Extra Credit

Don Patterson, Ray Abrams, La Verne Harding and Paul J. Smith were the credited animators at the Walter Lantz studio when it returned to operation after a shutdown of more than a year. In Slingshot 6 7/8, there is more than one credit.

In an early scene, you can see their names in the background. “Ken” refers to Ken Southworth. It took him some time to get screen credit at Lantz. I don’t know why.



Harding has a “Dress Shoppe.”



As for Smith, he gets the short end here. “Mac & Paul Trucking” is in the background, but in a building only seen during a dissolve from the opening shot.



Who “Mac” is, I couldn’t tell you. (Late note: Devon Baxter can. Read his comment).

The backgrounds are by Fred Brunish. Here’s the opening scene.



The cartoon’s official release date was July 23, 1951.

Fred Brunish, Inventor

We all know Fred William Brunish (named for his father and grandfather, incidentally) was a background artist for Walter Lantz and also made stop motion films for him during the war.

He was a tinkerer, too, and filed for a patent for an automatic slide projector in 1934.

Here's a link to his patent application. It's not all that exciting, but what do you expect from a patent application?

Brunish was born in the Bronx on Dec. 18, 1902. The 1920 Census reports he was a 17-year old fashion sketcher (a 1925 classified ad in the New York Times is below). In 1930, the Detroit city directory gives his occupation as the vice president of the Consolidated Advertising Corp. He didn’t remain in Detroit long. The next year, his family was living in San Diego, where was employed as Consolidated’s art director. He was living in Los Angeles the following year. The City Directory in 1933 lists him as “artist,” and various Voters Lists from 1936 onward give his occupation as “art director.” He was the chief sound engineer and art director for the Royal Revue Film Studio in Hollywood in 1938. Brunish belonged to the Laguna Beach Art Association and there were showings of his work in the mid-1930s.


The 1940 Census says “cartoon picture studio artist.” Walter Lantz cartoons didn’t credit any background artists until 1944 and Brunish’s name doesn’t appear ON screen until the end of 1946, when he is credited on The Wacky Weed. However his 1942 Draft Registration states he was employed at Lantz, and the photo of him above is from when he was working on war-time films for the studio. Late Note: Devon Baxter mentions Joe Adamson's notes state Brunish started work at Lantz on Oct. 24, 1937. Joe wrote a fine biography of Lantz, so he would know.

That year, he was involved with the Motion Picture War Chest drive that year. He also contributed in 1942 to “Communique,” a weekly publication by the Hollywood Writers Mobilization for Defense in cooperation with the Office of Emergency Management. Brunish designed posters alongside Cy Young, Tom McKimson, Frank Tipper, Ozzie Evans, John Walker, Chuck Whitton (both at Lantz) and Ed Starr (later of Screen Gems and Sutherland). In 1947, his watercolour “Sunset on the Pacific” was displayed at the Screen Artists show at the Los Angeles Art Association galleries. Other artists who exhibited works may be familiar from various cartoon studios, including Starr, Ralph Hulett, Basil Davidovitch, Barbara Begg and George Nicholas.

The Lantz studio shut down because of a cash crunch in 1949. In the 1950 census, dated April 5, Brunish is listed as a cartoonist who wasn’t working. When Lantz resumed full operation, Brunish was back. The last cartoon with his name on it was The Great Who-Dood-It, released Oct. 20, 1952 (one of his backgrounds is reconstructed below).


Brunish died on June 25, 1952 of cirrhosis of the liver. His Los Angeles Times obit mentions nothing of his patent or his film work; it lists him as a "landscape artist" and that he left behind a widow, a son and a sister.

Note: this is a reworking of a post that appeared on the late GAC forums.

The Mad Hatter Backgrounds

The Mad Hatter (1948) was the second cartoon by the Walter Lantz studio released by United Artists.

Ken O’Brien and Freddie Moore from Disney got their first animation credits for Lantz in this short, but the backgrounds were by veteran workhorse Fred Brunish. His paintings always suit the story for the Lantz cartoons.

A couple of interiors of Woody’s house. The closet door is on an overlay.



Wally’s hat store. The window at the right and the wood exterior below it are on an overlay.



City exteriors. Whoever was doing Dick Lundy's layouts gives us some angles on the scenes. The theatre downtown is playing Andy Panda cartoons.



Exteriors of a field. The first frame is part of a longer background.



Shots of the “B” Pictures studio lot.



Here’s part of a longer background. I can’t add anything else to the right because the colours don’t match when I put the frames together. The fan blades are on a cycle of three drawings, on ones. The garbage can is on an overlay.



Brunish returned to the Lantz studio after it shut down for over a year when the U-A contract expired. He died on June 25, 1952 of cirrhosis of the liver. He was 49.

Woody Comes to Rigor Mortis

Woody Woodpecker made several Western pictures and the first came while Walter Lantz was releasing through United Artists.

Fred Brunish provided the watercolour backgrounds for Wild and Woody (1948). Here’s a pan of part of the town site, with a gag sign that had to be from the mind of Bugs Hardaway (Heck Allen co-wrote this).



This is part of another background showing a livery stable. It is quickly panned from left to right, then director Dick Lundy cuts to a static scene of sheriff Wally Walrus addressing the townsfolk.



The background above actually starts with the camera focused on the sign below.



The golf course. The sheriff is eventually shot by Buzz Buzzard and buried here.



The sign approaching the town.



The sheriff's office. Brunish actually has three different paintings of it for different scenes. One has a hangman's noose to the left of the building.



Some interiors of the saloon. The swinging doors are on an overlay and the bar stool is partly animated.



There’s a lot to like in these United Artist Woodys. In this short, Pat Matthews has some funny, exaggerated animation, while Fred Moore opens the cartoon with some appealing, well-drawn footage of Woody singing while riding a pony, which is animated on twos, then on a cycle of 24 drawings, one per frame. It’s very smooth. Matthews and Moore would be gone after this short, along with every animator except Ed Love, who was left to finish the final U-A release before the studio closed for more than a year because of a lack of capital. When Lantz started up again and needed key artists again, only Brunish returned.

Lantz Links

A panorama shot of a golf course by Fred Brunish opens the 1952 cartoon Woodpecker in the Rough.



Brunish died on June 25, 1952, nine days after this cartoon was released.

What's That On the Wall?

Background artist Fred Brunish plants an inside gag in the Woody Woodpecker cartoon The Coo Coo Bird (1947).

Bugs Hardaway and Milt Schaffer wrote another one of those trying-to-sleep-despite-interruptions cartoons. It starts off with a neon light from a hotel across the street blinding the bed-resting Woody. He pulls down the window shade and then walks back to his bed.

Notice the company that made the calendar in the background.



Knowing Walter Lantz, he probably offered Woody the calendar in lieu of overtime pay or some other kind of money.

It’s tough to tell in the frame above but there is scoutmaster-type hat hanging on a nail on the calendar, with skis to the left.

Brunish didn’t toss in as many inside gags as Paul Julian at Warner Bros. but they show up on occasion and it’s always fun to spot them.

Pantry Panic Backgrounds

Pantry Panic (1941) was made by the Walter Lantz studio about the time background artist Ed Kiechle left to work on the main Universal lot. I don’t think he did the backgrounds for this cartoon; I think they’re Fred Brunish’s, but I can’t be positive. The table with food looks like one of Brunish’s watercolours. Background artists weren’t listed until 1944 after Shamus Culhane arrived to direct; Phil De Guard was handling the backgrounds as Brunish was doing war work for the studio.

There are a few overlays on some of the background art below, and a couple of characters, but I wanted to give you the idea of the settings in the frames. There’s an excellent array of colours on some.



This cartoon has Alex Lovy and Les Kline as Lantz’s credited animators on this. La Verne Harding, Frank Tipper and Hal Mason were also animating at the studio around this time.

Kiddie Koncert Backgrounds

Fred Brunish (1902-1952) was Walter Lantz’s sole background artist in the last half of the ‘40s and into the early ‘50s; at least he was the only one credited on screen. At the age of 17, Brunish was sketching fashions in New York City; ten years later, he was an advertising artist in Detroit before heading west. He worked as an advertising company art director, and acquired a patent for an automatic slide projector in 1934, before eventually getting a job at the Lantz studio around 1940.

Not all of the cartoons he is credited on made it onto the Woody Woodpecker DVD, and one is 1948’s Kiddie Koncert, starring Wally Walrus as animated by Ed Love. It opens with three of Brunish’s watercolours. In the second painting below, the orange stage curtain is on an overlay.



Thanks to Devon Baxter for the frame grabs.

Wacky-Bye Baby Backgrounds

Here’s some more of Fred Brunish’s work, this time of the Wally Walrus mansion in “Wacky-Bye Baby,” a 1948 cartoon made during Walter Lantz’s United Artists release. It’s a shame I can’t snip together some of the long interiors from this cartoon (characters get in the way and there are colour matching problems). Wally must have spend a fortune on floor wax.



Brunish was only 49 when he died on June 25, 1952 of cirrhosis of the liver.