Happy 82nd Birthday to the World's Favorite Ham
82 years ago today, Porky Pig appeared in his very first cartoon. In celebration of his birthday, we are going to look at this cartoon today.
The first Looney Tunes character was Bosko. This character was created by Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising. However Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising left Warner Brothers and went to MGM. They owned the rights to the character however and took Bosko with them, making more cartoons with him there. The studio made two series Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. While Merrie Melodies featured a variety of one off characters, every Looney Tune stared Bosko. This would later change and the two series would be exactly the same, but that is the way it was at this time. Because of this the studio had to think of a new character to star in their Looney Tunes series. The first one created was Buddy. However Buddy was not a popular character with anyone working on the cartoons, as all the film makers simply found him bland. Because of this at the time this film was made the studio was on the look out for new characters. Because of this director Friz Freling made a color Merrie Melodies cartoon featuring a bunch of cartoon animals performing in a talent show. These characters would include Ham and Ex, Little Kitty, Miss Cud, Oliver Owl, Beans, and Porky. At this time Porky was voiced by Joe Doughtery, who really stuttered. However he stuttered too much and this ate up too much film and he would later be replaced by Mel Blanc. The studio hoped one of these would become a popular character and take over the main role in the Looney Tunes cartoons. It was decided at first that Beans would become the big star of Looney Tunes. He was giving a staring Looney Tune called A Cartoonist Nightmare. Sadly for Beans his cartoon career never fully panned out. However one of those Looney Tunes was a Tex Avery directed cartoon starring Porky and Beans, and it was decided to make Porky the main character.
So from 1935, directed by Friz Freling, and with animation by Rollin Hamilton, Ben Clopton, Rod Scribner and future Warner Brothers cartoon directors Jack King, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones and Robert McKimson, here is Porky's screen debut, I Haven't Got a Hat.
-Michael J. Ruhland