The Bat!

Woody Woodpecker was a solid character in the hands of Don Patterson, the best director at the Walter Lantz studio after 1950 who wasn’t named Tex Avery.

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Still a Small-Town Boy

Jack Benny a quitter?

Ah, you’ve got to love tabloids and their attention-grabbing opening sentences.

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Fun From Pelican Films

In the 1950s, some of the best-looking cartoons didn’t appear on theatre screens or TV sets. They were shown in schools or workplaces. They were made by companies that mainly specialised in industrial and advertising films.

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Jack Benny, 1936

Two changes came to Jack Benny’s radio world in 1936, though neither was really noticeable for a while.


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The Story of the Nutty Squirrels

You might have seen a short cartoon featuring two squirrels with sped-up singing in the background and thought “Hey, they’re ripping off the Chipmunks.” Well, you’d be right. And you’d be wrong.

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The Singing Ciccio

At first glance, Jack Benny seemed to like unknowns when his show had to hire a vocalist.

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You Killed Him

Van Beuren cartoon characters in the early ‘30s were poorly and inconsistently drawn—and that’s a good thing.

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