On Tuesday nite July 7 '09, the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles screened more than a dozen animated shorts directed by Frank Tashlin, from his involvement in several different animation studios. Tashlin is perhaps best known today for his work directing live-action Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, and Jerry Lewis comedies, where characters and situations are often rather cartoonish. Not surprising that years earlier, he began his career in Hollywood as an animator. The special screening and discussion by animation historian Frank Beck covered the director's early career. First, he worked for the Fleischer Animation Studios in New York as an errand boy and cel-washer. He then moved on to work for Van Beuren, the nearly forgotten animation studio responsible for such series as Aesop's Fables and the original Tom and Jerry, not to be confused with the now-famous cat and mouse duo(see picture at left). He moved on to Warner Brothers and Leon Schlesinget and directed cartoons from 1936-38. Most featured Porky Pig, some with Daffy Duck. Most all of them were in Black and White. Some were very racy and very violent. From 1939-41 he worked for the Disney studios. Then he moved on to Screen Gems in 1941. During the war, he directed a series of cartoons for the miliary ("Private Snafu"). Some of his last short films were stop-motion animation, and we watched one of these gems: Daffy Ditties: Pepito's Serenade from 1946.
Shorts that were screened at the Silent:
"Hook and Ladder Hookim" B/W(Tom and Jerry)
"Porky's Romance" B/W (1946)
"The Fox and the Grapes" (1941)
"A Hollywood Detour" (1942)
Scrap Happy Daffy" (WW2 Theme with Daffy Duck) (1943)
"Swooner Crooner" (Frank Sinatra-esqe Chickens) (1944)
"Censored" (A "Private Snafu" edu-tainment cartoon for soilders) (1944) (uncredited)
"A Tale of Two Mice" (Abbot and Costello-esque mice)(1945)
"Pepito's Serenade" (Stop Motion Animation) (1946)