What Price Giddy Glory?

Bugs Bunny’s first cartoon, A Wild Hare, was nominated for an Oscar after being released in 1940. It didn’t win. None of the tremendously funny Bugs shorts—and we all have our favourites—made in the ‘40s won. Nor in the early ‘50s. It wasn’t until Knighty Knight Bugs came along in 1958 that Bugs became “that Oscar-winning rabbit” that Dick Tufeld used to introduce on the Bugs Bunny prime-time TV show.

The length of time wasn’t altogether Bugs’ fault. MGM had more votes at the Academy of Motion Pictures. To no great surprise, they voted for Tom and Jerry cartoons.

The North American Newspaper Alliance took note of Bugs’ victory and featured it in its Hollywood column of April 18, 1959. The Oscar ceremony had been held less than two weeks earlier.

A LOOK INTO MOVIELAND
Bugs Bunny's Aplomb Unchanged By Oscar
By HAROLD HEFFERNAN
HOLLYWOOD—The giddy glory of Oscar ownership is not going to shatter the aplomb of at least one jubilant Academy winner—boisterous, insouciant Bugs Bunny, bucktoothed, jug-eared rabbit of film cartoon renown.
The madcap animated hare with the Brooklyn accent—a creature originated by Warner Bros, cartoon division—walked off with his first glittering statuette after a fabulous 18 years of wacky and audacious adventures.
In every laughter-loving country in the world, except Russia, where he is not yet entitled to scamper the carrot-cruncher has fast become one of filmland's best-loved characters. This was evidenced by the crescendo of applause welling up from the audience at the Academy presentation when Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh made the formal announcement. Bugs matched the decibel level of plaudits accorded many of the flesh-and-blood stars.
Gets Own Fan Mail
Such is Bugs' amazing popularity, according to John W. Burton, Warners' executive cartoon producer, that almost every mail delivery brings him his own batch of fan letters.
Although Oscar was late in coming, the bustling bunny had not gone without recognition from other sources. For 14 consecutive years exhibitors of America, in their annual poll, have voted him top favorite in the short subject group.
Bugs Bunny's distinctive voice, from the time he first appeared on the drawing boards, has been that of noted character actor and radio-TV personality, Mel Blanc, often seen as Prof. Le Blanc, the music teacher, on the Jack Benny show.
'What's Up, Doc?'
In his screen bow the rabbit was given a line of dialogue which since has been repeated at least once in each succeeding episode, one that was quickly mimicked over and over by untold millions of youngsters—"What's up, Doc?" delivered with irreverence and mocking derision.
Just as he is the Bugs Bunny voice, Blanc also produces the eloquent crunching as the hare devours a carrot. Blanc says he is unable to estimate the hundreds of pounds of the vegetable root he has chomped in this segment of his performance.
Through long and intimate association with the rabbit, producer Burton has come to know him almost as a real-life friend. He speaks of him with reverence. "If you'll notice," he says, "Bugs is never the one to start trouble. He suffers in silence—up to a point. Then he explodes into action — and usually comes out ahead."
Audience Reaction
This is the behavior wherein audiences of every age find personal identification, Burton believes, and which may largely be responsible for the genuine warmth with which Bugs is greeted whenever his wide-cheeked countenance flashes on the screen.
Each cartoon episode is one reel in length, with a running time of seven minutes. Eight episodes are released each year, meaning that to date Bugs has made almost 150 separate performances. Each segment requires approximately 15,000 individual drawings.

Bugs is strictly hep, always in tune with the times. For example, in the Oscar-winning entry, "Knighty Knight Bugs," directed by Friz Freleng, there is a scene in which he traps his familiar adversary, Yosemite Sam, a desperado of unsavory reputation, in a silolike tower used to cache dynamite.
The explosives are set off by Bugs, and Yosemite Sam rides the runaway silo on a trip all the way to the moon, which means that the rabbit has already beaten the boys at Cape Canaveral at their own game.
For Bugs, according to his legion of admirers, that's no more than par.