Arthur Davis (animator)
Arthur Davis | |
|---|---|
 Arthur Davis circa 1931 | |
| Born | Arthur Davidavitch June 14, 1905 Yonkers, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 9, 2000 (aged 94) Sunnyvale, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Art Davis Artie Davis |
| Occupation(s) | Animator, director |
| Years active | 1918–1988 [1] |
| Employer(s) | Raoul Barre's studio (1918-1921) Jefferson Film Corporation (1921-1923) Out of the Inkwell Studios (1923–1927) Screen Gems (1927-1941) Warner Bros. Cartoons (1941–1962) United Productions of America (1962) Walter Lantz Productions (1962–1965) DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (1963–1981) Hanna-Barbera (1960–1972; 1985–1988) |
| Spouse |
Rae Kessler
(m. 1928; died 1978) |
| Children | 2[2] |
Arthur Davis (né Davidavitch)[1] (June 14, 1905 – May 9, 2000) was an American animator and director known for his time at Warner Brothers' Termite Terrace cartoon studio.
Early life
[edit]Davis was born on June 14, 1905, in Yonkers, New York to Hungarian parents.[1] He is the younger brother of animators Mannie and Phil Davis.[3] Mannie would eventually become a key director for Terrytoons while Phil worked alongside Arthur at the Screen Gems studio before he left in 1933.[3]
Career
[edit]Davis got his start as a teenager at Raoul Barre's Studio in 1918 and later moved to Jefferson Film Corporation when the Mutt and Jeff cartoons began being made there in January 1921. It was claimed that he won a cartoon competition. In 1923 he joined Out Of The Inkwell Films in New York, working as an assistant in 1922 since Dick Huemer proposed him to be an assistant. He is reputed to have been the first in-betweener in the animation industry. Another of his distinctions was that he tapped out the famous "bouncing ball" of the "Follow the Bouncing Ball" cartoons of the 1920s. While one of the Fleischer brothers played the ukulele, Davis would keep time with a wooden stick with a white cut-out circle on the end, which was photographed and incorporated into the films as the actual moving ball. Later he was an assistant animator (soon promoted to an actual animator) for the Charles Mintz studio beginning in 1930. While there, he helped create and develop Toby the Pup and Scrappy with fellow animators Dick Huemer and Sid Marcus. Davis would eventually be promoted to director alongside Marcus and remained at the studio even when Mintz died in 1939.[4][5][6]
By 1941, Davis was fired from Screen Gems by Frank Tashlin and moved to Leon Schlesinger Productions (which would be renamed Warner Bros. Cartoons once Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros.). Initially animating for Norman McCabe's unit, Davis would soon work again with Tashlin (who ironically left the Columbia studio after feuds with hire ups) when McCabe was drafted into the Army. He would animate under Tashlin's direction until late-1944, when the unit was assumed by Robert McKimson. Later in 1945, when Bob Clampett left and went to Screen Gems, Davis took over Clampett's unit. Davis completed three cartoons left unfinished by Clampett: "The Big Snooze", "The Goofy Gophers" and "Bacall to Arms";[7][6] cartoons still in the outline or storyboarding stages at the time of Clampett's departure were allocated to other directors, with Robert McKimson ultimately directing "Birth of a Notion" and Friz Freleng directing "Tweetie Pie".
Davis directed a number of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, with a tone somewhere between those of Clampett and McKimson. He had a distinctive characteristic visual style, which can be seen as far back as Davis' Columbia shorts, in which the characters move from the foreground to the background, as well as from side to side, using all axes of the animation field. Davis was said to have prioritize the animation of his shorts over the writing, as he felt insecure with the writers he was given.[8] His department was shut down only two years later in November 1947 when Warners was having a budget problem. Davis was then taken into Friz Freleng's unit, and served as one of Freleng's key animators for many years. In 1960, shortly prior to departing the studio, Davis directed a cartoon for Warners again using Freleng's unit (there were several shorts released around this time, from not only Freleng's unit but Chuck Jones' as well, where the direction was credited to varying subordinates). "Quackodile Tears", which would not see release until 1962 due to the studio's elongated release backlog, was also Davis's last Warner Brothers short.
Following his departure from Warners, Davis joined Hanna-Barbera, where he worked briefly as an animator and was a story director for The Flintstones and The Yogi Bear Show. He continued to work on and off with the studio as a consultant or a timing director until his retirement.[1]
After leaving the studio in 1962, Davis went to Walter Lantz Productions as an animator. He left Lantz in 1965 he then later joining DePatie-Freleng Enterprises to direct Pink Panther shorts and other cartoon series.[1][9]
Outliving most of his peers, Davis died peacefully on May 9, 2000, aged 94 in Sunnyvale, California after humming a tune. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.[10][11]
Selected Filmography
[edit]![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2025) |
As a Director
[edit]| Title | Release date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1930 | The Museum | |
| 1935 | Neighbors | |
| 1936 | The Nut Farm | |
| 1937 | The Little Match Girl | Co-directed with Sid Marcus, nominated for an Academy Award. |
| 1938 | The Foolish Bunny | |
| 1938 | Hollywood Graduation | |
| 1939 | The Millionaire | |
| 1940 | Mr. Elephant Goes to Town | |
| 1941 | The Way of All Pests | Davis is caricatured in this short as the Home Owner.[12] |
| 1941 | The Cute Recruit | |
| 1941 | The Great Cheese Mystery | |
| 1941 | Who's Zoo in Hollywood | Last cartoon directed for Screen Gems. |
| 1946 | Bacall to Arms | Left unfinished by Bob Clampett. |
| 1946 | The Big Snooze | Left unfinished by Clampett. |
| 1946 | Mouse Menace | |
| 1947 | The Goofy Gophers | Left unfinished by Clampett. |
| 1947 | The Foxy Duckling | |
| 1947 | Doggone Cats | |
| 1947 | Mexican Joyride | |
| 1947 | Catch as Cats Can | |
| 1948 | What Makes Daffy Duck | |
| 1948 | Nothing But the Tooth | |
| 1948 | Bone Sweet Bone | |
| 1948 | The Rattled Rooster | |
| 1948 | Dough Ray Me-ow | |
| 1948 | The Pest That Came to Dinner | |
| 1948 | Odor of the Day | |
| 1948 | The Stupor Salesman | |
| 1948 | Riff Raffy Daffy | |
| 1948 | Two Gophers from Texas | |
| 1948 | A Hick a Slick and a Chick | |
| 1949 | Holiday for Drumsticks | |
| 1949 | Porky Chops | |
| 1949 | Bowery Bugs | |
| 1949 | Bye, Bye Bluebeard | |
| 1949 | A Ham in a Role | Uncredited, finished by Robert McKimson.[12] |
| 1962 | Quackodile Tears | Last cartoon directed for Warner Bros. Cartoons. |
| 1968 | The Pink Package Plot | |
| 1968 | Pinkcome Tax | |
| 1969 | In the Pink of the Night | |
| 1969 | Sweet and Sourdough | |
| 1969 | The Pink Panther Show | TV |
| 1969 | Here Comes the Grump | TV |
| 1969 | A Pair of Sneakers | |
| 1969 | Dune Bug | |
| 1969 | A Pair of Greenbacks | |
| 1970 | Say Cheese, Please | |
| 1970 | A Taste of Money | |
| 1970 | Bridgework | |
| 1970 | Doctor Dolittle (TV) | |
| 1970 | War and Pieces | |
| 1970 | Mumbo Jumbo | |
| 1970 | Don't Hustle an Ant with Muscle | |
| 1971 | Rough Brunch | |
| 1971 | Trick or Retreat | |
| 1971 | The Mod Squad | |
| 1971 | The Ant and the Aardvark | |
| 1971 | The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race | |
| 1971 | A Fink in the Rink | |
| 1971 | Pink Tuba-Dore | |
| 1971 | Cattle Battle | |
| 1971 | Psst Pink | |
| 1971 | Pink-In | |
| 1971 | Croakus Pocus | |
| 1972 | Flight to the Finish | |
| 1972 | Support Your Local Serpent | |
| 1972 | Punch and Judo | |
| 1972 | Camera Bug | |
| 1972 | Blue Racer Blues | |
| 1973 | Wham and Eggs | |
| 1978 | The Thief of Baghdad | |
| 1978 | The All New Pink Panther Show | TV |
| 1978 | Pink Trumpet | |
| 1978 | Pink Press | |
| 1978 | The Pink of Bagdad | |
| 1978 | Pinktails for Two | |
| 1978 | Pink Bananas | |
| 1978 | Star Pink | |
| 1979 | Pink Suds | |
| 1980 | The Yolk's on You | TV |
| 1980 | Daffy Flies North | TV, Last cartoon directed for DePatie–Freleng Enterprises. |
| 1984 | Challenge of the GoBots ("GoBots for short") | TV |
| 1985 | The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo | TV |
| 1986 | Pepe Le Pew's Skunk Tales | video |
| 1986 | The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show | TV |
| 1988 | A Pup Named Scooby-Doo | TV |
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "Animator Profiles: ARTHUR DAVIS |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
- ^ "Warner Club News (1947) |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved March 21, 2025.
- ^ a b "Farewell to Phil Davis: A Scrapbook from the Artists at Charles Mintz |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
- ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood cartoons : American animation in its golden age. Oxford University Press. pp. 24, 28, 56. ISBN 978-0-19-503759-3.
- ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood cartoons : American animation in its golden age. Oxford University Press. pp. 171, 379. ISBN 978-0-19-503759-3.
- ^ a b Mallory, Michael (July 7, 2011). "Disney Wins By a Head". Animation Magazine.
- ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood cartoons : American animation in its golden age. Oxford University Press. p. 469. ISBN 978-0-19-503759-3.
- ^ "Animator Profiles: ARTHUR DAVIS |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved March 23, 2025.
- ^ Baxter, Devon (June 21, 2021). "An Art Davis Scrapbook". Cartoon Research. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
- ^ Lenburg, Jeff (2006). Who's who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film & Television's Award-winning and Legendary Animators. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 60. ISBN 1-55783-671-X.
- ^ DeMott, Rick. "Warner Bros. Director Arthur Davis Passes". Retrieved December 5, 2018.
- ^ a b "Robert McKimson's "A Ham In A Role" |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved March 23, 2025.
External links
[edit]- Arthur Davis at IMDb
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