The Chuck Jones Show

Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, produced, and/or directed many classic Animated Cartoon shorts starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Pepé Le Pew, and Porky Pig, among others.

Jones started his career in 1933 alongside Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett, and Robert McKimson at the Leon Schlesinger Production's Termite Terrace studio, where they created and developed the Looney Tunes characters. During the Second World War, Jones directed many of the '' Private Snafu'' (1943–1946) shorts which were shown to members of the United States military. After his career at Warner Bros. ended in 1962, Jones started Sib Tower 12 Productions and began producing cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, including a new series of ''Tom and Jerry'' shorts (1963–1967) as well as the television adaptations of Dr. Seuss'' (1966) and ''Horton Hears a Who!'' (1970). He later started his own studio, Chuck Jones Enterprises, where he directed and produced the film adaptation of Norton Juster's ''The Phantom Tollbooth'' (1970).

Jones's work along with the other animators was showcased in the documentary, '' Bugs Bunny: Superstar'' (1975). Jones directed the first feature-length animated ''Looney Tunes'' compilation film, ''The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie'' (1979). In 1990 he wrote his memoir, ''Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist'', which was made into a documentary film, '' Chuck Amuck'' (1991). He was also profiled in the American Masters documentary '' Chuck Jones: Extremes & Inbetweens – A Life in Animation'' (2000) which aired on PBS.

Jones won three Academy Awards. The cartoons which he directed, ''For Scent-imental Reasons'', '' So Much for So Little'', and '' The Dot and the Line'', won the Best Animated Short. Robin Williams presented Jones with an Honorary Academy Award in 1996 for his work in the animation industry. Film historian Leonard Maltin has praised Jones's work at Warner Bros., MGM and Chuck Jones Enterprises. In Jerry Beck's ''The 50 Greatest Cartoons'', a group of animated professionals ranked ''What's Opera, Doc?'' (1957) as the greatest cartoon of all time, with ten of the entries being directed by Jones including ''Duck Amuck'' (1953), ''Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century'' (1953), ''One Froggy Evening'' (1955), ''Rabbit of Seville'' (1950), and '' Rabbit Seasoning'' (1952).

Early life

Chuck Jones was born on September 21, 1912, in Spokane, Washington, to Mabel McQuiddy (née Martin) and Charles Adams Jones. He later moved with his parents and three siblings to the Los Angeles, California area.

In his autobiography, ''Chuck Amuck'', Jones credits his artistic bent to circumstances surrounding his father, who was an unsuccessful businessman in California in the 1920s. He recounted that his father would start every new business venture by purchasing new stationery and new pencils with the company name on them. When the business failed, his father would quietly turn the huge stacks of useless stationery and pencils over to his children, requiring them to use up all the material as fast as possible. Armed with an endless supply of high-quality paper and pencils, the children drew constantly. Later, in one art school class, the professor gravely informed the students that they each had 100,000 bad drawings in them that they must first get past before they could possibly draw anything worthwhile. Jones recounted years later that this pronouncement came as a great relief to him, as he was well past the 200,000 mark, having used up all that stationery. Jones and several of his siblings went on to artistic careers.

During his artistic education, he worked part-time as a janitor. After graduating from Chouinard Art Institute, Jones got a phone call from a friend named Fred Kopietz, who had been hired by the Ub Iwerks studio and offered him a job. He worked his way up in the animation industry, starting as a cel washer; "then I moved up to become a painter in black and white, some color. Then I went on to take animator's drawings and traced them onto the celluloid. Then I became what they call an in-betweener, which is the guy that does the drawing between the drawings the animator makes". While at Iwerks, he met a cel painter named Dorothy Webster, who later became his first wife.

Career

Warner Bros.

Jones joined Leon Schlesinger Productions, the independent studio that produced ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' for Warner Bros., in 1933 as an assistant animator. In 1935 he was promoted to animator and assigned to work with a new Schlesinger director, Tex Avery. There was no room for the new Avery unit in Schlesinger's small studio, so Avery, Jones, and fellow animators Bob Clampett, Virgil Ross, and Sid Sutherland were moved into a small adjacent building they dubbed "Termite Terrace". When Clampett was promoted to director in 1937, Jones was assigned to his unit; the Clampett unit was briefly assigned to work with Jones's old employer, Ub Iwerks, when Iwerks subcontracted four cartoons to Schlesinger in 1937. Jones became a director (or "supervisor", the original title for an animation director in the studio) himself in 1938 when Frank Tashlin left the studio. The following year Jones created his first major character, Sniffles, a cute Disney-style mouse, who went on to star in twelve Warner Bros. cartoons.

Jones initially struggled in terms of his directorial style. Unlike the other directors in the studio, Jones wanted to make cartoons that would rival the quality and design to that of ones made by Walt Disney Production. As a result, his cartoons suffered from sluggish pacing and a lack of clever gags, with Jones himself later admitting that his early conception of timing and dialog was "formed by watching the action in the La Brea Tar Pits". Schlesinger and the studio heads were unsatisfied with his work and demanded that he make cartoons that were more funny. He responded by creating the 1942 short ''The Draft Horse''. The cartoon that was generally considered his turning point was ''The Dover Boys''. Released the same year, it noticeably featured quickly-timed gags and extensive use of limited animation. Despite this, Schlesinger and the studios heads were still dissatisfied and begun the process to fire him, but they were unable to find a replacement due to a labor shortage stemming from World War II, so Jones kept his position.

He was actively involved in efforts to unionize the staff of Leon Schlesinger Studios. He was responsible for recruiting animators, layout men, and background people. Almost all animators joined, in reaction to salary cuts imposed by Leon Schlesinger. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio had already signed a union contract, encouraging their counterparts under Schlesinger.Sigall (2005), pp. 59–61 In a meeting with his staff, Schlesinger talked for a few minutes, then turned over the meeting to his attorney. His insulting manner had a unifying effect on the staff. Jones gave a pep talk at the union headquarters. As negotiations broke down, the staff decided to go on strike. Schlesinger locked them out of the studio for a few days, before agreeing to sign the contract. A Labor-Management Committee was formed and Jones served as a moderator. Because of his role as a supervisor in the studio, he could not himself join the union. Jones created many of his lesser-known characters during this period, including Charlie Dog, Hubie and Bertie, and The Three Bears.

During World War II, Jones worked closely with Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases