Michael. Barrier. Funnyworld Revisited: Bob Clampett Interview. By Michael Barrier and Milton Gray. Reprinted from Funnyworld No. The Clampett interview appeared in the fall of 1. Funnyworld that was printed, rather. At that point, very little about the. Warner Bros. It was. Clampett's claim to have been critically involved in the creation. Warner characters—Bugs Bunny and Porky. Pig in particular—that most aroused the ire of some of his. Leon Schlesinger studio, where the Warner. Jones, who had been nursing. Clampett for thirty years for other reasons (he. Clampett had tricked him out of co- director. Clampett's black- and- white Looney Tunes), was especially. This was when the Warner cartoons could be seen, if. Happily, that. situation has changed, and directors like Clampett, Jones, and Tex. Avery are now better known for individual cartoons than as the creators. When I interviewed Bob Clampett, though, the directors. Clampett was not alone in doing. That he also played a role of some kind in the creation. Bugs and Porky, among others, seems more than likely, although. I believe now that he exaggerated his contribution to the early. Bugs Bunny. For my own account of Bugs's evolution. Hollywood. Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age.) But that. Clampett was convinced of the importance of his contribution, however. To Jack's 'MIDI Music' Bluegrass, Cajun, Country, Western And USA Folk MIDI Files Page B Please Click Your Refresh Or Reload Button If It's Been Awhile Since You've. FUNNYWORLD REVISITED An Interview with Bob Clampett. By Michael Barrier and Milton Gray. Reprinted from Funnyworld No. Check out Rolling Stone's latest political news and features covering today's hottest political topics and Matt Taibbi's take. I have no doubt; and the brilliance of his best Warner. Leon. Schlesinger studio will always be of interest. This DVD is an indispensable purchase. Hollywood animation's giants. I've also added. a few clarifying notes and made minor changes in spelling and punctuation. You can read his. Bob's wife, Sody, was also. The interview as published here is a distillation of the. This first part. stresses Clampett's career at the Warner Bros. The. second part, to be published in Funnyworld No. Time for Beany and Clampett's other television. Clampett never completed. Clampett: I helped animate the first Merrie Melodie ever. Barrier: You must have been quite young. Can you remember. Clampett: I can't remember when I didn't. When I was in school. I drew a full- page comic about the nocturnal adventures of a pussycat. Los Angeles Sunday Times. And from time to. They. also paid my way through Otis Art Institute, where I learned to. Barrier: Did you go with King Features when you finished. Clampett: No. I became so enchanted with the new medium of. I gave up the seventy- five dollars a week to. Warner Bros. Hugh and Rudy started Warner Bros. Hugh and Rudy left Disney and. Oswalds for Mintz after Walt lost the character. Then they. made the first talking- sync cartoon, a short sales film titled Bosko. Street Vendor Project added an Lift the Caps - Free Lunch! ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25TH FROM 12 - 2, ENJOY ONE FREE HOT DOG FROM FOUR LOCAL MOBILE FOOD VENDORS. Talk- ink Kid. Rudy appeared in live action combined with. Bosko, who at the end went back into the inkwell and said, . Leon Schlesinger, who was the proprietor. The Exactly What It Says on the Tin trope as used in popular culture. A title should tell you what a movie, show, episode of a show or product is about or Mediagazer presents the day's must-read media news on a single page. The media business is in tumult: from the production side to the distribution side, new. ![]() Pacific Art and Title, and a close friend of the Warners, liked. Warner Bros. And Leon Schlesinger had screen credit as. Leon's brother- in- law, Ray Katz, was the. H and I. He handed out the raises and pencil. Barrier: Why did you choose to work for Warners rather than. Disney? Clampett: Actually, I was working for Walt just a month. I joined Warners. Not in his cartoon studio—but. The first time I ever met Walt Disney was when. I walked into his studio on Hyperion carrying the first felt Mickey. Mouse doll, which my . Before I even reached my teens, I made. Cecil the Sea Serpent stocking puppet, with my mother's. Clark, who sold cookies. I would design one. I suggested a doll based on the new mouse character. I couldn't find a drawing of him anywhere. The local theater, newspapers. Mickey Mouse! So, I took my. I came. out with sketches of Mickey, and Charlotte and I used them when. Mickey Mouse doll. My dad walked in and said. You can't sell that without permission. Walt and Roy were delighted, and they. Charlotte up in business in a house near the studio. We turned. out meece by the gross. In my spare time, I went there and worked a kapok machine, a foot- operated. Mickey Mouse dolls. There. were six young French girls who did the sewing. I used to put my. Mickey. falsetto. Walt Disney himself sometimes came over in an old car. I helped him load the dolls in the. One time his car, loaded with Mickeys, wouldn't start, and. I pushed while Walt steered, until it caught, and he took off. Barrier: Then you went with Harman- Ising. Who originated. the title ? Clampett: Could be, but at that time, the whole gimmick. The main reason that Warners okayed the Looney. Tunes deal was that they thought it would promote the songs they. When I started there, the rule. Merrie Melodie. That was where I joined them. And they gave me a number of secondary characters. Merrie Melodie, Lady Play Your. Mandolin. We made the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies at. Harman- Ising until near mid- 1. Leon. The first week I was at the studio, a meeting of the entire staff. Merrie Melodie No. It revolved around a streetcar, and they needed. Nothing. much came out of the meeting, but riding home on the streetcar. I hit on an idea. I submitted a sequence in which the streetcar's. Smith Brothers, Dutch Cleanser girl. My idea was used, and made a tremendous hit in the theaters. We followed it with magazine covers. After that, Hugh kept calling. The funniest cartoons we drew at the studio were done just to amuse. But a few. of them did. Barrier: For example? Clampett: Well, every day I used to draw caricatures of. Larry Martin, portraying him as a mustachioed. Years later. I used these caricatures as the model for my Time for Beany. Dishonest John. When this same Larry offered to animate. Beany and Cecil cartoon, I gave. Dishonest John to do. When he asked for model. I told him, . The following. Monday, he told in all seriousness of how he tried to shoot this. The more he told of his troubles. Several of us made caricatures of him in. Here, I'll show you. I changed the original inscription. Quite an. honor at that time. Barrier: When Harman and Ising split with Schlesinger in. Schlesinger must have had to organize a whole new studio. Clampett: Right, and he had a terrible mess at the beginning. I was the first one of the. Merrie Melodies staff that Leon signed to a contract. I. was put with Jack King and the two of us for a short time sat alone. At the same time, Leon was making low- budget. John Wayne westerns, so young . For Leon's first Looney Tune . The first Looney Tune had. Warners. Across. the alley from us were sound stages, above which were the dressing. Busby Berkeley's Gold Digger chorus girls. AI Jolson's. dressing room was in our building, and Cagney, Bogart, and other. Warner stars used to stick their heads in our windows to see. We patterned a lot of things on them. Our. first color Merrie Melodie, Honeymoon Hotel, was directed. Duvall. It was around the fourth Merrie Melodie that we made. Leon's. I was followed after several months by Friz Freleng. Ham Hamilton, Bob Mc. Kimson, Tubby Millar and Paul Smith, who is. Woody Woodpeckers for Lantz. Then Tash—Frank. Tashlin—came from Van Beuren's in New York, and Chuck Jones. Iwerks, and Cal Dalton came. Ted Eshbaugh's The Wizard of Oz. We had the greatest. Buddy differently. The Looney Tunes were a series of Buddy pictures, and the Merrie. Melodies were different each time—a different song with a different. Friz directed the majority of those. Barrier: The story men don't seem to have been assigned. Were they assigned to different directors or. Clampett: At one time, Leon had what he called a gag department—a. A director would go. Eventually, it. boiled down to where certain gag men were paired off with certain. But, we did trade around. Barrier: In the early days, though, the animators were assigned. There never was a time when they worked. Clampett: Yes, there was. I can remember when, around 1. For the first several years, Leon had a terrible time finding directors. Too many of the shorts. So, Leon. was in there in his shirt sleeves, trying to find the right talent. After five years of Looney. Tunes, Leon still didn't have one well- known cartoon character. A bunch of little kids doing. In one of the sessions, I brought. Roach's Our Gang comedies there was always. So, somebody, I don't remember. And after dinner one night, I thought of the. Under the drawing, in imitation. Mike, you asked in Funnyworld what was the first. Porky cartoon—and what was the first color Porky? Well, this. cartoon was it. It was titled I Haven't Got a Hat, which. There was a fellow who used to come around the studio, and he actually. At that time, Roscoe Ates was quite. In this first Porky cartoon, we had each little. Porky. was very laughable, but even more important, he had a touch of Chaplinesque. The audience at the same time laughed at and felt. Porky Pig. He was our first full- fledged star. About the same time as the first Porky story, Leon announced a. So many of us entered the. My story, which was. My Green. Fedora. This gave me a big boost, since I'd just originated. Porky and Beans) and now I'd won the story. So, from there on out I kept flooding Leon's desk with. I submitted in sketch form. These early story. Friz's direction. At that. moment, Tex Avery came through the door for the first time. Tex. was working for Lantz. And Leon, who only had two units at the time. As Tex was negotiating with Leon, everybody. Is somebody going. The two of. you start a unit in the middle of the lot. There was a sly- eyed cowboy. Leonard Slye who walked by our window every day as a member. I swore he. would make a perfect movie villain. Shortly after, he did get a. Roy Rogers. So Tex and I started production in 1. Tex had already written. Beans and some of our other. It was a gold- mining picture and, as a takeoff on Busby. Berkeley's Gold Diggers of 1. I suggested the title Gold. Diggers of '4. 9. Which Tex liked and used. Tex was a great story man, and a great gag man. He's even funnier. He's very likable personally and looked a little. Porky. A very nice guy, and a great innovator. If he didn't. like it, he'd tell you why. He'd almost always. I would work together. I would sometimes help him with. Tex's first cartoons were all funny.
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