Is Leon a Dog?

Tex Avery and writer Dave Monahan weren’t just parodying film studios with “yes” men and jodhpur-wearing Germanic directors in Daffy Duck in Hollywood, they were taking a little shot at their own studio.

Producer I.M. Stupendous of Wonder Pictures is rotund with a carnation in his lapel and smokes cigarettes in a holder. Avery and Monaham knew a producer just like that. Someone named Leon Schlesinger.



Adding to the inside joke is a phone call that Stupendous makes. “Miss Morgan?” he addresses his secretary on the line. The Schlesinger studio receptionist was Ginger Morgan.

I like the gag where the camera pulls back to show Leon and his director on the phone—in the same office. It’s a completely different office than the one in the pan shot above.



Virgil Ross gets the animation screen credit.