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

“ ’TAIN’T FUNNY, McGEE”

On the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show, this phrase was used by Molly, played by Marian Jordan to deflate Fibber McGee, played by Jim Jordan after Fibber has told one of his stale jokes. The phrase is used by Daffy Duck on a sign in Daffy Duck and Egghead (Avery, 1938) after Egghead tries to capture Daffy with a wind-up female decoy, and in an slide put in by the Management in Holiday Highlights (Avery, 1940) after an April Fools’ Day gag has been pulled.

A TALE OF TWO KITTIES

Clampett cartoon of 1942 which included the first starring role of Tweety, though a still earlier prototype had appeared in Wacky Blackout (Clampett, 1942). The cartoon was also the first to feature an Abbott and Costello-type team, a comic pattern which would be used repeatedly over the coming years. Tweety would not be named until Clampett’s 1944 cartoon, Birdy and the Beast.

Two oddities in the cartoon. First: during the sequence in which Catstello is bouncing up and down on springs, he comes up at one point in a helmet; Tweety sticks a cigar in his mouth as he goes down, and in the next upward bounce, we see what appears to be the after-effect of an exploding cigar, yet no matching sound effect is heard. Secondly: when Tweety calls the Fourth Interceptor Command to report Catstello flying around, note that he is holding the telephone the wrong way, and is speaking into the wrong end, the cord coming out of the top of the handset. Makes one wonder how the Command heard him.

THE TALK-INK KID

Pilot film made by Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising in the summer of 1929 in order to secure financial backing for a new cartoon studio, which they eventually got from Leon Schlesinger. The cartoon is a very early example of lip-synch animation. Ising is briefly seen in live-action footage.

TASHLIN, FRANK (“TASH” or “TISH-TASH”)
(1913-1972)

Tashlin left a notable mark on the Warner Brothers cartoon studio, displaying a sense of craftsmanship and dedication that strongly influenced other units. This in spite of the fact that his career there was brief and intermittent, with one stint as an animator in the early 30s and two fairly short stints as a director in the late 30s and mid 40s. Even more remarkably, Tashlin had a varied and wide-ranging career in Hollywood that led him, among other things, to be a top screenwriter, a notable live-action director, and a gag writer for Hal Roach.

Tashlin begain in animation at Paul Terry’s Studio in 1930. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Van Beuren’s Studio, where producer Amadee Van Beuren apparently inspired Tashlin to author a short-lived comic strip called “Van Boring” between 1934 and 1938. When Tashlin moved to Warners around 1933 as an animator, Leon Schlesinger demanded a piece of the action with respect to the strip, and Tashlin refused, leaving the studio. He would, however, return in 1936 to direct -- at the young age of 23.

Tashlin showed a remarkable mastery of the comic form. In Porky’s Romance (1937), for example, Tashlin uses quick cutting to a remarkable extent -- ten cuts in 157 frames, approximately 6.5 seconds. This was highly unusual for animation at that time. Tashlin also skillfully utilised montage in such films as Wholly Smoke and Now That Summer Is Gone, both from 1938. He pioneered use of unusual camera angles and other live-action cinematic technquies which were practically unheard-of in animation of the day. Maltin notes that the “kidding self-reference” to the studio and “acknowledgement of the cartoon medium by the characters themselves” got its start in Porky’s Romance with the introduction of Petunia Pig and the connected build-up that opens the film.

Tashlin left Warners in 1938 and was replaced by Chuck Jones -- to the surprise of many, including Jones himself. Tashlin worked at Disney for a while as a story editor. Charles Solomon, in a book on abortive Disney productions, discusses some projects Tashlin worked on in 1939.

Tashlin would make his next mark in animation during his brief tenure as the production head of the Screen Gems unit at Columbia, starting in 1941. He aggressively recruited young talent with an artistic bent, literally taking people from the picket lines at Disney, which at the time was undergoing a bitterly divisive strike. Tashlin brought new life and energy to the hitherto unheralded Screen Gems cartoons, with a number of visually interesting and funny cartoons. The Fox and Crow cartoon series he developed, aside from being a success on its own terms, foreshadowed the Coyote and Roadrunner series at Warner Brothers in its use of blackout gags. Jones has readily acknowledged this influence.

Columbia, however, proved to be unstable, and Tashlin left in a dispute with Columbia executives in 1942. His successor, Dave Fleischer, would only last about half as long as he had.

Tashlin returned to Warners in 1943, bringing with him Manny Gould and Art Davis, who had been stalwarts at Screen Gems. Tashlin’s second stint at the studio produced even better cartoons than his first had. His black and white Looney Tunes Scrap Happy Daffy, Porky Pig’s Feat and Puss ’n’ Booty (all 1943) make imaginative use of lighting, shading, and other cinematic tricks, such as the multiple views of Daffy in a shattered mirror or Daffy and Porky watching an officious hotel manager go flying down the stairs: his falling body represented by moving pupils in their eyes. Plane Daffy (1944) is a classic Daffy cartoon with explosive energy, as he manages to ultimately outwit a seductive Nazi temptress/pigeon, Hata Mari. Tashlin only made two Bugs Bunny cartoons, but both of them, The Unruly Hare (1945) and Hare Remover (1946) move at a blistering pace. Even two of his last, uncredited cartoons, Nasty Quacks and Behind the Meatball (both 1945) are fast-paced romps.

Again seized by wanderlust, Tashlin left Warner Brothers in 1945 for a career in live action film, thus becoming an oddity in the world of animation: an animator with a successful career in live action. His unit was taken over by Bob McKimson.

Tashlin was responsible for some funny Bob Hope films, including Son of Paleface. The cartoon influence did not die -- Tashlin described the spectacular slapstick finale he wrote for Kill the Umpire in 1950 to an exasperated Columbia executive, who complained that Tashlin had written a cartoon sequence. Tashlin would also direct some notable Jerry Lewis films, as well as The Girl Can’t Help It, a Jayne Mansfield film -- Tashlin was probably one of the few people who could make her funny -- and the blisteringly funny Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? for which he also wrote the screenplay. This last film contains many echoes of his cartoon work, including a number of sight gags and the ad spoofs in the credits sequence.

Tashlin would have one last connection with animation for the Chuck Jones-directed cartoon The Bear That Wasn’t (MGM, 1967), which he wrote.

Tashlin, oddly, may be remembered more for his contributions to mainstream film than for animation. His entry in Katz barely touches on his animation career. Jean Luc Godard may have been a lot closer to the mark when he praised the films for their cartoony qualities. Avery, in an interview with Joe Adamson, noted that many at Warners laughed at Tashlin’s habit of making notes during films he saw. Avery then mused, ruefully, that there may have been something to it, since Tashlin went farther in the business than any other director. Be that as it may, his roots in cartoons should not be forgotten.

TASMANIAN DEVIL

Animal short on brains but long on hunger who was one of the most colorful foes of Bugs Bunny, and occasionally Daffy Duck, in the 1950s. The character supposedly came about as a result of a conversation between storyman Sid Marcus and director Bob McKimson. When discussing what animals they had used, McKimson said that the only thing the studio had not used was a Tasmanian Devil. Marcus did not know what one was, but McKimson did, apparently from doing crossword puzzles.

The character debuted in Devil May Hare (McKimson, 1954), and, perhaps predictably, was banned by the feckless Eddie Selzer, the producer of cartoons at the time. Remarkably, however, no less a personage than Jack L. Warner, head of all production at Warner Brothers, enquired as to why the character was not being used. (Schneider makes an arch comment, in effect, as to a ravenous stupid beast having an appeal to a movie mogul.) With that, the character was brought back for a few more efforts in the late 50s and early 60s. Mel Blanc provided the voice -- transcribed for one short as “eccawchkupkekupke” -- but he was not particularly enthusiastic about the part.

In recent years, the character has gained enormous popularity, and even got his own Saturday morning show on Fox, which, as of this writing, is on The Cartoon Network. Even if the character is for the most part one dimensional, seeing “Taz Boy” (sometimes called this within the studio, from a fan letter) throw a fit can be enjoyable.

Horrifying thought though it may be, a “Mrs. Taz” is seen at the end of both Devil May Hare (McKimson, 1954), when she marries the brute, and in Bedevilled Rabbit (McKimson, 1957), when she pounds Taz for making whoopie with a pseduo-shedevil: actually, Bugs in cross-dress disguise, complete with steel trap for teeth.

Filmography, all directed by McKimson:

• Devil May Hare (1954)
• Bedevilled Rabbit (1957)
• Ducking the Devil (1957)
• BIll of Hare (1962)
• Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare (1964)

TAYLOR, ROBERT
(1911-1969)

Billed at MGM as “the Man with the Perfect Profile”, Taylor was a major romantic lead there in the 1940s, developing into a more serious actor later in his career. The Jack Benny caricature in Malibu Beach Party (Freleng, 1940) insists he is wearing the same bathing suit worn by Robert Taylor, the Mary Livingstone spoof responds that the suit worn by Taylor had a better filling. Taylor is also briefly referred to in Elmer’s Pet Rabbit (Jones, 1941), in which one of the signs advertising Bugs in Gumbiners Pet Store reads “A Rabbit is Man’s Best Friend,” signed “Rabbit Taylor.” The princess in A Lad in Baghdad (Howard/Dalton, 1938), disappointed with Egghead, uses the magic lamp to summon Taylor.

TECHNICAL FAIRY, FIRST CLASS

Character who shows up in a number of Private Snafu shorts. He is an Army version of the traditional fairy godmother, with a cigar, stubble, boxer shorts, socks, and wings, emblazoned with a T not unlike that of a Technical Sergeant. He has a thick “Noo Yawk” accent, no doubt courtesy of Mel Blanc, and uses a magic wand to grant wishes to Snafu, usually with results that end in disaster, such as Snafuperman (Freleng, 1944).

TEENY

Elephant that startles the populace in Punch Trunk (Jones, 1953) by virtue of his small size. I have taken the name from the copyright registration for the character: GU 21033, March 5, 1953.

TEMPLE, SHIRLEY

Child star who was one of the major box office draws in the 1930s, credited with having saved 20th Century Fox from financial disaster. Temple is referred to in Porky’s Hero Agency (Clampett, 1937) in which Porky passes a temple labeled “Temple” and another, smaller building labeled “Shirley”.

TEST PILOT

1938 film starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy about daredevils who try out new aircraft. Ceiling Hero (Avery, 1940) features a test pilot who is, as his jacket notes, from the motion picture of the same name. The “Calling Barranca” bit, though, is from Only Angels Have Wings, a 1939 feature starring, among others, Cary Grant.

“THINGS-COME-TO-LIFE”

Popular term for a long-lived genre of cartoons at Warner Brothers. A precise definition of the genre is a difficult to come by, but in general it involves a setting in which inanimate figures spring to life from magazine covers, advertisements, food labels, or whatever else happens be handy, depending on the cartoon’s setting. The figures interact with one another, producing the gags.

Quite common in the Harman-Ising era, the genre managed to live on though the late 1930s with a nifty trio of cartoons directed by Frank Tashlin, right on into the mid 40s, when Bob Clampett capped the genre with his manic Book Revue (1946): the last word in this type of cartoon.

The author considers the following cartoons to be examples of the genre, acknowledging that certain cartoons may not be on this list which might well qualify:

• Red Headed Baby (Harman/Ising, 1931)
• A Great Big Bunch of You (Harman/Ising, 1932)
• The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (Harman/Ising, 1933)
• Three’s a Crows (Harman/Ising, 1933)
• I Like Mountain Music (Harman/Ising, 1933)
• We’re In the Money (Harman/Ising, 1933)
• Sittin’ on a Backyard Fence (Duvall, 1933)
• How Do I Know It’s Sunday (Freleng, 1934)
• The Girl at the Ironing Board (Freleng, 1934)
• Those Beautiful Dames (Freleng, 1934)
• Buddy Steps Out (King, 1935)
• Billboard Frolics (Freleng, 1935)
• Toytown Hall (Freleng, 1936)
• Speaking of the Weather (Tashlin, 1937)
• September in the Rain (Freleng, 1937)
• Have You Got Any Castles? (Tashlin, 1938)
• You’re an Education (Tashlin, 1938)
• Sniffles and the Bookworm (Jones, 1939)
• Goofy Groceries (Clampett, 1941)
• Book Revue (Clampett, 1946)

“THIS IS IT”

Theme song to The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show. Words and Music by Mack David and Jerry Livingston:

  Overture, curtain, lights,
  This is it, the night of nights.
  No more rehearsing and nursing a part;
  We know ev’ry part by heart.

  Overture, curtain, lights,
  This is it, you’ll hit the heights!
  And oh, what heights we’ll hit!
  On with the show, this is it.

  Tonight what heights we’ll hit.
  On with the show, this is it.

Copyright © 1961 Warner Bros. Inc. (Renewed)

THOMAS

Name given to Sylvester in Tweetie Pie (Freleng, 1947). Sylvester thus shares a common trait with Tom of MGM’s Tom and Jerry, whose first on-screen name was Jasper. Sylvester was not named until a few years following his creation, following a recommendation of Tedd Pierce.

THOMAS, LOWELL

Prominent news commentator for the Fox Movietone newsreel series who also appeared on radio, and indeed, on some of the very first commercial news programs for television just prior to Pearl Harbor. A deft spoof of him as “Dole Promise” can be seen in She Was an Acrobat’s Daughter (Freleng, 1937), along with another Movietone regular, Lew Lehr.

THORSON, CHARLES

Model sheet artist at Schlesinger’s during the late 1930s. It was Thorson who drew the model sheet for the Cal Dalton and Ben “Bugs” Hardaway cartoon Hare-um Scare-um (1939), which featured a rabbit labeled, ungrammatically, as “Bug’s Bunny”. It is this model sheet which forms the basis for the argument, in my view, that Hare-um Scare-um was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon. (See also “Creation” & “Development”.)

Chuck Jones notes in Funnyworld #13 that Thorson had also designed Hiawatha for the Disney studio.

THREE BEARS

Series, directed exclusively by Chuck Jones, featuring a hot-tempered and “vertically challenged” Papa Bear, a slatternly played Mama Bear, and finally a moronic Baby Bear, also referred to as Junyer Bear, voiced by Stan Freberg. Some have compared the series to All in the Family based on similarities in character and temperament. But the real fun comes in seeing the relationship between the sweet, dumb Junyer and his short-fused father, which reached its peak in the bizarre song-and-dance tribute to Papa in A Bear for Punishment (1951).

The series consisted of five films:

1. Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears (1944)
2. What’s Brewin’, Bruin? (1948)
3. The Bee-Deviled Bruin (1949)
4. Bear Feat (1949)
5. A Bear for Punishment (1951)

THREE STOOGES

Stars of dozens of live-action comedy shorts for Columbia. The classic trio is comprised of Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Howard. Famed for their violent, eye-poking, head-bopping slapstick.

The Stooges are caricatured in Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941), poking eyes and bopping heads to a conga beat. Also shown as three subjects who get turned into the “Three Wise Monkeys” of Japan in Porkys Hero Agency (Clampett, 1937), and as the model for the odd three-headed creature whose mother got scared by a pawnbroker’s sign in Porky in Wackyland (Clampett, 1938). Animation of this particular sequence was re-used in Dough for the Do-Do in 1949. Caricatures also appear as cavemen in Buddy’s Lost World (King, 1935), as a “See No Evil, Speak No Evil, and Hear No Evil” trio in The Miller’s Daughter (Freleng, 1934) and in Wholly Smoke (Tashlin, 1938) as cigars poking Porky in the eyes.

“THROUGH THESE PORTALS...”

“Through These Portals Pass the Most Beautiful Girls in the World.” This was a sign long associated with Earl Carroll and his Broadway Vanities revues, a rival to Florence Ziegfield’s Follies. Signs spoofing this can be seen in Shop Look and Listen (Freleng, 1940): “Beautiful Girls” changed to “Talented Shoplifters”, and in Mouse Menace (Davis, 1946), painted by a mouse above a pseduo-mouse hole to fool the robotic cat.

TIBBETT, LAWRENCE
(1896-1960)

Baritone with the Metropolitan Opera who has also made a handful of musicals in the 1930s, nominated as best actor for his performance in his film debut Rogue Song (1930). In the Frank Tashlin things-come-to-life cartoon You’re An Education (1938), which uses travel posters as the focus of gags, Tibbett is used as a stand-in for Tibet.

“TIME MARCHES ON”

Catch-phrase of the popular March of Time radio show and newsreel, which dramatized leading events of the week. Variations on this theme can be seen in Don’t Look Now (Avery, 1936) as the cuckoo clock snickers “crime marches on”, in Page Miss Glory (Avery, 1936), and in Let It Be Me (Freleng, 1936), as one of the intertitles. “Time Munches on” is also used in Porky’s Romance (Tashlin, 1937).

TIM O’SHENKO

In the middle of a rant by the Hitler caricature at the start of Russian Rhapsody (Clampett, 1944), Hitler mentions that he will “bomben that Irish general, Tim O’Shenko!” This reference is actually to Marshal Semyon Timoshenko (1895-1970), a Red Army general during World War II. Timoshenko had some success in defending Moscow from the Wehrmacht in 1941, but failed to stop the German advance into the Crimea in 1942, and eventually faded from prominence.

TIZZIE FISH

A play on the character of Tizzie Lish -- some sources call the character Lizzie Tish -- played by Bill Comstock on Al Pearce and His Gang, a radio show of the 1930s. Tizzie would open up with a cheery “Hello, Folksies!” and proceed to give recipes that were ridiculous, always waiting to allow the listener to get a pencil, so one could write the recipe down. The character is spoofed delightfully in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937).

TOJO, HIDEKI
(1884-1948)

Wartime leader of Japan, General Tojo was equated in the American mind with Hitler and Mussolini, though in reality he had considerably less individual power than either of those men. He served as Prime Minister, War Minister and Army Chief of Staff at the same time during much of the war, being forced to resign in 1944 after the fall of Saipan. He was executed for war crimes in 1948.

Tokio Jokio (McCabe, 1943) uses an inaccurate caricature as Professor Tojo, who demonstrates a Japanese club sandwich.

TOMATO GAG

Gag in which one character, through the use of a tomato, convinces another character that that character has committed murder, the idea being that the character has squeezed so hard all they are left with is what appears to be blood. Usually followed by scenes of terrible remorse. Seen in The Heckling Hare (Avery, 1941) and Peck Up Your Troubles (Freleng, 1945).

TRACY, SPENCER
(1900-1967)

Craggy-faced actor who was an enormous success at MGM for many years, winning Oscars for Captains Courageous (1937) and Boys Town (1938). Tracy also won seven other nominations for films such as Father of the Bride, Judgment at Nuremburg, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, his final on-screen appearance as a co-star with Katherine Hepburn, an actress with whom he had a decades-long affair. The team had appeared together in many memorable films over the years.

Tracy is seen as one of the so-called students of Kay Kyser Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941). A Tracy caricature as Stanley, from his 1939 film Stanley and Livingstone can be seen in both Malibu Beach Party (Freleng, 1940), in which he addresses Mary Livingston, as well as in Africa Squeaks (Clampett, 1940), in a running gag where he is looking everywhere for Livingstone. Bugs, after watching the reaction of Elmer Fudd caused by drinking the (supposedly) beast-creating formula in Hare Remover (Tashlin, 1946) remarks amusedly “I think Spencer Tracy did it much better, don’t you folks?”, referring to Tracy’s role in the 1941 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

TRIXIE

Tex Avery’s secretary. Reference film was shot, which still exists, of her doing the gag in Cross-country Detours (Avery, 1940) where a deer does a Mae West impersonation, sashaying off the screen. Around the same time, a stripper was brought in for reference shooting for the part of the lizard that sheds its skin in the same film.

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

Raucous game show that ran for years on both radio and television. The gist of the show was that contestants had to tell the truth in answering questions, or else pay a penalty, usually one designed to elicit laughs from the audience. One feature involved guessing the identity of a Miss Shush, a Mr. Hush, and The Walking Man from a series of clues given over a number of weeks.

Each of these elements is parodied quite effectively in The Ducksters (Jones, 1950), in which Daffy plays a sadistic game show host victimizing Porky when he gives supposedly wrong answers. The title itself is a clever play on that of the 1947 movie The Hucksters, which took a healthy jab at the radio and advertising industries.

TRYLON & PERISPHERE

Symbols of the 1939-1940 New York Worlds Fair. They can be seen in Crazy Cruise (Avery/Clampett, 1942) next to the Pyramids and the Sphinx in a panning shot. They are also seen in the closing gag of Land of the Midnight Fun (Avery, 1939) when a ship, lost in fog, ends up balanced on them.

TUCKER, SOPHIE
(d. 1966)

“Last of the Red-hot Mamas.” Popular singer of the 1930s, caricatured in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937) as Sophie Turkey.

TURNER, LLOYD

Story writer at Warner Brothers in the late 1940’s. Worked primarily under Art Davis’ direction, and was usually teamed with Bill Scott. Turner would later write for the Bullwinkle show, which was co-written and co-produced by Scott. He went on to work on a number of shows for Norman Lear, including The Jeffersons.

Credits, all directed by Davis and, except where noted, co-written with Scott:

• Doggone Cats (1948)
• What Makes Daffy Duck? (1948)
• Bone Sweet Bone (1948)
• Riff Raffy Daffy (1948)
• The Stupor Salesman (1948)
• A Hick, A Slick, and a Chick (1948)
• Two Gophers From Texas (1948)
• Dough Ray Me-Ow (1948)
• Odor of the Day (solo, 1948)
• Holiday for Drumsticks (solo, 1949)
• Porky Chops (1949)
• Bowery Bugs (1949)

TWEETY (or “TWEETIE PIE”)

Little yellow canary bird who is the eternal target of Sylvester the Cat. Tweety usually benefits from either the intercession of outsiders, such as Granny or one of the generic bulldogs that infest Warner Brothers cartoons, or just plain cartoon laws of gravity and luck. On occasion -- particularly in his earliest shorts -- Tweety would take the offensive in protecting himself.

Tweety was the creation of Bob Clampett, who had a fascination with baby birds he fondly remembered from nature films, as well as a nude baby picture of himself he remembered rather less fondly. While the studio had used similar birds before -- as, for example, in the Avery/Clampett 1941 cartoon The Cagey Canary -- Clampett gave the bird, originally called Orson, judging from an early model sheet, a lisping baby voice, a head proportioned like a baby’s, and a temperment borrowed perhaps from the Red Skelton’ character Junior, the Mean Widdle Kid. In his debut in A Tale of Two Kitties (Clampett, 1942) and in his followups Birdy and the Beast (1944) and A Gruesome Twosome (1945), Tweety shows that he is no helpless little orphan, using gasoline, hand grenades, dynamite and clubs to protect himself. The characters name first appears in the credits for Birdy and the Beast.

Originally pink, Tweety’s color was changed to yellow after censors complained, no doubt tipped off by the Durante-like cat in A Gruesome Twosome (Clampett, 1945) calling Tweety “the naked genius”, to say nothing of Catstello indicating in A Tale of Two Kitties (Clampett, 1942) that if the Hays Office would only let him, he’d “give ’im [his Abbot-like partner] the bird, all right!”.

Clampett did the preliminary work on Tweetie Pie before leaving the studio, at which time the cartoon was turned over to Friz Freleng. It went on to win the Oscar in 1946.

Odd footnote: no one appears to know the complete credits for the cartoon. They are not listed in the records of the Library of Congress, nor in Beck and Friedwald, and it does not appear that any version exists other than the Blue Ribbon re-releases which eliminate the credits. It is hoped that this will be remedied someday.

The above cartoon has caused some confusion concerning the name of the character. Sometimes -- most often, in fact -- the character is referred to as Tweety, but other times as Tweetie Pie, muddying the situation. See, for example, Tree Cornered Tweety (Freleng, 1956), in which Tweety appears in an Automat window labeled Tweety Pie, right next to the Lemon Pie.

Tweety makes a cameo in No Barking (Jones, 1954), saying his catch-phrase “I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat”. (Incidentally, “Putty Tat” has also been spelled as “Puddy Tat”, which is now the officially endorsed spelling.) In 1950, Mel Blanc recorded a hit song “I Taut I Taw a Puddy-Tat” -- words and music by Alan Livingston, Billy May and Warren Foster.

TWERP, JOE

Comedian specializing in spoonerizing gags, and identified by Keith Scott in Animato! #37 as being one of the voices in I Only Have Eyes for You (Avery, 1937), presumably as the iceman bird.

TWO CROWS

Mexican crows used in Two Crows from Tacos (Freleng, 1956) and Crows Feet (Freleng/Pratt, 1962). Not much to say about the characters, aside from the fact that they are the usual Mexican sterotypes -- guitar playing, sleepy layabouts who talk with heavily accented English.

Filmography: