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WARNER BROTHERS
CARTOON COMPANION
by E.O. Costello
Introduction
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
Introduction
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
Introduction
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
Introduction
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
Introduction
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
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W
- WABBIT TWOUBLE
-
Clampett
cartoon of 1941 which is one of the earliest Elmer Fudd/Bugs Bunny
face-offs. The cartoon uses the rounder, fatter Fudd that was rather
like the man who provided his voice, Arthur Q. Bryan.
It is also noteworthy as one of the very few instances where deliberate
fun was had with the credits, which are rendered in “Fudd-ese”. The
author has seen comparisons between this cartoon and the Disney cartoon
Donald’s Vacation (1940).
- WALLER, THOMAS (“FATS”)
-
Popular jazz pianist of the 1920s and 30s who made frequent
appearances on radio, often referring to himself as “300 pounds of jive
and joviality”. Waller caricatures can be seen in Clean Pastures (Freleng, 1937), in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937) as “Fats Swallow”, and most notably in Tin Pan Alley Cats (Clampett,
1943), where the main character, a Waller-like cat, is sent into a
Wackyland-like setting, re-using and updating some of the animation
from Porky in Wackyland (Clampett, 1938).
- WAR BONDS
-
One
of the means by which the U.S. Government financed its war effort
during both the First and Second World Wars was through the sale of War
Bonds: low-denomination government securities sold directly to
citizens. (United States Savings Bonds fulfill a similar function
today.) Even lower demonination War Savings Stamps were sold, mostly to
children, who could save them up and turn them in for a War Bond. War
Bonds were partly used as an effort to get civilians involved in the
war effort, partly as a financing tool, and partly as an
anti-inflationary measure, to get money out of circulation in a time
when a lot of money was chasing after a small amount of goods, due to
the wartime economy.
Hollywood celebrities were recruited for the effort to pitch these bonds. Carole Lombard died in a plane crash when returning from one such rally. Kate Smith did more than nearly any other star in personally pitching war bonds, literally selling millions through her efforts.
Cartoons were also a part of this sales effort. Leon Schlesinger
contracted with the U.S. Treasury to put out a short selling War Bonds
starring Bugs Bunny. Initiated before Pearl Harbor and completed in
early 1942, the short’s on-screen title is Leon Schlesinger Presents Bugs Bunny, but has generally come to be known as The Bugs Bunny Bond Rally. The
film features Bugs singing the Irving Berlin song “Any Bonds Today?“,
backed up by Porky Pig and the fatter version of Elmer Fudd. The short
was produced by the Clampett unit.
The famous “Minuteman” poster used to sell bonds throughout the war can be seen at the very beginning of The Wacky Wabbit (Clampett, 1942) stuck inside a cactus. A modified version of it can also be seen in Fifth Column Mouse (Freleng, 1943) with a rodent version of the minuteman. The Weakly Reporter (Jones, 1944) extolls the virtues of hoarding War Bonds, and an ad for War Bonds appears at the end of The Ducktators
(McCabe, 1942), although it is usually cut from prints shown today. A
poster urging the purchase of War Bonds was added to the re-used
animation from Clampett’s Scalp Trouble (1939) that made up Freleng’ Slightly Daffy (1944). The grasshopper in Foney Fables (Freleng,
1942) may be as lazy as his fabled counterpart, but he demonstrates
that he is much smarter, flashing a wad of War Bonds.
- WASHAM, BEN
-
Long-time animator in Jones’ unit whose talents complemented those of his colleague Ken Harris.
Jones, in the first volume of his autobiography, pens a warm and moving
tribute to Washam. Washam was one of the Jones staffers who followed
him to MGM to work on the Tom and Jerry series there after the closure
of the Warner Brothers animation Studio. Unlike Harris, Abe Levitow and Maurice Noble of the Jones unit, Washam did not get a chance to direct at Warner Brothers. He did go on to direct cartoons at MGM.
A native of Arkansas, Washam was allegedly the source of the famous Daffy Duck line in Duck Amuck (Jones, 1953), “Thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin!”
Along with Sid Marcus, Washam received story credit for Gone Batty (McKimson, 1954).
- WATSON, ZOOT
-
African-American musician (?) of the 1940s. Watson voiced the role
of Prince Chawmin’, labeled “De Prince” on some model sheets, in Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs (Clampett, 1943).
- WEBB, DANNY
-
In Animato! #31, Hames Ware identifies Webb as a voice actor who did a number of Pinto Colvig-like voices for a variety of cartoons studios, including work for The Country Mouse (Freleng, 1935) and possibly the Gildersleeve voice in Hare Conditioned (Jones, 1945). Ware indicates that little was known about Danny Webb, save that he starred in a Columbia live action short, A Star is Shorn (1939). But then Ware made the connection with
- WEBER, DAVE
-
In Animato! #32, Hames Ware briefly described the uncredited
career of Weber, crediting him with the voices, variously, of
Rochester, Fred Allen, Edward G. Robinson, Walter Winchell, and the
camel in Porky in Egypt (Clampett, 1938). Ware does not identify other cartoons, though one could guess that Thugs With Dirty Mugs (Avery,
1939), which features a Robinson caricature that does Fred Allen at one
point, is probably one of the cartoons Weber worked on. [Note since
first writing: In a later article, Ware confirms this.] He also
contends that Weber provided the voice of Egghead, based on
contemporary knowledge of his imitations of Joe Penner, whose voice was
used as the model for Egghead’s.
Ware later puts forth the startling idea that Webb and Weber were no less than one and the same person (Animato! #34).
The identification was done through diligent detective work and photo
comparisons. Ware also credits him with doing the Lionel Barrymore fish
in Fresh Fish (Avery, 1939), Walter Winchell in several cartoons including The Lone Stranger and Porky (Clampett, 1939), Rochester in Pied Piper Porky (Clampett, 1939) and the mad camel in Porky in Egypt (Clampett, 1938). Weber/Webb seems to have been also responsible for a deep, froggy voice used in a number of cartoons, such as Count Me Out (Hardaway/Dalton, 1938).
- WEISMULLER, JOHNNY
(1904-1984)
-
Athlete who parlayed an Olympic gold medal-winning swimming career
-- he won in 1924 and 1928 -- into a movie career, most memorably as
Tarzan in a long series of films, and then as Jungle Jim, when his gut
got too big for a leopard skin.
Caricatures of Weismuller, usually giving the trademark Tarzan yell, can be seen in The Coo-coo Nut Grove (Freleng, 1936), Hollywood Daffy (Freleng, 1946), Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941) in a nifty gag with Weismuller shedding a formal overcoat to reveal his leopard skin, and Gorilla My Dreams (McKimson, 1948).
- WEST, MAE
(1892-1980)
-
Comedienne with the hourglass figure and the every-ready double
enténdre who was a fixture in early thirties films, until the advent of
the Production Code drastically limited her range. Still, she was able
to give a memorable performance opposite W.C. Fields in My Little Chickadee (1940), in which Fields uttered her trademark line “Come up and see me sometime.” Caricatures of West can be seen in A Star is Hatched (Freleng, 1938) with a dressing room with an hourglass-shaped door, and dancing with a George Arliss turtle in The Coo-coo Nut Grove (Freleng, 1936).
- WESTERN UNION
-
Until perhaps the 1960s, telegrams were one of the few ways, aside
from using the telephone, that people could communicate dependably and
quickly with one another over long distances. Following the demise of
rival Postal Telegraph in the early 1940s, Western Union was the
principal telegram service for the United States. It is likely for
legal reasons that when telegrams were used in a gag, the Western Union
name was disguised, usually thinly. For example, The Impatient Patient (McCabe, 1942) uses “Western Onion”, whereas Buckaroo Bugs (Clampett, 1944) and Rabbit Transit (Freleng, 1947) use “Western Bunions”. “Western Junior” is yet another version that was used at times.
- “WHAT A REVOLTIN’ DEVELOPMENT THIS IS!”
-
An oft-repeated line of Chester Riley, the character played by William Bendix on the radio (later television) program The Life of Riley. Daffy Duck says the phrase just after being suited up in toreador outfit by the bull in Mexican Joyride (Davis, 1947).
- WHEN’S YOUR BIRTHDAY?
-
Joe
E. Brown movie from 1937 described by Leonard Maltin as “slight,
meandering slapstick with Brown trying his best as an
astrology-obsessed prizefighter whose prowess depends on the position
of the stars.” The opening Technicolor sequence, featuring animation of
zodiac characters, was Bob Clampett’s first work as director. It would be his only work in colour until 1941.
- “WHOA, HORSE!”
-
Catch-phrase associated with the Sheriff deadeye character of Red Skelton. The line is said, usually by Yosemite Sam, in Buckaroo Bugs (Clampett, 1944), Sahara Hare (Freleng, 1955), and Knighty Knight Bugs (Freleng, 1958).
- WHITEMAN, PAUL
-
Bandleader known as “The King of Jazz”. Many of George Gershwin’s
songs, including “Rhapsody in Blue” were associated with Whiteman. In Wake Up the Gypsy in Me (Harman/Ising,
1933), the bandleader of a group of Russkies turns to face the camera,
and it turns out to be Whiteman. The clarinetist thereupon goes into
the famous clarinet solo that opens “Rhapsody in Blue”.
Whiteman is also something of a footnote figure in animation history. For his movie The King of Jazz (1930),
Walter Lantz was commissioned to do a brief animation sequence in
two-strip Technicolor showing how Whiteman supposedly earned his title
hunting in Africa. This was the first cartoon to utilise Technicolor,
predating Disney’s Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor, by two years.
- COYOTE, WILE E.
A
predator blessed with enormous intelligence and perseverence; yet
cursed with a level of luck that would stagger Job. He fails repeatedly
in his quest to catch the Roadrunner, partly due to his use -- or
misuse -- of the products of the Acme firm.
A co-creation of Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese,
the Coyote would pursue the Roadrunner throughout a fifteen year span
during the Classic era. The Coyote also did battle with Bugs Bunny in a
handful of memorable shorts; in which he had a well-educated,
highly-cultured voice and a simply fabulous ego. Witness his famous
line of self-introduction as “Wile E. Coyote, Genius.” The same title
is proudly emblazoned on the mailbox he maintains in Compressed Hare (Jones, 1961).
In only one Roadrunner cartoon, Zoom at the Top (Jones,
1962), does the carnivore actually utter an articulate word: an
understated “ouch” after being mangled by a huge steel trap.
The
series provided Jones with some relief, in that the Coyote cartoons
could be turned out faster and less expensively than some of his other
cartoons. The considerably more sophisticated and expensive What’s Opera, Doc? was
made possible, in part, by the fact that Jones and his staff diverted
time and resources to it which had originally been allocated for a
fairly routine Coyote production. It is perhaps worthy of note here
that four out of the eight cartoons released by Jones in 1961 were
Coyote cartoons. The reader is referred to Chuck Amuck for a detailed discussion of the so-called “rules” he applied to the series.
Ironically enough, the series began as a parody of chase cartoons in the same vein as Fair and Wormer (Jones, 1946). The character was based in part on the description Mark Twain gave of coyotes in Roughing It, Twain being a seminal influence on Jones. Jones has readily acknowledged the influence of Frank Tashlin’s The Fox and the Grapes (Columbia, 1941) for the blackout gag concept.
There
was a gap of three years between the first and second cartoons in the
Roadrunner series; Jones was inspired to make more entries when he
received a letter from a military aviator noting the popularity of the
first cartoon, Fast and Furry-ous (1949), to the extent that some pilots were calling “Beep Beep” to one another during excercise maneuvers.
The
original model sheet for the character bears a label referring to the
character as “Don Coyote”, in reference to Miguel Ceverantes’ Don Quixote.
Jones and Maltese developed another character, Ralph Wolf, who was identical to Wile E. Coyote, save for a taste for mutton and a red nose.
Filmography, all directed by Jones:
- Fast and Furry-ous (1949)
- Beep Beep (1952)
- Going Going Gosh (1952)
- Operation: Rabbit (1952) with Bugs
- Zipping Along (1953)
- Stop, Look and Hasten (1954)
- Ready, Set, Zoom! (1955)
- Guided Muscle (1955)
- Gee Whiz-z-z (1956)
- There They Go-Go-Go (1956)
- To Hare is Human (1956) with Bugs
- Scrambled Aches (1957)
- Zoom and Board (1957)
- Whoa, Be Gone (1958)
- Hook, Line and Stinker (1958)
- Hip Hip Hurry (1958)
- Hot Rod and Reel (1959)
- Wild About Hurry (1959)
- Fatest With the Mostest (1960)
- Hopalong Casualty (1960)
- Rabbit’s Feat (1960) with Bugs
- Zip ’n’ Snort (1961)
- Lickety Splat (1961)
- Beep Prepared (1961)
- Compressed Hare (1961) with Bugs
- Zoom at the Top (1962)
- To Beep or Not to Beep (1963)
- Hare-Breadth Hurry (1963)
- War and Pieces (1964)
- WILLKIE, WENDELL
-
Utility
industry executive who became the dark horse Republican candidate for
President in 1940, finishing respectably against Franklin Roosevelt.
During World War II, he became a sort of roving ambassador for
Roosevelt, and was viewed as having given a highly credible performance
in that role.
A portrait of Willkie can be seen next to Roosevelt as the Mt. Rushmore figures of choice for Republicans and Democrats in Aviation Vacation (Avery, 1941). The Gremlin loudly indicates to Bugs Bunny that he is not Willkie in Falling Hare (Clampett, 1943).
- WILSON, DON
-
Announcer on the Jack Benny
radio program, who read many of the commercials on the show and
occasionally butchered them. Along with the rest of the show’s primary
actors, Wilson provided the voice for his own caricature in The Mouse That Jack Built (McKimson, 1959).
- WINCHELL, WALTER
-
Feared gossip columnist who worked primarily for the New York Daily Mirror. Winchell
was at the peak of his power broadcasting on the NBC Blue Network in
the 1930s, where he could make or break careers based solely on what he
said about people of prominence. Winchell was known for high-energy
delivery, imbuing his words with a great sense of urgency, reportedly
due to his practice of drinking glassfuls of water shortly before each
broadcast. The show opened with the sound of a radio telegraph sounding
furiously, as Winchell breathlessly opened his show with the phrase
“Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea”.
Speaking of the Weather (Tashlin, 1937) has a Winchell caricature peeping through the keyhole in Look magazine and reporting the escape of a convict in Radio News magazine. His so-called “feud” with bandleader Ben Bernie was used as the basis for gags in both The Coo-coo Nut Grove (Freleng, 1936) and The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937). Winchell sound-alikes, probably voiced by Dave Weber are heard in Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas (Avery, 1938) advising Pokerhuntas to save Smith, as well as in Herr Meets Hare (Freleng, 1945) in the first scene, noting that Hermann Göering is resting his nerves in the Black Forest. The town crier in The Hardship of Miles Standish (Freleng, 1940) imitates the Winchell delivery, shouting “Flash! What maid is that way about a certain captain?”.
- WOOLCOTT, ALEXANDER
-
Writer and member of the Algonquin Round Table who hosted the Town Crier radio program on CBS in the 1930s. Woolcott is caricatured as the bell-ringing owl in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937). Woolcott was also caricatured in Have You Got Any Castles? (Tashlin,
1938). However, as noted by Beck and Friedwald, Woolcott objected to
the caricature, and it was subsequently removed from reissue prints,
including those shown on television. Just before the deleted portion,
one can hear the bell, and see the shadow of the caricature against the
books in the library.
- WORD-SWITCH GAG
-
Popular
gag used in Warner Brothers cartoons in which character A says a
phrase, character B loudly contradicts it, and the argument goes back
and forth, until character B suddenly adopts character A’s position,
causing character A to adopt character B’s position, which was
character B’s intent all along. Usually, this ends in disaster for
character A.
Classic examples of this gag are found in the Hunter’s Trilogy,
in which Bugs repeatedly uses language -- Daffy identifies it as
“pronoun trouble” -- to get Daffy on the business end of a shotgun.
Other examples are the argument Bugs Bunny has with the Gashouse
Gorilla disguised as an umpire in Baseball Bugs (Freleng, 1946) and Porky allowing Daffy to convince him that he is an eagle in Duck Soup to Nuts (Freleng, 1944).
- W.P.A.
-
Acronym for the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal-era
agency. This organization, at least if you believe its critics, was
involved almost exclusively in make-work projects -- unlike, say, its
sister agency the PWA, which built major public works projects such as
the Hoover Dam. Fresh Fish (Avery, 1939) has a shovelnose shark who is digging in the ocean floor as part of a WPA project. The Pony Express rider in Saddle Silly (Jones, 1941) runs into a warpath that is under WPA construction.
- WRITERS
-
Warren Foster, Mike Maltese, and Tedd Pierce
were probably the three most important writers at the Warner studio
from 1937, when on-screen credits for stories started to be awarded,
through 1964, when the studio closed. Each of these writers was, either
together or alone, responsible for dozens of the cartoons made by
Warner Brothers, and worked with most (if not all) of the major
directors. Each of them put in at least 20 years as writers with the
studio. Maltese and Pierce, in the late 1940s, worked together for the
Jones and Freleng units.
Other
writers had rather short careers, at least as far as on-screen credit
is concerned. In some cases, however, a writer was associated almost
exclusively with a certain director:
Others
had a wide range of experience with many different directors, even over
a short period of time. These would include the following, primarily
from the late 1930s and early 1940s:
Other writers have too few credits to make any real judgment as to their influence at the studio. These would include
Some animators occasionally received story credit. These would include
Chuck Jones received credit for writing or co-writing a number of his cartoons, as did Friz Freleng. Even Bob McKimson
received story credit on one occasion. It should be noted, however,
that the job of a director at Warner Brothers generally called for him
to be responsible for the final state of the dialogue in a cartoon.
Thus, in that regard at least, on-screen credits can be seen as
underestimating the true influence of directors over story matters.
Until
about 1940, writers generally worked in a pool-type arrangement, with
directors selecting story men as needed. Gradually, specific writers
became associated with specific directors.
It
is important to emphasize two facts when considering where credit is
ultimately due. The first is the fact that on-screen story credits were
not awarded at all until 1937. The second is that the studio used a
system of rotating credits between 1937 and 1944, under which a writer
might get credit for a cartoon to which he had contributed little, yet
might not receive any credit for a cartoon to which he had made major
contributions.
By way of example, on page 114 of Chuck Amuck, Chuck Jones gives Tedd Pierce credit for contributing to the following cartoons:
- Little Lion Hunter (credited to Bob Givens, 1939)
- Elmer’s Candid Camera (credited to Rich Hogan, 1940)
- Ghost Wanted (credited to Hogan, 1940)
- Bedtime for Sniffles (credited to Hogan, 1940)
- Inki and the Lion (credited to Hogan, 1941)
Contributions
of 1930s-1940s era writers like Howard, Hogan, Miller, Millar and
Hardaway might thus be very greatly underestimated. This is
particularly likely with Howard, who has few on screen credits, but is
constantly cited -- particularly by Jones and Maltese -- as a major
influence on the studio. Sadly, the contributions of pre-1937 writers
are virtually untraceable, given the unfortunate state of
record-keeping at Warner Brothers.
- WYNN, ED
-
Notable vaudeville comic, known as “The Perfect Fool” who was an
early success on radio as the Texaco Fire Chief, which is referenced in
one of the ads shown in I Like Mountain Music (Harman/Ising,
1933) giving his trademark, drawn out “soo-o-o-o”. Another caricature
can be seen listening to the Edward G. Robinson dog in Hollywood Canine Canteen (McKimson, 1946) wearing a funny hat, another trademark of Wynn’s.
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