When the aficionados of 1930's movies here ponder great character actors and actresses, Ruth Donnelly, Frank McHugh, Aline McMahon, Hugh Herbert, Marie Dressler, Glenda Farrell, Guy Kibbee, Margaret Dumont, Jobyna Howland, Nat Pendleton, Allen Jenkins and just about everyone caricatured in Frank Tashlin's 1937 Looney Tune Porky's Road Race come to mind.
That said, one who ranks atop our list of all-time favorite 20th century character actors is none other than the great, the sneezy, the hilarious Billy Gilbert (September 12, 1894 - September 23, 1971).
Billy Gilbert is, among his numerous roles on stage, screen, radio and animation, well remembered for his memorable performance in Howard Hawks' His Girl Friday.
Character actors who also excel doing voice work in animated cartoons we love even more!
The Disney Wiki elaborates: Billy Gilbert was an American radio comedian, famous for his comical sneezing gags. For Disney, he provided the voice of Sneezy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Willie the Giant in the Fun and Fancy Free segment Mickey and the Beanstalk.
It is believed by historian John Canemaker that Gilbert got the role of Sneezy by walking into Walt’s office for the audition. He sneezed 5 times and Walt said “Billy, you’ve got the job.”
We endorse the following video by Jim Hill Media - nice work, Jim!
At least two years before Walt Disney started production on Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs, Billy sneezes in Million Dollar Legs!
By the time he co-starred with a bunch of comics (including W.C. Fields) and the great Lyda Roberti in Million Dollar Legs, Billy was nailing role after role after role for Hal Roach Studios a.k.a. The Lot Of Fun, as a key supporting player for Laurel & Hardy, Charley Chase and Our Gang.
Arguably, the greatest showcase for Billy Gilbert at Hal Roach Studios, besides his starring musical short subject Apples To You (1934), would be as the salty sea captain in the Our Gang SHIVER MY TIMBERS. His exchanges with pint-sized comedian Matthew "Stymie" Beard are priceless.
He starred in the Roach Studio's TAXI BOYS series in 1932-1933.
My favorite Taxi Boys adventures co-star Australian comedian Clyde Cook.
Mr. Gilbert transitioned seamlessly from Hal Roach Studios to the Columbia Shorts Department.
Billy reprises the wacko he portrayed in the Three Stooges opus Men In Black with panache.
Stan Laurel was in the audience at Gilbert’s stage show Sensations of 1929 and hired Billy as a gag writer, actor and director.
After and during amazing turns in comedy short subjects, Mr. Gilbert played character roles in many feature films, including Seven Sinners, Captain Courageous, and Tin Pan Alley.
Billy is fantastic in Chaplin's The Great Dictator. Unfortunately, none of the clips from that terrific movie on the official Charlie Chaplin channel on YouTube happen to co-star Billy (although there are terrific scenes between Charlie and Jack Oakie).
Would love to have a Billy Gilbert & Charlie Chaplin GREAT DICTATOR clip from Chaplin's estate, but. . . the following will have to do.
In the 1950’s, Gilbert worked frequently in television on numerous shows, including The Red Skelton Hour.
Andy’s Gang
On Broadway, Billy worked in several productions as an actor, writer and director. These included acting roles in Fanny, The Chocolate Soldier, and Gypsy Lady. His offstage work included The Red Mill, Sally and Buttrio Square. So we applaud and extend multiple hat tips to the star of stage screen cartoons and radio, the one, the only Billy Gilbert!
In closing, the Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog crew want to mention that, if you simply can't get enough Hal Roach Studios content - and we can't - check out the following Lot Of Fun playlist. If one gets unlucky, sadly ends up ill, injured and bedridden but in good enough condition to be awake and watch video, there's at least 2600 hours of comedy goodness with healing powers in said playlist. Hail, Billy Gilbert and all the comedy greats!
Memorial Day Weekend is here. 2026 still looks like this.
So that means it's time to cheer up by watching lots of vintage WW2-era cartoons on Memorial Day Weekend.
A good way to celebrate Memorial Day a few days early is with the World War II version of Popeye. In particular, we're big fans of the early Famous Studios Popeyes and Noveltoons directed by Dan Gordon!
And Private Snafu. . .
Snafu's close cousin was Mr. Hook.
In addition to all-time favorite World War II propaganda cartoon Der Fuehrer's Face, Walt Disney Productions made numerous wartime flicks, some as theatricals, others as training films.
The best closer for Memorial Day Weekend after all those service comedies starring Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Martin & Lewis, etc. is Bugs Bunny.
Spoiler alert and best line from the following Chuck Jones cartoon: "so they're inducting rabbits".
These cartoons cheer the crew up here as we wish we could have trekked out to Ohio for big screen fun at this weekend's Columbus Moving Picture Show film festival and also bid farewell to The Late Show, one of our favorite TV programs going back to the 1990's David Letterman years.
Staggering through March 2026 and noting that this year continues painfully and unrelentingly resembling the following. . .
Asking if anything can get one's mind off the dumpster fire even momentarily, the answer to that question remains an emphatic NO, although the next best thing is to celebrate NATIONAL FLAPJACK DAY!
That means it's flapjack time, starting with Mickey Mouse pancakes.
Even better and enthusiastically in the National Flapjack Day spirit: Cuphead!
Do we love pancakes too much? Could this blogger's long-suffering partner be featured in the Women Who Love Men Who Love Pancakes Too Much book?
Yes, guilty as charged.
Would $5 for all you can eat pancakes appeal to the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog? Absolutely!
Not surprisingly, tons of expert advice on how to make flapjacks, from Epicurious to Bon Appétit to America's Test Kitchens to Michelin to New York Times can be found. We'll get it down to two videos: the ever-wisecracking Binging With Babish and Alton Brown's Good Eats.
Now we flip to flapjacks served by great movie comedians and animated cartoon characters. First and foremost: silent movie comedy queen Alice Howell, cavalierly flipping pancakes at 2:11 in the very funny 1920 opus Cinderella Cinders.
Next up: Los Tres Stupidos!
National Flapjack Day in Cartoonland commences with post-World War II Popeye serving green pancakes to his obnoxious nephews in Spinach Vs. Hamburgers. Noting the presence of an excerpt from the staggeringly racist Pop-Pie A La Mode in Spinach Vs Hamburgers, it remains flabbergasting that this cartoon was run constantly on TV in the 1960's. As far as National Flapjack Day goes, I personally would go to both Spinach Heaven and Wimpy's Hamburger Haven, with the sincere hope that Chef Popeye makes a spinach Spanish omelet to go with the green flapjacks!
The New Rochelle studio of Paul Terry produced several flapjack flippin' endeavors. Found the following two pancake-packed 1930's Terrytoons and it’s highly likely there are more.
While I like that in the following Terrytoon, the eatery Nick’s Coffee Pot is literally a coffee pot, it’s just a bit odd, even in the Cartoon Universe, that the clientele are insects.
Meanwhile, Chuck Jones, who, unlike Joe Barbera, would scoff at Terrytoons, starred one of his second-tier headliners, the ever-nonplussed Conrad Cat (from The Bird Came C.O.D. and Conrad The Sailor), as cheerful pancake-flipper in Porky’s Cafe.
This black & white Looney Tune is from 1942, the year when Chuck and crew produced such hilarious classic cartoons as My Favorite Duck and The Dover Boys. Note to readers: enjoy the following cartoon and pardon the inexplicable 1937 opening theme music.
Closing this National Flapjack Day post, we shall beckon back to the 1950's. It's astounding, especally to young people, that not all that long ago there actually was an Aunt Jemima's Kitchen restaurant at Disneyland and a national fast food chain named Sambo's. Yes, boomers who are still here (and eating) in 2026 actually dined at those restaurants. Some eateries were better than others and some were downright lousy! In particular, yellow pancakes were a bad sign of bad food to come.
As grotesque as these companies' product logos remain and as cringe-worthy as the chain resturants could be, they remind us who invented American cuisine and developed, among highly creative cookery in many U.S. cities, the amazing food of New Orleans, where no doubt spicy flapjacks can still be enjoyed.
Have celebrated Valentine's Day either with cartoons or the classic comedy of Jack Benny (who was born on February 14, 1894). This year, it will be cartoons!
The most wonderfully caustic and cynical Valentine's Day cartoon is PORKY'S ROMANCE (1937), directed by Frank Tashlin. Did Tash have a romance that went terribly wrong while making this? Who knows - here's a detailed review of the Tashlin classic from Anthony's Animation Talk.
In HONEY’S MONEY (1962), the second most caustic and cynical of all Valentine's Day cartoons, ever-unscrupulous Yosemite Sam, only romantic about blowing things up, brazenly marries for riches. It doesn't work out well for Sam.
Pettin' In The Park (1934) is the seventh Warner Brothers cartoon produced by the new Leon Schlesinger studio. Sound engineer supreme Bernard Brown is the credited director. After Warner Brothers parted ways with the Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising studio, which produced Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes as independent contractors from 1930-1933, Leon Schlesinger opted to start an in-house cartoon production house.
This musical tale of Sunday afternoon romance, featuring a few enjoyable sight gags and pre-Code moments, looks good in comparison to Buddy's Day Out and I've Got To Sing A Torch Song, the dreadful debut films by the new Schlesinger crew. The most interesting thing about this goofy musical opus, besides the song from Gold Diggers Of 1933, is the swim race sequence. Bob Clampett, one of the very young guys who worked on this cartoon remembered this and liked it enough to bring it back a few years later in Porky's Naughty Nephew (1938).
What character gets black cats painted with white stripes into the mood for Valentine's Day? That would be what Chuck Jones called "the Charles Boyer skunk," he hopelessly romantic yet seriously delusional Pepe LePew.
To celebrate the holidays, both the eggnog and Yule log guzzle a Tom & Jerry - and watch Tom & Jerry!
After all, we eagerly look forward to watching the new Tom & Jerry Blu-ray set - and note that the Bill Hanna worked on the following Christmas season cartoon for Rudy Ising back in 1936.
In 1938-1939, MGM, with high hopes to replicate the box-office success of the Fleischer Studio's epic Popeye cartoons, produced a series based on The Katzenjammer Kids comic strip. While The Captain & The Kids cartoons, unlike Popeye, were far short of a smash hit, they're actually pretty decent, especially when directed by Friz Freleng. Here's The Captain's Christmas.
Believe it or not, Ralph Bakshi Productions made a holiday special, Christmas in Tattertown (1988), a pilot for a series that ultimately didn't sell.
In 1944, a bunch of American animators from Walt Disney Productions, led by director David Hand were offered the opportunity to set up their own studio in Great Britain by J. Arthur Rank. David Hand Productions made the Animaland and Musical Paintbox series. The following, Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus, is Animaland's Yule offering and pretty darn entertaining.
Several of the talented crew of artists who produced the Animaland cartoons also worked on the excellent 1933 Walt Disney Silly Symphony version of The Night Before Christmas, the studio's followup to Santa's Workshop (1932)
Stop-motion animation, entymologists and bugs absolutely MUST be represented in the holiday entertainment mix, so here's The Insects' Christmas (1913) by Ladislaw Starewicz.
We finish today's Christmas Eve offering featuring a bunch of festive cartoons, including the ever-cheerful Grampy in Christmas Comes But Once A Year (1936), posted by Steve Stanchfield on Cartoon Research couple of years ago. Love how the stalwart patriarch in the first of the cartoons owns a 16mm projector and runs 1930's Terrytoons for the family on Christmas.
As big fans of Jay Ward and Bill Scott, we've posted about Jay Ward Productions on many occasions.
On the natal anniversary of Jay Ward, we're thrilled and delighted to spotlight his studio's creative, imaginative, satiric and funny animated shows again!
The great Jay Ward was born in San Francisco on September 20, 1920.
First and foremost, the gang here insists that readers purchase The Moose That Roared painstakingly researched and entertainingly written history of Jay Ward Productions by character actor-voice artist-impressionist and film/radio/animation historian Keith Scott.
The Jay Ward Productions legacy of hilarious cartoons began in Berkeley back in the late 1940's with CRUSADER RABBIT, produced by Jay and written in mass quantities by Alex Anderson, nephew of Terrytoons producer Paul Terry.
Alex Anderson, who wrote a gazillion episodes of Crusader Rabbit elaborates:
After a few pilots that didn't sell, most interestingly The Watts Gnu Show, the next Jay Ward series on TV was. . .
Rocky & His Friends!
At first the series was Rocky & His Friends - Adventures of Bullwinkle & Rocky with Fractured Fairy Tales or Aesop & Son and Peabody's Improbable History.
It would subsequently air in the early 1960's on Sunday prime time as The Bullwinkle Show.
Of the Jay Ward Productions, especially love Fractured Fairy Tales and the incredible roster of character actors/voice talents - Bill Scott, June Foray, Paul Frees, Bill Conrad, Daws Butler, Edward Everett Horton, Hans Conried, Charlie Ruggles, Walter Tetley, Hal Smith, Chris Allen and more.
Are we fans of Fractured Fairy Tales here? Yes. Let's watch a slew of them!
Also enjoy the cousin to the Fractured Fairy Tales series, Aesop & Son.
Also incredibly funny: Peabody’s Improbable History!
Another favorite is Dudley Do Right.
Especially love the long unaired "Stokey The Bear" episode.
Even the lesser-known Jay Ward Productions series, such as Hoppity Hooper, are frequently wonderful, in large part due to the incredible voice talents (Bill Scott, June Foray, Paul Frees, Bill Conrad, Daws Butler, Edward Everett Horton, Charlie Ruggles, Walter Tetley) and the consistently brilliant comedy writing by the talented team of writers: Lloyd Turner, Allen Burns, Chris Hayward, Chris Jenkyns, Jim Critchfield and George Atkins.
Hans Conried, fresh off his stretch as a frequent guest on Ernie Kovacs' surreal take on game shows Take A Good Look, was Fractured Flickers' very reluctant host. Fractured Flickers featured incredibly funny voice acting throughout by Jay Ward regulars Bill Scott, June Foray and Paul Frees.
In this cartoon buff's opinion, the last outstanding animated series made for television until The Simpsons debuted as segments on The Tracey Ullman Show was George Of The Jungle.
The befuddled apeman, Tom Slick and Super Chicken always get this avid Jay Ward aficionado ROFL.
After George Of The Jungle, the Jay Ward Studio made numerous commercials and a few pilots.
The last was RAH RAH WOOZY in 1980. Imagine how much more fun Saturday morning would have been had the networks bought the Jay Ward pilots (especially Fang The Wonder Dog) and they were the rare non-Filmation or non-HB series then.
How do we finish a Jay Ward tribute? Hmmmm . . . with Amber Jones’ documentary on Jay’s co-producer, head writer, colleague and pal Bill Scott, the voice of numerous Jay Ward characters!
Is it great to see blazing animation and film history luminaries from Mark Evanier to Mark Kausler to Keith Scott to Frank Welker to Will Ryan, Corey Burton, Frank Welker, Billy West, June Foray, Daws Butler, Jay Ward, Skip Craig, Jymn Magon, Brian Cummings and more? Yes! Is the writer of this blog pleased to be in the credits? Yes!
In this blog's numerous postings about Warner Brothers cartoons, it's amazing that this is the first post devoted to the one, the only, the peerless animator and director Robert McKimson (October 13, 1910 - September 27, 1977).
McKimson worked with Warner Brothers Animation directors Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones and had much to do with the transition of Bugs Bunny from the chortling buck-toothed grotesque of Porky's Hare Hunt (1938) to the Oscar-winning rabbit and comedy powerhouse that debuted in A Wild Hare (1940).
Robert McKimson goes back to the first Warner Brothers cartoons. His animation is all over those early Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Bob is the guy who was there at Warner Brothers Animation for the entire run, as Friz Freleng left for a brief time to direct Captain & The Kids cartoons for MGM.
After short stints with Walt Disney Productions and Romer Grey, Bob was cranking out animation for Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising when they were producing cartoons for Leon Schlesinger as independent producers in 1930-1933.
Shall, of course, be posting a slew of cartoons directed by Robert McKimson in today's post.
After all, he directed several of this writer's all-time favorite cartoons!
These include Hillbilly Hare, French Rarebit, What's Up, Doc? and Gorilla My Dreams.
The two Robert McKimson cartoons directed featuring Bobo the elephant rank high atop the list of favorites.
Love the lesser known albeit genuinely charming Hobo Bobo (1947).
Another classic cartoon we are particularly fond of is The Hole Idea (1955), which was animated as well as directed by Robert McKimson - and much enjoy Anthony's Animation Talk's take on this inventive Looney Tune.
The book by Robert McKimson, Jr. about Bob and his brothers Charles and Tom looks FANTASTIC, as well as a fitting tribute to the many contributions the McKimson brothers made to Warner Brothers cartoons.
Robert and ace film historians Michael Barrier, Jerry Beck, Mark Kausler and Mark Evanier all turn up in the documentary Behind The Tunes - Drawn to Life: The Art Of Robert McKimson.
Since he was on the same staff with Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng - and at one point animated for all of them, to some extent Robert McKimson's directorial efforts receive short shrift, as do the WB cartoons helmed by Arthur Davis; both developed an original spin on the Termite Terrace style. The Robert McKimson cartoons emphasize personality animation in a unique way, different from his contemporaries, Jones and Freleng.
No doubt Bob Clampett knew very well the incredible, creative and original animation Robert McKimson, Rod Scribner, Manny Gould, Bill Melendez, Izzy Ellis, John Carey, Norm McCabe, etc. contributed to his directorial efforts.
Robert hit the ground running when he started directing cartoons with Daffy Doodles (1946).
He followed this classic with a series of very funny cartoons featuring Daffy, Bugs Bunny, the Tasmanian Devil and other WB characters.
In particular, we are big time aficionados of Grover Groundhog in One Meat Brawl (1946). He has tons of personality!
Bugs Bunny subbing for a sourpuss rabbit as the Easter Bunny always gets big laughs.
As does the Peter Lorre caricature in the following Daffy Duck cartoon, Birth of a Notion (1947).
And McKimson's spoof of The Honeymooners!
Loud-mouthed rooster Foghorn Leghorn, Bob's favorite Warner Bros. cartoon character, made his silver screen debut in Walky Talky Hawky (1946).
Always in a tit-for-tat reciprocal destruction bargain with a dumb barnyard hound (with a wiseguy voice by Mel Blanc), Foghorn Leghorn would be the popular character favored most by Robert McKimson's production crew. Here are a few of the loud-mouthed rooster's 30 starring vehicles.
One of the funniest of the Robert McKimson directorial efforts from the studio's final year was Banty Raids (1963). The beatnik rooster is a hoot!
Thanks for the laughs, Bob, Chuck and Tom McKimson!
Also extend respectful Fred Astaire top hat tips to key McKimson brothers collaborators Manny Gould, Herman Cohen, Rod Scribner, Bill Melendez, Phil DeLara, John Carey, Izzy Ellis, Emery Hawkins, Ted Bonnicksen, Keith Darling, George Grandpre, Cornett Wood, Richard H. Thomas, Warren Foster, Tedd Pierce, Sid Marcus, Mel Blanc, Sara Berner, Bea Benaderet, Arthur Q. Bryan, June Foray, Stan Freberg, Carl Stalling, Milt Franklyn, Treg Brown, etc.
And, last but not least, must thank Vimeo, Devon Baxter, Archive.org, Cartoon Research and the very knowledgeable Warner Bros. cartoon buffs at Anthony's Animation Talk for making this post possible. In closing, here's Rebel Rabbit, our favorite of the cartoons Robert McKimson directed and among the all-time best from Warner Brothers. And, yes, Daily Motion's policy of embedding ads before videos, while also not letting posters tweak with the embed code (NO AUTOPLAY, thank you very much), is annoying - just click through and then enjoy this fabulous cartoon.
