Robert Clampett

Born Robert Emerson Clampett in San Diego, CA to Joan and Robert Clampett, Bob and his family soon moved north to Hollywood, where at a very early age he exhibited impressive artistic ability. Not surprisingly, the young boy was also fascinated by the growing medium of film and made short movies of his own as a preteen. Puppetry was also an early hobby for Clampett who, as an adolescent, designed a crude dinosaur-like sock puppet - an early prototype of one of his greatest creations, the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent, Cecil. It was, however, illustration that he devoted the majority of his time to, and by high school, Clampett had not only managed to sell a cartoon to The Los Angeles Times, but was offered a part-time job as a cartoonist for newspaper syndicate King Features. Having furthered his art studies at the Otis Art Institute, a restless Clampett dropped out of Glendale's Hoover High School just shy of graduation. Shortly after taking on a job at his aunt's doll-making company, he suggested she sell likenesses of Disney's popular Mickey Mouse cartoon character. Nothing if not ambitious, not only did the teenage Clampett design the doll, but personally secured Walt Disney's permission to license the character and helped facilitate the business deal to sell the toys between his aunt and Disney.Despite this early success in the toy business, it was the medium of the doll's inspiration - animation - that truly captured the imagination of the 17-year-old. After submitting one of his shorts to animation producer Leon Schlesinger, he was hired on as an assistant animator with Harman-Ising Studios in 1931. Clampett's first contribution came on the inaugural "Merrie Melodies" cartoon for Warner Bros., "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!" (1931). Working under the guidance of Friz Freleng, Clampett began animating more regularly and remained with Warner after Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising departed over budget disputes with the notoriously penny-pinching Schlesinger. The first of Clampett's lasting contributions came with the character Porky Pig, who made his debut in the short "I Haven't Got a Hat" (1935). Encouraged by his success, the young animator began offering story ideas as well and was eventually teamed with Tex Avery, with whom he collaborated in a ramshackle building on the WB lot, affectionately referred to as "termite terrace." This team, soon joined by Chuck Jones, Virgil Ross and others, quickly developed a unique, free-wheeling style which quickly evolved into the signature look for Warner Bros. animation.Promoted to director by Schlesinger in 1936, Clampett debuted with an animated sequence in the Joe E. Brown comedy "When's Your Birthday" (1937) and the Porky Pig short "Porky's Badtime Story" (1937). Excelling in his new role and taking full advantage of the creative freedom offered by Warner Bros., Clampett collaborated with Avery on "Porky's Duck Hunt" (1937), which featured the frenetic waterfowl Daffy Duck for the first time. Influenced by surrealist painters such as Salvador Dali, Clampett experimented with an increasingly bizarre, violent, dream-like aesthetic, epitomized by the hugely influential cartoon "Porky in Wackyland" (1938). Universally recognized as one of the greatest of all time and later deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress, it follows Porky Pig as he tracks a Do-Do Bird across an ever-shifting, surrealistic landscape. Clampett continued to push the creative envelope - infusing pop-culture and literary references into the proceedings - with such memorable shorts as "The Hep Cat" (1942), until he ultimately departed Warner Bros. after his un-credited directorial work on "The Big Snooze" (1946). Whether pushed out due to what some perceived as an overabundance of ego, or having left out of a desire for more creative freedom, nearly all agreed that Clampett had been at the height of his artistic powers as an animator during those final years with Warner Bros.Over the next few years, Clampett briefly tried his hand at writing cartoons for Columbia Pictures, before attempting to launch a series of theatrical shorts through Republic Pictures. Of the latter endeavor, only the cartoon "It's a Grand Old Nag" (1947) was completed before the animator decided to turn his full attention to a long-gestating passion project - a puppet show. In 1949, Clampett created "Time for Beany," a 15-minute daily live puppet show for KTTV in Los Angeles. Played by legendary voice actor Daws Butler, Beany was a cheerful lad who flew with the help of his propeller-driven beanie. His devoted friend was Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent - voiced by the great Stan Freberg - the design of which had been inspired by the image of a dinosaur in the closing moments of the film "The Lost World" (1925), which Clampett had seen as a child. "Time for Beany" (PTN, 1950-55) quickly gained a following and graduated to daily syndication as part of the short-lived Paramount Television Network in an extended half-hour format. During its influential run, the show counted such luminaries as Groucho Marx, Albert Einstein and Lionel Barrymore among its fans and won three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children's Show. Additionally, its success allowed the ambitious Clampett to launch several other similar programs, among them "Thunderbolt the Wondercolt" (KTTV, 1954) and "Buffalo Billy" (KTTV, 1954). By 1961, "Time for Beany" had been transformed from a live-action puppet show into a cartoon series, re-titled "Beany and Cecil" (ABC, 1962) and produced and directed by Clampett through his own Bob Clampett Productions. As with the original incarnation, the cartoon followed the adventures of Beany and Cecil aboard their vessel the Leakin' Lena under the stewardship of the kindly Captain Horatio K. Huffenpuff. Looking to spoil their fun at every turn was the villainous Dishonest John - another returning character from the original series. Although only a single season of "Beany and Cecil" was produced, the cartoon resided in syndication on the network's daytime children's lineup from spring 1962 through fall 1966. Aired in 40 countries and heavily merchandised, "Beany and Cecil" made Clampett a wealthy man and the show's end theme song, with its refrain of " A Bob Clampett Cartoooooon!" ensured him lasting name recognition. As a songwriter who also owned his own music publishing company, Clampett was far more successful on a financial level than almost any of his coworkers from the early "termite terrace" days - a fact that may have explained some of the lingering animosity directed at Clampett by his former colleagues in later years.Shortly after production wrapped for the series, health problems forced Clampett into semi-retirement. For most of his remaining years he would tour the country, visiting college campuses and delivering talks about his historic career in animation. He appeared in the Warner Bros. animation documentary "Bugs Bunny: Superstar" (1975), although his prominence in the film - in addition to his oft-repeated claims regarding the creation of the carrot-chomping rabbit - angered many of his former animation colleagues. Primary among them was Chuck Jones, who in retaliation, intentionally left out Clampett when Bugs rattled off the names of his "several fathers" in the animated compilation feature "The Bug Bunny/Road Runner Movie" (1979). After years of failing health, Clampett died of a heart attack in Detroit, MI on May 2, 1984. While he did have his detractors, Clampett nonetheless remained one of the more beloved and respected figures in cartoon animation. Among the future creators greatly influenced by Clampett was John Kricfalusi, who produced and directed the short-lived revival "The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil" (ABC, 1988) before going on to create his own bit of animated madness, "The Ren & Stimpy Show" (Nickelodeon, 1991-96). By Bryce Coleman