Tex Avery’s unnamed cat realises he’s swallowed a bowling ball in “The Counterfeit Cat” (released December 24, 1949). The credited animators...

It isn’t easy for a director to appear in his own cartoons, unless there’s some live action footage. But Friz Freleng showed up in a few sho...

Kenny Baker was supposed to appear on the final Jack Benny Show of the season on June 25, 1939. He never made it. His name was mentioned bu...

The permanent arrival of sound in the motion picture world was a big boon for animated cartoons. Walt Disney figured out how to use sound to...

Since the title of the cartoon is “Who Killed Who?”, someone has to die. And The Victim (as the flashing lights on his armchair conveniently...

The title animation says “Henery Hawk in…” but he’s not the star of “Crowing Pains” (released in 1947). That honour goes to the evolving ver...

Many of the top stars of radio made the jump to television, so it seems a little odd that TV’s first big star—“Mr. Television,” they called ...

Olive Oyl can’t call the fire department where flames roar through her house in “Two-Alarm Fire” (1934) so she gets some help. A little fla...

Yosemite Sam tries to draw a gun in “Hare Trigger” (released 1945) but is thwarted by his own lack of skill. He may be thwarted a bit by the...

The life story of Jack Benny was told many times over the years in magazine and newspaper articles and later in at least four books. When th...