape at the transient peak and subtly pitched the track up during post-production to cut through heavy orchestral music.
Q3: Is Tom's scream part of the public domain?
A3: No. The sound recordings remain the copyrighted property of Warner Bros. Discovery, which acquired the MGM cartoon archives and the Hanna-Barbera sound library via Turner Entertainment.
