Mel Blanc had been at Termite Terrace for three years when he, Ben Hardaway, Frank Tashlin, Tex Avery and Bob Clampett collectively gave birth to a wisecracking rabbit who loved to outwit, and, more than occasionally, smooch, his enemies.
A Wild Hare opened on July 27, 1940.
“Who were the leading men of the early 1940’s? Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Cagney. Bugs possessed Gable’s impertinence,
Bogart’s coolheadedness,
and Cagney’s New York bred toughness.
We cheer him on because he has the moxie to say and to do what he wants. If only we were so dauntless. To top it off, he gets away with it. Bugs Bunny appeals to the rebel in all of us.” Mel Blanc in That’s Not All, Folks!:
Happy birthday, Bugs!
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The Mel Blanc Project is a series of public history/art education events made possible in part by a grant from the Kinsman Foundation and by a grant from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation.
For more information about Mel Blanc, see the Archives of this website.
“Despite what some might term the “frivolous” nature of my job, I consider myself an artist, and cartoons, art.” Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc Project 