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Merrie Melodies
''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to September 20, 1969 (during the golden age of American animation), it was revived in 1979 with new shorts being sporadically released until June 13, 1997. ''Merrie Melodies'' originally placed emphasis on one-shot color films in comparison to the black-and-white ''Looney Tunes'' films. After Bugs Bunny became the breakout character of ''Merrie Melodies'' and ''Looney Tunes'' transitioned to color production in the early 1940s, the two series gradually lost their distinctions and shorts were assigned to each series randomly. ''Merrie Melodies'' was originally produced by Harman–Ising Pictures from 1931 to 1933 and Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944, and the newly renamed Warner ... [...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, Big Bad Wolf#MGM/Tex Avery's Big Bad Wolf, The Wolf, Red (animated character), 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 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Maltese
Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 – February 22, 1981) was an American screenwriter and storyboard artist 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. This collaboration produced many highly acclaimed animated shorts, including 4 of the top 5 "greatest cartoons" as judged by 1000 animation professionals; '' What's Opera, Doc?'' tops this list as the best animated short of all time. Early life 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 Career Michael Maltese began his career ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 United Productions of America, UPA for the films ''Hell-Bent for Election'' and ''Brotherhood of Man''. Through the later 1940s and almost all of the 1950s, he was one of Jones' master animators. He also animated for Abe Levitow and Ken Harris during their brief directorial stints in 1959. In the early 1960s, he worked on animated commercials and made-for-television cartoons, animating at Warner's for Jones only in a few one-off shorts. After Jones was fired from Warner Bros., Washam animated for Ph ... [...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), Iwerks Studio, and then on to Walter Lantz, where he began working on developing Oswald the Lucky 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, Chuc ... [...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. Cartoons 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 WB'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!" Chiniquy also briefly animated for Chuck Jones, providing animation for the U.S. Air Force recruitment film ''A Hitch in Time'' (1955). When Freleng left Warner Bros. in 1962, Chiniquy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rod Scribner
Roderick Henry Scribner (October 10, 1910 – December 21, 1976) was an American animator. He was 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 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 S ... [...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 $4,000 ($ in 2022 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, owned by the son of successful Western author Zan ... [...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 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 one episode of the series ''Gunsmoke'' ("Little Girl," April 1, 1961). Education 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 Alber ... [...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, working alongside and later succeeding Carl Stalling. Early life and education 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 servi ... [...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, puppeteer, radio personality 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 biti ... [...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.' 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, including the comme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
