Chuck Jones September 21, 1912-February 22, 2002

This last summer I learned a lot about Chuck Jones. I had always admired him as an animator and a director of animated films, but I never really knew the man. No, I never had a chance to meet him, but I almost feel like I have.

Sometime in July of last year I read Chuck Amuck, his autobiography. Along with Harpo Speaks, it’s one of the best biographies I’ve ever read. It is full of little snippets of a life that only someone like Chuck (or Harpo) could have led. There were hard times, but they were all faced with a humor and grace that few of us will ever know how to conjure up. Most of us can only dream of being able to make it to where Chuck made it, and yet he made it seem as if he just fell into it and that it really wasn’t anything that anybody couldn’t do. He said that he was the first cell washer to ever win an Oscar.

Then, in August, I went to the Telluride Film Festival. This may seem completely unrelated, but Chuck was a big friend of the festival. Without him the festival probably wouldn’t be as big of a deal as it is today. In repayment for his generosity the festival builds a theatre every year in honor of him, called, originally enough, The Chuck Jones Theatre. It’s a rather slow sky-car ride up to Mountain Village kind of far away from the rest of the festivities, but it’s worth it if you’re a fan of the man. Just going into the theatre gives you the feeling that he’s around. It’s wall to wall with his characters and pictures of him or just rough sketches that he did. I learned more about his spirit from that theatre (totally created by people who weren’t really connected with him) than I did from the one person I know who did get to meet him quite a few times. (She said that he was one of the funniest, nicest and dirtiest old men she had ever met. I wouldn’t have him any other way.)

A few days ago, Chuck Jones, one of the most respected and popular animation directors of all time, passed away in his home with his wife and family by his side.

Jones was born on Sept. 21, 1912 in Spokane, Washington, but his family soon moved to the coast of L.A. where he grew up around Hollywood legends.

His first run-in with animal life that would help further his animation career was a cat that adopted him and his family, Johnson. It was just about the meanest cat you could ever hope to meet, but it’s meanness allowed for all kinds of emotions that you don’t normally see in animals. And his love of grapefruit and a piece of a tongue depressor that was hung around his neck was all the comedy Chuck needed to turn Johnson into a character that, while never making a real public appearance, would help him create many of his most famous characters.

Another huge influence on Jones was his love of Mark Twain novels. When he read Twain’s Roughing It at age seven, he became a big fan of the coyote, mainly because he found out that he and the poor animal had so much in common. Of course, years later this would help him with one of his greatest characters.

Eventually, though, all young boys must grow up and get jobs. And Chuck was no exception. After a stint as a petty larcenist (he and his roommate stole a case of celery…a typical exchange between the two of them: “Damn it! We can’t starve!” “Funny, I thought we could.”) he went out on the street and started to draw caricatures after graduating from Chouinard Art Institute (now called the California Institute of the Arts). (Sounds like quite a few of us in the arts “industry.”) After this he found his niche, washing cells for animators. As far as he knew, this was as far as he would ever go.

But, luckily for him (and us), he was spotted by the Leon Schlesinger Studios. He became an animator for them along with animation legends Bob Cannon, Mike Maltese, Cal Howard and Tedd Pierce and the more recognizable names of Bob McKimson, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, Mel Blanc and Tex Avery. Between the group of them they were able to make fun of their boss (who said to them about Daffy Duck’s voice, “Jeethus Christh, that’s a funny voithe! Where’d you get that voithe?”) along with just about anyone that caught their eye.

But in 1944 everything changed. That was the year that Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Brothers. (He was always an independent producer who sold his cartoons to the Warners.) According to Chuck, Jack Warner (who only knew that his production company made Mickey Mouse cartoons–Tex Avery said that when he found out that they didn’t he shut them down in 1963) found the person who hated laughter the most and put him in charge of the cartoon department. That man was Eddie Salzer. A man who demanded scripts for all of his cartoons even though none of them ever had scripts.

Some good things did come out of his reign, though. He would occasionally burst into their offices saying things like, “I don’t want any gags about bullfights, bullfights aren’t funny!”

Maltese and Jones would look at each other and say, “We’ve been missing something.”

Almost immediately they produced “Bully For Bugs,” what Chuck calls one of the best Bugs Bunny cartoons that they ever produced. (It’s the one with the bull trying to get Bugs, of course.)

Through the years of the Looney Tunes and the Merrie Melodies, Chuck and the boys put together some of the greatest and funniest animated shorts ever produced. Chuck created Henry Hawk, Hugo the Abominable Snowman, Junyer Bear, Marc Antony Kitty, Marvin the Martian, Pepe Le Pew, Ralph Wolf, Road Runner, Sam Sheepdog and Wile E. Coyote and had a large hand in the creation of Bugs, Daffy, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig. He led the Warners to many Oscars and other awards.

But best of all, he brought a lot of laughter into this world. Who doesn’t remember seeing the Warner Brothers cartoons when they were kids and learning what it really meant to laugh? Watching those cartoons makes me feel like that little kid again even though I know every gag that’s coming up. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen “Duck Amuck,” but it makes me laugh my butt off every time I see it. That is Chuck’s legacy. The ability to make people laugh at the drop of a hat with a group of characters that are ingrained into our brains. They’ve become our friends and extensions of our own characters. All of us can see ourselves in all of Chuck’s kids.

The one he most identified with (he could never choose a “favorite”), by the way, was Daffy. Something about a when he was a little kid and his mom told him that he could have as big of a piece of cake as he wanted. He didn’t want a piece, he wanted the whole thing, and never understood why that was bad. Daffy is basically who we all are whereas Bugs is who we all want to be.

Besides the Looney Tunes, Chuck brought life to other characters that are etched into our brains, such as The Grinch, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Horton (the one who heard a Who), Pogo and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. And the last I heard he was working on a new cartoon that was going to revive the Warner Brothers short. Too bad. Maybe it was nearly finished and we’ll get to see what he was up to at the end of his life.

So long, Chuck. Thanks for all the laughter.

Th-th-th-that’s all, folks.