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69-473: Associated Artists was founded in 1948 by Eliot Hyman . It handled syndication of around 500 films, including the Republic Pictures and Robert L. Lippert libraries, but both companies soon entered television distribution. It also handled syndication for Monogram Pictures and Producers Releasing Corporation . In 1951, Hyman sold the company to David Baird's Lansing Foundation, which in turn sold it to

138-482: A cause. She had left the Termite Terrace in 1943 and did not meet Clampett again until 1960. She did, however, hear from people whom Clampett helped break into the animation business and/or mentored. Clampett is survived by his three children, who preserve his work. They are Robert Clampett Jr., who worked for his father as a puppeteer at Bob Clampett Productions; Ruth Clampett, an author of several books, including

207-463: A contract that stipulated Clampett would host the documentary and also have approval over the final cut. Jackson also claimed that Clampett was very reluctant speaking about the other directors and their contributions. Though Clampett's contribution to the Warner Brothers animation legacy was considerable and inarguable, he has been criticized by his peers as "a shameless self-promoter who provoked

276-422: A deal to distribute Beany and Cecil internationally. With the twin syndicated packages of Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies and Popeye , u.a.a. took a look at a number of shorts in the a.a.p./pre-1950 WB library that appealed to children and packaged them in a third group known as The Big Mac Show , which has a cartoon wrap around. The material a.a.p. bought from Warner Bros. Pictures included nearly all of

345-422: A few months short of graduating in 1931. He found a job at a doll factory owned by his aunt, Charlotte Clark . Clark was looking for an appealing item to sell and Clampett suggested Mickey Mouse , whose popularity was growing. Unable to find a drawing of the character anywhere, Clampett took his sketchpad to the movie theater and came out with several sketches. Clark was concerned with copyright, so they drove to

414-855: A kind of nondescript dinosaur sock puppet that later evolved into Cecil." In high school, Clampett drew a full-page comic about the nocturnal adventures of a cat, later published in color in a Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times . King Features took note and offered Clampett a "cartoonist's contract" beginning a $ 75 a week after high school. King Features allowed him to work in their Los Angeles art department on Saturdays and vacations during high school. King Features occasionally printed his cartoons for encouragement, and paid his way through Otis Art Institute , where he learned to paint in oils and to sculpt. Clampett attended Glendale High School and Hoover High School in Glendale , California , but left Hoover

483-639: A magazine article in 1946, shortly after he left the studio, Clampett repeatedly referred to himself as "the creator" of Bugs Bunny, often adding the side-note that he used Clark Gable 's carrot-eating scene in It Happened One Night as inspiration for his "creation". (Clampett can be observed making this claim in Bugs Bunny: Superstar .) The other two directorial fathers Bugs is claimed to have had are Tex Avery , who directed A Wild Hare , his first official short; and Robert McKimson , who drew

552-410: A money prize to whichever member of the staff turned in the best original story. Clampett's story won first prize and was made into My Green Fedora , also directed by Freleng. Clampett felt encouraged after these successes and began writing more story contributions. After Schlesinger realized he needed another unit, he made a deal with Tex Avery , naming Clampett his collaborator. They were moved to

621-466: A ramshackle building used by gardeners and WB custodial staff for storage of cleaning supplies, solvents, brooms, lawnmowers and other implements. Working apart from the other animators in the small, dilapidated wooden building in the middle of the Vitaphone lot, Avery and Clampett soon discovered they were not the only inhabitants - they shared the building with thousands of tiny termites . They christened

690-546: A rubbery, flexible animation quality visible in all Clampett's shorts, and Maltin noted an "energetic, comic anarchy". While Clampett's cartoons were not as well known in the latter half of the 20th century because television syndicators only had the rights to the post-1948 Warner cartoons, his creations have increased in notoriety and acclaim in recent decades. Martha Sigall recalled Clampett as "an enthusiastic and fun type of guy". She describes him as consistently nice to her and very generous when it came to gifts or donations to

759-450: A single cartoon for Republic, It's a Grand Old Nag , featuring the equine character Charlie Horse and produced at Bob Clampett Productions. Republic management, however, had second thoughts due to dwindling profits, and they discontinued the series. Clampett took his direction credit under the name " Kilroy ". In 1949, Clampett turned his attention to television, where he created the famous puppet show Time for Beany . The show, featuring

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828-477: A studio-wide drive to get ideas for an animal version of Our Gang commenced. Clampett submitted a drawing of a pig (Porky) and a black cat (Beans), and, in an imitation of the lettering on a can of Campbell's Pork and Beans, wrote "Clampett's Porky and Beans." Porky debuted in the Friz Freleng-directed I Haven't Got a Hat in 1935. Around the same time, Schlesinger announced a studio-wide contest, with

897-635: Is buried in Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills . Since 1984, The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award has been given each year at the Eisner Awards . Recipients of the award include June Foray , Jack Kirby , Sergio Aragonés , Patrick McDonnell , Maggie Thompson , Ray Bradbury and Mark Evanier . Clampett's Tin Pan Alley Cats (1943) was chosen by the Library of Congress as a "prime example of

966-576: The American Television Archive. Some of this animosity appears to have come from Clampett's perceived "golden boy" status at the studio (Clampett's mother was said to be a close friend of cartoon producer Leon Schlesinger ), which allowed him to ignore studio rules that everyone else was expected to follow. In addition, Mel Blanc , the voice actor who worked with Clampett at the same studio for ten years, also accused Clampett of being an "egotist who took credit for everything." Beginning with

1035-580: The Disney studio. Walt and Roy Disney were delighted, and they set up a business not far from the Disney studio. Clampett recalled his short time working for Disney: "Walt Disney himself sometimes came over in an old car to pick up the dolls; he would give them out to visitors to the studio and at sales meetings. I helped him load the dolls in the car. One time his car, loaded with Mickeys, wouldn't start, and I pushed while Walt steered, until it caught, and he took off." Clampett was, in his words, so "enchanted" by

1104-556: The Iguana ", " Funny Girl ", "The Owl and the Pussycat" and several other shows. From November 1966 to July 1967, Seven Arts and Warner Bros. were merged, and the company became Warner Bros.-Seven Arts . Hyman was the chairman of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts from 1967 to 1969. In 1969, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was sold to Kinney National Company which dropped the Seven Arts name. Hyman retired from

1173-638: The Seesaw ". He also produced other motion pictures for theater exhibition through other companies that he formed. In 1960 Hyman went on his own again to form Seven Arts Productions and engaged in worldwide distribution of feature films for television. At the same time Seven Arts directly financed and produced a number of films, including Lolita (1962), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), and Seven Days in May (1964). He also guided Seven Arts into stage production, including Broadway presentations of " The Night of

1242-629: The United Artists Collection. The early synchronized sound Vitaphone shorts are lacking accompanying sound discs. This is a large collection of nitrate negatives and masters, which are still undergoing transfer to acetate stock. Most of the safety film copies exist only in the preservation master stage, limiting accessibility for viewing and duplication. Some years ago, the Library of Congress obtained 16mm prints (though many are television prints, flat in picture quality and occasionally edited) for

1311-528: The Warner Bros. cartoon package combined gave a.a.p. a library of over 568 theatrical cartoon shorts, which would be staples of children's television for many years. In January 1957, a.a.p announced plans to purchase the short subject library of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $ 4.5 million. Around 900 shorts would be included in the package such as the Tom and Jerry cartoons and Pete Smith comedies, among others. Although

1380-536: The Warner Bros. cartoons. Clampett, whose collection of drawings, films and memorabilia from the golden days of Termite Terrace was legendary, provided nearly all of the behind-the-scenes drawings and home-movie footage for the film; furthermore, his wife, Sody Clampett, is credited as the film's production coordinator. In an audio commentary recorded for Bugs Bunny: Superstar , director Larry Jackson claimed that in order to secure Clampett's participation and access to Clampett's collection of Warners history, he had to sign

1449-452: The armed forces, Frank Tashlin rejoined Schlesinger as director, and that unit was eventually turned over to Robert McKimson . Milton Gray notes that from The Hep Cat (1942) on, the cartoons become even more wild as Clampett's experimentation reached a peak. Clampett later created the character of Tweety , introduced in A Tale of Two Kitties in 1942. His cartoons grew increasingly violent, irreverent, and surreal, not beholden to even

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1518-590: The black-and-white Looney Tunes shorts were not included in the library as the TV rights were sold to Guild Films in 1955. Former Warner cartoon director Bob Clampett was hired to catalog the Warner cartoon library. Warner Bros. retained the ancillary rights to the films in the cartoon library. In 1969, the United Artists Corporation presented to the Library of Congress the earliest surviving preprint material from

1587-408: The building " Termite Terrace ", a name eventually used by historians to describe the entire studio. The two soon developed an irreverent style of animation that would set Warner Bros. apart from its competitors. They were soon joined by animators Chuck Jones , Virgil Ross and Sid Sutherland , and worked virtually without interference on their new, groundbreaking style of humor for the next year. It

1656-413: The cartoon business". He reveals that Jones was angry at Clampett for making some generalizations in his 1970 interview with Funnyworld that gave Clampett too much credit, including taking sole credit for not only Bugs and Daffy but also Jones's Sniffles character and Freleng's Yosemite Sam . He writes that Jones began making additional accusations against Clampett, such as that Clampett would "go around

1725-511: The company and became a private investor. Film producer Kenneth Hyman is his son. This article about an American businessperson born in the 1900s is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bob Clampett Robert Emerson Clampett Sr. (May 8, 1913 – May 2, 1984) was an American animator , director , producer and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros. as well as

1794-534: The copyright owner in name only to the former Associated Artists Productions properties, while Warner Bros. Discovery handles their distribution. Eliot Hyman Eliot Hyman (1904–1980) was an American film executive who helped co-found Seven Arts Productions . Hyman entered the film production business in 1948, when he co-founded Associated Artists . He became the sole owner of Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.) two years later. In 1954, he began syndicating films to television through a.a.p., acquiring

1863-490: The deal was nearly finalized, it fell through, reportedly due to the price of the sale. MGM would then distribute the shorts themselves through their own in-house television subsidiary Metro TV . National Telefilm Associates announced plans to buy control of AAP Corp. on November 18, 1957. By December 16, 1957, control of a.a.p. was the subject of litigation which was passed on to the New York Supreme Court between

1932-533: The definitive Bugs Bunny model sheet. Depending on the source, Bugs' primary creator could be either Jones or Freleng. Some argue that, based on a viewing of the early Bugs cartoons of the late 1930s and early 1940s, the character was not "created" by one director, but evolved in personality, voice, and design over several years through the collective efforts of Clampett, Avery, Jones, Freleng, McKimson, Mel Blanc, Cal Dalton , Ben Hardaway and Bob Givens . In Bugs Bunny: Superstar , Clampett also takes credit for drawing

2001-575: The entire library of 750 feature films of Warner Bros. made before 1950, as well as 1,500 short subjects and 337 Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies cartoon shorts also from Warner Bros. and the Fleischer Studios / Famous Studios Popeye cartoons from Paramount Pictures . He also began investing in films, including two major films of the director John Huston, Moulin Rouge (1953) and Moby Dick (1956). He helped fund and played an important role in

2070-604: The faintest hint of real-world physics, and his characters have been argued to be easily the most rubbery and wacky of all the Warner directors'. Clampett was heavily influenced by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí , as is most visible in Porky in Wackyland (1938), wherein the entire short takes place within a Dalí -esque landscape complete with melting objects and abstracted forms. Clampett and his work can even be considered part of

2139-497: The features produced and distributed by Warner Bros. prior to 1950, and the live-action short subjects released prior to September 1, 1948. The cartoon library included every color Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies short released prior to August 1, 1948, and nearly all of the Merrie Melodies produced by Harman-Ising Productions from 1931 to 1933. The remaining black-and-white Merrie Melodies shorts made from 1933 to 1934 and

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2208-501: The financially ailing Ub Iwerks , whom Schlesinger subcontracted to produce several Porky Pig shorts. These shorts featured the short-lived and generally unpopular Gabby Goat as Porky's sidekick. Despite Clampett and Jones' contributions, however, Iwerks was the only credited director. Clampett's first cartoon with a directorial credit was Porky's Badtime Story . Under the Warner system, Clampett had complete creative control over his own films, within severe money and time limitations (he

2277-439: The financing of the first horror film from Hammer Film Productions , The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). In 1958 Hyman sold Associated Artists Productions to United Artists and became President of United Artists Associated , for whom he bought the screen rights to several successful theatrical properties, e.g. plays and musicals, that became major films, including " West Side Story ", " The World of Suzie Wong ", and " Two for

2346-399: The hero and rotoscoped it into the film. Clampett planned to leave Leon Schlesinger Productions, but Schlesinger offered him a promotion to director and more money if he would stay. Clampett was promoted to director in late 1936, directing a color sequence in the feature When's Your Birthday? (1937). This led to what was essentially a co-directing stint with fellow animator Chuck Jones for

2415-463: The lead in the Buffalo Billy television show. In the late 1950s, Clampett was hired by Associated Artists Productions to catalog the pre-August 1948 Warner cartoons it had just acquired. He also created an animated version of the puppet show called Beany and Cecil , whose 26 half-hour episodes were first broadcast on ABC in 1962 and were rerun on the network for five years. Clampett's studio

2484-594: The library in 1986 during Ted Turner 's brief ownership of MGM/UA. When Turner sold back the MGM/UA production unit, he kept the MGM library, including the Warner Bros. Pictures films and Popeye cartoons from the a.a.p. library, for his own company. On June 16, 1982, Warner Communications was in talks to buy back rights to the pre-1950 Warner Bros. Pictures library (with the pre-1948 Warner Bros. live-action and animation shorts) from MGM/UA for $ 100 million in cash. The MGM-Warner deal

2553-400: The model sheet for the first Porky Pig cartoon, I Haven't Got a Hat (1935), even though it was actually drawn by Friz Freleng . Animation historian Milton Gray details the long and bitter rivalry between Clampett and Jones in his essay "Bob Clampett Remembered". Gray, a personal friend of Clampett, calls the controversy "a deliberate and vicious smear campaign by one of Bob's rivals in

2622-832: The music and mores of our times" and a print was buried in a time capsule in Washington, D.C. , so future generations might see it. Porky in Wackyland (1938) was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2000, deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Animator John Kricfalusi , best known for being the creator of Nickelodeon 's The Ren & Stimpy Show , got to know Clampett in his later years and has reflected on those times as inspirational. Kricfalusi cited Clampett as his favorite animator and Clampett's The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946) as his favorite cartoon: "I saw this thing and it completely changed my life, I thought it

2691-422: The new medium of sound cartoons that he tried to join Disney as an animator. While Disney wanted to hire Clampett, they ultimately turned him down due to them having had enough animators at that time, so Clampett instead joined Harman-Ising Studios in 1931 for ten dollars a week. Leon Schlesinger viewed one of Clampett's 16mm films and was impressed, offering him an assistant position at the studio. His first job

2760-468: The new studio. In his first years at the studio, Clampett mostly worked for Friz Freleng , under whose guidance Clampett grew into an able animator. By the time he joined Harman-Ising, Clampett was only 17 years old. By 1934, Schlesinger was in a bit of a crisis trying to find a well-known cartoon character. He noted that the Our Gang series consisted of nothing but "little kids doing things together," and

2829-576: The original black-and-white/Technicolor camera negatives. The Library is converting those items on nitrate to safety film stock and has obtained reference prints for seventy of the better known Warner Bros. features, such as Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935), High Sierra (1941), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), The Jazz Singer (1927), and Little Caesar (1930). There are no United Artists films (such as James Bond and The Pink Panther franchise; these are owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ) in

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2898-438: The parties of a.a.p., NTA, and Harris minority shareholder group. The company was acquired by United Artists (UA) in 1958, with UA borrowing the full amount $ 27 million from Manufacturers's Trust when a.a.p. shareholders needed cash quickly. The a.a.p. purchase did come with the uncollected accounts' receivable amount around the purchase price. The resulting division was named United Artists Associated, Inc. (u.a.a.). u.a.a. made

2967-429: The peak of his creativity and against everyone's advice. In 1946, two years after Warner Bros. bought out Leon Schlesinger's studio, his key executives Henry Binder and Ray Katz went to Screen Gems , the cartoon division of Columbia Pictures , and asked Clampett to join them as the studio's creative head. He ultimately worked as a screenwriter and gag writer for the studio. Clampett was now working for three studios at

3036-578: The pre-1950 Warner Bros. Pictures film library (including First National Pictures ). The collection contains 200 silent features (1918–29), 800 sound features (1926–50), 1,800 sound shorts (1926–48), and 337 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts (1931–48). While consisting largely of Warner Bros. releases, the collection includes nearly two hundred sound features released by Monogram Pictures Corporation between 1936 and 1946 and 231 Popeye cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios released between 1933 and 1957. Most motion pictures exist in

3105-766: The pre-1950 Warner Bros. features. Additional prints have been added to the collection, ranging from "reject fine grain master positives" (copies made for preservation but deemed inadequate) suitable for reference use, to high-quality 35mm prints reserved for theatrical projection. United Artists also sent 16mm prints of most of the Warner Bros. and Monogram films to the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research , such as My Four Years in Germany (1918), Conductor 1492 (1924), Midnight Lovers (1926) and Joe Palooka in Triple Cross (1951). Titles and holdings are listed in

3174-604: The purchase of the entire pre-December 1949 Warner Bros. Pictures library in February 1956 for $ 21 million, with a.a.p. and its theatrical subsidiary Dominant Pictures handling distribution sales. On December 5, 1956, PRM changed its name to Associated Artists Productions Corp. a.a.p. also purchased the Popeye the Sailor cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios and Famous Studios from Paramount Pictures on June 11, 1956. This purchase and

3243-533: The same time: Warner Bros., Screen Gems, and his new independent studio, Bob Clampett Productions. Deciding "this was too much of a good thing" and seeking more creative freedom than WB would allow, he made the decision to leave WB shortly after joining Screen Gems. That same year, Republic Pictures incorporated animation (by Walter Lantz ) into its Gene Autry feature film Sioux City Sue . It turned out well enough for Republic to dabble in animated cartoons. Bob Clampett, now working solely for his own studio, directed

3312-564: The series, Beany and Cecil , was initially broadcast on ABC in 1962 and rerun until 1967. It is considered the first fully creator-driven television series and carried the byline "a Bob Clampett Cartoon". In his later years, Clampett toured college campuses and animation festivals as a lecturer on the history of animation. His Warner cartoons have seen renewed praise in decades since for their surrealistic qualities, energetic and outrageous animation, and irreverent, wordplay-laden humor. Animation historian Jerry Beck lauded Clampett for "putting

3381-524: The startup company Motion Pictures for Television (MPTV), where Hyman served as a consultant. Hyman also became a partner in Mouline Productions, the producers of Moby Dick , while financing and producing other films and TV projects. In July 1954, Hyman launched another TV distribution company which used the Associated Artists name, Associated Artists Productions, Inc. , with the purchase of

3450-452: The studio at night, looking at other directors' storyboards for ideas he could steal for his own cartoons." Jones wrote a letter of accusations in 1975 and, according to Gray, distributed copies to every fan he met—seemingly the genesis of the growing controversy. Gray asserts that Clampett was a "kind, generous man [who was] deeply hurt and saddened by Jones's accusations. […] I feel that Bob Clampett deserves tremendous respect and gratitude for

3519-445: The studio in May 1945, leaving a handful of shorts unfinished before they were picked up again by other studio directors. The generally accepted story was that Clampett left over matters of artistic freedom, despite some people claimed that he left the studio on his own. Clampett's style was becoming increasingly divergent from those of Freleng and Jones. In any event, Clampett was fired by Leon Schlesinger's successor, Edward Selzer , who

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3588-434: The studio, he directed 84 cartoons later deemed classic, and designed some of the studio's most famous characters, including Porky Pig , Daffy Duck and Tweety . Among his most acclaimed films are Porky in Wackyland (1938) and The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946). He left Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1946 and turned his attention to television, creating the puppet show Time for Beany in 1949. A later animated version of

3657-869: The surreal movement, as it incorporated film as well as static media. It was largely Clampett's influence that would impel the Warners directors to shed the final vestiges of all Disney influence. Clampett was also known for creating some brief voices or sound effects in some of the cartoons. One of these became a personal trademark: a vocal sound accompanying the iris-out closing of every Clampett cartoon (" Bay-woop! ") Clampett liked to bring contemporary cultural movements into his cartoons, especially jazz ; film, magazines, comics, novels, and popular music are referenced in Clampett shorts, most visible in Book Revue (1946), where performers are drawn onto various celebrated books. Clampett

3726-494: The syndication rights to the Universal Sherlock Holmes films from MPTV. His son Ken served as vice-president. Associated Artists Productions also acquired distribution rights to Johnny Jupiter , Candid Camera , thirteen Artcinema Associates feature films, thirty-seven Western films, and three serials. In March 1956, Hyman's company was acquired by investment firm PRM, Inc. , headed by Lou Chesler. PRM closed

3795-572: The talents of voice artists Stan Freberg and Daws Butler , would earn Clampett three Emmys . Groucho Marx and Albert Einstein were both fans of the series. In 1952, he created the Thunderbolt the Wondercolt television series and the 3D prologue to Bwana Devil featuring Beany and Cecil. In 1954, he directed Willy the Wolf (the first puppet variety show on television), as well as creating and voicing

3864-449: The television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil . He was born and raised not far from Hollywood and, early in life, showed an interest in animation and puppetry. After dropping out of high school in 1931, he joined the team at Harman-Ising Productions and began working on the studio's newest short subjects, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies . Clampett was promoted to a directorial position in 1937. During his 15 years at

3933-568: The various M/B/RS catalogs. There are a number of published reference books on Warner Bros. films. Copyrights are still in effect for most of the films in this collection; a donor restriction also applies. United Artists has passed through various hands, but current ownership of this material resides with Turner Entertainment Co. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer purchased United Artists, including the a.a.p. library, from Transamerica Corporation in May 1981 and became MGM/UA Entertainment Co. Turner Broadcasting System (via Turner Entertainment Co. ) took over

4002-478: The wonderful work that he left us." Other Warner Bros. peers, such as musical coordinator Carl Stalling and animator Tex Avery , stood by Clampett during his talks on the animation industry in the 1960s and 1970s. Clampett died of a heart attack on May 2, 1984, in Detroit, Michigan , six days before his 71st birthday, while touring the country to promote the home video release of Beany & Cecil cartoons. He

4071-767: The word 'looney' in Looney Tunes ." Clampett was born on May 8, 1913 in San Diego, California to Robert Caleb Clampett and Mildred Joan Merrifield. His father was born in Nenagh , County Tipperary , Ireland in 1882, and immigrated to the United States with his parents at age two in 1884. Clampett showed art skills by the age of five. From the beginning, he was intrigued with and influenced by Douglas Fairbanks , Lon Chaney , Charlie Chaplin , Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd , and began making film short-subjects in his garage when he

4140-546: The wrath of his former Warner's colleagues in later years for allegedly claiming credit for ideas that were not his." Chuck Jones particularly disliked Clampett and deliberately avoided making any mention of his association with him in his 1979 compilation film The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (compiled by Jones, in which Jones lists himself and other Warners directors), though he did briefly mention working with Clampett in his 1989 autobiography Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of An Animated Cartoonist and his 1998 interview for

4209-619: Was 12. Living in Hollywood as a young boy, he and his mother Joan lived next door to Charlie Chaplin and his brother Sydney Chaplin . Clampett also recalled watching his father play handball at the Los Angeles Athletic Club with another of the great silent comedians, Harold Lloyd. From his teens on, Clampett showed an interest in animation . He had made hand puppets as a child and, before adolescence, completed what animation historian Milt Gray describes as "a sort of prototype,

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4278-496: Was a good source for censorship stories, though the accuracy of his recollections has been disputed. According to an interview published in Funnyworld #12 (1971), Clampett had a method for ensuring that certain elements of his films would escape the censors' cuts. He added extremely suggestive or objectionable gags aimed just at the censors; they would focus on cutting those and thus leave in the ones he actually wanted. Clampett left

4347-511: Was a wild place with an almost college fraternity -like atmosphere. Animators would frequently pull pranks such as gluing paper streamers to the wings of flies. Leon Schlesinger , who rarely ventured there, was reputed on one visit to have remarked in his lisping voice, "Pew, let me out of here! The only thing missing is the sound of a flushing toilet!!" On the side, Clampett directed a sales film, co-animated by Chuck Jones and in-betweened by Robert Cannon. Clampett filmed Cannon in live action as

4416-426: Was animating secondary characters in the first Merrie Melodie , Lady, Play Your Mandolin! (1931). The same year, Clampett began attending story meetings after submitting an idea eventually used for Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! . The two series were produced at Harman-Ising until mid-1933 when Harman and Ising left Schlesinger, who went on to found Leon Schlesinger Productions . Clampett left Harman and Ising and joined

4485-527: Was at 729 Seward Street in Hollywood, later a Klasky Csupo studio. In his later years, Bob Clampett toured college campuses and animation festivals as a lecturer on the history of animation . In 1974, he was awarded an Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comic Convention . In 1975, he was the focus of a documentary entitled Bugs Bunny: Superstar , the first documentary to examine the history of

4554-453: Was far less tolerant of him than Schlesinger had been. The Warner style that he was so instrumental in developing was leaving him behind. Warner Bros. had recently bought the rights to the entire Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies studio from Schlesinger and, while his cartoons of 1946 are today considered on the cutting edge of the art for that period, at the time, Clampett was ready to seek new challenges. Clampett left at what some considered

4623-552: Was only given $ 3,000 and four weeks to complete each short). During production of Porky's Duck Hunt in 1937, Avery created a character that would become Daffy Duck and Clampett animated the character for the first time. Clampett was so popular in theaters that Schlesinger told the other directors to imitate him, emphasizing gags and action. When Tex Avery departed in 1941, his unit was taken over by Clampett while Norman McCabe took over Clampett's old unit. Clampett finished Avery's remaining unfinished cartoons. When McCabe joined

4692-462: Was terminated on July 28 of that same year, after two companies failed to complete acquisitions of MGM/UA's record company asset and the pre-1950 Warner Bros. film libraries; the main reason is that the negotiations fell apart because of dozens of unresolved points, probably relating to the oldest Warner Bros. films. The Warner Bros. film libraries were reunited in 1996 when Time Warner, then the parent company of Warner Bros., bought Turner. Turner remains

4761-547: Was the greatest thing I'd ever seen, and I still think it is." Animation historian Leonard Maltin has called Clampett's cartoons "unmistakable". Milton Gray believes that Schlesinger put Clampett in charge of the black and white cartoon division in order to save it, and many historians have singled out a scene in Porky's Duck Hunt , in which Daffy exits, as a defining Clampett moment. Maltin called it "a level of wackiness few moviegoers had ever seen". Historian Charles Solomon noted

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