Hair in the Projector
One of the most famous Tex Avery gags is his use of a (possibly Rotoscoped) hair in Magical Maestro (MGM, 1952) that acts like a hair caught in the gate of a projector, until Spike plucks it out. What is less known is Avery had tried the gag once before at WB, in Aviation Vacation : during a rendition of When Irish Eyes Are Smiling , the singer yells to the projectionist to take the hair out. The hair in Aviation Vacation is much less convincingly animated that in Magical Maestro.
Hallelujah, Im a Bomb
Text on the bomb being used by The Missing Lynx in Confusions of a Nutzy Spy (McCabe, 1942). This is a parody of the title to the popular Depression-era song Hallelujah, Im a Bum .
Hall Johnson Choir
Musical group that performed the splendid rendition of O, Dem Golden Slippers at the end of Clean Pastures (Freleng, 1937).
Ham and Ex
In one of the recurring attempts by WB to create a lasting cartoon star, the studio (acting on a suggestion by Bob Clampett) created an Our Gang-like group of young animals. Ham and Ex were two identical twin puppies, who appeared in a handful of cartoons made in 1935-6. I Havent Got a Hat (Freleng, 1935) is probably their most memorable role, in which they sing the title song.
Filmography:
Hamilton, Ham
Animator at WB in the 1930s, and one of the early mentors to Chuck Jones, who marveled in his autobiography at the patience that Hamilton showed toward the early Jones efforts.
Bob Clampett in Funnyworld No. 12 describes how Hamilton would capture numerous flies, glue tiny paper airplanes to their wings, and let them go, creating a number of fluttering airplanes around his head.
Hanna, Bill
One half of the duo of Hanna and (Joe) Barbera, who would provide the stiffest competition for the WB studio with their Tom and Jerry cartoons for MGM in the forties and fifties, and would later (for better or worse) revolutionize the animation industry with their mass production of animation for television starting in the late fifties.
The obituary in Variety for Hugh Harman lists Hanna as having worked at WB. his own autobiography indicates that he started out as a custodian/gofer, and later graduated to cel washer (also the entry point for Chuck Jones in the industry). He eventually was put in charge of the very small inking and painting department that existed at that time (giving one an idea of the mobility in the industry at that time). Hanna also states that Harman and Ising incorporated some little songs that he wrote into some of the Bosko cartoons, though he does not identify any in particular. Hanna left WB when Harman and Ising split with Schlesinger in 1933 and the rest, as they say, is history.
Hansen, Bernice
Voice actress who (perhaps) did a great deal of work in cartoons, and apparently nowhere else. For a number of years, Hansen was credited with all of the high-pitched so-called small voices in WB cartoons. While it is certain Hansen did work for WB, exactly which cartoons she did work for is subject to debate. The latest research, for example, suggests Hansen did not do the principal voice work for Sniffles. Cartoons that appear to use Hansen voices include: I Havent Got a Hat (Freleng, 1935), Golddiggers of 49 (Avery, 1936), Plane Dippy (Avery, 1936), Page Miss Glory (Avery, 1936), Pigs is Pigs (Freleng, 1937), Little Brother Rat (Jones, 1939), and Wacky Wildlife (Avery, 1940). Maltin credits Hansen with work at MGM, doing the voice of Little Cheezer in certain Ising MGM cartoons.
Hardaway, Joseph Benson (Bugs) (1895-1957)
[Adamson, for some reason, gives his middle name as Benajmin -- IÊhave gone with the form that Hardaway used.]
Much of the information in this entry comes from material that was supplied to me by the extremely helpful personnel at the Harry Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri.
Hardaway had a long, if slightly checkered career, in animation. Like Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks (fellow natives of the Kansas City area), he worked for the United Film Ad Service, in his case between 1922 and May, 1931. Between August, 1931 and October, 1933, he was a writer for Ub Iwerks. After a brief (October-November 1933) sojourn at Walt Disney, he was lured away by more money to work at WB, where he worked from November, 1933 to March, 1939 and again from November, 1948 to April, 1949. He worked at Walter Lantz Productions in the interim, between October, 1939, and December 1947. By the summer of 1949, he was seeking help from his former commanding officer, Harry Truman, for a government job.
During his time at WB, Hardaway was mostly a writer, though he served two stints as a director, one during 1934-5, when he supervised some cartoons in the Buddy series, and again in the period 1937-1939, when he teamed with Cal Dalton to replace Friz Freleng, who left briefly to work for MGM. Hardaway is credited in a number of cartoons as the writer (e.g. Daffy Duck and Egghead (Avery, 1938), The Penguin Parade (Avery, 1938), The Bears Tale (Avery, 1940), ÊConfederate Honey (Freleng, 1940), Porkys Baseball Broadcast (Freleng, 1940), and Little Blabbermouse (Freleng, 1940)). Hardaway also got screen credit for the story in 1951 for a Freleng cartoon, A Bone for A Bone .
Hardaway directed two cartoons, Porkys Hare Hunt (1938), and Hare-Um Scare-Um (1939, with Dalton), which contain prototypes for Bugs Bunny. Some sources credit Porkys Hare Hunt as the first Bugs Bunny cartoon, e.g. The Guinness Book of Movie Facts and Feats . The model sheet for the rabbit character in Hare-Um Scare-Um (drawn by Charles Thorson) is labeled (ungrammatically) Bug's Bunny, which has been said to be one source of the name for the character.
Hardaway was nicknamed Bugs in his days as a sergeant in Battery D of the Second Battalion, 129th Field Artillery in World War I. This unit, known as the Dizzy D, had a reputation for running through commanders, which was only stopped when future president Harry S Truman took command. Hardaway seems to have kept up his relationship with Truman, who was known for having warm feelings towards his wartime comrades.
His most significant contribution at the Lantz studio was Knock Knock (1940), directed by Walter Lantz, which featured the debut of Woody Woodpecker (Hardaway supplied the voice for Woody for a brief period after Mel Blanc ceased performing the voice).
Hardaway and what appears to be a caricature are referenced in the newspaper being read by the angry meat consumer at the beginning of Hare-Um Scare-Um .
Hare Ribbin
1944 Clampett cartoon (and a brilliant one, McKimson being at the peak of his powers as a senior animator before his promotion later that year to director) that has two unusual features. One is that a lot of the cartoon takes place underwater, with resulting visual effects (rather elaborate for a WB cartoon). The other is that two versions of the ending were filmed, also unusual given WB budgeting. In one version, the Mad Russian dog indicates he doesnÕt deserve to live; Bugs hands him a pistol, and the dog does away with himself. In another version, it is *Bugs* who does in the dog, by putting the pistol in the mouth of the pooch and pulling the trigger. Needless to say, neither version is broadcast today.
Harman, Hugh N. (1903-1982)
Along with Rudy Ising, a journeyman animator who had an unusual distinction in having a hand in the creation of two great cartoon studios; WB in 1930, and MGM in 1933.
Harman was an associate of Disney throughout the 1920s, up until 1928, when he was one of the animators lured away from Disney by Charles Mintz. After an abortive effort with Mintz, Harman teamed up with Rudy Ising and won backing from Leon Schlesinger to produce cartoons for WB starting in 1930. The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series that Harman created with Ising laid the groundwork for the success that these series would obtain in later years; the series, while perhaps not at the level of Disney in that era, were nevertheless profitable and popular.
Harman, in general, was responsible for the Looney Tunes while Ising worked on the Merrie Melodies. However, for the purposes of the Warner Bros. Cartoon Companion, I have given them joint credit for the 1930-1933 output.
Harman and Ising broke with Schlesinger in 1933 (principally over the issue of budgets for cartoons) and went to set up a production unit at MGM, where they would produce handsome (if perhaps a bit vapid) productions into the late 1930s and early 1940s. One Harman effort, Peace on Earth, (1939) is a notable anti-war cartoon that received a great deal of notice at the time.
Harris, Ken
Standout animator for the Jones unit for many years, who also directed Hare-Abian Nights (1959).
The box on which the Coyote sets a booby-trapped glass of water in Beep Beep (Jones, 1952) is labeled Harris Soups. The hot-rod driver outpaced by the horseless carriage in There Auto Be a Law (McKimson, 1953) is almost certainly Harris, and there is speculation he was also the model for Dan Backslide in The Dover Boys (Jones, 1942). (Harris was a talented tennis player and pool player, as well as a hot-rod racer, which may explain the hot-rod gag and the pool table gag in The Dover Boys .) Chuck Jones in his memoirs also notes the resemblance of Harris to Wile E. Coyote.
Harris, Phil (d. 1995)
Bandleader for a number of years on the Jack Benny radio show, and eventually on his own radio show with his wife Alice Faye. Harris played a conceited Southern playboy who loved flashy cars, hard liquor and fancy clothes. Harris is caricatured as Pill Harris in Malibu Beach Party (Freleng, 1940).
Hatta Mari
Character in Plane Daffy (Tashlin, 1944) who uses her ample feminine avian wiles to seduce carrier pigeons into spilling military secrets on behalf of the Axis; she uses all of her wits to attempt to make Daffy do the same; she gets his secret, all right, but with dire consequences for certain of the Nazi leadership. The name is an obvious reference to the World War I spy Mata Hari, to whom legend ascribes similar actions and technique.
Tiny Toon Adventures , a modern WB cartoon show, used Hatta Mari on at least one occasion.
Have You Got Any Castles?
One of the Tashlin cycle of things come to life cartoons in 1937 and 1938.
Note during the Thin Man/White House Cookbook gag that, written on the note pad in the background is the phrase quote, Ask Boss for a raise, endquote. A reflection, perhaps on the notorious tight-fistedness of Leon Schlesinger?
The Bill Robinson/Cab Calloway segment (where Robinson dances The 39 Steps and Calloway sings Swing for Sale in Seventh Heaven ) is cut from prints shown today. Much of this segment reuses animation from Clean Pastures (Freleng, 1937).
A segment showing a bell-ringing caricature of Alexander Woolcott at the beginning of the cartoon was removed from reissue prints at his insistence.
Have You Had Your Iron Today? Tagline for Ionized Yeast in the 1940s. It is referred to by one of the Goofy Gophers in The Goofy Gophers (Davis, 1947) just before the application of shovel to canine skull, and indirectly by Daffy Duck in Dripalong Daffy (Jones, 1951), just after Nasty Canasta has eaten part of his six-shooter.
Hays Office
The Lou Costello-like cat in A Tale of Two Kitties is addressed by the Bud Abbott-like cat, who asks him to give him the bird. The pudgy pussy observes that if the Hays Office would only let [him, hed] give him the bird allright!
The Hays Office was a popular name for Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc. (MPPDA), after its founder, Will Hays. The MPPDA administered the Production Code during the golden age of Hollywood, and molded the content of Hollywood films (including cartoons -- Red Hot Riding Hood was one cartoon that was clipped by the Hays Office, including the original ending, which had the grandmother marrying the Wolf in a shotgun wedding, and a closing scene in the nightclub with Wolf pere and cubs all howling at Red) for several years based on a series of dos and donts, censoring material that went against the Code, including giving people the bird. The system was eventually replaced by the rating scheme that is in existence today.
Heart Gag
Gag in which a valentine-shaped heart is visible (usually owing to some enormous fright) pounding in the chest or neck of a character. Typical examples can be seen in Porkys Last Stand (Clampett, 1940), the 4-F heart of Bugs Bunny in Falling Hare (Clampett, 1943), and the heart of a fox in his mouth (literally) in The Foxy Duckling (Davis, 1947).
He dont know me very well, do he?
One of the catch-phrases of Junior, the Mean Widdle Kid character of Red Skelton. A usual response when someone has misjudged his Demon Seed nature. Said by Bugs Bunny at the end of Hare Trigger (Freleng, 1945), and by Daffy and Chloe as Junior at the end of The Impatient Patient (McCabe, 1942).
Hee, Thornton (a/k/a T. Hee)
Animator probably best known for his work in Fantasia (as a director on the Dance of the Hours segment), Hee had worked at WB for a portion of the 1930s, and was responsible for many of the well-done celebrity caricatures of that era (e.g. The Coo-coo Nut Grove (Freleng, 1936). Hee also drew a Christmas card in 1936 (reproduced in Schneider at page 24) utilizing staff caricatures which was used heavily in the creation of the Russian gremlins in Russian Rhapsody (Clampett, 1944).
Heere I Yam
Catch phrase associated with the Clem Kaddiddlehopper country bumpkin character of Red Skelton. One example of its usage is by Bugs in Stage Door Cartoon (Freleng, 1944).
Hello, strenzer!
Tag line used by the Sam Hearn character of Schlepperman on the Jack Benny radio program. It is used as a greeting by characters in I Love to Singa (Avery, 1936, by Owl Jolson) and I Only Have Eyes for You (Avery, 1937, by Professor Mockingbird).
Henery Hawk
Pint-sized predator (voiced by Mel Blanc) who is eternally in search of chicken. One handicap: his youth and inexperience means he does not know what a chicken looks like. Hence the plot for nearly all of his appearences in Foghorn Leghorn shorts. Usually, these are the same: little tough hawk comes around, pesters Foggy, Foggy gets him to go after the resident dog, and the war goes back and forth.
The best performance for this character, in my view, came in a film directed by his creator, Chuck Jones. In You Were Never Duckier (1948), he meets up with Daffy Duck, who is trying to pass himself off as a rooster to get the 5,000 dollar first prize (as opposed to a fiver for best duck). Henery has all the little tough-guy attributes, but here he is paired with Daffy at his best, plus his menacing father, George K. Chickenhawk.
Depending on your point of view, Henery had his debut in either The Squawkin Hawk (Jones, 1942), where is specifically a chickenhawk, or the slightly earlier The Bird Came C.O.D. (Jones, 1942), where he is a prop in a magic act, bediviling Conrad Cat. An even earlier example may be Stage Fright (Jones, 1940), which used a similar character.
Henie, Sonja (1910-1969)
Olympic figure skating champion (1928,1932,1936) who enjoyed a brief vogue in films in the late 30s, usually in films with skating routines surrounded by not much in the way of plot. She can be seen dancing with Tyrone Power in Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941), and the long skating routine in Land of the Midnight Fun (Avery, 1939) is basically a Henie routine (and is also rotoscoped, but whether from Henie herself is uncertain).
Hepburn, Katharine (1907-fl. 1997)
Highly successful actress over a number of decades who was a popular target for mimics because of her Bryn Mawr enunciation and for artists because of her unique horsy face. Has won three Oscars for Best Actress roles ( Morning Glory, Guess Whos Coming to Dinner, and The Lion in Winter ) and no less than eight other nominations ( Alice Adams, The Philadelphia Story, Woman of the Year, The African Queen, Summertime, The Rainmaker, Suddenly Last Summer, and Long Days Journey Into Night ).
WB cartoonists caricatured her with glee in numerous cartoons; I do not believe by any means that the following is a complete list, but it gives one an idea of how much the joke was loved:
Herbert, Hugh (1887-1952)
Vaudeville and stage comic who appeared in over 100 films from the early talkies era, mostly as a supporting actor. Fidgety movements and an excited woo-woo catchphrase (which was used as a model for Daffy Duck) were his trademarks. Two of his funniest roles were as a fussy censor in Footlight Parade and as Snout in A Midsummer Nights Dream.
Herbert caricatures appear in Speaking of the Weather (Tashlin, 1937), The Coo-coo Nut Grove (Freleng, 1936), Porkys Movie Mystery (Clampett, 1939), as the Stonewall Jackson parody in Confederate Honey (Freleng, 1940), and most prominently in The Hardship of Miles Standish (Freleng, 1940) as the title character.
In the text next to his caricature in Speaking of the Weather , one can note references to his roles in A Midsummer Nights Dream and The Coo-coo Nut Grove , as well as his habit of tickling himself with a feather duster.
Hill, George
Story man at WB c. mid-1940s. Credits: Mouse Menace (Davis, 1946), The Pest That Came To Dinner (Davis, 1948).
Hillbilly Hare
Classic confrontation between the Martin brothers (Curt and Pumpkinhead) and Bugs, set in the Ozarks (1950). The short features an extended square dance segment, the words to which are as follows:
Hippety Hopper
The baby kangaroo eternally mistaken for a giant mouse in a long, perhaps too long, series of cartoons by Bob McKimson that started with Hop, Look and Listen (1948). Since the character was silent, and the plots in the series have few variations, this tends to be among the more stitled of the the WB cartoons, perhaps only rivaled by the Speedy Gonzales series for mediocrity.
Filmography:
Hirohito
The Emperor of Japan between 1926 and 1989; during the Second World War, Hirohito was an occasional target in cartoons. What appears to have been meant as a caricature of Hirohito is seen in the Private Snafu short Spies, (Jones, 1943) as one of the three figures next to a newsstand where Snafu is buying magazines to read on his troopship (the other two being Mussolini and Goering).
Hitler, Adolf (d. 1945)
A man who hardly needs any introduction, given his role as Fuerher of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and during World War II. With his shock of black hair and toothbrush mustache, one of the most easily caricatured persons of his time.
His first appearance was in Boskos Picture Show , chasing Jimmy Durante with a axe. Hitler briefly appears in She Was an Acrobats Daughter (Freleng, 1937), at an odd angle (as seen by a patron with a poor view of a movie screen showing a newsreel).
His wartime appearances are numerous: he can be said to have starred in Russian Rhapsody (Clampett, 1944), where his attempts to bomb Moscow are thwarted by Russkie gremlins. Hitler also makes significant appearances in The Ducktators (McCabe, 1942) along with Benito Mussolini and a Japanese character, and in Herr Meets Hare (Freleng, 1945) at the end, awarding Hermann Goering a medal (though Bugs uses mud to disguise himself as Adolf earlier in the film). A Hitler character is repeatedly kicked in Tin Pan Alley Cats (Clampett, 1943) by a Joseph Stalin caricature. Hitler is also referenced (as Shickelgruber, his alleged original last name - it was actually the original name of his illegitimate father, Alois) in Brother Brat (Tashlin, 1944). A caricature of Hitler can also been seen on the letterhead of the letter being read by Uberkompt von Vultur in Daffy - The Commando (Freleng, 1943). A Hitler jack-in-the-box is used to scare a kids hair on end in Nutty News (Clampett, 1942). In Scrap Happy Daffy, (Tashlin, 1943) Daffy comments that Mussolini is in the scrap heap, and Hitler should be junked as well, which causes Hitler to chew the rug (along the dotted line, yet). The Missing Lynx has a Hitler mask in his box of disguises in ÒConfusions of a Nutzy SpyÓ (McCabe, 1942).
Hitler also makes an appearance in the Private Snafu short Spies (Jones, 1943), radioing instructions to a U-Boat fleet, and again as a devil-like character.
Note the rather prescient headline Hitler Commits Suicide seen in the 1943 Clampett cartoon Tortoise Wins by a Hare.
Hobby Horse Laffs
1942 McCabe cartoon that is a parody of the then-current Hobby Lobby radio program on CBS.
Hoffa, Portland (1907-1990)
Wife of Fred Allen and his partner on radio, usually playing a ditz. Hoffa is caricatured as a bunny rabbit who points out to a fox (Allen) that he is singing the wrong song in The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos (Tashlin, 1937). She also makes an appearence in Toytown Hall (Freleng, 1936).
Hoffman, Dave
Story man at WB c. 1940, whose sole on-screen credit is Africa Squeaks (Clampett, 1940).
Hogan, Rich
Story writer at WB in the 1930s and 1940s. Credits include:
Hogan followed Avery to MGM, where he worked on such cartoons as The Blitz Wolf (1942) and Bad Luck Blackie (1949).
The character Hotfoot Hogan the firewalker in Circus Today (Avery, 1940) is named for Hogan.
Hold the Onions
Mysterious catchphrase that pops up in a fair number of WB cartoons, including Pigs is Pigs , The Fighting 69th 1/2 and Gay Anties (Freleng, 1937, 1941 and 1947), French Rarebit (McKimson, 1951), and Wackiki Wabbit (Jones, 1943).
Hole Idea, The
One of the better McKimson shorts of the 1950s (it was released in 1955), the cartoon has one highly unusual distinction; the director is also credited with the animation. While most directors, of course, did at least a few hundred of the drawings for a cartoon, it is rare to see a director also get credit for the animation. McKimson, being a leading animator at WB before his promotion (more so than any of the other directors), was probably the best qualified to pull this off. Beck and Friedwald are probably right when they call this auteur film one of his proudest moments.
Holiday for Shoestrings 1945 Freleng cartoon that revolves around a series of shoemaker elf gags. Curiously, Tex Avery made a very similar cartoon a few years later, The Peachy Cobbler (1950).
Homma, Masaharu
Japanese general of World War II. Homma was the commanding general in the operation that defeated Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1941-1942 in the conquest of the Philippines. The relative slowness of the conquest (it took Homma one month to capture Manila, but five months to capture Bataan and six to caputre Corregidor) plus, ironically, his opposition to the war, led him to be relieved of command, and he did not hold any further posts of conquest. His Chief of Staff, Col Masanobu Tsuji, is generally believed to have been responsible for the Bataan Death March of prisoners caputred in the campaign, but it was Homma who was executed for it.
Homma is referred to as General Hammer in Tokio Jokio (McCabe, 1943), first seen panicking in an attack, and then sharing a log with a disgusted skunk.
Homosexuals
Remarkably, there are a number of instances where references are made in WB cartoons to gays, usually in a quote fairy endquote context. See, for example, the ferry boat in Land of the Midnight Fun (Avery, 1939, and the reaction of the cowboy after getting sprayed by perfume in I Like Mountain Music (Harman/Ising, 1933) and, of course, the pose by the booby-prize Oscar in Whats Cookin, Doc? (Clampett, 1944).
Honey
Girlfriend of Bosko in the series of Looney Tunes produced by Harman and Ising between 1930 and 1933. After the duo left for MGM in 1933, they took the character with them, and she morphed into a realistic African-American girl opposite a similarly realistic Bosko for a brief series of cartoons.
The modern WB animated show Tiny Toon Adventures devoted one entire show to reuniting Bosko and Honey; Babs Bunny, one of the characters, was in search of a female mentor, and searched for Honey.
The Honeymousers
A three cartoon series produced by the McKimson unit ( The Honey Mousers (1956), Cheese It, the Cat (1957), and Mice Follies (1960)) which were closely based on the Honeymooners television sketches of Jackie Gleason. Perhaps too much for his comfort. At one point, according to Solomon, Gleason threatened to block The Honey Mousers release; however, he was so pleased with the print that McKimson sent him that he withdrew his objections.
The voices of Ralph, Morton and Alice (based on the characters played by Gleason, Art Carney and Audrey Meadows) were done by Daws Butler and June Foray.
Hook (or Mr. Hook)
Character developed by ex-animator (and future creator of Dennis the Menace) Hank Ketcham during World War II. While the first film in the series was a nine-minute cartoon produced (in color) at the Walter Lantz studio and was entitled Take Heed, Mr. Tojo, later films were produced at WB, as Ketcham noted in his autobiography. Solomon reproduces a model sheet from early 1944 (which bears the notation Leon Schlesinger Productions) showing Hook.
Unlike his army counterpart Snafu, Hook seems to have been treated rather more gently; the films (at least the surviving ones) are largely war bond commercials. Arthur Lake, who played Dagwood Bumstead in the Blondie series on radio and film, provided his voice.
Some films starring Hook have recently been located in the garage of a film technician who worked on the series, and it is hoped that this series will get the same attention that Private Snafu has heretofore received. Interestingly, this series features some of the last work of Bob Clampett and the first work of Bob McKimson (and his only black and white work).
Hook filmography:
Hoover, J. Edgar
Longtime publicity conscious head of the FBI (and, if you believe some sources, even more of a cross-dresser than Bugs). Hoover is caricatured as the chief G-man in Hollywood Steps Out (Avery, 1941, saying nothing but Gee!), and is referenced by Daffy in Daffy Doodles (McKimson, 1946), when he threatens to tell J. Edgar Whosis about the actions of Porky in allegedly robbing the mails.
Hope, Bob (ne Leslie Townes Hope, 1903- fl. 1997)
One of the best-known radio and television comedians, Hope had a very popular radio show in the 1930s and 1940s that had a diverse cast, spawning a number of catch-phrases and memorable characters (see Jerry Colonna and Brenda and Cobina).
Hope himself made relatively few appearances in WB cartoons; only Malibu Beach Party (Freleng, 1940) (Hope coming up the walk to the Benny beach house) and Hollywood Canine Canteen (McKimson, 1946) (Hope and a Colonna caricature doing the Professor Colonna routine from the radio show) contain Hope caricatures. He has been a much more popular target for modern WB animators, particularly in the Animaniacs program, and to a certain extent in Taz-Mania opposite a Bing Crosby-like character (a foil in many of the Road pictures the two made together for Paramount).
Howard, Cal
Story writer for WB in the 1930s and the 1950s. Story credits: Little Red Walking Hood (Avery, 1937) and Canned Feud (with Warren Foster for Freleng, 1951). Howard co-directed Porkys Phoney Express (1938) and A Lad in Bagdad (1938) with Cal Dalton. Howard also provided the voice for Gabby Goat in the handful of cartoons in which this character appeared.
Howard was famous at WB for running what amounted to a miniature deli literally out of his desk, complete with efficiency stove, and supplies of ice, mustard, etc. A basket system allowed him to distribute foodstuffs to upstairs offices. Menu prices were listed on a board that could be reversed to show an autographed (?!?) picture of Jesus Christ with the legend quote, To my pal, Cal, from Jesus, endquote. (See Chuck Amuck, pp. 61-65.)
Along with Tedd Pierce, Howard left WB to work for the Fleischer studio in Miami in the late 1930s, during the expansion at that studio resulting from the production there of feature-length cartoons. Howard is one of the writers credited for Gullivers Travels (1939), where, according to Solomon, he served as the rotoscoped model for Prince David (with padding on his thighs).. Howard also put in stints at Screen Gems (c. 1946-7), Walter Lantz (c. 1933-5 and again c. 1962-5), Terrytoons (on the Deputy Dawg series, c. 1965), and Disney (c. 1930).
Howard also did work for MGM in the 1930s. According to Solomon, he taught his the Cub Scout troop his son belonged to to shout quote, [Producer Fred] Quimby is a red-faced jerk!, endquote when they drove past his office.
Howard, Leslie (1893-1943)
British actor who helped give Humphrey Bogart his first big movie break by insisting to Warner Bros. that Bogart reprise his role as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936) (instead of the WB first choice, Edward G. Robinson). Two of his best known roles in American films are as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind (1939), and Philip Carey in Of Human Bondage (1934).
His role (as well as that of his co-star, Bette Davis) in The Petrified Forest is beautifully parodied (with very good caricatures) in She Was an Acrobats Daughter (Freleng, 1937). In Porkys Road Race (Tashlin, 1937), Howard is one of the three British actors riding the Cheerio Special (the others being George Arliss and Freddie Bartholemew).
Howard was flying back to London from a secret mission to Lisbon, Portgual, when his plan was shot down by Nazi fighters.
How doo you do?
Tagline of the Bert Gordon Mad Russian character on the Eddie Cantor radio program. Used in Fresh Fish (Avery, 1939) by the Whim-wham Whistling Shark, the studio cop in Porkys Movie Mystery (Clampett, 1939), and by one of the gremlins greeting Hitler in Russian Rhapsody (Clampett, 1944).
How old is she?
Usually said with a long-drawn out howl for the first word. Used by Clampett twice in situations where the feminine form divine is being perused: Book Revue (by The Sea Wolf ogling Cherokee Strip and The Big Snooze (by the Hollywood wolves ogling the cross-dressing Fudd)(both 1946). The Mr. Hook short Tokyo Woes (Clampett, 1946) also uses the phrase.
Hubie and Bertie
Hey Boit! C-MERE!
The two rascally mice from a number of Chuck Jones forties cartoons, including an Oscar-nominated cartoon Mouse Wreckers (1949). Head tricks on cats were a specialty of this duo. Voiced by Mel Blanc (Hubie) and Stan Freberg (Bertie). As of the spring of 1997, a new Hubie and Bertie cartoon was allegedly in production by Chuck Jones.
Filmography (all Jones):
Hudson, Rochelle
Person who provided the voice for Honey, the girlfriend of Bosko.
Hunters Trilogy
One name that has been given to a well-known series of three cartoons directed by Chuck Jones and written by Mike Maltese: Rabbit Fire (1951), Rabbit Seasoning (1952) and Duck! Rabbit!, Duck! (1953). The cartoons, in one sense, owe a debt to the final gag from What Makes Daffy Duck? (Davis, 1948), where hunting season switching likewise produced beneficial results.
The first cartoon, among other gags, has the Joe Besser elephant, the cookbooks on how to cook rabbit or duck (e.g. Rabbit au gratin de gelatine under tooled leather or barbecued duck meat with broiled duck bill milanese), Bugs doing Daffy and Daffy doing Bugs (an impressive feat by Blanc there), Bugs in drag as a stacked huntress with her dog (read: duck) Gypsy, finally ending with a declaration of Elmer season.
The second cartoon is the cartoon best known for the pronoun trouble gag, in which Bugs trounces Daffy in a brilliant series of verbal battles, each time getting his beak blown in different directions. Bugs also dresses in drag here, doing a Lana Turner turn in order to get Elmer to plug Daffy yet one more time.
The third cartoon is the cartoon that takes places in the wintertime, with Bugs using a long series of _________ season signs to trigger Elmer into sending the duck bill into yet another series of grotesque angles, ending with a disguised Bugs convincing a by-now goofy Elmer that it is, in fact, baseball season.
Human Torpedo
Tokio Jokio (McCabe, 1943) has a gag invovling a human torpedo, with a less-than-enthusiastic pilot. Japan actually had such craft, which were called Kaiten, and were truly suicide submarines. Oddly, the first group of these pilots did not train until August, 1944, and the first mission did not occur until November, 1944 (it sunk a tanker). Only two ships were sunk by these craft, at a loss of 900 crewmen, including the subs carrying such torpedoes.
Hurricane
In A Feud There Was (Avery, 1938), the bird in a cuckoo clock observes that the snoring of the hillbillies sounds like a hurricane from the motion picture of the same name. The bird is referring to the 1937 John Ford film. The book the movie was based on also closes out Have You Got Any Castles? (Tashlin, 1938)