Happy 100th Birthday, Frank Tashlin!

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Born on February 19, 1913, film comedy producer-director-writer-animator and the author of The Bear That Wasn't, the most satiric children's book ever penned, Mr. Frank Tashlin.





Tashlin could well be the single greatest cartoon director who ever lived, or at the very least, neck-in-neck with Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett.

Porky's Poultry Plant (1936)

Porky’s Double Trouble (1937)

Porky’s Romance (1937)

Wholly Smoke (1938)

Like the other Termite Terrace boys, Tashlin was responsible for enduring comic gems at Warner Brothers.

Porky Pig's Feat (1943)

Puss N' Booty (1943)

Brother Brat (1944)

Booby Hatched (1944)

Swooner Crooner (1944)

Plane Daffy (1944)


Swooner Crooner (1944)
I've Got Plenty Of Mutton (1944)

The Stupid Cupid (1944)

Nasty Quacks (1945)

Tashlin carried that subversive sense of humor from animation to live-action, first as screenwriter (The Road To Utopia, The Paleface), then as director. Paramount comedy stars Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in particular benefited immensely.




As the 1950's progressed, Tashlin smuggled even more of that unique satiric edge into the mix while directing and writing starring vehicles for Martin & Lewis, Jayne Mansfield, Tony Randall, Terry-Thomas and Jerry Lewis.















The following commentary on Tashlin's delirious 1956 musical The Girl Can't Help It, by a subversive filmmaker of a later generation, John Waters, says it all.



Thanks, Frank - like Little Richard and Sweet Gene Vincent, you rocked!





Author/historian Mike Barrier rocked as well with his 1971 interview with Mr. Tashlin.

It's Official: This Blog Loves Frank Tashlin

Nobody could get gags past those Hays Office censors quite as cleverly as Frank Tashlin!





The Stupid Cupid (1944)

Swooner Crooner (1944)

Nasty Quacks (1945)

Puss N' Booty (1943)

Brother Brat (1944)

Booby Hatched (1944)

Jerry Lewis Rocks!

To continue that Frank Tashlin thread from earlier this week, here's my favorite excerpt from a Jerry Lewis flick, from Tashlin's Rock-A-Bye-Baby (1959). How many rockin' guitarists would kill to do the dance moves Jerry executes here?

Here are the rockin' Treniers with Martin & Lewis on The Colgate Comedy Hour. They knew how to have fun on TV in 1954.

This Blog Pays Tribute To Frank Tashlin

While still enjoying Warner Bros. cartoons (one is hardly enough), I have no choice but to bring up an all-time favorite visionary comedy creator and satiric author of wonderfully subversive children's books (The Bear That Wasn't): Frank Tashlin (1913-1972), a.k.a. Tish Tash, Frank Tash, just Tash, etc.

There is an undeniable kinesthetic urgency and sexual energy - which a fair amountof the time get censored and repressed in his live-action features - that breaks through in Tashlin's cartoons. And, like Bob Clampett, Tashlin is never, ever afraid to be outrageous.

Here are two excellent and innovative examples, from Tash's peak as one of the looniest purveyors of Looney Tunes:

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Plane Daffy


Brother Brat (1944)

I've Got Plenty Of Mutton (1944)

A Tale Of Two Mice (1945)