Bugs Bunny Goes to War

Theatrical cartoon characters helped boost the Allied effort during World War Two. A book and numerous essays have been written about it, and it’s a subject too long to discourse in one blog post. Instead, we’ll focus on a little slice of events of the era.

Fans of aged cartoons who are reading this will know stars of animated shorts made by Warner Bros., Walter Lantz and Walt Disney (and others) were seconded to serve as insignia for various American military outfits. Some were painted on planes. Others were sketched on bombs (and torpedoes, I understand). The Second Division Marines actually had a real rabbit they found during the Tinian battle. They named him “Bugs,” fed him doughnuts and beer, and took him to church services on Sunday (source, Indiana (Pa.) Gazette, Apr. 3, 1945, pg. 2).

Back to the cartoon character. Let’s hear from none other than Leon Schlesinger, who never missed a trick when it came to publicity. He (or publicity director Rose Joseph) wrote to the “Letters For Servicemen” column in the Hollywood Citizen News, which published what he had to say in its edition of July 24, 1943.

Leon Schlesinger's Boy, Bugs, Is Out Fighting
Dear Boys:

I've got a boy in the service. Maybe some of you have met him. His name is not the same as mine, but the world knows him better than it knows me. His name is Bugs Bunny.
He goes around asking Japs and Nazis, "what's cookin', doc?" He says that to everyone so I know he's just brash enough to make no exception just because it's an enemy ear that's listening.
Like the tribe from which he springs, he finds it possible to be more than just one fighter so he battles for every branch of Uncle Sam's warriors.
It keeps us busy here at the studio keeping his service record up to date, what with his activities on so many fronts. One Flying Fortress, better known as “Bugs Bunny;” clothed itself with glory over Berlin, and another, that took its name from the wacky expression, "Wabbit Twacks," recently sent a flock of Hitler's flying fleet to perdition.
Bugs got into the service via the Marine Corps and as a sergeant he's really tough. His enlistment number is 000386—the last three numerals representing the number of valiant leathernecks who defended Wake Island.
Bugs is the mascot of the bombardier school of the Army Air Force at San Angelo, Tex. There he adorns work shirts, rides on windshields, embellishes leather albums, and is even present on the match books used by the personnel.
He's a platoon sergeant in the Intelligence department at Camp Elliott, and we here at the studio are constantly creating facsimiles of Bugs for units of the service all over the world.
We were fearful that Bugs might lose prestige because he sank with the carrier Lexington, but he's going stronger than ever, which proves that you can't keep' a good rabbit down.
If in the midst of battle a voice from .the next foxhole, or over the radio from a Flying Fort inquires "What's cookin', doc?" that'll be my Boy, Bugs. Tell him the folks back home never will let him down.
LEON SCHLESINGER.

San Angelo, you say? Let’s read this story from the San Angelo Standard-Times of December 3, 1942.

‘Bugs Bunny’ Adopted As Mascot For San Angelo Bombardier School; He's On Field Insignia, Too
A distinctive insignia for the San Angelo Army Air Field bombardier school — the famous animated movie character, "Bugs Bunny" riding on a bomb— has been adopted at the school with the enthusiastic endorsement of the cadets, enlisted men, and officers. Although “Bugs” does not enjoy an official status he will appear informally on stationery, greeting cards, stickers and other items which are available exclusively to the personnel of the post.
The design for the insignia was developed last summer by the school's director of training, Lt. Col. Harry Crutcher, Jr. Intrigued by the famed Leon Schlesinger animated cartoon character, Col. Crutcher decided that it has just the spirit which typified the bombardiers who shortly would be graduating from the new school.
Col. Crutcher spent one Sunday thumbing through his youngster’s funny books, in which “Bugs Bunny” appeared, in order to find precisely the correct expression for the insignia. The final choice, one of exceedingly saucy gaiety, is the one which “Bugs” now wears while riding the bomb.
The drawing for the insignia was made by Tech. Sgt. William Walker, who has served as chief draftsman at post headquarters. The insignia has the approval of the creator of "Bugs,” Leon Schlesinger. In a letter to Col. Crutcher giving his approval, he said:
“I wish to compliment the artist who did ‘Bugs Bunny.’ We have had many of them sent in and always corrected them, but yours is up to standard and you have my permission to use it at will for your outfit. Will you kindly compliment Sgt. William Walker for his reproduction of our character. I think it is very well done."
Under no circumstances will the new insignia be commercialized. It may be used only on articles which are available in the bombardier school's post exchange.

A cute connection with Bugs, the military and a movie fan can be found in another Texas newspaper, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, of January 24, 1943.

SPAFS Fondness For "Bugs Bunny' Shared By Washington Girl
Little Muriel Lake of Washington, D. C., shares with the winged commandos of South Plains Army Flying school a fondness for "Bugs Bunny," rakish movie cartoon character who is the commandos' mascot.
So when she saw Bugs' picture in Life recently, she sat down and wrote this letter to Lieut. Warren C. Freeman, public relations officer:
"I saw your picture of Bugs Bunny. I am interested in Bugs, and my nickname is Bugs Bunny.
"I like carrots and have two large front teeth.
"I have very long pigtails and they are called my ears. I am very glad that you like Bugs as I do.
"P. S. I am a girl and I am 14 (almost).
"P. S. S. I like the air corps best!"
Lieut. Martin A. Mayer, assistant public relations officer, wrote Muriel, sending her two pictures of SPAFS' insignia.
"We are mighty tickled that the air corps is your favorite," he wrote, "but we wish you would make it a little more particular and make it the glider pilots over the other fliers. I am sure that you are much prettier than our Bugs is, and you are wise to like carrots because they are very good for you."

The Warners studio itself referred to the airborne mascot in the Friz Freleng cartoon Of Thee I Sting. It’s basically six minutes of an air force mission (including recruiting and training) transposed into mosquitos. One problem is it was released after the war was over, so you wonder what audiences may have thought, especially since the mosquitos are really the bad guys, picking on some innocent homebody.

Here’s a Bugs Bunny insignia on the side of a flying mosquito.



Pin-ups were always popular with our fighting boys, so writer Mike Maltese works them into some, frankly, pretty weak gags in this short.



Gravel Gertie didn’t quite look like that. She was a villainess in the Dick Tracy comic strip. According to the Nov. 6, 1944 Wichita Eagle, a private clipped a drawing of her from the paper and she became the barracks pin-up girl at Ft. Monmouth, N.J.



By 1946, the Sue/Sioux pun must have been ancient.



Jimmy Durante fans will get the reference to this. He started saying “Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are,” some time at the start of the 1945-46 radio season.



Say, the mosquitos’ victim in this picture kinda looks like director Art Davis, doesn’t it?

Davis didn’t work on this cartoon. Friz’s usual bunch of animators (Virgil Ross, Gerry Chiniquy, Manny Perez and Ken Champin) got screen credit, with layouts by Hawley Pratt and backgrounds by Terry Lind (one of the few Warners’ cartoons she worked on). Carl Stalling uses Raymond Scott’s The Toy Trumpet over the opening titles.