Crediting Beany and co. for the 1960s..

Howdy, folks..back with another post..

Anyone looking at the typically Clampett type rebus-type funny credits for the classic 1962 Benay and Cecil cartoon based off on the classic 1948-1954 puppet show
'will ntoice how impressive these are..names from Hoyt Curtin to Terrell Stapp to Homer Jonas to Art Scott to Carl Bell to Bob and Sody Clampett Pathe Lab to Ryder Sound Services! All departments, credited. Well, ALL except for ONE.
Voices.

Bob Clampett was a great director but one of the things that was an object of a huge fight on the original show was with Stan Freberg and Daws Butler, who created the show and the voices. Bob and Chuck Jones have earned the Warner Bros. "dis-honor" of "smearing each other" on the subject of creativity of the Warner shorts. After Freberg and Butler left over these arguments and lawsuits and such, other performers, Jim McGeorge [the 1966 Laurel and Hardy cartoons for Hanna-Barbera, Wolper, MetroMedia and Larry Harmon] and Erv Shoemaker [who apparently has no other franchise or one shot special credits,etc.] handling the voices...MacGeorge the Butler roles [Beany, Capt. Huffenpuff] and Shoemaker the Freberg roles. [Cecil, Dishonest John].
Perhaps hte lact of voice credits [a mike or something in the rebus-style credits of the early 1960s animated cartoon version of "Beany and Cecil" [original Mattel's Matty Funday Funnies, replacing Harveytoons], was a concession to the former voices so audiences, who'd even then knew something about Freberg and Butl;er on the show, wouldn't know of their absence [more noticeable later when people gave a darn about animation]. In short: Perhaps so as to go on, Clampett didn't put the Beany voices, as they were replacements since 1954 due to the famous Clampett "ego" on the credits, in case anyone gave a damn. The cast who appeared in both shows in full is another deal...anywya note on YouTube the Beany credits...you'll see almost EVERY department credited on the end. But NOT the cast.

It's also been said that Clampett left Columbia veteran Art Scott (also longtime of Hanna-Barbera) the director credit but that Esperanto-rebus Clampettian credit may throw some people, it's the Dishoney John timing pic which has Art Scott's name...

Porky's Goofy Ghost-Who's THERE?

Sorry for being so late with new posts..


Porky Pig has had many occupations, like Mr.Magoo, Mickey Mouse, and Huck Hound and others....one of his was as legal investigator into a haunted house,
haunted by a ghost. (Bob Clampett's masterpiece "Jeepers Creepers") Many debate whether the ghost's voice, much like Walt Disney veteran/Legend Pinto Colvig (1892-1967) was or wasn't the voice. However,
researchers Keith Scott, Hames Ware and Graham Ware found and revealed in the long late, lamented, ANIMATO! magazine that it's Mel Blanc doing the not-so
(and, sorry, Mr.Colving, I hate to admit it), imitatble voice..(but then Mr.Colvig like Goofy would say, "Argh, Garsh, shucks, Anybuddy kin do that voice..kyuk.!:)
However researchers have noted that a line IS Pinto Colvig's, in the MIDDLE of the cartoon. Young researcher in UK Steve Hartley, in his excellent "Likely Looney Mostly Merrie" chronological (and MUCH
recommended and addicting!) blog has reviewed it on April 1, and limited ANY praise to an April Fool's joke, but right down to Mr.Ghost's Jeepers song rendition I believe it to be a true
comedy classic. Now, Blanc's (except the middle "Who's There") the WHOLE ghost, BUT IN THE MIDDLE..AND JUST ONE WHAT BEAVERS MAKE LINE?? Colvig HAD moved around this time, 1939,
to Max Fleischer's new Florida studio, as well as doing his trademark Goofy Disney character in the friendly grasshopper-as-fish bait short "Goofy and Wilbur". Perhaps he'd left and retracted
or passed to Walt's studio the rights to the voice (familiar story) and Mel Blanc simply impersonated him entirely making himself the only voice actor heard in "Jeepers Creepers", but it was mutually agreed
but the studios involved to let one of selected Pinto Colvig's Ghost lines remain, and the one after "Jeepers" is sung, "Who's dere?"...but it only adds up if it was the FIRST line, as the case I mentioned is
speculated and frankly, doesn't make sense.  In any way, "Jeepers Creepers" has a far better vehicle here than as "Daffy humilation" music in 1957's Freleng outing"Showbiz Bugs".:-) It's first heard in Warner Bros.'s 1938 musical
"Going Places." Now..WHERE DID you get your eyes?

New home for a beloved blog..

Any of you reaidng my blogs may know that longtime fellow contributor KEVIN LANGLEY has hosted the beloved CARTOONS MODELS SHEETS & STUFF blog but Google kicked it off. Fortunately, that one has been archived as I hope to do with mine, so you can it here at
http://klangley.wordpress.com/.

THe blog has had many videos and studies of the lesser known 1940s-50s theatrical cartoon animators as well as misc.unsung veterans in the business. And vidoes. And Videos. And Videos. And videos. And..well, you get the idea.

Sadly, Google did,too, to the point that they removed Kevin';s vdeo links for coipyright infringment but at the address above, again, http://klangley.wordpress.com/, (for conveince sake), you'll be able to return to that blog (and trust me, you WILL be retjunring.
So will a certain orange horse who carried Gumby around and helped him round up some  blockheads who for unknown reasons, had G & J child's blocks for heads to make a kind of pun, before REAL blockheads ruined our adventures in 1987.:))

Recredited Flinstones

For many years, from 1966-1990 to be exact, generations of rerun wathing kids who never saw "The Flintstones in its original ABC run from
1960-1966 would have seen the credits for the Flintstone episodes from 1960 to 1962 as:
PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY
JOE BARBERA   BILL HANNA
Written by                  Story Director
WARREN FOSTER     ART DAVIS
Starring the voices of
ALAN REED as FRED FLINTSTONE
JEAN VANDERPYL as WILMA FLINTSTONE
(next scene; credits fade)
MEL BLANC as BARNEY RUBBLE
BEA BENADERET (sic) as BETTY RUBBLE
then
  Other voices
HAL SMITH & JOHN STEPHENSON
Music Direction
HOYT CURTIN
and on and on
then
(C)MCMLXII BY HANNA-BARBERA PRODUCTION INC.
then the Screen Gems credit at the end of then after the credits.
For many what many children growing up dkidn't realize was that in its original prime time showing
[the audlt one] that NO Rubbles voice creedits appeared, that underneath the main credits just incidental cedits or no credits involved at all!
The now taboo ciggie ads, lack of credits, and such prompeted Screen Gems/Columbia Pictures TV in September 1966 to format the earlier ones [whose successors of course, beginning with the last
:original Oriental font" logo SG/CPTV had been using at the on "Gidget","I Dream of Jenanie etc." with Howie MacNear, Don Messick and opthers then the
new lettering to have the original endings] so that the pre-Pebbles episodes WOULD HAVE the same "gang" credits for each episode.,[BTW the credits used seem to be form one of the Water Buffalo/the boys sneak
out from Betty and Wilma ones]
By the time of Unviersal/Spielberg/Brian Grazer/HB's 1994 runaway block buster on the Stones, someone named T.S>Elliott came out with the FIRST EVER Flintstone
credits book, and as late as December 1994 it was aviable., That is where I saw who was around to do voices that never appeared aafter 1962 on the show, suchas Frank Nelson, Nancy Wible and some other sused later on other HB shows,
and regular like D.essick. The late Earl Kress [1951-2011] was very generous in putting some stock credits showed some of the voices and writers.

Goodbye Lucille Bliss 1916-2012

SOe may recall her as barel decent Smurfette on Smurfs. But to older generaitons, Lucille Bliss did even more significant characters.

Lucille Blss will be one of those who is generally known for only several chaarcters.
If you remember reall far back-
Crusafder Rabbit
Stepsister Anastasia form Disney's "Cinderella"
Later generations may know her from some Disney records or Hanna-Barbera 60s curio "Space Kiddetts".
Still Later (in  a time that I'd rather forget where animaiton is concerned) as Smurfette in the SMurfs O(though I am being hard here...)
Truth is Lucille Bliss (1916-2012) had many characters in cartoon and old time radio. Originally a native of New York City, she then did various radio spots, before perfomring
offbeat live short/industrial film filmmaker Jerry Fairbanks and cartoon nutso Jay Ward's colla boration with TV distrubtor Alex Anderson in the historic pioneering television daytime cartoon "Crusader Rabbit"
as the title character and maybe as additional onrs (the Obscure Vern Loudin did voice for CR's constant compan Ragland(just call him "Rags'!) T. Tiger.)). Then she did a strepsister form Disney's Cindererella )radio sitocm regular Rhoda Williams palyed the other).
(Note-GeGe Pearson, yet another regular for radio, was the "New Crusader" yet Vernon Loudin does Rags..Roy Whaley narrates both series..)
By the 1950s Lucille Bliss could be heard in MGM, Warnersa, Disneym and other theatrical cartoons. She WAS signed to play H-b's Ruff the KItten opposite Daws Butler's Reddy the dog in
the next television snimstion historical step, "The Ruff and ReddyShow", and to revive "Crusader" in neew series of short,s both of these in 1957, but union politics (LB:on 2ndCR:"It was non-union and I was union"") thern Bill Hann and Joe Barbera reluctantly were forced to replace her as apparently t
new show's studio (Creston?TVS) producer, Shull Bonsall had oublicxly signed Lucille EXCLUSIVELY ONLY TO REJECT HER!! Same roller coaster downfall again happened at HB in 1962 with the Jetsons, as Elroy (Daws butler instead replaced her on both occasions.) Sometimes she'd get a small role on the Flintstones (the boy cave scout episode,for one.)
In 1966 she got a HB role in the rather forgettable, though., Space Kiddetts".  She did busy herself on other things I'll get around to at the end of this article.
Thru the 70s, and 80s she landed on the (IMO not for me again) Smurfs show at HB but Riock Reinert studios, a seemingly up and coming studio, did the unsually rather enjoyable Captain O.G.Readmore series (Will Ryan as OG, Alan Dinehart and Hal Smith, and <ucille Bliss as the girl cat, on the ABC book reading series.)
See Yowp, Luculle Bliss, in the Google, Internet Movie Database, Lucille Bliss, for any sordid details that befell her more..
Now here are obscure roles Lucille did, one time appearances:
"Cinderella" - Walt Disney-as Anastasia.Stepsister
"Tom and Jerry"-Little Nibbles (ou cna see where Hanna and Barbera got their own Pixie and Dixie, an HB ransition to TV thing like the little uck and Spike and Tyke..)
"A Waggily Tale"-a Warner Bros.cartoons where a Jerry Lewis sounding tween abuses his dog and has a nightmare where HE is one (Daws Butler was the kid.You've heard that voice most notably in one of Hanna-Barbera's
"Goofy Guards, Yippie, Yappy, and Yahooey", and in Jay Ward's "QUisp": ads as the little alien himself.) A litle girl buys the boy-turned dog.(Lucille's the little girl.)
"Thumper's Race", Disney record, Luclle narrates and does all of the voices (confirmaiton form Greg Ehrbahr and Tim Hollis, "Mouse Tracks'<2005).

"101 Dalmations"-On the "Kanine Krunchies" ad.:)
"Flinstones:"-One of the Boy Scouts ones has Lucille.
"Robots", a 2005 flick from BlueSky ("the Rio" and "Ice Age" franchise folks) and Twenty-Century Fox in a minor role.
"Courgae the COwardly Dog"-I believe she did a few there.
So,in conclusion, regardless opf which chaacter you love her for (and I met her in person),RIP Lucille, Crusader/Smurfette/cruel Stepsiter/OG Readmore supporting character/Space Kiddette/etc.

"Chow Hound"

Many animation sites have for the last two days celebrated Charles Martin Jones, especially by mentioning his 1957-present shorts ":What's Opera Doc" to the MGM.Suess/Kipling specials, to a ceerrtain special about a frog suinging and a rabbit and duck
in a cave of jewels. But there was a time when superioir shorts by the 100-year-old Chuck Jones actually were made, through the early 50s. One actually being quoted and having among the most use of characters outside ceelebrity character-stuff come to life shorts:
"Chow Hound"(officially released June 16,1951)
CHOW HOUND
Rel.by WB studios as a Tech.Merrie Melodie on June 16,1951, rereleased as a Merrie Melodies Blue Ribbon in 1958(? brown rings, came out ahead being a reissue of the new films in
production with the same season ring colours, continued through 1963).
Director:CHARLES M.JONES
Story:MICHAEL MALTESE
Animation:BEN WASHAM, KEN HARRIS,PHILLIP MONROE and LLOYD VAUGHN (wants to do a "Vaughn Monroe" joke now)
Background:PHILIP De GUARD
Layout: BOB GRBOREK
Film Editing/Sound FX:TREGOWERTH BROWN
        CAST
The Dog/The Zoo Kepper/JOHN SMITH
The cat/Mouse/Medics/Male Domestic Pet Owners/MEL BLANC
Female Per Owner/BEA BENADARET
("Voice characterizations: MEL BALNC")
Music Director: CARL STALLING
MUSIC:
Open.."Merry Go Round Broke Down"/CLIFF FRIEND, DAVE FRANKLIN, CARL STALLINGS
Unknown, titles
"Meow"/MOE KAUFMAN/STALLING-FRANKLYN, open shot
original mysteriosis with cat snekaing out/STALLING
"Baby Face"/AKST-DAVIS, the "Harold scene"
Most is original music with the ending exception of
"Am I Blue"/DE SYLVA/HENDERSON"  the pet doc scene
"When the Swallows Come Back"/?? final scene with mousie and cat
Reprise of "Merrie Go Rond" at ened
Producer:ED SELZER
-----------------------------
This is the last seriously dark WB short for anyone in a llng time, though another director Friz Freleng, did one of the occasional gems of the post-50s, "The Last Hungry Cat".


It's late at night, and a guy is feeding and bidding off to bed, his cat, "Butch". "Butch" has a steak for dinner. However in the darkest hour of night,
he is off with the steak and then runs into a put bulldog who grabs him rudely, saying, "Hand it over". It turns out that the cat is working for this dog (as it were)
and the dog eats it but.."What? No Gravy?" (the famous line of the cartoon). So the cat then escapes, with the pooch stepping on hsi tail. "Oh.,.Going someplace".
Looking at his little book (resourceful Rover) he then says 'Cmon stupid..then at another house, he 1) ties a blue bow, 2) says "Now make with the motor" (read:purrr) and then 3) passes him off as
"Harold", a lady's cat ("Harold! You naiughty creature!") Bringing his food to thje dog,m the cat gets it-"What? No Gravy?"

 For the next house, they take out a can of tune and a rock, revelaing that they have been here, and revealing a falsette (Mel Blanc?)
mouse, who is a bigger pussy than the pussycat. An old old man (based on animator Ken Harris, accoridng to Greg Duffell, of Lightbox Canada), now welcomes him in as Timothy! "You;ve earned your keep", as the dfog is nusing the mouse for a dead mouse for the cat
(hey, the mouse had to be for something). And of course, the food fopr the dog, but "No Gravy?" Mousie tries to challenge the dog who onl needs to rap him woith a doctor's knee capreflex testing small mallet,
and agrees to nap.
At the zoo, we see a familiar looking cat, our hero. He then  gets a stick of dynamit ein a steak of the starving dog. He gets blown up. Oh. And no gravy. Too slow, too slow, with pet s missing, but then this inspires the dog, so we see Jones, Maltese, and Washam, ad "M.Hinkle"
names displayed across want ads, so now we hear from, and then soon the dog goes to the woman and two gents, in a baby cradle with trap door,
 with cat, who seems somehow willing to go along(not that he has any CHOICE)..then the nouse makes a return to complete this journey, taking him to the zoo.
The mouse openly complains..in that high fluty flasetto of his as he did before ("how humniliating") dressed as a now un PC Ubangi, and seels the keeper the animal.
We don't see for a while any of the cat or mouse but the bulldog now has money from "returning" so much a smention as buy a butchery but eats too much, eating his wya to a vet-hostpital. As a result,
we see our anti-hero on the bed. Oh. He has two visitors. The cat & mouse. THIS time they DIDN't forget the gravy, not that our canine anti-hero now wants it!
This came aorund the time that J.L.Warner seems to want to end these "dark humor" shorts-in Jones's unit alone, Hubie and Bertie, the Three Bears, and Charlie the Dog, who Yowp on http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2012/09/charlie-jones-charlie-dog.html illustrates in next to last short "Dog Gone South",1950,  were nixed.
Furthermore, yesterday's burthday boy started getting soft, then synical, then critically loved then finally for the first time overrated. But thankfully that was still in the future in1 951 when Chow Hound came out. The title character was not voiced by Mel Blanc but a character actor named John T.Smith, who also played
in the same voice, the "Homeless Hare" construction worker", and using different voices, the "Hillbilly Hare" dumb hillbily, and one time narrated, "There Auto Be a Law". Blanc did do most of the vpoices, with Bea Benaderet as the standard lady (a laBlanche Morton "Harold",conjuring up the Marc Anothony the bulldog or Dodsworth the fat cat owners that she'd playe as well.)
The last of the "Want ad" name,s M.Hinkel (no relation to Rankin-Bass's mad magigician Prof.Hinkle) may have been named for Mary Hinkle, an inker and painter. The Zoo k eeper is also voiced by John Smith and sounds a bit like Sterling Holloway, only adding to the odd'flavour of this seven minute short.


Now where is MY gravy?

"Wacky Wabbit" somewhat wacky Stalling theme

Everyone knows the many themes in Warners Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, likewise the MGM, HB,etc.

In the next months I hope to get a handful of articles on this subject. Opening visual logos,too.Don't worry.


 The WB Merrie Melodies will get a few of these articles.
The first one deals with a remix of the most durable Merrie Melodies closing theme variation
(whose main version originted in the 1941 Sniffles short "Toy Trouble".)
This theme variaiton originated with the 1941-42 Bugs and Elmer short "Wacky Wabbit", directed by Bob Clampett (it'sthe prospecting fat Elmer one). The open is the standard 1941-1944 one but the ending is a odd, interesting slight remix of Carl W.Stalling's theme of the song (Charflie Tobias and the incomparable Eddie Cantor, with M.K.Jerome.,wrtiers), which deb uted
(in the cartoons) in 1935 in I.Freleng's "Billboard Frolics" and sung by Mr.Cantor, "Merrily We Roll Along").

This 1940s slight variation of the most longest closing theme arrangement, after being on "Wacky Wabbit"(not to be confused with "Wakiki Wabbit")
appeared on these subsequent Blue Ribbon Merrie Melody Reissue showings (cartoons arranged by initial release)
"The Merry Old Soul"(1935)
"Tick Tock Tuckered"(itself a remake of 1937's "Porky's Badtime Story")(1943)
"Booby Hatched" (1944)
"Trap-Happy Porky" (1944)
"Peck Up Your Troubles" (1945)
in addition to "Wacky Wabbit".
Stalling loved to play around with the themes. We'll more in a future article.