Lantz for half a million dollars, claiming that Lantz had used his voice in later cartoons without permission. The judge, however, ruled for Lantz, saying that Blanc had failed to copyright his voice or his contributions. Though Lantz won the case, he paid Blanc in an out-of-court settlement when Blanc filed an appeal, and Lantz went in search for a new voice for Woody Woodpecker. In 1950, Lantz held anonymous auditions. Grace, Lantz's wife, offered to do Woody's voice; however, Lantz turned her down because Woody was a male character. Not discouraged in the least, Grace made her own anonymous audition tape, and submitted for the studio to listen to. Not knowing who was behind voice he heard, Lantz picked Grace's voice for Woody

h Leon Schlesinger Productions/Warner Bros. and left the Lantz studio, gagman Ben Hardaway, the man who was the main force behind Knock Knock, became the bird's voice. Despite this, Blanc's distinctive laugh was used throughout the cartoons.
During 1948, the Lantz studio created a hit Academy Award-nominated tune in "The Woody Woodpecker Song", featuring Blanc's laugh. Mel Blanc sued Lantz for half a million dollars, claiming that Lantz had used his voice in later cartoons without permission. The judge, however, ruled for Lantz, saying that Blanc had failed to copyright his voice or his contributions. Though Lantz won the case, he paid Blanc in an out-of-court settlement when Blanc filed an appeal, and Lantz went in search for a new voice for Woody Woodpecker.
In 1950, Lantz held anonymous auditions. Grace, Lantz's wife, offered to do Woody's voice; however, Lantz turned her down because Woody was a male character. Not discouraged in the least, Grace made her own anonymous audition tape, and submitted for the studio to listen to. Not knowing who was behind voice he heard, Lantz picked Grace's voice for Woody Woodpecker. Grace supplied Woody's voice until the end of production in 1972, and also performed in non-Woody cartoons. At first, Grace voiced Woody without screen credit, thinking that it would disappoint child viewers to that know Woody Woodpecker was voiced by a woman. However, she soon came to enjoy being known as the voice of Woody Woodpecker, and allowed her name to be credited on the screen. Her version of Woody was cuter and friendlier than the manic Woody of the 1940s, and Lantz's artists redesigned the character to suit the new personality.
Lantz's harmonious relationship with Universal, the studio releasing his cartoons, was jarred when new ownership transformed the company into Universal-International and did away with many of Universal's company policies. The new management insisted on owning licensing and merchandising rights to Lantz's characters. Lantz refused and withdrew from the parent company by the end of 1947, releasing 12 cartoons independently through United Artists in 1948, into the beginning of 1949. Financial difficulties forced Lantz to shut down his studio in 1949. Universal-International re-released Lantz's UA (and several earlier) cartoons during the shutdown and eventually came to terms with Lantz, who resumed production in 1951. From this point forward, Lantz worked faster and cheaper, no longer using the lush, artistic backgrounds and stylings that had distinguished his 1940s work.
Lantz used his TV appearances on The Woody Woodpecker Show (which began in 1957) to demonstrate the animation process. Later, Lantz entertained the troops during the Vietnam War and visited hospitalized veterans. Walter Lantz was a good friend of mo

or, best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker.[2][3] Contents [hide] 1 Biography 1.1 Early years and start in animation 1.2 The Oswald era 1.3 The Woody Woodpecker era 1.4 Retirement 2 Characters

actersWalter Lantz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Walter Lantz
Walter Lantz 1990 photo D Ramey Logan.jpg
Lantz in 1990, with paintings of Woody Woodpecker.
Born    Walter Benjamin Lantz
April 27, 1899
New Rochelle, New York, U.S.
Died    March 22, 1994 (aged 94)
Burbank, California, U.S.
Occupation    producer, director, animator, screenwriter, actor
Years active    1916 - 1982
Religion    Christian
Spouse(s)    Doris Hollister (div. 1940)
Grace Stafford (1940-1992)
Walter Benjamin Lantz (April 27, 1899[1] – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, film producer, and director, best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker.[2][3]
Contents  [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early years and start in animation
1.2 The Oswald era
1.3 The Woody Woodpecker era
1.4 Retirement
2 Characters
3 Awards
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Biography[edit]

Early years and start in animation[edit]
Lantz was born in New Rochelle, New York to Italian immigrant parents, Francesco Paolo Lantz (formerly Lanza) and Maria Gervasi from Calitri.[4] According to Joe Adamson's biography, The Walter Lantz Story, Lantz's father was given his new surname by an immigration official who Anglicized it. Walter Lantz was always interested in art, completing a mail order drawing class at age twelve. He was inspired when he saw Winsor McCay's animated short, Gertie the Dinosaur.
While working as an auto mechanic Lantz got his first break. A wealthy customer named Fred Kafka liked his drawings on the garage's bulletin board and financed Lantz's studies at the Art Students League of New York. Kafka also helped him land a job as a copy boy at the New York American, owned by William Randolph Hearst. Lantz worked at the newspaper and attended art school at night.
By the age of 16, Lantz was working in the animation department under director Gregory La Cava. Lantz then w

na-Barbera Productions.[6] Contents [hide] 1 Early years 2 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer characters 3 Golden Age of American animation 3.1 Early years 3.2 Harman and

Fred Quimby
Products    Animated films
Parent    Independent (1929–1937)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1937–1958)
The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was the in-house division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) motion picture studio in Hollywood responsible for producing animated short subjects to accompany MGM feature films in Loew's Theaters. Active from 1937 until 1957, the cartoon studio produced some of the most popular cartoon series and characters in the world, including Barney Bear, Droopy, and their best-known work, Tom and Jerry.
Prior to MGM turned Harman and Ising, MGM released the work of independent animation producer Ub Iwerks, and later the Happy Harmonies series from Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising.[2] The MGM cartoon studio was founded to replace Harman and Ising, although both men eventually became employees of the studio.[3] After a slow start, the studio began to take off in 1940 after its short The Milky Way became the first non-Disney cartoon to win the Academy Award for Best Short Subjects: Cartoons.[4] The studio's roster of talent was benefited from an exodus of animators from the Schlesinger and Disney studios, who were facing issues with union workers. Originally established and run by executive Fred Quimby, in 1955 William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, the writer-directors of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, became the heads of the studio. The cartoon studio was closed in mid-1957,[5] at which time Hanna and Barbera took much of the staff to form their own company, Hanna-Barbera Productions.[6]
Contents  [hide]
1 Early years
2 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer characters
3 Golden Age of American animation
3.1 Early years
3.2 Harman and Ising return
3.3 Hanna-Barbera: Tom and Jerry
3.4 Tex Avery
3.5 1950s, CinemaScope
3.6 Later years
3.7 Legacy
4 Notable crew members
5 Productions
5.1 Theatrical cartoon shorts series
5.2 One-shot theatrical shorts
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References
Early years[edit]

To promote their films and attract larger theater audiences, motion picture chains in the 1930s provided many features to supplement the main feature, including travelogues, serials, short comedy subjects, newsreels and cartoons. During the late 1920s, Walt Disney Productions had achieved huge popular and critical success with their Mickey Mouse cartoons for Pat Powers' Celebrity Pictures (distributing for Columbia Pictures). Several other studios, Metro-Go

e Beach Nut (1944) Created by Walter Lantz[1] Alex Lovy Portrayed by Jack Mather (1944-1948) Will Wright (1946) Dallas McKennon (1953) Paul Frees (1961)

d Roger Rabbit.
The character's appearance changed dramatically throughout the years with a vest and five o’clock shadow that disappears, different feather colors, and head feathers that disappeared entirely and reappeared sporadically.Wally Walrus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)
Wally Walrus
Woody Woodpecker character
Beachnutboardwalk.jpg
Wally Walrus makes his debut in 1944's The Beach Nut.
First appearance    The Beach Nut (1944)
Created by    Walter Lantz[1]
Alex Lovy
Portrayed by    Jack Mather (1944-1948)
Will Wright (1946)
Dallas McKennon (1953)
Paul Frees (1961)
Daws Butler (in "Spook-A-Nanny")
Billy West (1999-2002)
Townsend Coleman (film)
Information
Species    Walrus
Gender    Male
Relatives    Willy Walrus (Wally's nephew)
Nationality    Swedish
Wally Walrus is a fictional animated cartoon character who appeared in several films produced by Walter Lantz Productions in the 1940s and '50s.[2]
History[edit]

Wally is an anthropomorphic walrus who, in most of his appearances, speaks with a pronounced Swedish accent. Wally is rather slow-witted at times, and prone to anger when provoked. For many years, Wally was the primary foil for Woody Woodpecker, bearing roughly the same relationship to that character as Elmer Fudd had to Bugs Bunny in Warner Brothers' animated shorts from the same era. Wally is often heard humming or singing the popular song My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.
Wally's first appearance was opposite Woody in 1944's The Beach Nut and was voiced by Jack Mather, better known as the title character on The Cisco Kid on radio. Lantz stock player Will Wright gave him a growly, non-Swedish voice in The Reckless Driver. Wal

ements, and franchises: arrangements by which an exhibitor or distributor allocated profits among theaters that had shown a particular film, and awarded exclusive rights to independent theatres, sometimes without competitive bidding; Block booking, the studios' practice of requiring theaters to take an entire slate of its films, sometimes without even seeing them,

r trade.
Decision[edit]

The Court ruled 7-1 in the government's favor, affirming much of the consent decree (Justice Robert H. Jackson took no part in the proceedings). William O. Douglas delivered the Court's opinion, with Felix Frankfurter dissenting in part, arguing the Court should have left all of the decree intact but its arbitration provisions.
Douglas[edit]
Douglas's opinion reiterated the facts and history of the case and reviewed the District Court's opinion, agreeing that its conclusion was "incontestable".[5] He considered five different trade practices addressed by the consent decree:
Clearances and runs, under which movies were scheduled so they would only be showing at particular theatres at any given time, to avoid competing with another theater's showing;
Pooling agreements, the joint ownership of theaters by two nominally competitive studios;
Formula deals, master agreements, and franchises: arrangements by which an exhibitor or distributor allocated profits among theaters that had shown a particular film, and awarded exclusive rights to independent theatres, sometimes without competitive bidding;
Block booking, the studios' practice of requiring theaters to take an entire slate of its films, sometimes without even seeing them, sometimes before the films had even been produced ("blind bidding"), and
Discrimination against smaller, independent theaters in favor of larger chains.
Douglas let stand the District Court's sevenfold test for when a clearance agreement was a restraint of trade, as he agreed they had a legitimate purpose.[6] Pooling agreements and joint ownership, he agreed, were "bald efforts to substitute monopoly for competition ... Clearer restraints of trade we cannot imagine."[7] He allowed, however, that courts could consider how an interest in an exhibitor was acquired and sent some other issues back to the District Court for further inquiry and resolution.[8] He set aside the lower court findings on franchises so that they might be reconsidered from the perspective of allowing competitive bidding.[9] On the block booking question, he rejected the studios' argument that it was necessary to profit from their copyrights: "The copyright law, like the patent statutes, makes reward to the owner a secondary consideration".[10] The prohibitions on discrimination he let stand entirely.
Frankfurter[edit]
Frankfurter took exception to the extent to which his brethren had agreed with the studios that the District Court had not adequately explored the underlying facts in affirming the consent decree. He pointed to another recent Court decision, International Salt Co. v. United States (332 U.S. 392 (1947)) that lower courts are the proper place for such findings of fact, to be deferred to by higher courts.[11] Also, he reminded the Court that the District Court had spent fifteen months considering the case and reviewed almost 4,000 pages of documentary evidence.[12] "I cannot bring myself to conclude that the produ