Frank Tashlin

• Name — Frank Tashlin • Birth Name — Francis Fredrick von Taschlein • Born — 19 February 1913 • Birthplace — Weehawken, New Jersey, U.S. • Died — 5 May 1972 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Occupation — Animator, comics artist, children's writer, illustrator, screenwriter, film director • Years Active — 1929–1972 • Employer — Fleischer Studios (1929–1930) Van Beuren Studios (1930–1933) Leon Schlesinger Productions (1933–1934, 1936–1938, 1942–1944) Animated Pictures Corp. (1934–1935) Walt Disney Productions (1938–1941) Screen Gems (1941–1942) John Sutherland Productions (1946) • Children — 2 • Other Names — Frank Tash Tish Tash

• Illustration — The Goldbrick, Private Snafu cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin in 1943 Born in Weehawken, New Jersey, Tashlin drifted from job to job after dropping out of high school in New Jersey at age 13. In 1930, he began working for John Foster as a cartoonist on the Aesop's Fables cartoon series, then worked briefly at Van Beuren Studios, but he was just as much a drifter in his animation career as he had been as a teenager. Tashlin joined Leon Schlesinger's cartoon studio at Warner Bros. Pictures as an animator in 1933, where he was known as a fast animator. He used his free time to start his own comic strip in 1934 called Van Boring, inspired by former boss Amedee J. Van Beuren, which ran for three years. He signed his comic strip "Tish Tash", and used the same name for his cartoon credits (at the time it was considered extremely unprofessional to use anything except one's birth name among animators, but Tashlin was able to get away with this due to the anti-German sentiment of that era). Tashlin was fired from the studio when he refused to give Schlesinger a cut of his comic strip revenues. He joined Animated Pictures Corp. in 1934, and moved to Hal Roach's studio the next year as a writer. Tashlin returned to Schlesinger in 1936 as an animation director, where his diverse interest and knowledge of the industry brought a new understanding of camerawork to the Warners directors. "He used all different kinds of camera angles, montages, and pan shots, vertical and horizontal." He directed 16 or 17 shorts from 1936 to 1938. He was making $150 a week. In 1937, as part of a restructuring, Tashlin moved to Friz Freleng's old unit when Freleng left Schlesinger for MGM, meaning that Cal Howard and Cal Dalton took over Tashlin's old unit, Howard was succeeded in 1938 by Ben Hardaway, and both Hardaway and Dalton was succeeded in 1939 by the return of Friz Freleng. At one point he had an argument with studio manager Henry Binder and resigned; he was replaced by Chuck Jones as director. In 1938, he worked for Walt Disney Productions in the story department, where he voluntarily worked for $50 a week, a lower salary, as Disney provided vastly superior working conditions. Tashlin and fellow Disney employee Roy Williams would periodically throw Donald Duck voice actor Clarence Nash out of a window while he rests for their amusement. Tashlin left Disney as a result of the Disney animators' strike in 1941. Afterward, he moved to Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems animation studio with other Disney staffers, serving as a director and producer at the studio. He launched The Fox and the Crow series and helped improve the studio's low quality output to a degree of prestige. He was fired over an argument with the executives of Columbia. Tashlin rejoined the Warner directors of "Termite Terrace" in 1942 after Norman McCabe was drafted into the army. One of his directorial efforts was Porky Pig's Feat (1943), the final black-and-white appearance of Porky Pig. He stayed with the studio during World War II and worked on numerous wartime shorts, including the Private Snafu educational films. Shortly after he left Warner Bros. in late 1944, he directed some stop-motion puppet films for John Sutherland in 1946. Robert McKimson took over his unit after his departure from the studio. His only Bugs Bunny shorts were The Unruly Hare and Hare Remover. The latter was also his last credit at Warner Bros. Martha Sigall described him as "Here today, gone tomorrow. Now you see him, now you don't. That was Frank Tashlin, who would be working at Leon Schlesinger's one day, and, suddenly, gone the next day."

Tashlin wrote and illustrated three books, The Bear That Wasn't (1946), The Possum That Didn't (1950), and The World That Isn't (1951). These are often referred to as "children's books" although all contained satirical elements; The Bear That Wasn't was adapted as an animated cartoon by Tashlin's former Warner Bros. colleague, Chuck Jones, in 1967. Another children's story which Tashlin wrote in 1949 was recorded by Spike Jones: How the Circus Learned to Smile. Tashlin also wrote and self-published an instructional booklet entitled How to Create Cartoons (about cartoon drawing, not animation) in 1952.

Tashlin died on May 5, 1972 at the age of 59, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after being stricken with a coronary thrombosis three days before at his Beverly Hills home. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

• Year — Title — Series — Role • 1932 — Piano Tooners — Tom and Jerry (Van Beuren) — Animator (Uncredited) • 1933 — Magic Mummy • Hook and Ladder Hokum — Co-Director with George Stallings • Buddy's Beer Garden — Looney Tunes — Animator • 1936 — Porky's Poultry Plant — Director • Little Beau Porky • Porky in the North Woods • 1937 — Porky's Road Race • Porky's Romance • Porky's Building • Porky's Railroad • Speaking of the Weather — Merrie Melodies • The Case of the Stuttering Pig — Looney Tunes • Porky's Double Trouble • The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos — Merrie Melodies • 1938 — Porky at the Crocadero — Looney Tunes • Now That Summer Is Gone — Merrie Melodies • Porky the Fireman — Looney Tunes • Have You Got Any Castles? — Merrie Melodies • Porky's Spring Planting — Looney Tunes • The Major Lied 'Til Dawn — Merrie Melodies • Wholly Smoke — Looney Tunes • Cracked Ice — Merrie Melodies • Little Pancho Vanilla • You're an Education • 1941 — The Great Cheese Mystery — Fables — Writer • The Fox and the Grapes — Color Rhapsody — Writer, Director • The Tangled Angler — Fables • 1942 — A Hollywood Detour — Color Rhapsody • Wacky Wigwams — Writer, Producer • Under the Shedding Chestnut Tree — Fables — Producer, Supervisor • Dog Meets Dog — Phantasy • Concerto in B Flat Minor — Color Rhapsody • Wolf Chases Pigs — Fables • Cinderella Goes to a Party — Color Rhapsody • A Battle for a Bottle — Phantasy • The Bulldog and the Baby — Fables • Woodman, Spare That Tree — Color Rhapsody • Song of Victory — Color Rhapsody — Supervisor • The Gullible Canary — Phantasy • Tito's Guitar — Color Rhapsody • Toll Bridge Troubles — Color Rhapsody • 1943 — Porky Pig's Feat — Looney Tunes — Director • Scrap Happy Daffy • The Goldbrick — Private Snafu • A Corny Concerto — Merrie Melodies — Writer • The Home Front — Private Snafu — Director • Puss n' Booty — Looney Tunes • 1944 — I Got Plenty of Mutton • Swooner Crooner • Brother Brat • Censored — Private Snafu • Plane Daffy — Looney Tunes • Booby Hatched • Target Snafu — Private Snafu • The Stupid Cupid — Looney Tunes • 1945 — The Unruly Hare — Merrie Melodies • Behind the Meat-Ball — Looney Tunes — Director (Uncredited) • Tale of Two Mice • Nasty Quacks — Merrie Melodies • 1946 — Hare Remover • The Lady Said No — Daffy Ditties — Writer, Director • Choo Choo Amigo — Director • Pepito's Serenade • 1947 — The Way of Peace — N/A — Writer, Director • 1967 — The Bear That Wasn't — A MGM Cartoon — Author of Original Story