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Merrie Melodies
''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, as well as other made productions beginning in 1972. As with its sister series, ''Looney Tunes'', it featured cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Elmer Fudd. Between 1934 and 1943, the ''Merrie Melodies'' series were distinguished from the black-and-white, Buddy (Looney Tunes), Buddy or Porky Pig–starring ''Looney Tunes'' shorts by an emphasis on one-shot stories in color featuring Warner Bros.–owned musical selections. After Bugs Bunny became the breakout recurring star of ''Merrie Melodies'', and ''Looney Tunes'' went to color in the early 1940s, the two series gradually lost their distinctions and shorts were assigned to each series more randomly. ''Merrie Melodies'' was originally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His most significant work was for the Warner Bros. Cartoons, Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, where he was crucial in the creation and evolution of famous animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, Red Hot Riding Hood, The Wolf, Red Hot Riding Hood, and George and Junior. He gained influence for his technical innovation, directorial style and brand of humor. Avery's attitude toward animation was opposite that of Walt Disney and other conventional family cartoons at the time. Avery's cartoons were known for their sarcastic, ironic, Surreal humour, absurdist, irreverent, and sometimes sexual humor, sexual tone in nature. Avery' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Maltese
Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 – February 22, 1981) was an American story man for classic animated cartoon shorts. He is best known for working in the 1950s on a series of ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoons with director Chuck Jones, notably "What's Opera, Doc?" which is widely regarded by industry professionals as the best animated short of all time. He wrote for a total of 1,027 cartoons during his tenure at Warner Bros. Cartoons. Biography The son of Italian immigrants, Maltese graduated from the National Academy of Design. He married Florence Sass in April 1936; writer Warren Foster served as Best Man."Comics by Michael Maltese" ''Cartoon Research'' (January 25, 2017) July 12, 2017 The couple moved to |
Ben Washam
Benjamin Alfred Washam (March 17, 1915 – March 28, 1984) was an American animator who is best known for working under director Chuck Jones for nearly 30 years. According to his World War II draft registration, he was born in Newport, Jackson County, Arkansas. Career Washam worked at Warner Bros. Cartoons from at least 1936 until 1963, mainly under the direction of Chuck Jones. First working as an inbetweener, he quickly rose up the ranks to animator. From 1944 to 1945, he worked at UPA for the films ''Hell-Bent for Election'' and ''Brotherhood of Man''. He also worked on made-for-television cartoons in the early 1960s. After Jones was fired from Warner Bros., Washam (with other animators working under Jones there) joined him at MGM. Washam also directed a few Tom and Jerry cartoons for release in 1967. He also designed the iconic character Big Boy for the restaurant chain Bob's Big Boy when he was a fry cook there. From the fall of 1967 Washam taught animation at no charge t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgil Ross
Virgil Walter Ross (August 8, 1907 – May 15, 1996) was an American artist, cartoonist, and animator best known for his work on the Warner Bros. animated shorts including the shorts of legendary animator Friz Freleng. Biography Early years Virgil Ross (as he was usually known) spent his early years in New York state and in Michigan, but his family moved to Long Beach, California, when he was in his late teens. This state was to be his primary home for the rest of his life. Cartooning and animation His introduction to cartooning was in high-school, where he took a class in that art form. He started drawing title cards for silent films before moving into animated films. Early work was done for Charles B. Mintz (later Screen Gems), Ub Iwerks studio, and then on to Walter Lantz, where he began working on developing Oswald the Rabbit and met Tex Avery. When Avery moved to work for Leon Schlesinger in 1935 on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, he took Ross, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerry Chiniquy
Germain Adolph Chiniquy (pronounced "chin-a-KEE"; June 23, 1912 – November 22, 1989) was an American animator known for his work with Friz Freleng, at both Warner Bros. and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. Chiniquy joined Freleng's animation team in the early 1940s. His work can best be seen in the many "dance numbers" that Freleng liked to use in his shorts. As crewmembers working on Golden Age Warner Brothers's cartoons were seldom credited, Chiniquy and the other animators would often add their names into the backgrounds of cartoons. Chiniquy's name can be seen in ''Bugs Bunny Rides Again'' (1948); look for "G. Chiniquy, Blacksmith" painted on a rooftop. Chiniquy also made a cameo appearance in the live action portion of ''You Ought to Be in Pictures'' (1940), as the director calling for "Quiet on the set!" After the original Warner Bros. Cartoon Studio was shut down, Chiniquy animated for commercials at Playhouse Pictures from 1964 to 1965. Chiniquy followed Freleng to DF ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rod Scribner
Roderick H. Scribner (October 10, 1910 – December 21, 1976) was an American animator best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons from Warner Bros. Cartoons. He worked during the Golden age of American animation. Early life Scribner had an interest in drawing in high school. Drawing was one of his subjects (along with English and political science) when he attended Denison University for three years. Later, after an interlude spent as a manager of a "hunting marsh", he studied art in Toledo, Ohio, and at the Chouinard Art Institute before he joined the Schlesinger animation staff. Career Warner Bros. Cartoons Rod Scribner started as an assistant animator for Friz Freleng in 1935, then as a animator for Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton (and, briefly, Chuck Jones). Following the dissolution of Hardaway and Dalton's unit in 1939, he joined Tex Avery's unit and worked with Robert McKimson, Charles McKimson, Virgil Ross, and Sid Suthe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Harris
Karyl Ross "Ken" Harris (July 31, 1898 – March 24, 1982) was an American animator best known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons under the supervision of director Chuck Jones. Life and career Ken Harris was born in Tulare County, California. He finished his education at an unknown college in Stockton, New Jersey. Harris started as a race car builder and driver with his brother, who had a garage. Harris and his brother had to spend $4,000 dollars on a race track. He raced at Ascot three times in 1926. One time he went 113 miles. Around the time he was a racer, he started being an assistant service vice manager and selling cars at a Pontiac agency before the agency eventually closed down. His first job as an artist was for Sid Ziff, where he sold some cartoons to him here and there. Then he worked for the ''Los Angeles Herald Examiner'', from 1927 to around 1930, when he joined the ill-fated Romer Grey studio. Harris finally ended up at Leon Schlesinger Productions unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Lava
William "Bill" Benjamin Lava (March 18, 1911 – February 20, 1971) was a composer and arranger who composed and conducted music for feature films as well as that for the Warner Bros.' ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' animated cartoons from 1962 to 1969, replacing the deceased Milt Franklyn, making him the last composer and arranger in the classic era of Warner Bros. Cartoons. Lava's music was markedly different from that of Franklyn and previous composer Carl Stalling, with a tendency towards atonality. A sense of tension is often created in Lava's scores using sequences based on the notes of the diminished seventh chord. Lava also composed and sang the theme to the TV western series ''Cheyenne'' and composed the original theme from ''Gunsmoke''. Career Lava was educated at Von Humboldt Grammar School and Lane Tech High School in Chicago, then attended Northwestern University where his major was journalism. He studied conducting with Albert Coates in Los Angeles. L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Milt Franklyn
Milton J. Franklyn (born Milton Julius Frumkin; September 16, 1897 – April 24, 1962) was an American musical composer and arranger who worked on the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoons. Career Franklyn was born in New York City September 16, 1897, to the marriage of Julius B. Frumkin (1874–1913) and Fanny Hertzberg (maiden; 1876–1932). Julius Frumkin had been the proprietor of Frumkin's Cigar Stores in Salt Lake City, notably the Mission Cigar Store at 139 South Main Street. Franklyn was three years old when his family moved from New York to Salt Lake City. Franklyn attended high school in Salt Lake City and graduated June 10, 1915. He finished one year at the University of Utah. He was the state junior tennis champion in Utah for six years. The next two years were spent at the University of California, Berkeley, then he began a term at Pennsylvania University when he was called to service in World War One. Franklyn did not serve overseas; he trained as a naval ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Stalling
Carl William Stalling (November 10, 1891 – November 29, 1972) was an American composer, voice actor and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years. Biography Stalling was born to Ernest and Sophia C. Stalling. His parents were from Germany; his father arrived in the United States in 1883. The family settled in Lexington, Missouri where his father was a carpenter. He started playing piano at six. By the age of 12, he was the principal piano accompanist in his hometown's silent movie house. For a short period, he was also the theatre organist at the St. Louis Theatre, which eventually became Powell Symphony Hall. By his early 20s, he was conducting his own orchestra and improvising on the organ at the Isis Movie Theatre in Kansas City. His actual job at the time was to play "organ accompaniment" for silent films ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg (born Stanley Friberg; August 7, 1926 – April 7, 2015) was an American actor, author, comedian, musician, radio personality, puppeteer and advertising creative director. His best-known works include " St. George and the Dragonet", '' Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America'', his role on the television series ''Time for Beany'', multiple characters in the Looney Tunes such as Pete Puma and Bertie, and a number of classic television commercials. Early and personal life Freberg was born Stanley Friberg on August 7, 1926 in Pasadena, California, the son of Evelyn Dorothy (née Conner), a housewife, and Victor Richard Friberg (later Freberg), a Baptist minister. Freberg was of Swedish and Irish descent. He was drafted in the US Army from 1945 to 1947 where he served in Special Services attached to the Medical Corps aMcCornack General Hospitalin Pasadena, California. Freberg's work reflected both his gentle sensitivity (despite his liberal use of biting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bea Benaderet
Beatrice Benaderet ( ; April 4, 1906 – October 13, 1968) was an American actress and comedienne. Born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, she began performing in Bay Area theatre and radio before embarking on a Hollywood career that spanned over three decades. Benaderet first specialized in voice-over work in the golden age of radio, appearing on numerous programs while working with comedians of the era such as Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, and Lucille Ball. Her expertise in dialect and characterization led to her becoming Warner Bros. Cartoons' leading voice of female characters in their animated cartoons of the early 1940s through the mid-1950s. Benaderet was then a prominent figure on television in situation comedies, first with ''The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show'' from 1950 to 1958, for which she earned two Emmy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. In the 1960s, she had regular roles in four series until her death from lung cancer in 1968, incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
