Tex Avery
Encyclopedia
Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American
animator
, cartoonist
, voice actor
and director
, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros.
and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
studios, creating the characters of Daffy Duck
, Bugs Bunny
, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, and developing Porky Pig
, Chilly Willy
(this last one for the Walter Lantz Studio
) into the personas for which they are remembered.
Avery's influence can be seen in almost all of the animated cartoon series by various studios in the 1940s and 1950s. Gary Morris described Avery's innovative approach:
Avery's style of directing encouraged animators to stretch the boundaries of the medium to do things in a cartoon that could not be done in the world of live-action film. An often-quoted line about Avery's cartoons was, "In a cartoon you can do anything,". He also performed a great deal of voice work in his cartoons, usually throwaway bits (e.g. the Santa Claus seen briefly in Who Killed Who?
), but Tex did fill in for Bill Thompson
as Droopy, although the individual cartoons where Avery did this have never been specified.
. His father was born in Alabama
. His mother was born in Buena Vista
, Chickasaw County
, Mississippi
. His paternal grandparents were Needham Avery (Civil War veteran) (October 8, 1838 - after 1892) and his wife Lucinda C. Baxly (May 11, 1844 - March 10, 1892). His maternal grandparents were Frederick Mumford Bean (1852 - October 23, 1886) and his wife Minnie Edgar (July 25, 1854 - May 7, 1940). Avery was said to be a descendant of Judge Roy Bean
. However his maternal great-grandparents were actually Mumford Bean from Tennessee (August 22, 1805 - October 10, 1892) and his wife Lutica from Alabama. Mumford was son of William Bean and his wife Nancy Blevins from Virginia. Their relation to Roy is uncertain though his paternal grandparents were also from Virginia. Avery's family tradition also claimed descent from Daniel Boone
.
Avery was raised in his native Taylor, and graduated in 1926 from North Dallas High School
. A popular catchphrase at his school was "What's up, doc?", which he would later popularize with Bugs Bunny in the 1940s.
Avery first began his animation career at the Walter Lantz studio in the early 1930s, working on the majority of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
cartoons from 1931-35. He is shown as 'animator' on the original title card credits on the Oswald cartoons. He later claimed to have directed two cartoons during this time. During some office horseplay, a paperclip
flew into Avery's left eye and caused him to lose use of that eye. Some speculate it was his lack of depth perception that gave him his unique look at animation and bizarre directorial style.
studio in late 1935 and convinced the fast-talking Schlesinger to let him head his own production unit of animator
s and create cartoons the way he wanted them to be made. Schlesinger responded by assigning the Avery unit, including animators Bob Clampett
and Chuck Jones
, to a five-room bungalow
at the Warner Bros. Sunset Blvd. backlot
. Schlesinger placed the Avery unit there so as not to tip off Avery's predecessor Tom Palmer
that he was about to be fired. The Avery unit, assigned to work primarily on the black-and-white Looney Tunes
instead of the Technicolor
Merrie Melodies
, soon dubbed their quarters "Termite Terrace", due to its significant termite
population.
"Termite Terrace" later became the nickname for the entire Schlesinger/Warners studio, primarily because Avery and his unit were the ones who defined what became known as "the Warner Bros. cartoon". Their first short, Gold Diggers of '49
, is recognized as the first cartoon to make Porky Pig
a star, and Avery’s experimentation with the medium continued from there.
, laid the foundation for a style of animation that dethroned The Walt Disney Studio as the kings of animated short films, and created a legion of cartoon stars whose names still shine around the world today. Avery in particular was deeply involved; a perfectionist, Avery constantly crafted gags for the shorts, periodically provided voices for them (including his trademark belly laugh), and held such control over the timing of the shorts that he would add or cut frames out of the final negative if he felt a gag's timing was not quite right.
introduced the character of Daffy Duck
, who possessed a new form of "lunacy" and zaniness that had not been seen before in animated cartoons. Daffy was an almost completely out-of-control "darn fool duck" who frequently bounced around the film frame in double-speed, screaming "Hoo-hoo! hoo-hoo" in a high-pitched, sped-up voice provided by veteran Warners voice artist Mel Blanc
, who, with this cartoon, also took over providing the voice of Porky Pig
.
, Cal Dalton
and Chuck Jones directed a series of shorts which featured a Daffy Duck-like rabbit, created by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. As is the case with most directors, each puts his own personal stamp on the characters, stories and overall feel of a short. So each of these 'toons treated the rabbit differently. The next to try out the rabbit, known around Termite Terrace as "Bugs' Bunny" (named after Hardaway), was Avery. Since the recycling of storylines among the directors was commonplace, "A Wild Hare" was a double throwback. Avery had directed the '37 short, "Porky's Duck Hunt" featuring Porky Pig which introduced "Daffy Duck". Hardaway remade this as "Porky's Hare Hunt" introducing the rabbit. So Avery went back to the "hunter and prey" framework, and incorporating Jones' "Elmer's Candid Camera", gag for gag, and altering the design of Elmer Fudd. Polishing the timing, and expanding the Groucho Marx smart-ass attitude already present in "Porky's Hare Hunt", making Bugs' a kind of Brooklyn-esque super-cool rabbit who was always in control of the situation and who ran rings around his opponents. Avery has stated that it was very common to refer to folks in Texas as "doc", much like "pal", "dude" or "bud". In A Wild Hare, Bugs adopts this colloquialism when he casually walks up to Elmer, who is "hunting wabbits" and while carefully inspecting a rabbit hole, shotgun in hand, the first words out of Bugs' mouth is a cooly-calm, "What's up, doc?". Audiences reacted riotously to the juxtaposition of Bugs' nonchalance and the potentially dangerous situation, and "What's up, doc?" instantly became the rabbit's catchphrase.
Avery ended up directing only four Bugs Bunny cartoons: A Wild Hare, Tortoise Beats Hare
, All This and Rabbit Stew
, and The Heckling Hare
. During this period, he also directed a number of one-shot shorts, including travelogue
parodies
(The Isle of Pingo Pongo
), fractured fairy-tales (The Bear's Tale), Hollywood caricature films (Hollywood Steps Out), and cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny clones (The Crack-Pot Quail).
Avery's tenure at the Schlesinger studio ended in late 1941, when he and the producer quarreled over the ending to The Heckling Hare. In Avery's original version, Bugs and hunting dog
were to fall off of a cliff three times, milking the gag to its comic extreme. According to a DVD commentary for the cartoon, historian and animator Greg Ford
explained that the problem Schlesinger had with the ending was that, just prior to falling off the third time, Bugs and the dog were to turn to the screen, with Bugs saying "Hold on to your hats, folks, here we go again!" At the time, this line had a sexual connotation, although it is not clear whether it was a well-known joke, or possibly a widely circulated porn loop a.k.a. "smoker". Schlesinger intervened (supposedly on orders from Jack Warner
himself, although it's doubtful Warner would be screening cartoons unless alerted to this particular content), and edited the film so that the characters only fall off the cliff twice (the edited cartoon ends abruptly, after Bugs and the Dog fall through a hole in a cliff and immediately stop short of the ground, saying to the audience, "Heh, fooled you, didn't we?"). An enraged Avery promptly quit the studio, leaving three cartoons he started on but did not complete. They were Crazy Cruise, The Cagey Canary and Aloha Hooey. Bob Clampett picked up where Avery left off and completed the three cartoons.
, a friend of his who produced the Unusual Occupations series of short subjects for Paramount Pictures
. Fairbanks liked the idea and the Speaking of Animals
series of shorts was launched. When Avery left Warner, he went straight to Paramount to work on the first three shorts in the series before joining MGM.
, working in their cartoon division
under the supervision of Fred Quimby
. Avery felt that Schlesinger had stifled him. At MGM, Avery's creativity reached its peak. His cartoons became known for their sheer lunacy, breakneck pace, and a penchant for playing with the medium of animation and film in general that few other directors dared to approach. MGM also offered him larger budgets and a higher quality production level than the Warners studio. Plus, his unit was filled with ex-Disney artists such as Preston Blair
and Ed Love. These changes were evident in Avery's first short released by MGM, The Blitz Wolf, an Adolf Hitler
parody which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons)
in 1942.
Avery's most famous MGM character debuted in 1943's Dumb-Hounded
. Droopy (originally "Happy Hound") was a calm, little, slow-moving and slow-talking dog who still won out in the end. He also created a series of risqué cartoons, beginning with 1943's Red Hot Riding Hood
, featuring a sexy female star who never had a set name but has been unofficially referred to as "Red" by fans, whose visual design and voice varied somewhat between shorts. Other Avery characters at MGM included Screwy Squirrel and the Of Mice and Men
-inspired duo of George and Junior
.
Other notable MGM cartoons directed by Avery include Bad Luck Blackie
, Magical Maestro
, Lucky Ducky, Ventriloquist Cat
and King-Size Canary
. Avery began his stint at MGM working with lush colors and realistic backgrounds, but he slowly abandoned this style for a more frenetic, less realistic approach. The newer, more stylized look reflected the influence of the up-and-coming UPA
studio, the need to cut costs as budgets grew higher, and Avery's own desire to leave reality behind and make cartoons that were not tied to the real world of live action. During this period, he made a notable series of films which explored the technology
of the future: The House of Tomorrow, The Car of Tomorrow, The Farm of Tomorrow and TV of Tomorrow (spoofing common live-action promotional shorts of the time). He also introduced a slow-talking wolf character, who was the prototype for MGM associates Hanna-Barbera
's Huckleberry Hound
character, right down to the voice by Daws Butler
.
Avery took a year's sabbatical from MGM beginning in 1950 (to recover from overwork), during which time Dick Lundy, recently arrived from the Walter Lantz studio, took over his unit and made one Droopy cartoon, as well as a string of shorts with an old character, Barney Bear
. Avery returned to MGM in October 1951 and began working again. Avery's last two original cartoons for MGM were Deputy Droopy and Cellbound, completed in 1953 and released in 1955. They were co-directed by Avery unit animator Michael Lah
. Lah began directing a handful of CinemaScope
Droopy shorts on his own. A burnt-out Avery left MGM in 1953 to return to the Walter Lantz studio.
the penguin
. Although The Legend of Rockabye Point and Crazy Mixed-Up Pup were nominated for Academy Awards, Avery left Lantz over a salary dispute, effectively ending his career in theatrical animation.
He turned to animated television commercials
, most notably the Raid
commercials of the 1960s and 1970s (in which cartoon insects, confronted by the bug killer, screamed "RAID!" and died flamboyantly) and Frito-Lay
's controversial mascot
, the Frito Bandito
. Avery also produced ads for Kool-Aid
fruit drinks starring the Warner Bros. characters he had once helped create during his Termite Terrace days.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Avery became increasingly reserved and depressed
, although he continued to draw respect from his peers. His final employer was Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he wrote gags for Saturday morning cartoons such as the Droopy-esque Kwicky Koala.
On Tuesday, August 26, 1980, Avery died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, California
at age 72. He had been suffering from lung cancer
for a year. He is buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery
.
, King-Size Canary
and Little Rural Riding Hood
were included on MGM/UA's first non-Tom and Jerry
tape of vintage animated shorts, MGM Cartoon Magic. Two other cartoons by Avery appeared on Christmas compilations. The Peachy Cobbler was part of MGM Cartoon Christmas, and One Ham's Family was part of Tom and Jerry's Night Before Christmas. Avery's Droopy cartoons are available on the DVD set Tex Avery's Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection. The seven Droopy cartoons produced in CinemaScope were included here in their original widescreen versions, instead of the pan and scan
versions regularly broadcast on television. Also, some of his works could be found on tapes of Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes shorts, and the same is true of his few Lantz Studio cartoons. His influence is strongly reflected in modern cartoons such as "Roger Rabbit", Ren and Stimpy, Tiny Toon Adventures
, Animaniacs
, Freakazoid, Tom and Jerry Kids Show
, SpongeBob SquarePants
, Rocko's Modern Life
, Phineas & Ferb, and the Genie character in Disney
's Aladdin. In fact, an Averyesque cowboy character bore his name in the otherwise unrelated series The Wacky World of Tex Avery
. His work has been honored on shows such as The Tex Avery Show
and Cartoon Alley
. His characters (particularly Bugs Bunny
and the risqué antics of Red Hot Riding Hood
) were referenced in the Jim Carrey
film The Mask
. In the mid 1990s, Dark Horse Comics
released a trio of three-issue miniseries that were openly labelled tributes to Avery's MGM cartoons, Wolf & Red, Droopy, and Screwy Squirrel. It should also be noted that Tex Avery, unlike most Warner Brothers directors, kept many original title frames of his cartoons, several otherwise lost due to Blue Ribbon Reissues, and were recently sold on eBay.
In 2008 France issued three stamps honoring Tex Avery for his 100th birthday, depicting Droopy, the redheaded showgirl, and the wolf.
Today, the copyrights to all classic color cartoons directed by Avery at Warners and MGM are owned by Turner Entertainment
, with Warner Bros.
handling distribution. (WB owns the black-and-white cartoons directly.) Turner and WB are both units of Time Warner
. The cartoons he directed at the Lantz studio are owned by their original distributors, Universal Studios
. A few of Avery's WB shorts are in the public domain
, but WB and Turner hold the original film elements.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
, cartoonist
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
, voice actor
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
and director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
studios, creating the characters of Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
, Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, and developing Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
, Chilly Willy
Chilly Willy
Chilly Willy is a cartoon character, a diminutive anthropomorphic penguin living in Alaska, although the species is native only to the southern hemisphere. He was created by Paul J. Smith for the Walter Lantz studio in 1953...
(this last one for the Walter Lantz Studio
Walter Lantz Studio
Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1948 and then 1950 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Studios, now part of the media conglomerate NBC Universal.-History:...
) into the personas for which they are remembered.
Avery's influence can be seen in almost all of the animated cartoon series by various studios in the 1940s and 1950s. Gary Morris described Avery's innovative approach:
- "Above all, [Avery] steered the Warner Bros. house style away from Disney-esque sentimentality and made cartoons that appealed equally to adults, who appreciated Avery's speed, sarcasm, and irony, and to kids, who liked the nonstop action. Disney's "cute and cuddly" creatures, under Avery's guidance, were transformed into unflappable wits like Bugs Bunny, endearing buffoons like Porky Pig, or dazzling crazies like Daffy Duck. Even the classic fairy tale, a market that Disney had cornered, was appropriated by Avery, who made innocent heroines like Red Riding Hood into sexy jazz babies, more than a match for any Wolf. Avery also endeared himself to intellectuals by constantly breaking through the artifice of the cartoon, having characters leap out of the end credits, loudly object to the plot of the cartoon they were starring in, or speak directly to the audience."
Avery's style of directing encouraged animators to stretch the boundaries of the medium to do things in a cartoon that could not be done in the world of live-action film. An often-quoted line about Avery's cartoons was, "In a cartoon you can do anything,". He also performed a great deal of voice work in his cartoons, usually throwaway bits (e.g. the Santa Claus seen briefly in Who Killed Who?
Who Killed Who?
Who Killed Who? is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short directed by Tex Avery for MGM. The cartoon is a parody of whodunit stories and employs many clichés of the genre for humor.-Plot:...
), but Tex did fill in for Bill Thompson
Bill Thompson (voice actor)
Bill Thompson was an American radio actor and voice actor whose career stretched from the 1930s until his death.-Early career:...
as Droopy, although the individual cartoons where Avery did this have never been specified.
Early years
Tex Avery was born to George Walton Avery (b. June 8, 1867 - d. January 14, 1935) and the former Mary Augusta "Jessie" Bean (1886–1931) in Taylor, TexasTaylor, Texas
Taylor is a city in Williamson County, Texas, United States. The population was 13,575 at the 2000 census; it was 15,191 in the 2010 census estimate. Taylors largest employers include the Electric Reliability Council of Texas , Durcon Inc, and the T. Don Hutto Residential Center, an immigration...
. His father was born in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
. His mother was born in Buena Vista
Buena Vista
Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to:*Buena Vista , a Walt Disney trademark*Buena Vista Social Club , a Cuban music club plus an album and film inspired by the club...
, Chickasaw County
Chickasaw County, Mississippi
-National protected areas:* Natchez Trace Parkway * Tombigbee National Forest -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 19,440 people, 7,253 households, and 5,287 families residing in the county. The population density was 39 people per square mile . There were 7,981 housing units at an...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
. His paternal grandparents were Needham Avery (Civil War veteran) (October 8, 1838 - after 1892) and his wife Lucinda C. Baxly (May 11, 1844 - March 10, 1892). His maternal grandparents were Frederick Mumford Bean (1852 - October 23, 1886) and his wife Minnie Edgar (July 25, 1854 - May 7, 1940). Avery was said to be a descendant of Judge Roy Bean
Roy Bean
Phantly Roy Bean, Jr. was an eccentric U.S. saloon-keeper and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas, who called himself "The Law West of the Pecos". According to legend, Judge Roy Bean held court in his saloon along the Rio Grande in a desolate stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert of...
. However his maternal great-grandparents were actually Mumford Bean from Tennessee (August 22, 1805 - October 10, 1892) and his wife Lutica from Alabama. Mumford was son of William Bean and his wife Nancy Blevins from Virginia. Their relation to Roy is uncertain though his paternal grandparents were also from Virginia. Avery's family tradition also claimed descent from Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
.
Avery was raised in his native Taylor, and graduated in 1926 from North Dallas High School
North Dallas High School
North Dallas High School is a public secondary school located in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas, Texas, .North Dallas enrolls students in grades 9-12 and is a part of the Dallas Independent School District...
. A popular catchphrase at his school was "What's up, doc?", which he would later popularize with Bugs Bunny in the 1940s.
Avery first began his animation career at the Walter Lantz studio in the early 1930s, working on the majority of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit and animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Pictures in the 1920s and 1930s...
cartoons from 1931-35. He is shown as 'animator' on the original title card credits on the Oswald cartoons. He later claimed to have directed two cartoons during this time. During some office horseplay, a paperclip
Paperclip
A paper clip is an instrument used to fasten sheets of paper together usually made of steel wire bent to a looped shape.-Shape and composition:...
flew into Avery's left eye and caused him to lose use of that eye. Some speculate it was his lack of depth perception that gave him his unique look at animation and bizarre directorial style.
"Termite Terrace"
Avery migrated to the Leon SchlesingerLeon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the golden age of Hollywood animation.-Early life and career:...
studio in late 1935 and convinced the fast-talking Schlesinger to let him head his own production unit of animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
s and create cartoons the way he wanted them to be made. Schlesinger responded by assigning the Avery unit, including animators Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...
and Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
, to a five-room bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
at the Warner Bros. Sunset Blvd. backlot
Backlot
A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio, containing permanent exterior buildings for outdoor scenes in filmmaking or television productions, or space for temporary set construction....
. Schlesinger placed the Avery unit there so as not to tip off Avery's predecessor Tom Palmer
Tom Palmer (animator)
Anthony "Tony" Pipolo, known professionally as Tom Palmer was an Italian-American animator who was active in the 1930s and worked at several animation studios. He was born with the surname of "Pipolo" but changed his name to Palmer...
that he was about to be fired. The Avery unit, assigned to work primarily on the black-and-white Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
instead of the Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
, soon dubbed their quarters "Termite Terrace", due to its significant termite
Termite
Termites are a group of eusocial insects that, until recently, were classified at the taxonomic rank of order Isoptera , but are now accepted as the epifamily Termitoidae, of the cockroach order Blattodea...
population.
"Termite Terrace" later became the nickname for the entire Schlesinger/Warners studio, primarily because Avery and his unit were the ones who defined what became known as "the Warner Bros. cartoon". Their first short, Gold Diggers of '49
Gold Diggers of '49
Gold Diggers of '49 is a 1935 Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon short in the Looney Tunes series. This film is the very first cartoon directed by Tex Avery for Warner Brothers., and is the second Warners cartoon to feature the character Porky Pig. The star is Beans the Cat, with Porky Pig as the...
, is recognized as the first cartoon to make Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
a star, and Avery’s experimentation with the medium continued from there.
Creation of Looney Tunes stars
Avery, with the assistance of Clampett, Jones, and new associate director Frank TashlinFrank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin, born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, also known as Tish Tash or Frank Tash was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director.-Animator:...
, laid the foundation for a style of animation that dethroned The Walt Disney Studio as the kings of animated short films, and created a legion of cartoon stars whose names still shine around the world today. Avery in particular was deeply involved; a perfectionist, Avery constantly crafted gags for the shorts, periodically provided voices for them (including his trademark belly laugh), and held such control over the timing of the shorts that he would add or cut frames out of the final negative if he felt a gag's timing was not quite right.
Daffy Duck
Porky's Duck HuntPorky's Duck Hunt
Porky's Duck Hunt is an animated short film produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and released on April 17, 1937 by Warner Bros. Pictures. Porky's Hare Hunt was the sequel to this one....
introduced the character of Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
, who possessed a new form of "lunacy" and zaniness that had not been seen before in animated cartoons. Daffy was an almost completely out-of-control "darn fool duck" who frequently bounced around the film frame in double-speed, screaming "Hoo-hoo! hoo-hoo" in a high-pitched, sped-up voice provided by veteran Warners voice artist Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
, who, with this cartoon, also took over providing the voice of Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
.
Bugs Bunny
Ben HardawayBen Hardaway
Joseph Benson "Ben/Bugs" Hardaway was a storyboard artist, animator, voice actor, gagman, writer, and director for several American animation studios during the The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He was sometimes credited as J.B. Hardaway, Ben Hardaway, Buggsy Hardaway, and B. Hardaway.While...
, Cal Dalton
Cal Dalton
Cal Dalton was a cartoon director at Warner Brothers. Dalton's first commercial animation work was on an animated short version of The Wizard of Oz that was produced by Ted Eshbaugh's independent animation studio in 1933. Afterwards, Dalton left to work at the Warner Brothers animation studio,...
and Chuck Jones directed a series of shorts which featured a Daffy Duck-like rabbit, created by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway. As is the case with most directors, each puts his own personal stamp on the characters, stories and overall feel of a short. So each of these 'toons treated the rabbit differently. The next to try out the rabbit, known around Termite Terrace as "Bugs' Bunny" (named after Hardaway), was Avery. Since the recycling of storylines among the directors was commonplace, "A Wild Hare" was a double throwback. Avery had directed the '37 short, "Porky's Duck Hunt" featuring Porky Pig which introduced "Daffy Duck". Hardaway remade this as "Porky's Hare Hunt" introducing the rabbit. So Avery went back to the "hunter and prey" framework, and incorporating Jones' "Elmer's Candid Camera", gag for gag, and altering the design of Elmer Fudd. Polishing the timing, and expanding the Groucho Marx smart-ass attitude already present in "Porky's Hare Hunt", making Bugs' a kind of Brooklyn-esque super-cool rabbit who was always in control of the situation and who ran rings around his opponents. Avery has stated that it was very common to refer to folks in Texas as "doc", much like "pal", "dude" or "bud". In A Wild Hare, Bugs adopts this colloquialism when he casually walks up to Elmer, who is "hunting wabbits" and while carefully inspecting a rabbit hole, shotgun in hand, the first words out of Bugs' mouth is a cooly-calm, "What's up, doc?". Audiences reacted riotously to the juxtaposition of Bugs' nonchalance and the potentially dangerous situation, and "What's up, doc?" instantly became the rabbit's catchphrase.
Avery ended up directing only four Bugs Bunny cartoons: A Wild Hare, Tortoise Beats Hare
Tortoise Beats Hare
Tortoise Beats Hare is a 1941 Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Tex Avery. The short stars Bugs Bunny and, in his first appearance, Cecil Turtle.-Plot:...
, All This and Rabbit Stew
All This and Rabbit Stew
All This and Rabbit Stew is a one-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Merrie Melodies series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on September 20, 1941 by Warner Bros. and Vitaphone. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger and directed by an uncredited Tex Avery, with musical...
, and The Heckling Hare
The Heckling Hare
The Heckling Hare is a Merrie Melodies cartoon, released on July 12, 1941 and featuring Bugs Bunny and a dopey dog named Willoughby. The cartoon was directed by Tex Avery, written by Michael Maltese, animated by soon-to-be director Bob McKimson, and with musical direction by Carl Stalling...
. During this period, he also directed a number of one-shot shorts, including travelogue
Travelogue (films)
Travelogue films, a form of virtual tourism or travel documentary, have been providing information and entertainment about distant parts of the world since the late 19th century.-History:...
parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
(The Isle of Pingo Pongo
The Isle of Pingo Pongo
The Isle of Pingo Pongo is a 1938 Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Tex Avery. It is the first of Avery's spoofs of travelogues. The cartoon was banned from television syndication in 1968 by United Artists for racist depictions of black people and is one of the "Censored Eleven".The short follows a...
), fractured fairy-tales (The Bear's Tale), Hollywood caricature films (Hollywood Steps Out), and cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny clones (The Crack-Pot Quail).
Avery's tenure at the Schlesinger studio ended in late 1941, when he and the producer quarreled over the ending to The Heckling Hare. In Avery's original version, Bugs and hunting dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
were to fall off of a cliff three times, milking the gag to its comic extreme. According to a DVD commentary for the cartoon, historian and animator Greg Ford
Greg Ford
Greg Ford is an animator, director, historian and consultant to Warner Bros. Animation. He is perhaps best known for directing the films Daffy Duck's Quackbusters and Bunny .-Biography:...
explained that the problem Schlesinger had with the ending was that, just prior to falling off the third time, Bugs and the dog were to turn to the screen, with Bugs saying "Hold on to your hats, folks, here we go again!" At the time, this line had a sexual connotation, although it is not clear whether it was a well-known joke, or possibly a widely circulated porn loop a.k.a. "smoker". Schlesinger intervened (supposedly on orders from Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
himself, although it's doubtful Warner would be screening cartoons unless alerted to this particular content), and edited the film so that the characters only fall off the cliff twice (the edited cartoon ends abruptly, after Bugs and the Dog fall through a hole in a cliff and immediately stop short of the ground, saying to the audience, "Heh, fooled you, didn't we?"). An enraged Avery promptly quit the studio, leaving three cartoons he started on but did not complete. They were Crazy Cruise, The Cagey Canary and Aloha Hooey. Bob Clampett picked up where Avery left off and completed the three cartoons.
Speaking of Animals
While at Schlesinger, Avery created a concept of animating lip movement to live action footage of animals. Schlesinger was not interested in Avery's idea, so Avery approached Jerry FairbanksJerry Fairbanks
Gerald Bertram "Jerry" Fairbanks was a producer and director in the Hollywood motion picture and television industry....
, a friend of his who produced the Unusual Occupations series of short subjects for Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. Fairbanks liked the idea and the Speaking of Animals
Speaking of Animals and Their Families
Speaking of Animals and Their Families is a 1942 short comedy film directed by Robert Carlisle and Jerry Fairbanks. It won an Academy Award in 1943 for Best Short Subject ....
series of shorts was launched. When Avery left Warner, he went straight to Paramount to work on the first three shorts in the series before joining MGM.
Avery at MGM
By 1942, Avery was in the employ of Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
, working in their cartoon division
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio
The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was the in-house division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture studio in Hollywood, California during the Golden Age of American animation, responsible for producing animated short subjects to accompany MGM feature films in Loew's Theaters...
under the supervision of Fred Quimby
Fred Quimby
Frederick C. "Fred" Quimby was an American cartoon producer, best known as a producer of Tom and Jerry cartoons, for which he won seven Academy Awards...
. Avery felt that Schlesinger had stifled him. At MGM, Avery's creativity reached its peak. His cartoons became known for their sheer lunacy, breakneck pace, and a penchant for playing with the medium of animation and film in general that few other directors dared to approach. MGM also offered him larger budgets and a higher quality production level than the Warners studio. Plus, his unit was filled with ex-Disney artists such as Preston Blair
Preston Blair
Preston Blair was an American character animator, most noted for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation department...
and Ed Love. These changes were evident in Avery's first short released by MGM, The Blitz Wolf, an Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
parody which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons)
Academy Award for Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....
in 1942.
Avery's most famous MGM character debuted in 1943's Dumb-Hounded
Dumb-Hounded
Dumb-Hounded is an American animation short from 1943. It's notable for being the first cartoon to star Droopy.-Plot:The wolf escapes from prison. Several police dogs are freed to search him, but one one them, Droopy, remains behind and informs the audience that he is the hero of the story. He...
. Droopy (originally "Happy Hound") was a calm, little, slow-moving and slow-talking dog who still won out in the end. He also created a series of risqué cartoons, beginning with 1943's Red Hot Riding Hood
Red Hot Riding Hood
Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released on May 8, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994 it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field...
, featuring a sexy female star who never had a set name but has been unofficially referred to as "Red" by fans, whose visual design and voice varied somewhat between shorts. Other Avery characters at MGM included Screwy Squirrel and the Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers during the Great Depression in California, USA....
-inspired duo of George and Junior
George and Junior
George and Junior was a short-lived animation cartoon series by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. All of the original, 1940s shorts were directed by Tex Avery, who based them on George and Lennie from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men...
.
Other notable MGM cartoons directed by Avery include Bad Luck Blackie
Bad Luck Blackie
Bad Luck Blackie is a 1949 animated cartoon produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The Tex Avery-directed short was voted the fifteenth-best cartoon of all-time in a 1994 poll of one-thousand animation industry professionals, as referenced in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons...
, Magical Maestro
Magical Maestro
Magical Maestro is a 1952 animated short film directed by Tex Avery and produced by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. It tells the story of Poochini, a canine opera singer who spurns a magician. The magician is able to replace Poochini's normal conductor prior to the show through disguise...
, Lucky Ducky, Ventriloquist Cat
Ventriloquist Cat
Ventriloquist Cat is an MGM animated film, directed by Hollywood director Tex Avery. The film was released in the US on 27 May 1950.-Plot:...
and King-Size Canary
King-Size Canary
King-Size Canary is an animated cartoon short that debuted in movie theaters in 1947. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Tex Avery.-Plot:An unnamed alley cat searches for food in some garbage cans late at night...
. Avery began his stint at MGM working with lush colors and realistic backgrounds, but he slowly abandoned this style for a more frenetic, less realistic approach. The newer, more stylized look reflected the influence of the up-and-coming UPA
United Productions of America
United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio of the 1940s through present day, beginning with industrial films and World War II training films. In the late 1940s, UPA produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Pictures, most notably the Mr. Magoo series. In...
studio, the need to cut costs as budgets grew higher, and Avery's own desire to leave reality behind and make cartoons that were not tied to the real world of live action. During this period, he made a notable series of films which explored the technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
of the future: The House of Tomorrow, The Car of Tomorrow, The Farm of Tomorrow and TV of Tomorrow (spoofing common live-action promotional shorts of the time). He also introduced a slow-talking wolf character, who was the prototype for MGM associates Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
's Huckleberry Hound
Huckleberry Hound
The Huckleberry Hound Show is a 1958 syndicated animated series and the second from Hanna-Barbera following The Ruff & Reddy Show, sponsored by Kellogg's. Three segments were included in the program: one featuring Huckleberry Hound; another starring Yogi Bear and his sidekick Boo Boo; and a third...
character, right down to the voice by Daws Butler
Daws Butler
Charles Dawson "Daws" Butler was a voice actor originally from Toledo, Ohio. He worked mostly for Hanna-Barbera and originated the voices of many famous animated cartoon characters, including Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry Hound.Daws Butler trained many working actors...
.
Avery took a year's sabbatical from MGM beginning in 1950 (to recover from overwork), during which time Dick Lundy, recently arrived from the Walter Lantz studio, took over his unit and made one Droopy cartoon, as well as a string of shorts with an old character, Barney Bear
Barney Bear
Barney Bear was a series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. The titular character was an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a sluggish, sleepy bear who often is in pursuit of nothing but peace and quiet....
. Avery returned to MGM in October 1951 and began working again. Avery's last two original cartoons for MGM were Deputy Droopy and Cellbound, completed in 1953 and released in 1955. They were co-directed by Avery unit animator Michael Lah
Michael Lah
Michael Richard Lah was an American animator. He is best known for his work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, primarily as a member of Tex Avery's animation unit....
. Lah began directing a handful of CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
Droopy shorts on his own. A burnt-out Avery left MGM in 1953 to return to the Walter Lantz studio.
After MGM
Avery's return to the Lantz studio did not last long. He directed four cartoons in 1954-1955: the one-shots Crazy Mixed-Up Pup and Shh-h-h-h-h, and I'm Cold and The Legend of Rockabye Point, in which he defined the character of Chilly WillyChilly Willy
Chilly Willy is a cartoon character, a diminutive anthropomorphic penguin living in Alaska, although the species is native only to the southern hemisphere. He was created by Paul J. Smith for the Walter Lantz studio in 1953...
the penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
. Although The Legend of Rockabye Point and Crazy Mixed-Up Pup were nominated for Academy Awards, Avery left Lantz over a salary dispute, effectively ending his career in theatrical animation.
He turned to animated television commercials
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
, most notably the Raid
Raid (insecticide)
Raid is the brand name of a line of insecticides produced by SC Johnson, first launched in 1956.The initial active ingredient was the first synthetic pyrethroid, allethrin...
commercials of the 1960s and 1970s (in which cartoon insects, confronted by the bug killer, screamed "RAID!" and died flamboyantly) and Frito-Lay
Frito-Lay
Frito-Lay North America is the division of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets and sells corn chips, potato chips and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks, Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips,...
's controversial mascot
Mascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
, the Frito Bandito
Frito Bandito
The Frito Bandito was the cartoon mascot for Fritos corn chips from 1967 to 1971. The Bandito was created by the Foote, Cone & Belding Agency, and animated by Tex Avery. The character was voiced by Mel Blanc, who used an exaggerated Mexican accent not unlike another character of his, Speedy...
. Avery also produced ads for Kool-Aid
Kool-Aid
Kool-Aid is a brand of flavored drink mix owned by the Kraft Foods Company.-History:Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins in Hastings, Nebraska, United States. All of his experiments took place in his mother's kitchen. Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack...
fruit drinks starring the Warner Bros. characters he had once helped create during his Termite Terrace days.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Avery became increasingly reserved and depressed
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
, although he continued to draw respect from his peers. His final employer was Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he wrote gags for Saturday morning cartoons such as the Droopy-esque Kwicky Koala.
On Tuesday, August 26, 1980, Avery died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
at age 72. He had been suffering from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
for a year. He is buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica...
.
Legacy
Although Tex Avery did not live to experience the late-1980s renaissance of animation, his work was rediscovered and he began to receive widespread attention and praise by the modern animation and film communities. All of his MGM shorts were released uncensored in a North American MGM/UA laserdisc set, called The Compleat Tex Avery, including the "politically incorrect" Uncle Tom's Cabana and Half-Pint Pygmy (although these were removed from the Region 2 DVD release, now out of print). Several of them were released on VHS, in four volumes of Tex Avery's Screwball Classics, and two Droopy collections, with many gags edited out for television showings left in. Screwball SquirrelScrewball Squirrel
Screwball "Screwy" Squirrel is a cartoon character, an anthropomorphic squirrel created by Tex Avery for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, generally considered the wackiest of the screwball cartoon characters of the 1940s, which included Warner Bros.'s Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Disney's Aracuan Bird, and...
, King-Size Canary
King-Size Canary
King-Size Canary is an animated cartoon short that debuted in movie theaters in 1947. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Tex Avery.-Plot:An unnamed alley cat searches for food in some garbage cans late at night...
and Little Rural Riding Hood
Little Rural Riding Hood
Little Rural Riding Hood is a 1949 animated cartoon short subject directed by Tex Avery, conceived as a follow-up to his 1943 cartoon Red Hot Riding Hood...
were included on MGM/UA's first non-Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
tape of vintage animated shorts, MGM Cartoon Magic. Two other cartoons by Avery appeared on Christmas compilations. The Peachy Cobbler was part of MGM Cartoon Christmas, and One Ham's Family was part of Tom and Jerry's Night Before Christmas. Avery's Droopy cartoons are available on the DVD set Tex Avery's Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection. The seven Droopy cartoons produced in CinemaScope were included here in their original widescreen versions, instead of the pan and scan
Pan and scan
Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects...
versions regularly broadcast on television. Also, some of his works could be found on tapes of Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes shorts, and the same is true of his few Lantz Studio cartoons. His influence is strongly reflected in modern cartoons such as "Roger Rabbit", Ren and Stimpy, Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
, Animaniacs
Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
, Freakazoid, Tom and Jerry Kids Show
Tom and Jerry Kids Show
Tom & Jerry Kids is an animated television series, featuring the famous cat-and-mouse stars as children . The show premiered in 1990 and continued airing until 1994...
, SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
, Rocko's Modern Life
Rocko's Modern Life
Rocko's Modern Life is an animated series created by Joe Murray. The show aired for four seasons between 1993 and 1996 on Nickelodeon. Rocko's Modern Life is based around the surreal, parodic adventures of an anthropomorphic wallaby named Rocko, and his life in the city of O-Town...
, Phineas & Ferb, and the Genie character in Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
's Aladdin. In fact, an Averyesque cowboy character bore his name in the otherwise unrelated series The Wacky World of Tex Avery
The Wacky World of Tex Avery
The Wacky World of Tex Avery is a cartoon television show produced by DiC Entertainment in 1997 and 1998.-Production:The series was named after Tex Avery, a cartoonist who is most famous for his work at Warner Bros. and MGM...
. His work has been honored on shows such as The Tex Avery Show
The Tex Avery Show
The Tex Avery Show was an animated showcase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros. cartoon shorts prominently by animator Tex Avery . The showcase premiered on the Cartoon Network in 1996 , and was taken off the air in 2002...
and Cartoon Alley
Cartoon Alley
Cartoon Alley is an American television program that aired on Turner Classic Movies every Saturday Morning at 11:30 AM ET.Hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, the series featured three classic animated shorts from the 1930-1950's per episode. Most shorts were from The Golden Age of American animation. Each of...
. His characters (particularly Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
and the risqué antics of Red Hot Riding Hood
Red Hot Riding Hood
Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released on May 8, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994 it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field...
) were referenced in the Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey
James Eugene "Jim" Carrey is a Canadian-American actor and comedian. He has received two Golden Globe Awards and has also been nominated on four occasions. Carrey began comedy in 1979, performing at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto, Ontario...
film The Mask
The Mask (film)
The Mask is a 1994 American superhero comedy film based on a series of comic books published by Dark Horse Comics. This film was directed by Chuck Russell, and produced by Dark Horse Entertainment and New Line Cinema, and originally released to movie theatres on July 29, 1994 through New Line...
. In the mid 1990s, Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
released a trio of three-issue miniseries that were openly labelled tributes to Avery's MGM cartoons, Wolf & Red, Droopy, and Screwy Squirrel. It should also be noted that Tex Avery, unlike most Warner Brothers directors, kept many original title frames of his cartoons, several otherwise lost due to Blue Ribbon Reissues, and were recently sold on eBay.
In 2008 France issued three stamps honoring Tex Avery for his 100th birthday, depicting Droopy, the redheaded showgirl, and the wolf.
Today, the copyrights to all classic color cartoons directed by Avery at Warners and MGM are owned by Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. (commonly known as Turner Entertainment Co.) is an American...
, with Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
handling distribution. (WB owns the black-and-white cartoons directly.) Turner and WB are both units of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
. The cartoons he directed at the Lantz studio are owned by their original distributors, Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
. A few of Avery's WB shorts are in the public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
, but WB and Turner hold the original film elements.
Warner Bros.
- Gold Diggers of '49Gold Diggers of '49Gold Diggers of '49 is a 1935 Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon short in the Looney Tunes series. This film is the very first cartoon directed by Tex Avery for Warner Brothers., and is the second Warners cartoon to feature the character Porky Pig. The star is Beans the Cat, with Porky Pig as the...
(1935) - The Blow OutThe Blow OutThe Blow Out is a 1936 Looney Tunes animated short film starring Porky Pig. It was directed by Tex Avery.-Plot:While a mad bomber is terrorizing the city, Porky Pig is searching for money in order to buy an ice cream soda...
(1936) - Plane Dippy (1936)
- I'd Love to Take Orders from You (1936)
- Page Miss Glory (1936 film)Page Miss Glory (1936 film)Page Miss Glory is a 1936 cartoon produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions. The voices in this cartoon were provided by members of the Our Gang series...
(1936) - I Love to SingaI Love to SingaI Love to Singa is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Tex Avery, produced by Leon Schlesinger, and released to theatres on July 18, 1936 by Warner Bros. and Vitaphone. I Love to Singa depicts the story of a young owlet who wants to sing jazz, instead of the classical music that his...
(1936) - Porky the Rain Maker (1936)
- The Village Smithy (1936)
- Milk and MoneyMilk and Money (cartoon)Milk and Money is a 1936 Looney Tunes animated short film directed by Tex Avery....
(1936) - Don't Look NowDon't Look Now (cartoon)Don't Look Now is a 1936 Merrie Melodies animated short film directed by Tex Avery. It portrays Valentine's Day. Cupid is making people fall in love, while Satan is doing everything possible to undermine the relationships....
(1936) - Porky the Wrestler (1937)
- Picador Porky (1937)
- I Only Have Eyes for YouI Only Have Eyes for You (cartoon)I Only Have Eyes for You is a 1937 Merrie Melodies animated short film directed by Tex Avery with an all-bird cast, and based on the song of the same name....
(1937) - Porky's Duck HuntPorky's Duck HuntPorky's Duck Hunt is an animated short film produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and released on April 17, 1937 by Warner Bros. Pictures. Porky's Hare Hunt was the sequel to this one....
(1937) - Uncle Tom's BungalowUncle Tom's BungalowUncle Tom's Bungalow is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Tex Avery, and released to theatres on July 12, 1937 by Warner Bros. The short cartoon is a parody of the 1852 novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin and the “plantation melodrama” genre of the 1930s. It contains many stereotypical portrayals...
(1937) - Ain't We Got FunAin't We Got Fun (cartoon)-Synopsis:Ain't We Got Fun is a 1937 Merrie Melodies cartoon short, directed by Tex Avery and based on the popular song of that name. The plotline concerns a cat who is tricked by a group of fun-loving mice into taking the blame for the mess they created and thrown out of the house into the snow by...
(1937) - Egghead Rides AgainEgghead Rides AgainEgghead Rides Again is a 1937 Merrie Melodies Warner Bros. film directed by Tex Avery.- Plot :Energenic Egghead is bouncing around pretending to be a cowboy until his obnoxious cadence gets him kicked out of the apartment complex he's living in. While on the street he finds an ad for a wanted...
(1937) - A Sunbonnet Blue (1937)
- Porky's Garden (1937)
- I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937)
- The Sneezing Weasel (1937)
- Little Red Walking HoodLittle Red Walking HoodLittle Red Walking Hood is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short, released in 1937 by Warner Bros. and directed by Tex Avery.-Plot:The cartoon features the basic plot of Little Red Riding Hood, with a few twists and oddball Tex Avery-like gags, such as Red displaying a Katharine Hepburn persona, or...
(1937) - The Penguin Parade (1938)
- Isle of Pingo Pongo (1938)
- A Feud There WasA Feud There WasA Feud There Was was a 1938 Warner Bros. cartoon short in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Tex Avery and written by Melvin Millar, and notable for being the first cartoon in which the name Elmer Fudd was used, seen inscribed on the side of the scooter driven by the protagonist, otherwise...
(1938) - Johnny Smith and Poker-HuntasJohnny Smith and Poker-HuntasJohnny Smith and Poker-Huntas was a cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series directed by Tex Avery and written by Rich Hogan, and released by Warner Bros. on October 22, 1938...
(1938) - Daffy Duck in HollywoodDaffy Duck in HollywoodDaffy Duck in Hollywood is a Merrie Melodies 1938 animated short starring Daffy Duck. This was the final Daffy Duck cartoon directed by Tex Avery.-Plot:...
(1938) - Cinderella Meets Fella (1938)
- Hamateur Night (1938)
- The Mice Will Play (1938)
- A Day at the ZooA Day at the ZooA Day at the Zoo is a 1939 Warner Bros. animated cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It was directed by Tex Avery, with musical direction by Carl Stalling. It was written by Melvin Millar. No voice credits are given. Mel Blanc provides most of the incidental voices. The narrator is Robert C...
(1939) - Thugs with Dirty MugsThugs with Dirty MugsThugs with Dirty Mugs is a 1939 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series.-Synopsis:Its subject matter is a parody of Warner's famous cycle of crime films starring such actors as James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, George Raft, and Edward G. Robinson...
(1939) - Believe It or Else (1939)
- Dangerous Dan McFooDangerous Dan McFooDangerous Dan McFoo is a 1939 Merrie Melodies/Vitaphone animated short directed by Tex Avery, produced by Leon Schlesinger, written by Rich Hogan and based on a poem by Robert W. Service entitled The Shooting of Dan McGrew. Carl Stalling wrote and produced the musical score...
(1939) - Detouring America (1939)
- Land of the Midnight FunLand of the Midnight FunLand of the Midnight Fun is a Merrie Melodies cartoon directed in 1939 by the famous Fred Avery, better known as Tex Avery. Robert C. Bruce's well-known voice narrates this cartoon and Melvin Millar wrote the story...
(1939) - Fresh FishFresh FishFresh Fish is a concept which aims at unestablished creators in different sectors. Its goal is to work as a platform for interaction between different actors in the culture and business world....
(1939) - Screwball Football (1939)
- The Early Worm Gets the Bird (1940)
- Cross Country Detours (1940)
- The Bear's Tale (1940)
- A Gander at Mother Goose (1940)
- Circus Today (1940)
- A Wild HareA Wild HareA Wild Hare is a 1940 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and written by Rich Hogan. It was originally released on July 27, 1940...
(1940) - Ceiling Hero (1940)
- Wacky Wild Life (1940)
- Of Fox and HoundsOf Fox and HoundsOf Fox and Hounds is an 8-minute 1940 Tex Avery film which introduced Willoughby the Dog.Tex Avery did the voice of Willoughby, and Mel Blanc did the George the Fox.-Plot:...
(1940) - Holiday Highlights (1940)
- The Crackpot Quail (1941)
- Haunted Mouse (1941)
- Tortoise Beats HareTortoise Beats HareTortoise Beats Hare is a 1941 Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Tex Avery. The short stars Bugs Bunny and, in his first appearance, Cecil Turtle.-Plot:...
(1941) - Hollywood Steps OutHollywood steps outHollywood Steps Out is a 1941 short Merrie Melodies cartoon by Warner Brothers, directed by Tex Avery. The cartoon features caricatures of Hollywood celebrities from the 1930s and early 1940s.- Plot :...
(1941) - Porky's PreviewPorky's PreviewPorky's Preview is a short film of animation produced by Leon Schlesinger and directed by Tex Avery. It features Porky Pig. The film was released on 19 April 1941, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.-Plot:...
(1941) - The Heckling HareThe Heckling HareThe Heckling Hare is a Merrie Melodies cartoon, released on July 12, 1941 and featuring Bugs Bunny and a dopey dog named Willoughby. The cartoon was directed by Tex Avery, written by Michael Maltese, animated by soon-to-be director Bob McKimson, and with musical direction by Carl Stalling...
(1941) - Aviation VacationAviation VacationAviation Vacation is a 1941 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It was directed by Tex Avery, story by Bob Monahan, musical direction by Carl Stalling.-Synopsis:...
(1941) - All This and Rabbit StewAll This and Rabbit StewAll This and Rabbit Stew is a one-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Merrie Melodies series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on September 20, 1941 by Warner Bros. and Vitaphone. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger and directed by an uncredited Tex Avery, with musical...
(1941) - The Bug Parade (1941)
- The Cagey Canary (1941)
- Aloha Hooey (1942)
- Crazy CruiseCrazy CruiseCrazy Cruise is a 1942 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It was directed by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, whose names do not appear on the surviving print of the cartoon. Because Tex left the studio in September 1941 before production was completed , Clampett finished it, and both...
(1942)
UPA
- Speaking of Animals Down on the Farm (1941)
- Speaking of Animals Down in a Pet Shop (1941)
- Speaking of Animals Down in the Zoo (1941)
MGM
- Blitz WolfBlitz WolfBlitz Wolf is an early anti-German World War II Hitler-parodying cartoon produced in 1942 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons.-Plot:...
(1942) - The Early Bird Dood It!The Early Bird Dood It!The Early Bird Dood It! is a 1942 MGM cartoon directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby. Composer of cartoon was Scott Bradley.-Plot:The foreword of the cartoon tells:To the ladies The worm in this photoplay is fictitious - Any similarity...
(1942) - Dumb-HoundedDumb-HoundedDumb-Hounded is an American animation short from 1943. It's notable for being the first cartoon to star Droopy.-Plot:The wolf escapes from prison. Several police dogs are freed to search him, but one one them, Droopy, remains behind and informs the audience that he is the hero of the story. He...
(1943) - Red Hot Riding HoodRed Hot Riding HoodRed Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released on May 8, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994 it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field...
(1943) - Who Killed Who?Who Killed Who?Who Killed Who? is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short directed by Tex Avery for MGM. The cartoon is a parody of whodunit stories and employs many clichés of the genre for humor.-Plot:...
(1943) - One Ham's Family (1943)
- What's Buzzin' Buzzard? (1943)
- Screwball SquirrelScrewball SquirrelScrewball "Screwy" Squirrel is a cartoon character, an anthropomorphic squirrel created by Tex Avery for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, generally considered the wackiest of the screwball cartoon characters of the 1940s, which included Warner Bros.'s Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Disney's Aracuan Bird, and...
(1944) - Batty Baseball (1944)
- Happy-Go-Nutty (1944)
- Big Heel-Watha (1944)
- The Screwy Truant (1945)
- The Shooting of Dan McGooThe Shooting Of Dan McGooThe Shooting of Dan McGoo is a cartoon directed by Tex Avery. It starred Frank Graham as the Wolf. Both Avery and Bill Thompson voiced the lead character Droopy. Bea Benaderet did the speaking voice of Lou, while her singing was provided by Imogene Lynn...
(1945) - Jerky TurkeyJerky TurkeyJerky Turkey is an animated theatrical short, directed by Tex Avery, released on 7 April 1945 by MGM. The story for this cartoon was written by Heck Allen, the music by Scott Bradley, and the animation was done by Preston Blair, Ed Love and Ray Abrams. Voices were provided by radio actors Harry...
(1945) - Swing Shift CinderellaSwing Shift CinderellaSwing Shift Cinderella is an animated cartoon short subject. It is in the same vein as Red Hot Riding Hood. Frank Graham voiced the wolf, and Colleen Collins voiced Cinderella.-Plot:...
(1945) - Wild and WoolfyWild And WoolfyWild and Woolfy is a 1945 animated cartoon short, one of six cartoons in which Droopy was paired with a wolf. It is one of a very few cartoons in the series where Bill Thompson did not voice Droopy in any part of the cartoon.-Plot:...
(1945) - Lonesome Lenny (1946)
- The Hick Chick (1946)
- Northwest Hounded PoliceNorthwest Hounded PoliceNorthwest Hounded Police is a cartoon starring a prototypical Droopy and Tex Avery's wolf. This cartoon revoles the wolf on the run from Droopy, who is trailing the wolf in order to capture him...
(1946) - Henpecked Hoboes (1946)
- Hound Hunters (1947)
- Red Hot Rangers (1947)
- Uncle Tom's Cabaña (1947)
- Slap Happy LionSlap Happy LionSlap Happy Lion is a 1947 cartoon directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby. It is about the tragic downfall of a lion from king of the beasts to a gibbering, pill-popping wreck. It is narrated by a mouse whose torments drove him crazy. The mouse's voice was supplied by Paul Frees...
(1947) - King-Size CanaryKing-Size CanaryKing-Size Canary is an animated cartoon short that debuted in movie theaters in 1947. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by Tex Avery.-Plot:An unnamed alley cat searches for food in some garbage cans late at night...
(1947) - What Price Fleadom (1948)
- Little 'TinkerLittle 'TinkerLittle 'Tinker is a 1947 MGM cartoon directed by Tex Avery. It was produced by Fred Quimby and composed by Scott Bradley.-Plot:The story begins at the home of B.O. Skunk, which is propelled by many fans. B.O. washes under shower and dozes himself with perfume. Then, he goes out for a walk. The...
(1948) - Half-Pint Pygmy (1948)
- Lucky DuckyLucky Ducky (cartoon)Lucky Ducky is a 1948 American animated cartoon from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Tex Avery, animated by Walt Clinton , Preston Blair, Louie Schmitt, and Grant Simmons, and musical direction by Scott Bradley....
(1948) - The Cat That Hated PeopleThe Cat That Hated PeopleThe Cat That Hated People is a 1948 cartoon directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby. The cat's voice was supplied by radio actor Harry Lang; incidental music was directed by Scott Bradley.-Plot:...
(1948) - Bad Luck BlackieBad Luck BlackieBad Luck Blackie is a 1949 animated cartoon produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The Tex Avery-directed short was voted the fifteenth-best cartoon of all-time in a 1994 poll of one-thousand animation industry professionals, as referenced in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons...
(1949) - Señor Droopy (1949)
- The House of Tomorrow (1949)
- Doggone Tired (1949)
- Wags to Riches (1949)
- Little Rural Riding HoodLittle Rural Riding HoodLittle Rural Riding Hood is a 1949 animated cartoon short subject directed by Tex Avery, conceived as a follow-up to his 1943 cartoon Red Hot Riding Hood...
(1949) - Out-Foxed (1949)
- The Counterfeit Cat (1949)
- Ventriloquist CatVentriloquist CatVentriloquist Cat is an MGM animated film, directed by Hollywood director Tex Avery. The film was released in the US on 27 May 1950.-Plot:...
(1950) - The Cuckoo Clock (1950)
- Garden Gopher (1950)
- The Chump Champ (1950)
- The Peachy Cobbler (1950)
- Cock-a-Doodle Dog (1951)
- Daredevil Droopy (1951)
- Droopy's Good Deed (1951)
- Symphony in SlangSymphony in Slang"Symphony in Slang" is a 1951 cartoon short directed by Tex Avery, written by Rich Hogan and released by MGM. Minimalist and abstract in style , it tells the story of a man John Brown, who finds himself at the Pearly Gates explaining the story of his life to a bewildered Saint Peter and Noah Webster...
(1951) - Car of Tomorrow (1951)
- Droopy's Double Trouble (1951)
- Magical MaestroMagical MaestroMagical Maestro is a 1952 animated short film directed by Tex Avery and produced by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. It tells the story of Poochini, a canine opera singer who spurns a magician. The magician is able to replace Poochini's normal conductor prior to the show through disguise...
(1952) - One Cab's Family (1952)
- Rock-a-Bye Bear (1952)
- Little Johnny Jet (1953)
- T.V. Of Tomorrow (1953)
- The Three Little Pups (1953)
- Drag-a-Long Droopy (1954)
- Billy BoyBilly Boy"Billy Boy" is a traditional folk song and nursery rhyme found in the United States. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 326.-Lyrics:One variant of the lyrics goes:Oh, where have you been,Billy Boy, Billy Boy?Oh, where have you been,Charming Billy?...
(1954) - Homesteader Droopy (1954)
- The Farm of Tomorrow (1954)
- The Flea Circus (1954)
- Dixieland DroopyDixieland DroopyDixieland Droopy is a 1954 animated short subject in the Droopy series, directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
(1954) - Field and Scream (1955)
- The First Bad ManThe First Bad ManThe First Bad Man is an American animated cartoon directed by Tex Avery, and features narration by singing cowboy Tex Ritter. It was released by MGM on September 30, 1955.-Synopsis:...
(1955) - Deputy Droopy (1955)
- Cellbound (1955)
- Millionaire Droopy (1956)
- Cat's MeowCat's meowCat's meow may refer to:*Meow , an onomatopoeia for the voiced sound made by cats...
(1957)
Walter Lantz
- Crazy Mixed Up Pup (1954)
- I'm Cold (1954)
- The Legend of Rockabye PointThe Legend of Rockabye PointThe Legend of Rockabye Point is a 1955 Chilly Willy cartoon directed by Tex Avery and produced by Walter Lantz. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short Film, but lost to Speedy Gonzales.-Plot:...
(1955) - Sh-h-h-h-h-h (1955)
Further reading
- Adamson, Joe (1975). Tex Avery: King of Cartoons. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80248-1.
- Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516729-5.
- Benayoun, Robert (1988). Le mystère Tex Avery. Paris: Editions du Seuil. ISBN 2-02-009870-9.
- Canemaker, JohnJohn CanemakerJohn Cannizzaro Jr. , better known as John Canemaker, is an independent animator, animation historian, author, teacher and lecturer. In 1980, he began teaching and developing the animation program at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts', Kanbar Institute of Film and Television Department...
(1996). Tex Avery: The MGM Years, 1942-1955. Atlanta: Turner Press. ISBN 1-57036-291-2. - Morris, Gary (Sept 1998). What's Up, Tex? A Look at the Life and Career of Tex Avery. Bright Lights Film Journal.
External links
- Tex Avery Tribute
- Animation of Tex Avery at Keyframe - the Animation Resource
- A listing of his ancestry for five generations
- Review of The Compleat Tex Avery, a laserdiscLaserdiscLaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
collection of Avery's entire series of MGM cartoons (published in 1993) - The Shelf: Review of Tex Avery's Droopy, US DVD Release
- Tex Avery's grave marker