Today is Bugs Bunny's Birthday - He's 75!

Confidentially...

 

...I am a wabbit.

The internet loves celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, deathiversaries, to the point of overkill. So it is with some trepidation that we break out the cigars, kiss our favorite hunter and join the huge throng of fans.  You wouldn't know it as far as Warner Bros. is concerned - but their biggest movie star is 75 years old today.
Bugs Bunny made his official debut in a Tex Avery cartoon, "A Wild Hare," released on this date in 1940, marking the anniversary of his first cartoon. The short could very well have been in theatres before then. And then there’s the argument that the Hardaway Hare of the late ‘30s was marketed as Bugs Bunny. Avery was the third director to try his take on a wacky rabbit hunting secario (Ben "Bugs" Hardaway directed the first version a few years earlier - and thus "Bugs' Bunny" became the in-house name for the screwy hare), but this was the cartoon that crystalized the ingredients that we recognize as Bugs Bunny - especially his signature line ("What's Up, Doc?") and Mel Blanc's Brooklyn/Bronx wise-guy accent. Regardless, Bugs became Warner Bros.’ number-one animated star (and, arguably, cartoon-dom’s). His image started appearing in trade ads in September 1940 (the one to the right is from 1941). Trade papers reported Leon Schlesinger was rushing “Elmer’s Pet Rabbit” through production and had four other Bugs cartoons in development. Bugs eventually got his own series of “Bugs Bunny Specials,” though title animation on the cartoons themselves placed them with the rest of the Merrie Melodies.
Bugs’ exposure hit new heights in 1956 when Associated Artists Productions bought the TV rights to a pile of pre-1948 Warners cartoons and put the wabbit in practically every American home where a child could control the channel knob (the deal was signed March 1st between Warners and PRM, Inc., a shell company of AAP).

In keeping with 1940 practice, credits on “A Wild Hare” are sparce (but are now happily restored and available for all to see). Virgil Ross received the only animation credit, but experts today know that Bob McKimson and Sid Sutherland were among the artists under Avery’s eye at the time. Johnny Johnsen, who joined Avery at MGM, handled the backgrounds with nary a mention. And while at this point the studio didn’t give voice credits, C.E. Butterfield’s radio column published by the Associated Press dated September 17, 1940 reveals that “two of Al Pearce’s gang provided voices—Arthur Q. Bryan for the hunter and Mel Blanc for the hare.”                                                                                 

There are certainly greater Bugs Bunny cartoons than this one, but the relationship between Bugs and Elmer Fudd was instantly solidified by Avery and Hogan, providing a solid base to be adapted and parodied for years to come.

So "Bricka-Bracka Firecracka, Sis-Boom-Bah! Bugs Bunny, Bugs Bunny - Rah Rah Rah!" Happy Birthday Bugs. May you live forever - despite all the Elmer Fudd's, Yosemite Sam's and corporate Tasmanian Devil's in your way.