Thursday, August 30, 2007

Over at Schlesinger's in 1937

Another walk through animation history...

Schlesinger, 1937

Second row from the front, fourth from the right: Tex Avery; Back row, eighth from the right, in white shirt: Chuck Jones; Fourth to the right of Jones: Rudy Larriva. Uncle Leon -- the gent with the nifty comb-over -- is kneeling front-row center. He's in the suit.

As Wikipedia describes Schlesinger's merry band in the early years:

From 1936 until 1944, animation directors and animators such as Freleng, Avery, Clampett, Jones, Arthur Davis, Robert McKimson, and Frank Tashlin worked at the studio. During this period, these creators introduced several of the most popular cartoon characters to date, including Daffy Duck (1937, Porky's Duck Hunt by Avery), Elmer Fudd (1940, Elmer's Candid Camera by Jones), Bugs Bunny (1940, A Wild Hare by Avery), and Tweety Bird (1942, A Tale of Two Kitties by Clampett). By 1942, the Schlesinger studio had surpassed Walt Disney Studios as the most successful producer of animated shorts in the United States

The Schlesinger unit was based on the Warners Sunset lot (which today is Channel 5.); Warners purchased the cartoon unit in 1944 and the rest, as they say, is lots of cartoon entertainment. (At this time in '37, Chuck Jones was a new director in his mid-twenties.)

The staff turned out just a few paltry shorts in 1937:

Little Red Walking Hood, September in the Rain, Porky's Hero Agency, The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos, A Sunbonnet Blue, Egghead Rides Again, Porky's Double Trouble, The Case of the Stuttering Pig, The Lyin' Mouse, Rover's Rival, I Wanna Be a Sailor, Dog Daze, Porky's Garden, Speaking of the Weather, Get Rich Quick Porky, Porky's Railroad , Ain't We Got Fun, Plenty of Money and You, Porky's Badtime Story, Uncle Tom's Bungalow, Porky's Super Service, Sweet Sioux, Porky's Building, Streamlined Greta Green, Clean Pastures, I Only Have Eyes for You, Porky and Gabby, Porky's Duck Hunt, She Was an Acrobat's Daughter, Porky's Romance, The Fella with the Fiddle, Picador Porky, Porky's Road Race, Pigs Is Pigs, Porky the Wrestler, He Was Her Man

All the work was done on Sunset in Hollywood. Nothing overseas. Nothing sub-contracted. How did these people do it?

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