My childhood was filled with old and new TV shows, PBS Silent Movie revivals of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplain, late night movies from the 1930's, 40's and 50's, Classic Horror Movies, Saturday mornings with The Three Stooges and of course, Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons. The latter being my early introduction tocrazy adult humor, something that led me to some amazing "Ah ha!" moments later in life and even to this day.
My Parents, who were much older than I, by about 35 years and having lived through part of the depression and WWII, were from a COMPLETELY different era, to say the least. That being said, this era gap was also a blessing, because Mom and Dad introduced me to entertainers and entertainment that they loved from their past and also imparted historical fun facts along the way, which made things all the more interesting to me.
Hopefully you will enjoy this particular page, as I impart my own historical fun facts, and maybe you'll even find out some things you didn't already know. Down the Rabbit hole we go...
THE HUMOR.Looking back, I can still seemy parents glance at each other, with tongue in cheek chuckling out loud watching those old cartoons and at times, I'd be wondering to myself, what's the inside joke? For example, when the Gremlin in FALLING HARE apologizes for the plane having run out of gas. Bugs chimes in and just as he speaks, the camera pans to the right, revealing a wartime gas rationing sticker:"you know how it is with these "A" cards!Not only did I NOT know what an A-Card was, but more importantly, what the heck is a Gremlin? I found out about gremlins much later, ain't they cute?!?
Once I was old enough, and educated enough to be aware of the historic significance of their humor, I had a whole new respect and admiration for what those guys on Termite Terrace had been up to.
Not to mention, their contributions to our American Historical Record (Have you ever seen Dog Gone Modern?). They would probably laugh at my last statement, to them it was pretty evident that they were just having fun...
...AND SPEAKING OF FUN! Who's the real character here?
THE ART...As an Artist myself, I was drawn (no pun intended) to all of the Termite Terrace animators. Several years ago, I became a collector of Chuck Jones & Maurice Noble (Marvin Martian) Sericels, one of my favorites is shown here. This led me on a fascinating journey and I'm so lucky to have been able to meet and talk to Chuck Jones candidly at two very special events. Once at his Laguna Beach, California Gallery during a Christmas Party and there again at his 85th Birthday celebration. Both times, he was a Gentleman's Gentlemen who had the wittiest sense of humor you can imagine.
Storing the thousands of individually inked and painted cels used to produce animation became a problem for the studios once the images were photographed onto motion picture film. To solve this problem, studios would often wash off the inks and paints so that they could reuse the cels. Many cels were simply thrown away by the thousands. The rapid growth of television in the 1950's created an important new venue for animated productions, but television studios also washed and reused cels. The sad result is that virtually all of the production artwork from the 1920's to the 1960's is gone forever
"HOLLYWOOD" As a Classic Movie buff, I was clearly born in the wrong era.
Over the years, It's been a fun game for me to identify the real people from their animated counterparts in those old cartoons. And for the most part, I do pretty darn good. But there's so much more trivia and innuendo's embedded in those little gems, that one could literally spend a life time trying to extract them all. How I wish I had the time...
If you own theLooney Tunes Golden DVD Collection: Volume 4, 5 and 6 sets, you've no doubt seen the disclaimer above. As well as in the Daffy Duck and Foghorn LeghornLooney Tunes Super Stars Sets.
THE CENSORED ELEVEN: Are a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts thatwere withheld from syndication by United Artists (UA) in 1968 due to their depictions of black people that were deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences.Several more cartoons have been removed from circulation (but not added to the Censored Eleven list) such as those World War II era cartoons concerning the Germans and Japanese, seen inScrap Happy DaffyandTokio Jokio.
For the complete list of all Eleven, I highly recommend you check outThe CENSORED Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Guide.
In 1999 all Speedy Gonzales cartoons were banned because of their alleged stereotyping ofMexicans. Interestingly enough, when many Hispanics protested that they were not offended, and fondly remembered Speedy Gonzales cartoons as a representation of their youth and nation's individuality, these shorts were made available for broadcast again in 2002.
I was amazed but not surprised to learn that cartoons had no immunity to the Hays Code back inthe Golden Age of animation. I never really even thought about it, until I started doing research on the Censored Eleven. Jerry Beck's Blog:Cartoon Brew goes into more detail on the subject and has links to the January 17, 1939 Look Magazine article "Hollywood Censors it's Animated Cartoons",which is an interesting and historical read.
On the other hand...
The PRIVATE SNAFU cartoons Produced by Leon Schlesinger, were a military secret for armed forces only and were produced between 1943 & 1945. Deemed as American "Instructional" cartoons and geared toward the military, they were immune from the Hays Code restrictions.
The character Private Snafu (an acronym for "Situation Normal, All F'd Up") was created by director Frank Capra, chairman of U.S. Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit, and ironically, given the adult nature of these cartoons, most were written by: Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, Philip D. Eastman and Munro Leaf, all three were children's book authors and illustrators.
They featured simple language, racy illustrations, mild profanity and subtle moralizing. Private Snafu did everything wrong, so that his negative example taught lessons about secrecy, disease prevention and proper military protocols.
I really have to hand it to Director, Frank Tashlin's clever use of camera angles of Snafu's girlfriend, Sally Lou, shown here in scenes from the 1944 (and ironically titled)"Censored".
And...I think I'll just leave it at that!
My Parents, who were much older than I, by about 35 years and having lived through part of the depression and WWII, were from a COMPLETELY different era, to say the least. That being said, this era gap was also a blessing, because Mom and Dad introduced me to entertainers and entertainment that they loved from their past and also imparted historical fun facts along the way, which made things all the more interesting to me.
Hopefully you will enjoy this particular page, as I impart my own historical fun facts, and maybe you'll even find out some things you didn't already know. Down the Rabbit hole we go...
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| Falling Hare 1943 |
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| Home of the future in Dog Gone Modern |
Not to mention, their contributions to our American Historical Record (Have you ever seen Dog Gone Modern?). They would probably laugh at my last statement, to them it was pretty evident that they were just having fun...
...AND SPEAKING OF FUN! Who's the real character here?
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 Director Ken Harris |
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| Ken Harris as Dan Backslide! "The Dover Boys" 1942,one of my favorite cartoons ever. |
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| Pierce and Maltese in Wackiki Wabbit 1943 |
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| Tedd Pierce...Pretty cool voice Dude! |
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| Michael Maltese |
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| Could this be Bob McKimson in the 1935 "A Cartoonist's Nightmare"? |
Thanks to Steven Hartley's Blog: Likely Looney, Mostly Merrie(which, by the way is now my Bible for all things Looney Tunes)
He identifies the Gremlins from Russian Rhapsody,1944 as follows:
Henry Binder, seen trying to chew off parts of the plane as they caricatured him with bushy hair like Groucho Marx. Mike Sasanoff who was Robert Clampett's layout man at the time, is the gremlin with the blue hair. Friz Freleng is the little green gremlin with the torchlight and Bob Clampett is the naked gremlin with the funny hairdo (like Elvis) holding the hammer.
Can you say, Phallic Symbol?!? Maybe my mind is in the gutter, but looking at the blue gremlin on top... uh hum. Ted Pierce was once again the butt of a nose joke, and they put it to good use here, especially since he had the reputation of being a Party Animal/Womanizer. There's that Adult humor again...I get it now, I get it!!!
THE ART...As an Artist myself, I was drawn (no pun intended) to all of the Termite Terrace animators. Several years ago, I became a collector of Chuck Jones & Maurice Noble (Marvin Martian) Sericels, one of my favorites is shown here. This led me on a fascinating journey and I'm so lucky to have been able to meet and talk to Chuck Jones candidly at two very special events. Once at his Laguna Beach, California Gallery during a Christmas Party and there again at his 85th Birthday celebration. Both times, he was a Gentleman's Gentlemen who had the wittiest sense of humor you can imagine.
To me, this is Art at it's best and I covet it, as a curator would a fine painting from another century. How can you NOT help but be impressed by the time and effort it took to achieve such fine details.
And oh, by the way...
Storing the thousands of individually inked and painted cels used to produce animation became a problem for the studios once the images were photographed onto motion picture film. To solve this problem, studios would often wash off the inks and paints so that they could reuse the cels. Many cels were simply thrown away by the thousands. The rapid growth of television in the 1950's created an important new venue for animated productions, but television studios also washed and reused cels. The sad result is that virtually all of the production artwork from the 1920's to the 1960's is gone forever
"HOLLYWOOD" As a Classic Movie buff, I was clearly born in the wrong era. |
| Do you recognize these faces? They are: Boris Karloff, Athur Treacher, Buster Keaton, Mischa Auer and Ned Sparks |
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| And what about these Gentlemen? William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Ronald Colman, Errol Flynn Seated are: Wallace Beery and C. Aubrey Smith |
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| And what's dinner without a floor show?!? Thank you Sally Rand! |
I had to throw the Hollywood night spot references in here as well. Gotta love the neon's!
"CENSORED"
"The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time. They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in the U.S. society. These depictions were wrong then and they are wrong today. While the following does not represent the Warner Bros.view of today's society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming that these prejudices never existed."
THE CENSORED ELEVEN: Are a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts thatwere withheld from syndication by United Artists (UA) in 1968 due to their depictions of black people that were deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences.Several more cartoons have been removed from circulation (but not added to the Censored Eleven list) such as those World War II era cartoons concerning the Germans and Japanese, seen inScrap Happy DaffyandTokio Jokio. 
For the complete list of all Eleven, I highly recommend you check outThe CENSORED Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Guide.
Researching the Censored Eleven, I was astonished to learn how many other classic cartoons have been literally decimated by certain television networks due to their interpretations of violence and sexual connotations, among other things.
 What strikes me as really sad, is seeing these edited (and I say that loosely) TV versions of classic cartoons that are now so cut up, that the disconnected gags make no sense. I remember as a childthinking these scenes of drunken, disorderly cats from Kitty Kornered and The Last Hungry Cat were hilarious. I was laughing at their characters, not their actions - those I never gave a second thought to. I am Reminded of Chuck Jones (who was a Grandfather of 3) quote in TV GuidesDecember 24, 1983article "Bugs Bunny a Peaceful Rabbit?" where he laments: "They make some cuts that are so arbitrary and stupid,you can't believe it. I think that if they're bad for children, they should be taken off the screen completely. If they're not, they shouldn't let these heavy-handed idiots get hold of them and rape them."  To read "Bugs Bunny a Peaceful Rabbit?" in it's entirety, again, I recommend you visit:The CENSORED Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies Guide  This portrayal by PorkyPig as Cab Howlaway in "Porky at the Crocadero" is NOT one of the Eleven. I like to think that Cab Calloway was pretty flattered by it back in 1938. .jpg) |
TWO SIDES OF THE RACIST COIN
A SIDE NOTE:according to Jack Benny's posthumous autobiography, Sunday Nights at Seven, out of respect, the tone of racial humor surrounding Rochester declined as a conscious decision between Benny and the writing staff during World War II. There are other such story's where Jack Benny came to Eddie Anderson's racial defense, which only endures him to my heart even more.
Jack Benny and Eddie Anderson had an awesome chemistry, one of mutual respect and warmth for each other. As a huge fan of both men and their enormous talents,I'd be remiss in not addressing these two incidents of racism, with a twist at the end.
In July of 1941, with the clouds of a potential war looming above, Warner Brothers released the Porky Pig cartoon, Meet John Doughboy. Like so many other cartoons and movies at that time, it was aimed at building the morale of soldiers and civilians alike. When I first saw this cartoon, I was immediately saddened that Rochester was shown in "Black Face".
To me, that was very disrespectful to his character, but more importantly, what must this characterization have conveyed to our Black soldiers out there? I can't imagine this portrayal being a morale builder in any possible way, shape or form. I was also amazed to see thatBabes on Broadwaywhich was also released that year (to rave reviews) and had an ending with Mickey Rooney in a minstrel show wearing Black Face as well. Not having lived during that time, I just couldn't wrap my head around that, as being acceptable.
A SIDE NOTE:according to Jack Benny's posthumous autobiography, Sunday Nights at Seven, out of respect, the tone of racial humor surrounding Rochester declined as a conscious decision between Benny and the writing staff during World War II. There are other such story's where Jack Benny came to Eddie Anderson's racial defense, which only endures him to my heart even more.
Fast forward to 1959. The Mouse that Jack Built,due to it's authentic all star vocal cast: Jack Benny, Mary Livingston, Don Wilson, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and of course Mel Blanc as Jack's Maxwell, it'sa classic cartoon if there ever was one.
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| Bob McKimson, Mel Blanc, Jack Benny, Don Wilson, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Tedd Pierce at a recording session for "The Mouse that Jack Built 1959" |
Having seen this cartoon several times over the years and now owning a copy of the original version, you can imagine my horror when I saw an edited version of this classic cartoon on a television network (that shall remain nameless) which had eliminated all of Eddie Anderson's dialog. And if that wasn't enough of a slap in the face, he was only shown for a split second.
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| Jack Benny and Mary Livingston being Chauffeured by Eddie "Rochester"Anderson |
Pardon my twisted logic, but the fact that (in an effort, I assume to avoid racial overtones) these measures were taken, of basically eliminating a Black character, isn't that in itself just another form of racism? I'm so confused...
THE HAYS CODE
The PRIVATE SNAFU cartoons Produced by Leon Schlesinger, were a military secret for armed forces only and were produced between 1943 & 1945. Deemed as American "Instructional" cartoons and geared toward the military, they were immune from the Hays Code restrictions.
The character Private Snafu (an acronym for "Situation Normal, All F'd Up") was created by director Frank Capra, chairman of U.S. Army Air Force First Motion Picture Unit, and ironically, given the adult nature of these cartoons, most were written by: Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, Philip D. Eastman and Munro Leaf, all three were children's book authors and illustrators.They featured simple language, racy illustrations, mild profanity and subtle moralizing. Private Snafu did everything wrong, so that his negative example taught lessons about secrecy, disease prevention and proper military protocols.
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And...I think I'll just leave it at that!
