silent WB shorts

[Cartman]

What were some of WB's silent cartoons (if they produced any)?

[hippety hopper]

I'm pretty sure WB never made ANY silent cartoons.
The first cartoon to be released was "Sinki' in the bathtub" and that has sound so I guess they never made any without sound.

[Joe Tully]

WB made the Looney Tunes in reaction to the popularity of Disney's cartoons. The phrases "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" were supposed to be similar-sounding to Disney's "Silly Symphonies," which were sound toons. Disney got his cartoons off the ground with what was arguably the first sound cartoon "Steamboat Willie"

Which is a very long way of saying, yeah, there's no silent WB cartoons. :pThe early WB stuff had very little speaking, but they weren't silent. If you see some of the early WB stuff on LNB&W, you will see that the character's mouths don't move too much.

[Patrick McCart]

They actually *did* release some silents...

Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo" was released by Vitagraph...which eventually became Warners.

That's wafer-thin of a relation, but it's close.

[J Lee]

Also Mike Barrier's book says Warners "unsuccesfully" tried to make cartoons at the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn before signing the Schelsinger/H-I contract. It's just one line in the book and doesn't mention whether or not the cartoons were supposed to be done with or without sound.