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Swing Symphony
''Swing Symphony'' is an American animated musical short film series produced by Walter Lantz Productions from 1941 to 1945. The shorts were a more contemporary pastiche on Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies, and often featured top boogie-woogie musicians of the era. While the first cartoon include the characters Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda, it mainly features a variety of different characters created exclusively for the series, with Oswald the Lucky Rabbit making an appearance in one cartoon. Background Walter Lantz Productions first developed the format with ''Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat'', released on March 28, 1941. The short is considered a precursor as it contains many elements seen in the series, such as utilizing a popular boogie-woogie song. Lantz also produced ''Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company 'B later in September which followed the same formula, and would be nominated for an Academy Award. The first cartoon that would go under ''Swing Symphony'' wouldn't be re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darrell Calker
Darrell Wallace Calker (February 18, 1905 – February 20, 1964) was an American composer and arranger who worked on films and animated cartoons. Early life and education Calker was born in Washington, D.C. to Morris H. and Lugenia E. (Lily) Wallace of Philadelphia. He grew up with his younger sister Rena in the District of Columbia, where he attended Episcopal Cathedral School and sang with a church choir in his teens. He studied with Edgar Priest and David Pell, graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Career Calker's early work in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood included orchestration for Victor Young. He was also active as the composer of scores for the Ballets Russes, Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo and Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet. Among his compositions were the suites for orchestra, ''Golden Land'' and ''Penguin Island''. After arriving in Los Angeles by the mid-1930s, Calker worked as a session musician, and composed songs including ''Strings Full ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merrie Melodies
''Merrie Melodies'' is an American 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 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 produced by Harman–Ising ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emery Hawkins
Emery Otis Hawkins (April 30, 1912 – June 1, 1989) was an American animator, best known for his work during the Golden age of American animation, working in various studios in the industry. Early life and career Emery Hawkins was born in Jerome, Arizona to a father who was a all-round cowboy for two years and to a mother who was a painter. He started drawing when he was two years old and his family had a lot of history with artistic careers, including his aunts. He went to North Hollywood High School but was a college dropout. Hawkins always animated on flipbooks. At the age of 16 in 1928, he did an animation of a clown walking and dancing, showed it to Disney, and they thought it was a copy of their animation. Hawkins begun his career in the animation industry as a cel animator at the Charles Mintz studio, where he would later be promoted to animator. He would then work at MGM and then move to The Walt Disney Company in the late 30's but would leave in 1941 during the Disney ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Egg Cracker Suite
''The Egg Cracker Suite'' is a 1943 Easter-themed animated short produced by Walter Lantz, co-directed by Ben Hardaway and Emery Hawkins (also a character designer) and animated by Les Kline (solely credited as Lester Kline), Laverne Harding and Paul J. Smith (both uncredited) that features a redesigned Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This is the last animated short to feature Oswald until ''Get a Horse!'' in 2013. Plot Oswald leads a line of rabbits, anchored by a small brown bunny, into Bunnyville, where they are to ready Easter baskets for the holiday. He enters one tree, which is a hen house dubbed "Egg Plant No. 1", and conducts them in a symphony to get them to lay eggs. Outside, each rabbit in the line gets an egg. Oswald finishes the symphony getting the lone ostrich to lay her huge egg, which as luck would have it, the small brown bunny winds up with. The rest of the cartoon involves the creation of the Easter baskets. First one rabbit hard boils the eggs, only to find one ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Lovy
Alexander Lovy (September 2, 1913 – February 14, 1992) was an American animator. He spent the majority of his career as an animator and director at Walter Lantz Productions. He was later a producer at Hanna-Barbera, and also supervised the cartoon unit at Warner Bros. during its final days. Life and career Born in Passaic, New Jersey, Lovy's early career was spent as a comic artist at DC Comics. Later, he became an animator at the Lantz studio in the late 1930s. His first credit as a director was for ''Feed the Kitty'' in 1938. Studio head Walter Lantz was taking a hiatus from directing at this time, this gave Lovy an opportunity to direct many of the studio's shorts in the 1938–1940 period. He stepped down to become an animator in 1940 after Lantz reverted to being director. However, he continued to play an important role in the production of the shorts, and stepped up to being the studio's lead director of Woody Woodpecker shorts when Lantz retired from directing in 1942 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volume 2
Volume Two, Volume 2, Volume II or Vol. II may refer to: * '' Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life'', a 1998 album by rapper Jay-Z * ''Volume 2'' (Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass album), 1963 * '' Vol. 2 (Breaking Through)'', by The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band * ''Volume Two'' (The Soft Machine album), 1969 * ''Volume Two'' (She & Him album), 2010 * ''Volume Two'' (EP), a 1991 EP by Sleep * ''Volume 2'' (CKY album), 1999 * ''Volume 2'' (Chuck Berry album) * ''Volume 2'' (Billy Bragg album), 2006 * ''Volume 2'' (Reagan Youth album) * ''Volume 2'' (The Gordons album), 1984 * ''Volume 2'' (video), a 1999 video by Incubus * '' Volume 2: Release'', a 1999 album by Afro Celt Sound System * ''Vol. II'' (Hurt album), 2007 * ''Vol. II'' (Cartel de Santa album) * ''Vol.2'' (Goo Goo Dolls album), 2008 * ''Volume II'' (Kamchatka album) * ''Joan Baez, Vol. 2'' * ''Miles Davis Volume 2'' * ''Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'', a 2017 sequel to its 2014 predecessor. * ''Volume Two'', a 1991 al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Woody Woodpecker And Friends Classic Cartoon Collection
''The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection'' is a three-disc DVD collection of theatrical cartoons produced by Walter Lantz Productions for Universal Pictures between 1930 and 1956. The set was released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on July 24, 2007, and marks the first time a collection of cartoons starring Woody Woodpecker and the other Lantz characters have been widely available on home video (a previous fifteen-volume collection of ''Woody Woodpecker Show'' DVDs was made available for mail order through Columbia House in the early 2000s). Included in the set are 75 cartoon shorts, including the first 45 ''Woody Woodpecker'' cartoons, in production order. The other thirty cartoons include five '' Andy Panda'' shorts, five ''Chilly Willy'' shorts, five ''Oswald the Lucky Rabbit'' shorts, five '' Swing Symphonies'', and ten one-shot ''Cartune Classics''. A second collection was issued in 2008. DVD contents Disc one * Woody Woodpecker **01 '' Knock ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, massa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swing Music
Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. The name derived from its emphasis on the off-beat, or nominally weaker beat. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of big bands and bandleaders such as Benny Goodman was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1946, known as the swing era. The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong groove or drive. Musicians of the swing era include Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Harry James, Lionel Hampton, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw and Django Reinhardt. Overview Swing has its roots in 1920s dance music ensembles, which began using new styles of written arrangements, incorporating rhythmic innovations pioneered by Louis Armstron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Adamson
Joe Adamson is an author of several books, including: * ''Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A History of the Marx Brothers and a Satire on the Rest of the World'' * ''Tex Avery, King of Cartoons'' * ''Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare'' *''The Walter Lantz Walter Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker. Biography Early years and start in animation Lant ... Story'' Adamson's book on the Marx Brothers is widely considered one of the most important books written about the team.http://www.marx-brothers.org/reading/book_detail.htm?cat=4a Marx Brothers Bibliography at www.marx-brothers.org References External links * Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Historians of animation {{US-writer-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Der Fuehrer's Face
''Der Fuehrer's Face'' (originally titled ''A Nightmare in Nutziland'' or ''Donald Duck in Nutziland'' ) is a 1943 American animated anti-Nazi propaganda short film produced by Walt Disney Productions, created in 1942 and released on January 1, 1943 by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon, which features Donald Duck in a nightmare setting working at a factory in Nazi Germany, was made in an effort to sell war bonds and is an example of American propaganda during World War II. The film was directed by Jack Kinney and written by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer. Spike Jones released a version of Oliver Wallace's theme for the short before the film was released. ''Der Fuehrer's Face'' won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the 15th Academy Awards. It was the only Donald Duck film to receive the honor, although eight other films were also nominated. In 1994, it was voted Number 22 of " the 50 Greatest Cartoons" of all time by members of the animation field. However, because of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Zurke
Bob Zurke (January 7, 1912 – February 16, 1944) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, composer and briefly a bandleader during the Swing era. Biography Born Boguslaw Albert Zukowski in Hamtramck, Michigan, United States, he was already using the name Bob Zurke professionally by the age of 16, when he first recorded with a group led by pioneering female jazz bassist Thelma Terry. At that time, Zurke also began to work as a copyist for the Detroit-based booking agency run by Jean Goldkette. Through the end of 1936, Zurke worked in various Detroit clubs, mostly as a band pianist, and occasionally went on tour with other groups; it was in this period that Zurke developed a long friendship with pianist Marvin Ash, who would later go on to record some of Zurke's compositions. At the beginning of 1937, Zurke was hired by bandleader Bob Crosby to fill in for Joe Sullivan, then ailing with tuberculosis. It was with Crosby that Zurke gained notice; he contributed arrangements to the ban ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
