42 Facts About Bob Clampett

Bob Clampett was born and raised not far from Hollywood and, early in life, showed an interest in animation and puppetry.

Bob Clampett was born on May 8,1913 in San Diego, California to Robert Caleb Bob Clampett and Mildred Joan Merrifield.

Bob Clampett's father was born in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland in 1882, and immigrated to the United States with his parents at age two in 1884.

Bob Clampett recalled watching his father play handball at the Los Angeles Athletic Club with another of the great silent comedians, Harold Lloyd.

From his teens on, Bob Clampett showed an interest in animation.

Bob Clampett attended Glendale High School and Hoover High School in Glendale, California, but left Hoover a few months short of graduating in 1931.

Bob Clampett found a job at a doll factory owned by his aunt, Charlotte Clark.

Clark was looking for an appealing item to sell and Bob Clampett suggested Mickey Mouse, whose popularity was growing.

Unable to find a drawing of the character anywhere, Bob Clampett took his sketchpad to the movie theater and came out with several sketches.

Bob Clampett was, in his words, so "enchanted" by the new medium of sound cartoons that he tried to join Disney as an animator.

Bob Clampett left Harman and Ising and joined the new studio.

Bob Clampett noted that the Our Gang series consisted of nothing but "little kids doing things together," and a studio-wide drive to get ideas for an animal version of Our Gang commenced.

Bob Clampett's story won first prize and was made into My Green Fedora, directed by Freleng.

Bob Clampett felt encouraged after these successes and began writing more story contributions.

Bob Clampett filmed Cannon in live action as the hero and rotoscoped it into the film.

Bob Clampett planned to leave Leon Schlesinger Productions, but Schlesinger offered him a promotion to director and more money if he would stay.

Under the Warner system, Bob Clampett had complete creative control over his own films, within severe money and time limitations.

Bob Clampett was so popular in theaters that Schlesinger told the other directors to imitate him, emphasizing gags and action.

Milton Gray notes that from The Hep Cat on, the cartoons become even more wild as Bob Clampett's experimentation reached a peak.

Bob Clampett later created the character of Tweety, introduced in A Tale of Two Kitties in 1942.

Bob Clampett's cartoons grew increasingly violent, irreverent, and surreal, not beholden to even the faintest hint of real-world physics, and his characters have been argued to be easily the most rubbery and wacky of all the Warner directors'.

Bob Clampett was heavily influenced by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali, as is most visible in Porky in Wackyland, wherein the entire short takes place within a Dali-esque landscape complete with melting objects and abstracted forms.

Bob Clampett was known for creating some brief voices or sound effects in some of the cartoons.

Bob Clampett was a good source for censorship stories, though the accuracy of his recollections has been disputed.

Bob Clampett added extremely suggestive or objectionable gags aimed just at the censors; they would focus on cutting those and thus leave in the ones he actually wanted.

Bob Clampett left the studio in May 1945, leaving a handful of shorts unfinished before they were picked up again by other studio directors.

The generally accepted story was that Bob Clampett left over matters of artistic freedom, despite some people claimed that he left the studio on his own.

Bob Clampett's style was becoming increasingly divergent from those of Freleng and Jones.

Bob Clampett left at what some considered the peak of his creativity and against everyone's advice.

Bob Clampett ultimately worked as a screenwriter and gag writer for the studio.

Bob Clampett was now working for three studios at the same time: Warner Bros.

Bob Clampett, now working solely for his own studio, directed a single cartoon for Republic, It's a Grand Old Nag, featuring the equine character Charlie Horse and produced at Bob Clampett Productions.

In 1949, Bob Clampett turned his attention to television, where he created the famous puppet show Time for Beany.

Bob Clampett created an animated version of the puppet show called Beany and Cecil, whose 26 half-hour episodes were first broadcast on ABC in 1962 and were rerun on the network for five years.

Bob Clampett's studio was at 729 Seward Street in Hollywood, later a Klasky Csupo studio.

Jackson claimed that Bob Clampett was very reluctant speaking about the other directors and their contributions.

Some of this animosity appears to have come from Bob Clampett's perceived "golden boy" status at the studio, which allowed him to ignore studio rules that everyone else was expected to follow.

In Bugs Bunny: Superstar, Bob Clampett takes credit for several model sheets drawn by other artists, such as one from the first Porky Pig cartoon, I Haven't Got a Hat, even though it was actually drawn by Friz Freleng.

Bob Clampett reveals that Jones was angry at Clampett for making numerous generalizations in his 1970 interview with Funnyworld that gave Clampett too much credit, including taking sole credit for not only Bugs and Daffy but Jones's character Sniffles and Freleng's Yosemite Sam.

Bob Clampett describes him as consistently nice to her and very generous when it came to gifts or donations to a cause.

Bob Clampett had left the Termite Terrace in 1943 and did not meet Clampett again until 1960.

Bob Clampett is survived by his three children, who preserve his work.