Friz Freleng

 

Friz Freleng is probably the most famous name featured here; being a Looney Tunes director and co-founder of Depatie-Freleng Productions. He had a major role in the creation of many a famous character, including Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Pink Panther and Speedy Gonzales. He also hailed from Kansas City.

Friz, whose real name is Isadore, was born in Kansas City, Missouri on August 21st, 1905. Friz attended Westport High School, where he drew cartoons for The Weekly Crier (the school newspaper) from 1919 to 1923. While still in school, Freleng applied to be an office boy at the United Film Ad Service (previously called the Kansas City Slide Company), where Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks also worked. While working at United Film Ad Services, Freleng would get his nickname of "Friz", after a fictional congressman in a column in The Los Angeles Examiner that he resembled. In 1927, Freleng would go west to California to work at Walt Disney's new studio, working on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons. In 1929, Freleng decided to go with Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising to work at their new studio, and helped with the development of their character Bosko. While waiting for the Bosko series to be picked up, Freleng moved to New York to work at Charles Mintz's New York studio (Mintz technically had a studio in California, he had taken over production of the Oswald cartoons from Disney in 1928 and founded another studio with most of Walt's animators, including Freleng) on Krazy Kat to earn money for his family back home. Freleng did not think very highly of the Mintz studio and its methods. He worked on a few cartoons at the studio, such as Farm Relief, released in December 1929. When the Bosko series was picked up by Leon Schlesinger Productions (which later became the animation department at Warner Bros.), Freleng left Mintz and New York to return to California.

Freleng would work on the first Looney Tunes starting in 1930, and they were fairly successful, but after Harman and Ising were fired in 1933, Schlesinger got Freleng to come to his studio as a director. For the next couple years, Freleng worked and directed Buddy cartoons. Buddy was, for the most part, a white version of Bosko, who was still owned by Harman and Ising. Buddy's cartoons were not received well, so in 1935, Freleng was asked to think of a new character. Freleng would create Porky Pig, who debuted in 1935's I Haven't Got a Hat. Porky would be the first true star at the studio, and numerous cartoons would star the character. Despite the success of Porky's cartoons, Freleng would leave Schlesinger in 1937 to work at MGM, strangely enough replacing Harman and Ising again. Freleng did not like working at MGM, despite being paid more than at Schlesinger . He was put in charge of an adaptation of "The Captain and the Kids", which he said wouldn't be successful. He was right, and the series was canned after only 15 cartoons. Freleng would return to Schlesinger in 1939, and would continue to work there until the studio shut down in 1963 (By then, Schlesinger had sold the studio to Warner Bros.) This 24 year run would result in some of the funniest and most beloved cartoons in history, and numerous characters that remain popular to this day. He would develop Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck with cartoons like Yankee Doodle Daffy and Rhapsody Rabbit, create new ones like Yosemite Sam (who was partially based on Freleng himself, also being a short, short-tempered redhead), Sylvester, teaming him up with Clampett's character Tweety, and redesigned Speedy Gonzales and Tweety to their more famous designs. He also directed some of the Private Snafu cartoons, which were shown to Army soldiers in World War II to teach them about avoiding being tricked by the enemy or avoiding disease. Some of the cartoons directed by Freleng, like 1957's Birds Anonymous, even won Oscars.

In 1963, Warner Bros. decided to close their animation studio. Freleng would team up with Warner Bros. executive David DePatie to form DePatie-Freleng. The studio would design the opening titles for the movie The Pink Panther, released later that year. The titles featured a new character named the Pink Panther. The movie was not about him, revolving around a bumbling detective trying to capture a jewel thief who's trying to steal a jewel called the Pink Panther. The film was so successful, that a cartoon series based on the titles was created, also produced by DePatie-Freleng. The Pink Panther cartoons would last until 1978, before moving to television until 1980. Other series created for theaters by the studio included The Ant & The Aardvark, The Inspector (based on the main character of the Pink Panther movies), Tijuana Toads, and Crazylegs Crane. DePatie-Freleng would also create various cartoons for television, like Super 6 and Super President. After creating a few adaptations of Marvel series, the studio was sold to Marvel in 1981. MGM maintains the rights to the various theatrical cartoons produced through United Artists. Freleng would remain in the industry until 1986, when he retired. Friz Freleng would pass away on May 26th, 1995 at the age of 88.

Sources

DeAngelo, Dory. “Friz Freleng.” The Pendergast Years, 1 Mar. 2018, https://pendergastkc.org/article/biography/friz-freleng.

Baxter, Devon. “Complimentary Mintz: Krazy Kat and Toby the Pup: 1929-31.” Complimentary Mintz: Krazy Kat and Toby the Pup: 1929-31 |, 12 Apr. 2017, https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/complimentary-mintz-krazy-kat-and-toby-the-pup-1929-31/.

Hartt, Reg. “Friz Freleng at Reg Hartt's Cineforum, Toronto, Canada, 1980.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbZwISKdfnQ. Accessed 23 Nov. 2021. 

“Friz Freleng.” Lambiek.net, https://www.lambiek.net/artists/f/freleng_friz.htm.

 

 

Rudolf Ising

 Rudolf Ising's career was almost entirely intertwined with Hugh Harman's. The two both worked in Kansas City for Walt Disney, stayed behind at first before joining Walt in California, worked for Warner Bros. before being fired, and for MGM before being fired again, and then rehired. In fact, the two worked together much longer than they worked apart. They were even born in the same month of the same year. However, Ising's career wasn't all also just Harman's career, Ising had a few accomplishments of his own. As I've already made a post about Hugh Harman and many of the things he did Ising did too, things that happened to both of them will be kept brief; a more in-depth analysis can be read here.

Rudolf Ising was born in Kansas City, Missouri on August 7th, 1903, the same month as Hugh Harman. In 1922, Ising saw a newspaper ad for an animator in Kansas City from Laugh-A-Gram. Ising answered the ad, and there he met Hugh Harman. Laugh-A-Gram would go bankrupt in 1923, and while much of the former staff went west to work at Disney's new studio in California, Harman and Ising stayed behind to form their own studio. This did not last, and Ising and Harman went west too in 1925 to work for Disney on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons. When Charles Mintz, who distributed the Oswald cartoons took control of Oswald in 1928, Ising and Harman would go to work for his studio on the new Oswald cartoons, before being removed themselves in 1929. Harman and Ising would form their own studio, Harman-Ising Productions, in 1929 with the character Bosko. Bosko was a caricature of a black boy, which while would be highly offensive today, was considered appropriate at the time. Harman and Ising made a test film, "Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid", with Ising himself starring in the cartoon as the animator interacting with the cartoon Bosko. The film was shown to Leon Schlesinger, who had a deal with Warner Bros. Schlesinger liked the cartoon, and signed Harman-Ising to make Bosko cartoons for Warner Bros in January of 1930. The series, titled Looney Tunes, would be wildly successful, and a sister series would start in 1931 titled Merrie Melodies. With two series, Harman would be assigned to direct the Looney Tunes, and Ising would be assigned to work on the Merrie Melodies. The first Merrie Melody, Lady, Play Your Mandolin would feature the new character Foxy. After a dispute with Schlesinger over financial disputes, Schlesinger cut ties with Harman-Ising in May and formed his own studio, while Harman and Ising kept the rights to Bosko. After a very short stint with Van Buren, Harman-Ising would sign a deal with MGM to distribute their cartoons there.

 

Starting in 1934, Harman and Ising made cartoons for MGM. These were color cartoons, which
Schlesinger wouldn't do for financial reasons. This ended up backfiring, as their series, Happy Harmonies, would regularly go over budget, and following a dispute about a distribution contract, MGM would fire them in 1937, replacing them with their own animation division. Ironically, MGM would rehire Harman and Ising in 1938 after all of the people they replaced them with didn't work out. Apparently, following them being rehired, Harman-Ising went bankrupt. Harman and Ising seemingly didn't work together as much in this period, but both created some fairly popular cartoons. Ising created his own character, Barney Bear. Barney Bear was said to be partially based on Ising himself. Ising also produced the first ever Tom & Jerry cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot. Ising actually got much of the credit for Puss, despite William Hanna and Joseph Barbera really making the cartoon. Nevertheless, the cartoon was wildly successful, more successful than any cartoon MGM made prior. Ising would not return for other Tom & Jerry cartoons, as Hanna and Barbera got their own unit at MGM. Ising would direct the cartoon The Milky Way in 1940 however, which would be nominated for an Oscar. Ising would leave MGM the year after however to join the war effort, making films as part of the 18th Air Force Base Unit (First Motion Picture Unit). Harman also left MGM the same year to form his own studio. 

After the war, Ising would join Harman at his own studio, which would reform as Harman-Ising Pictures in 1946. Ising would presumably work on Harman's King Arthur project, which never came to be, and Harman-Ising would mostly create education films before Harman retired in the late 50's. Ising would continue working in the industry however, working on the bridging sequences on MGM's Tom & Jerry TV package before retiring in the 1970s. He would die on July 18th, 1992 at the age of 88.

 

Sources

Reed, Josh. “Biography: Rudy Ising.” AnimationResources.org - Serving the Online Animation Community, 11 Jan. 2012, https://animationresources.org/biography-rudy-ising/

“Rudy Ising.” Rarebit Early Animation Wiki, http://rarebit.org/?people=rudy-ising.

Yowp, Don. “Booting a Puss and an Animation Career into High Gear.” Tralfaz, 3 Nov. 2018, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2018/11/booting-puss-and-animation-career-into.html. 

Yowp, Don. “MGM Odds and Ends, Part 1.” Tralfaz, 9 Oct. 2021, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2021/10/mgm-odds-and-ends-part-1.html. 

Hugh Harman

 

Hugh Harman might not have created many recognizable characters (his biggest character is probably Bosko, who isn't exactly a household name), but along with his partner Rudolf Ising, he had a major role with almost all of the major studios of the era, including being one of the first employees for Disney and co-founding with Ising what would become the animation department at both Warner Bros. and MGM.

Hugh Harman was not from Kansas or Missouri, instead hailing from Pagosa Springs, Colorado. He was born on August 31st, 1903. Harman and his brother Fred moved to Kansas City at an unknown time, with Fred working at the Kansas City Slide Company with Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. When Walt and Iwerks left to found Laugh-A-Gram in 1922, Fred went with the duo, and Hugh, who was also an artist, was hired. At Laugh-A-Gram presumably, Hugh met Rudolf Ising, who would work with Ising for most of the rest of his career. When Laugh-A-Gram went bankrupt, Disney, Iwerks, and most of the staff went to California, but Harman and Ising stayed behind to start their own studio. Evidently this did not last long, and they too went west to work for Disney. Evidently, Harman and Ising did not think very highly of Walt Disney, as they would later call him abrasive, and would lead the employees choosing to work for Mintz in 1928. In California, Harman worked on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons for Disney, which were fairly successful. In 1928, Charles Mintz, head of the company that distributed the Oswald cartoons, send his brother-in-law to set up deals with employees of Disney's studio that would allow Mintz to take over production of the Oswald cartoons if Walt did not take a pay cut. Evidently, Harman was one of the employees who signed on, and when Mintz took control of Oswald from Disney, him, Ising and most of the staff left Disney to work for Mintz on new Oswald cartoons. Harman and Ising would produce Oswald cartoons for another year, before they too were removed in 1929. From there, Harman, Ising decided to form their own studio.

Harman and Ising formed their own studio, Harman-Ising Productions, in 1929, and they already had a
character in mind: Bosko. Bosko was a caricature of a black boy, which while would be highly offensive today, was considered appropriate at the time. In fact, Bosko was given the unfortunate subtitle of  "the Talk-Ink Kid". Some publications would refer to Bosko as being a dog, especially when he appears in the modern era, but the original copyright listing for Bosko would refer to him as a "comic character of a negro boy in various poses". Racism aside, the test film, also called "Bosko, the Talk-Ink Kid" was shown to Leon Schlesinger, who had a deal with Warner Bros. Schlesinger liked the cartoon, and signed Harman-Ising to make Bosko cartoons for Warner Bros in January of 1930. The new series would be called Looney Tunes, and besides being fun cartoons to show before movies, they would also contractually have to feature a Warner Bros. song in every cartoon, giving exposure to Warner's music library. The first Bosko cartoon, and in turn the first Looney Tune, Sinking in the Bathtub, would be released in April 1930. The cartoon was wildly successful the world over, and a sister series, Merrie Melodies, would start in 1931. With two series, Harman would be assigned to direct the Looney Tunes, and Ising would be assigned to work on the Merrie Melodies. Things would go well until 1933, when after a dispute with Schlesinger over financial disputes, Schlesinger cut ties with Harman-Ising in May and formed his own studio, while Harman and Ising kept the rights to Bosko. After a very short stint with Van Buren, Harman-Ising would sign a deal with MGM to distribute their cartoons there.

Starting in 1934, Harman and Ising made cartoons for MGM. What's more, these were color-cartoons, a new thing at the time. The new cartoons, titled Happy Harmonies (a name very similar to Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, which Harman and Ising worked on prior) were fairly successful, with one cartoon, 1935's The Calico Dragon being nominated for an Oscar. They even brought back Bosko, later redesigning him to be a more obvious racist caricature. The Happy Harmonies cartoons however would regularly run over budget however, and following a dispute about a distribution contract, MGM would fire them in 1937, replacing them with their own animation division. However, the directors they chose to replace Harman & Ising (with the exception of Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera) didn't work out, and ironically, Harman & Ising were hired back in 1938. Apparently, following them being rehired, Harman-Ising went bankrupt. Harman and Ising seemingly didn't work together as much in this period, but both created some fairly popular cartoons. Harman created what is probably his most well-known cartoon (besides Bosko), the anti-war cartoon Peace on Earth. Peace on Earth, released in 1939, would not only be nominated for an Oscar, but even a Nobel Peace Prize, somehow. In 1941, Harman would leave MGM the same year to form his own studio, this time without Ising, who stayed at MGM.

Hugh Harman Productions did not accomplish much, mostly making shorts for the U.S. military, (a bit ironic after just making Peace on Earth), but Harman had big plans for the studio that never materialized. For nearly two decades, Harman was planning on making an adaptation of the stories of King Arthur using stop-motion. In fact, Harman was working on it for so long, he was still working on it when he and Ising rejoined in 1946 to form Harman-Ising Pictures (not to be confused with Harman-Ising Productions.) Harman talked about the project in various trade magazines from 1941 to 1959, going as far as to announce more adaptations such as an adaptation of The Little Prince, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves and Joy to the World, sign a deal with Toei in Japan (best known now for their animation division and for the Super Sentai series) to assist with production, and sign distribution deals with both United Artists and then Warner Bros, but none of the films ended up ever coming out, and little information about it appears to exist. Harman-Ising also planned to make cartoons for television before Hanna-Barbera, but this took never happened. Hugh Harman would retire sometime in the 50's, and would do interviews and talk about his cartoons for the rest of his life before dying on November 25th, 1982 at the age of 79.

Sources

“Hugh Harman.” Rarebit Early Animation Wiki, http://rarebit.org/?people=harman-and-ising.

“Hugh Harman.” Kansas City Comics, http://www.kansascitycomics.com/?page_id=1569.

Barrier, Michael. “Interviews: Hugh Harman.” MichaelBarrier.com, 10 Jan. 2006, http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Interviews/Harman/interview_hugh_harman.htm.

“Hugh Harman, 79, Dies, Pioneer of Animated Film.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 27 Nov. 1982. 

Yowp, Don. “Half Man, Half Dog?” Tralfaz, 17 Sept. 2016, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2016/09/half-man-half-dog.html. 

Yowp, Don. “Farewell, Hugh and Rudy.” Tralfaz, 2 Mar. 2013, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2013/03/farewell-hugh-and-rudy.html.

Library of Congress. Catalogue of Copyright Entries - Part 4. Vol. 23, 1928. 

Yowp, Don. “MGM Odds and Ends, Part 1.” Tralfaz, 9 Oct. 2021, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2021/10/mgm-odds-and-ends-part-1.html.

Yowp, Don. “A Model King.” Tralfaz, 4 Mar. 2017, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2017/03/a-model-king.html.

 

 

 

Ben "Bugs" Hardaway

 

Many people have claimed to be or have been claimed to be the creator of Bugs Bunny. Out of all of them, Ben Hardaway is perhaps one of the more likely claims to that title. Ben Hardaway had an accomplished life, working closely with a future President, and creating both Woody Woodpecker and a major precursor to Bugs Bunny.

Joseph Benson Hardaway was born on May 21th, 1895 in Belton, Missouri, a town 4 miles east of the Missouri-Kansas border. He first started not in cartooning, but as a draftsman for Pehl Metal Products Co. in Kansas City in 1913. From 1915 to 1918 he would for the most part work as a cartoonist for the Kansas City Post. In 1917, he would enlist into World War I, eventually rising up to the rank of Sergeant Major of the 129th Field Artillery, 35th Division. While serving in Europe, Hardaway served under none other than Captain Harry S. Truman. Hardaway, and the other members of the unit would get along well with Truman and remained loyal to him. He also was exposed to the chemical weapons used during the war.

After the war, he returned to working for the Kansas City Post, before leaving for the United Film Ad Service from 1923 to at least 1926. He then left for Milwaukee, working at apparently another United
Film Ad Service, before leaving once again to go to Los Angeles to work at Disney and later Iwerks as a writer starting in 1932. In 1933, Hardaway would leave to work at Leon Schlesinger Productions. Hardway would rise to become a director alongside Jack King and fellow Kansas Citian Friz Freleng very quickly, directing Buddy cartoons from 1934 to 1935. Eventually, new directors would take over, and Hardaway would return to writing for cartoons at the studio, but once again rose to become a director in 1938 after Freleng left for MGM the previous year. His first cartoon as director again was Porky's Hare Hunt. This cartoon, while almost identical to Porky's Duck Hunt, featured a new character, who would retroactively be named Happy Rabbit. This unnamed rabbit would appear in merchandising and early model sheets as "Bugs" Bunny, referring to Hardaways nickname of Bugs. This rabbit would appear in a few other cartoons before being reinvented by Tex Avery in 1940's A Wild Hare. Freleng would eventually return to Warner in 1940, but instead of returning to being a director, Hardaway would leave Warner Bros. for Walter Lantz's studio.

His first cartoon at Walter Lantz would be 1940's Recruiting Daze. His next cartoon however would be much bigger, Knock Knock. This cartoon was an Andy Panda cartoon, the studio's previous star, but a new character created by Hardaway would end up stealing the show: the character, very similar to the rabbit character he already made at Warner Bros.,  was named Woody Woodpecker. Woody would eventually eclipse Andy Panda in terms of popularity, and Hardaway would write many of Woody's cartoons. Hardway would even voice Woody for a few years starting in 1944. Lantz would close his studio in December 1948, and Hardaway would quickly go back to Warner Bros., writing one cartoon for Friz Freleng, A Bone For A Bone before seemingly leaving.

Hardaway did not rejoin Lantz when the studio reopened in the 50s. In fact, it's not well known what he did in the 50s. He appears to have been involved in some way with "Pow-Wow the Indian Boy", an early TV cartoon, albeit not for very long, as he died only a month after it was announced the series would be syndicated. Ben Hardaway would die on February 5th, 1957, likely due to chemical weapon exposure from World War I. On a lighter note, Truman and Hardaway remained friends. Even as he rose up the ranks himself, Truman still took time to meet with his former soldiers when he was in Los Angles, including Hardaway.

Sources

Yowp, Don. “The Non-Animated Bugs.” Tralfaz, 2 Feb. 2019, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-non-animated-bugs.html. 

“Ben ‘Bugs’ Hardaway.” Rarebit Early Animation Wiki, http://rarebit.org/?people=ben-bugs-hardaway.

Klein, Tom. “Bugs Hardaway of Battery D.” Cartoon Research, 19 Mar. 2016, https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/bugs-hardaway-of-battery-d/.

Yowp, Don. “Guess Who?” Tralfaz, 25 Nov. 2020, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2020/11/guess-who.html.

 

 

Carl Stalling

 

Carl Stalling was a composer for films. While not an animator or a cartoonist, Carl Stalling is best known for his work composing for cartoons, working for both Disney and Warner Bros.

Carl Stalling was born on November 10th, 1891 in Lexington, Missouri, not too far from Kansas City. Stalling's parents were from Germany, and his father was a carpenter. As a young boy, his father repaired a toy piano, which young Carl began to play. He began taking piano lessons at six, eventually taking classes from Carrie Loomis for six years, who appears to be an esteemed teacher in the area. Even at a young age, Stalling became a very skilled pianist, with one reporter from Lexington remarking that despite him "only being 15 years old, (...) he played entirely from memory a program of the most difficult music". He eventually became a teacher himself, having pupils of his own by 1914.

Carl wasn't just interested in music however, after seeing The Great Train Robbery as a 12 year old (Stalling claimed it was when he was 5, however the movie did not come out until 1903), he became
fascinated by movies. Stalling would start working at local theaters in most likely 1918, working for  the ISIS Theater. Before the advent of sound, a musician would play music and scores to accompany the films. He would do this throughout the 20's, with Walt Disney, who was in the area at the time, noticing his work. The two became friends, and when Walt returned to Kansas City in 1928 looking for new talent, he recruited Stalling to work for him in California. Stalling would first score two already produced Mickey Mouse cartoons to have sound, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho, following the monumental success of Steamboat Willie. Stalling would score 19 more shorts for the studio, including The Skeleton Dance, an idea he came up with. The Skeleton Dance would be the first cartoon in the Silly Symphonies series, which would be Disney's second most successful series behind Mickey Mouse. He also invented the "tick system", a way to score cartoons. The system worked like a metronome, where the beat would allow the orchestra "to synchronize the music more precisely to the action." This later evolved into the click track, which is still used today. Stalling would leave Disney in 1930 to go to New York to work at Van Buren, which while paid better didn't, in Stalling's words, "have anything for me to do". He would return to California shortly after to work at Iwerks' new studio Animated Pictures Corporation, while still bouncing over to Disney from time to time, working on cartoons like Three Little Pigs. In 1936, after the closure of Iwerks' studio, Stalling would leave to go to where he is perhaps known the most for, Warner Bros.

At the recommendation of Ben "Bugs" Hardaway (who can also be seen on this blog), Stalling was hired by Leon Schlesinger to work at his studio, which was making cartoons for Warner Bros. (Warner Bros. would eventually take over Schlesinger's studio.) At first, Warner Bros. cartoons were mostly promotions for the music Warner Bros. published. In fact, the names Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies come from this original purpose. The contracts Schlesinger signed with Warner meant that every single cartoon had to include Warner Bros. music. While heavily annoying the Schlesinger directors, this would help develop Stalling's signature style at the studio. Eventually, Warner Bros. would relax these rules, allowing the directors to focus on making good cartoons, but Stalling would continue to use Warner music to comedic effect, usually when certain objects were on screen or certain events were happening. For example, when characters would get drunk, Stalling would add "The Near Future" by Irving Berlin. This style was praised by some, but annoyed others, like famed Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones, who sometimes didn't like how Stalling would find obscure pieces of music to attach to scenes, even if they were only vaguely connected. To quote Jones, "I had a bee one time, and my God, if he didn't go and find a piece of music written in 1906 or something called "I'm a Busy Little Bumble Bee"." Stalling would retire from Warner Bros. in 1958, and would die on November 29th, 1972 at the age of 81.

Sources

Paulson, Linda Dailey. “Carl Stalling Biography.” Musician Guide, https://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608004257/Carl-Stalling.html.

“Music Recital.” The Lexington Intelligencer, 31 Dec. 1904. 

“Carl Stalling Gives Recital.” The Lexington Intelligencer, 1 Jun. 1907.  

“Conservatory Pupils in Recital.” The Kansas City Star, 10 Apr. 1914.

Print ad for ISIS Theater. The Kansas City Star, 5 Oct. 1918, p. 6. 

Goldmark, Daniel. “Stalling and Popular Music at Warner Bros.” Tunes for 'Toons: Music and the Hollywood Cartoon, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 2007, pp. 10–44. 

Jones, Chuck, and Maureen Furniss. Chuck Jones: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi, 2005.

 

 

Ub Iwerks

Ub Iwerks (right) with Walt Disney

Ub Iwerks was an animator, inventor and special effects technician who famously worked closely with Walt Disney, and designed Mickey Mouse. He and Disney had a falling out, only to make up again later.

Ubbe Iwwerks was born on March 24th, 1901 in Kansas City, Missouri. He first worked at the Union Bank Note Co. in 1914 while attending Northeast High School. After a brief stint at a farm in Arkansas in 1918, Iwwerks returned to Kansas City to work at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio in 1919. There he met Walt Disney, who was also working there. The two got along well, and their talents meshed together great. In fact, it was Iwwerks who chose the name Walt Disney (Walt's real name was Walter.). Walt and Ubbe were laid off after the holidays in 1920, the two decided to found a business of their own, the Iwerks-Disney Studio Commercial Artists (Disney-Iwerks "sounded too much like an eyeglass manufacture" according to D23). However, after only a month, they closed the company to work at the Kansas City Slide Company. There Walt and Ubbe found out about cels. Walt and Ubbe left to found their own company again, Laugh-O-gram Films, in 1922. Some other names from this blog, including Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising came along too, and the building is currently being restored. While lasting longer than Iwerks-Disney, the studio folded in 1922, and Walt decided to go west to California, with Iwwerks following suit.

Upon reaching Hollywood, Walt convinced Ubbe to shorten his name too, to just Ub Iwerks. In California, Walt founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio with his brother Roy, and Iwerks joined Walt once again. Walt signed a deal with Margret Winkler of M.J. Winkler Productions to distribute his Alice Comedies, and Iwerks would produce the cartoons. After making Alice cartoons for a good few years, Walt and Iwerks decided to create their own character (Alice being heavily inspired by Alice in Wonderland). In 1927, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, designed by Iwerks, was created for their new series, to be distributed by M.J. Winkler again, now under the control of Winkler's husband Charles Mintz. The series was fairly successful, but in 1928, the Disney studio would lose the rights to Oswald. After the initial run of Oswald cartoons, Walt met with Mintz to discuss the renewal of the series. Walt expected a pay increase to cover costs and because of the popularity of the series, but Mintz actually wanted him to take a pay cut. What Walt didn't know was that Mintz had sent his brother-in-law to Disney's studio to sign deals with the employees so Mintz could take over the series if Walt refused. Walt did not take a paycut, and left without the rights to Oswald, the cartoons he already made, or a distribution deal with Winkler. Additionally, most of his staff left to work on the new Oswald cartoons. Iwerks did not leave however, and he and Walt worked to create a new character to rival Oswald.

Disney, Iwerks and

Les Clark (who would become one of Walt's Nine Old Men) got to work on a new character, a mouse character very similar to Oswald in design. Ub would

once again design the character, and Mickey Mouse was created. The first Mickey Mouse cartoon produced, Plane Crazy was originally silent and was produced in the summer of 1928. Iwerks himself animated a large amount of the cartoon in only three weeks, over 700 drawings per day. The third produced Mickey cartoon (but the first released) would be the most important however: Steamboat Willie. This cartoon was one of, if not the first, to feature synchronized sound. Ub also animated a majority of the cartoon, receiving an on-screen credit for doing so. Following the monumental success of Steamboat Willie, the previous two Mickey cartoons were also given sound and released. Iwerks would continue working on the Mickey cartoons, as well as the other series of cartoons created by Disney, Silly Symphonies. However, Iwerks would leave the company in 1930 to create his own studio. This, along with who he was working with, would cause Walt and Ub to have a falling out.

Flip the Frog's original design.

In 1930, Iwerks left Disney after hearing of an opportunity to found his own studio. This studio would
be through Pat Powers, who had already been in a legal battle with Disney. Iwerks did not know Powers was behind this, and said to Roy Disney that if he had known, " he would never have gone into this.” Nevertheless, Walt was distraught by this. The shorts made by Iwerks' studio, Animated Pictures Corporation, would be distributed by MGM, who at that point didn't have any cartoons to offer. The first cartoon series to be made by Iwerks' studio, Flip the Frog, would be released later that year. Flip was relatively similar to Mickey, albeit more risque. (Characters would say "Damn." and the humor was a bit more akin to what was being made on the East Coast at Fleischer) He was not, however, as successful as Mickey. Reviewers complained that the cartoons were the "same old stuff" and that "while expertly produced and set to music, has the same line-up of stuff as every other cartoon (...) in the current season’s group."  Even after a redesign by Grim Natwick, audiences weren't flipping over Flip. In fact, none of the cartoons produced by Iwerks' studio were very successful, let alone more successful than Disney's cartoons. After financial backers pulled their funding, Animation Pictures Corporation closed in 1936. All of their cartoons have since fallen into the public domain, and can be found on numerous cheap home video releases, with Thunderbean Animation releasing a high quality Blu-Ray of the Flip the Frog cartoons very soon as of the time of this post.

After brief stints at other studios, Iwerks would return to Disney in 1940 and patch things up with Walt. Preferring to work with special effects at this point, Iwerks invented many different things for Disney, such as the multi-head optical printer, which improved upon the concept of combining live action footage with animation. This would be used in films like Song of the South, Melody Time, and Mary Poppins. It also allowed more complex visual effects, like creating the twins in The Parent Trap. He also developed the xerography process used at the studio, to limit the cost and time needed to take the animator's pencil drawings and put them onto animation cels, at the cost of the animation looking more scruffy. This would be used in a number of Disney films, in particular the ones released from 1961 to 1989. Iwerks would also be heavily involved with creating things for Disneyland after that opened, such as working on "it's a small world" and The Hall of Presidents. Besides Disney, he worked on films like The Birds. Iwerks would die on July 7th, 1971 at the age of 70, a little over four years after the death of Walt.

Sources

Mullen, Chris. “Ub Iwerks: Master of Animation and Technology.” The Walt Disney Family Museum, 23 Mar. 2017, https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/ub-iwerks-master-animation-and-technology.

“Ub Iwerks.” D23, The Walt Disney Company, 3 Apr. 2018, https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/ub-iwerks/.

Foust, Barry. “Biography: Ub Iwerks.” AnimationResources.org - Serving the Online Animation Community, 31 Oct. 2011, https://animationresources.org/biography-ub-iwerks/.

Burnes, Brian. “Iwerks Gave Mouse His Perky Character.” The Kansas City Star, 9 Mar. 1987, pp. 29–34. 

Yowp, Don. “He Wasn't Quite Mickey.” Tralfaz, 25 Jan. 2020, https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2020/01/he-wasnt-quite-mickey.html.

 

Mort Walker

 Mort Walker was a cartoonist, best known for creating Beetle Bailey and co-creating Hi and Lois. He had one of the longest careers in the business, publishing his first comic when he was 11, and continuing to make comics until his death at the age of 94.

Mort Walker was born on September 3rd, 1923 in El Dorado, Kansas. Walker was interested in comics from a young age, with his favorites being "Li'l Abner", "Blondie", and "Moon Mullins". His life wasn't very glamorous however; growing up, his family had no heat or plumbing, and the family never had much money. Despite his circumstances, Walker worked hard to accomplish his dream of being a successful cartoonist. When Walker was 11, he published his first comic in a Kansas City paper about produce attacking a cup of coffee, and by the time he was 14, his work could be seen in various children's magazines. In fact, his work was so profitable, he dropped out of school in the fifth grade. (He eventually returned after six months).  When he was 15, his first comic, "The Lime Juicers" was published in the Kansas City Journal, which despite its' success ended after the Kansas City Journal was cancelled. 

When Walker was 18, he became chief editorial designer at Hallmark Cards. Walker was able to make a huge change at Hallmark, convincing them to make comedic cards alongside the more traditional scenery cards. He even drew some of the cards himself. Walker went to the University of Missouri for Journalism in 1942, but in 1943 he was drafted, and was stationed as a private at a POW camp in Italy. There he was a supply officer, and investigated crimes at the camp. He also got to know Sergent Octavian Savou, who Walker described as "a big, burly guy. Always yelling at us. (...) But, he was
really sentimental. One day he left a poem at our bunks addressed to 'my boys'". Sayou would be an inspiration for Sgt. Snorkel in Beetle Bailey. He eventually returned and went to college, returning to the University of Missouri and later going to Washington University for Literature. His cartoons were published in the college, magazine Missouri Showme, and eventually became the editor and art director of Showme. He also worked on the Savitar, the yearbook and the humor magazine.

An early Beetle Bailey, when he was in college.

After graduating, Walker moved to New York City and began working as an editor on 1000 Jokes, ghostwriting for Bob Hope and Red Skelton. While there, he sold his cartoon Spider. Spider was a one
panel cartoon about a lazy university student, based on someone Walker knew from high school. The name "Spider" came from a story from college, where someone he knew drank so much that he had to
crawl home like a spider. The cartoon was published in the Saturday Evening Post, where it caught the attention of King Features Syndicate. King liked the strip, but wanted him to change the name of Spider. Walker first chose just Beetle, but then chose to add Bailey to the end, after Saturday Evening Post editor John Bailey. The rest of the cast from the Saturday Evening Post version was cut, and it went from one panel to a more standard multi-panel format. The last comic personally approved by William Randolph Hearst, Beetle Bailey was first published on September 4th, 1950 to middling popularity. Despite being syndicated by the mighty Hearst company, the strip only debuted in a dozen

Beetle Bailey gets drafted into the military

papers, and after six months that had only grown to 25. Few people had attended college at that time, and as such, nobody wanted to read about a kid in college. Additionally, Walker was growing tired of making college jokes. The Korean War was starting around this time, and the editor of the Philadelphia Bulletin suggested that Walker draft Beetle Bailey into the military. Walker did so in March of 1951, and immediately the strip became much more popular. Beetle Bailey has been at Camp Swampy ever since.

Riding high off the success of Beetle Bailey, Walker decided to create another strip. The Korean War was coming to an end, and Walker was worried people would lose interest in Beetle Bailey with it. He
also wanted more comics with a husband and wife who didn't always fight, so with future Hagar the Horrible creator Dik Browne created Hi & Lois, which debuted on October 18th, 1954. The strip would be just as successful, winning multiple awards over the years. Not as well known as either strip, despite running for 15 years, is Mrs. Fits' Flats. While Walker did not create the comic, he and his team wrote most of the gags for it. The strip would run from January 7th, 1957, before ending on October 28th, 1972. Even less successful was Sam's Strip. Sam's Strip had too many inside jokes for most people to find funny, and only lasted under 2 years. Other cartoons created by Walker include "Boner's Ark", "The Evermores", "Betty Boop and Felix", and "Gamin and Patches". Walker would continue making comics for decades to come, before dying from pneumonia complications on January 27th, 2018.

Besides making comics, Walker was also interested in preserving comics. He expanded the National Cartoonists' Society to what it is today, and wrote numerous books and essays about comics. After seeing Krazy Kat originals being used to plug leaks at King Features, he established the Museum of Cartoon Art in 1974. The museum hosted a large collection of comic originals, but had to move repeatedly, and closed in 2002 due to financial problems.

Sources

“Mort Walker.” Lambiek.net, https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/walker.htm

“Mort Walker.” Find a Grave, 2021, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/186914166/mort-walker

“Mort Info.” MortWalker.com, http://www.mortwalker.com/mwinfo.html. 

Sanders, Richard R. “A Kansas Citian Makes a Start As a Gag Cartoonist.” The Kansas City Star, 27 Feb. 1949, p. 75.

Schwan, Gary. “50 Years of 'Beetle Bailey'.” The Palm Beach Post, 3 Sept. 2000, pp. 121–123.