A Panther Lives in Burbank

The most stylish theatrical cartoon series of the 1960? Can it be anything but “Chimp and Zee”?

Well, of course it’s the Pink Panther. (Sorry to any Chimp and Zee fans out there). In a way, the series is an outgrowth of the Warner Bros. cartoons. It was made on the Warners lot by a company run by two ex-Warners cartoon people. And many of the names on the credits—at least at the beginning of the series—are familiar from Warners cartoons.

The Valley Times in North Hollywood profiled DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and the Pink Panther series two years in a row. First up is a feature story from July 13, 1964.

Valley Firm Sparks Film Revolution
By JOHN HOGGATT
Valley Times Entertainment Editor
Sometimes the titles get better reviews than the pictures. It's possible they might defeat themselves with producers.
This wry, half-serious comment came from Friz Freleng, vice president of the Valley company which has started a minor revolution in the movie business.
THIS REVOLUTION has resulted in pleasant viewing of what used to be one of the dullest parts of a movie the showing of the title and those long, endless lists of credits naming everyone from top star to third assistant-powder-puff holder. Now, thanks to the firm of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, those boring openings have been changed in some films to lively, swinging cartoons.
At lunch recently with Freleng and David H. DePatie, they told me how they got in the business of jazzing up film preludes.
The story started in January, 1963, when Warner Bros. in Burbank closed its cartoon division. DePatie, who had been executive in charge of the division, and Freleng, animation director, formed their own company to make cartoons and commercials.
LEASING THE Warner facilities at which they had worked, the two went into business just 14 months ago and soon were turning out amusing characters like Sharpie and Gillette Bird and Charlie Tuna. Then Blake Edwards was given the assignment of directing The Pink Panther for the Mirisch Corp.
“Edwards decided it would be a natural for an animated title,” DePatie explained, “using something with a panther. At his request we whipped up about 150 versions of a panther trademark. He picked one and we were given complete freedom to develop it.”
The result is history. It came out a four-minute-long cartoon starring a rather smug and slap-happy but lovable pink panther who bumbled his way through the titles and credits, sometimes trying to take all the credit for himself, always adding to fun of the proceedings.
WITH THE release and public response to The Pink Panther and its titles, DePatie-Freleng suddenly zoomed to the top of the heap. In quick succession the firm got the assignment for titles of “The Best Man,” “Sex and the Single Girl,” “The Satan Bug” and “A Shot in the Dark.”
“A Shot in the Dark" is sort of a sequel to Panther with Peter Sellers playing the same character in each, and it too features a zany cartoon as the lead. It opens Wednesday at two theaters in the area.
Why the excitement?
“The producers figured the Panther titles added $1.5 millions to the value of the picture,” DePatie said. “They found out that people were checking theaters closely on screen times to make sure they didn’t miss the titles.
“I DON’T KNOW if anyone bought tickets only because they wanted to watch the titles. But the titles certainly influenced viewers to tell their friends it was a good picture.
“I think it’s a good return on an investment of $10,000 to $15,000.”
But will these good results hold true if every picture has a jazzy credit sequence? I wondered.
“We’re trying to make them all different,” explained Freleng. “For ‘The Best Man,’ you'll remember, we used portraits of the Presidents. In ‘Sex and the Single Girl’ the gimmick is using the Ben Casey genetic symbols for male and female.
“NOW WE’RE working on assignments for titles for Hallelujah Trail, The Great Race and How to Murder Your Wife. Writers have been assigned Just as if these were story projects. But all of us are kicking around ideas. For ‘Hallelujah Trail’ we may use titles with live actors.”
“What about the mechanics of the title productions?” I asked.
“We have a staff of 24 and soon will increase it to 40,” DePatie said. “We’re called in nowadays ahead of picture production so a trademark can be worked out to be used in advertising and promoting the picture. Then we spend a lot of time sifting ideas and finally six to eight weeks for actual production.”
IS THE excitement about the new form of titles going to cause a trend? Will everybody want cartoons to open their pictures?
“That’s hard to say,” Freleng said. “Cartoons are no good, of course, for most serious drama. And they probably will be used only on high-budget films.
“But one thing is for sure the old-style credits were a complete bore for audiences. An[y]thing remedying this should stay popular a long, long time.”



The paper checked in again with the studio and columnist Larry Paulson wrote this for the issue of April 23, 1965. And guess who claimed credit for giving birth to Bugs Bunny? No, not Bob Clampett. It is nice to see the artists getting some credit in the popular press.

A GUY walks into another guys office and says, “How'd you like to make the titles for my new motion picture?” The guy answers “Fine," and a new business is born. It’s another Valley success story—a factory where panthers are painted pink!
The entire pink panther plant is pink, and you can pretty well guess the color of the little guard house by the front gate. The location is California Street in Burbank, and even the residence next door has caught the rosy fever.
Blake Edwards and the Mirisch Company asked Henry Mancini to create the music for "The Pink Panther, and Mancini won three Grammy awards for his efforts. They asked David DePatie and Friz Freleng to create the animation behind the titles, (credits) and they won an Oscar. The movie was a success and some people gave more credit to the titles than to the film.
The rubicund feline star proved to be such a hit that his creators are busy producing a series of 113 theatrical cartoons! Titles include “Pink Phink” (which won the Academy Award for cartoons), “Pink Pajamas” and “We Give Pink Stamps.” Coming up: “Sink Pink” and “Pinkfinger.”
The salon de DeFatie-Freleng now has 50 people doing commercials for television, more animated movie titles, advertising film strips, a public service film, shorts and a joke book. To come: a comic strip for newspapers, comic books, coloring books, toys and stuffed animals and undoubtedly a half-hour TV show.
So the pink panther that cavorted about the screen for a brief two minutes to introduce a movie has really begat a lota Pinks. They’re being created for adults, but of course kids watch anything that moves, and they love Pinky’s sophistication.
Dapper DePatie, the firm’s handsome president, started at Warner Bros. as a film editor when he was just 20. Right off he won an Academy Oscar for “Them.”
Freleng (pronounced Freeling, like in free-wheeling) is a living legend in the anima[t]ion business. Five Oscars are engraved with his name. He fathered such brush and ink stars as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester and Tweetie Pie and Daggy Duck [sic].
The two genii let me wander the length and breadth of the Pink Panther place on Warner Bros. back lot. I met affable Harry Love, all-around production man who cart act out a cartoon sequence at the drop of a drawing. Hawley Pratt is the animation director who gets the canny pink cat in and out of situations. John Dunn writes plots and Ken Mundie paints Panther backgrounds which are works of art all by themselves.
These people get assists from Tom O’Loughlin, Bob Kurtz and the rest of the unsung heroes who contribute to these wild cartoons.
But we, the audiences, make stars out of a chosen few. “Presently,” says Freleng, “we like the Pink Panther because he’s up to date and on the abstract side.” He’s the first new theatrical cartoon star in about 10 years since the same Friz Freleng created Speedy Gonzales. Bugs Bunny, and his “What's up, doc?” was born 18 years ago on Freleng’s drawing board, and Freleng gets a boot out of Bugsie's record: Number One cartoon character in the theaters for every one of those 18 years!
Pink Panther is a tougher to train for his motion picture shenanigans than the others—because he doesn’t talk. It’s all pantomime. “That makes it a bit more difficult,” says Freleng. “After all, Charlie Chaplin had to be much more of an actor to make his pantomime convincing than does, say, Phyllis Diller.”
You can’t argue with that. Or with the Pink Panthers success.

92 Panthers were made for theatres and then more for TV. Still later, he was given a son. The Panther was finally getting into Chimp and Zee territory.