Never Trust a Nazi

Blitz Wolf isn’t just another Tex Avery fairy tale send-up. There’s a war on, so it’s a propaganda cartoon, too. Considering what a detestable individual Adolf Hitler was, ridiculing him was completely warranted. At the end of the short, the wolf Hitler-stand-in is blown to Hell, which, for him, is populated by Jews (doing their version of the Kitzel catchphrase from the Al Pearce radio show).



Avery, being the anti-Disney, uses Disney’s Three Little Pigs as a starting point, even utilising the voice of the Practical Pig, Pinto Colvig, to repeat his performance.

The story by Rich Hogan has a warning at the beginning—that even good people can be sucked in by the promises and talk of Fascists. The army-fatigued practical pig warns his brothers to be prepared for the invasion of the Big Bad Wolf, and pulls out a newspaper with the story.



Cut to a close-up and downward pan.



The delusional pigs don’t believe the mainstream media. It doesn’t reflect their beliefs as fact. “He won’t hurt us, ‘cause we signed a treaty with him!” They pull out the treaty. Cut to another close-up and pan, then the camera trucks in a little closer to get the signature and seal.



No sooner does this happen than the tanks start rolling in. The scene soon switches to the Blitz Wolf (Bill Thompson with a German accent) shouting to the pig inside the straw house that he’ll huff, etc. “But Adolf, that would break our treaty,” says the pig. “You’re a good guy. Why, you hate war. You wouldn’t go back on your word!” The wolf leans in and says “Are you kiddin’?” and laughs knowing he has snowballed them with his lies.



A little over a month after Pearl Harbor, The Hollywood Reporter revealed “As his first cartoon supervising chore at MGM, Fred ‘Tex’ Avery will handle ‘Blitz Wolf,’ a new animated character for the studio’s shorts” (Jan. 16, 1942). The paper announced on June 2 the cartoon was “in last stages of work” and on Aug. 19 it was “winding up production.” It wound up pretty fast as the same day, the Academy of Motion Pictures screened it at the Filmarte Theatre.

In fact, it was already in theatres, as an ad from the Portsmouth (Virginia) Herald issue of Aug. 16 shows. (Come for Bing. Stay for the Nazi).

This brings us to the oft-told tale that Fred Quimby thought Hitler might win the war and wanted the cartoon to be a little less violent. Did he really say that?

You’d think maybe the famous 1975 animation issue of Film Comment might have mentioned the quote. Or Joe Adamson in his interview with Avery in Tex Avery, King of Cartoons. Or Michael Barrier in his lengthy book Hollywood Cartoons.

It appears the story started circulating from an interview Chuck Jones did on the Mark and Brian radio show in Los Angeles in 1996 as related in the book Chuck Jones Conversations (2005, University of Mississippi Press). I quote Jones, quoting Avery, quoting Quimby.

And he [Quimby] went on, he said, “I was just looking at the storyboard of the Blitz Wolf” and he said—“you think,” this is 1944, right in the middle of the war [sic]—and he said, “Do you think you're being a little rough on Mr. Hitler? ‘Cause we don't know who's going to win the war.”

I have a hard time believing Quimby said this, even if he were joking (Quimby was not known for having a sense of humour). Hollywood—as was all of America—was awash with extreme anti-Axis patriotism. And Jones was not exactly known for a kindly attitude toward cartoon film producers (Disney, excepted).

Blitz Wolf was nominated for an Oscar. Three other war-related animated shorts were nominated, with Uncle Walt picking up the statue for Der Fuehrer’s Face. Fortunately, his face, and the rest of him, was gone in three years.

Practical Pig Warns Against Nazi Wolf

Daily Variety told readers on January 16, 1942 about a cartoon. “Fred Avery will supervise production of ‘Blitz Wolf,’ cartoon subject at Metro.”

Avery had arrived at MGM the previous September and busied himself with The Early Bird Dood It. This was the first cartoon Avery and his unit—Irv Spence, Ray Abrams, Preston Blair and Ed Love, likely assisted by effects animator Al Grandmain—worked on, with The Blitz Wolf following. It seems odd that Avery would be employed on only one short for the first four months he was at Metro, but that’s what the trades at the time indicate.

Even odder is a blurb in Daily Variety of June 17, 1942 saying Rich Hogan has bought himself out of his contract with Leon Schlesinger and “his first assignment being ‘Blitz Wolf.’” Why would he be writing a cartoon that had been started six months earlier? Especially one the Hollywood Reporter said on June 2nd was “in last stages of work.”? And when the MGM newsletter of January-February 1942 revealed he was already at the studio.

(Hogan was loyal to Avery. He returned to Avery’s unit after WW2 military service and quit animation when Avery took time off to get his life together).

Avery and Hogan brought with them from Warner Bros. sign gags, fairy tale send-ups, characters talking to the audience, radio show references and Sara Berner’s voice talent. With ex-Disney animators under him, he could try for animation that was a little more elaborate at times than what he put on the screen when working for Leon Schlesinger. There are a couple of scenes of perfect perspective animation with something large in the foreground flying into the background.

Oh, there were unmatched shots, too. Here are two consecutive frames. Sergeant Pork, the Practical Pig, drums his fingers and begins to point. But his finger doesn’t get there.



The GI-garbed pig urges the other two to buy bonds and be prepared for the Big Bad Wolf. Here are some poses. The pig’s gestures are not way-over-the-top like in a Clampett cartoon. They seem perfectly natural. This is the work of the great Preston Blair. Sgt. Pork’s voice is courtesy of Pinto Colvig. He had finished his work in Florida on Gulliver’s Travels and was back in Hollywood freelancing.



You can find more frames from the cartoon by searching here. There’s a profile of Mr. Hogan as well.

The Hollywood Reporter quoted Fred Quimby as stating on August 18th the cartoon was “winding up production.” If so, it wound up very fast. The press got a sneak preview the next night at the Filmarte Theatre by the Motion Picture Academy. It was the last short to be screened, and the programme included Superman’s Terror of the Midway, the very good Norm McCabe war short The Duck-Tators, Goofy in The Olympic Champ and the Fox and Crow in Woodman, Spare That Tree. About all Daily Variety said about it was “solid laughs.” The Reporter pronounced it “an especially ingenious release.”

The 887-foot film hit theatres on August 22nd, a week before Early Bird. In Weekly Variety’s edition of September 2nd, it concluded “With such a childish topic, Director Tex Avery and his crew have concocted a refreshing, laugh cartoon. Strong on any program.” (It also praised Avery in its review of Early Bird in the same issue).

Boxoffice, on September 5th, was more lavish in its praise: “They don’t come any better...Audiences, recovering from their laughter, will stand up and cheer this one. Tex Avery, who directed, is a man to watch.” (It, too, thought Early Bird was a “Top notcher...Tie the roof down when this one hits the projection machine”). From Motion Picture Daily of September 2nd: “Top honors for ingenuity, comedy and brilliant satirical handling go to M-G-M for this color short...Directed by Tex Avery, this short is an added attraction on any bill” (It also mentioned Tex in its review of Early Bird: “clever and amusing, and not above poking fun at the company that made it”).

Motion Picture Herald, misguided about who was responsible, wrote on August 29th: “is Fred Quimby, executive producer, at his best in the field of cartoon, and a subject which had the audience screaming.” And Showman’s Trade Review included frames in its little story on the cartoon in the September 5th edition, calling it in a critique “novel, amusing and entertaining...Entire subject is excellently animated and contains much to humorously impress the need of precaution and preparedness.” It also notes that Hitler is blown to a Hell where he is greeted by Jews.



The Filmarte again screened the cartoon on February 3, 1943 as the Academy narrowed down its list of nominees for animated cartoon. Also on the list: All Out For V (Terrytoons), Juke Box Jamboree (Walter Lantz), Tulips Will Grow (George Pal), Pigs in a Polka (Schlesinger/Warner Bros.), Der Fuehrer’s Face (Walt Disney). Alas, it lost to Disney with his elaborate dream sequence. However, in May, it did top a Motion Picture Herald poll of exhibitors as the best industry-produced war cartoons (and was second on the list of shorts).

And Canada loved the cartoon, too. The Hollywood Reporter revealed on April 1, 1943 “For its Fourth Victory Loan Drive, starting April 15, the Canadian government will distribute MGM’s cartoon, ‘The Blitz Wolf,’ which was also used as a war bond sales stimulant in this country. W.H. Burnside, director of production for the National Film Board of Canada, is here [in Los Angeles] making arrangements for 195 (16mm.) and 65 (35mm.) prints. The negative was furnished gratis by MGM.” This didn’t mean theatres. The cartoon was shown with other NFB propaganda films on a screen at Eaton’s in downtown Toronto every hour, seven times a day, in April 1944. In Vancouver and Victoria, “bond” shells were set up downtown where the cartoon played for anyone passing by.

Then The Blitz Wolf disappeared, to return some time later with the bombing of Tokyo excised and a now-unflattering reference to the Japanese rubbed out. Hitler, of course, was still hated so he remained a rightful target of satire on both the big and little screen.

As for the story of how producer Quimby told Tex to take it easy on Adolf Wolf, I call B.S. I don’t know where the tale started but as the U.S. was fully involved in the war at the time the cartoon was made, the whole thing sounds like it was cooked up by someone who didn’t like Quimby or thought it was a funny story. Add in the fact Quimby was supervising the studio’s training films for the Army Air Corps. Oh, and at the time, Quimby had his son in a military academy.

As hard as it is to believe, Avery got even more attention for the next cartoon he put into production—another fairy tale parody. It was Red Hot Riding Hood.

Hogan Isn't With Us Any More

You can count on a sign commenting on a pun in a Tex Avery cartoon, and “Batty Baseball” is no exception. But in addition to being a gag, the sign may very well have stated a fact.



There’s no writer credit on the cartoon, but the likely storyman was Rich Hogan, who wrote for Avery at Warners and then left to join him at MGM. If that’s the case, he wasn’t with the studio any more when it announced in October 1943 that “Screwball Baseball” (the original name) would be the first release “in a special slapstick series” (as Boxoffice magazine called it) for the coming season. Seems the military had something in mind for him.

Aside from his cartoon credits, there’s not much information around about Hogan. He’s the forgotten man in the story of Bugs Bunny; he received the story credit for the wabbit’s breakthrough cartoon, “A Wild Hare,” in 1940.

Richard Adams Hogan was born in Buffalo, New York on June 7, 1913, the oldest of seven children of John Martin and Florence L. (Adams) Hogan. His father was a customer service manager for Buffalo General Electric Co., active in the Knights of Columbus and Secretary of the Buffalo Golf Club. Hogan’s World War Two draft record states that he spent four years in art school and the New York Times of June 10, 1937 lists his name in a story about graduates of the Pratt Institute.

The Buffalo Courier-Express of April 17, 1940 has this brief biography:

SCRIPT BY BUFFALONIAN
Cross Country Detour, color cartoon, at Hippodrome
The Merrie Melody color cartoon, Cross Country Detour, which has been receiving special mention from press and public and is now at Shea's Hippodrome, is of special interest to Buffalo.
The script for the film was written by Rich Hogan, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Martin Hogan of 181 Sterling Avenue. Rich has been with the Leon Schlesinger Studios in Hollywood as cartoonist and writer for four years. He has written many scripts for cartoons but Cross Country Detour is the first to receive nationwide acclaim.
In Buffalo, Rich attended St. Margaret's School and was graduated from St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute. He then went to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to study cartoon drawing before joining the Schlesinger staff in Hollywood.

His first credit on a Warners cartoon is in Frank Tashlin’s “The Major Lied Till Dawn,” released in August 1938 and his last is on Chuck Jones’ “The Brave Little Bat,” released in September 1941. At the time, Hogan was renting a room at the large home of Disney artist David Swift’s parents along with Bob Givens (who drew the first Bugs Bunny model sheet), John Freeman (also at Disney) and Rogers Brackett, at the time a clerk at a movie studio and who was later known for his personal connection to James Dean.

Daily Variety reported on June 24, 1942 that Hogan had joined the MGM cartoon staff, buying out his contract with Leon Schlesinger for $1000 with a year left to go. The trade paper says Hogan’s first assignment was on Avery’s “Blitz Wolf.” But things don’t quite add up. Avery had arrived at MGM the previous September and Variety reported on January 16, 1942 he was assigned to work on that cartoon. “Blitz Wolf” wouldn’t have sat there for six months without a writer. Animation historian Keith Scott speculates Hogan did it on a freelance basis. “Blitz Wolf” was released August 22, 1942. Four days later, Hogan enlisted. His name appears on several other shorts but then there is a period when there are no writer credits until Heck Allen’s name on “Screwball Squirrel,” put into production next after “Batty Baseball.” Animator Berny Wolf told historian Mike Barrier that Allen replaced Hogan, so it’s possible “Batty Baseball” was Hogan’s last cartoon before his military service. The Animator, the Cartoonists Union newsletter, reported in its Sept. 7, 1942 iaaue that Hogan was now at Fort McArthur in San Pedro.

Hogan re-appears as a storyman after the war. Weekly Variety reported on June 12, 1946 he had returned to Metro after 42 months in the Army. In the meantime, he had gotten married in New Orleans the previous March. His first cartoon credit shows up on “Lucky Ducky” (released October 1948) though, once again, there are a couple of Avery cartoons released after Hogan returned with no story credit. His name appears later on such great cartoons as “Bad Luck Blackie,” “Little Rural Riding Hood” and “Magical Maestro.” Hogan’s animation career ended when Avery left MGM for health reasons in May 1950. Dick Lundy took over Avery’s unit but Hogan didn’t stay. He settled in Sherman Oaks and got into the real estate and development business with Coldwell Banker. Later, he and his wife Marge had a home in Studio City and the two were part of the San Fernando Valley’s social set through the 1960s. The pair had four children, including a set of twins. Tragedy clouded the twins’ seventh birthday party—Hogan spotted a six-year-old neighbour girl face down in the pool. She was pronounced dead in hospital.

Post-cartoon career newspaper stories refer to him as “Dick” Hogan. Warners animator Phil Monroe did the same in an interview with historian Mike Barrier. In the late ‘30s, there was a contract player at RKO named Dick Hogan. That may be why Hogan went with “Rich” in his on-screen credit.

Hogan seems to have disappeared in the ‘70s—he was divorced in 1977—and he died in Los Angeles on January 28, 1981 at age 67.

Flip the Wolf

What’s the difference between Tex Avery at Warner Bros. and Tex Avery at MGM? Well, in his first cartoon for Metro, “Blitz Wolf,” he has his animators pull off stuff that I don’t recall seeing his Warners crew try, even though he had adept people like Bob McKimson, Virgil Ross and Rod Scribner.

There’s a nice-looking scene where Adolf Wolf (voice by Bill Thompson) does a reverse 270-degree turn in mid-air.

It starts with some standard ‘40s cartoon stuff—a pop culture reference (the Myrt line from radio’s “Fibber McGee and Molly”) and a hotfoot. Adolf hangs up the phone. He’s smug. There’s a nine-drawing hold on the wolf while the fire burns.



The wolf realises something (I’ve skipped posting two anticipatory blink drawings). Then a surprise look to the camera. Nice rubbery animation. These are on ones.










Adolf sees the fire.



Up he goes. Here are a few of the drawings to give you an idea. Notice the hands in perspective at the camera.







Avery’s timing couldn’t be better. The force of gravity slows down the wolf as he goes higher; the background drawing moves vertically at shorter increments. When the wolf reaches the apex, the background is only held for two frames but parts of the wolf are still moving.

Down he comes.









Ray Abrams did the flip part, according to an animator draft in the Mark Kausler collection. Irv Spence, Preston Blair and Ed Love also get screen credits. A fine crew.