An idea...could use some assistance.

[Matthew Hunter]

I have been thinking about an idea for my site for some time...and I'll throw it out to you guys. If you like it, I could use your help. (I'll explain that in a second). Anyway, I have noticed recently that Arthur Davis is one of the most overlooked animation directors ever. I mean, some of his cartoons are the funniest of the time he spent his short term as director, and so few of those ever get major recognition. We hear about Jones, Freleng, McKimson, Clampett, Tashlin...but Art Davis' name rarely comes up in the big list (or if he does, his cartoons are pretty much ignored.) Davis' films fascinate me, because he takes such a variety of styles and blends them together (i.e. McKimson-esque personality and design with Clampett wackiness). I think "Dough Ray Meow" and "Catch as Cats Can" are some of the best cartoons of their times. I know Davis died not long ago, without much fanfare. I'd like to do a page about his Warner Bros. works, at the least a filmography of them and a history.

-here's where you guys come in. I wonder, do any of you know of any contacts concerning the works of Davis (i.e. a contemporary, animators who worked with him, family member, expert, etc?) I would also need some pictures from various Davis films. If anyone has a lead on some information or has any pictures, let me know. Feedback? Suggestions?
-Matthew

[Nelson]

Well Matthew, altough I don't know anyone that worked with Davis and I do agree 100 percent with you that he is one of the most overlooked animators in the history of the animated cartoon.What I can tell you is that Davis got his start working for the Charles Mintz studio animating the Krazy Kat and the Scrappy cartoons and went under the name of Art Davis.I hope this will help you Matt!

[Jack]

I'll happily help!

I always found it interesting how the people in the Davis unit were either laid off, or taken on by other units. You know, how the animation units sort of changed after the Davis unit ended.


Jack :D

[Pietro]

This bit on Davis is similair to what Nelson said, but Davis began work around the late 20s/early 30s in the animation industry at the Fleischer studios as an in-betweener. In 1930 Charles Mintz lured Davis, Sid Marus, and Dick Huemer to start their own little studio to produce Toby the Pup cartoons for RKO Radio Pictures. It also should be noted that the first few Toby cartoons looked allot like Fleischer cartoons (by the style of the animation). In 1931, however, Mintz saw the people weren't as excited over the Toby the Pup cartoons, as when they were first released, so he asked the three to come up with a new character for Columbia Pictures, along with Krazy Kat. Dick Huemer finally created the new character, Scrappy, a little boy who had lots of wild adventures. For the usual Scrappy cartoon, Davis, Huemer, and Marus each devised one third of the story for the film. In 1937 Davis co-directed the Columbia classic, "The Little Match Girl." Then, in 1942, Davis left Columbia (around the same time Frank Tashlin did) to become an animator at Warner Bros. Since Frank Tashlin, another former Columbia Pictures associtate was there Davis decided he would become an animator for the Tashlin unit. Late in 1946, Bob Clampett left WB and Davis took over his unit and started directing films at WB. I think he went to UPA after that, but I'm not sure. I also heard that he worked at Terrytoons once, too.

-Pietro:D

[Jack]

Originally posted by Pietro Shakarian
I think he went to UPA after that, but I'm not sure. I also heard that he worked at Terrytoons once, too.
Actually, he returned to being an animator for the Freleng unit, and eventually became a director again in the 60s and 70s (for Depate-Freleng).


Jack :D

[Matt Yorston]

Here's something else interesting about Arthur Davis... he also worked at the Walter Lantz studio for a few years.

After he left WB in 1962, he went right to Lantz (it's worth wondering if Lantz hired him or if he went there on his own terms). His first screen credit for Lantz was on 1962's "Crowin' Pains". He bounced back and forth between several units (mainly Paul J. Smith's and Jack Hannah's) before Sid Marcus came to Lantz shortly after. Since Marcus and Davis were almost certainly old friends (having worked together previously at Columbia and WB), Davis was quite comfortable animating under Marcus' unit. He receives credit on every single Sid Marcus-directed cartoon from 1963 to 1966 as well as, like I said, some Paul J. Smith and Jack Hannah cartoons as well.

Here is a complete list of the films he worked on at Lantz.

"Crowin' Pains"
"Little Woody Riding Hood"
"Corny Concerto" w/ Doc and Champ
"Fish and Chips"
"Coming Out Party" w/ Inspector Willoughby
"Robin Hoody Woody"
"Stowaway Woody"
"Greedy Gabby Gator"
"Charlie's Mother-in-Law" w/ The Beary Family
"Shutter Bug"
"Salmon Loafer"
"Coy Decoy"
"The Tenant's Racket"
"Pesky Pelican"
"Tepee for Two"
"Science Friction"
"Dumb Like a Fox"
"Deep Freeze Squeeze"
"Skinfolks"
"Woody's Clip Joint"
"Get Lost! Little Doggy"
"Ski-Napper"
"Three Little Woodpeckers"
"Fractured Friendship"
"Birds of a Feather"
"Half Baked Alaska"
"Sioux Me"
"Pesty Guest"
"Rough Riding Hood"

Surely, his talent was not put to waste at Lantz. Working under Sid Marcus for the most part, he animated some of the funniest scenes in these cartoons. In "Corny Concerto", he does the entire bit where Champ finally threatens to leave show biz with Doc pursuading him to return, finally winning him back when he threatens to commit suicide (with a toy gun). In "Science Friction", he does the scene where, after Woody attaches an electrical wire to the scientist's foot, the scientist throws the switch and is electricuted striking a variety of outlandish poses (among them as a trumpet blower and a hee-hawing jackass). And in "Pesty Guest", he does the scene where the hunter enters Smedley's hotel telling him, "I'm a hunter! And I want a room! And I DON'T want to be bothered! And if I am, I'll blast you like this." BLAM!!! "You understand?" ... "That boy's got a temper!"

After leaving Lantz, he worked at Hanna-Barbera for a few years (on some Flintstones episodes for example) and, as others said, he went to DePatie-Freleng where he resumed the directorial reins. Among the DFE cartoons directed by Davis: "Pink Package Plot", "In the Pink of the Night", "A Pair of Sneakers", "Dune Bug", "A Taste of Money", "Bridgework", "A Fink in the Rink", and "Psst Pink".

[Matt Yorston]

Oops! I forgot one Lantz cartoon on my list.

"Lighthouse Keeping Blues".

It should be noted that with the exception of "Corny Concerto", "Fish and Chips", "Coming Out Party", "Charlie's Mother-in-Law", and "Shutter Bug", Davis animated usually alongside animator Ray Abrams. Together Abrams and Davis were the main animators in Sid Marcus' unit during his years at Lantz.

[Sogturtle]

What y'all have written so far about Artie (Arthur) Davis is pretty good. Buuuuuut there are some significant omissions and ummmm some errors... If anybody wants me to then I'll put in my two-cents worth later today...

[chuckamuck43]

Originally posted by Sogturtle
What y'all have written so far about Artie (Arthur) Davis is pretty good. Buuuuuut there are some significant omissions and ummmm some errors... If anybody wants me to then I'll put in my two-cents worth later today...

Yes, SENIOR member TurtleTim (Senior? that makes me a FRESHMAN? AAARRGHHH!)

Specifically -

In 1962, Davis directed his last WB release, QUACKODILE TEARS, a rare GOOD late Daffy Duck cartoon.

I'm hoping you know the circumstances around Davis' return to directing - was he possibly filling out the theatrical release schedule while Friz and Chuck were working on The Bugs Bunny Show, or Adventures of The Road Runner? - also, why did he do only that ONE cartoon?

I think Davis' Clampett-esque directing style would definately have been a major asset to WB in the '60's. Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse might be remembered a bit more fondly today if it'd been A.Davis instead of A.Lovy directing them!

I await enlightenment, Senor Tortuga!

[Sogturtle]

Since Mr. Chuckamuck was nice enough to ask then here's my "little" contribution to Art Davis' story...(sorry all for the length, and the belatedness, but HEY I'm a Turtle ;) )

P.S. Chuckamuck, the "Senior member" thing denotes (I believe) someone with over 500 posts...At least that's what I hope it means and not o-l-d ;) ;) I've actually started to mischievously change it to "Sophomoric member"... :D




MGM has "ars gratia artis" so this should be "Ars gratia ARTIE" ;)

If you see the picture (in Leonard Maltin's "Of Mice And Magic") taken of the early Charles Mintz studio in 1928-1929 you will see an Art Davis who has a decidely middle-aged look to him... This is especially shocking when we realize that in 1929 he was just twenty-four years old!!! ARTHUR DAVIS was born Jun 14,1905, putting him just around the age of Friz Freleng. However by 1929 he was what might be termed "a young veteran of animation". He had actually gotten into animation quite a while before... back in 1923 working for the Fleischer's as what he nicely termed "an apprentice". He worked his way up and was given the job as inbetweener/assistant animator to one of the best Fleischer animators of the entire silent era... Dick Huemer. Huemer remembered the situation to Joe Adamson thusly "...when I was working for the Fleischers. They --poor fellows -- liked my work so well that they said, "Why don't you do more of it? I mean by having someone do the in-betweens?" And my first impulse was "Oh, yeah? I will, like hell!" Then, being basically a very lazy fellow, I thought, "Why not?" So, Art Davis was assigned to me....Adamson: Were you satisfied with Davis' work? Huemer: Oh, fine. Didn't know the difference when the scene was run!... Adamson: What percentage of the drawings did he end up doing? Huemer: About 75." Sooooo imagine that, the Fleischer-Huemer silent animation which has long been admired, is by (Huemer's reckoning) SEVENTY-FIVE percent drawn by Art Davis!! Art progressed pretty rapidly into an animator in his own right, so-much-so that in 1928 he was hired away by Charles Mintz (while Huemer and Sid Marcus stayed behind). Davis went to work animating on the silent Krazy Kat's under the equally young Manny Gould and the older Ben Harrison. Shamus Culhane would remember him as easily the best animator in the studio at that stage (better even than Manny Gould!!). Art's colleague Harry Love would years later describe his work as "very smooth animation". In 1929 the staff was augmented further by a young Friz Freleng (fresh from the Winkler/Mintz "Oswald the Rabbit" operation), thus creating an association that would last to the mid-1990's. In early 1930 Art Davis received an offer that if he had accepted, would have almost certainly changed animation history... buuuuut such is life!!. Instead Art climbed on a chartered railroad car with the rest of the Mintz crew bound for California (the first time a whole studio has trundled off to a different coast).

As noted before when Mintz raided Fleischer's for directors for the RKO deal he got two of the three best and most creative storymen/animators in the place (leaving only master animator Grim Natwick behind). Huemer remembered (perhaps erroneously) that he and Marcus directed the "Toby The Pup" cartoons for RKO. Indeed a poster for the "Toby" cartoons bears the names of Huemer and Marcus and then the words "assisted by ART DAVIS"!!! As we all know the "Toby" cartoons petered out in a thrice, and thus was born Scrappy, co-directed by Davis, Marcus, and Huemer, with none of the three as superior to the others. Unlike other animators of his time, Arthur Davis did not like changing studios, this is borne out by an incident in 1933. Charles Mintz had been paying his directors very, very well. By 1933 with the Depression worsening Mintz made a near ruinous decision... to cut the pay of his directors. Four out of the five directors (Marcus, Huemer, Gould, and Harrison) immediately went out on strike... And who stayed behind making cartoons?? Art Davis!!! Sid Marcus re-joined him fast enough that his name is not even missing from a single cartoon. Huemer never came back, and thus the Davis-Marcus Columbia cartoons gained a new coherency (Huemer's work in them had been noted as creative but jarringly different from Art's and Sid's). The Columbia cartoons by Davis and Marcus are almost always noted as being the best of the Mintz/Screen Gems studio throughout all the Thirties. Their cartoons were by 1935 viewed as so good that the Davis-Marcus unit was allowed to make fully two-thirds of their cartoons in color.... Besides the classic "Little Match Girl", others of Art's that are very highly regarded are "Neighbors" and "Dizzy Ducks". Some people have even cited "Dizzy Ducks" as being an immediate predecessor of Tex Avery's "Porky's Duck Hunt"...

Mintz made another horrendous mistake in the mid-Thirties of selling half ownership to Columbia, with a full Columbia takeover shortly after. This would have dramatic impact on the cartoons and the future of Arthur Davis. When Mintz's health worsened Columbia appointed his brother-in-law George Winkler as head of the studio. Art Davis felt the impact right away as storymen were let go and crews shrank. Art was then greeted by a conniving Winkler going back and forth between the three units and saying effectively "Well, Davis made a cartoon in X weeks, you have to be able to do that too or less!!". Davis and Marcus stuck it out, even as Manny Gould and Ben Harrison, and Harry Love walked away permanently in 1940. In 1941 even Lou Lilly and Allen Rose took off, leaving only Arthur Davis and Sid Marcus still functioning as directors. The Spring of 1941 saw a new face, that of Frank Tashlin, hired in as a storyman... There is exactly one cartoon known to bear Tashlin's name as storyman for Columbia, and under the Davis banner ("The Great Cheese Mystery" rel. Oct. 27, 1941) This cartoon would be the LAST to ever bear Art Davis's name at Columbia (Marcus had one more)... Before anyone knew it the tables had somehow turned and Tashlin had been elevated to the status of producer. Whether Frank fired Arthur Davis and Sid Marcus has never been adequately addressed... They certainly stuck it out long after everyone else had left, implying that someone fired them at this point... Two cartoons were released bearing Tashlin's name as director that were almost certainly started by Davis and/or Marcus but finished by him.

What is known for sure is that Arthur Davis directed or co-directed some 91 cartoons (plus likely another 16 credited solely to Sid Marcus) while at Mintz/Screen Gems/Columbia, and hardly warranted the abrupt dismissal that he and Sid Marcus were subjected to.

Arthur Davis's name (as well as that of Sid Marcus) now disappeared for some two years, finally resurfacing on 1943's "Scrap Happy Daffy". This has always caused everyone to assume that Davis had just joined the Schlesinger studio then... Right?? Wellllll Bob Clampett intriguingly enough stated that ART DAVIS BRIEFLY animated for him!! Sooooo who wants to guess when Davis really joined Schlesinger's...? Anyway, things weren't going well back at Screen Gems/Columbia, and before anyone knew it Tashlin was hired back as storyman at Schlesinger's, and then elevated to take Norm McCabe's place... Tashlin in interview mentioned that each time he quit Leon's and came back he had to start at the bottom again. What is known is that Tashlin objected to having Art Davis as animator!!! We can speculate why Tashlin would object... The most likely reason would be simply fear of losing his newly-regained directorship to Davis. Regardless, Arthur Davis stayed in the Tashlin-helmed unit. Art Davis's long directorial history did not go overlooked... Chuck Jones's was being overloaded with Private Snafu's, and there is justified suspicion that "Tom Turk And Daffy" was partly directed by Davis using the Jones unit. Some external evidence for this exists in Tashlin's "Plane Daffy" where the in-joke pigeon-victim list bears the names of virtually every animator and artist in the unit... with the exception of Art Davis's... This implies that Davis wasn't in the unit at that moment and was quite possibly on another project i.e. working on "Tom Turk And Daffy" for Chuck... (orrrrr the non-mentionwas a heavy slam against Art).

My own theory has been that with the success of "Tom Turk And Daffy" (if indeed done partly by Davis) that Warners decided to have Art Davis do a complete cartoon, essentially as an audition, utilising one of the existing cartoon units. It's my strong belief that the reason why "Hollywood Daffy" was released without a director credit (though done by the Freleng unit) is for the very reason that the cartoon was actually directed by Arthur Davis but under the auspices (and corrective eye) of Friz. That long ago work relationship of 1929 bearing some valuable fruit! If this theory is true then it would explain some things. But regardless of the validity of this theory, Warners' was now in a tight-spot with Bob Clampett having trucked off the lot for the last time. Art Davis was appointed director (with his massive track record of directing at Mintz/Screen Gems/Columbia he was the only logical choice).


One of his very first acts was to finish directing Clampett's "Bacall To Arms". As head of the former Avery/Clampett unit Art Davis found himself in a very strange position... One of "his" best animators was none other than his long-ago boss Manny Gould!! Talk about a twist! Shortly after Gould went to McKimson's unit then left for greener (or grungier) pastures, problem solved. As a replacement Art got the use of one of his former top Columbia animators Emery Hawkins!! A new problem though presented itself in the form of storymen... Bob Clampett had in his last Warner years used a combination of Warren Foster, Lou Lilly, and Michael Sasanoff (and possibly others like Hubie Karp). New director Bob McKimson was given exclusive use of Foster, and both Lilly and Sasanoff had quit. Warners thus had to hire writer(s) for Art Davis. They came up with talented young neophytes like Bill Scott (Bullwinkle) and former inbetweener Lloyd Turner (The Mary Tyler Moore) as well as older toony friends like Dave Monahan and George Hill. Regardless of who was credited as storyman there is a remarkable, consistent wildness to every one of the Arthur Davis Warner cartoons. We can pretty much assume that this quality is distinctly attributable to none other than Art Davis. Sadly, people who knew him back then said that he was actually quite frightened the whole time he was director that he was going to be fired!! And of course the truth was the post-WWII American movie business was hitting the skids. If Schlesinger had still owned the studio then quite likely what happened next would have been averted for a long while... In a move to cut costs Warners decreed that one of Art Davis's storymen had to go... But which?? Evidently Art didn't get to choose. So the studio had both writers (Scott and Turner) write a story solo and submit it, the loser would get canned!! In reality almost all the Bill Scott or Lloyd Turner stories had been written as a happy team, even if one got billed. So the two men similarly collaborated on the two "solo" stories and arbitrarily put one name on each!! The choice was made... Lloyd Turner was the winner, Bill Scott got dumped in the back alley as the "loser". (In a twist of fate Scott immediately went to work for Lou Lilly, and had a disagreement with him and was fired!) Anyway, shortly afterwards Warners supposedly became unhappy with the Davis unit cartoons... The next thing Turner knew he was offered his old job back as inbetweener, which he refused, and he thus found himself pitched out the window too. Now Warners had cut their costs!!! At this point the Screen Gems/Columbia studio had been shuttered for the last time and Art found that his old friend Sid Marcus was out of a job... Quick as you can say jacksprat (or was that JackKingsprat? :o)) Sid Marcus was on the payroll as Art's storyman... At this juncture the strange and varied suits that controlled Warners apparently made the decision of "Look if that new director can't work without storymen then let's just dump him and his whole crew and farm out his share of films to the other guys, we'll save a bundle". Thus ended Arthur Davis' career as director at Warners.

In 1948-49 there were just no job openings in Hollywood for a cartoon director, so Arthur Davis must have felt very, very trapped, but his skill as animator insured him a job, and his auld lang syne acquaintance Friz Freleng made a place in his unit for him. People who knew him at the stage said that he worked virtually as a co-director to Friz (this may or may not be a great overstatement). Others add that he was a great "straight-ahead" animator. It's also said that he helped the careers of some his assistants by at times sneaking them an entire piece of animation to help build their skills (this harked back to the Mintz days when Art and Dick Huemer would run to a pool-table in the building and shoot a game of pool, thus forcing their underlings to learn animation). Art Davis weathered the Fifties just fine as an animator at Warners, but somehow managed to wrangle time to work on what has been called the first animated TV special. The film in question is called "Petrouschka" and featured the talents of a number of top animators headed by Art Davis, Phil Monroe and Bill Littlejohn among the others). In his final years at Warners Art also (in his words) "produced" a number of commercials for Warners and for outside commercials, whether produced means animated or directed or what, I'm still not sure... With the debut of the Bugs Bunny Show in 1960 (according to my sources) Davis was called on to animate the all important opening song and dance "This Is It". With Friz busy on the the Bugs Bunny Show, Art got the chance to direct his first Warner's cartoon since 1949, the very funny "Quackodile Tears" made using Freleng's unit (is this a historical parallel to "Hollywood Daffy" or what??). The cartoon clearly illustrated that he remained just as talented a director as ever. Arthur also animated on the "UPA" feature film "Gay Purr-ee" (of course co-written by Chuck Jones). There is a possibility that he worked (uncredited like most everyone else) on "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" (will have to see if I can find out more about if he was involved). He is known to have worked for Hanna-Barbera in this period also on Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and later on Jonny Quest and others yet. His employment by Hanna-Barbera extended to the end of the Sixties .

As others noted before he was called on by his old friend Sid Marcus to animate for him at Walter Lantz from 1962 onwards to about 1966. We don't have any way of knowing if Art was involved with Marcus and the varied storymen in story creation but the theory is tantalizing... Sid's final Lantz cartoon released in 1967 did not bear the name of Art Davis.

By 1969 he had severed his work relationship to Hanna-Barbera for unknown reasons, but oddly this was just as the "dark age" of Hanna-Barbera un-creativity dawned (coincidence??). Art Davis bounded over to DePatie-Freleng and was made a full-fledged director of theatrical cartoons by his former (and new) boss Friz Freleng. It is authentically shocking to see how very good the majority of these latter-day theatricals by Davis are, especially when compared to the final output of Lantz, Paramount or Terrytoons. He also helped direct a couple of the best DePatie-Freleng TV series, "Here Comes The Grump" (basically an accident-prone Yosemite Sam-ish "Grump" mounted on the fire-breathing ''Jolly Green Dragon', in hot pursuit of a young Princess and friend in "Porky In Wackyland" situations). And on "The Adventures of Dr. Doolittle" which in one episode was co-directed by Art Davis and Sid Marcus (their first KNOWN co-directorship since 1941!!!). He continued directing theatricals for DFE till the end of the studio, and also animated on a couple of projects also. Art helped direct the connecting footage on one of Friz's Warner's TV specials. When Freleng closed up shop and returned to a restarted Warner's he was joined by Arthur Davis. Art thus helped direct on the new features there.

By the mid-Eighties Art Davis had drifted back to Hanna-Barbera and directed on some series there also. He retired around 1988 (not precise, sorry!!) and lived to a ripe old age of 94 and 11/12 years, passing from this world in May 2000.

[chuckamuck43]

Thanx Turtle, for taking the time to respond (now go soak those sore typing fingers!:))
Your encyclopedic knowledge of animation history never ceases to amaze!

And, thanks for confirming my suspicions about "Quackodile Tears". I pulled out the tape and watched it again - it really is a cute and funny cartoon! Darned shame Warner's didn't avail themselves of this man's directorial talents more in the 60's.
Oh, well, as you noted, at least Lantz and Friz were smarter than the suits at WB!

Matt is certainly on the right track with this Davis tribute. It is well-deserved and past-due for a man whose career in animation begins with Fleischer and ends with H-B.

Here's a title, Matt :
"Arthur Davis - From Oswald to The Grump -
A truly incredible resume":)!

P.S. I remember the Grump! Like most DFE saturday morning shows, it was a favorite of mine when I was a kid (all their stuff was FUNNY!). That's definately one I'd like to see again!

[Sogturtle]

Chuckamuck~

Thank you for the very kind words, you're okay!
I like the title you suggested to Matt, but I might
suggest it be altered to something like...

"Arthur Davis - From Koko the Clown to Here Comes The Grump -
With a gray rabbit and a little black duck and two gophers inbetween--A truly incredible resume"

(Though I still like my pun taunting MGM-- "Ars gratia ARTIE" )

The Grump cartoons were put out on tape back in the Eighties by Embassy, now long out of print. I have those that were made available.

P.S. At the time of Art's death I sent a very fond tribute to a member of his family. He told me that he had made copies of it and given it to the other members of Art's family!! That truly made me very happy (despite my great sorrow at his dying).

[GAK]

Sogturtle,

You mentioned that...


"In early 1930 Art Davis received an offer that if he had accepted, would have almost certainly changed animation history... buuuuut such is life!"


Just curious, what was the offer that Art turned down?

GAK