Mannie Melodies

For years, you’ve read or heard about Manny Farber’s praise for Warner Bros. cartoons. Any claim he was he first to take notice of them is hearsay. An earlier champion was Paul Harrison in his column for the Newspaper Enterprise Association around June 23, 1937.

Farber’s opinion piece was published in the September 20, 1943 issue of The New Republic. In case you have never seen the full article, here it is:

Short and Happy
SOME of the best movies of the year are seven-minute cartoons called by names like "All This and Rabbit Stew" or "The Fighting 69th 1/2," which come on as unheralded transitions in the double bill and feature the notorious Bugs Bunny, a rabbit that not only performs physical feats of a Paul Bunyan magnitude but is equally sharp with his mind. They come from Warner Brothers, are produced by Leon Schlesinger and are called "Merrie Melodies"; ten of them are being reissued this fall, still as "Merrie Melodies" but with the addition of a Blue Ribbon.
One reason for the brightness of "Merrie Melodies," and for their superiority over fellow travelers in the field, is that Schlesinger is out to make you laugh, bluntly, and as it turns out, cold-bloodedly. This runs him against the grain of the several well worked grooves down which the animated cartoon has traveled under the belief that these grooves will never wear through. However, it no longer seems funny to see animals who talk and act like human beings, who do all sorts of ingenious tricks—most of them superhuman—who go through lives of the highest excitement and reward, but have no inner, or mental, life. The complex emotional life and three-dimensional nature of the Schlesinger characters allow their makers to poke fun at everything in sight, or out of sight—especially if it is something familiar and well loved, like "Hiawatha," a kind person, or any bad actress' great moments. It is an illusion of most cartoon makers that they must have a moral, or do good, if it means only killing the villain; Schlesinger is not under this illusion. The masterpiece, "Inki and the Lion," is also a masterpiece of amorality—so far the other side of goodness that it is a parody of "Bambi." In this version of forest life Man is the likable spear-thrower, preyed on by animals, and the king of the Forest is a supernatural horror called the Mina bird, who hates man and beast alike.
The artistic method in Schlesinger cartoons is neither in Disney's top drawer (at his best) nor Popeye's bottom one, but even so it has gone off at a tangent lately that may open up new paths to the cartoon method. It is a change from the straight, insipid realism to a sophisticated shorthand, made up of flat, stylized, posterlike representations, using a sort of Persian color of fancy tones like dusty pink. It is a much simpler style of cartoon drawing, the animation is less profuse, the details fewer, and it allows for reaching the joke and accenting it much more quickly and directly: it also gets the form out of the impossible dilemma between realism and wacky humor.
The goal in Schlesinger heroes is a comic figure with a temperament and behavior as peculiarly his own as those of a Chaplin or a W. C. Fields, which goal is never achieved; but it leads to several rewards, like the Mina bird, who appears in the "Inki" (little African boy) series. The Mina bird is like a toucan, shaped !like an acorn, coal black, who moves inscrutably in an atmosphere of over-whelming supernaturalism, to the tune of Mendelssohn's overture to "Fingal's Cave." At the end of each musical phrase he gives one prodigious, syncopated hop, thereafter moving forward indomitably. 'The Mina bird is inevitably followed by a passive three-year-old individual named Inki, who loves to throw spears, and by a lion (the lion is Schlesinger's most unsuccessful creation—he looks like Robinson Crusoe). The famous Bugs Bunny is Schlesinger's one-animal advertisement of the moral that unadulterated torturing of your fellow men pays off.
At the 26-issues-per-year rate at which they are thought up, the "Merrie Melodies" are bound to vary greatly in quality. The surprising facts about them are that the good ones ("The Case of the Missing Hare," “Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt," "Inki and the Lion") are masterpieces and the bad ones aren't a total loss. For instance, the poor "Rabbit Who Came to Dinner" is given a tremendous lift when in the midst of the inevitable and tedious chase of the rabbit by Elmer, the clock strikes twelve and Bugs breaks into one of his typical emotional upsets, roaring out "Auld Lang Syne," kissing Elmer, flinging confetti in the age-old tradition of New Year's Eve—Elmer being as easily diverted in July as in any other month. Schlesinger is in the Sennett tradition, which uses the whole sphere of man's emotion and behavior simply as a butt for humor, no matter what it leads to. The aim is purely and simply laughter. Schlesinger's men are rich and inventive humorists, and their smart-alecky freshness has turned what is meant to be an interval on the program into the moment when the whole audience brightens up. MANNY FARBER

All This and Rabbit Stew has never been on my winner’s list. When I watched it 60-some-odd years ago, I thought the hunter was too slow and stupid. Elmer Fudd may be a bit of a dullard, but at least his emotions change, and he’s a good foil in The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, with Farber describing one of my favourite scenes in the film.

Regardless, the one thing Farber wouldn’t have known at the time was the Warners cartoons got better and better. There were plenty of fine cartoons made before 1948, which were sold to Associated Artists Productions and found their way onto seemingly countless TV stations for ubiquity starting in June 1956. Over the years, millions of young people couldn’t turn away from their TV sets as they watched Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and others (including the unfortunate hunter in Rabbit Stew) over and over and over.

Maybe Farber praised the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes early, but it’s those kids who grew up to research and write books and fanzine columns about them, creating the foundation of animation history knowledge that, today, seems like it was always there.

Fake News in Real News

The Phantom Ship was released by Warner Bros. on Feb. 1, 1936. But when was the cartoon made?

We can get an idea when the shot cuts to a newspaper read by those rascally scamps, Ham and Ex. You will have click on the frame grab to see the text.



The first thing I thought was “That typeface looks like the one Variety used.” Well, it is. Whoever pasted together this fake newspaper used the Nov. 29, 1935 edition of Daily Variety.

The items about Dewey Wright and the New York hotel situation come from page 12.


And the Loew's State story is from page 1.



While Tex Avery was coming up with enjoyable one-reelers like Gold Diggers of ‘49 and Page Miss Glory, Jack King was futilely endeavouring to make Beans a star in tepid cartoons like this before going back to Disney later the same year.

Paul Smith and Don Williams are the credited animators. I suspect the backgrounds are by Art Loomer. I'd love to know who else was in the background department in 1936.

Care For Some Maltese Minestrone?

Phil De Guard gives viewers of Bye Bye Bluebeard some inside gags in a medicine cabinet in Porky Pig’s bathroom.

When Bluebeard opens the cabinet to find something for his indigestion (caused by eating bombs not-well-disguised as popovers) what do we see?



On the top shelf is Frizby Mixture for director Friz Freleng and Maltese Minestrone for that native son of Italy, via New York City, writer Mike Maltese.

On the middle shelf is Ted Pierce’s Medicine, named for writer Tedd Pierce, McKimk’s Solution for director Bob McKimson and Dr. Foster’s Panacea for writer Warren Foster.

On the bottom shelf is Jones Laxitive (sic) for director Chuck Jones. It’s next to the bottle of Lydia Hokum, a parody of the Lydia Pinkham tonic.

“Alky Haul” may have been popular with many of the staff members, certainly more so than Quinine, Boric Acid or Castor Erl.



Hidden on the middle shelf is a hair oil, perhaps named for Hawley Pratt, Friz layout artist. His name shows up as “Hadley” in other Warners backgrounds.

Did director Art Davis use the Hair Tonic?

Davis’ old buddy, Sid Marcus, wrote the cartoon, with animation by Bill Melendez, Emery Hawkins, Don Williams and Basil Davidovich, with layouts by Don Smith.

The cartoon was the last one made by the Davis unit, and released on Oct. 21, 1949.

Years ago, there was a website devoted to inside and background gags at Warners cartoons. It has suffered the fate of many a site. It’s off-line. But view it here.

The Mel Blanc Clipping File, 1943

You have to wonder when Estelle Blanc saw her husband.

Until he was signed to an exclusive theatrical cartoon contract by Leon Schlesinger in April 1941, Blanc was providing starring voices for Warner Bros. and Walter Lantz, and played various characters in MGM and Columbia/Screen Gems shorts.

On top of that, he was very much in demand in network radio and had regular weekly roles on some shows. It got to the point that a few years after World War Two he was on just about every week on Jack Benny’s radio show. He wasn’t considered a regular in the opening credits, but Jack got around that by mentioning his name, or introducing him, on a number of shows. (Benny was not a social friend with his cast, but Blanc was the exception).

Mel got credits on other shows and mentions in newspaper radio columns. Here’s a sample of what the papers said in 1943. Evidently a profile of him was sent to newspapers (perhaps by CBS or an ad agency) as it was published in a Washington, D.C. paper and parts of it elsewhere. According to it, Joe Dougherty apparently never existed.

Of note is one of his characters on the Judy Canova show was named “Sylvester” and talked like a certain cartoon cat to be invented. I’d love to know more about the Porky war cartoons that were made.

• • • • •

January 7
Mel Blanc (“Uncle Petie” on the Tommy Riggs show) always signs his scripts in his own handwriting, feeling his performance won’t be up to standard without it. (Helen King, Buffalo Evening News)

January 10
Radio versus parental authority is the problem facing Mel Blanc, many-voiced actor who divided his time before the Great Gildersleeve and Abbott-Costello programs. Blanc's four-year-old son, Noel, always catches his pop's broadcasts, which means that, sometimes, Noel tunes in an advance program so he'll be sure to catch his old man on the follow-up.
The other day, Noel caught a psychologist in the midst of advising parents how to control their offspring. Consequently, next time Blanc was readying himself to administer a spanking, the four-year-old stopped him short by asking:
"Pop, are we supposed to believe what we hear on the radio?"
Blanc thoughtlessly said, yes, whereupon the youngster cracked:
"Then let's just forget the spanking. The man on the radio said spanking was bad child psychology."

January 17
At this week’s rehearsal Tommy Riggs had a violent fit of coughing. Mel Blanc (Uncle Petie on the show) asked, “What’s the matter, Betty Lou?” In a disgusted voice, the “child” replied: “It’s not me. It’s that dope I work for!”

January 21

The man who runs with the gags through the Abbott and Costello broadcasts is Mel Blanc, best known as Botsford Twink, sound-man."
The voice of Porky Pig, "Bugs" Bunny, and 50 other comedy characters of the movie cartoons, Blanc has a chance for full use of his versatility on the series.
One week he went through a repertoire of 30 identical bird calls, interjecting them for comedy relief in the program. In another program he was "Juan," the Mexican singer who brought with him a five-piece Mexican band which he insisted on bringing into the show. Another week he was afflicted with "hiccups" whenever Cotello [sic] yelled at him.
"Blanc or Twink, as you will, is just another way of getting continunity into the programs," Martin Gooch, producer, explains. "It helps to keep the programs from being just a series of jokes." (Bob Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer)

January 22
Mel Blanc, Uncle Petie on the [Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou] show, has been putt-putting about Hollywood on his bright red scooter bike. He’s discovered it’s a good means of transportation—and a patriotic one that saves on gas.

January 26
Another guy who gets plenty of radio work is Mel Blanc. Last Thursday Mel was on every commercial show aired from Hollywood Radio City expect Crosby’s. Which adds up to the Vallee show, Abbott & Costello (show was cancelled) and Coffee Time. (William Moyes, The Oregonian)

March 4
Mel Blanc, Hollywood radio action who specializes in impersonations of Eastern dialects, has never been east of New Mexico. Yet he is considered an expert in Brooklyn, New England, Deep South dialects. (Si Steinhauser, Pittsburgh Press)

March 7
There’s no such thing as mike fright, according to Mel Blanc, who plays “Floyd, the barber” [on The Great Gildersleeve]. “It’s just one of the sprites sitting on your shoulder, distracting your attention by whispering in your ear when you’re reading lines,” said Blanc. “I know, because I’ve had touches of mike fright several times in the past year and certainly I should be bothered by mike fright after 15 years of broadcasting.”

March 25
At a time when most radio agencies are thinking about summer replacements two new programs shove off for nationwide coverage over CBS. First to the tee is the Camel Comedy Caravan, taking to the air tomorrow night for a 45-minute spin starting at 7 p.m. ...
Caravan, which wended its way here from New York, is trying out a new emcee in Jack Carson and a formula untried on the cigarette show. Final quarter hour of the show will be given over to Carson’s ‘vaudeville show,’ in which the regulars and guest stars participate in an afterpiece of specialties. Onn the talent side are Herb Shriner, Connie Haines, Elvia Allman, Billy Gray, Mel Blanc, Freddie Rich orchestra of 24 and Dudley Chambers choral group of nine mixed voices. (Variety)

April 13
Mel Blanc’s contract as the voice of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and other cartoon characters has been renewed by Leon Schlesinger. (Daily Variety)

May 24
Mel Blanc, who is the Happy postman on the Burns and Allen show, Jerkins and Pablo on the Comedy Caravan, various characters on other networks, and little Bugs Bunny in the Movies, will be interviewed by Beverly Barnes on the KNX Open House show at 5. (Zuma Palmer, Hollywood Citizen-News)

May 30
Mel Blanc, called upon for frequent comedy characters on the Al Jolson show, this week completed two more Government-sponsored Leon Schlesinger cartoons on Victory gardens and food conservation in which he portrays his best known character, Porky Pig.

June 21
For the first time, the voice of a film cartoon character will receive screen credit. All future Bugs Bunny cartoons will credit his voice to Mel Blanc, who helped originate the character. (Erskine Johnson, NEA)

June 24
Mel Blanc, Uncle Petie on the Tommy Riggs show, is learning cartooning so that he can sign in character when he is asked for the autograph of one of Leon Schlesinger’s brainchildren. Mel plays the parts of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck in the cartoon movie series. (Earle Ferris, Burley Bulletin)

June 27
“Anyone,” explained Actor Mel Blanc of the “Blondie” broadcasts, “can neigh like a horse, but musically, by pinching one nostril, neighing through the other, and at the same time, carrying a tune through the open mouth.”
“What,” asked Blondie’s Dagwood, “do you do with your feet and the other hand?”

July 11

Mel Blanc, featured on the WTOP-CBS Judy Canova program, is an outstanding multi-voiced comedian of wide experience.
Blanc is a motion picture star who doesn't get marquee billing. He's the mainstay of the Leon Schlosinger [sic] cartoon studio where he has invented voices for such notable cartoon characters as "Porky Pig," "Daffy Duck" and "Bugs Bunny." He does about 85 per cent of the voice work on Schlesinger cartoons and has even had his voice dubbed in to form a singing trio.
Blanc is famed for his "57 varieties of voices," running the gamut from humming bird to elephant.
He's a veteran of radio, too. He started in 1927, in Portland, Oreg., where he sang comedy songs on the "Hoot Owls" show. In his off moments he played violin and tuba in many of the Northwest's name bands.
In 1932 Blanc went to San Francisco, where he acted as master of ceremonies on one of radio's early variety shows, "Road Show." Within two years he was back in Portland, where he wrote his own half-hour program six nights a week. This was a variety show in which Blanc imitated all voices. In addition he wrote the script for the Portland Breakfast Club show. Blanc was working 16 hours a day, decided it was too much and went to Hollywood in 1935.
He appeared on several local radio stations doing as many as three or four different voices on a single program. Blanc's big-time break came when he won an audition at the Schlesinger studios and invented a unique voice for a new cartoon character. "Porky Pig." This brought him to the attention of the late Joe Penner, with whom he was on the air for three years, doing the duck voice. He followed this by appearing on practically every big-time radio show in the country.
Blanc is married, has a 6-year-old son, Noel, who is already trying to imitate him. He was born May 30, 1908, in San Francisco, Calif. (J.W. Stepp, Washington Evening Star)

July 26
Not every unusual radio noise is made by complex sound-effects gadgets. Mel Blanc, character actor of many voices, all of which are sooner or later heard on the CBS “Blondie” show, has his own formula for sounding on the air as if he is being choked by Dagwood, Mr. Dithers, etc. Blanc merely chokes himself. Simple?

August 10
When Henry Charles, announcer of the “Silver Theater” series, arrived at rehearsal for the premiere broadcast, he was surprised to see his brother, Mel Blanc, in the cast of supporting players. The brothers, both busy in their respective radio jobs of announcer and actor, seldom cross paths in their professional work. Mel, incidentally, created the role of the “happy postman” on the Burns and Allen show.

August 21
In reply to queries, Mel Blanc supplies the voice for the “parrot” on the Joan Davis-Jack Haley program. (Helen King, Buffalo Evening News)

October 14
Mel Blanc, who plays the Happy Postman on the Burns and Allen show, is star, quizmaster, stooge and sound effects operator on a twice-weekly quiz show which is recorded for our overseas fighting men; rings bells, toots horns, has a swell time. (Virginia Vale, Western Newspaper Union)

October 21
Another thing that could stand mopping up [on the Judy Canova Show] is Mel Blanc’s act whenever he talks. A little of that goes a long way, and after laying down a dense spittle-fog with a couple of lines of script, Mel could dispense with the other 19/20ths of that act. Right now Mel is working on a dozen big shows, some of which would be pretty dull without him. But his oral spray act is the only one that could make listeners feel that at last they are getting too much Blanc-Blanc monkey business. (William Moyes, The Oregonian)

November 2
We wonder what other customers thought when Mrs. Mel Blanc took her son along on a recent shopping trip. Mel, who plays Sylvester in the Judy Canova show, also plays Porky Pig in the famous animated cartoon. His youngster, shopping with mother, saw a huge porcine illustration on the meat man’s wall and gleefully piped, “Look, mommy, there’s daddy!”

December 1
DO radio producers do anything about entertaining their studio fans? Well, Mel Blanc’s literally in velvet because they do. He’s costumed to the rafters for his Bugs Bunny role in the Abbott & Costello show—and the audiences love it. Which is more than you can say about Mel. It’s too confining, he complains. Fun is fun but when he zippers himself from feet to head in the costumer's dreams of a frisky little rabbit, Mel says he loses his identity, to say nothing of the use of hands and feet.
Even a few months ago, the order for such an outfit might have been easy to fill, but not now. A veritable treasure hunt for substitute material was conducted by the company that created the costume. Finally yardage of fuzzy grey and white velvet was obtained at an upholster's show. More velvet, pink for rabbit ears, was discovered packed away in moth balls somewhere, and an ersatz tail was constructed with hatters' plush. But that was far from everything required.
Zippers presented quite a problem, too. Because quick changes are often necessary for Mel, who takes extra parts requiring dialect perfection in the weekly scripts, zippers were a "must." Another headache for the costumer, but finally solved by robbing some feminine evening gowns of their zip fasteners, and replacing them with hooks and ryes, Then came the problem of rabbit whiskers. No rabbit could be sartorially correct without whiskers. This hirsute foliage was finally achieved with horse hair.
The fresh carrots which Bugs Bunny munches during his scenes with Abbott and Costello were one item in the list easy to find in southern California. Several large samples of that favorite rabbit food are carefully washed, scraped and placed in Mel's dressing room before every program. In the interest of realism, Mel Blanc certainly looks the part. (Ben Kaplan column)

December 24
Children of Navy men missing or killed in action will be entertained at a Christmas party today at 3 p.m. in the Naval Reserve Armory, 850 Lilac Terrace.
Besides the distribution of presents, entertainment will include Jack Brooks, Daisy, the movie dog, and her pups; Dippy Diers, Arthur Q. Bryan, Bobbie Dupont and Jimmie O’Brien.

• • • • •

You can see that Mel wasn’t exactly an unknown. Getting a screen credit at Warner Bros. (and, no, his contract did not state he was the only actor to be credited) certainly didn’t hurt. He felt it was the reason he was offered his own sponsored CBS show for the 1946-47 radio season.

Unfortunately, about all Mel could offer were his various voices. Take those away, and there wasn’t much left. His writers built a clichéd character of an earnest, bumbling young man with a somewhat exasperated girl-friend, the same as Dennis Day, or Alan Young, or Eddie Bracken. They found some contrived ways to work in his talent for accents and it just never worked. His show lasted a season.

He was no worse off because of the experience. His career carried on as it had, though some changes were in store thanks to the death of network radio and the slow dismantling of the theatrical animation business. He found a place in animated TV shows and commercials. He opened his own commercial agency. He hit up the talk show circuit. And he survived a horrific car crash.

Perhaps more importantly, all those Warner Bros. cartoons he voiced found a young audience on television, airing over and over and over starting in the mid-1950s. When he died, people may not have known who Judy Canova or Point Sublime were, but they knew Mel Blanc.

Re-Used Gag Time

Warner Bros. cartoons occasionally re-used animation footage and, sometime, gags.

Here’s an example of the latter. First, from Friz Freleng’s The Wabbit Who Came to Supper (1942), written by Mike Maltese. Bugs is in Elmer Fudd’s house taking a bath or shower and singing “Angel in Disguise.” He’s off-key. He comes out to a convenient piano, gets in tune with the correct note, and goes back into the bathroom.



Ten years later, in Bob McKimson’s Upswept Hare, written by Tedd Pierce, Bugs is in Elmer Fudd’s house taking a bath and singing new lyrics to “There’s No Place Like Home.” He’s off-key. He comes out to a convenient piano, gets in tune with the correct note, and goes back into the bathroom.



Bob Givens laid out the McKimson cartoon. I prefer the layout of the earlier short because you can see Bugs' face, though the head position may have come from Pierce's storyboard.

McKimson and Pierce have a switch on an even earlier gag, Porky's Duck Hunt, from 1937; Pierce was on the writing staff then. Twice in the cartoon, Porky shoots a hole in the ceiling. The upstairs neighbour doesn't take kindly to it.

>

In Upswept Hare, Elmer Fudd is conned by Bugs Bunny into shooting into the swimming pool. We see the resulting damage. This time, the downstairs neighbour gets his revenge, and with a little more than a punch.



There's also a shoot-the-apple-off-my-head scenario found in Avery's Daffy Duck and Egghead (1938, Bugs Hardaway credited with the story), and a take-a-shot-at-Bugs gag in A Wild Hare (1940, Rich Hogan credited with the story), though they're really not the same Bugs/apple gag as the one in Upswept Hare.

McKimson didn’t believe in Avery-style outlandish takes. In Upswept Hare, Elmer realises he’s floating in mid-air then goes into various poses before dropping (his face is brown from being shot by Bugs earlier in the cartoon). I like the individual frames here and wish they stood out more in the cartoon.



McKimson's animators are his brother Chuck, Phil De Lara, Herman Cohen and Rod "I calmed him down" Scribner.

Stick Figures Help Win the War

Chuck Jones employs stick figures in parts of his 1944 look at life on the home front, The Weakly Reporter (released March 24).



“The girdle, that moulder of the Form Divine, has gone to war on the scrap pile,” intones Bea Benaderet. Jones doesn't waste time. By the time the dialogue is finished, so is the gag, and it's on to the next scene.



“More and more,” Frank Graham informs us, “women are filling jobs that, in the past, have been held exclusively by men.” Again, the gag ends with the dialogue. Observe the background. Didn't Jones once quote Leon Schlesinger that "purple is a funny color"?



“Even the army has opened its doors to women,” Graham informs us. And we get a WW2 version of the old rolling pin gag.



Uh, oh. The temptress spy!



Heh. That'll learn that Naz-she! (Stop groaning).

You can see Jones employed stylised backgrounds. Here's one I like.



Hmm. When Jones cuts back to the crowd, the tire has moved. Maybe the kid kicked it.



Actually the tire is on a cel. It is rescued by an ambulance crew, leaving the human to become a war casualty (Tires were valuable as they were rationed due to a rubber shortage).

The Film Daily called the cartoon a "funny satire." The Showman's Trade Review gave it a "good" rating, adding:

A cock-eyed slant on life as it has been lived in war time, Leon Schlesinger offers in this Technicolor number a snappy few minutes of harmless fun that won't hurt anybody and will amuse many. Rationing, transportation, shortages, and women come in for lampooning—to say nothing of Henry Kaiser's method for making ships spring up over night. It is, in short, a burlesque newsreel done in cartoons, and calls for further experimentation along this line. Art work and animation are outstanding.

Opined The Independent’s “Longfellow” on April 14, 1944:

A Merrie Melody that burlesques many of our pet wartime peeves. Contains a fair amount of laughs and should please.

Ben Washam receives the rotating animation credit; there's cop-behind-a-billboard scene I think is his. Mike Maltese provided the story. According to Mike Barrier, Earl Klein came to the Jones unit as a layout artist in 1944, and Bob Gribbroek painted the backgrounds. But if this cartoon was in production before then, Bernyce Polifka would have been the background artist. And Klein was in animation before 1944; he was part of an exhibition of art by members of the Screen Cartoonists Guild in Los Angeles in late November 1943. Prior to that, he was a scenic designer for the Fleischers in Miami and, census returns showing he was in Detroit in 1935, employed by Jam Handy before that.

And, yes, Jones would 114 today. Fortunately, his cartoons live on.