Woody vs Buzz

Woody Woodpecker was always expressive when animated in the Dick Lundy unit, and there are several cartoons where he has a look of joy on his face when getting the better on Buzz Buzzard. One is “The Wet Blanket Policy,” one of Walter Lantz’s efforts for United Artists.

There’s an improbable scene where Woody and Buzz are in a chase behind the wallpaper in Buzz’s office. Woody emerges from the paper at a window, which he closes, knowing Buzz will crash into it. Woody’s body even moves with the impact of the crash; a 1962 Lantz cartoon wouldn’t have bothered with something like that.



More great reactions. Look at the bent knuckles on Buzz in the last drawing as the chase resumes.



Ken O’Brien and Les Kline are the only credited animators. I’ll bet you Ed Love worked on it, too.

Wacky Willock

When Wacky Races debuted on a Saturday morning in fall 1968, I recognised the voice of the narrator within the first few seconds. Dave Willock was a likeable character actor who guested on all kinds of situation comedies through the ‘60s. He always seemed to be playing a mild, somewhat frustrated type (whether the Goldberg show in the 1960 ad to the right made it to air, I don’t know).

Little did I know way back then that Willock had a long show biz career at that point, dating back to the early 1930s. We’ll get to it in just a moment.

It’s nice to see character actors get a bit of ink in the national press and it happened to Willock when he landed a regular role in a forgotten 1961 sitcom called Margie. TV had used up all the old formats from radio by that point and was looking for gimmicks. Margie was one of those Corliss Archer, A Date With Judy shows about the life and “typical troubles” of an American teenaged girl. The gimmick was the show was set in the 1920s.

Here’s a syndicated newspaper story from October 11, 1961. It refers to Willock’s main TV notoriety to that date: the “Dr. Hobby” show that he started in Los Angeles in 1948 on KFI-TV and moved to KTTV the following April. Willock was the star but was soon upstaged by guest Cliff Arquette playing Charley Weaver, who became a regular. The two took the show to NBC, where it was cancelled after network boss Pat Weaver got the boot. The show has the distinction of being the spot for the TV debut of Cary Grant, who played a bum in a boxcar, uncredited, as a joke. (As an aside, Willock was the m.c. on KFI-TV’s first broadcast).

TV KEYNOTES
Willock Welcomes Role In Series
By HAROLD STERN
"When TV started in Hollywood, "Dave Willock sums up his career, I got in on the ground floor—and I stayed there for 15 years."
As if to prove this, Dave, who plays Harvey Clayton, Margie's father on "Margie," ABC's comedy series (set in the 1920's), assured me that, though he was born in 1909, this was one of the rare occasions on which he was not cast as a college boy.
"That's the story of my career," he said. "I've gone through life playing college boys and bellhops. I got to Hollywood in 1930, and, as luck would have it, my first role was that of a bellhop. From that point on, I was offered every bellhop role that came along. It go so, that I acquired a complete wardrobe of bellhop uniforms and I used them on all the lots."
After Dave had become established as "Mr. Bellhop" and America's oldest college boy, as a gag, a friend of his sent him over to the "Wanted Dead or Alive" office for a role. As a switch, Dave discovered the part was that of an 80-year-old drunk.
"I was delighted to get the part," he said, "but from then on I played nothing but 80-year-old drunks for months." Actually, television has been a good thing for Dave Willock, who's been one of Hollywood's best and sturdiest supporting actors since he started. He had a running part on the Boots And Saddles series, and as he puts it:
"Appearing in Margie is a tremendous relief after all the westerns I've done. At least there are rags on the floors."

Perhaps his outstanding television achievement until now was the do-it-yourself television show he had several years ago.
It was on this series that Cliff Arquette's "Charlie Weaver" character was born. Dave asked Cliff to appear on the show in the old woman characterisation he had been using on television, but Arquette refused, saying he was saving that bit for an appearance on a major show in the near future. However, Arquette told Willock, so as not to spoil Dave's plans completely, he'd take a crack at playing an old man. The old man emerged as Charlie Weaver.
"We had a lot of fun working together," Dave reminisced, "and we were on the verge of becoming established as a fixture on the NBC schedule. But, just before we were supposed to move to New York to take over the Saturday morning extension of the Home Show, there was a big NBC shake-up, Pat Weaver left the company, and our show was finished.
This was probably one of NBC's biggest mistakes. The network has had no regular series as funny as the old "Dave and Charlie Show" since.
"Cliff and I still keep in touch," Dave remarked. "We're both nuts on the subject of the Civil War and I'm a bug on arts and crafts. As a matter of fact, I made a model of a Mississippi steamer a few years ago and I sold it for $2,000. I'm not working on another one and Cliff tells 'me he must have it!' He's already offered me $5,000 plus plane fare if I personally carry it to his Gettysburg museum when I finish it."
As a for-real do-it-yourself addict ("I'd rather build things in my garage than act."), Dave is happy that his character of Harvey Clayton in Margie is similarly inclined.
"I have a workshop on the show," he said, "where I invent things and then let everybody convince me I'm crazy. For example, on the show, I invent the idea of selling popcorn in theaters. I invent the teabag and lots of other things and each time I let my family talk me out of it."
He feels he's eminently qualified to play the role of the father of a teenager in the twenties.
"I was a teenager during that time," he noted. "I have five daughters of my own (and though he still could pass for a juvenile, he has three granddaughters as well) and I think I'm aware of the problems facing teenagers—not that I've necessarily been able to solve them, but I am aware of them.
"Anyway," he concluded, "isn't it a relief to have a comedy series about the twenties instead of another crime show?"

Willock’s best buddy in Hollywood in the early days was actor Jack Carson. The two appeared in vaudeville together in the ‘30s. Willock was the best man at Carson’s wedding. Carson became the bigger name and fronted a show that toured military camps in California in 1942-43. Dennis Morgan was on the tour; Warners teamed Carson and Morgan in some movies. Carson got his own radio show for Campbell’s Soup on June 2, 1943 and Willock became a regular along the way. Variety mentioned the name of Willock’s character in an edition about two months earlier, so it seems likely Willock played that character in an earlier show sponsored by Camel.

Tuned In magazine mentioned Willock in a story about Carson in its July 1946 edition.

Jack can thank Dave Willock for his present niche in radio and filmland. If it hadn't been for Dave, Jack might yet be selling insurance back in Milwaukee, as he was in 1931 after getting out of Carleton college [in Minnesota], when he ran into friend Willock. Willock had been fired from his job as announcer on a Milwaukee station.

Just like that Dave said: "Say we'd make a funny team. Let's go on the stage."
And just as casually, Jack replied, "Okay, why not?"
So the Mutt-and-Jeff team embarked on a vaudeville career in the midwest running from one night stands to split weeks and finally to big time.
"We told jokes, mostly," Jack recalled. "We couldn't do anything else. We couldn't sing, dance, or juggle. So we just told jokes—mostly corny."
After a couple of years they split up and Jack [eventually ended up in Hollywood]... RKO offered him a contract. About that time he wired Willock, who was back east: "Run, do not walk to Hollywood. Bonanza! They pay $25 a day if you can speak a line."
Willock came and rapidly found a place for himself as a featured player. He appeared in some 60 pictures in one year, doing such roles as reporters, smart alec bellhops, college boys, soldiers, sailors, anything youthful.

Cartoon fans may think otherwise, but the show with Charley Weaver may have been his career highlight. Willock was shanghaied into a regular role in the disastrous 1969 shipboard comedy The Queen and I (Variety assured readers the “queen” was a ship and not Billy De Wolfe’s character) and later starred in a faded carbon copy of The Flintstones called The Roman Holidays in 1972. Four years later, he was the announcer on a talk show hosted by the voice of Garfield the cat, Lorenzo Music. Between shows, he made a living the same way as old radio types like Vic Perrin, Barney Phillips and Sam Edwards—doing commercial voiceovers. Willock appeared on camera for Stan Freberg’s spot for the Great American Soup Company, likely seen more on TV shows about commercials than as an actual commercial itself.

Willock was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Let’s face it. Willock wasn’t an A-list star by any stretch of the imagination. But he toiled long and successfully in radio and TV, and that deserves some recognition.

Pilot to Co-Pilot: Boo!

The wolf (Frank Graham) tries to escape from Sergeant McPoodle (voice actor unknown) in an airplane. Nope, Droopy has followed him there, too.



Incidentally, here’s the plane flying over Johnny Johnsen’s version of mid-1940s Los Angeles.



Walt Clinton, Ed Love, Preston Blair and Ray Abrams animated “Northwest Hounded Police” for Tex Avery.

The Pelican and the Turkey

The ending to Roughly Squeaking (1946) is surrealism at its best. Through the whole cartoon, Hubie and Bertie have tried to convince the cat he’s a lion and that a bulldog is a pelican.

Finally comes the moment of truth. “Now, look,” says the dog. “If I was a pelican, I’d have a fish in my mouth, wouldn’t I?” He opens his mouth. There’s the fish. As is typical in a Chuck Jones cartoon, there’s subtle eye moment as the dog’s pupil looks at the fish.



A bluebird watching the curious proceedings through the cartoon goes nuts. Looks like some Ben Washam stretches here.



“Holy smoke! I am a pelican!”



“Yeah. And I’m a Thansgiving turkey. Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble...” And the bluebird/turkey flies away to end the cartoon.



Mike Maltese and Tedd Pierce wrote the story.

Jack Benny, 1941, Part 2

The Day That Will Live in Infamy happened at the end of 1941 and influenced American life for the next four years. It certainly influenced the entertainment business and it influenced the Jack Benny show as Dennis Day, Phil Harris and writer Bill Morrow ended up in the military. However, that all came later.

Let’s look at the second half of 1941 as it pertained to American’s top radio comedian. July started out with his show on a summer break and Harris, Day and Eddie Anderson all hitting the personal appearance circuit. Day appeared with a blackface act, Art Carney and Jack Benny introducing him on a record, while Harris’ revue included Paul Winchell (and renditions of “That’s What I Like About the South” as well as “The Hut Sut Song”) and Anderson’s show included a filmed bit with Benny.

We’ll skip the clippings from Variety about the weekly take at various box offices for Jack in “Charley’s Aunt.” We’ll only include one review of the movie (the Weekly and Daily versions published different reviews).

“The Widow Wouldn’t Weep” had been proposed for some time. Hedda Hopper reported in late 1942 that Warners Bros. was still trying to persuade Benny to make it.

July 8, 1941
Police have listed the death of Mrs. Delia Kubelsky Sachs, 63-year-old aunt of Jack Benny, as suicide. She died here [in Los Angeles] Saturday. Mrs. Sachs was visiting here from Arizona.

July 16, 1941
Hal Block in from the east to write the comedy spots forguesters on "Millions For Defense." Lined up for early shots are Charlie Chaplin, Burns and Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, Jack Benny and Abbott and Costello. [It aired on CBS on the 30th]

July 23, 1941
Charley's Aunt
(Farce Comedy)

20th-Fox production. Stars Jack Benny. Cast: Kay Francis, James Ellison, Anne Baxter, Edmund Gwynn, Reginald Owen, Laird Cregar, Arleen Whelan, Richard Haydn, Ernest Cossart, Morton Lowry, Lionel Pape, Will Stanton, Montague Shaw, Claud Allister, William Austin, Maurice Cass. Directed by Archie Mayo. Producer, William Perlberg. Screenplay by George Seaton. Based on play by Brandon Thomas. Music, Alfred Newman. Photography, Peverell Marley. Art direction, Richard Day and Nathan Juran. Film editor, Robert Bischoff. Costumes, Travis Banton. Trade shown at 20th-Fox exchange, Los Angeles, July 22. Running time: 83 mins.
‘Charley's Aunt’, that timeless and unstated classic farce, is expounded in perfection by Jack Benny and a trouping cast which shows proper respect for a piece of theatre that has amused and prospered on stage and screen for 48 years. Benny, in a performance he has not excelled, adds his comic translation to the best by his predecessors and peers. That the picture will fare handsomely is practically certified by the b.o. history of previous presentations and the production quality placed behind the Benny name. Film had only to be made well and to follow prescription with a sound cast and discerning direction, and this it does, emphatically.
Producers—Darryl F. Zanuck as executive, and William Perlberg actually in charge—realized that no fooling with the original Brandon Thomas play in any of its essentials would be tolerated by the millions familiar with its oft-proved, simple and universally understood clowning. None was attempted. Indeed, the Brandon Thomas estate, which owns the rights and disposes of screen rights for five-year periods only, will not permit basic situations to be tampered with.
Benny plays the title role with relish and gusto. The masquerade is carried off broadly, but without burlesque and without smirk; above all, without the slightest taint of suggestiveness, which would have been fatal. English setting and atmosphere is quickly established at Oxford, with Benny as a cricket shark and a tea addict. James Ellison and Richard Haydn are the boys for whom Benny fronts in the guise of Ellison's 'aunt' when his school chums need a convenient chaperone to outwit the guardianship of Edmund Gwenn over Anne Baxter and Arleen Whelan. Kay Francis is the real aunt, who announces her identity, finally, to confuse the two old suiters of 'aunt' Benny and to make the young folk happy. Reginald Owen is the simpering professor, Laird Cregar is Sir Francis.
All these carefully cast players fulfill their assignments capably, get individual cracks at the laugh material, and are abetted in lesser roles but also very good, by Ernest Cossart, as the valet; Morton Lowry, Lionel Pape, Will Stanton, Montague Shaw, Claud Allister, William Austin and Maurice Cass.
Under Archie Mayo's direction the ancient but hale and hearty farce, refreshed where needed in George Beaton's craftsmanly script, moves smoothly and hilariously. Good for full laughter still are the old routines of the park bench and the garter, the 'aunt's' hungry relish of a cigar, the flirtation at the garden wall and the desperate maneuvers to preserve the masquerade in the face of many cross-purposes.
Alfred Newman contributes the music. Peverell Marley does a choice job of photography. Travis Banton dressed the principals authentically for the period—in 1890. Production is on lavish scale, handsomely dressed.
As a stage play, 'Charley's Aunt' made its debut in London in 1892, came to New York a year later, and was first made in silent films in 1925 when Syd Chaplin played the title role. Since then it is said of the venerable farce, to which millions have laughed, that the sun never had set where the play wasn't being presented by amateur or professional companies, except during the world war periods.

"THREE OF A KIND', special trailer made by George Weiss' department at 20th-Fox to plug 'Charley's Aunt', Is expected to be played by exhibitors as a regular comedy short. Running seven minutes, reel has Jack Benny, Tyrone Power and Randolph Scott, plus the voice of Mary Livingstone, appearing in a short skit that avoids the usual commercial advertising ballyhoo. Entertainment in the trailer will qualify it to stand on its own, using laughs to put over the fact that Benny becomes a female impersonator in the picturization of the old play. Plot has Benny moaning about the role and yearning to do virile characters such as given Power and Scott until the latter pair sell him on what a great opportunity he has. Corner of the Cafe de Paris was used as the stage and studio spend around $2,500 to turn out the reel. It also works in plug: for 'A Yank In the R.A.F.' and 'Belle Starr". Trailer is being sold to exhibitors at the usual rate for coming-attraction reels but studio reports requests for bookings as a regular short because of the name and comedy values.

Jack Benny saw a sign on the Arizona border: “Panhandlers are not allowed to enter California without picture contracts.”

July 30, 1941

WESTWOOD flackery is anticipating record turnout for studio's opening of 'Charley's Aunt' at the Chinese tomorrow night. Bleacher seats for over 5,000 will be built in the forecourt and 75 Los Angeles policemen and 50 studio patrolmen have been assigned to handle crowd. For the benefit of the newsreelers, Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone will do a skit in the lobby prior to taking in film.

July 31, 1941
Chicago, July 30.—Warners will hold its trade showings under the consent decree at the convenience of the exhibitor, Gradwell L. Sears, general sales manager, told delegates today at the company's annual convention in outlining future policy under the new law. Sears also announced Warners program of pictures for 1941-42, giving the salesmen a list of 38 titles.
[Included is] 'The Widow Wouldn't Weep', Dalton Trumbo comedy to star Jack Benny.

August 5, 1941
Salaries of Louis B. Mayer and Gary Cooper top the list of biggest money names in the nation's industries, according to list given out by the Treasury Department. Mayer's was again the pinnacle stipend, $697,048 for 1940, and $688,371 for 1939....
Others in the industry, as listed by the Treasury Department,... Jack Benny, $127,500.

August 13, 1941
[London, England]—Jack Benny transcriptions from his Jell-O broadcast are going over. They’ll air here each two weeks now; was previously on a monthly schedule.

August 26, 1941
Jello is buying the NBC-Blue Pacific Coast net for transcriptions of the Jack Benny program which is slated to return to the air Oct. 5. Recording of the 4 o'clock Red net program will go on at 8:30 PST on the Coast Blue, giving Benny the opportunity of getting away from a repeat broadcast, which he has long sought.
Under the new arrangement the 4 o'clock broadcast, which has not hitherto been heard on the Coast, will be piped through the whole transcontinental Red net. The basic NBC-Blue Coast net consists of seven stations and additional number of outlets to be used by Jello for the delayed broadcast will depend on how far east the sponsor will go. Several NBC affiliates outside of the basic net also may carry the disc show.

August 27, 1941
Following are lists of the programs that had the highest average rating during the October-April period:
NIGHT-TIME
1. Jack Benny (39.9).
2. Chase & Sanborn (36.9).
3. Fibber McGee & Molly (32.6).
4. Lux Radio Theatre (32.3).
5. Bob Hope (29.6).

September 17, 1941
Hollywood. Sept. 16.
Because Jack Benny can't make up his mind whether to shove off on the new season from the Coast or New York, his writers, Bill Morrow and Ed Beloin, are eyebrow deep in a dither. Comic insists on locale coloring in the script and the 3,000 miles in between makes a difference. Seasonal debut is Oct. 5. They straddled the dilemma by pounding out two sheafs, east and west, and keeping their fingers crossed lest he decide to take off from Chicago.

Jack Benny Super-Chiefed to Chicago last night and will pass a few days in Waukegan before proceeding to New York, where he does his first two Jello broadcasts of the new season. Bill Morrow and Ed Beloin, writers, plane east Monday and members of the cast will dribble east at intervals. Jello airer, beginning Oct. 5, will be heard twice here on Sundays; at 4 p.m. on KFI and at 8:30 via transcription over KECA.

Mary Livingston preceded hubby Jack Benny to NY, making the nitery rounds with the Ed Sullivans. Benny arrives tomorrow (Thursday).

September 19, 1941
Bill Morrow and Ed Beloin, writers for Jack Benny, will take no chances on being caught out on the Pacific drifting aimlessly when they drop their lines in the waters around Catalina over weekend. Boat will be equipped with radio just in case they have another experience like last week when they were rescued after floating around for half a night.

October 1, 1941
Albert Spalding and Jack Benny who teamed in a comedy bit and violined McDowell's 'To a Wild Rose,' after Spalding bad played alone superbly, were a highlight of a fast-moving 'Salute of Champions,' emceed by Bill Stern over NBC blue, to the men in the armed services. Benny, as usual, squeezed laughs out of every line—some of them not particularly funny in themselves; Spalding did a nice bit of foiling. The duet was partly kidding and the rest on the level.

Eddie Cantor, always the showman and often the pioneer, used a rather novel signoff themer on his NBC show, emphasizing the wide variety of radio entertainment available by 'a twist of the wrist.' Apparently it had special lyrics, one of the lines being ‘from a fireside chat to Joe DiMaggio's bat’ (the Yankee slugger guested that night). Bing Crosby and Jack Benny were among the air headliners mentioned in the song. Cantor on the same broadcast did a thing which many comedians would not do: he virtually played straight man, with DiMaggio, to give Bert Gordon (The Mad Russian) a succession of midriff laugh lines. Carole Landis came in for the latter half of the exchange.

October 3, 1941
BILL MORROW and Ed Beloin, who have been whittling witticisms, lo, these past six years, for the Jack Benny larynx, will be two of the six delicious flavors on the temblor dessert Sunday night.

October 7, 1941
'To Be Or Not to Be', forthcoming Ernst Lubitsch production for Alexander Korda with Jack Benny in the lead, has been set to start Nov. 1. Benny will play a Polish matinee idol and story is laid in Warsaw.

October 8, 1941
New York, Oct. 7.—Young & Rubicam is reported interested in Groucho Marx and the agency, representing General Foods, favors a program in which he would replace Jack Benny for Jell-O when the tatter's contract expires in June, 1942.

Jack Benny and Albert Spalding, who met for the first time Sunday night (5) when they both appeared at the 'Fun to Be Free' benefit show at Madison Square Garden, N. Y., enjoyed working together so much they now plan reciprocal guest dates on each other's programs. Benny at first suggested going on the Coca-Cola show with Andre Kostelanetz and Spaldlng next Sunday (12), but it was decided the time was too short to permit adequate preparations. Benny expects to be back in New York sometime in December and the plan is for the exchange guest appearance then.

Show business poured it on for democracy Sunday night (5) at Madison Square Garden, making of Fight for Freedom's 'It's Fun to be Free' rally and entertainment a literate and stirring affair....
Running the gamut of comedy, such as the Easter Parade' two-act by Jack Benny and Eddie Cantor... Only jarring note was the fact that the entertainment was not permitted to finish due to the scheduling on Mutual and WEVD of speeches by Wendell Willkie, chairman of Fight for Freedom. Mayor LaGuardia, William Knudsen and finally Herbert Agar, editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal, and militant spokesman for American intervention.

London, Sept. 20.
English radio fans are puzzled about quality of the Jack Benny transcriptions now airing here weekly. Realizing the show comes overseas as a gift, there's still cause for wonder at wax impressions that are definitely not easy on the ear. With BBC plugging the fact the recording is shipped this side, there's no room for the old standby ‘atmospherics’ in explaining the fading, fuzziness, etc., which detracts from entertainment.
Same quality flaw is reported in connection with Bob Hope's airer, if not even more pronounced. His show only broadcasts locally every two weeks so there's more time to get over the irritation. With this technical difficulty added to the delivery and jargon of the Yank performers, Britishers find it plenty tough to follow these American programs.

JACK BENNY
With Mary Livingstone, Phil Harris Orchestra, Rochester, Dennis Day Comedy, Music, Songs
JELLO
Sunday, 7 p.m.
WEAF NBC, New York
(Young & Rubicam)

There has been a growing tendency in the Jack Benny program to represent the star unattractively. In the name of comedy the program has made sport of his supposed stinginess, hls fancied prowess as a lady killer. Good comedy results have undoubtedly flowed from these attitudes which have long since become standardized, but, which if now exaggerated, may easily become stale. Insofar as making Benny seem a fool or as a has-been as a valid comedy formula and a dividends-producing characterization, it is certainly as clear as Benny's diction that nobody In authority la going to quibble with $ucce$$, if you get the idea.
However, for the first broadcast of the 1941-42 series, the willingness to sappify a once-sophisticated funnyman was carried to what is probably a new peak. An entire sequence was based on Benny's purported blindness without his glasses which he had left behind him in Hollywood. He was led by the hand into Ebbett's Field to attend, but not to see, the World's Series. A whole string of gags based on his physical helplessness without hls glasses followed, the climax being a foul ball which beaned him.
Perhaps It was funny to most people. But surely not to all. Surely not to the thousands who have various infirmities. And what price plot ‘sympathy’ for Benny? To josh a man about his toupee Is one thing. That is vanity. But is not optical blackout, even temporarily, a genuine tragedy? However far-fetched the professional anything-for-a-laugh thinker-uppers of gags may consider such a point, there does seem reason to believe that in this case hokum came awfully close to the suicide of a formula.
Maybe the whole subject of expecting that one comedy vein—Benny's personal idiosyncrasies—to pay off, decade after decade, will have to be brought up for a conference sooner or later, anyhow. There are suggestions that it's pretty frayed. The first broadcast was not, on the whole, a polished sample of a glistening Benny script. There were clear hints of gagging in the medical sense signifying strain. The opening sequence which was represented as the last few minutes just before going on the air was self-conscious stuff. It was a novelty that had been heard before.
In due course the various Benny helpmates were introduced. Phil Harris was represented as a ga-ga newlywed; Rochester as in a crap game jam up in Harlem; Dennis Day as happy to resume eating; Mary Livingstone as the girl with the crack that crushes. It was intermittently socko, occasionally slumpo. The pace that covers up comedy liberties was partly absent. Nobody better than Benny understands the meaning of that terrific momentum that lifts up and carries forward on a tide of comicality everybody and everything. It is the job and the genius of Benny to get thls tide washing in on schedule every Sunday night. These remarks merely emphasize the hazards and difficulties of a killing pace. Benny has had remarkably few bumpy programs year after year, but it is perhaps odd that several of them have been his opening nights. Land.

October 21, 1941
BECAUSE of story difficulties Warners has set back the starting date on 'The Widow Wouldn't Weep', starrer for Jack Benny, until Feb. 20, 1942. Benny reports Nov. 3 to Alexander Korda to star opposite Carole Lombard In 'To Be Or Not to Be', which Ernst Lubitsch will direct. Following the picture at Warners the comedian goes to 20th-Fox for one picture and then to Paramount. Benny has three in four years to make for 20th, two for Paramount and two for Warners.

October 22, 1941
Jack Benny remains the top salary collector, namely, $18,500 a week for the half hour's package.

In Hollywood, the radio trade is discussing the recording of the Jack Benny program on the coast repeat in which the disk bounced around and the needle stuck in a groove on Dennis Day’s number, embarrassing all around—NBC order from east to get tough with comics who run over a few seconds.

October 28, 1941
The radio industry is seeking the cooperation of airshows emanating from Hollywood Nov. 2 in a salute to the Motion Picture Community Chest Drive, which gets under way Monday with mass meetings at all studios. Several major programs have already volunteered their cooperation, and it is expected that all of them will be in line by the end of this week.
Al Jarvis and his Swingo program over KFWB will devote practically their entire hour to the salute with appropriate exploitation tieups in hundreds of local drug stores. Among other shows which have been approached and which have the matter under consideration are Silver Theatre, Jack Benny, Walter Winchell and the Screen Guild.

October 29, 1941
Jack Benny has added a new character to his show, apparently slated as a fixture. Newcomer is 'Belly-laugh' Barton, a moppet gag writer, played by Dix Davis, juve actor from Coast radio ranks. Kid debuted on last week's show and had a sockier spot Sunday night (26), as Benny signed him to his scripting staff. Episode provided a chance to establish the youngster's character and loosed several hefty laughs. It also supplied a springboard for a jibe or two at Bob Hope, for whom the urchin had intended to work. Balance of the Sunday show was in Benny's familiar style, except that Eddie (“Rochester") Anderson was absent. Phil Harris’ orchestra was ragged for the opening selection and, as a centrepiece, swung the trite ‘Poet and Peasant’ overture to death. In general, the program is getting into customary stride after its shaky start.

November 6, 1941
Ernst Lubitsch's production, ‘To Be Or Not To Be’, to be released by Alexander Korda through United Artists, today hits the cameras after a week's dress rehearsals. Carole Lombard and Jack Benny co-star, and in support are Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel Atwill, Sig Rumann, Tom Dugan, Charles Halton, Stanley Ridges, George Lynn, Peter Caldwell and Maude Eburne. Rudy Mate is on the camera.

November 7, 1941
Leo Durocher, the lippy one, will parry a few pleasantries with Jack Benny on Sunday's Jell-O broadcast.

November 11, 1941
'Fibber McGee and Molly' relinquished the top spot in the latest Cross!ey report to Chase & Sanborn due to an ironical exchange of guest appearances. The rating that pushed the java show to the crest was taken on the program on which the Jim Jordans guested. Other CAB leaders are in the following order: Jack Benny, 'Aldrich Family', Lux, Bob Hope, Maxwell House, Walter Winchell, Kate Smith and 'One Man's Family'.

November 12, 1941
NBC will hook up 243 stations for its 15th anniversary broadcast Saturday from 8:15 to 10 p.m. First program by the network Nov. 15, 1926, was carried by 19 transmitters and marked the beginning of chain broadcasting. Talent on the show, to be cut in from various parts of the country, will include Jack Benny...

November 19, 1941
Alice Faye appears as a guest of Jack Benny on the Jello program Sunday to sing a song and go through routine with her husband, Phil Harris.

NBC climaxed a week's celebration of its 15th anniversary with a show last Saturday night (15) which ran four minutes short of three hours. Apparently NBC figured that the way that it could make the anniversary occasion momentous to listeners was to trot out practically every artist heard regularly on the Red and Blue networks. [Jack Benny and Don Wilson appeared].

November 21, 1941
FROM the standpoint of parading talent, tonight's opening of Santa Claus Lane, nee Hollywood boulevard, will be strictly an NBC affair. Hal Bock's publicity crew at Radio City sewed up the big holiday event for its stars. Among those who'll ride in the procession are Jack Benny...

November 25, 1941

DEIGNING favorite amongst the film names along Central Avenue is Johnny Weissmuller because Metro's 'Tarzan' company always hires from 200 to 400 Negroes per picture. Previous No. 1's in the Central Avenue sector were Jack Benny, because of 'Rochester', and Red Skelton because of Wonderful Smith's association with the comic.

November 26, 1941
Chase & Sanborn is still leading the pack in the Crossley sweepstakes. Runner-up is Jack Benny, with 'Fibber and Molly', 'Aldrich Family' and Lux completing the top five in that order.

December 3, 1941
Stanley Ridges, who plays host tonight at St. Donat's restaurant to 40 fledgling R.A.F. pilots, has invited Ernst Lubitsch, Carole Lombard and Jack Benny.

‘To Be or Not to Be,’ new Carole Lombard-Jack Benny starrer, will be distributed by United Artists under Alexander Korda's banner, although UA itself did all the financing and Ernst Lubitsch served as producer-director. Korda gets the billing, a flat fee and a percentage of the gross for his work in getting the players, producer and the entire deal together.
Principal difficulty in obtaining services of Lombard and Benny was demand of Miss Lombard's agent, Arthur S. Lyons, that she get billing over Benny. Lyons is also Benny's agent. After considerable wrangling, inasmuch as UA felt that Benny is a stronger b.o. draw, agreement was made to use Lombard's name first. Pic was technically made by Romaine Productions, Inc., set up specifically for this purpose and antedating United Artists Productions, Inc., UA's new producing outfit.

December 9, 1941
Funeral services for Sam Lyons will be conducted by Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin at 2 p.m. today at the Home of Peace cemetery where interment will take place. Nat Wolff, vice-president of A. & S. Lyons, planed in from Chicago Sunday night to attend the funeral. He had been away four months on business. Jack Benny is suspending work on the Ernst Lubitsch picture today to attend the funeral. Benny was one of the first players represented by the Lyons brothers.

December 17, 1941
St. John [New Brunswick], Dec. 16
On the better late than never theory, the Social Service Council of the Anglican (Church of England), for the diocese, has protested against the broadcasting of baseball games on Sundays, “as a substitute for religious services.” Not until the world's series of 1941 had diamond broadcasts been sent out over the government network and affiliated stations.
A number of denominational organizations have also objected to the tieups with U. S. networks on Sunday programs, with the Charlie McCarthy and Jack Benny lineups, given special attention. On the ground these programs desecrate the Sabbath.

Jack Benny may go on a tour of key towns with a troupe of radio personalities for two or three months to drum up sales of U. S. defense bonds and stamps. Understood that the Treasury Department has added him to make the trip.
Warner Bros. is willing to set back the start of Benny's scheduled picture so that he can keep the tour going through March.
At press time yesterday (Tuesday) the Young & Rubicam agency, which pilots Benny's program, had not heard of the proposal.

December 17, 1941
IT'LL be 'Jell-O again' for Carolyn Lee; the Paramount moppet made such a hit on the Jack Benny show last night she likely will be written into future scripts.

December 24, 1941
Ernst Lubitsch yesterday wound up shooting, three days ahead of schedule, on his United Artists production, 'To Be Or Not To Be', starrer for Carole Lombard and Jack Benny.

December 29, 1941
Jeffrey Lynn has been assigned to one of the top roles in 'The Widow Wouldn't Weep', in which Jack Benny will star at Warners. Starting date for the comedy is set for March 30.
Richard Macaulay and Arthur Herman did the adaptation from an original by Dalton Trumbo.

Studio heads meet today at the Producers Association to hear the newly-formed Hollywood Coordinating Committee for Stage, Screen and Radio outline its plans for handling all requests for free talent during the war. This committee will check all requests to determine which are bona fide, and will then refer them to the proper channels to be staffed.
A meeting of the group was called by Chairman Fred W. Beetson at the Beverly-Wilshire Friday evening, at which time the writers and directors pledged their support. The latter two groups will furnish help and material for all occasions when stars are called upon by the Governmental branches for their talent contributions.
Clark Gable, chairman of the Actors Committee, appeared with Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Jack Benny, Charles Boyer, John Garfield and James Cagney, members of the Actors Committee executive board, to discuss ways and means of coordinating requests for appearance of stars through one source.

How To Make Your Own Animated Cartoon

Making an animated cartoon is “highly skilled work” that requires “over a hundred people,” but if you want to make one on your own at home, here’s how. That’s the gist of an article in the January 1936 edition of Movie Makers, the magazine of the Amateur Cinema League.

The article was written by Vic McLeod, who knew a little something about cartoons. He was the head writer for Walter Lantz at the time.

McLeod’s stay in animation was reasonably short. He was born Victor Ian McLeod in Nampa, Idaho on August 2, 1903 to John Archie and Myrtle Smith McLeod. His father was a barber, originally from Canada. McLeod was apparently a magazine writer before he landed at Lantz. His first cartoon writing credit was in 1934 (among other things, he wrote the lyrics to “Dunk, Dunk, Dunk,” sung by the squealing Berneice Hansell in the colour short Jolly Little Elves) and his last was in 1939. McLeod moved over to the main lot at Universal where, among other things, he wrote a musical Western for Johnny Mack Brown and the Gang Busters serial.

Radio looked like a better career for McLeod, who was soon writing for Bing Crosby, Edgar Bergen, Dennis Day and Bob Burns. When network television started to bloom in the late ‘40s, McLeod moved to NBC in New York with producer Norm Blackburn. This was the same Blackburn who animated for Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising going back into the 1920s. The two of them (according to Variety, Nov. 5, 1964) had a stage act years earlier, dubbing themselves the Beach Boys. McLeod produced Broadway Open House, the forerunner to the Tonight show, and programmes for Arthur Murray, Robert Ripley and Chevrolet. He headed back to the West Coast where he continued to write and produce; Circus Boy was one of his shows. He was still writing in 1968; he sold a rock-and-roll drama story to Four Leaf Productions. McLeod died in Hollywood on December 12, 1972.

Oddly, for a story man, McLeod doesn’t touch on the story process of making a cartoon. There’s nothing about sound. He talks about drawing and shooting, and a bit on timing; the story seems aimed at amateur filmmakers who wanted to make an animated title sequence. Still, it’s a good insight on how cartoons were made at the Universal studio.

Adapting animation
VICTOR McLEOD
THE creation of a present day animated cartoon is a complicated and tedious process requiring highly skilled work. Some idea of the labor required in producing one of these amusing novelties is realized when it is learned that it takes the combined effort of over a hundred people — writers, artists, assistant artists and technicians — to produce, in three weeks' time, a cartoon of approximately eight hundred feet. These pictures require drawing, inking, painting and photographing between twelve and fifteen thousand drawings.
It is practically impossible for any person to produce successfully a cartoon without a complete and competent staff. There are several novel and entertaining effects, however, that can be animated and produced by the amateur movie maker with a minimum of effort. These can be used to advantage in the production of novelty titles and graphs and in the illustration of points in an industrial reel.
Sketching in titles and drawing pictures under the camera are a novelty to most audiences, and they can be used in many productions. This effect is quite simple and it does not require a great deal of time. The motion picture camera must be equipped with a stop motion device that will enable you to shoot one picture at a time. It must be mounted on a camera stand so that it may be focused on a flat, horizontal camera field. If the stand can be made so that it is possible to truck up and down with the camera, it will be very advantageous for some shots. This is not absolutely essential, however.
Sketch the title lightly with blue pencil on the drawing surface that is used for the background. Over a section of this pattern, draw, with a black pencil, a heavy line from a quarter of an inch to an inch in length. The exact length of this black line will vary according to the speed with which you wish the title to appear. Leave the pencil point at the terminus of the segment of the heavy line and take one exposure. Repeat until the sketch is completed. This can be done equally well with a pen, crayon or brush. The same process is used in drawing a picture. The outline can later be shaded and filled in with a pencil or brush by using, with each exposure, full length shaded strokes of about a quarter of an inch in width.
Another novel effect is writing a title with a pen that seemingly rises unaided from a bottle of ink and, without human aid, proceeds to write or draw upon the drawing surface background. The simplest way to achieve this effect is to secure separate pictures of an ink bottle and a pen. Mount the pictures on heavy cardboard and make cutouts of them. The ink bottle is placed and securely fastened to one side of the drawing paper, but well in the camera field, so that, when a photograph of it is taken, it appears on a background made to look exactly like a drawing easel with the ink bottle resting on the ledge at the bottom of the board. A slit is cut in the top of the ink bottle so that the cutout of the pen can be inserted under the cutout of the ink bottle, causing an effect of the pen being in the bottle.
The pen now is slowly raised from the bottle in half inch moves and one frame is exposed in each position. Continue the motion until the pen has reached the proper position on your drawing board.
The backgrounds can then be changed to eliminate the ink bottle from the picture. This can be done by using a larger pen cutout and a new, plain white background to give the effect of a closer shot or, if your camera stand is movable, this can be accomplished by trucking down to a closer field. A gray shadow cutout of the pen will give the illusion of the pen being in the air; this shadow is moved to a corresponding position with each move of the pen.



Drawing "line daffodils," such as those in Figure 1, is a good approach for a beginner who wishes to learn the fundamental rules of animation. Action of this sort is quite easy to draw and will help to familiarize the animator with movement and timing. The illustrations show the proper action used as a batter swings and connects with a ball. Animation of this kind is the fastest and easiest to do, because it requires inking the drawing again or "opaqueing" it. Each drawing is done on a separate sheet of paper and is photographed separately and in sequence, the white paper acting as the background.
All studios use this method of making tests to photograph the rough action of their characters before going ahead with transferring the drawings to the transparent celluloids. It might be likened to a rehearsal to see if the action is smooth and the timing is correct.



Figure 2 shows a walk of Oswald Rabbit, the new Walter Lantz character for Universal cartoons. Drawings one, five and seven are the extremes. The rough drawings are the "in-b-tweens." The foot is brought up slowly to position five and then down fast to complete the step. This technique is what is meant by timing. There is no set rule for timing animation. Try to have the characters give the illusion of natural action as closely as possible. This can be accomplished only by practice and application. The rough drawings are "cleaned up" after the tests are shot so that they are like the extremes. Notice that the size of head and size of body remain the same; therefore a standard circle can be used and traced each time instead of being drawn free hand. This eliminates any fluctuation in the size of the character and also eliminates a great deal of work. The expression on the face in this sequence remains the same throughout, so again a lot of work is saved merely by tracing the head of the master drawing for each of the following drawings. The character, of course, must be animated along the line of action or it will be too stiff. The dotted line indicates the flow of action. This natural flow of action is a set rule that must be adhered to, if the proper result in animation is to be obtained. Keep in mind the movement of a fish swimming in water or the action of a streamer being pulled through the air. The body always follows in a graceful sweep through the same imaginary path set by the head.
The illustration shows one step of action. The same procedure must be followed with the other foot to get the complete sequence for a walk. By practice, variations of this action can be made into a run of any speed desired. This action can be used for a walk across the camera field or for a walk when the character stays in one place and the background moves behind it. This moving background is a great labor saver and is very essential if much animation is to be produced. The principle may be used in the simplest type of work.
In order to use the moving background, the outline of the action of the characters must be traced in India ink on transparent celluloid sheets, or "cells." This outline is then filled in with opaque water color paint. Different tones and shades, ranging from gray to deep black, are used for filling in. Foto-film color is the best for this purpose.
The celluloid and drawing paper sheets are all punched with two corresponding holes about three inches apart and a half inch from the top edge. These are known as peg holes and they fit snugly over pegs at the top of the drawing board and at the top of the camera field, out of the picture. This insures a perfect register of all tracings and keeps each movement of animation in register with the preceding movement.
The moving background or "sliding pan" is usually from three to six camera fields in length. It must be fastened to the camera stand so that it will move freely to the right or left but so that it will not fluctuate up and down. It can be placed on sliding pegs that are fastened to a sliding panel or it can be taped securely to the panel. Along the panel, there must be some kind of a scale with calibrations marked off in sixteenths of an inch. A flat steel rule securely screwed down will answer the purpose very nicely.
If the peg holes in the paper and "cells" are at the top, then the sliding panel and scale work from the opposite side or on the edge of the camera stand closest to the cameraman. The top edge of the "sliding pan" slides against the top pegs, the ones upon which the celluloid action sheets are fitted.
In animating a character of Oswald walking along a road, we would use a road panorama background, four fields in length, and a complete sequence of a walk, which is fourteen drawings.
These fourteen drawings are all painted in the center of separate and respective "cells," each registered in sequence to the preceding one. There are now fourteen "cells," each with a character in the same position on each "cell," but each succeeding "cell" has a different form of the character. When photographed in sequence one after the other, the result will give the movement of the character walking in one spot. However, when the background is moved in the opposite direction the character appears to be walking forward. Repeat this sequence as often as is necessary to get the character into the next scene or to the desired place on the background.
"Cell" number one is placed over the background with the character at the left end of the background and facing to the right. A picture is taken and the background is moved a sixteenth of an inch to the left with each succeeding change of the "cells." This gives the impression that the character is walking to the right. It is practically the same system as the treadmill with the rotating backdrop that was used in the days of the old melodrama, when the "heavy" chased the heroine across the meadow or down the lane.
With this system, the fourteen "cells" can be used in sequence with many different changes of background. Speed may be obtained by moving the background in longer movements and by lengthening the stride of the character.



Figures 3 and 4 on page 12 give an idea of the proper construction of your backgrounds. The spot where the character works must, at all times, be kept very much lighter in tone or color so that it will not conflict with the action and so that none of the action will be lost by blending into the background.



A simple pencil background, such as Figure 5 on page 13, can be made easily by anybody with artistic ability. This can be lengthened into a four field panorama if desired. A water color wash background (Figure 6 on page 14) is a bit more difficult to make. However, any artist can make backgrounds such as this at a reasonable cost, and it will add a lot to the appearance of the animation.
Enlargements of regular photographic negatives can also be used as backgrounds. Novel "gags" can be produced by enlarging frames from regular motion picture film and using these as backgrounds for animated characters. Cut the animated sequence back into the picture and the characters will appear to be photographed with the rest of the reel.

Extra "cells" or "X cells" are great labor savers in making animated cartoons. The illustration (Figures 7, 8 and 9 on page 14) of "Elmer The Great Dane," taken from the Walter Lantz cartoon, Monkey Wretches, shows what is meant by this process. The run of the dog is animated on one set of "cells." The monkey is animated on another set of "cells" and matched to appear to be perched astride the back of the dog. In this manner, the run of the dog can be used again in some other sequence, where the monkey is not required.
This method can also be used when a character moves his arms or legs while the rest of the body is held. The body of the character is held on one "cell" and the animated part put on a series of "X cells," so that the entire character does not have to be painted and inked more than once. Care must be taken, however, to have the "X cells" matched perfectly at the point of contact between the animated parts and the "held" drawing.
A third dimension effect can be obtained by the use of a sliding overlay celluloid on all "pan" shots. This is a transparent "cell" with a border of trees, cattails, flowers or foreground sets, such as steeples, poles, etc., that occasionally move across the scene and in front of the action. It is used over the top of the entire sequence. It is moved at the same rate of speed as your regular "sliding pan" background. The design on it is painted very dark gray or solid black so that it appears to be directly in front of the camera lens.

Anopheles Annie

The U.S. Army knows how to take care of malaria-bearing mosquitoes, and that’s bad for Anopheles Annie in “It’s Murder She Says...”, one of the Snafu cartoons made by Warner Bros. during World War Two.

There’s limited animation in parts of this cartoon directed by Chuck Jones but there’s also a wonderful bit of personality animation of Annie at the start. Her character evokes a lady of the evening who has fallen on hard times, spending her life in the bar. Annie gulps down some cheap rot-gut and shakes her head in reaction to how bad it is. Then she blows her drooping antenna back up. Is this Bobe Cannon’s work? Ken Harris? (Late note: Thad Komorowski, who helped restore these cartoons for Thunderbean, says it was Ben Washam).



Bob Bruce is the narrator in this short, but I have no idea who’s playing Annie. Sara Berner supplies some incidental voices. Carl Stalling opens the soundtrack with “Chloe.”