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 Los Angeles, where their first and only child, Brenda, was born on February 20, 1938.

Career

Michael Maltese began his career in animation as a cel painter at Fleischer Studios in 1935. A year later, he was fired for quickly moving himself up position after being promoted to an assistant animator.

After a brief stint at the Jam Handy Organization, Maltese was hired by Leon Schlesinger Productions in April 1937 as an in-betweener, and later a storyman due to everyone laughing at his jokes. Maltese would first appear on camera in the 1940 Porky Pig cartoon ''You Ought to Be in Pictures'' as a live-action guard at the Warner Bros. entrance gate, who winds up chasing the animated Porky around the Warners lot. The first cartoon he was credited for Warner's was ''The Haunted Mouse'' (1941) by Tex Avery, although he wrote rejected gags for The Timid Toreador. He would also work between Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones until 1948, where he mainly worked with the latter. He and Jones collaborated on cartoons like the Academy Award-winning '' For Scent-imental Reasons'' (1949), featuring the character Pepé Le Pew, and the animated public health documentary, ''So Much for So Little'' (1949) which won that same year for "Best Documentary Short Subject." Maltese was also the voice of the Lou Costello-esque character in ''Wackiki Wabbit'' (1943) and the Benito Mussolini duck in ''The Ducktators'' (1942).

Some of his earlier works include ''The Wabbit Who Came to Supper'' and ''Fresh Hare'', '' Hare Trigger'' (which introduced Yosemite Sam), ''Baseball Bugs'' for Freleng;' Bear Feat'', ''Rabbit of Seville'', ''A Pest in the House'', and ''Rabbit Fire'' for Jones. Some of his best-known cartoons are ''Feed the Kitty'', '' Beep, Beep'', ''Rabbit Seasoning'', '' Don't Give Up the Sheep'', ''Duck Amuck'', ''Bully for Bugs'', '' Bewitched Bunny'', ''From A to Z-Z-Z-Z'', and Beanstalk Bunny. ''These were all directed by Jones. He also wrote ''One Froggy Evening'', the first appearance of future Warner Brothers mascot Michigan J. Frog''.

Some of his later Warner cartoons included ''Ali Baba Bunny'', ''Robin Hood Daffy'', the seminal ''What's Opera, Doc?'' and ''Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century'' for Jones, ''Rabbit Romeo'' and ''Fox-Terror'' for Robert McKimson and ''Person to Bunny'' (the final occasion Arthur Q. Bryan voiced Elmer Fudd) and ''Here Today, Gone Tamale'' (the only Speedy Gonzales cartoon he ever wrote) for Freleng. Following the shuttering of Jones's unit in 1953 (at the height of the 3-D craze), Maltese was hired by Walter Lantz Productions as writer of some Woody Woodpecker cartoons: '' Helter Shelter'', ''Witch Crafty'' (co-written with Homer Brightman), '' Real Gone Woody'', '' Square Shootin' Square'' and '' Bedtime Bedlam''. He also is the writer of Chilly Willy's Academy Award-nominated theatrical short ''The Legend of Rockabye Point'', directed by Tex Avery. Jones's unit would be resurrected early in 1954, with Maltese departing Lantz to rejoin his longtime collaborator several months afterwards; Maltese's first post-shutdown Warner credits by release would be on ''Rocket-Bye Baby'' and ''Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z'', a Road Runner short.

From 1958 until 1972, he worked at Hanna-Barbera Productions on television cartoons such as ''The Yogi Bear Show'', ''The Quick Draw McGraw Show'', ''The Flintstones'', and ''Wacky Races''. He briefly worked with Jones at Sib-Tower 12 Productions on writing Tom and Jerry shorts from 1963 to 1965.

Maltese also wrote comic books published by Western Publishing, including for many of the Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera characters whose animated exploits he scripted.

His last work was in ''Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century'', released in 1980.

Death

Maltese died on February 22, 1981, at Los Angeles's Good Samaritan Hospital after a six-month bout with cancer, aged 73.Obituary
Reading Eagle, February 23, 1981.

References

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External links

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1940 census recordMichael Maltese Papers
at the University of Wyoming – American Heritage Center
Michael Maltese Papers Document Cartoon History
at th
AHC blog

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maltese, Michael
1908 births
1981 deaths
20th-century American screenwriters
Animators from New York (state)
American male screenwriters
American storyboard artists
Animation screenwriters
Warner Bros. Cartoons voice actors
Hanna-Barbera people
Artists from New York City
Deaths from cancer in California
Burials at San Fernando Mission Cemetery
American people of Italian descent
Warner Bros. Cartoons people
National Academy of Design alumni
Screenwriters from New York (state)
20th-century American male writers
Walter Lantz Productions people