Art Davis - Animator or Director

He was a director at Columbia, and they brought him over to WB with promises of directing. He was an animator for a bit, then he took over Clampett's unit when he left. Directed 30 or so shorts 1942-1946. Then they shut down the unit, and Art went to Friz's unit as a director...

Art was a fun man. I knew him for a couple years before he died. Threw him a big 90th BDay party. Art Leonadri and Joe Barbera came. Friz, Hawley Pratt, Phil Monroe, some of the other animators could not come and all drew him a GIANT B-Day card. But what I remember most about him was how much he enjoyed drawing. Any kids that came into my gallery he would draw for....

I used to bug Ruth Clampett about WB doing a WB limited for Art.... they finall did this one.... And I still have a couple low numbers from the edition!

Yes, sorry, my bad. It was early when I wrote my response.... 1948 is correct!

I believe (Though not certain) that Warner Brothers cut one director's unit for money reasons, and since he was the newest they cut him.

Zav, the staff at Warners were told in May 1945 that Davis was appointed as a director (see Mike Barrier's "Hollywood Cartoons"). Due to a lack of Technicolor film stock, there was up to a two-year gap between the time a cartoon was made to when it was released. His "Mouse Menace" came out toward the end of 1946. "Bye Bye Bluebeard" and "What Makes Daffy Duck" stack up to anyone else's cartoons at Warners. 1947-48 was a horrible time for cartoons. Rentals were low and studios were losing money on them. Screen Gems shut down, George Pal abandoned shorts, the Lah-Blair unit at MGM was disbanded and the same thing happened with the Davis unit at Warners.

There's a high school student in Yonkers named Arthur Davis who won a cartoon contest sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce in 1921. I'm pretty sure it's him. I had found some references to him in one of the New York papers of the '20s but can't locate them now. Grrr.

Davis worked at the Fleischer studio in the '20s; he was Dick Huemer's assistant and apparently operated the bouncing ball in the original sing-a-long cartoons.

He ended up at Mintz some time in the late '20s and came West with the Mintz studio in April 1930. After WB, he moved to Hanna-Barbera as an animator and story director. He animated "El Kabong Jr." among others.

Yowp

Hi, Zav. I've been here since Dave reconfigured the system (and on the old board before that) but I don't post a lot.

It's interesting comparing Variety stories in the '40s about cartoons being finished and then checking to see their release date. And you probably know one reason MGM closed its studio in 1957 was it had a two-year backlog of cartoons. It didn't need the expense of a cartoon studio at that point.

I gather Artie was given the opportunity to go back into theatricals at Lantz when Don Lusk left so he quit H-B, then returned for whatever reason before being offered a director's job (by Friz, I'll bet) at DePatie-Freleng. Artie really wanted to direct and was so bitter about not getting a chance to do it in the early '60s at Warners, he accepted an offer from Hanna-Barbera.

Back in the days before web forums when we chatted about animation on Usenet, Artie's nephew joined us and said how Art was touched by the fact so many people loved his cartoons.

Yowp

You all DO know that Art Davis and Manny Davis were brothers, right????

I can personally attest to this. While I generally try and keep my business out of the forums, it is germane (sp?) here. I own an animation art gallery, and sell animation art. One day in the late 1990's a guy calls up and claims to be an animator from WB and Hanna. I let him go on, not beleiving him at all.... until he says a few things that really cement his bone fides. So finally ask him his name and he says Art Davis. My jaw drops. He says whats the matter, and I say I know who you are, you directed Blah blah blah. He was perhaps more stunned than I was- he was blown away anyone would know who he was.

Anyway, we got to be very good friends. he would drop by the gallery in the afternoons. I would often have school kids drop by in the afternoons, too. He would talk with them... I would play cartoons he directed on the TV... the kids would just be all over him. He would draw them all pictures. He would talk about the "old" days. It was great- you could just see his energy levels rise. I am sure it was thereputic for him.

And for the kids.

But he was never egocentric, vain or anything. He was always restrained and proper. And funny. I do miss him.

I personally have liked Art Davis's cartoons, and it seems like they're among the most underappreciated by many fans even without knowing his name--"What Makes Daffy Duck","Bowery Bugs"," Bye Bye Bluebeard","Riff Raffy Daffy","A Hick, A Slick & A CHick","Bone sweet Bone": and the others are unqiue and inve ntive in my very humble opinion...

Steve

Yes, Friz and Allen Freleng. Both moved over to MGM at the same time as well.

I can't remember how many Isings were at the original studio. Rudy and Max at the very least.

Someone may know how many Pabians worked at the studio simultaneously.

And then there were the Wood twins, who were assistant animators.

Yowp