Leon Schlesinger and the Looney Tunes He Let Happen!

Born May 20, 1884, cartoon producer Leon Schlesinger would be 126 years old today.

Intrigued by the advent of sound film in 1928, businessman Schlesinger began producing short soundies and selling them to Warner Brothers. With the success of Mickey Mouse looming large as a money maker, Leon signed to ex-Disney animators Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising to a contract to produce animation as well, and so were born the Looney Tunes with Harman & Ising's character of Bosko.

When the Harman/Ising team began to grumble for more money for the kind of experimentation Disney was doing, Schlesinger gave them the boot and started from scratch, keeping another ex-Disneyite Friz Freling (whom Leon put in charge of creating the Merrie Melodies series) and hiring young up and comers like Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones and the great Tex Avery, and moving the whole operation right on to a dilapidated and unused part of the Warner lot affectionately dubbed Termite Terrace...and the rest is history.

He even made a few appearances in Warner cartoons...here's a little Thursday cartoon break for ya!



Leon sold the franchise outright to Warner's in 1944.

Schlesinger is not really the kind of guy I usually spotlight in this blog. A pure businessman (which, agreed...is a necessary evil) Leon was not a creator. He had no sense of humor and no talent at storytelling, drawing, music,...any of the things that I deem worthwhile.

But he did a very important thing. He knew that he didn't know anything.

He gave the boys at Termite Terrace the reigns...gave them the directive that they make good cartoons that would make him a profit...then he got the hell out of the way.

In today's world of publicly held companies this isn't done. Need the approval of too many people to do nothing. When Aunt Gladys in Nebraska and the retard mook in Iowa with the 401K he wants to micro manage are the stock holders and in charge, you have too many people in the way.

Sherm Coen over at his great blog Cartoon Snap recently posted a video that shows how companies should be run and the way successful companies actually ARE run. Check it out here it's a must see.

When I saw this and realized Leon's birthday was coming up, I saw the connection immediately. When you have Clampett, Avery, Jones, Freleng, Frank Tashlin, Robert McKimson and Art Davis working for you, shouldn't you know to just shut your pie-hole and count your money?

Thanks Leon! For just stepping back and letting it happen!

Bob Clampett - Animation, Television, Comedy Pioneer

Born May 8, 1913, Bob Clampett would be 97 years old today!

One of the young pups who stepped up to directing at Leon Schlesinger's 'Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies" studio after Tex Avery departed, Bob had worked for years as an animator for both Avery and Friz Freleng where he honed his chops.

Clampett's lunacy and pure "cartoon"-ism in his work is truly inspired. Always forsaking the drudgery of storytelling if a good gag could be had, made his cartoons some of the best.

I always felt, that while Avery's zaniness was a natural, Bob's was learned and reached for. Over the years my opinion has changed somewhat and I really love the haphazard style which achieved true cartooning brilliance.

Here's a couple of Bob's great cartoons. Over the last 11 months of doing this blog I'm sometimes frustrated when I embed a video from YouTube and then somewhere down the line it gets removed because of copyright fears by YT or worse, embedding is suddenly denied by the poster. If you ever happen to see a broken link to a video on my blog, please drop me an e-mail and I'll find a replacement for it.

Now for the cartoons...it IS Saturday morning after all!







Somewhere during his time at "Termite Terrace" Bob worked with the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs on nights and weekends, and he was working on a proposed series of theatrical cartoons based on Burroughs' character John Carter, Warlord of Mars.

An ambitious undertaking for sure. Other than a few characters in Disney features (Snow White) and the Fleischer Bros. "Superman" shorts for Paramount, realistic anatomical characters were not really done. A cartoon figure is much easy to animate than one that appears like you or I.

I'm a big fan of the John Carter books and was surprised to learn of these on a "Beany & Cecil" DVD a few years back...these tests look pretty damn good. I would have liked to see them completed.

After leaving Warner Bros., Bob moved his attention to a new medium, television.

Understanding that animation would be too time consuming and cost-prohibitive for a medium that was in it's infancy and cranked out product so quickly (if Bob knew this in 1949...why haven't producer's learned this in 2010?????????) he turned to another love of his, puppetry.

Creating a cast of characters as puppets and assembling voice talents he had worked with in theatrical animation (Daws Butler and Stan Freberg) they set out to do a daily show on Los Angeles station KTLA. Writing over-the-top horrible puns and sometimes adult oriented humor, this kiddie show smash became just as big a hit with the parents.

Albert Einstein once got up from a Harvard staff meeting and announced he had to go..."It's Time for Beany"...

In the 1960's Bob had seen the success that Hanna-Barbera and others had doing limited animation for TV and produced a syndicated cartoon version of the show.

But remember...we only talk about GOOD things on this blog.

Thanks Bob! For being one of the real pioneers, learning the limits of and stretching every medium you dipped your foot into!

Tex Avery - The King of Cartoons!!

This Friday, February 26th, will be the 102nd anniversary of the birth of Fred "Tex" Avery! Maybe the single most "cartoony" cartoon director of all time!

Tex came into animation in the early 1930's right as everyone was trying to figure it all out. Over at Disney they were looking for more and more realistic ways of animating figures. Everywhere else they seemed to either be imitating Disney or just going through the motions animating figures to musical tracks to exploit the new sound medium. Tex stepped in to seemingly remind everyone that they were cartoonist first and foremost.

Why would you spend all your energy emulating realistic movement? Cartoon movements are better!

Tex stretched the boundaries of what cartoons would be and most of the exaggerated movements are humor we associate with cartoons, all came from the direction of Avery.

That's him on your left below:

After showing the boys at Termite Terrace over at Warner's how to do it, Tex accepted a job offer at MGM to come make cartoons for them starting in the early 1940's.

During his tenure at Warners he truly defined Bugs Bunny's character as well as developing Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. At MGM he created George & Junior, Screwy Squirrel, Droopy and did a whole slew of non-regular character cartoons.

Tex at his drawing board at MGM with producer Fred Quimby over his shoulder trying to look like he understands or gives 2 shits:

I could go on forever describing and naming the great cartoons that came from this man's mind over the 30 years he worked in theatrical animation...the best way to celebrate him on his birthday though, is to sit back and watch a few of his cartoons...

The first cartoon he did for MGM...his take on Hitler from 1942..."Blitz Wolf":



The sexiest cartoon character ever created...um, I might call a toss up between her and Betty Boop:



A trilogy of life in tomorrow from the man...

"The House of Tomorrow":



"The Farm of Tomorrow":



"The Car of Tomorrow":

For those of you who want to get even more in-depth with this modern day genius...here's a great documentary about the man. This is the link to part one, follow the links at the end of the video to see the whole thing. It will be time WELL invested!

Thanks Tex! For letting cartoons be cartoons. Nobody did it better!

Frank "Tish Tash" Tashlin - Cartoon-y Director

Born this day in 1913, cinematic cartoon director and cartoony live action director Frank Tashlin would be 97 years old today!

Frank Tashlin was the guy who's mind was always on his next job. He was never complacent in any position he held, but rather was thinking of the things he wanted to do next.

I kind of understand this. Sometimes it takes so much effort and work to get somewhere, that by the time you get there, you've expended all the energy you have for that thing and your interest falls to what's coming next.

Tashlin went to work for Van Beuren animation studios in the early 1930's. Van Beuren was the knock-off version of Fleischer Brothers, the work there was cheap, hurried and uninspired. In this field though, he gained a reputation as being a very fast animator and was soon heading for Warner Brothers Cartoons in Hollywood.

While working for Leon Schlesinger's Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes unit, he began moonlighting, doing a newspaper comic strip called "Van Boring", a jab at his old boss Van Beuren in New York, and was moderately successful. Then one day Leon (who was as sticky fingered a business man as you ever met) told Frank he wanted to get a piece of the action as well, since Frank officially worked for him. Frank told Leon where to go, and left Warners.

After a couple of years, Warners lost director Tex Avery to MGM, and Schlesinger (sleezeball though he was with money, he still knew talent...that's how he MADE money after all) hired Tashlin back, this time as a director.

Here's some of Tash's work from this period:









Termite Terrace (as the Looney Tunes animation facility was nicknamed) was right on the Warner Brothers movie lot, so during the day as Frank was working on cartoons, he would see the live action movie stars passing by and would often step out and chat with them. You'll also see an odd thing in Tash's cartoon work...it's not cartoon camera angles he's using, but rather more cinematic shots like you'd see in a live-action film.

That's right, while Tash was a successful cartoon director, his mind was moving on to being a film director.

So he moved on too.

The ironic thing is, while his cartoon style was styled after dramatic angles you'd get in live action, once he got into directing films, he was a cartoonist all the way. The gags he wrote were pure cartoon over the tip fun and the situations he created were bigger than life. Which is why cartoons are better than life.

Here's a trailer for a Tashlin film made in the first years of a new music the kids are calling "Rock and Roll". Cartoon and Rock and Roll fun!



Below is the first segment of a Martin and Lewis film (their last) directed by Tashlin. It's really worth viewing the entire thing and YouTube has it all if you just continue to follow the links at the end of each segment. In this modern age of "huge event comic book" movies, this may be the best live-action-cartoon-about comic books ever made. Pure fun and inventiveness. It also got Shirley MacLaine (as The Bat Lady) a permanent spot in my "Spank Bank", all thanks to Frank's leg fetish! She's been there since I was a kid and first saw this gem.



Of course while Tashlin was working as a big budget feature film director...his mind was on his next task. He wrote and illustrated a few books, such as "The Possum That Didn't" and "The World That Isn't". While oft thought of as children's books, these are the best kind, one's where it takes an adult mind to fully understand what's being said.



In the early 1960's, while at MGM, former co-Termite Terrace director Chuck Jones directed a cartoon based on Tash's best known book "The Bear That Wasn't".

Tash passed away in 1972, after a long career...or should I say careers?...no career, doing everything that interested him. Animation, Cartooning, Directing, Writing, Illustrating (putting really good looking actresses in leg-revealing outfits), I'm very jealous.


Thanks Frank, for having fun with your life and doing some really great work while you were doing it!

Carl Stalling: Maestro of Symphonies, Melodies and Tunes

Born this date in 1891, Carl Stalling would be 118 years old today.

The musical heart and genius behind 100's of cartoons, Carl taught us about the rhythm and timing of good comedy.

He first befriended a young Walt Disney back in Kansas City, where Walt was producing his "Laugh-O-Gram" and "Alice" cartoons and Carl was a movie house organist. After the success of "Steamboat Willie" and Walt's foray into "sound cartoons", Walt sent for Carl to join his new crew in Hollywood.

Front row above: Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney, Carl Stalling

Carl did indeed join up and added much to the effort. It was Carl who first suggested the "Silly Symphonies" series.

Above: Carl and Ub seated with Walt standing directly over them.

When Ub Iwerks and Walt had their falling out, Carl went with Ub and worked at his studio, creating music for "Flip the Frog", "Willie Whopper" and Ub's "Comi-Color" series'.

After Ub's failure to compete with Disney, Carl made his last move. He joined the team at Warner Brothers, where 3 other Disney confederates had established a real cartoonists haven in the "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" series, Hugh Harman, Rudoph Ising and Friz Freleng.

This is where Carl truly blossomed and left us with a legacy of sounds and music that has become a part of all of us.

Carl's training as a movie theatre pianist/organist had ingrained in him such a library of classical music, and adding to that Warner Music Publishing's vast library which was easily stamped on his grey matter he created a whole new way of cartoon and film storytelling.



...and the "kids" still rock it today!

How boring would life be without the creativity and musical ability of this man running through the backs of our heads?

Very!

Thanks Carl!

Robert McKimson: The quiet Looney Tooner

Robert McKimson was born this day in 1910, he would have been 99 years old.

Robert and his brothers Charles and Tom came to Warner Bros. in the mid 1930's and all worked as animators there. Robert became a director by happenstance as other directors left the fold and even dropped back to animation at least once before being forced back to directing. A quiet personality, he just loved drawing.

He was able to draw in very clean lines. His pencil work never had the drawn-over, sketchy feel that others had...it came out of his hand full born...a consummate draftsman. He was also one of (if not the) fastest. In fact, in the 1940's he was in an automobile accident and suffered a concussion and when he recovered was even faster. He said he had gained the ability to envision the cartoon and then just draw it...exactly as he saw it play out in his head.

As the 1940's came to a close, Warner's had stabilized to just 3 animation units. The dynamic Chuck Jones and straightforward/experienced Friz Freleng headed two and Bob McKimson was the third. Kind of looked at as the utility player on the lot.

I disagree though. Robert McKimson did some of the funniest time tested and proven cartoons to come out of the lot.

He created some of Warner's best characters too.

The Tasmanian Devil:


Robert created the devil and then was forced by the head office to not use him much. Told he just wasn't very appealing, Robert soon dropped him. Believe it or not gentle readers, as steeped in your consciousness as the Tasmanian Devil is, he only appeared in 5 cartoons.

Hippety Hopper and Sylvester Jr:

Sheer genius that the simple premise of the baby kangaroo mistaken as a giant mouse by Sylvester and his son could go through as many variations. And all from McKimson wanting a new dynamic to place Sylvester in.

Speedy Gonzales:

Was created by McKimson for the cartoon "Cat-Tails for Two" and soon spun off to a series with Sylvester helmed by freleng. As you can see, the mouse looked a little different under McKimson's hands.

Barnyard Dawg and Foghorn Leghorn:

Easily my favorite McKimson comedy team. Whether Foghorn is dealing with Henery Hawk, Miss Prissy, Eggbert, a boxing bandy rooster or whatever in the forefront of any particular cartoon...there's always this unexplained sub-plot. Whatever the action, everything stops while Foghorn and the Dawg stop to "F" with each other...then back to the main plot...then back to "F"ing with each other. Why? I don't know. But it's "F"ing funny every time!

Here's some examples of Robert's work.

Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dawg:

Sylvester and Hippety Hopper:

And finally a classic that is creeping in your subconscious. In 1955 there was a strike at Warner's and Bob sat home for a month or so. In that time he wrote and nearly single-handedly drew and animated this cartoon. Creating an icon of the cartoon world while at it.

Thanks Robert!

Chuck Jones - A Thinking Man's Cartoon Evolution!

Born today in 1912, Chuck Jones would have been 97 years old today.

In the course of his career at Warner Brothers, Chuck evolved as much as the characters themselves.

When Chuck first came to Warner's in the mid-1930's as an animator, he was just that. Another cog in the machine along with others, learning how this fledgling medium worked. Learning how to get ideas across in motion, motion created with 24 still drawings per second.

He was good at what he did though, and put thought behind what he did as well. So as directors moved on away from Warner's and new directors were needed, and in 1937 at 25 years old, Chuck Jones assumed the directors chair.

Unlike his counterparts Tex Avery, Bob Clampett and Frank Tashlin who were pushing the envelope and beginning to make some of the wackiest cartoons to hit the silver screen and truly setting the Looney Tunes-Merrie Melodies style, Chuck was interested in studying the Disney technique. Utilizing more natural movements and...I hate to say it because there is benefit to this...a treacly, cutesy type of characterization. Case in point:



After a few years of this, and of really honing his craft, the other directors pulled him aside and basically told him, "Hey, this ain't Disney...we're making FUNNY cartoons...get with the program!". So he did. He showed 'em.





You can't really cartoon or lampoon anything without knowing how to do the real thing. And Chuck knew. By the 50's he was doing some of the funniest, most Warner Brothery-est cartoons made.







Chuck was a thinking man. He directed these characters from a psychological point of view. And he was a true artist. By the 1960's he was wanting to expand the medium all the more. And he did, with cartoons like this:



Of course after Warner's closed their doors in 1963, Chuck went on to many more things. A little inconsistent at times, but always good for his desire to try something new. Here's a brief take of Chuck on himself.



Thanks for thinking about what you were doing Chuck. I'm still thinking about it!

Raymond Scott - "Powerhouse"

Raymond Scott was born 101 years ago today in 1908.

An American jazz composer, a pianist, a band leader, an engineer and inventor of electronic instruments, who's more famous to most of you than you know.

Raymond Scott was a progressive jazz player and composer of idiosyncratic music, one day he sold his songs to Warner Brothers to publish. Carl Stalling, the musical director for "Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies" was a big fan and Scott's music was used in over 120 classic cartoons.

Cartoons you have known by heart your whole life.

See if when listening to this you can't picture Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Mac & Tosh "The Goofy Gophers", Sylvester and Tweetie and others.

The video available online of Raymond and his quintet playing this is off-limits to embed here, but here from a theatrical musical short of the late 1930's (?) are "The Philharmonicas playing his song, "Powerhouse".

Enjoy!

Thanks Raymond...you taught me what kind of music should be played in a factory!

Harmonizing Harman-Ising! Silly-Looney-Merrie-Happy...

Today would have been Hugh Harman's 106th birthday.

Hugh, along with his partner Rudolph (his birthday was pre-empted about a month ago here) Ising are responsible for a great deal of the golden age of animation from the 1920's-1940's and beyond.

Though they didn't really create any lasting characters that you would remember today, through their pursuit of furthering the are of animation, they are responsible for creating the venues which would give stage to characters by others.

They began in Kansas City, Missouri working for Walt Disney's Laugh-O-Gram studios and came west with him to California for the formation of "The Disney Brothers Studio". There they worked on the "Alice in Cartoonland", "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" and "Mickey Mouse" series. Creative/personal/monetary differences with Walt forced them to leave the studio.

It was a ripe time creatively and technologically in the country. The Depression had hit us, so peoples entrepreneurial spirit came to the forefront. Hugh and Rudy produced a pilot film to shop around to the major movie studios, to try and begin an animation department there all their own. The character was Bosko.

And here's that very film...that's Rudolph Ising you see interacting with Bosko.

They sold the cartoon to Warner Brothers and "Looney Tunes" was born. Taking a tip from Walt and his "Silly Symphonies" series it originally was a series of musical cartoons. Here's the very first official "Looney Tunes" based on the popular song of the day "Singin' in the Bathtub" here's "Sinkin' in the Bathtub" with Bosko.

They spent the next couple of years at Warner's also creating the "Merrie Melodies" series. Wanting to expand the technique and appeal of animation, they were constantly squabbling for larger budgets and were let go from Warner's.

They went to MGM and created the "Happy Harmonies" series.

You can see that in the mid to late 1930's, Bosko became a much more realistic character and much more racially offensive by today's standards.

But finally today, historians can acknowledge the influence the boys had...pictured below on Warner's last official Looney Tunes DVD release from 2008...Bosko made the cover along with Bugs Bunny and the rest of the better known characters.

At MGM they also had financial disagreements with the head office and were eventually let go. By this time the studios were all set up with cartoon studios of their own as well as their own producers and directors. Hugh and Rudy faded into the sunset.

But between the boys work at Disney, Warner's and MGM, the stage was set for countless other cartoon characters to come along. Where would Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig have played out their comic adventures without the stage that Hugh and Rudy built for them? They didn't create the characters that came after, but they established the forum for them to flourish.

Thanks Hugh!

"I'll Git You, Yuh Long Eared Galloot"

Born in 1906, Isadore "Friz" Freleng would have been 103 years old today.


Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Friz grew up with a penchant for drawing. One day in the mid-1920's he answered an ad for an errand boy/guy Friday in a beginning cartoon studio downtown. Errand boy meant they wanted cheap artists, and Friz knew it. That studio was "Laugh-O-Grams", Walt Disney's new company.


Friz got there not long before the studio picked up and moved itself to Hollywood. Fellow animators Ub Iwerks, Rudoph Ising and Hugh Harman coaxed Friz to go along, but he thought he'd wait it out close to home until he saw how it panned out. It panned out pretty good, the studio was producing it's "Alice in Cartoonland" shorts and Friz eventually moved west and joined up.

Pictured above are (left to right) Friz Freleng, Walker Harman, Walt Disney, Lois Hardwick (the last of 4 girls to play "Alice"), Rudolph Ising, Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman and Roy Disney.


At one point a lot of Walt's artists defected. There were lots of different reasons, we won't go into them all here. Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising borrowed some money to make a pilot film for their own series of cartoons, Friz came along to help. That pilot was "Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid", and when it was completed Harman and Ising shopped it around to producers and a film contract. It was eventually sold to Warner Brothers and proposed as the character to launch it's animated short subject department. A new film was made, once again Friz on board, and "Looney Tunes" was born.

Above is a still from the very first "Looney Tune", "Sinking in the Bathtub".


Friz stayed on as an animator at Warner's for a couple years, then accepted a raise in pay at a position at MGM as Fred Quimby started up their animation division. His time at MGM was an unhappy one though, and he was coaxed back to Warner's as Harman & Ising were let go over financial differences and Leon Schlesinger took over production of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. He was asked to finish and fix an unfinished cartoon left behind and proved so good, he was promoted to director. And there he stayed for 30 more years.


He (along with Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and Bob Clampett) was one of the directors to develop the character of Bugs Bunny, as well as Daffy Duck and Porky Pig.

Friz had a musical background and even timed his cartoons on music sheets using the bars to time out the gags in his cartoons, instead of the standard filmmakers exposure sheets. Watch a Friz cartoon and every action, reaction, pause, expression, etc., works in rhythmic sync with Carl Stallings orchestrations.


He also was the one to team up Tweety Pie and Sylvester for the first time. Both were existing characters who had appeared solo, and Friz saw the magic of pairing the two.


Friz didn't much care for the character of Elmer Fudd. He saw this dim bulb as no match against the quick wit of Bugs, so he created Yosemite Sam. In my opinion, one of the great cartoon characters of all time. He also bears a slight resemblance to Friz himself, with his short stature and red hair...and from folks who knew him, the temper was about the same as Friz's too.

Friz in later years, paired Sylvester with Speedy Gonzales, and even created Speedy's cousin Slowpoke Rodriguez.


After Warners closed their cartoon studio in 1963, producer David Depatie partnered up with Friz to form Depatie-Freleng. One of their first commissions was to create an opening animation sequence for a Peter Sellers movie coming out.



Friz won an academy award for the opening. One of four won throughout his career.

Thanks Friz. We wish that wasn't all folks.