by E.O. Costello

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

Glossary

Alphabetical Listings

A / B / C / D / E / F / G / H / I / J / K / L / M / N / O / P / Q / R / S / T / U / V / W / X / Y / Z

SAM SHEEPDOG

Mostly silent co-worker of Ralph Wolf who enjoys a symbiotic relationshp with the canid. He guards the sheep, Ralph tries to catch them, Sam pummels Ralph, they punch out on the timeclock, and go home. Jones claims to have borrowed the concept from a Lewis Browne book about there being no judges, only people judging. Jones took this logic one step further, coming to the conclusion that there are no sheepdogs, only dogs guarding sheep. And there you have it. Unlike the somewhat similar Road Runner series, Sam moves very little if at all, but of course magically appears wherever necessary to foil Ralph Wolf.

Filmography, all directed by Jones:

• Don’t Give Up the Sheep (1953)
• Sheep Ahoy (1954)
• Double or Mutton (1955)
• Steal Wool (1957)
• Ready Woolen and Able (1960)
• A Sheep in the Deep (1962)
• Woolen Under Where (1963)

SASANOFF, MICHAEL

Story writer for Warner Brothers in the 1940s. Credits include What’s Cookin’ Doc? (Clampett, 1944), The Old Grey Hare (Clampett, 1944), and The Bashful Buzzard (Clampett, 1945). Along with Tom McKimson, Sasanoff received layout and background credit for Wagon Heels, Clampett’s 1945 remake of his own Injun Trouble (1938).

In Tortoise Wins By A Hare (Clampett, 1943), Sasanoff’s name can be seen in the lower right corner of the turtle-shell blueprint shown to Bugs Bunny by Cecil Turtle.

SATURDAY EVENING POST

Until fairly recently, one of the leading mass-circulation magazines in the country. Norman Rockwell’s cover illustrations for the magazine are quite well-known, and P.G. Wodehouse published many of his stories in the pages of the Post. The magazine can be seen in Ghost Wanted (Jones, 1940) as the “Saturday Evening Ghost”, and William Powell walks a blindfolded Asta past the magazine in Speaking of the Weather (Tashlin, 1937).

SCHLESINGER, LEON
(1884-1949)

Head of cartoon production for Warner Brothers distribution between 1930 and 1944. His obituary in Variety indicates that at the age of 14, he was an usher in a Philadelphia theatre, eventally rising to become a song book agent, a bit player on the stage, a cashier, and a theatre manager. Before 1930, Schlesinger was head of Pacific Art & Title, a still-extant company which in silent movie days specialized in making title and dialogue cards.

Russell Merrit and J.B. Kaufman’s Walt in Wonderland, a study of Disney in the silent era, discusses a business arrangement between Disney and Schlesinger. Schlesinger occasionally subcontracted to animation studios to produce titles, and at least one of these was for Disney. Nat Levine’s The Silent Flyer, a Universal serial from 1926, is one such known product.

Legend has it that Schlesinger was a financial backer of the landmark Warner Brothers talkie The Jazz Singer, earning him Jack Warner’s gratitude. While this may or may not be true, it is certain that Jack Warner and Leon Schlesinger were on friendly terms. (The book Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story contains a comic photo of Warner and Schlesinger posing together in swimsuits.)

Whatever the connection, Schlesinger was given the opportunity to manage production of cartoons for Warner Brothers, starting in 1930 with Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising, who had split with Disney some time before. They brought Friz Freleng with them as their principal animator, and the Warner Brothers cartoon studio was born.

Schlesigner survived Harman and Ising’s move to MGM in 1933, probably occasioned by Schlesigner’s refusal to increase production budgets. He gradually built the studio into the industry leader it became in the early 1940s, before selling it to Warner Brothers outright in 1944. (The 1944 Annual Report of Warner Brothers lists the sale price as $700,000.) Schlesinger continued to do work related to merchandising characters before passing away in 1949.

Schlesinger’s directors and animators had mixed views on him. On the negative side, he has been remembered as a fifth-rate Harry Cohn (the tyrannical head of Columbia studios who was known as “White Fang”) who knew nothing about cartoon production, save for the money they made him, and who dressed like a vaudeville hoofer who had recently come into money. Schlesinger is said to have refused his directors the use of his yacht, on account of not wanting “poor people” on board. After the late 1930s, Schlesigner took to indulging his passtimes of horse racing and sailboats rather than actually supervising the production of cartoons. As with Disney, though, it was his name that appeared on his comic books as author, rather than the names of the artists responsible. Schlesinger was also notoriously tight-fisted when it came to budgeting.

On the positive side, it was Schlesinger who selected the people that made Warner Brothers the cartoon studio that it was, mandating practically no restrictions on material, aside from the pronouncement to put “loth of joketh” in the cartoons -- which leads to his most enduring memorial. Schlesinger had a noticeable lisp, and the staffers creating Daffy Duck in the late 1930s -- Jones credits Cal Howard -- decided to base the duck’s voice on Schlesinger’s. Expecting the worst, the animators screened the short. Schlesigner’s reaction, far from being negative, was to declare enthusiastically “Jethuth Critht thath’s a funny voithe! Where’d ya get that voithe?”. Apparently it never even occurred to him that Daffy Duck’s voice might have a parody of his own. (See the account in Chuck Amuck, pp. 90-91).

Carciatures of Schlesigner can be seen in Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941) seated at a table with Henry Binder, and also in Russian Rhapsody (Clampett, 1944) as the gremlin hammering rivets, along with another who I believe to be Ray Katz. Schlesinger appears in live action, playing himself, in the noteworthy You Ought to Be in Pictures (Freleng, 1940). It is a matter of dispute whether the voice in the film was his own or performed by Mel Blanc.

Schlesinger is also referred to in Have You Got Any Castles? (Tashlin, 1938) when the Good Earth is praying for Poppa Leon, as well as by the Cliff Nazarro penguin in The Penguin Parade (Avery, 1938). A Leon pigeon is listed on the blackboard in Plane Daffy (Tashlin, 1944), and one of the baby ducks in Booby Hatched (Tashlin, 1944) is called Leon. Leon Schlesinger Cartoons are referred to in Porky Pig’s Feat (Tashlin, 1943), and also in Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (Freleng, 1944) by the Japanese soldier.

SCOTT, RAYMOND
(né Harry Warnow, 1908-1994)

Innovative, even avant-garde bandleader of the 1930s who later became the orchestra leader on the Your Hit Parade program sponsored by Lucky Strike. In personal appearences by Scott in the 1930s with his group, the Quintette, he was billed as “the foremost composer of modern music”. Scott was not only a meticulous craftsman but a pioneer in electronically synthesised music. He is probably most widely remembered as the composer of “Powerhouse”.

Although Scott was never credited in a Warner Brothers cartoon, his compositions are intimately associated with them. Warner Brothers acquired the catalogue of his songs in 1943, and for the next fifteen years, Carl Stalling used the songs liberally to add spice to the scores. Curiously, it does not appear that Scott was aware of Stalling’s use of the songs, let alone the ironic yet vital role that such use would play in preserving his legacy, long after his Quintette had faded from prominence.

According to the Raymond Scott Archive, 14 different Scott songs were used 133 times in 117 Warner-released cartoons between 1943 and 1962, including the Private Snafu shorts. I do not claim to list all appearances of Scott’s compositions here, or even all of the songs, such as the relatively obscure compositions like “Egyptian Barn Dance” and “Singing Down the Road”. I am rather going to note certain individual songs and point out what I consider some outstanding examples of their use as follows:

• “Powerhouse: ‘A’ theme”
  • Opening credits and first few seconds of The Mouse-Merized Cat (McKimson, 1946)
  • Spaceship-tunneling sequence in Jumpin’ Jupiter (Jones, 1955)
  
  
• “Powerhouse: ‘B’ theme”
  • Sequence with the hens on the conveyor belt in The Swooner Crooner (Tashlin, 1944)
  • Sequence where Daffy and Porky are trapped on the conveyor belt in Baby Bottleneck (Clampett, 1946)
  • Sequence where Wellington the cat is attempting to frame Roscoe the dog by planting paw prints all over the living room in Hiss and Make Up (Freleng, 1943)
  • Entrance of the bulldog in Early to Bet (McKimson, 1951)
  
  
• “Twilight in Turkey”
  • Jack-wabbit and the Beanstalk (Freleng, 1943) during the later scene where the Giant is chasing Bugs toward the beanstalk
  
  
• “In an 18th Century Drawing Room”
  • Opening scenes with the butler in The Aristo-cat (Jones, 1943)
  • Scene where the Wolf is putting on a ewe disguise in I Got Plenty of Mutton (Tashlin, 1944)
  
  
• “The Toy Trumpet”
  • Credit sequence of Rebel Rabbit (McKimson, 1949)
  • The march of the mother duck and her brood in Booby Hatched (Tashlin, 1944)
  
  
• “Huckleberry Duck”
  • Opening sequence where the Wolf is drawing water in I Got Plenty of Mutton (Tashlin, 1944)
  • Also used in Meatless Flyday (Frleng, 1944)
  
  
• “The Penguin”
  • Wackicki Wabbit (Jones, 1943) during the scene with the kettle
  
  
• “Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals”
  • Sequence in which Bugs initiates a nightmare for Elmer Fudd in The Big Snooze (Clampett, 1946)
  
  
• “Boy Scout in Switzerland”
  • Sequence in which the bulldog and the lanky brown pooch are experiencing problems using a fence door in Behind the Meat Ball (Tashlin, 1945)

I strongly recommend consulting The Raymond Scott Archives for more complete information on Scott, compiled by a loyal member of his clique, Irwin Chusid, to whom I tip my hat.

SCOTT, WILLIAM (“BILL”)

Story writer for Arthur Davis in the late 1940s, usually teamed with Lloyd Turner. Credits, all directed by Davis and co-written with Turner:

• Doggone Cats (1948)
• What Makes Daffy Duck? (1948)
• Bone Sweet Bone (1948)
• Riff Raffy Daffy (1948)
• The Stupor Salesman (1948)
• A Hick, A Slick, and A Chick (1948)
• Two Gophers From Texas (1948)
• Porky Chops (1949)
• Bowery Bugs (1949)

It is said that when Scott went to work at Warners, he told his grandmother that he was writing scripts for Bugs Bunny. Her reply to that was reporteldy “Why? He’s funny enough just as he is.” (Adamson, Fifty Years & Only One Grey Hare, pg. 13).

Scott had a varied and active career both before and after his Warner Brothers tenure. He is probably best known as the co-producer, head writer and voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose from the early 1960s. However, Scott was also involved with George of the Jungle, which he co-produced in the late 1960s, and Crusader Rabbit in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Scott also had an active career with UPA in the 1950s working on, among other things, The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show, as well as the adaptation of The Tell-Tale Heart (1953) which won an Academy Award and was directed by Bobe Cannon. Prior to his stint at Warners, Scott had been in the First Motion Picture Unit along with animators like Herb Klynn, a founder of UPA, Phil Monroe, Rudy Ising, John Hubley (also a UPA stalwart), as well as many others.

SEABROOKE, GAY

Actress known for doing voice work for both the Warner Brothers and Disney Studios, in addition to being in some Our Gang comedies. Source: Animato! #32.

SEELEY, JOHN

During an extended musicians strike in the 1950s which precluded the use of the Warner Brothers Orchestra, the cartoon studio was forced to rely on “canned” music arranged by John Seeley. To describe it as Muzak from hell would be generous; and it certainly wouldn’t be worse than Beck and Friedwald’s opinion. The less said about this chap’s arrangements, the better.

SELZER, EDWARD (“EDDIE”)
(1893-1970)

When Warners purchased the Schlesinger cartoon studio in 1944, they installed Selzer as producer. Previous to his appointment there, Selzer had been the head of West Coast publicity for Warner Brothers. Many of the artists believed he was chosen because he lacked a sense of humor. The general consensus was that he was mostly a figurehead at the studio, and barely competent even in that role.

Selzer had directed the Ripley’s Believe It or Not short subject series in the early 1930s, and had also been the publicist for Vitaphone between 1931 and 1933, before becoming head of studio publicity in the thirties.

Certainly, most of the stories told about Selzer involve his narrow-minded approach to animation. Chuck Jones in particular mocks Selzer in his autobiography, citing his reaction to Pépe le Pew (“Nobody would laugh at that sh*t”) and then gleefully accepting the Oscar won for the Pépe short For Scent-imental Reasons (1949) as his own. He similarly mentions Selzer’s dictum against making bullfight cartoons, provoking Jones into the making of Bully for Bugs (1953), his admonition against making gags about Eisenhower, and his interrupting of a hilarious story conference with the question “What has all this laughter got to do with the making of animated cartoons?” Jones also observes that Selzer looked like Mr. Magoo.

Curiously enough, it was Jones who put references to Selzer in his cartoons. The poster for the concert in The Rabbit of Seville (1950) identifies one “Eduardo Selzeri”. Heaven Scent (1956) has a shop selling “Selzer Water”, the same product as seen in Deduce You Say (1956). A sign for the Selzer Mining Co. is seen in Ready, Set, Zoom! (1955). (Incidentally, Jones misidentifies the drawing showing this on page 94 of Chuck Amuck; he identifies the cartoon as Beep Beep (1952), which did have a mine sequence, but which did not have the sign.)

DR. SEUSS

Pen-name of Theodor Geisel, who worked at the studio for a time in the early 1940s, in particular on the Private Snafu shorts.

SHERIDAN, ANN
(1915-1967)

Sexy siren at Warner Brothers known as “the Oomph Girl” -- for reasons rather different than Avery pictures in her encounter with Edward G. Robinson in Hollywood Steps Out (1941). Sheridan was cast first as a down-to-earth gal in several social crime melodramas, but branched out into comedy, other types of melodrama, even appearing in a few musicals.

Aside from Hollywood Steps Out, Sheridan is also referred to twice in Hollywood Daffy (Freleng, 1946): once with her hourglass shaped dressing room with bear traps protecting it, one of which, it is subsequently revealed, has ended up on Jimmy Durante’s foot, and again at the end, where Sheridan is one of the stars (so to speak) that Daffy finally sees after getting clouted on the head by a studio cop.

“SILLY, ISN’T HE?”

Perennial mocking sign seen in various Warner Brothers cartoons through the years. Examples can be seen in Hold the Lion, Please (Jones, 1942), Little Red Riding Rabbit (Freleng, 1944), The Heckling Hare (Avery, 1941), Russian Rhapsody (Clampett, 1944), and others.

SINATRA, FRANK
(d. 1997)

“The Voice” and its ability to cause bobby-soxers to swoon were ripe fodder for cartoonists everywhere. Avery did a wonderful job of capturing this in Little Tinker at MGM in 1948. Gags for Sinatra usually centered around his thinness, quite evident if you look at photos of him from the mid-1940s. He was invariably pictured wearing a bow-tie.

The Swooner Crooner (Tashlin, 1944) uses these attributes in typical fashion, with one shot of the Frankie rooster depicting his body completely hidden by the microphone, only his bow-tie showing. And, of course, the swooning bobby-soxer hens. The cartoon also capitalizes on a rivalry with radio crooner Bing Crosby, which was also used in Hollywood Canine Canteen (McKimson, 1946) singing “Trade Winds”, along with a Dorothy Lamour caricature. Also appears in Catch as Cats Can (Davis, 1947) singing, among other things, “As Time Goes By”. A very sickly Sinatra is seen as “The Voice in the Wilderness” in Book Revue (Clampett, 1946), in which his crooning causes the bobby soxers to swoon, and, eventually, the villain wolf, too.

SINKIN’ IN THE BATHTUB

First cartoon ever released by Warner Brothers. Debuted on May 6, 1930 alongside the feature Song of the Flame. Technically, Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid, produced by Harman and Ising in 1929 is the first Warner Brothers cartoon, but it is more accurately described as a pilot or sample reel, as it was never released theatrically.

SIXTY-FOUR DOLLAR QUESTION

A game show that has had various iterations on radio and television since it debuted in 1940 on CBS as Take It Or Leave It. A contestant would be given a series of questions on a topic. The first question would be worth $1, the second $2, the third $4, and so on up to $64. If a contestant answered a question incorrectly, they would lose everything. Later versions of the game show, particularly on television in the late 1950s, increased the pot starting at $64, and went up to $64,000. A $64 Question became a proverbial description of a basic question.

References to the game show can be found in Herr Meets Hare (Freleng, 1945) when the Walter Winchell-like radio broadcaster notes that the location of Göering is the $64 Question. Bugs Bunny yells this to Red Hot Ryder in Buckaroo Bugs (Clampett, 1944) at the very end, when Ryder finally figures out that Bugs was the Masked Marauder. Grover Groundhog, in One Meat Brawl (McKimson, 1947) informs Barnyard Dog, after the latter has realized Grover is his intended prey, that the Dog is correct, which gives him one dollar, going on to ask if he would care to try for two. Riff Raffy Daffy (Davis, 1948) also makes a reference, when Daffy spies a warm, comfy window display that is the answer to his $64 Question -- namely, how to prevent himself from freezing. Rookie Revue (Freleng, 1941) uses the gag when a dopey soldier finally learns to count off correctly.

SIZE 36

The size Bugs Bunny takes, as he himself notes in Haredevil Hare (Jones, 1948) and Hasty Hare (Jones, 1951).

RED SKELTON
(fl. 1997)

Very popular radio and television comic starting in the early 1940s. Skelton created numerous characters, including Sheriff Deadeye, Clem Kaddidlehopper, and Junior, the Mean Widdle Kid, among others. Many of his characters, or their catch-phrases, appear in WB cartoons. Among these are:

• “Ooh! You Bwoke My Widdle      !” and “I/He Dood It.” Both of these were catch-phrases of Junior, and were used quite liberally. Examples can be found in
  • Ain’t That Ducky (Freleng, 1945),
  • The Impatient Patient (McCable, 1942),
  • Birdy and the Beast (Clampett, 1944),
  • Ballot Box Bunny (Freleng, 1951),
  • Case of the Missing Hare (Jones, 1942), and others.
  
  
• “Heere I Yaaam!” This long, drawn out greeting was used by the country bumpkin character Clem Kaddidlehopper. Examples of its use can be seen in
  • Buckaroo Bugs (Clampett, 1944) and
  • Stage Door Cartoon (Freleng, 1944).
  
  
• Whoa Horse!
  • While this phrase is usually associated with Yosemite Sam, as in Sahara Hare (Freleng, 1955) and Knighty Knight Bugs (Freleng, 1958), the inability to stop a runaway horse was first used by Skelton’s Sheriff Deadeye character, in much the manner that Red Hot Ryder did Buckaroo Bugs (Clampett, 1944).
  
  
• “He Don’t Know Me Vewy Well, Do He?”
  • Usually said by Junior after someone has underestimated him. Said by Bugs, in the same vein, at the end of Hare Trigger (Freleng, 1945) and the start of Hare Tonic (Jones, 1945), as well as in numerous other cartoons. Said by Daffy and Chloe at the end of The Impatient Patient (McCabe, 1942).
  
  
• “Daaaisy June”
  • The greeting Clem Kaddidlehopper gives to his girl friend. The Daffy Duckeroo (McCabe, 1942) uses this when Little Beaver, the huge Indian, is looking for his girlfriend.

SLOAN FOUNDATION

Thinktank that sponsored three Warner Brothers cartoons in the 1950s, all of which were directed by Friz Freleng:

• By Word of Mouse (1954)
• Heir Conditioned (1955)
• Yankee Dood It (1956)

Each of these cartoons had the usual quota of cartoon gags, but stopped in the middle for a lecture on free enterprise, investment, the benefits of mass production, &c.

Beck and Friedwald take a rather sarcastic view of these cartoons, asking rhetorically in their write up of Yankee Dood It whether they made cartoons in Russia with “Comrade Cat and Bolshevik Bunny explaining to Webster Wombat why workers should control the means of production”. Personally, I think that is being a bit harsh. While the propagandistic aspects of the cartoons do tend to intrude, I do not believe they interfere unduly with the story.

SLOPPY MOE’S

Famed watering hole of pre-Castro Havana and one of the hangouts of Ernest Hemingway. It is referred to in Crazy Cruise (Avery/Clampett, 1942) and Payday (Freleng, 1944), again in Swallow the Leader (McKimson, 1949). There is also the half-wit character who knows the secret weakness of Injun Joe in Injun Trouble (Clampett, 1938) and Wagon Heels (1945) who goes by this name.

SLOWPOKE RODRIGUEZ

In contradistinction to his cousin Speedy Gonzales, the slowest mouse in all Mexico. Alas, as the title characters in Mexicali Shmoes (Freleng, 1959) learn, this rodent packs a gun.

SMITH, ALEXIS
(1921-1993)

Leading lady and second lead in a number of Warner films of the 1940s and 1950s, including the infamous Jack Benny film The Horn Blows at Midnight. Katz notes her specialty was playing charming, resourceful, often cool and calculating leading ladies with aloof magnetism. One of the stars that Daffy Duck sees at the end of Hollywood Daffy (Freleng, 1946) as a result of getting clouted by a studio cop, is identified as Smith.

SMITH, KATE

Popular singer, especially on radio, whose two most memorable songs are “When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain” and “God Bless America” -- ask any Philadelphia Flyers fan. Her catch phrase was a cheery “Hello Everybody!” which with she greeted her listeners. Smith was known for her prodigious work in selling war bonds during World War II; in just one 16-hour marathon, she sold no less than $40 million worth.

Smith was also the subject of a number of gags regading her size, which was quite large. In Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941), a table with an ordinary chair for Bette Davis is juxtaposed with a table that has a enormous sofa reserved for Smith. Smith is also seen in The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives (Harman/Ising, 1933) as an inflated doll.

SNIFFLES

Insufferably cute and earnest mouse created by Chuck Jones, who later evolved into a comically annoying character. The source of the voice is a matter of conjecture; various candidates, including Sara Berner and Bernice Hanson have been mentioned. Hames Ware, writing in Animato! #32, has put forth the thesis based on a study of old radio shows that Gay Seabrooke, who also did work for the Disney Studio and was seen in some Our Gang shorts, was the principal voice of Sniffles. Ware has noted that Sylvia Picker, Berner, and others may have done the voice at other times.

Filmography, all Jones:

• Naughty But Mice (1939)
• Little Brother Rat (1939)
• Sniffles and the Bookworm (1939)
• Sniffles Takes A Trip (1940)
• The Egg Collector (1940)
• Bedtime for Sniffles (1940)
• Sniffles Bells the Cat (1941)
• Toy Trouble (1941)
• Brave Little Bat (1941)
• The Unbearable Bear (1943)
• Lost and Foundling (1944)
• Hush My Mouse (1946)

“SOLD [TO] AMERICAN!”

Tagline used in radio commercials commercials for Lucky Strike cigarettes, which were manufactured, then as today, by American Tobacco Company. In many commercials, Speed Riggs, a tobacco auctioneer, would launch into a high-speed spiel, concluding with “Sold American!” Raymond Scott composed one song, “The Tobacco Auctioneer”, which mimicked the delivery of Riggs with a muted trumpet.

Gags based on this are seen in Porky Pig’s Feat (Tashlin, 1943) by Daffy after the hotel manager reels off the bill in a high speed voice and Crazy Cruise (Avery/Clampett, 1942) by the tobacco bug. The Private Snafu short The Infantry Blues (Jones, 1943) has Technical Fairy First Class using phrases based on these commericals to transport Snafu first to the Tank Corps, then the Navy, and finally the Air Corps.

SONS OF THE PIONEERS

Country-western musical group of the 1930s that had, among its members, Bob Nolan and Roy Rogers. This group is known to have provided vocals for A Feud There Was (Avery, 1938). They may also have provided the vocals for Egghead Rides Again (Avery, 1937) and Naughty Neighbors (Clampett, 1939).

SOPHIE TURKEY

The Last of the Red-hot Gobblers. A caricature in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937) of Sophie Tucker.

“SO ROUND, SO FIRM, SO FULLY PACKED -- SO SMOOTH AND EASY ON THE DRAW”

One of the many advertising slogans for Lucky Strike cigarettes. Daffy-Duck-as-Danny-Kaye mentions the slogan in Book Revue (Clampett, 1946). The Christopher Columbus character in Hare We Go (McKimson, 1951) yells the phrase in exasperation at King Ferdinand while attempting to prove the Earth is round. Henery Hawk also used the expression when confronted with a fine specimen of alleged chicken tail.

SPARKS, NED
(1883-1957)

Cigar-smoking character actor with a dour face who was well-known and often imitated. His movie appearances include 42nd Street, Golddiggers of 1933 in which he playeed the producer, the live-action Alice in Wonderland as the Caterpillar, and Wake Up and Live.

Caricatures of Sparks appear in:

• Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941) greeting the table of stonefaces
• Malibu Beach Party (Freleng, 1940) being buried in sand by Baby Snooks/Fanny Brice
• Slap-Happy Pappy (Clampett, 1940) indicating his joy (?) at the news that Eddie Cackler (caricature of Eddie Cantor) is going to be the father of a boy
• Fresh Fish (Avery, 1939) as an old crab

It is quite possible that the Rip Van Winkle character in Have You Got Any Castles? (Tashlin, 1938) is a Sparks caricature as well, given the character’s voice.

SPEEDY GONZALES

The fastest mouse in all of Mexico, Speedy was the star of a long-running series of cartoons, even surviving well into the DePatie-Freleng era following the closure of the Warner Brothers studio in 1963. The series was quite sucessful, winning an Oscar for Speedy Gonzales (Freleng, 1955), also receiving nominations for Tabasco Road (McKimson, 1957), Mexicali Schmoes (Freleng, 1959), and The Pied Piper of Guadalupe (Freleng, 1961). I personally do not understand why, since in large measure the series is even more formulaïc that the Pépe le Pew and Forghorn Leghorn series. Speedy himself has rather little personality, outside the stereotypical love for everybody’s “seesters”.

Mel Blanc provided the voice of the character, basing it partly on his “Little Mexican” character that he played on the Jack Benny radio program (“Si... Sy... Sue... Sew...”). The character debuted in Cat-Tails for Two (McKimson, 1953), but it was the Freleng unit that eventually fixed the depiction of the character as we know it today.

SPENCER, NORMAN

Along with Bernard Brown, one of the musical directors for Warner Brothers cartoons between 1933 and 1936. Spencer has the dubious distinction of being the person who repeatedly rejected the applications of Mel Blanc to work at the studio. Blanc was hired only after Spencer apparently either died of a heart attack or fell ill sometime around 1936. Soundman Treg Brown was filling in for him and decided to let him audition. (As recounted in Blanc’s autobiography, That’s Not All, Folks!) Stalling, in his only interview, implies that Spencer had something of a drinking problem, noting that the desk in the his office was filled with bottles.

SPIKE & CHESTER

A typical comic duo consisting of a feisty little terrier (Chester) and his big, hulking bulldog pal (sort of) Spike. Chester is eager to please his pal, who dismisses both him and his ideas with an offhand “NAH” and a slap, except for a fateful suggestion to take on a cat. The duo appeared in two Classic-era Friz Freleng shorts, Tree for Two (1952), and as a British pair in Dr. Jerkyl’s Hide (1954).

SPORTSMEN

Singing group of the 1930s formed by basso profundo Thurl Ravenscroft, who would provide the voice of Tony the Tiger in later years. The group performed on a number of radio shows, and, prior to Ravesnscroft getting drafted in March of 1943, Keith Scott identifies them as performing in a number of Warner cartoons, including

• The Dover Boys (Jones, 1942) as the glee-club chorus
• Conrad the Sailor (Jones, 1942) as the chorus heard over the credits and in the first few seconds of the film
• Snowmans Land (Jones, 1939) singing over the credits
• Fifth Column Mouse (Freleng, 1943) probably as the chorus singing “We’ll Do It Again”
• Confederate Honey (Freleng, 1940)
• Fagin’s Freshman (Hardaway/Dalton, 1939) probably singing “Working Our Way Through College”
• Dangerous Dan McFoo (Avery, 1939) probably as the trio of semi-nattily attired singers

Two of the Sportsmen, Ravenscroft and tenor Bill Days, sing the “Half of Me” number in Little Blabbermouse (Freleng, 1940). The whole group sings in a number of the little sketches.

STALIN, JOSEPH
(d. 1953)

Soviet dictator from from the late 1920s through his death in 1953. Stalin was one of the “Big Three” allied leaders during World War II, so it is not surprising that caricuatures of him appear in wartime cartoons, usually frightening or otherwise abusing Adolf Hitler. These cartoons are Tin Pan Alley Cats (Clampett, 1943) in which he appears booting Hitler, Russian Rhapsody (Clampett, 1944) in which the Gremlins use a Stalin mask to scare Hitler, and Herr Meets Hare (Freleng, 1945) in which Bugs appears as Stalin.

STALLING, CARL W.

Virtuoso musical director at Warner Brothers between 1936 and 1958. His musical scores, which liberally mixed original music with quotes from the Warner Brothers’ vast music library, were a major factor contributing to the success of WB cartoons.

Stalling was the house organist at the Newman Theatre in Kansas City. An advertisement for the Isis theater from a 1922 edition of the Kansas City Star, reproduced by Merritt and Kaufman, reads

“All lovers of good mustic will rejoice in the following announcement. Carl Stallings [sic] Kansas City’s greatest movie organist will again Hypnotise Isis patrons at the $22,000 Hope Jones Organ. Welcome Home, Carl!”

Stalling became involved with Walt Disney, who produced short animated cartoons (Newman Laugh-O-Grams) for the same movie chain in 1922. Stalling was an investor in the venture, which went bust shortly afterward.

Merritt and Kaufman also quote Rudolf Ising regarding an experiment that Ising, Harman and Stalling tried around 1923, synchronizing the song “When You Come to the End of a Perfect Day”. Stalling, pressing a pencil against a hand-cranked reel of discarded film as it was being projected, indicated how long certain words would be held on the screen, allowing Harman and Ising to make exposure sheets that would follow the words. Merritt and Kaufman do not indicate what subsequently happened to this particular project.

Stalling re-enters animation history when Walt Disney leaves him with the reels for Plane Crazy and Gallopin’ Gaucho, the first two Mickey Mouse cartoons ever made. They were originally made as silents, sound being added only after the success of Steamboat Willie, shortly after that film’s premiere on November 18, 1928. It was during this time that Stalling invented the tick method of orchestrating music for cartoons, which is still in wide use by studio orchestras today. Musicians wear earphones that “tick” to indicate the tempo at which the cartoon’s music is to be played, without even seeing the cartoon itself.

Stalling is generally given credit for creating the Silly Symphonies series at Disney in 1929. Stalling had wanted to score cartoons differently from the way Disney intended to do the Mickey Mouse cartoons, so Disney let Stalling work with Ub Iwerks to create The Skeleton Dance, which was released in 1929. Stalling was also called in to do the voice of Mickey Mouse as well, on certain occasions -- Wild Waves being one such example.

Stalling left Disney in 1930 to work at the new studio set up by Iwerks to produce cartoons for distribution by MGM. He did, however, manage to sit in on piano for the breakthrough Disney short The Three Little Pigs. Stalling would stay with the Iwerks studio until 1936, when the studio folded.

Fellow Kansas City native and Iwerks veteran J.B. “Bugs” Hardaway got Stalling the position as musical director at Schlesinger’s studio. Stalling was the successor to Norman Spencer, the man whose dubious legacy is having repeatedly turned down Mel Blanc’s offers to provide voices for the studio’s characters.

Stalling noted that one great advantage he had at Warner Brothers was the ability to use popular songs from the studio’s library. He did claim that 80-90% of his music was original, and the figure can be considered roughly accurate if you consider the ways in which Stalling twisted, bent and mixed musical scores to get the necessary effects. Treg Brown, the sound effects maestro, was a close colleague. He and Stalling literally worked next to each other over the years to put together the music and effects tracks.

Stalling is known to have done at least some of the music for one feature, the Jack Benny film The Horn Blows at Midnight.

A serious accident in 1950 left Carl Stalling needing a brain operation. During his extended absence from the Studio, his arranger Milt Franklyn filled in for him, along with Eugune Poddany. In 1958, Franklyn succeeded Stalling as music director, following the latter’s retirement.

Stalling is directly referenced in only one Warner Brothers cartoon: The Old Grey Hare (Clampett, 1944). Under the headline regarding the replacement of television by Smellovision can be read the phrase “Carl Stalling Sez It’ll Never Work!”

Stalling is known to have granted only one interview, and it is from this that much of the information in this entry is taken. It can be found in Funnyworld #13.

In Funnyworld #12, Robert Clampett makes the remarkable statement that it was Stalling who suggested the pairing of Sylvester and Tweety in what would eventually become the Oscar-winning Tweetie Pie (Freleng, 1947), on which Clampett had done the initial work.

STANWYCK, BARBARA
(1907-1990)

Highly professional actress whose most memorable roles were in The Lady Eve, Meet John Doe, Ball of Fire and, in a really great noir role opposite Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity. Nominated four times for an Oscar, Stanwyck never won, but still remained a very popular actress.

The reference to Carole Lombard in A Wild Hare (Avery, 1940), in the gag where Fudd is guessing who is covering his eyes, was replaced with Stanwyck’s name, following the former actress’s untimely death.

STOKOWSKI, LEOPOLD

One of the greatest and most controversial symphonic conductors of the 20th century, his flowing mane of hair and unique style -- he disdained batons -- made him easily recognizable and a popular target of caricature. Bugs Bunny’s turn as Leopold in Long Haired Hare (Jones, 1949) captures many of these mannerisms, including the baton-less conducting style. Compare Bugs’ performance with that of Leopold himself in Fantasia, and you can see the similarities.

Caricatures of Stokowski appear in Speaking of the Weather (Tashlin, 1938) on the cover of The Etude, and briefly skatting in an Eastern European accent. In Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941) he is shown conducting a conga in a hairnet, and in Slick Hare (Freleng, 1947) he is shown conducting his Chifava Five: a jukebox. He is also caricatured as “Leopold Bowwowski”, a rather elegant looking poodle, in Hollywood Canine Canteen (McKimson, 1946).

SUBWAY

The New York City subways make a few appearences in Warner cartoons. Daffy enters an uptown platform in Daffy Doodles (McKimson, 1946) and puts mustaches on a whole trainload of passengers, following it up by posing as a conductor and putting a mustache on cop Porky Pig. In Hurdy Gurdy Hare (McKimson, 1950), Gruesome Gorilla falls from a ledge through the sidewalk and comes up as a straphanger, his arm through a sign that reads Bronx Express, then the IRT, most likely the Number 4 or 5 train of today. Bugs, as a conductor, pushes him toward the hole, noting that he used to work the shuttle from Times Square to Grand Central. Incidentally, this line still exists.

“SUCKER” MORPH

An oft-used gag with a few basic variations. Used when one character realizes they’ve “been had” by another. The face of the victim then vanishes, and is replaced with a lollypop labeled “Sucker”. Tom Turk and Daffy (Jones, 1944) uses a very elaborate version, with Porky turning into a jar of Dope and wearing a dunce cap as well. Other uses may be found in Little Orphan Airedale (Jones, 1947), Early to Bet (McKimson, 1951), after the cat loses one of several games to a bulldog, and The Big Snooze (Clampett, 1946), re-using animation from All This and Rabbit Stew (Avery, 1941).

Slight variations, using either a “heel” or a ”jack-ass” can be found in Dog Collared (McKimson, 1951), A Mutt in a Rut (McKimson, 1959), Falling Hare (Clampett, 1943) and Plane Daffy (Tashlin, 1944).

[SULLIVAN,] JOHN L.

In Hare Force (Freleng, 1944) Bugs tricks the dog into preparing for a fistfight. As the dog ventures out into the cold night swinging and shadow boxing, Bugs, who is safe in the warm house, taunts him by asking “How’s the weather out there, John L.?”.

Bugs is referring to the great 19th century heavyweight boxing champion, John L. Sullivan, “the Boston Strong Boy” who even in the late 1940s was a well-remembered figure.

SUPER CHIEF

Famed passenger train of the Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe Railroad. The name is spoofed in a shot in Hare Trigger (Freleng, 1945), with a logo on a train engine showing an Indian in a Superman uniform, and again in The Big Snooze (Clampett, 1946), with Bugs and a raft of little Bugses making like a train over a recumbent Elmer Fudd. Injun Joe from Wagon Heels (Clampett, 1945) is referred to as The Super Chief (“whoo-whooo!”).

SUPERMAN

Landmark creation of Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster. “The Man of Steel” was the star of an equally landmark series of animated shorts produced by the Fleischer Studio for Paramount in the early 1940s, the style of which has rarely, if ever, been equalled. Since then, of course, the Last Son of Krypton has starred in radio serials, film serials, television programs -- including a notable series in the early 1950s starring George Reeves, films, and a current series being produced by Warner Brothers, which has owned the character since the 1960s.

The character, and the “Look! Up in the sky -- it’s a bird -- it’s a plane -- it’s SUPERMAN!” tagline have been ribbed numerous times in WB cartoons. Goofy Groceries (Clampett, 1941) was a very early spoof of the character, coming out even before the Fleischer version. Super Rabbit (Jones, 1942), a landmark cartoon for Chuck Jones, is another deft poke at the conventions of the character. Scrap Happy Daffy (Tashlin, 1943) uses the “up-in-the-sky” tag for the appearance by Daffy as Super American. The Private Snafu short Snafuperman (Freleng, 1944) even utilises the same fanfare music that was used in the Paramount cartoons. Swallow the Leader (McKimson, 1949) and Fast and Furry-ous (Jones, 1949) feature gags in which predators attempt to see if the old adage that “clothes make the man” applies to them. (It doesn’t.) Finally, there is Stupor Duck (McKimson, 1956), a detailed parody of the character starring a hapless Daffy Duck. Two other brief uses can be seen in My Little Duckaroo (Jones, 1954), in which Superguy is one failed attempt by Daffy to bring Nasty Canasta to justice, and Gonzales’ Tamales (Freleng, 1957), in which the “it’s a bird, it’s a plane” tagline is used.

SWEETYPUSS

Mr. Meek’s domineering and, perhaps mercifully, unseen wife in The Wise Quacking Duck (Clampett, 1943). Mr. Meek at one point demonstrates to Daffy the two lumps his wife gave him -- on his head -- with his morning coffee. Freleng later re-used the name for the shrewish female lovebird in Life With Feathers (1945).

Bill Thompson, who also provided the voice of Droopy for Tex Avery at MGM, had a character on the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show called Wallace Wimple, who was married to a bullying wife, Sweetyface. This is likely the inspiration for Sweetypuss.

SYLVESTER

One of the most versatile characters of the Warner Brothers studio, Sylvester has demonstrated both a cunning evil streak, mainly in the Friz Freleng-directed cartoons with Tweety, and a sense of vulnerability, as the timid version in a number of great Chuck Jones shorts. He has also been portrayed as a fallible father in a number of Bob McKimson shorts.

Like many other studios, Warners had had a long series of cartoons with cats chasing birds, mice or what have you, usually with a singular lack of success in catching their prey. The Cagey Canary (Avery/Clampett, 1941) is an oustanding example of a funny cat/canary cartoon in the pre-Sylvester era.

Freleng and his staff designed Sylvester (not yet named) for the 1945 cartoon Life With Feathers. With his big tomato nose and low crotch, Sylvester was deliberately designed to appear clown-like. The design was later modified for technical reasons, since the low crotch made the character difficult to animate consistently. Mel Blanc provided a sloppy voice that was very similar to Daffy Duck’s, only not sped-up. Sylvester would make two more solo appearences, in Peck Up Your Troubles (Freleng, 1945) and a brilliant bit in Kitty Kornered (Clampett, 1946), before what Schneider accurately calls the “fatal collision” with Tweety in Tweetie Pie (Freleng, 1947), the first cartoon ever to win an Oscar for the studio. Incidentally, Robert Clampett had started work on the film, passing the project to Freleng when he left at the end of 1945.

From then on, Sylvester was used in a wide variety of series, principally the series opposite Speedy Gonzales, Tweety, and Hippety Hopper, though he did make an appearence in the Foghorn Leghorn cartoon Crowing Pains (McKimson, 1947). He also made a few appearences as a timid sidekick to the utterly oblivious Porky Pig in a few great Jones shorts, and made one spectacular, out-of-character appearence in The Scarlet Pumpernickel (Jones, 1950) as The Grand Duke. Sylvester, along with Daffy, also had the misfortune to be one of the principal players in the inferior cartoons produced by various other studios for release by Warner Brothers in the 1960s.

SYLVESTER JR.

Perfect, pint-sized minature of his dad, even down to his lisp and tomato nose. He is forever being embarrassed by the failures of his “Dear Old Father”. The most familiar example of this shame is the bag over the head routine. Sylvester is usually determined not to let his son down, which gets him in even more trouble, whether battling dwarf eagles or mice, king-sized or otherwise. Interestingly, Friz Freleng and Mike Maltese chose, in Goldimouse and the Three Cats (1960) to show us another side of Junior, as a spoiled brat, as well as showing us a Mrs. Sylvester.

Filmography, all directed by McKimson except as noted:

• Pop Im Pop! (1950)
• Whos Kitten Who (1952)
• Cats Aweigh (1953)
• Too Hop To Handle (1956)
• Mouse-taken Identity (1957)
• Cats Paw (1959)
• Goldimouse and the Three Cats (Freleng, 1960)
• Birds of a Father (1961)
• Fish and Slips (1962)
• Claws in the Lease (1963)
• Freudy Cat (1964)