Walter Lantz Productions

1940–1947: Continued success and new talent

Woody quickly became extremely popular, being given his own series in early 1941, and became one of the most famous examples of the "brash bird" cartoon characters of the late 1930s/early 1940s such as Donald Duck (also created by Disney). The success of Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B (the former becoming subject to controversy and even protest soon after its release over racial stereotypes, and the latter nominated for an Academy Award) also led to the introduction of the Swing Symphony series that fall, often featuring popular musicians of the time. The series ended in 1945 at the twilight of the big band era.

After the studio's 1930s cartoons were scored by a succession of composers, including James Dietrich, Victor Records producer Nat Shilkret, and Harman-Ising veteran Frank Marsales, Darrell Calker took over in late 1940. Calker's arrangements became noted for their distinctive swing flavor.

After Disney's success with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), the Lantz studio planned to make a feature, Aladdin and His Lamp, featuring Universal's comedy team Abbott and Costello in live action, but after Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941) bombed at the box office, Aladdin never made it to actual production. Late in the decade, Lantz considered making a feature-length cartoon again, but it never came to fruition.

With the studio only one production unit, the Lantz studio was perhaps the smallest out of any major West Coast animation studio at the time. Lantz and animator Alex Lovy were the primary cartoons directors by the 40's, although the former would step back from directing by 1942. Lovy was an experienced workhorse who have been directing shorts since 1938, however, his cartoons around this time were considered slower-paced derivatives of the Looney Tunes shorts. In 1943, he was drafted into the U.S. Navy and was replaced by James Culhane in March of that year. Culhane quickly developed a distinct direction and visual style characterized for its use of Russian avant-garde influences, minimalist backgrounds and fast cutting. His influence on the Woody Woodpecker series in particular helped refine both the character and the manic slapstick the series would be known for.

Culhane eventually left Lantz in October 1945 over pay disputes. He was replaced by former Disney director Dick Lundy, who had already joined the studio two years prior. Unlike Culhane, Lundy focused more on visual gags and sophisticated animation. He helped train Lantz's animators by giving them extended sequences that "amply display their talents".

1947–1949: United Artists and first closure

In 1947, Lantz renegotiated his seven-year Universal contract with Matty Fox, the new vice president of Universal. The deal was interrupted when new ownership transformed the company into Universal-International and did away with most of Universal's company policies. The new management insisted on getting licensing and merchandising rights to Lantz's characters. Lantz refused and withdrew from the parent company in 1947, vacated Universal City, moving into the former Screen Gems cartoon studio at 861 Seward Street in Hollywood, and releasing 12 cartoons independently through United Artists during 1947 and early 1949. The cartoons from this period stand out for their slicker animation compared to the previous Universal releases, not only because of Lundy's influences, but also the hiring of other Disney veterans, such as Ed Love and Fred Moore.

This era marked the end of the Andy Panda series, whose popularity was waning. Woody remained popular however, with him even getting a hit record, "The Woody Woodpecker Song", by songwriters George Tibbles and Ramey Idriss. This song was included in the 1948 short Wet Blanket Policy, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

Under the deal with United Artists, Lantz was supposed to receive percentages of box-office receipts to pay for the production costs of his cartoons. UA however attributed a tiny portion of the dollar amounts to Lantz's shorts from the features. This was because UA was, at the time, a struggling studio attempting to re-establish the position in the industry it had in the 1920s. The result was that Lantz exceeded his standing loan of $250,000 from Bank of America (he had left Irving Trust in 1942). At the recommendation of BAC president Joe Rosenberg, Lantz decided to shut down his studio temporarily at the end of 1949 until the loan was reduced. He asked Universal to reissue his older films during the hiatus, a request accepted by Universal-International president Nate Blumberg.

In the interim, Lantz made a series of film ads for Coca-Cola. He also went to Europe to look for studios that could animate his films there, approaching government incentives not found stateside, and lower labor costs. The postwar economic situation of these countries as well as the presence of stronger unions than in Hollywood, however, led him to back out and keep making films in America.

1950–1967: Reopening and venture to television

In 1950, Walter Lantz Productions opened its doors once again. The first effort the studio produced was a brief sequence featuring Woody Woodpecker for the George Pal feature Destination Moon, released on June 27 the same year. Lantz then renegotiated with Universal-International for seven cartoons to be released the following year, provided that they all featured Woody Woodpecker. Lantz and his crew immediately set to work on the new batch of shorts. Two of these new films — Puny Express and Sleep Happy — were previously story boarded by Ben Hardaway and Heck Allen during the United Artists period. In 1951, the new cartoons were finally released and became instant hits with audiences. They were so successful that Universal commissioned six more shorts for the following year. Lantz wrote and directed these new shorts on until 1952, when roles were given to animator Don Patterson, and writer Homer Brightman. Despite never directing a cartoon before, Patterson showed great aptitude for the position. His shorts, which included Termites from Mars (1952), Hypnotic Hick (1953), A Fine Feathered Frenzy (1954), and Convict Concerto (1954), were praised by animation historians.

In 1953, both MGM and Warner Bros. Pictures briefly closed their entire animation facilities due to the advent of 3-D films. This gave Lantz the opportunity to expand his studio again by hiring some of its displaced staff, including writer Michael Maltese, animators Herman Cohen, Gil Turner, Robert Bentley, and a returning Tex Avery, who replaced Patterson from his role of director and briefly revitalized the studio with the same brand humor he applied to Warner and MGM. A second unit would be established and helmed by Paul J. Smith, a veteran animator for Lantz who would be known for having a much more conservative directorial style. Nevertheless, Smith would find early success by creating the character Chilly Willy, who was then refined by Avery later on. A third unit, managed by former MGM animators Ray Patterson and Grant Simmons, was also established before it was closed when the duo left to form Grantray-Lawrence Animation with Robert Lawrence in 1954. That same year, black-and-white Lantz shorts would enter television syndication by the Motion Pictures for Television, and they were repackaged as Oswald Rabbit Presents.

By the mid-1950s, the film industry was suffering and losing money, meaning lower budgets for cartoons. Avery himself left Lantz in 1955 over pay disputes, and was succeeded by a returning Alex Lovy, who attempted to copy Avery's brand of humor with varying results. Lantz and Universal knew that the only way to subsidize the rising costs of new shorts was to release their product to television. Norman Gluck, from U-I's short subjects department, made a deal with the Leo Burnett Agency to release some older Lantz product on television. Burnett also handled the Kellogg's cereal account and Lantz soon met with the Kellogg's people to sign the contract. At first, Lantz was not very eager and admitted that he was only working in the medium because he was "forced into TV" and "cartoons for theaters would soon be extinct".

The Woody Woodpecker Show debuted on ABC on the afternoon of October 3, 1957, and lasted until September 1958. The series was seen once a week, on Thursday afternoons, replacing the first half hour of the shortened The Mickey Mouse Club. Lantz integrated his existing cartoons with new live-action footage, giving the show an updated look that satisfied both viewers and Lantz himself. The live-action and animation segments created for the show, called "A Moment with Walter Lantz", featured an informative look at how the animation process for his "cartunes" worked and how the writers came up with stories and characters. The live-action segments were directed by Jack Hannah, who was fresh from the Disney Studio, where he had done similar live-action/animation sequences for the Disney show.

Hannah eventually would direct theatrical shorts in 1960 after Lovy left for Hanna-Barbera. Although he was working with more stricter budgets then ever before, his shorts had sophisticated style and brand of humor similar to Dick Lundy. Hannah created characters such as Fatso the Bear (a clone of his character Humphrey the Bear from Disney) and The Beary Family before he left in 1962, with his position given to writer Sid Marcus. In 1964, with new Universal owner MCA Inc. dropping the International name, the cartoons were introduced with the new "Universal presents" opening. Lantz eventually reduced the number of units back to one, leaving Smith as the sole director of all theatrical shorts by 1966.

1967–1972: Official final years

By 1969, other film studios had discontinued their animation departments, leaving Walter Lantz as one of the only two producers still making cartoons for theaters. The other one was the start-up DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, working for Lantz' former contractor, United Artists.

From 1967 until the studio's second and official closure in 1972, Universal distributed the Lantz cartoons as packages, and theaters would play them in no particular order. Lantz finally closed up the studio in 1972; he later explained that by then, it was economically impossible to continue producing them and stay in business, as rising inflation had strained his profits, and Universal serviced the remaining demand with reissues of his older cartoons. Bye Bye Blackboard, a Woody Woodpecker cartoon, was part of the final slate of cartoons made at the Walter Lantz studio. Thirteen were completed for the 1972 season: one with Chilly Willy, four starring the Beary Family, and the rest with Lantz' star character, Woody Woodpecker. Upon discovering that it would take a decade for his shorts to show a profit, Lantz himself decided to shut down company operations, and threw a farewell luncheon with his staff at the announcement on March 10 the same year, with him handing Woody watches to them.

1972–1985: Post-second closure

In 1985, Lantz sold everything outright to MCA Inc., which supplied his shorts to theaters as late as 1990. In retirement, he painted landscapes and still lifes of his cartoon characters. Since then, Universal has continued to use Woody Woodpecker in theme parks and merchandising. Universal has since produced new projects, including television series and films.

Walter Lantz Productions staff: 1928–1972

Producers

Walter Lantz

Directors

Walter Lantz

Bill Nolan

Tex Avery

Alex Lovy

Les Kline

Rudy Zamora

Fred Kopietz

Patrick Lenihan

Burt Gillett

Elmer Perkins

Ben Hardaway

Emery Hawkins

James Culhane

Dick Lundy

Don Patterson

Paul J. Smith

Ray Patterson

Grant Simmons

Jack Hannah

Sid Marcus

Storyboard artists/writers

Walter Lantz

Homer Brightman

Dalton Sandifer

Tedd Pierce

Al Bertino

Dick Kinney

Cal Howard

Sid Marcus

Dale Hale

Music

James Dietrich (1930–1938)

Scott Bradley (1938)

Frank Marsales (1938–1940)

Darrell Calker (1940–1949, 1961–1964)

Clarence Wheeler (1951–1966)

Walter Greene (1962–1972)