They're Still Hungry

A cat is still hungry after he and Woody Woodpecker eat a full-grown moose. “Yeah? So am I,” says Woody. (Note the wiggling fingers in the air).

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Before Lucy

They kicked Vivian Vance out of town. And that was a good thing.

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Look of the Cook

A dough-covered cat lands inside the pants of a cook in Ub Iwerks’ Reducing Crème. That gives whoever animated this scene a chance to hold some poses.

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Flea Sees Flea

Homer Flea, who lives on the back of a hobo hound, wakes up and sees something.

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An Interview?

There are several kinds of celebrity interviews. Jack Benny did all three kinds.

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Sing Like Stalling

People used to sing in movie theatres.

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Not Enough Overlays

We’ve talked before about how directors at Warner Bros. used overlay cels with scenery placed over top of the animation and panned at a different rate than the background painting to give a sense of three dimensions.

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Becoming Mr. Mouse

The best part of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse (1947) are the transformation scenes of Jerry after he drinks the potion Tom has concocted.

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New! Mild! Bob and Ray!

Bob and Ray had seemingly countless time-slots and shows that it’s hard to keep up with them.

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Cat Tail For Spring

Bootleg Pete wants Alice’s half-completed crossword puzzle and chases her up a lighthouse. Julius comes up with a rescue idea.

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Wolf, Stay Away From My Door

Viewers are behind Swing Shift Cinderella getting a view of the wolf feverishly running toward her. And the door slamming.

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Writing For Jack Benny, 1941

There’s a bit of there’s-more-to-this-story in an article about Jack Benny’s writers published by the Dayton Daily News on January 13, 1941.

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Freddie Fudsie, Cartoon Star

The cartoons from John Sutherland Productions may be among the most obscure ones in post-war animation history.

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Familiar Poses

Even an air of familiarity can’t make Chuck Jones’ Tom and Jerry cartoons entertaining.

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Turnaround Cat

In Crazy Mixed Up Pup, an innocent kitty in a doorway suddenly notices Sam-as-a-dog running toward him (off camera).

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Desi

His name will always be joined together with Lucy’s.

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Flypaper Kitten

Try as they might, the people making Van Beuren cartoons in 1933 couldn’t do Walt Disney. And they tried in Rough on Rats (1933).

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Smearing Bogie

From Slick Hare.

Some background can be found here.

Glowing Huck

There’s an interesting effect Hanna-Barbera used in the Yogi Bear cartoon “Space Bear” (1959) that was also seen at the end of “Spud Dud” (1960), the first Huckleberry Hound cartoon of the third season.

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Staying Young

How Jack Benny, June Lockhart and other stars stay young.

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More Studio, Less Money

Walter Lantz always complained about money. But he had enough to expand his studio.

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Noble's Surburbia

Maurice Noble was the art director for John Sutherland Productions in between stints with Chuck Jones at Warner Bros.

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First Tooth

Car/baby analogies are what drives Tex Avery’s One Cab’s Family (1952).

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Qomeback For Q

It’s hard to say where I saw Robert Q. Lewis first. I suspect it was as the host of Play Your Hunch after Merv Griffin left, but he seemed to be a panelist on all kinds of game shows.

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The Dirty What?

Popular culture is popular for only a while. Then new generations come along and they have their own ways of doing things. Read more here.

Hay and Hey

“I Heard” (1933) is full of great little gags tied to a fine song by Don Redman and his orchestra.

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Stuntman Benny

“Inert” is a good way of describing Jack Benny on stage.

Read what Faye Emerson said about Benny here.

Why Are Cartoons For Kids?

There was a reason the big screen was populated with fairy tales and stories of little animals. That’s what the people wanted.

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But It Works For Bugs Bunny

Dressing in drag works for every Warner Bros. cartoon character, right?

Not Wile E. Coyote. Read more here

Spot the Radio Stars

You’d expect Toyland Broadcast to have radio caricatures in it. And you would be right.

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Grey Hair on Red's Gags

Red Skelton? Sorry, I’ll take a pass.

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Singing Faces

Flip the frog sings to faces on the wall that urge him to have one of them attached to his head in Funny Face.



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