Robert Clampett(1913-1984)
- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
Born in San Diego, California, the young Robert Clampett was
monumentally moved as a child by the film
The Lost World (1925), inspiring
him to create a sea-serpent sock-puppet that he used in puppet shows to
entertain the neighborhood kids. This led him to create a stuffed
Mickey Mouse toy, which became a prototype for the first mass-produced
Mickey Mouse doll.
Between 1931 and 1947 Clampett was an animator and later director for
the legendary Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Brothers
Animation) where alongside his one time boss
Tex Avery he became known as the
wackiest and most archetypally cartoonish of all the directors.
During this time he also developed a test for a animated adaptation of
'John Carter of Mars' however, despite the support of the author Edgar
Rice Burroughs it failed to materialize.
Amongst his famous fare was the Dalí inspired
Porky in Wackyland (1938), his
loving adaption of the Dr. Seuss book
Horton Hatches the Egg (1942),
the controversial all-black cast musical Snow White parody
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943),
the Fantasia (1940) parody
A Corny Concerto (1943) and
John Kricfalusis's favorite cartoon
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946)
featuring the acerbic irreverence of Daffy Duck -- easily the most
Clampett-esque of all his characters.
Clampett, at the time the longest serving employee at the animation
studio, finally left in 1947. After a brief stint at Columbia, and a
one-off cartoon at Republic
It's a Grand Old Nag (1947)
he was inspired by the new innovation of television to resurrect his
old sea-serpent puppet, and created the phenomenally successful Time
for Beany (1949)_ puppet television show, which was acclaimed by the
likes of Albert Einstein and Groucho Marx,
and even inspired the AC/DC line "Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap".
Clampett later returned to animation as a supervising producer on a
cartoon series based on the characters of his puppet show Matty's
Funnies with Beany and Cecil (1959).
monumentally moved as a child by the film
The Lost World (1925), inspiring
him to create a sea-serpent sock-puppet that he used in puppet shows to
entertain the neighborhood kids. This led him to create a stuffed
Mickey Mouse toy, which became a prototype for the first mass-produced
Mickey Mouse doll.
Between 1931 and 1947 Clampett was an animator and later director for
the legendary Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Brothers
Animation) where alongside his one time boss
Tex Avery he became known as the
wackiest and most archetypally cartoonish of all the directors.
During this time he also developed a test for a animated adaptation of
'John Carter of Mars' however, despite the support of the author Edgar
Rice Burroughs it failed to materialize.
Amongst his famous fare was the Dalí inspired
Porky in Wackyland (1938), his
loving adaption of the Dr. Seuss book
Horton Hatches the Egg (1942),
the controversial all-black cast musical Snow White parody
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943),
the Fantasia (1940) parody
A Corny Concerto (1943) and
John Kricfalusis's favorite cartoon
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946)
featuring the acerbic irreverence of Daffy Duck -- easily the most
Clampett-esque of all his characters.
Clampett, at the time the longest serving employee at the animation
studio, finally left in 1947. After a brief stint at Columbia, and a
one-off cartoon at Republic
It's a Grand Old Nag (1947)
he was inspired by the new innovation of television to resurrect his
old sea-serpent puppet, and created the phenomenally successful Time
for Beany (1949)_ puppet television show, which was acclaimed by the
likes of Albert Einstein and Groucho Marx,
and even inspired the AC/DC line "Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap".
Clampett later returned to animation as a supervising producer on a
cartoon series based on the characters of his puppet show Matty's
Funnies with Beany and Cecil (1959).