by E.O. Costello

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

MacARTHUR, GEN. DOUGLAS

Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific during World War II. MacArthur is remembered for many things, but perhaps most widely for his “I shall return” vow in 1942, after leaving Bataan in the Philippines. This was a promise that he would redeem in spectacular fashion two years later -- the photo of the general wading ashore on Leyte is one of the most famous of World War II.

MacArthur is briefly seen in a picture Daffy Duck salutes during his patriotic burst in Draftee Daffy (Clampett, 1945). The famous vow is referenced in Bugs Bonnets (Jones, 1956) by Elmer Fudd, right after he surfaces under a version of the famous MacArthur crushed cap, and manages to find a copy of MacArthur’s pipe, too. Fudd wades in the water in a manner not unlike the famous photo referred to above. In From A to Z-z-z-z-z (Jones, 1954) Ralph Phillips closes out his Walter Mitty/Calvin-like escapade with a MacArthur impersonation.

McCABE, NORMAN (“NORM”)
(1911 - fl. 2000)

British-born, American-raised denizen of Warner Brothers, McCabe’s is one of the hard-luck stories of Termite Terrace. Starting in the mid-1930s, McCabe became one of the leading animators at the studio. During this time he co-directed some cartoons with Bob Clampett such as The Timid Toreador (1940). His big break seemed to come in the shakeup following Tex Avery’s departure from the studio in 1941. Clampett inherited Avery’s unit, and McCabe stepped up to take Clampett’s place.

McCabe’s directorial tenure was severely handicapped by several factors. One of these was the nature of his unit. McCabe is unique among the studio’s post-1936 directors in that he made not one color cartoon. So, like Clampett before Goofy Groceries (1941), he had to make do with considerably smaller budgets.

Beck and Friedwald, in discussing McCabe’s first cartoon as solo director, Robinson Crusoe, Jr. (1941) rightly point out that the film has good art and animation, but weak gags. The same could be said of most of his directorial efforts. In addition to this, many of his cartoons are terribly dated -- most notably The Ducktators (1942) and the infamous Tokio Jokio (1943). Add to this the fact that black and white Warner Brothers cartoons, even the terribly “colorized” versions produced in the 1960s, get very little airtime today -- all this adds up to the fact that McCabe has received the least attention of any Warner Brothers director. His work is even less appreciated than Arthur Davis’, whose tenure was not much longer than that of McCabe’s, but whose work from the mid-to-late 1940s happens to all be in color and not dated by wartime gags.

McCabe deserves better. Some of the sharper-written McCabe entries, such as Confusions of a Nutzy Spy (1943) hint at what he could have accomplished had he been given better material.

McCabe left the studio to join the armed forces in 1943, and did not return to Warners after the war, choosing instead to go into other commercial work. He did eventually return to Warner Brothers when the animation studio reopened in the late 1980s -- he is given credit on some shows for producing timing sheets. Ironically, by passing on his expertise at this late date, he may be leaving a greater legacy today than he did as a director.

Credited for Tokio Jokio as Cpl. Norm McCabe.

McCARTHY, CHARLIE

Ventriloquist dummy creation of Edgar Bergen, a very popular character on the Chase and Sanborn radio show for NBC from the 1930s clear into the 1950s, when the transition was made to television. This was, incidentally, the show on opposite the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast by Orson Welles in 1938.

McCarthy makes a brief appearance walking under his own motive power, along with his long-time feuding partner, W.C. Fields, in A Star is Hatched (Freleng, 1938). Egghead, knocked dizzy in a boxing match with Biff Stew in Count Me Out (Hardaway/Dalton, 1938), appears on his knee, doing a Charlie-like voice. The appearance most consistent with his radio appearances was in Cracked Ice (Tashlin, 1938), where an off-screen McCarthy heckles the on-screen pig W.C. Squeals.

McKIMSON, CHARLES

Along with Robert and Tom (see below), one of the three McKimson brothers to work at Warner Brothers in the 30s and 40s. Unlike his brother Tom, and like Bob, he seems to have concentrated mainly on animation, with some story work.

McKimson, along with Sid Marcus, received story credit for the Robert McKimson cartoons Feather Dusted, Dime to Retire, and All Fowled Up (all from 1955).

McKIMSON, ROBERT PORTER (“BOB”)
(1911-1977)

Robert McKimson’s relatively early death probably robbed him of much of the fame that he deserved. No figure at Warner Brothers -- not Avery, not Clampett, not Jones, not even Freleng -- racked up the kind of service that Bob McKimson did. He joined the studio in 1930. His first screen credit is for Bosko’s Store in 1932, and he would continue to be in the credits continuously until the close of the studio in 1963.

McKimson had an extremely rare combination of talents that made him a formidable animator: his art was stylish, and he worked extremely fast. First Avery’s unit, later Jones’ took advantage of his exquisite draftsmanship, which had few rivals at Warners -- indeed, anywhere outside of Disney. It was, however, in the Clampett unit, to which McKimson moved around 1942, that he reached his peak as an animator. It is no coincidence that Clampett started being able to fully achieve his manic vision at this point, having such a talented top animator working with him.

It was McKimson who made the key model sheets for Bugs Bunny in October 1942 and in 1943. These played a pivotal role in shaping the definitive Bugs. He also drew the famous publicity pose of Bugs with a carrot, leaning on a tree, originally drawn for an Easter display at a Los Angeles department store.

McKimson was the logical successor to Frank Tashlin’s unit when the latter left in 1944 to pursue a career in live action. His early work seemed to fulfill the great promise of his promotion. Walky Talky Hawky (1946) introduced Foghorn Leghorn and was one of McKimson’s two Oscar-nominated cartoons. McKimson directed the classic A-Lad-In His Lamp (1948) and Rebel Rabbit (1949), as well as two spectacularly funny cartoons: A Ham in a Role (1949) with the Goofy Gophers, and the classic Bugs outing Hillbilly Hare (1950). See the entry for Hillbilly Hare for the complete lyrics of the square dance sequence: a highlight of McKimson’s directorial career.

Alas, McKimson’s unit would suffer more than any other with the changes that took place at Warner Brothers in the 1950s. The most significant change would be the loss of Warren Foster to the Freleng unit, and his subsequent replacement by Tedd Pierce. Sadly, this ushered in an age of highly formulaïc cartoons from McKimson’s unit. Gone was the anarchic spark that made his late 1940s Bugs Bunny cartoons so much fun. What developed over time was a string of repetetive Foghorn Leghorn, Hippety Hopper, and Speedy Gonzales cartoons that had little to distinguish themselves from each other, let alone from the contemporary efforts of other units.

His spoofs of various television programs, while interesting as period pieces, are badly dated. In general, they have not held up very well against contemporary work by other directors. Not even the advantage, for example, of having Jack Benny and his supporting cast play rodent versions of themselves can help The Mouse That Jack Built (1958) achieve anything more than whimsy. Both Maltin and the Beck/Friedwald team seem to agree on one point: McKimson eventually settled in to a “square” style which left him behind the other directors.

After the closure of the studio in 1963, McKimson continued to work with the DePatie-Freleng organization on the inferior Warner-released cartoons produced in the late 1960s, and later on various Pink Panther cartoons made in the 1970s. McKimson directed many of the cartoons starring Cool Cat in the late 1960s. The character and the cartoons are both dependably unimaginitive, and have, in recent years, received inexplicable amounts of airtime.

McKimson should be remembered in his vital supporting role as lead animator in the 30s and 40s, without whom the work of men like Clampett would never have reached full fruition. He should also be remembered for his masterful directorial work of the late 1940s. Beck and Friedwald say in regards to his last real masterpiece, The Hole Idea (1955), which he both directed and animated, “it is not an insult to observe that he was a better animator than director.” Indeed, at his best, Robert McKimson was one of the greatest animators the studio ever had in its service.

McKimson received story credit for Banty Raids (1963), which, in fact, he directed.

McKimson is listed in the Library of Congress copyright records as having contributed to Walt Disney’s Pinocchio Coloring Book, No. A126787, dated January 15, 1954. This is roughly contemporaneous with the temporary closure of the WB cartoon studio in the summer and fall of 1953.

McKIMSON, THOMAS

Brother of both Charles and Bob McKimson (see previous two entries, above), Tom eventually evolved into the principal model-sheet maker for the Clampett unit.

McKimson is probably referred to in the brief appearance of a taxicab labeled “Tom’s Taxi” in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (Clampett, 1946).

MacMURRAY, FRED
(1908-1991)

Extremely versatile actor who played a wide variety of roles, from the broadly comic, as in 1963’s The Absent-Minded Professor through the mildly comic, as the father on television’s My Three Sons, to the downright sinister Lt. Keefer in 1954s The Caine Mutiny and, most memorably, opposite Barbara Stanwyck in 1944’s Double Indemnity.

MacMurray is caricatured as “Fred MacFurry” in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937).

MacRORY

The name of the irascible Scot who plays golf against Bugs in My Bunny Lies Over the Sea (Jones, 1948).

THE MAJOR / MAJOR BOWES

Major Edward Bowes was the impresario of the famous Capitol Theater in New York, and was well known in the 1930s for the amateur talent shows held there. These were broadcast on CBS. Opera star Beverly Sills was once featured on his program as a child prodigy. Some of those who participated in his shows went around the country performing, like the Major Bowes Unit #73 that is looking for Cleveland, but ends up signing on the moon in Believe It Or Else (Avery, 1939).

Daffy, after discovering his hidden talent in making eggs disappear in The Henpecked Duck (Clampett, 1941), wishes that The Major were there to see him do it.

MALTESE, MICHAEL (“MIKE”)
(1908-1981)

Along with Warren Foster and Tedd Pierce, one of the three mainstays of the writing staff at Warner Brothers from the 1930s until the 1960s.

A native of the Lower East Side of New York City, Maltese began his career in animation in the early 1930s as an in-betweener at the Terrytoons studio. Maltese later moved on to the Fleischer studio and, in 1937, made his move to the Schlesinger studio, where he continued as an in-betweener.

Maltese was transferred to the story department in August of 1939 -- rather against his will, judging from the way he describes the move in Adamson’s book on Tex Avery -- joining Jack Miller, J. B. “Bugs” Hardaway, Melvin “Tubby” Millar, Dave Monohan, Rich Hogan, Cal Howard, and Tedd Pierce in the story department. Maltese’s first screen credit for story came in The Haunted Mouse (Avery, 1941). Much of his earliest credited work was with Avery, including The Heckling Hare (1941) which featured a risqué ending, the deletion of which eventually triggered Avery’s departure from Warner’s for MGM in July of 1941. Maltese also did work for Friz Freleng in this period, including The Trial of Mr. Wolf and Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt (both from 1941).

While Maltese evidently had some contacts with MGM during this period, for the most part he stayed with Warner Brothers for the next twenty years. MGM cartoon producer Fred Quimby reportedly told Maltese in what is now an often-quoted phrase: “If you’re going to work with Avery, have this understood -- we will not stand for any of that Warner Brothers rowdyism in our cartoons!”

It was, of course, precisely this “rowdyism” that Maltese was responsible for. Maltese worked often for Freleng during the war period, with credits for Daffy - The Commando (Freleng, 1943), Little Red Riding Rabbit (Freleng, 1944) and Herr Meets Hare (Freleng, 1945). After the war, he teamed up with Pierce for a number of notable Freleng-directed entries, including Rhapsody Rabbit (1946), A Hare Grows in Manhattan (1947), and Bugs Bunny Rides Again (1948).

Be that as it may, Maltese is probably best remembered for the remarkable string of cartoons he made with director Chuck Jones starting in the late 1940s. One could name numerous cartoons worthy of note: standouts would have to include For Scent-imental Reasons (1949), Bully for Bugs (1953), The Rabbit of Seville (1950), the three cartoons comprising the “Hunter’s Trilogy”, Long Haired Hare (1949), Duck Dodgers in the 24th1/2 Century (1953), One Froggy Evening (1955), and probably the most famous Jones-Maltese effort of all: What’s Opera, Doc (1957), for which Maltese also received credit for the lyrics “Return My Love”, his spoof of the Pilgrims’ theme from Tannhäuser. Maltese re-used and expanded on the Brünnhilde sequence that he had written for Herr Meets Hare (Freleng, 1944) in this cartoon. Maltese is also often given deserved credit as the co-creator of the Roadrunner/Coyote series of cartoons, as well as for the fractured “Franglais” of Pépe le Pew.

Along with Foster, Maltese left Warners in the early 1960s for the Hanna-Barbera studio, where he contributed significantly to the development of such series as Snagglepuss and The Flintstones. Maltese would work with Jones again in the mid-1960s for the later MGM Tom and Jerry shorts, and again shortly before his death, for some made-for-TV shorts, though it does not appear that Jones took his suggestions for the sequel to Duck Dodgers. Maltese also worked on a part-time basis for Screen Gems in the 1940s, and with Tex Avery at the Lantz studio around 1954-55.

Maltese plays the live-action studio cop in You Ought to Be in Pictures (Freleng, 1940), though his voice was dubbed by Mel Blanc. Maltese did do his own voice, to go with his caricature opposite the voice and caricature of Tedd Pierce in Wackiki Wabbit (Jones, 1943) -- the stubbier of the two castaways is Maltese. A ship called the “S. S. Michael Maltese” is the starting point of Punch Trunk (Jones, 1953). His name also shows up on the poster, along with “Eduardo Selzeri” (Eddie Selzer) and “Carlo Jonzi” (Chuck Jones) in Rabbit of Seville (Jones, 1950).

MANUEL, GEORGE

Story writer for Schlesinger in the late 1930s. Credits include:

• Wholly Smoke (Tashlin, 1938)
• Porky’s Spring Planting (Tashlin, 1938)
• The Isle of Pingo-Pongo (Avery, 1938)
• Jungle Jitters (Freleng, 1938)
• Porky’s Double Trouble (Tashlin, 1937)

Prior to his work at Warner’s, Manuel worked at the Ub Iwerks studio, along with Carl Stalling and J. B. “Bugs” Hardaway. Manuel also worked for the Fleischer studio after his tenure at Warner Brothers.

MARC ANTONY

Bulldog in Chuck Jones cartoons, distinct from the ones typically seen in Freleng cartoons, with a soft spot for a little cat which has come to be known as “Pussyfoot”. His sentiment toward this cat is best exemplified by his expression of tragedy when he thinks Pussyfoot has been turned into kitty cookies in Feed the Kitty (1952). Woe unto the creature that attempts to hurt Pussyfoot while this muscular hound is around.

Filmography (All Jones):

• Feed the Kitty (1952)
• Kiss Me Cat (1953)
• Feline Frame-Up (1954)
• Cat Feud (1958)

MARCUS, SID

Story writer at Warner Brothers in the 1940s and 1950s. Credits include:

• Bye, Bye Bluebeard (Davis, 1949)
• A Ham In A Role (McKimson, 1949)
• No Parking Hare (McKimson, 1954)
• Devil May Hare (McKimson, 1954)
• The Oily American (McKimson, 1954)
• Gone Batty (with Ben Washam for McKimson, 1954)
• Feather Dusted (McKimson, 1955)
• Dime to Retire (McKimson, 1955)
• All Fowled Up (with Charles McKimson for Bob McKimson, 1955)
• Lighthouse Mouse (McKimson, 1955)

Marcus had tours of duty with the Fleischer and Van Beuren (RKO-distributed) cartoon studios in the 1930s, though most of his pre-Warners work was done for Charles Mintz’s Screen Gems studios, whose work, primarily on the Krazy Kat series, was distributed by Columbia. A photo of the Mintz studio staff in 1928 reproduced in Maltin (p. 210) shows Marcus, along with Art Davis, James “Shamus” Culhane, Manny Gould, and Harry Love. Marcus was also a director at the Lantz studio in the early 1960s.

MARSALES, FRANK

Original musical director for the Warner Brothers cartoon shorts during the Harman-Ising period, 1930-1933. Some reports indicate Marsales worked at the Walter Lantz studio in the late 1930s.

THE MARTIN BROTHERS: CURT & PUMPKINHEAD

The twin brother hillbillies that Bugs bedevils in the classic McKimson short Hillbilly Hare (1950). The Martin clan is feuding with the Coys, and the Martins run under the assumption that the rabbit is a Coy, which Bugs does not dispute, saying his friends think he’s very coy.

MARVIN THE MARTIAN

Testy little extra-terrestrial who has a keen desire to either blow up the Earth or otherwise interfere with its interests, a key player in what is generally a highly memorable series of outings against Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck. Like Michigan J. Frog, his current name is an ex post facto moniker; he was never identified by the above name in any of the cartoons, though he was called Commander X-2 in Hasty Hare (Jones, 1952) in the instructions he reads from his commander, E=McSquared.

In the cases where he wishes to blow up the Earth -- with, as he notes in Hare-Way to the Stars (Jones, 1958) without a trace of irony, “an Earth-shattering kaboom” -- he utilizes the Illudium Pew-36 Explosive Space Modulator. (Spelling taken from the bar sheet for Hare-Way to the Stars.)

As probably seems obvious, Jones and Maltese patterned the character after the god Mars, with the helmet and skirt, though not the sneakers, which both he and his assistant, the greenish mutt K-9, wear.

The 1958 entry in this series, Hare-Way to the Stars is one of the more unusual entries, in that it boasts visionary graphics by Maurice Noble, with cities seemingly suspended in mid space.

Blanc provided the voice for the character, though it is noteworthy that the voice changed considerably from the one used in the debut to the creamier voice used later on in the series.

Filmography (all Jones):

• Haredevil Hare (1948)
• Hasty Hare (1952)
• Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century (1953)
• Hare-way to the Stars (1958)
• Mad as a Mars Hare (1963)

MARX BROTHERS

Landmark comedy team comprised of Groucho (né Julius Henry), Chico (né Leonard), and Harpo (né Adolph, also known as Arthur), as well as Zeppo (né Herbert). Their style of cooly calucated anarchy was a hit in vaudeville, then on Broadway, and then in movies from the earliest days of talking pictures. The team reached its height of lunacy in the classic MGM films Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera. After the team left film in the 1940s, Groucho forged a solo career on radio and in television as the host of You Bet Your Life, a gameshow less about the questions asked than about the wisecracks of Groucho.

The distinctive features of Groucho, namely, his crouching walk, huge eyebrows and mustache, initially painted on -- Groucho would later grow a mustache when he realized no one recognized him without it -- and his cigar and glasses were tailor-made for animated shorts, and were given use in such cartoons as Wideo Wabbit (McKimson, 1956) in a spoof of You Bet Your Life, in Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941) as “The Lady in Red”, and Slick Hare (Freleng, 1947) in which he gives his famous line (as he does in Wideo Wabbit) about slipping out of his “wet clothes and into a dry martini”. Groucho was also the originator of the line “Of course, you realize this means war!”, an oft-used line in many Warner Brothers cartoons. Harpo makes an appearence, in character as a woman-chaser, in The Coo-coo Nut Grove (Freleng, 1936), discovering the woman is none other than Groucho! Elmer Fudd does a turn as Harpo in Slick Hare opposite Bugs Bunny as Groucho -- Chico can be seen in a long shot, as well. Two other Harpo turns can be seen in Flowers for Madame (Freleng, 1935) as played by a dandelion and The Organ Grinder (Harman/Ising, 1933). The card-cutting scene in Bugs Bunny Rides Again (Freleng, 1948) is a direct lift from Harpo as well.

MASIANOF, ALEX

Story writer for Warner Brothers some time during the period Chuck Jones was active when Leon Schlesinger owned the studio, that is to say, sometime between 1934 and 1944. Jones, in his autobiography, provides the only detailed information regarding Masianof that is available. (Chuck Amuck pp. 108-109) See also the second volume of his memoirs, which contains a record of a post-World War II encounter with this mysterious and intriguing figure. No cartoons are known to have carried his name in the credits.

Masianof, a Russian cavalry officer before World War I judging from the Jones account, seems to have had a shaky grasp of either the English language, or the requirements of cartoon writing, or both. Jones cites this example of his prose:

The poosey ring the bell
Up jomped the little doggie
Vhere is Mister Hen?
She’s out with the raccoon.

One could only wonder what a Masianof-written cartoon might have looked like.

MATURE, VICTOR
(b. 1915)

Star of the 1940s and 1950s billed as “a beautiful hunk of man”. When the the title character in The Hep Cat (Clampett, 1942) imagines himself as a gorgeous chunk of man, his image dissolves in a mirror, replaced by an image of Victor Mature.

MAXWELL, CARMEN (“MAX”)

Of the principal animators at Schlesinger’s studio in the early ’30s, Maxwell provided the voice for Bosko.

MEAT SHORTAGE

As is noted in the entry for Ration Books/Points, meat was one of the items rationed during World War II, causing quite a bit of irritation. The Weakly Reporter (Jones, 1944) has a few gags on meat shortages including a lady paying to smell a steak. Behind the Meat Ball (Tashlin, 1945) is largely based on a dog desperate to get some meat. At one point, the dog is throwing a fit, screaming that he wants meat, and interrupts his rant to say with a straight face: “You’ve had this problem, haven’t you folks?”. A hapless wolf ponders a newspaper headline regarding the fact that there is no meat for wolves, Hollywood or otherwise, in I Got Plenty of Mutton (Tashlin, 1944). And, of course, there were Meatless Tuesdays, parodied in Meatless Flyday (Freleng, 1944). Grover Groundhog refers to the meat shortage in One Meat Brawl (McKimson, 1947), though by the time the cartoon was released, the meat shortage had eased considerably. The cartoon was most likely in production during the closing months of World War II; it was released in January, 1947.

In reality, if you compared the situation in the United States with that in England, let alone the occupied countries of Europe, the meat rationing here was something out of the Arabian Nights.

MEATLESS FLYDAY

Cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, released in 1944. Features a spider bent on noshing on a fly. Hames Ware has suggested that the voice of the Spider is that of character actor Cyrus Kendall, and not Tex Avery, as Beck and Friedwald suggest.

If you look closely at the jar of “Kandy Kolor” that the spider uses to coat the metal pellets, you will see that the manufacturer is I.G. Farben of Minneapolis. Ironically, Farben, which was a German company, was at this time one of the major suppliers to the German war machine, and a major utilizer of slave labor.

Meatless Tuesdays were an effort during the war to convince people to reduce meat consumption. The calendar the fly points to reads September 27 - Meatless Tuesday. However: in 1943, September 27 fell on a Monday, it came on a Wednesday in 1944 and a Thursday in 1945.

MEET JOHN DOE

Film directed by Frank Capra and released in 1944, starring Gary Cooper as a pawn in a game played between a corrupt politician, played by Edward Arnold, and a similarly corrupt newspaper editor. The title of the 1941 Bob Clampett cartoon Meet John Doughboy is a play on the title of this film.

MELENDEZ, J. C. (“BILL”)

Animator in the McKimson unit during the late 1940s. Melendez later went on to prominence as a director and producer in his own right, most notably for some of the Peanuts television specials in the 1960s.

“MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG”

The theme song chosen by Carl Stalling for the Merrie Melodies series. It was written by Charles Tobias, Murray Mencher and Eddie Cantor. Billboard Frolics (Freleng, 1935) features a Cantor/Rubinoff rendition of the song.

“THE MERRY-GO-ROUND BROKE DOWN”

The theme song chosen by Carl Stalling for the Looney Tunes series. It was written by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin. Daffy Duck and Egghead (Avery, 1938) features a bravura rendition of the song by Daffy Duck.

MERVYN LeBOY

At the beginning of The Bears Tale (Avery, 1940), a list of credits appears, indicating that Goldilocks appears through the courtesy of The Mervyn LeBoy Productions.

Aside from being a reference to the typical studio practice of the day of loaning stars to other studios, the reference made here is to Mervyn LeRoy (1900-1987), a long-time figure at Warner Brothers and son in law of Harry Warner. LeRoy directed a number of big films in the early thirties, including Little Caesar, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, and the Busby Berkely musical Gold Diggers of 1933. He moved to MGM in 1938, where he produced The Wizard of Oz.

MESSERSCHMIDTS

It is hardly surprising that Warner Brothers cartoonists did not pass up a chance to have Daffy say the name of this German aircraft manufacturing firm in Daffy - The Commando (Freleng, 1944). Messerschmits made the feared Me-109 (also known as the Bf-109) fighter, the mainstay of the Luftwaffe. Messerschmidts are also mentioned by the Gremlins in their song in Russian Rhapsody (Clampett, 1944). Private Snafu in Snafuperman also makes reference to these planes.

MEXICAN JOYRIDE

Arthur Davis cartoon from 1948 set in Mexico, where Daffy battles a bull. One of the many bullfighting cartoons done at the studio: nearly every major director did one at some point. The title is probably a reference to the contemporary Cole Porter musical Mexican Hayride. See also entry for Good Neighbor Policy.

MICHIGAN J. FROG

This character had only one outing in the classic era, but made it count, for it was in One Froggy Evening (Jones, 1955) that this frog made his indelible appearance. Singing only for a hapless yet greedy construction worker, he slowly drives said worker to poverty and the madhouse before the unlucky man gets rid of the frog, only to have it found a century later by yet another greedy construction worker.

In the second volume of his memoirs, Chuck Jones goes into detail as to his creation, noting the use of New Yorker cartoons to model the frog. If you believe Jones, Ed Sullivan, with his stiff-necked manner, was also an influence. (Hmmmm, could be...) Jones notes that the character was not named in the cartoon; the name comes from the ersatz ragtime song “Michigan Rag” that he sings.

Today, this frog has been adopted as the mascot for “The WB” television network owned by Time-Warner. Chuck Jones produced another cartoon starring the frog in 1995 entitled Another Froggy Evening, but this cartoon has not, at writing, been put into general release. Drawings from the film can be seen in Jones’ book.

MILLAND, RAY
(1905-1986)

Actor whose best known role was as the alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend. His role is parodied in Slick Hare (Freleng, 1947), in which Milland pays for a drink with a typewriter, and receives little typewriters as change.

MILLAR, MELVIN (“MEL” or “TUBBY”)

Story writer for Warner Brothers in the 1930s and 1940s. Credits include:

• The Case of the Stuttering Pig (Tashlin, 1937)
• The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937)
• Love and Curses (Hardaway/Dalton, 1938)
• Count Me Out (Hardaway/Dalton, 1938)
• Land of the Midnight Fun (Avery, 1939)
• A Day At the Zoo (Avery, 1939)
• Ali-Baba Bound (Clampett, 1940)
• Who’s Who In the Zoo (McCabe, 1942)
• The Ducktators (McCabe, 1942)
• Hop And Go (McCabe, 1943)
• Porky Pig’s Feat (Tashlin, 1943)
• I Got Plenty of Mutton (Tashlin, 1944)
• Brother Brat (Tashlin, 1944)
• The Unruly Hare (Tashlin, 1945)

A caricature of Millar appears in Russian Rhapsody (Clampett, 1944) as the Gremlin with a tack-shaped head attempting to poke Hitler. One of the pigeons listed on a blackboard in Plane Daffy (Tashlin, 1944) is a “Tubby Pigeon”.

MILLER, JACK

Story writer for Warner Brothers in the 1930s and 1940s. Credits include:

• Have You Got Any Castles? (Tashlin, 1938)
• Cracked Ice (Tashlin, 1938)
• The Mice Will Play (Avery, 1938)
• Hamateur Night (Avery, 1939)
• Detouring America (Avery, 1939)
• Fresh Fish (Avery, 1939)
• Busy Bakers (Hardaway/Dalton, 1940)
• The Hardship of Miles Standish (Freleng, 1940)
• You Ought To Be In Pictures (Freleng, 1940)
• Malibu Beach Party (Freleng, 1940)
• The Fighting 69 1/2 (Freleng, 1941)

MILLS BROTHERS

African-American singers popular in the 1930s for their smooth harmony. Caricatures can be seen in Clean Pastures (Freleng, 1937), tha same animation re-used in Have You Got Any Castles? (Tashlin, 1938) and The Isle of Pingo-Pongo (Avery, 1938).

MILTON SQUIRREL

Caricature of Milton Berle in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937).

DR. MILT TOWNE

Name of the shrink examining Sylvester in Tweet Dreams (Freleng, 1959). The name is a play on Miltown, the commercial name for the tranquilizer neprobamate.

MISS PRISSY

Spinster hen who has her eyes set on Foghorn Leghorn in a series of McKimson cartoons. These include Lovelorn Leghorn (1951), Of Rice and Hen (1953) and Little Boy Boo (1954). Most of the time, her dialogue is limited to a long, drawn out “Yaeessss”, though not in the same way as Frank Nelson.

It is my conjecture that Miss Prissy could well be the daughter of Emily, the foolish man-chasing chicken in some of the Freleng 1930s cartoons. Like mother, like daughter.

MISTER ANTHONY

John J. Anthony, on his 1930s-1940s radio program The Good Will Hour, would pass out advice on every conceivable human difficulty. There are two references in Warner cartoons to this figure, one being the puzzled and aggrieved mama gorilla in Baby Bottleneck (Clampett, 1946) who is confronted by the Daffy/Porky baby, the other being the obnoxious little duck who refuses an offer of assistance from Daffy in Ain’t That Ducky (Freleng, 1945).

MR. MOTTO

Parody of Japanese detective Mr. Moto played by Peter Lorre, in the Porky Pig cartoon Porky’s Movie Mystery (Clampett, 1939).

MONCK, TERRANCE

Baritone responsible for the voice of Michigan J. Frog in One Froggy Evening (Jones, 1955). Monck would also supply voices for a few of the Tom and Jerry cartoons Jones made for MGM in the mid-sixties.

MONOHAN, DAVE

Story writer for Warner Brothers in the 1930s and 1940s. Credits include:

• Katnip Kollege (Hardaway/Dalton, 1938)
• You’re An Education (Tashlin, 1938)
• Daffy Duck in Hollywood (Avery, 1938)
• Robin Hood Makes Good (Jones, 1939)
• Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (Jones, 1939)
• Believe It Or Else (Avery, 1939)
• The Good Egg (Jones, 1939)
• The Mighty Hunters (Jones, 1940)
• Ghost Wanted (Jones, 1940)
• Ceiling Hero (Avery, 1940)
• Porky’s Hired Hand (Freleng, 1940)
• Tortoise Beats Hare (Avery, 1941)
• Porky’s Preview (Avery, 1941)
• The Wacky Worm (Freleng, 1941)
• All This and Rabbit Stew (Avery, 1941)
• Wabbit Twouble (Clampett, 1941)
• Conrad the Sailor (Jones, 1942)
• Lights Fantastic (Freleng, 1942)
• Mexican Joyride (Davis, 1948)
• Catch As Cats Can (Davis, 1948)
• The Rattled Rooster (Davis, 1948)

Monohan has his name from the credits read out and mispronounced by Bugs Bunny in Tortoise Beats Hare. In a few cartoons, including Lights Fantastic, Monohan is credited as Sgt. Dave Monohan.

Monohan also worked for the Screen Gems (Colombia) studio in the mid-1940s.

MOORE, GRACE
(1901-1947)

Described by Katz as a vivacious blonde lyrical soprano of Broadway musicals, then the Metropolitan Opera, she starred in two MGM films of the early 30s but was fired when she put on too much weight. She was then hired by Columbia and starred in a string of successful productions, which helped to popularize opera on the silver screen. Nominated for best actress for her role in One Night of Love (1934).

Moore is caricatured in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937) as Grace Moose, attempting to hit a higher note than Lily Swans, who is a caricature of Lily Pons.

MOORE, VICTOR
(1876-1962)

Longtime character actor in Vaudeville, on the stage and in film. Moore originated the role of Vice President Throttlebottom on Broadway in Of Thee I Sing, and appeared in a number of films including Gold Diggers of 1937, Swing Time (1936), The Ziegfeld Follies (1946), and The Seven Year Itch (1955).

His entry in The Film Encyclopedia has this to say about him:

[s]hort and pudgy, he typically portrayed bumbling, helpless little men. Therefore, little wonder that Friz Freleng used both the voice and caricature of Moore in an Elmer Fudd-like role in 1945’s Aint That Ducky.

Maltin, at pg. 256, quotes Freleng:

I approached him and wanted to know if he’d do it. He said he’d love to do it. We did a caricature of him, showed it to him, and he said, “I love it, if you’d just put more hair on my head.”

Moore did not charge Warner Brothers for his work on the cartoon, despite the fact that he provided the voice for his own caricature.

MUGSY

Enormous, dumb sidekick to Rocky in a number of Friz Freleng cartoons. Mugsy would often be outwitted by Bugs, usually to his, to say nothing of Rocky’s, great disadvantage. Mugsy made an appearance without Rocky as a Napoleonic guard in Napoleon Bunny-part (Freleng, 1956).

MURROW, EDWARD R.

CBS News correspondent best known for his reporting from London during the 1940 Blitz and his daring denouncement of Senator Joseph McCarthy. In the 1950s he was one of the pioneers of television news with his See It Now and Person to Person programs. The latter show is spoofed in Person to Bunny (Freleng, 1960), complete with his speaking style and ever-present cigarette.

MUSIC

Music was the principal reason the Warner Brothers cartoon series came into existence. Then, as now, Warner Brothers was a major music publisher, with a catalog that included songs from movie musicals as well as popular music. The Looney Tunes series was originally conceived as, in effect, a series of music videos. Later, the Merrie Melodies series would take over this role with the proviso that each Merrie Melodie contain a chorus from a Warner Brothers song. Indeed, a great many of the Merrie Melodies produced through the late 1930s bear titles based on songs, rather than on the plot, such as it was, of the cartoon. While these factors make the cartoons interesting from the standpoint of a music lover, they do tend to stop the cartoon in its tracks where plot is concerned. It was only when the cartoons stopped putting in choruses that the cartoons picked up the speed they needed to break free of then-current conventions.

Frank Marsales was the first musical director for Warner cartoons, scoring the cartoons throughout the Harman-Ising era, with a few exceptions: principally the first few Merrie Melodies, which utilized the Brunswick Recording Orchestra, directed by Abe Lyman and Gus Arnheim. For the most part, the scoring of a Merrie Melodie relied heavily on whatever song was being plugged, severely limiting the range of what Marsales could do. Bernard Brown and Norman Spencer, who succeeded Marsales and carried through until the mid 1930s, were similarly limited by the structure of the cartoons. While all three present very fine arrangements of the songs, there are relatively few opportunities for any of these musical directors to inject anything particularly fresh or funny into their music.

All that would change radically with the arrival of Carl Stalling from the Iwerks studio. In his virtually uninterrupted 22 year stint (1936-1958) at Warner’s, Stalling, already an innovator in cartoon scoring, would set a radically new style. Stalling did not scorn the Warner Brothers music catalog: far from it. Stalling would use Warner-owned songs, in snippets mixed and matched with his own original compositions to provide a backdrop that greatly enhanced the humor of the cartoons. Never merely “Mickey Mousing” the score, Stalling would use musical cues to sharpen and accentuate gags.

While Stalling was given to certain habits -- there was a long-standing joke about his use of “The Lady in Red” -- Stalling was very much able to laugh at his own work without ever diminishing from the cartoon itself. Witness Porky’s Preview (Avery, 1941), the music of which is probably best appreciated by hearing the portions presented on The Carl Stalling Project, the first of two recently issued Compact Disks that explores the music of Stalling. Some of the complete tracks on this set, stripped of the voices of Mel Blanc and the sound effects of Treg Brown, are amazing. Even though they were never meant to be heard alone, without the input of these masters of their craft, they have a distinct beauty of their own. Listen in particular to the versions of Jumpin’ Jupiter (Jones, 1955) and Barbary Coast Bunny (Jones, 1956) on the Bugs Bunny on Broadway CD. Stalling, of course, may be best remembered for his liberal use of the unique compositions of Raymond Scott, to whom separate reference must be made.

Stalling was succeeded as Musical Director in 1958 by Milt Franklyn, long his arranger and sometimes conductor of the Warner Brothers Orchestra, with whom he had shared musical direction duties in the mid-1950s. Franklyn was the logical successor, and while he may not have had the particular zip and fire of Stalling, his compositions have a weight of their own, particularly What’s Opera, Doc? (Jones, 1957), a masterful Wagnerian pastiche.

Franklyn died in 1962, and his successor, Bill Lava, was much less successful in evoking imagery to support the cartoons. His music tends to be mostly of the Muzak type, with only the occasional hint of Scott to evoke the classic scores of the past. A sad ending to a great tradition of music. Mercifully, Richard Stone, the current musical director for Warner Brothers Television Animation, appears to consider himself a disciple of Carl Stalling, and to the extent allowed by the budgets for television animation, his scores often capture the same spark as those of Stalling. Stone has even used Scott’s compositions as Stalling never did, as in a complete usage of the old warhorse “Powerhouse”, in homage both to Stalling and Scott in the Animaniacs short Toy Shop Terror.

What follows is a list of songs utilized in Warner Brothers cartoons and some examples of their usage, aside from cartoons where it was the “plug” tune. The various compositions of Raymond Scott are listed separately under the above linked entry. Caveat: I make no claims that this list is in any way complete, or that I have accurately set forth the titles of the various songs. This list is one of those things that is subject to change and addition. With that in mind:

• “A Cup of Coffee, A Sandwich and You” (Billy Rose):
  • Nasty Quacks (Tashlin, 1945), while Daffy is holding forth at the breakfast table.
  
  
• “Sweet Dreams, Sweetheart” (Jerome/Koehler):
  • What’s Brewin’ Bruin (Jones, 1948) as Mama Bear and Papa Bear battle over whether to keep the window open
  • Peck Up Your Troubles (Freleng, 1945) as a conscience-struck Sylvester considers the fate of the little woodpecker he thinks he has killed
  
  
• “Angel in Disguise”:
  • Peck Up Your Troubles (Freleng, 1945) used by the little woodpecker when, naturally, he is disguised as an angel
  • Yankee Doodle Daffy (Freleng, 1943) sung by Daffy as he mimics a parachute
  
  
• “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2” (“Who? Franz Liszt? Never hoid of him.”):
  A great favorite of Freleng, used in two undisputably classic cartoons:
  • Rhapsody in Rivets (1941) and
  • Rhapsody Rabbit (1946).
  • Back Alley Oproar (Freleng, 1948) features Sylvester doing a version with boots on a sleepy Elmer’s back door steps.
  
  
• “Hungarian Dances” (Brahms):
  • Pigs in a Polka (Freleng, 1943) uses this composition throughout the cartoon, expertly.
  
  
• “As Time Goes By” (Hupfeld):
  • Hiss and Make Up (Freleng, 1943) as Roscoe and Wellington are foced to play kissy-kiss, and
  • Hare Force (Freleng, 1944) as sung briefly by both Bugs and Sylvester -- dog, not cat.
  
  
• “Am I Blue?” (Clarke/Akst):
  • Brillaint usage in the Private Snafu short Payday (Freleng, 1944), as Snafu loses everything.
  
  
• “Forty-Second Street” (Warren/Dubin):
  • Used during chases between Porky and Daffy in Daffy Doodles (McKimson, 1946), and in
  • What’s Up Doc (McKimson, 1950) over the montage of stops of the Bugs/Elmer vaudeville team.
  
  
• “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” (Warren/Dubin):
  • Rebel Rabbit (McKimson, 1949) during the scene in the post office and in the scene where Bugs messes with Niagara Falls.
  • Hair-Raising Hare (Jones, 1946) uses the tune when Bugs poses as a lamp to fool Gossamer.
  
  
• “I Only Have Eyes for You” (Warren/Dubin):
  • Jumpin’ Jupiter (Jones, 1955)
  • Lights Fantastic (Freleng, 1942) during the eye-test gag
  • Punch Trunk (Jones, 1953) in a nifty gag involving a chap who has just bought glasses, and then confronts Teeny.
  
  
• “Don’t Give Up the Ship” (Warren/Dubin):
  • A Star is Hatched (Freleng, 1937): Sung by the Dick Powell caricature á la “Shipmates Forever”, and used very well in
  • A Tale of Two Kitties (Clampett, 1942) during the perilous drop of Catstello
  
  
• “About a Quarter to Nine” (Warren/Dubin):
  • Used as background music to Bugs in evening dress in Slick Hare (Freleng, 1947).
  
  
• “The Lady in Red” (Wrubel/Dixon):
  The classic Stalling musical gag. The use in the credits of
  • Little Red Riding Rabbit (Freleng, 1944) and in
  • Hollywood Canine Canteen (McKimson, 1946) by the Carmen Miranda pooch barely scratch the surface of this musical gag.
  
  
• “Lullaby of Broadway” (Warren/Dubin):
  • Used at the beginning of Lights Fantastic (Freleng, 1942), and
  • by the Jimmy Durante rooster in The Swooner Crooner (Tashlin, 1944).
  
  
• “Hooray for Hollywood” (Mercer/Whiting):
  • Most notable use may be in What’s Up Doc? (McKimson, 1950), though
  • Count Me Out (Hardaway/Dalton, 1938) makes a notably interesting use, in introducing Biff Stew, the heavyweight champ.
  
  
• “September in the Rain” (Warren/Dubin):
  • A satricial use in Porky’s Preview (Avery, 1941), and
  • a great use by an Al Jolson bird in The Swooner Crooner (Tashlin, 1944).
  
  
• “Jeepers Creepers” (Warren/Mercer):
  • Sung by the cat in Notes to You (Freleng, 1941) and
  • danced to by Daffy in Show Biz Bugs (Freleng, 1957)
  
  
• “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” (Warren/Mercer):
  • Sung by Elmer Fudd in The Hardship of Miles Standish (Freleng, 1940). We are given the lyrics in a shot of a singing telegram, and Elmer helpfully points out the spot where we are to pick up.
  
  
• “I’m Just Wild About Harry” (Sissle/Blake):
  • Sung by Daffy in Yankee Doodle Daffy (Freleng, 1943) and
  • by Michigan J. Frog in One Froggy Evening (Jones, 1955).
  
  
• “Blues in the Night” (Arlen/Mercer):
  Two great uses in
  • The Swooner Crooner (Tashlin, 1944) by the Cab Calloway rooster and
  • by Daffy in My Favorite Duck (Jones, 1942).
  
  
• “Moonlight Bay”:
  The classic drunk song in WB cartoons, as in
  • Trap Happy Porky (Jones, 1945), but
  • also sung by mild-mannered, sober Porky in My Favorite Duck (Jones, 1942).
  
  
• “Freddie the Freshman”:
  Classic sports musical gag, a typical use can be seen in
  • The Unruly Hare (Tashlin, 1945), with Bugs using a stick of TNT in an ersatz relay.
  
  
• “It Can’t Be Wrong” (Steiner/Gannon):
  • Used by the harp-playing mermaid Bugs in Hare Ribbin’ (Clampett, 1944).
  
  
• “Trade Winds”:
  • used by the harp-playing mermaid Wacky Worm in Greetings Bait (Freleng, 1943) and
  • sung by Bugs in Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (Freleng, 1944)
  
  
• “Someone’s Rocking My Dreamboat”:
  sung by Bugs in both
  • The Big Snooze (Clampett, 1946) and
  • Gorilla My Dreams (McKimson, 1948)
  
  
• “Beautfiul Dreamer”:
  • sung by Bugs in The Big Snooze (Clampett, 1946).
  
  
• “A Rainy Night in Rio” (Schwartz/Robin):
  • Classic version used by Bugs in Long Haired Hare (Jones, 1949).
  
  
• “It’s Magic” (Styne/Cahn):
  • Bugs sings a modified version in Rabbit Every Monday (Freleng, 1951).
  
  
• “Secret Love” (Fain/Webster):
  • Sung by Bugs in Rabbitson Crusoe (Freleng, 1956).

MUSSOLINI, BENITO
(d. 1945)

Known as Il Duce, Mussolini was Prime Minister of Italy for over twenty years, bringing Italy to ruin by entering World War II on the side of the Axis. With his balding head and jutting chin, Mussolini was easily caricatured, though he appeared in only a handful of Warner Brothers wartime cartoons, and in a few cartoons of the 1930s such as I’ve Got to Sing a Torch Song (Palmer, 1933).

Mussolini appears as one of the geese, along with a Hitler caricature, in The Ducktators (McCabe, 1942). He also appears on the letterhead of the message Überkompt von Vultur is reading in Daffy - The Commando (Freleng, 1944): his caricature is crossed out, Italy having surrendered to the Allies not long before the cartoon was in production. Mussolini, along with Göering and what appears to have been intended as a Hirohito caricature, appear in the Private Snafu short Spies (Jones, 1943) in the scene where the three are next to a newsstand where Snafu is purchasing magazines to read on his troopship.

Daffy refers to Mussolini being on the scrap heap in Scrap Happy Daffy (Tashlin, 1943). The cartoon was released August 21, 1943. Considering Mussolini was deposed on July 25, 1943, this indicates very fast work, or good timing, or both, on the part of the Warner Brothers staff.

MYNAH BIRD
(also spelled “Minah”)

Silent, inscrutable, and all-around mysterious bird that hops to the tune of the Fingal’s Cave Overture, hopping on every other beat. The bird shows up mostly in the Caveman Inki cartoons of Chuck Jones, but he does make an appearance in Hobo Bobo (McKimson, 1947).

MYRT

The unseen and unheard telephone operator on the Fibber McGee and Molly Show. Fibber would often talk to Myrt, relaying to Molly some disaster that had befallen various members of her family.

Occasionally, when a Warner Brothers cartoon character would talk on the phone, he would talk to Myrt. See Daffy - The Commando (Freleng, 1944) in which Überkomt von Vultur speaks to Myrt, as well as The Wabbit Who Came to Supper (Freleng, 1944), in which Bugs asks her “How’s every little thing?”.