Happy 75th Birthday Woody Woodpecker

On this day, in 1940, a star was hatched. This star was Woody Woodpecker. Walter Lantz (his creator and producer) liked to tell the story of who him and his wife, were taking a vacation in Sherwood Lake for their honeymoon. There they were annoyed by a woodpecker, and Walter's wife, Grace Stafford, suggested he turn that woodpecker into a cartoon character. This story was very close to the story of the cartoon the woodpecker first appeared in. That cartoon was an Andy Panda cartoon called Knock Knock.

Besides Walter Lantz and Grace Stafford there were more people responsible for Woody's creation. Two very important names were writer Ben Hardaway, and voice artist Mel Blanc. Both had worked on a Looney Tunes cartoon called Porky's Hare Hunt. This cartoon featured a prototype for Bugs Bunny, who more closely resembles an early Woody Woodpecker than the later Bugs. However Ben Hardaway's nickname was Bugs, something that lead to that character's name. Mel Blanc liked to tell the story of how he would walk down the halls of his high school, doing the Woody Wodpecker laugh never knowing he would later be paid for doing that. Mel Blanc would later sign an exculisive contract with Warner Brothers and had to stop doing Woody's voice, but he did voice Woody for the first few years. After leaving Woody would in fact be voiced by Ben Hardaway, and later by Grace Stafford.

The first cartoon was a huge success, and the woodpecker was giving his own series. Today we are going to look at the first of these cartoons, appropriately titled Woody Woodpecker. This cartoon was directed by Walter Lantz himself.It is written by Ben Hardaway and Jack Cosgriff (who wrote many cartoons for both Lantz and MGM). One of the animators was Alex Lovy, who would later become a Woody Woodpecker director, and even later a Looney Tunes director, and a Hanna-Barbera Producer. Another animator, was Laverne Harding, one of the first female animators to work for a Hollywood studio. So from 1941 here is Woody Woodpecker.

-Michael J. Ruhland