Nostalgic Showcase Presents: Walter Lantz Productions

This entry is part 22 of 30 in the series Nostalgic Showcase Presents

Of all the iconic catchphrases or quotes spoken from a cartoon, would you believe me when I said that a particular woodpecker’s shrill laugh stands out the most in my memory? I might not remember the first Woody Woodpecker cartoon I ever saw, but his laugh, iconic and annoying, reminiscent of the dull pecking of a woodpecker bird on a wooden stump, is one of the few sound bites that you just can’t forget. His iconic laugh and screwball personality rocketed Woody Woodpecker- and his creator, Walter Lantz- into the public zeitgeist, icons of animation history for eighty-five years and entertaining generations across the globe. In this installment of Nostalgic Showcase Presents, we’re going to pull back the curtain on Walter Lantz, the cartoons his animation studio produced, and showcase some of the most zany and wacky cartoon characters to come out of Hollywood! But first, let’s go back… to the very beginning of animation history.

New York City Toons and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

1899. Born to Italian immigrant parents, Walter Lantz learned how to hustle and balance multiple jobs at a young age. His mother died after giving birth to Walter’s younger brother in 1908, and their father became incapable of taking care of the family business- a grocery store- soon after. Walter stepped up and made sure the family could stay afloat, working various odd jobs, and drawing in his spare time. At the age of twelve, a young Walter completed a mail-order drawing course, and was inspired by Winsor McCay’s Gertie the Dinosaur skit. While working at a mechanic’s shop, Walter had produced some drawings for the bulletin board- and as luck would have it, a wealthy customer Fred Kafka took notice of these drawings and financed Walter’s studies at the Art Students League of New York. This would be the only form of formal education Walter Lantz would receive, and he worked tirelessly between a job as a copy boy for William Randolph Hearst’s New York American newspaper during the day and art classes at night. By just sixteen, Walter Lantz would earn his first art job- at the International Film Service, owned by William Randolph Hearst. This job wouldn’t last long. William Randolph Hearst had a pro-German push in his newspapers, as he believed that the German immigrants were the core of his newspaper’s consistency. When World War I broke, these ideas made the general public distrust Hearst’s newspaper business and destroyed his credibility, and his animation studio- which created shorts based on the comic strips published in the newspaper- was permanently closed in 1918. When Hearst’s animation studio folded, he licensed the short’s production to Bray Studios, and so, Lantz continued in the animation industry, now rubbing shoulders with Max and Dave Fleischer, who would, three years later, form their own animation studio. By 1924, Walter Lantz had a running cartoon series Dinky Doodle, which had animated characters interact with animators and the real world, a common trope in early cartoons, produced at Bray Studios and was promoted to Head of Production. Many of the Dinky Doodle shorts have been found and restored masterfully by Tommy Jose Stathes Cartoons on Film in 2021- a rarity of early animated shorts of this period.

In the second half of the 1920s, the animation industry was starting to move to California, and Lantz wouldn’t be far behind, moving to LA in 1927. Now experienced, with a can-do attitude, and a motivated work ethic, Lantz tried- and failed- to get an independent animation studio launched with Pinto Colvig. He worked numerous odd jobs during this year, working briefly for Frank Capra and writing gags for Mack Sennett, but Lantz’s first big break in the Hollywood business would come in 1928. Walt Disney had been working with Winkler Studios on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons, originating the character. Before Disney left Winkler Studios to make his own cartoons, the animators on his team (except Ub Iwerks) signed an exclusive contract with Charles B. Mintz, stealing Oswald in the process. Universal Pictures had a distribution deal for the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon shorts, and Mintz, seeing Walter Lantz’s potential, hired him as director of the Oswald shorts. However, Carl Laemmle, the president of Universal Pictures, was dissatisfied with Winkler Studios and cut the contract, bringing the animation production straight to the Universal Studios lot. Walter Lantz then made a bet with Laemmle over a game of poker, and won the rights to Oswald. While over the animation team at Universal, Lantz brought in fellow New York animator Bill Nolan to help reformat and redesign the character. The Walter Lantz Oswald cartoons were full of more slapstick gags and visual humor, with some contributed by a young Tex Avery, another member of Lantz’s growing team. Bill Nolan would bring his perfection of the rubberhose style to Universal, and even voiced Oswald in one of the later sound cartoons. Walter Lantz would produce 142 Oswald cartoons over the next decade, gradually softening and redesigning the character to follow popular trends before deciding to retire the rabbit in 1938.

Pandas, Woodpeckers, Walruses and Buzzards- oh my!

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit had become Universal Pictures main animated hero, but by the late 1930s, he had become stale, especially when compared to the shorts produced at other animation studios at the time. Lantz’s animation team struggled to find the next break-out star for Universal, and they needed to make one as soon as possible. Warner Bros cartoons were entertaining thousands of families across the nation through the Great Depression, with their screwball Daffy Duck and stuttering Porky Pig, and Disney was busy at work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves– the animators at Universal had some concepts and some characters but nothing stuck. In 1937, needing inspiration and a break from the studio, Walter Lantz visited a local zoo and drew the main attraction- a young panda bear. These drawings would be simplified into Andy Panda, a riff on Andy Hardy, and the panda would premiere in 1939’s “Life Begins for Andy Panda”. Over the next four shorts, Andy Panda would entertain and humor audiences- but 1940’s “Knock Knock” would make Walter Lantz a household name, with the introduction of a jokester bird with a shrill laugh- Woody Woodpecker. Originally voiced by Mel Blanc, who originated that annoying laugh, Woody’s high energy, erratic, and slapstick humor was the perfect formula for chaos and hilarity- and he was the perfect star for Universal Picture’s animation studio! Although his personality would soften through the next decade, Woody Woodpecker was a constant force of frustration for his many foes- Andy Panda, Wally Walrus and Buzz Buzzard- and became a cultural icon during WWII, a favored cartoon series both on the home front and overseas. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was quickly and swiftly retired, only appearing as a background character while Woody received full billing.

Mel Blanc would only voice Woody Woodpecker for three shorts, before signing an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. In 1948, “The Woody Woodpecker Song” would premiere in Wet Blanket Policy, using soundbites from Blanc’s performance of Woody Woodpecker- leading to a lawsuit. Ultimately, the court would rule in favor of Lantz since Blanc neglected to copyright his voice or contributions to the character. When Blanc filed an appeal, Lantz paid him an out-of-court settlement- and quickly tried to find a new voice for the animated bird. In 1950, auditions were held to pick a long lasting voice actor, and Walter Lantz’s own wife, Grace Stafford, was picked. Lantz had initially denied her the role, so she submitted an anonymous tape for her audition and was selected blindly, standing out from the rest of the auditions. She would continue to be the voice behind Woody until her death in 1991, credited on screen and re-recording his iconic laugh for the opening of each Woody Woodpecker cartoon starting in 1951. All that remains of Mel Blanc’s version of the character is the “Guess who?” audio clip at the start of each short, and the song that started the lawsuit in the first place became Woody Woodpecker’s theme song. Once Stafford started voicing Woody, his personality and demeanor on screen also changed- he wasn’t as maniac and unpredictable, and appealed more to younger audiences. His design, which was simplified by Laverne Harding, and the look of the cartoons would also change drastically, mainly due to Universal’s rising budget cuts. Just six years later, Woody would premiere on television in the The Woody Woodpecker Show (1957-1958) on ABC, which would be syndicated until 1966, continuing his legacy and solidifying his newfound popularity as a Saturday morning cartoon.

Tex Avery’s Contributions and the Inevitable Closure of the Studio

As for Walter Lantz and his animation studio, their relationship with Universal started to worsen with the merger of Universal-International in 1947. New management wanted to have the licensing and marketing rights of Woody Woodpecker and the rest of the animated IPs from Lantz, which he refused. From 1948-early 1949, the Walter Lantz cartoons were distributed by United Artists, but without Universal’s financial backing, Lantz’s studio was having major financial issues. The animation studio shut down temporarily in 1949, and the Lantz filmography would be re-released by Universal-International as they negotiated a better deal. By 1951, the animation studio was back and cartoons were in full production again. This second opening brought a new animation team to Walter Lantz’s studio- notably, Tex Avery joined as an experienced director. Although the animated shorts he produced for Lantz were a far cry from the works he directed at MGM previously, Avery’s extensive sense of slapstick humor, timing, and expressions did revitalize the cartoons, if only temporarily. During Avery’s two years at the studio, he was able to direct four shorts; Crazy Mixed Up Pup, Sh-h-h-h-h-h, and the Chilly Willy cartoons I’m Cold and The Legend of Rockabye Point. Crazy Mixed Up Pup and The Legend of Rockabye Point would be nominated for Academy Awards, and Avery solidified Chilly Willy the penguin’s appealing and sweet personality for future cartoons. But Universal-International continued to push a tighter budget, and forced to economize, Avery would need to take a severe salary cut or leave the studio. If you read the previous article on Tex Avery’s Screwball ‘Toons, you’ll probably remember how the rest of the story goes; Avery left Walter Lantz, effectively ending his career in theatrical cartoons, left the animation industry for twenty years, briefly returning to contribute to commercial work, and then passing in 1980.

After Avery’s departure from the studio, Lantz replaced him with director Alex Lovy, who would work for Lantz until the late 1950s. Then Lovy would be replaced by ex-Disney animator and director Jack Hannah, who brought a new humor to the cartoons but also struggled to produce quality cartoons within the strict budgets. He would be replaced by Sid Marcus in 1962, who would work as the lead animation director until the studio’s closure in 1972. Walter Lantz was one of the last animation studios producing theatrical animated shorts into the late 1960s (the other being DePatie-Freleng Enterprises – which will be the topic of an article sometime next year), and the cartoons found popularity in syndication on television; but it wasn’t enough to keep the studio afloat financially. On March 10, 1972, Walter Lantz Productions would close its door for the last time, marking the end of an era.

Walter Lantz retired from the animation industry at seventy-three. Woody Woodpecker would continue to cause chaos in his many adventures, through three television shows, two live action/CGI animated movies, comic books published by Dell, Whitman and Gold Key, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990. Lantz would received his own star in 1986, and was honored in 1979 with a special Academy Award “for bringing joy and laughter to every part of the world through his unique animated motion pictures”, one of three animators to be given this award. (The other two were Chuck Jones, and Walt Disney, who received three.) In 1973, the international animation society, ASIFA/Hollywood, presented him with its Annie Award for his contributions to the animation industry. In his twilight years, Lantz spent some time on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute, establishing a scholarship prize for animators in his name at California Institute of the Arts, and entertaining patients at local hospitals, producing art of his characters with his wife at his side, at the ready to do Woody’s iconic laugh. Gracie Stafford would pass in 1992, with Walter Lantz following two years later; both are buried in the Hollywood Hills Forest Lawn Memorial Park in L.A. Universal Studios Florida theme park named their kid’s section of the park as Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone with a themed rollercoaster that opened in 1988, but since the rollercoaster’s closure in 2022, the bird’s presence at the park has shrunk dramatically, replaced by newer IP.

Final Notes and Five Woodpecker Plushies

I wish this article could have a better ending, readers. Ultimately, Woody Woodpecker, no matter how iconic (or annoying) may eventually fade into obscurity in the next few decades… at least, in the US. Internationally, the animated bird and Walter Lantz’s other characters have become – and stayed- nearly as popular and recognizable as Mickey Mouse since his introduction in 1940. The key to the bird’s international success is credited to the lack of dialogue in many of the early Woody Woodpecker shorts, with a heavy reliance on physical, slapstick humor and visual storytelling that entertained audiences across languages and generations. His popularity in the international market led to the first full length live action/CGI Woody Woodpecker film to premiere in theaters in Brazil in 2017, and releasing straight-to-DVD in the USA a year later. In 2024, Netflix released the sequel Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp. Both films, despite the fanfare from Woody fans across the globe, received mostly negative reviews. As for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, in 2006, Disney and NBCUniversal initiated a deal to trade a number of minor assets to get Al Michaels from Disney’s ABC and ESPN to NBC. One of the assets was the copyright and licensing rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his animated shorts prior to 1928. Disney’s original, black-and-white version of the rabbit is the only one that remains in the public zeitgeist- Lantz’s take on the character is no where to be found.

One of my favorite antidotes related to this franchise comes from the late David Lynch. In 1981, Lynch, a seasoned filmmaker, spotted five Woody Woodpecker dolls at a petrol station. He bought the set, naming them Chucko, Buster, Pete, Bob and Dan, and the group adorned his office for a while. According to Lynch, he felt an affinity for the group, seeing them as friends, but eventually “…certain traits started coming out and they became not so nice”. Eventually, he split ways with the plush birds, but reflected on the time with them positively. “These guys aren’t just a bunch of goofballs, they know that there is plenty of suffering in the world… but they tell me, that there’s this all pervading happiness underneath everything- and the more time I spend with them, the more I believe it”. About a decade later, Lynch would collaborate with Mark Frost on the Academy Award-winning Twin Peaks (1990-1991), in which the main villain is named Bob. I can’t help but wonder if those Woody Woodpecker dolls influenced the bittersweet, bizarre and serene world of Twin Peaks, but one thing is certain- those themes followed Lynch’s works for the rest of his life.

We’ll return in October with another deep dive into one of our favorite animation studios- and check out NSP Presents: Halloween’s History in Cartoons on October 22!