Mike Durrett: CONFIDENTIAL

Screwy Tex

It's been awhile since I shared a "Cartoon Carnival" program on these pages, but with the 100th anniversary of Tex Avery's birth dropping in, Feb. 26, like a grand piano out of the sky, today's a good time to resume.

Avery is generally considered THE giant of animated gag cartoons (especially at my house), having worked at Warner Bros., MGM, and Universal as a key director during the '30s through the middle '50s. He was one of the principal artists mining the treasures in the golden age of animation, creating and/or crafting the stardoms of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, Chilly Willy, and others. More important and most delightfully, he was the primary force making American animation skew wilder and move faster.

The mind and pencils of Tex Avery spurred dozens of undisputed cartoon classics. Here are three favorites. Get the Visine. Eyes popping ahead.



Owl Jolson in "I Love to Singa" (1936)
Can't see the cartoon? Try here.



"Crazy Mixed Up Pup" (1954)
Can't see the cartoon? Try here.



Droopy in "Northwest Hounded Police" (1946)
Can't see the cartoon? Try here.

More Tex Avery Cartoons: "Bad Luck Blackie" (1948)
"Rock-A-Bye Bear" (1952) | "Deputy Droopy" (1955)
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