Arthur Davis (animator)

Arthur Davis (Template:Né Davidavitch)<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> (June 14, 1905 – May 9, 2000) was an American animator and director known for his time at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio. He was sometimes billed as Art Davis.

Early life

Davis was born on June 14, 1905, in Yonkers, New York to Hungarian parents.<ref name=":0" /> He is the younger brother of animators Mannie and Phil Davis.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> Mannie would eventually become a key director for Terrytoons while Phil worked alongside Arthur at the Screen Gems studio before he left in 1933.<ref name=":1" />

Career

Davis got his start as a teenager at Raoul Barre's studio in 1918. He later moved to the Jefferson Film Corporation when the Mutt and Jeff cartoons began being made there in January 1921. In 1923 he joined the Out Of The Inkwell Films (Fleischer Studios) in New York after Dick Huemer proposed him as an assistant in 1922.<ref name=barrier1/><ref name=barrier2/>

Davis is reputed to have been the first in-betweener in the animation industry. Another distinction was his part in filming the "bouncing ball" for the "follow the bouncing ball" sing-along 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 filmed and incorporated into the cartoon.<ref name=barrier1/><ref name=barrier2/>

In 1930 Davis became an assistant animator for the Charles Mintz studio, later known as Screen Gems after Columbia Pictures acquired a stake in the studio in 1933. He was soon promoted to animator. 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 after Mintz died in 1939.<ref name=barrier1>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=barrier2>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=mallory>Template:Cite news</ref>

By 1941, Davis was fired from Screen Gems by Columbia following a mass discharge of its Mintz-era animators. After attempting to obtain a job from Walt Disney Productions,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Davis would be hired by 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 with Frank Tashlin when McCabe was drafted into the Army. The two men have previously collaborated with the 1941 cartoon "The Great Cheese Mystery" before Davis' termination from Screen Gems. 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";<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=mallory/> 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 prioritize the animation of his shorts over the writing, as he felt insecure with the writers he was given.<ref name=":0" />

Davis' unit at Warners was shut down only two years later in November 1947 when the studio 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 WB 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 extensive release backlog, was also Davis's last Warner Bros. 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.<ref name=":0" />

After leaving H-B in 1962, Davis went to Walter Lantz Productions as an animator. He left Lantz in 1965, later joining DePatie-Freleng Enterprises to direct Pink Panther shorts and other cartoon series.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Death

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Selected filmography

As a Director

Title	Release date	Series	Notes
1934	Babes at Sea	Color Rhapsody
1935	The Gloom Chasers	Scrappy
	The Shoemaker and the Elves	Color Rhapsody
	A Cat, a Mouse and a Bell
	The Puppet Murder Case	Scrappy
	Monkey Love	Color Rhapsody
	Let’s Ring Doorbells	Scrappy
1936	Scrappy’s Boy Scouts
	Football Bugs	Color Rhapsody
	The Untrained Seal
	Dizzy Ducks	Scrappy
1937	Puttin’ Out the Kitten
	Scrappy’s Music Lesson
	The Clock Goes Round and Round
1938	The New Homestead
	Scrappy’s Playmates
	Hollywood Graduation	Color Rhapsody
	The Early Bird	Scrappy
1939	Scrappy’s Added Attraction
	A Worm’s Eye View
	The Millionaire Hobo	Phantasy
1940	Barnyard Babies	Fables
	Mr. Elephant Goes to Town	Color Rhapsody
1941	The Streamlined Donkey	Fables
	The Way of All Pests	Color Rhapsody	Davis is caricatured in this short as the Home Owner.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref>
	There’s Music in Your Hair	Phantasy
	The Cute Recruit
	The Great Cheese Mystery	Fables	Last cartoon Davis directed at Screen Gems.
1946	Bacall to Arms	Merrie Melodies	Left unfinished by Bob Clampett
	The Big Snooze	Looney Tunes
	Mouse Menace
1947	The Goofy Gophers		Left unfinished by Clampett.
	The Foxy Duckling	Merrie Melodies
	Doggone Cats		Original release was processed through Cinecolor.
	Mexican Joyride	Looney Tunes
	Catch as Cats Can	Merrie Melodies
1948	Two Gophers from Texas		Original release was processed through Cinecolor.
	What Makes Daffy Duck	Looney Tunes
	A Hick a Slick and a Chick	Merrie Melodies
	Nothing But the Tooth
	Bone Sweet Bone		Original release was processed through Cinecolor.
	The Rattled Rooster	Looney Tunes
	Dough Ray Me-ow	Merrie Melodies	Original release was processed through Cinecolor.
	The Pest That Came to Dinner	Looney Tunes
	Odor of the Day		Original release was processed through Cinecolor.
	The Stupor Salesman
	Riff Raffy Daffy		Original release was processed through Cinecolor.
1949	Holiday for Drumsticks	Merrie Melodies
	Porky Chops	Looney Tunes
	Bowery Bugs	Merrie Melodies
	Bye, Bye Bluebeard
	A Ham in a Role	Looney Tunes	Uncredited, finished by Robert McKimson.<ref name=":2" />
1962	Quackodile Tears	Merrie Melodies	Last cartoon directed for Warner Bros. Cartoons.
1968	The Pink Package Plot	Pink Panther
	Pinkcome Tax
1969	In the Pink of the Night
	Sweet and Sourdough	Roland and Rattfink
	A Pair of Sneakers
	Dune Bug	The Ant and the Aardvark
	A Pair of Greenbacks	Tijuana Toads
1970	Say Cheese, Please	Roland and Rattfink
	A Taste of Money
	Bridgework
	War and Pieces
	The Land of the Tiger Moo	Doctor Dolittle
	Mumbo Jumbo	The Ant and the Aardvark
	High Flying Hippo	Doctor Dolittle
	A Girl for Greco Gorilla
	The Barnyard Rumble
	Don't Hustle an Ant with Muscle	The Ant and the Aardvark
1971	Rough Brunch
	The Bird from O.O.P.S	Doctor Dolittle
	Trick or Retreat	Roland and Rattfink
	Mud Squad	Tijuana Toads
	The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race	Roland and Rattfink
	From Bed to Worse	The Ant and the Aardvark
	A Fink in the Rink	Roland and Rattfink
	Cattle Battle
	Pink Tuba-Dore	Pink Panther
	Psst Pink
	Pink-In
	Croakus Pocus	Tijuana Toads
1972	Flight to the Finish
	Support Your Local Serpent	The Blue Racer
	Punch and Judo
	Camera Bug
	Blue Racer Blues
1973	Wham and Eggs
1978	Pink Trumpet	Pink Panther
	Pink Press
	The Pink of Bagdad
	Pink Bananas
	Pinktails for Two
	Star Pink
1979	Pink Suds
1980	The Yolk's on You	Looney Tunes	Part of the TV special Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-citement before being issued separately. Last cartoons directed for DePatie-Freleng.
	The Chocolate Chase
	Daffy Flies North	Merrie Melodies

External links

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