Chuck Redux

Chuck Jones Centennial Film Tribute at Cinefamily

This past weekend, Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre in West Hollywood, California hosted a two-day film tribute to Chuck Jones. Hosted by animation film historian and author, Jerry Beck, on Saturday, they screened eight of Chuck's masterpieces from his days at Warner Bros. including such classics as "What's Opera, Doc?" and "One Froggy Evening" both of which are in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. The late afternoon event wrapped with a rare screening of Chuck Jones's 1973 TV special, "A Cricket in Times Square." The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity provided Cinefamily with Chuck's personal 35mm prints of the cartoons. 

Jerry Beck (L) and Alexander McDonald, program director for Cinefamily, outside the Silent Movie Theatre.

Jerry's special guest on Saturday was animator, art director, and theme park designer, John Ramirez, who had worked with Chuck Jones in the 1980s and 1990s. He and his colleagues were the designers of the Chuck Jones exhibition at the Capitol Children's Museum, Washington, D.C. in 1990. 

Jerry Beck (L) and John Ramirez discuss the finer points of a Chuck Jones cartoon at the Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre in West Hollywood.

There was even cake! (Who doesn't like a good carrot cake, I ask you?)

On Sunday, Craig Kausen, chairman of the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity and Chuck's grandson, made opening remarks before a screening of Jones's only feature film, "The Phantom Tollbooth." Special guest, actor Butch Patrick, who starred as Milo in "The Phantom Tollbooth" made an appearance and spoke with the near-capacity crowd. All-in-all it was a great weekend for Chuck Jones fans!

Animator and fan, Thom Nicolette (L) with actor Butch Patrick ("The Munsters", "The Phantom Tollbooth") at the Cinefamily Chuck Jones Film Tribute. 

Craig Kausen (L) and Butch Patrick at the Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre in West Hollywood.

Craig Kausen (R) brought a portfolio of material from the making of "The Phantom Tollbooth" to share with the crowd of fans. He's seen here with Alexander McDonald (far left) of Cinefamily and Jerry Beck (center), author, animation historian and host/moderator for the weekend film tribute to Chuck Jones.

Photographer Stephen Russo (R) seen with Butch Patrick outside the Silent Movie Theatre. Mr. Russo provided all of the photos for this post. Thank you, Stephen!

Ray Bradbury and Chuck Jones

With the passing of Ray Bradbury this week, it brought to mind a wonderful quote from him when he was at a birthday party celebrating Jones's 55th.  Someone asked Bradbury what he would like to be when he grew up and he replied, "I want to be 14 years old, just like Chuck Jones."

Chuck Jones (r) and Ray Bradbury enjoying each other's company.  

Happy Birthday, Gossamer!

Today is Gossamer's birthday. The orange pile-of-hay monster who wore sneakers and had an aversion to large crowds of people appeared in only two cartoons, the first of which, "Hair-Raising Hare" premiered on this date in 1946. 

Enjoy!

Daffy Duck 75? Not Possible, Why He Doesn't Look a Day Over...

On April 17, 1937, a star was born. Tex Avery's "Porky's Duck Hunt" premiered in theaters nationwide and audiences were introduced to a duck unlike any other duck in cartoon history. He was wacky and wild, some might even say crazy, but the germ of an idea was born, and the directors and animators at Warner Bros. took the nutty, black-feathered guy and made him into the star he is today, Daffy Aloysius Dumas Duck. 

Daffy Duck starred in 134 +/- cartoons and arguably reached his apogee in the hunting trilogy directed by Chuck Jones: "Rabbit Fire" 1951, "Rabbit Seasoning" 1952, and "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" 1953. 

"I have watched with fascination his [Daffy's] growth from his earliest haphazard puerile personality, through adolescence, to the splendid bombast of his maturity in the fifties. Daffy has become the spokesman for the egoist in everyone, but he remains always undaunted by the inevitable requital: the fear of consequences that makes cowards of the rest of us." --Robert D. Tschirgi, M.D., PH.D., professor of Neurosciences, University of California, La Jolla, February 14, 1985

"The first surfacing of that part of my character that was later to show up in Daffy Duck occurred at the age of six. My sixth-birthday party, to be precise. I was immensely proud--it seems to me that all my life I have taken the most pride in things over which I have little or no control. Even though I had older sisters, it never occurred to me that anyone had ever become six years old before, and the splendid cake, candles bravely ablaze in salute to my maturity, was ample evidence that I had entered manhood.

"Having blown out the candles and, as a side benefit, managing to send most of the smoke up my little brother's nostrils, I was handed the knife, my first baton of any kind of authority in six misspent years, and was told to cut as large a piece as I liked. At this point Daffy Duck must have had, for me, his earliest beginnings, because I found to my surprise and pleasure that I had no desire to share my cake with anyone. I courteously returned the knife to my mother. I had no need for it, I explained; I would simplify the whole matter by taking the entire cake for myself. Not knowing she had an incipient duck on her hands, she laughed gently and tried to return the knife to my reluctant grasp. I again explained that the knife was superflous. It was impossible, I pointed out with incontrovertible logic, to cut a cake and still leave it entire for its rightful owner. I had no need and no desire to share.

"My father thereupon mounted the hustings (he was nine feet tall and looked like a moose without antlers) and escorted me to my room to contemplate in cakeless solitude the meaning of a word new to me: "selfish." To me then, and to Daffy Duck now, "selfish" means "honest but antisocial"; "unselfish" means "socially acceptable but often dishonest." We all want the whole cake, but, unlike Daffy and at least one six-year-old boy, the coward in the rest of us keeps the Daffy Duck, the small boy in us, under control." --Chuck Jones writing in his autobiography "Chuck Amuck" 1989

All drawings are by Chuck Jones, graphite on paper, circa 1950s through mid 1990s.

Chuck Jones + New Mexico Celebrate Their Centennial in 2012

Chuck Jones said that part of his great pleasure in visiting the Land of Enchantment (New Mexico) was probably due to the fact they both came to be the same year, 1912.  "New Mexico" magazine celebrates the state's centennial in their latest Collector's Edition, which included a great note about "taking a left turn at Albuquerque".  

It reads: "1953: Cartoonist Chuck Jones popularizes Bugs Bunny's phrase, "I knew I shoulda tooke that left toin at Albakoikie," [sic] sparking a pop-culture onslaught of references to getting lost near the Duke City.  Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies creator Chuck Jones lived in California, but traveled frequently to New Mexico.  Reflecting his attachment to the state, a gallery of his work operates in Santa Fe today."

Send in the Clowns: Chuck Jones and Ringling Bros. Clown College

Chuck Jones met the clown TJ Tatters, also known as Steve Smith, in the early 1990s.  Smith, a graduate of the Ringling Bros. Clown College and its director from 1985 until 1995, invited Jones down to Sarasota, Florida on several occasions to speak with the students.  As was his nature, Chuck gifted many of the students a drawing of their favorite Warner Bros. character.  On one such trip he drew this:

 This past September, the Clowns (past, present and future) got together on Cape Cod for a reunion and to celebrate Chuck's birthday, Valerie Kausen, Chuck's granddaughter went out to join them in their festivities.  

“Being at the Clown College Reunion made my heart so happy to feel the love and respect that each and every one of those fabulous laugh loving people loved Chuck as much as I do. My face hurt from smiling so much. I had such a great time!", said Valerie, seen here with Steve Smith (aka TJ Tatters), Clown Hall of Fame member, and the talent development coordinator for Chuck Jones Film Productions, in Provincetown this past September for their Reunion.  

 

The Night Watchman

We're busy curating the exhibition for the Chuck Jones Experience opening in Las Vegas at Circus Circus (truly, it's coming, promise!) One of the exhibitions will feature some marvelous telegrams and a charming letter from Chuck's brother Dick (Richard Jones, who also worked as an in-betweener and animator at Schlesinger Studios and for a while was a part of Chuck's unit; after enlisting in the Service during WWII, went on to make quite a career for himself as a noted photographer and painter,) on the release of this, "The Night Watchman", his first directorial effort (although they called it then 'supervision'.)  Here's the letter from his brother, followed by the cartoon.

 

Chuck Jones on the Origins of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote

Let's listen to Chuck Jones as he discusses the origins of his characters, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. Afterwards there'll be a quiz, so please take notes.  

You know that's not true, afterwards there'll be a cartoon starring these self-same animated animals, enjoy!

 

 

At the Bus Stop--Oxford Circus - London 1960

As we get closer to installing the Chuck Jones exhibition at the Chuck Jones Experience in Circus Circus -- Las Vegas, we continue to unearth amazing little gems of drawings and watercolors from Chuck's travel notebooks.  In 1960 he and his wife, Dorothy, traveled to Europe and visited England, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany.  

When I showed one of the drawings to Chris, the Center's resident teaching artist, he said that you knew by looking at the drawing that Chuck just had his hand to paper and wasn't looking specifically at the drawing as it unfolded, but at what he was drawing -- that the free flowing line (so simple, but so telling at the same time) conveyed the immediacy of the moment -- really, you could have been standing there next to him, they are that fresh.  On display at the Experience will be several of these notebooks revealing moments that Chuck experienced first-hand and because of his natural genius and talent with pen & ink (and watercolor as seen in the work featured here), you will be able to do the same.  

Grim Natwick Writes a Letter to Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones's first film that he directed (noted as 'supervisor' in the credits) was "The Night Watchman" of 1938.  His promotion to supervisor was noted in Daily Variety and other industry publications and the congratulatory letters poured in.   As we're preparing for the exhibition of art and artifacts from his life at the Chuck Jones Experience at Circus Circus Las Vegas, we've found some really wonderful, and oftentimes quite touching, notes and letters sent to Chuck on the occasion of his promotion, which at age 26 made him one of the youngest directors at Leon Schlesinger Studios.  The letter below is from the venerable Grim Natwick, who not only offered his expert guidance to the young Jones as he began his career in animation, but is also known for his talent at drawing the human form (he is responsible for bringing Snow White to life for Walt Disney.)

The envelope is dated April 17, 1938.

Dear Chuck, 

Somebody told me you got a very important blurb in Variety to the effect that you are a Supervisor in charge of Looney Tunes -- I believe -- Have not seen the issue but my informer seemed to stress its importance so I am acting on that report.  Let me be the last to congratulate you.  You must be doing all right and that is enough to make me very happy -- Grim N-