The Kill the Wabbit Cartoon

This blog has not touched What’s Opera, Doc? during its 11 years on the internet because the cartoon has been written about to death and there really isn’t anything new to say.

But it’s such a famous cartoon, I can’t really skip it. I’ll just post a few poses (and probably some in-betweens) showing Bugs gesticulating as he sings to Elmer Fudd, accompanied by a solo French horn.

O, Mighty Hunter, ‘twill be quite a task.
How will you do it, might I enquire to osk?

(The broad ‘a’ in “ask” satirises the pretentiousness of opera).

Since Bugs is singing on stage, he takes a deep breath before his next line.

It would not be a Chuck Jones cartoon without a coy side-glance in profile.

Bugs finishes his line and balls up his hands. I don’t get the weird deformed foot Bugs develops.

People watching the cartoon probably didn’t notice, but in the previous two lines of the song, Bugs is standing in front of a completely different background.

To give you an idea how long the cartoon was in the system, here are the other Jones shorts around this time.

Bugs’ Bonnets, Production 1387, released Jan. 14, 1956.
Animators: Abe Levitow, Dick Thompson, Ken Harris, Ben Washam. Layout: Bob Gribbroek.

Barbary-Coast Bunny, Production 1389, released July 21, 1956.
Animators: Abe Levitow, Dick Thompson, Ken Harris. Layout: Bob Gribbroek.

Rocket-Bye Baby, Production 1395, released August 4, 1956.
Animators: Abe Levitow, Dick Thompson, Ken Harris. Layout: Ernie Nordli.

What’s Opera, Doc?, Production 1397, released July 6, 1957.
Animators: Abe Levitow, Dick Thompson, Ken Harris. Layout: Maurice Noble.

Gee Whiz-z-z-z, Production 1399, released May 5, 1956.
Animators: Abe Levitow, Dick Thompson, Ken Harris, Ben Washam. Layout: Ernie Nordli.

Maurice Noble’s name falls between two cartoons with Ernie Nordli. Nordli had drawn layouts for What’s Opera, Doc? but when Noble returned to the studio, he chucked them all and started afresh. (Get it? “Chucked.” As in “Jones?” Okay, so I need a new writer).

The cartoon was also made during one of Ben Washam’s absences; at least, he wasn’t credited on the short.

The short benefits from the Warner Bros. studio orchestra. Can you imagine what it would sound like a few years later with a chintzy, dissonant score that Bill Lava wrote for the cartoons (to be fair to Lava, he was a capable composer but his cartoon work reeks of low budget). Certainly, Milt Franklyn’s ability to snip from Wagner to come up with this effective score is an admirable achievement (30 years earlier, Franklyn was fronting a regional dance band).

Yes, the cartoon has probably been over-seen and over-analysed to the point that some may not want to watch it any more. There are a number of Bugs Bunny cartoons I like far, far better than this, but I’ll take it over Bugs’ Bonnets any day.

Stop! Go! Stop!

There are animation fans who chant a mantra of “Cartoony!” In other words, if animation isn’t over the top, it’s not a real cartoon.

Nonsense.

You won’t find wild takes in a Friz Freleng-directed short, but you’ll find a lot of laughs and incredible timing in his best cartoons. He had a good run of them toward the end of the ‘40s.

One of my favourite Bugs Bunny cartoons is Bugs Bunny Rides Again (1948), where Freleng and writers Tedd Pierce and Mike Maltese take the rabbit and Yosemite Sam through a string of Western clichés. There are at least two perfect bits of timing in the short—one when Sam and his horse smash into a brick wall to the strains of the William Tell Overture, and then when Sam high-steps to his right and drops into a mine shaft. Sam’s expression changes in consecutive frames and he’s held at the edge by Freleng just long enough before the fall.

There’s a twist on a Tex Avery-style joke at the opening of the cartoon. It’s the old “traffic” gag, where a traffic signal controls some non-traffic objects; in this case, bullets.

Below are select frames that give you an idea. The bullets obey the traffic signs—except for one little straggler bullet at the end (several of Freleng’s cartoons have a gag that involves a little character following a group of larger characters).

The Freleng unit's animators are Ken Champin, Manny Perez, Virgil Ross and Gerry Chiniquy.

Radio's Mrs. Terwilleger and a Cartoon Parrot's Mother

There’s an undeniable link between the Golden Ages of Animation and Radio. The big stars of radio were the subject of caricature and parody in cartoons from a number of studios, from Disney to Mintz. And the lesser stars of radio found employment providing voices for cartoon characters.

Mel Blanc was front-and-centre on the list. In 1934, he was appearing at a store opening in Salem, Oregon. A year later, he found work on KFWB on Johnny Murray’s Variety show. KFWB was owned by Warner Bros. which, as we all know, housed the Leon Schlesinger cartoon studio.

But there were many, many others who came up from the ranks of radio (including quite a number from KFWB) to voice cartoons—Arthur Q. Bryan, Sara Berner, Bea Benaderet, Frank Graham, Marvin Miller and, of course, June Foray, are just a few.

There was another cartoon actress who was a big star on radio—that is, until vaudevillians came west to make movies and started taking over the airwaves in the early ‘30s. Radio on the West Coast bloomed in 1922, with more stations in Los Angeles than New York, and created its own star system and chains of stations from Seattle to Hollywood.

One of those stars was Elvia Allman.

She, too, was on KFWB’s Johnny Murray show. But she was big enough to have her own show, Elvia Allman’s Surprise Package on KHJ in 1929. She got a shot at the big time in 1933—a 13-week contract for a 15-minute show of satiric songs broadcast on NBC Red from New York. At the end of it, she came back to Los Angeles. When the big stars settled in California and filled the network programme slots, Allman became a supporting actress, one in great demand. She even made some films. One was Melody For Hire (1941) that also included Irene Ryan. The two would work together in the 1960s as frenemies on The Beverly Hillbillies.

The Los Angeles Times profiled her in the “Ether Etchings” column of December 16, 1934.

Sent to get a story about Elvia Allman, this scribble arrived on the Merrymaker stage at KHJ yesterday, hoping to find the elongated comedienne at rehearsal . . . the Stage was deserted except for one old gal who was busy rocking in a chair . . . “Hey, lady,” we heyyed, “do you know anything about Elvia Allman?”
“Do I know anything about Elvia Allman? Does Mrs. Terwilleger know anything about Elvia Allman? Young man, I know everything worth knowing about her—and a lot that's not worth knowing either, but I wouldn't want you to mention that.”
FROM CAROLINA
So Mrs. Terwilleger said she'd tell everything, but for me not to tell, but If I did tell, to tell whomever I tell not to tell—so, maybe, I better not tell . . .
That Elvia was born in Spencer, N. C., but moved to Texas before she found out what the Governor of North Carolina said to the Governor of South Carolina—or vice versa.
“In fact," said Mrs. Terwilliger, “she moved to Texas just in time to help Davy Crockett at the Alamo. Not that I am one to talk about another girl . . . Texas steered her to Chicago at the age of 18.
FIRST STAGE JOB
“Her first stage job was with the ‘Merchant of Venice,’ though I’m not the one to say she was in the original production! . . . also played in ‘Smilin’ Through’ . . . bet she got the job because she had such a big grin . . . went to New York and they say (not that I'd believe gossipers) that the dern near starved to death—that's why she's so skinny . . . she was too tall for an ingenue, too young for second business roles and too light for heavies . . . just seemed to be misfit, if you know what I mean, young man.
“She came to California with the gold rush, or maybe it was only eight years ago, got a job with KHJ . . . knowing nothing about radio she was made a program director . . . she also read children's poems (with gestures) . . . then Don Lee bought the station--and the same gestures . . . she was a staff artist for six years, doubling as off stage screamer and tragedienne.
IN TIME FOR BANK-CLOSING
“In 1932 she went to New York to join N.B.C. for a thirteen-week series . . . missed earthquake out here but got there in time for the bank closing, which probably meant nothing to her anyway . . . she sings a pretty fair tune, too, though I have watch her very closely . . .”
You've probably guessed that Mrs. Terwilleger is Elvia’s favorite person (seeing as they're the same person) so we’ll continue without quotation marks . . . Elvia likes to go to the beach--as long as she doesn’t get wet . . . likes a kayak (a boat—not an animal) . . . her favorite performers are Fanny Brice and Beatrice Lillie . . . her favorite radio folk are John Charles Thomas, Mary Eastman, Gladys Swarthout and a singer named B. Crosby.

There’s a little sidebar, of sorts, courtesy of the Los Angeles Evening Post of August 11, 1934.

Elvia Allman received a phone call the other morning.
“Hello Mrs. Terwilliger,” said a masculine voice, “this is Mr. Dinwiddie. I’ll be glad to come over on your porch any time you say.”
Elvia for once was speechless. The name “Mr. Dinwiddie,” had been applied to one of her characters without any knowledge that there was such a name in real life.
Elvia’s caller was quite nice about it. He admitted that he got a terrible ribbing from the boys in the office on Monday morning following Elvia’s act on the KHJ Merrymakers Sunday night, but said that he didn't mind because he enjoys the skit himself.

Allman was given another chance at stardom. She was the m.c. for a syndicated series called “Komedy Kingdom.” You know how funny it’s going to be when comedy is spelled with a “k.” It did have a few good acts, including Bob Burns, Morey Amsterdam and Allman herself doing comic monologues in character. The show seems to have debuted in late 1936 and was broadcast on stations in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

For the most part, after enough discs were cut to make the series profitable, Allman supported big-name comedy acts. Here’s a short piece from Noel Corbett’s “Valley Voices” column in the North Hollywood Valley Times, May 11, 1943.

Elvia Allman is not the kind of actress who needs mood music or five minutes of silent home thought to get herself into character. Not Elvia. The tall, slender red head, who is considered one of radio’s top actresses, is more likely to be found engrossed in a game of gin rummy till time to say her lines.
“Tootsie Sagwell” on Burns and Allen, Mrs. Niles, on “Comedy Caravan,” Cobina, of the famous “Brenda and Cobina”—all Elvia. Most of her theatrical career has been confined to radio with occasional flings in the movies; Elvia doesn’t know where she got the inclination for a stage career, since none of her family has ever been remotely connected with things of the theatre.
“Started out with elocution lessons,” grins the actress, “when I was attending a convent school in Wichita Falls, Texas.” (And here might be a logical place to point out that the girl with the variable voice was born in a town in North Carolina—the name of which she cannot recall! “Couldn’t have been very important,” she frowned, “or I'm sure I’d remember it.”)
After graduation from school, Elvia moved to California where she soon found radio work as mistress of ceremonies on a show called “Surprise Package.” This led to a stint in New York on a show where, she confesses wryly, I was known as the California Cocktail Girl—why I don’t know.”
After the New York session, California Cocktail Girl returned to the West Coast to pick up her radio career and become one of Hollywood’s top radio comediennes.
Actress Allman likes to play gin rummy (and that’s an understatement), wears slacks and reads all types of books. She is always willing to oblige autograph seekers, but confesses that after all these years, she never knows what to write!

By this time, Allman had given up her cartoon work. She was never credited on screen. I first noticed her when, close to 60 years ago, I was watching I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937) for the umpteenth time when Petey Parrot’s mother started talking and I suddenly realised “That’s Elverna Bradshaw!” Allman played the character on The Beverly Hillbillies.

The cartoon was directed by Tex Avery, who cast her as Kate Hepburn-sounding characters in I Only Have Eyes For You and Little Red Walking Hood (both 1937).

Jerry Beck’s “Cartoon Research” site says Columbia/Mintz hired her for The Foolish Bunny (directed by Art Davis, 1938), Window Shopping (Sid Marcus, 1938) and Lucky Pigs (Ben Harrison, 1939), but I don’t hear her in the first two and doubt she’s in the third. On the other hand, it sounds like her as Miss Cud in I Haven’t Got a Hat (Friz Freleng, 1935), especially the way she says “Porky Pig.”

Allman’s Hepburn voice shouldn’t be mistaken for Sara Berner’s Hepburn, which is lighter and higher pitched than Allman’s.

This is not a list or a filmography, but I should point out one of Allman’s most famous TV roles was the bossy chocolate factory manager on I Love Lucy.

After retiring, she devoted herself to community service. She volunteered with Meals on Wheels and taught English to underprivileged children. A little sadder is when broadcaster Chuck Schaden interviewed her about her career, she couldn’t recollect all that much.

Allman was 88 when she died in Los Angeles in 1992.

Note: this post was written months ago before the release of Keith Scott’s book on voice actors. He says Allman is not the “Cobina” voice in Goofy Groceries (1941) or Eatin’ on the Cuff (1942). It’s Sara Berner doing her best Allman imitation.

Gold Diggers Pan

Before Screwy Squirrel (1944) and A Wild Hare (1940), with its woodsy opening, Tex Avery loved to start his cartoons with a long left-to-right pan over scenery.

In fact, he did it in the first cartoon he directed, Gold Diggers of ‘49.

Avery’s cinematography has the shot starting in almost darkness. The camera is focused on cacti. As the camera pans, the setting comes into the clear and Avery stops to move in on a calendar in a covered wagon, then a sign on a saloon with the word “GOLD” crossed out and, finally, on a general store. Unfortunately, the colour isn't consistent so we can't snip it together into a long drawings. We'll give you bits of it.

Unlike later pans, objects in the foreground move at the pace as the background. Later, Avery would have foreground items on cels shot at a different speed than the background to the an illusion of depth.

There’s an all-star roster on the opening credits with animation credits given to Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett and the score to future Oscar-winner Bernie Brown. Unfortunately, the background painter is not mentioned. It would be a few more years before layout and background artists got screen scredit.

By the way, Leonard Maltin’s Of Mice and Magic and the Beck and Friedwald book on the Warners cartoons both state this short was released on January 6, 1936. I cannot find evidence that is true. I’ve found indesputable evidence to the contrary. The Copyright Catalogue says the cartoon was copyrighted on January 6th, but the Motion Picture Herald of November 9, 1935 has a review of it by a small-town theatre manager. There are a number of theatre ads in newspapers of November 1935 announcing the cartoon was playing (the one to the right is from a Vermont paper of November 7), and the Motion Picture Herald of November 8th has a review from a theatre manager, so I reject the idea this cartoon was first released in 1936.

The Women's University Club in Los Angeles reviewed the film. "Poor. Not for children," it says. Oh, well. It liked Iwerks' Balloon Land.

They Love That Pagan Moon

There’s such a similarity among the Harman-Ising Merrie Melodies, something seems familiar in all of them, whether it’s spitting, razzberries, butts being attacked, the woman falsetto voice or any number of things.

Starting with Red Headed Baby (1931), the shorts might feature cycle animation of a crowd of characters cheering and applauding at the camera, a scene sometimes reused later in the cartoon.

In Pagan Moon (1932), the cycle consists of 13 drawings; an unusual number considering the even numbers (16 frames per inch, 24 frames per second) found in animation.



Here’s the cycle at about the speed it is in the cartoon.



Ham Hamilton and Norm Blackburn (later a TV executive with NBC) are the credited animators.

Morale Boosting Benny

Summer vacation? Not for Jack Benny in 1943.

He spent it entertaining soldiers with his troupe overseas through the USO.

Even when he returned, he wasn’t through helping the fighting men. Daughter Joan Benny outlined it in her book, but one of the stories below talks about how he tried to give assurances to the mothers of soldiers in the war zone.

The first two stories are dated September 30th; the second came from the New York Times.

Jack Benny Returns From Overseas Tour
NEW YORK, Sept. 30. (UP)—When Jack Benny landed in Italy to entertain troops, he stepped from his plane and announced, “I’m Jack Benny.”
A surprised major looked at him and asked: “What in the hell do you think you’re doing here?”
Back from a 32,000 mile tour overseas the comedian said at a press conference today that the one night stand in Italy wasn’t on the schedule until he and harmonica player Larry Adler and singer Wini Shaw arrived to find an audience in Sicily had moved ahead.
Benny found that Arabs, who frequently were in the audience at Algiers, were appreciative listeners. “They’ll laugh at anything,” he said.
He found good food in the camps and gained 15 pounds while playing 150 shows in Central and North Africa, the Persian gulf area and Sicily.

Benny Troupe End Overseas Air Tour
Comedian and Itinerant Unit Visited Camps in Africa, Egypt, Persia, Italy
Jack Benny and his troupe of itinerant players are back in town after a ten-week air tour, under the auspices of United Service Organizations-Camp Shows, of American Army camps behind the front lines in Africa, Egypt, Iran and Italy.
They were the first entertainers to follow the Allied army from Sicily into the “toe” of Italy, and landed in the comfortable belief that Allied commanders were expecting them, when they weren’t; but they went through safely with good luck.
Mr. Benny returned to La Guardia Field Tuesday night, with Miss Wini Shaw, stage and screen singer, and Jack Snyder, pianist of the Yacht Club Boys, who joined the troupe in North Africa after completing an eight-month tour. They left Larry Adler, harmonica virtuoso, in London, and the fifth member, Miss Anna Lee, film actress, in Algiers, where she remained with another USO-Camp Shows troupe under Adolph Menjou, one of fifty shows now entertaining American fighting men abroad.
Trip “Like a Vacation”
Miss Shaw and Mr. Benny told yesterday about their experiences at the Camp Show offices, 8 West Fortieth Street. They say it had been like a vacation, and that they had seen places like Aden, Bengasi, Cairo and Iranian sections that “we would never see except in a war.” They praised the morale of the troops, but Miss Shaw, who “talked to the boys” at every stop, said with considerable emphasis that American relatives at home ought to stop writing gloomy letters to their me at the front—her other remarks on this score were blue-pencilled by an officer-censor at the interview.
Both spoke in glowing terms of what Army doctors and nurses were doing at the front and at hospital stations, as unsung heroes, saying that not once did they hear the tired, overworked nurses, voice the desire to come home. They expressed the wish that newer motion pictures could be sent to Army detachments abroad. Remarked Mr. Benny: “In Iran, according to the current films, Shirley Temple hadn’t been born yet, and Francis X. Bushman had just won the popularity contest.” Miss Shaw, who is going back soon, said the soldiers were annoyed by the ban on record transcriptions, which keeps them short of disks.
The troupe played an average of two shows a day, sleeping in camps, leaving early the next morning for the next stand, and trying to cover as much ground as possible, so that no unit would miss getting entertainment.
Mr. Benny said regretfully that they had to miss some Army units, and he is advising directors of the USO-Camp Show organization on routings to overcome faults in the system.
Both Mr. Benny and Miss Shaw were tanned by the Middle East sun. Mr. Benny was in a hospital in Sicily for a few days, but quickly recovered from a bad cold, and he said the army food “all the way” had been so good that he would have to take off fifteen pounds for his next picture.

This last story is from the Boston Globe, October 10, 1943. Every time I see Larry Adler’s name mentioned in connection with the war effort, I get angry about how he was blacklisted and forced to leave the U.S. for good.

Setting that aside, you can’t help but appreciate the extra things Jack did when he didn’t have to.

Benny Busy Phoning "Moms" of Servicemen
Jack Benny, home from the battle fronts, is as busied as ever for the men overseas. He's phoning "Moms"—many "Moms." For his pockets and his duffle bags overflow with the telephone numbers of American mothers he was asked to "call up."
"Just tell Mom I'm fine, they'd ask me. Most of them were very young. It kinda got you," the comedian said.
But he was full of enthusiasm for the men "over there" and the reception they gave him.
Benny, 12 pounds heavier and fitter than his fiddle after 10 weeks of constant travel, played to service men in such places as the Middle East, Africa, Sicily, Iceland, and in the first American show there—Italy. The N.B.C. comedian describes his trip to 32,000 miles as the greatest vacation of his life.
With his first broadcast of the season coming up today, he was met in New York by his leading lady, Mary Livingstone (his wife in private life), and his daughter, Joan. The remainder of the Benny regular cast joined him a few days ago to get ready for the big event which will be played to a studio audience of service men at N.B.C.’s Vanderbilt Theatre. After Oct. 17 the cast, including Rochester, Phil Harris, Dennis Day and Don Wilson, will return to Hollywood.
On his shows in far-off places Benny said he was most frequently asked to do old routines the boys remembered from his programs. “They all know how cheap I’m supposed to be and they all ask about the Maxwell,” he chuckled.
The Benny troupe, which included Anna Lee, actress; Larry Adler, harmonica player, who also helped Jack write some of his camp shows; Jack Snyder, pianist, and Wini Shaw, singer, played two or three shows a day on the tour. They also visited hospitals in every camp they touched. Benny paid particular tribute to the doctors and nurses and said that despite fatigue they seemed always cheerful, just as the men were.
The only near-mishap of the trip the comedian could recall came in the vicinity of the Persian Gulf when their plane could not make its scheduled landing because of recurring sandstorms. “Otherwise,” said Benny, “we had no trouble.”

Jack made other stops during the war. He was in the South Pacific. In 1945 he, Ingrid Bergman and others performed in Germany (those are the photos with this post). Of course, he took his radio show to various military camps and assisted with Victory Loan drives in Canada. And he persevered during a tour in the Korean War zone in the ‘50s with Frank Remley and Errol Flynn but admitted when he got home it was too tiring for him to do it any more.

Regardless, Jack performed (in more ways than one) his duty during war-time. It couldn’t help but boost morale.

Bugs' Dream is Yours

Bugs Bunny wasn’t exactly a feature film star, but Warner Bros. took him out of shorts for a couple of movies. He was featured in animated sequences of Two Guys From Texas and My Dream is Yours, both starring Jack Carson.

Publicity departments came up with press kits for all features. They included print ads, ideas for theatre lobby displays, promotional tie-ins, newspaper copy, phots and even 24 sheets (not the actual billboard ad, but a picture of one that could be ordered).

Here are a few things about the eventual-Oscar-winning rabbit contained in promotional items sent to theatres.

This was a lobby display used by a theatre in Philadelphia.

This is fairly self-explanatory.

Tie-ups? Promotions? How about this? A Bugs doll. Coincidentally, just like the one in the movie.

And a little something for the newspaper comic section.

And those poor newspaper entertainment writers! They need help—and Warners gave it to them with copy they could drop into their columns. It’s a shame there’s no reference to director Friz Freleng, who was responsible for the animation portion.

If you want to see the full press kit, check it out here.

It's a Yowpcast!

Keith Scott is more than an impressionist and the voice of Bullwinkle after Bill No Relation Scott died. He wrote a marvellous book on the Jay Ward cartoon studio (“The Moose That Roared”) and now he has written something that six-year-old me would have bugged my dad to buy 60 years ago.

“Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age” not only talks about the people who spoke on animated cartoons in the ‘30s through ‘60s, but gives a capsule version of the rise and fall of almost every major studio and how they dealt with sound, including music and editing.

Keith and I chat in the video below. I didn’t get a chance to ask half my questions before time ran out. Sorry fans of the Iwerks studio or Dal McKennon. But all that stuff is revealed in his two-volume set.