ThadBlog

What it says. Found recently on eBay.

Seth MacFarlane is now the highest paid mogul working in television.

Can anyone say for certain who voiced Phony Baloney? For that matter, what is Phony Baloney? A leprechaun? How timely to be making references to “Fibber McGee and Molly” in 1954, too (okay, to be fair, it was on the air until 1959).

The ad insert that came with the recent screwball comedy releases from Universal (it’d be nice if they’d release a Universal movie for a change, though) contained a nice surprise. I am happy to see that Walter Lantz’s cartoons rank high enough to be seen alongside the Marx Bros. and Hitchcock. Who’d have thought?

The writer-artist team of Hubie Karp and Bob Wickersham was utilized mostly for the Fox and Crow stories of the 1940s, but they were also responsible for “Wacky Wolf” of Giggle Comics. Lots of funny animal artists of the era didn’t seem to like making their incidental characters look very interesting (I’m including Carl Barks here, too), but every character Wickersham draws in his stories is funny-looking and beautifully drawn. Here’s their story from No. 39 (March 1947).

I knew that Pope Benedict looked like a TV cartoon character… I just didn’t know which one until I watched some Underdog awhile ago (NOT recommended, BTW).

The “forgotten” Marvin the Martian short, because Maurice Noble didn’t do the layouts. Benny Washam animated a good bulk of this (Bugs’ reaction of seeing the spaceship to getting caught in the straight-jacket), and he does a great job of making a character with no mouth expressive.  The elaborate cutting of Marvin getting tricked into going across the universe without Bugs, and his reaction, is brilliant.  You also have to love how half the universe can fit into the earth’s atmosphere.  The astronomer is, of course, a caricature of Friz Freleng.

To save face and not suffer the wrath of Eddie Selzer, Bob Clampett took to the streets and was looking for work at the other Hollywood cartoon studios after the Spring of 1945. He was given the pathetic position of “creative consultant” at Screen Gems by his old pals Ray Katz and Henry Binder (who probably didn’t trust him as a director at such a small studio, given his reputation for going overbudget under Schlesinger). This is one Clampett claimed to have written, which is pretty much a cartoon for Daffy Duck with a pigeon instead (that has two different voices), complete with a Peter Lorre (”Mr. Sidney”) caricature.

This is one of the ‘missing’ cartoons from Columbia’s vaults (it’s probably there in an unlabeled can), and the only copy going around is from a black-and-white 16mm print (though David Gerstein says a splicey color print survives in Europe). I’d love to see it in color as there are some interesting backgrounds in this one. Ask Jerry Beck if you’d like a copy on DVD.