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Posts Tagged ‘Los Angeles’

My next car will be a hybrid or something of the like.  Exhaust fumes coming from automobiles are one of my biggest pet peeves.  In some places in the United States, if your car is older than a specified amount of years, you need to get a smog test done in order to drive it.  Sadly, other places seem to be behind on the times with taking the proper precautions necessary to ensure clean air.  I believe it is absolutely imperative that all places adhere to strict rules on automobile emissions. 

Driving a car is the worst thing we can do to the air quality.  Vehicle use has been decreasing due to the high gas prices and big SUV’s and trucks are being replaced by smaller cars.  I have seen some of the new smart cars on the road recently, which have become the latest rave since the hybrid was introduced.  Other countries, other than the U.S. have done better jobs of reducing their emissions levels.  The adverse effects of health affects of car exhaust are pervasive and difficult to measure. 

The obvious solution would be to drive less.  Local and global pollution would be reduced if each car owner pledged to use their car 30% less starting immediately.  If we can resist the temptation to drive and buy large, heavy vehicles some of the issue would be resolved.  Driving should be a privilege which is what it was intended to be in the first place.  The number of vehicles in urban areas needs to be set to an appropriate quota to decrease traffic congestion and air pollution.  They should put this into effect in Los Angeles to start and add an efficient public transportation system. 

There are many other things we can do to reduce air pollution caused by cars.  Rewarding people who take mass transit, carpool, or use alternate means of transportation such as a bicycle.  HOV lanes, road tolls, dedicated bus lanes for quicker commutes, and corporations can stagger working hours to reduce time in rush hour.  Long term solutions such as requiring that vehicles use biofuels, propane, natural gas, and hydrogen as energy sources would greatly improve the air quality.

Not only is car pollution bad for the environment, but smog is one of the contributing factors that cause wrinkles and premature aging.  This, in addition to sunlight and stagnant air can magnify the negative affect of skin problems.  It can also cause respiratory problems as well as fatigue.  Each of us must do our part to make sure future generations can breathe clean air. 

Construction and naming

With Germany launching their Bremen and Europa into service, the British did not want to be left out in the ship building race. White Star Line began construction on their 60,000 ton Oceanic in 1928, while Cunard planned a 75,000 ton unnamed ship of their own.

Construction on the ship, then known only as “Hull Number 534″, began in December 1930 on the River Clyde by the John Brown & Company Shipbuilding and Engineering shipyard at Clydebank Scotland. Work was halted in December 1931 due to the Great Depression and Cunard applied to the British Government for a loan to complete 534. The loan was granted, with enough money to complete the Queen Mary and to build a running mate, Hull No. 552 which would become the Queen Elizabeth. One condition of the loan was that Cunard would merge with the White Star Line, which was Cunard’s chief British rival at the time and which had already been forced by the Depression to cancel construction on its Oceanic. Both lines agreed and the merger was completed in April 1934. Work on the Queen Mary resumed immediately and she was launched on 26 September 1934. Completion ultimately took 3 years and cost 3 million pounds sterling in total. Much of the ship’s interior was designed and constructed by the Bromsgrove Guild.

The ship was named after Queen Mary, the consort of King George V. Until her launch the name she was to be given was kept a closely guarded secret. Legend has it that Cunard intended to name the ship “Victoria”, in keeping with company tradition of giving its ships names ending in “ia”. However, when company representatives asked the King’s permission to name the ocean liner after Britain’s “greatest queen”, he said his wife, Queen Mary, would be delighted. And so, the legend goes, the delegation had of course no other choice but to report that No. 534 would be called RMS Queen Mary. This story was denied by company officials, and traditionally the names of sovereigns have only been used for capital ships of the Royal Navy. Some support for the story was provided by Washington Post editor Felix Morley, who sailed as a guest of the Cunard Line on the 1936 maiden voyage of the Queen Mary. In his 1979 autobiography, For the Record, Morley wrote that he was placed at table with Sir Percy Bates, chairman of the Cunard Line. Bates told him the story of the naming of the ship “on condition you won’t print it during my lifetime.” The name Queen Mary could also have been decided upon as a compromise between Cunard and the White Star Line, with which Cunard had recently merged, both lines had tradition of using names either ending in “ic” with White Star and “ia” with Cunard.

History (1934-1939)

Queen Mary 1936

There was already a Clyde turbine steamer named Queen Mary, so Cunard White Star reached agreement with the owners that the existing steamer would be renamed TS Queen Mary II, and in 1934 the new liner was launched by Queen Mary as RMS Queen Mary. On her way down the slipway, the Queen Mary was slowed by eighteen drag chains, which checked the liner’s progress into the Clyde, a portion of which had been widened to accommodate the launch.

When she sailed on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England on 27 May 1936, she was commanded by Sir Edgar T. Britten, who had been the master designate for Cunard White Star whilst the ship was under construction at the John Brown shipyard. The Queen Mary had a gross tonnage (GT) of 80,774 tons; her rival, Normandie, which originally grossed 79,280 tonnes, had been modified the preceding winter to increase her size to 83,243 GT (an enclosed tourist lounge was built on the aft boat deck on the area where the game court was), and therefore kept the title of the largest ocean liner. The Queen Mary sailed at high speeds for most of her maiden voyage to New York until heavy fog forced a reduction of speed on the final day of the crossing.

The Observation Bar lounge. The windows were once part of the enclosed Promenade Deck turnaround; the lounge was extended forward after 1967.

The Queen Mary’s design was criticized for being too traditional, especially when the Normandie’s hull was revolutionary with a clipper shaped, streamlined bow. Except for her cruiser stern, she seemed to be simply an enlarged version of her Cunard predecessors from the pre World War I era. Her interior design, while mostly Art Deco, still seemed restrained and conservative when compared to the ultramodern French liner. However, the Queen Mary proved to be the more popular vessel than its larger rival, in terms of passengers carried.

In August 1936, Queen Mary captured the Blue Riband from Normandie, with average speeds of 30.14 knots (55.82 km/h) westbound and 30.63 knots eastbound. Normandie was refitted with a new set of propellors in 1937 and reclaimed the honour, but in 1938 Queen Mary took back the Blue Riband in both directions with average speeds of 30.99 knots (57.39 km/h) westbound and 31.69 knots eastbound, records which stood until lost to the SS United States in 1952.

Interior

The First Class dining room map on the Queen Mary, which tracked the ship’s progress across the Atlantic Ocean.

Onboard amenities on the Queen Mary varied according to class, with First Class passengers accorded the most space and luxury. Among facilities available on board the Queen Mary, the liner featured an indoor swimming pool, salon, ship’s library, children’s nursery, outdoor paddle tennis court, and ship’s kennel. The largest room was the first class dining room (grand salon), which spanned three stories in height and was anchored by wide columns. The indoor swimming pool facility also spanned over two decks in height.

The first class dining room featured a large map of the transatlantic crossing, with twin tracks symbolizing the winter/spring route (further south to avoid icebergs) and the summer/autumn route. During each crossing, a motorized model of the Queen Mary would indicate the vessel’s progress en route.

The First Class dining room on the Queen Mary, also known as the Grand Salon.

As an alternative to the first class dining room, the Queen Mary featured a separate Verandah Grill on the Sun Deck at the upper aft of the ship. The Verandah Grill was an exclusive la carte restaurant with a capacity of approximately eighty passengers, and was converted to the Starlight Club at night. Irish writer and broadcaster, Brian Cleeve spent several months as a commis waiter on the ship in 1938, after he ran away from school. Also on board was the Observation Bar, an Art Deco styled lounge, with wide ocean views.

Woods from different regions of the British Empire were used in her public rooms and staterooms. Accommodations ranged from fully equipped, luxurious first class staterooms to modest and cramped third class cabins. Artists commissioned by Cunard in 1933 for works of art in the interior include Edward Wadsworth and A. Duncan Carse.

World War II

Arriving in New York Harbor, 20 June 1945, with thousands of U.S. troops.

In late August 1939, the Queen Mary was on a return run from New York to Southampton. The international situation led to her being escorted by the battlecruiser HMS Hood. She arrived safely, and set out again for New York on 1 September. By the time she arrived, the Second World War had started and she was ordered to remain in port until further notice alongside the Normandie. In 1940 the Queen Mary and the Normandie were joined in New York by Queen Mary’s new running mate Queen Elizabeth, fresh from her secret dash from Clydebank. The three largest liners in the world sat idle for some time until the Allied commanders decided that all three ships could be used as troopships (unfortunately, the Normandie would be destroyed by fire during her troopship conversion). The Queen Mary left New York for Sydney, where she, along with several other liners, was converted into a troopship to carry Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the United Kingdom. In the conversion, her hull, superstructure and funnels were painted navy grey. Inside, stateroom furniture and decoration were removed and replaced with triple-tiered wooden bunks (which would later be replaced by standee bunks). Six miles of carpet, 220 cases of china, crystal and silver service, tapestries and paintings were removed and stored in warehouses for the duration of the war. The woodwork in the staterooms, the first-class dining room and other public areas were covered with leather. Eventually joined in troop service by the Queen Elizabeth, the two ships were the largest and fastest troopships involved in the war, often carrying as many as 15,000 men in a single voyage, and often travelling out of convoy and without escort. Their high speed meant that it was difficult for U boats to catch them.

On 2 October 1942, Queen Mary accidentally sank one of her escorts, slicing through the light cruiser HMS Curacoa off the Irish coast, with the loss of 338 lives. Due to the constant danger of being attacked by U-Boats, on board the Queen Mary Captain C. Gordon Illingworth was under strict orders not to stop for any reason, the Royal Navy destroyers accompanying the Queen were ordered to stay on course and not rescue any survivors.

The forward section of the Queen Mary was fitted with new big windows and anti-aircraft guns seen here in Long Beach.

In December 1942, the Queen Mary was carrying 16,082 American troops from New York to Great Britain, a standing record for the most passengers ever transported on one vessel. While 700 miles from Scotland during a gale, she was suddenly hit broadside by a rogue wave that may have reached a height of 28 metres (92 ft). An account of this crossing can be found in Walter Ford Carter’s book, No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love. Carter’s father, Dr. Norval Carter, part of the 110th Station Hospital on board at the time, wrote that at one point the Queen Mary “damned near capsized… One moment the top deck was at its usual height and then, swoom! Down, over, and forward she would pitch.” It was calculated later that the ship tilted 52 degrees, and would have capsized had she rolled another 3 degrees. The incident inspired Paul Gallico to write his story, The Poseidon Adventure, which was later made into a film by the same name, using the Queen Mary as a stand-in for the SS Poseidon.

During the war, the Queen Mary carried British Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic for meetings with fellow Allied forces officials on several occasions, he would be listed on the passenger manifest as “Colonel Warden” and insisted that the lifeboat assigned to him be fitted with a .303 machine gun so that he could “resist capture at all costs”.

After World War II

The Queen Mary in Southampton, June 1956

From September 1946 to July 1947, Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service, adding air conditioning and upgrading her berth configuration to 711 first class, 707 cabin class and 577 tourist class passengers. Following refit, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth dominated the transatlantic passenger trade as Cunard White Star’s two ship weekly express service through the latter half of the 1940s and well into the 1950s. They proved highly profitable for Cunard. But in 1958, the first transatlantic flight by a jet began a completely new era of competition for the Cunard Queens. On some voyages, winters especially, Queen Mary sailed into harbour with more crew than passengers. (But she and her sister Queen Elizabeth still averaged over 1000 passengers per crossing into the middle 1960s.) By 1965, the entire Cunard fleet was leaving a trail of red ink. Hoping to continue financing their still under construction Queen Elizabeth 2, Cunard mortgaged the majority of the fleet. Finally, under a combination of age, lack of public interest, inefficiency in a new market, and the damaging after effects of the national seamen’s strike, Cunard announced that both the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth would be retired from service (the Elizabeth would leave service one year later) and were to be sold off. Many offers were submitted, but it was Long Beach, California who beat the Japanese scrap merchants. And so, Queen Mary was retired from service in 1967, while her running mate Queen Elizabeth was withdrawn in 1968. RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 took over the transatlantic route in 1969.

The Queen Mary in Long Beach

The Queen Mary from the Northern side of Long Beach harbor

After her retirement in 1967, she steamed to Long Beach, California, where she is permanently moored as a tourist attraction. From 1983 to 1993, the Queen Mary was accompanied by Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose, which was located in a large dome nearby (the dome is now used by Carnival Cruise Lines as a ship terminal, and formerly as a soundstage).

Since drilling had started for oil in Long Beach Harbor, some of the revenue had been set aside in the “Tidelands Oil Fund.” Some of this money was allocated in 1958 for the future purchase of a maritime museum for Long Beach.

Conversion

When the Queen Mary was bought by Long Beach, they decided that the ship would be an iconic host and not for preserving her as an ocean liner. It had been decided to clear almost every area of the ship below C deck (called R deck after 1950 to lessen passenger confusion all the restaurants were on “R” deck) to make way for the museum. This would increase museum space to 400,000 square feet. It required removal of all the boiler rooms, the forward engine room, both turbo generator rooms, the ship stabilisers and the water softening plant. The ship’s now empty fuel tanks were then filled with local mud which would keep the ship’s centre of gravity and draft at the correct levels, as these critical factors had been affected by the removal of all various components and structure. Only the aft engine room and “shaft alley”, at the stern of the ship, would be spared from the cutter’s torch. Remaining space would be used for storage or office space. One problem that arose during the conversion was a dispute between land based and maritime unions over conversion jobs. The United States Coast Guard had final say; the Queen Mary was deemed a building, since most of her propellers had been removed and her machinery gutted. The ship was also repainted with its red water level paint a slightly higher than its old one. During the conversion the funnels were removed as it was the only practical way to lift out the the scrap materials from the engine and boiler rooms, subsiquently it was found that the funnels were held together with over thirty coats of paint and that they had to be replaced with new replica items.

A passageway in First Class accommodation, now part of the onboard hotel

With all of the lower decks nearly gutted from R deck and down, Diner’s Club, the initial lessee of the ship, was to convert the remainder of the vessel into a hotel. Diner’s Club Queen Mary dissolved and vacated the ship in 1970 after their parent company, Diner’s Club International was sold, and a change in corporate direction was mandated amidst the conversion process. Specialty Restaurants, a Los Angeles based company that focused on theme based restaurants, would take over as master lessee the following year.

During this conversion, the plan was to convert most of her first and second class cabins on A and B decks only into hotel rooms, and convert the main lounges and dining rooms into banquet spaces. On Promenade Deck, the starboard promenade deck would be enclosed to feature an upscale restaurant and cafe called Lord Nelson’s and Lady Hamilton’s themed like early 19th century sailing ships. The famed and elegant Observation Bar was redecorated as a western themed bar.

The Queen Mary’s bridge, now open to visitors

The smaller first class public rooms such as the Drawing Room, Library, Lecture Room and the Music studio would be stripped of most of their fittings and converted over to retail space, heavily expanding the retail presence on the ship. Two more shopping malls were built on the Sun Deck in separate spaces previously used for first class cabins and engineer’s quarters.

A post war feature of the ship, the first class cinema, was removed for kitchen space for the new Promenade deck dining venues. The first class lounge and smoking room were reconfigured and converted into banquet space, while the second class smoking room would be subdivided into a wedding chapel and office space. On Sun Deck, the elegant Verandah Grill would be gutted and converted into a fast food eatery, while a new upscale dining venue would be created directly above it on Sports Deck in space once used for crew quarters. The second class lounges would be expanded to the sides of the ship and used for banqueting. On R deck, the first class dining room was reconfigured and subdivided into two banquet venues, the Royal Salon and the Windsor Room. The second class dining room would be subdivided into kitchen storage and a crew mess hall, while the third class dining room would initially be used as storage and crew space. Also on R deck, the first class Turkish bath complex, the 1930s equivalent to a spa, would be removed. The second class pool would be removed and its space initially used for office space, while the first class swimming pool would be used for hotel guests. Combined with modern safety codes, and the structural soundness of the area directly below, the swimming pool is no longer in use.

No crew cabins remain intact aboard the ship today. She now serves as a hotel, museum, tourist attraction, and for rent site for events, but her financial results have been mixed.

The Queen Mary as a tourist attraction

On 8 May 1971, the Queen Mary opened its doors to tourists. Initially, only portions of the ship were open to the public as Specialty Restaurants had yet to open its dining venues or the hotel. As a result, the ship was only open on weekends. In December of that year, Jacques Cousteau’s Museum of the Sea opened, with only a quarter of the planned exhibits built. Within the decade, Cousteau’s museum closed due to low ticket sales and the deaths of many of the fish that were housed in the museum. In November of the following year, the hotel opened its initial 150 guest rooms. Hyatt operated the hotel from 1974 to 1980, when the Jack Wrather Corporation signed a 66-year lease with the city of Long Beach to operate the entire property. Wrather was taken over by the Walt Disney Company in 1988, Wrather owned the Disneyland Hotel, which Disney had been trying to buy for 30 years; the Queen Mary was thus an afterthought and was never marketed as a Disney property.

First Class accommodations on the Queen Mary, converted into a present-day hotel room with modern curtains, bedding and amenities surrounded by original wood paneling, portholes and light fixtures.

Through the late eighties and early nineties, the Queen Mary continued to struggle financially. During the Disney years, Disney planned to develop a theme park on the remaining land. This theme park eventually opened a decade later in Japan as DisneySea, with a recreated oceanliner resembling the Queen Mary as its centerpiece. Hotel Queen Mary closed in 1992 when Disney gave up the lease on the ship to focus on what would become Disney’s California Adventure. The tourist attraction remained open for another two months, but by the end of 1992, the Queen Mary completely closed its doors to tourists and visitors.

In February 1993, under the direction of President and C.E.O. Joseph F. Prevratil, RMS Foundation, Inc began a five-year lease with the city of Long Beach to act as the operators of the property. Later that month, the tourist attraction reopened completely, while the hotel reopened in March. In 1995, RMS’s lease was extended to twenty years while the extent of the lease was reduced to simply operation of the ship itself. A new company, Queen’s Seaport Development, Inc. (QSDI) came into existence in 1995 controlling the real estate adjacent to the vessel. In 1998, the City of Long Beach extended the QSDI lease to 66 years. In 2005, QSDI sought Chapter 11 protection due to a rent credit dispute with the City. In 2006, the bankruptcy court requested bids from parties interesting in taking over the lease from QSDI. The minimum required opening bid was $41M. The operation of the ship, by RMS, remained independent of the bankruptcy. In Summer 2007, the Queen Mary’s lease was sold to a group named “Save the Queen” managed by Hostmark Hospitality Group, who planned to develop the land adjacent to the Queen Mary, and upgrade, renovate, and restore the Queen Mary. During the time of their management, staterooms were updated with Ipod docking stations and flatscreen TV’s, the ships three funnels were repainted their original Cunard Red color, as well as the ships waterline area, The portside Promenade Deck’s planking was restored and refinished, as well as work on other parts of the ship, many lifeboats were repaired and patched, and the ships kitchens were renovated with new equipment.

In late September 2009, the Queen Mary’s management was taken over by Delaware North Companies, who plan to continue restoration, and renovation of the ship and its property, and work to revitalize and enhance one of the grandest ocean liners of all time.

In 2004, the Queen Mary and Stargazer Productions added Tibbies Great American Cabaret to the space previously occupied by the ship’s bank and wireless telegraph room. Stargazer Productions and the Queen Mary transformed the space into a working dinner theater complete with stage, lights, sound, and scullery.

Meeting of the Queens

On 23 February 2006, the RMS Queen Mary 2 saluted her predecessor as it made its port of call in Los Angeles Harbor, while on a cruise to Mexico. The event was covered heavily by local and international media.

Ship’s horn

The salute itself was carried out with the Queen Mary blowing her one working air horn in response to the Queen Mary 2 blowing her combination of two brand new horns pointing forward and an original 1932 Queen Mary horn (donated by the City of Long Beach) aimed aft. The Queen Mary originally had three whistles tuned to 55 Hz, a frequency chosen because it was low enough that the extremely loud sound of it would not be painful to human ears. Modern IMO regulations specify ships’ horn frequencies to be in the range 70200 Hz for vessels that are over 200 metres (660 ft) in length. Traditionally, the lower the frequency, the larger the ship. The Queen Mary 2, being 345 metres (1,130 ft) long, was given the lowest possible frequency (70 Hz) for her regulation whistles, in addition to the refurbished 55 Hz whistle on permanent loan. 55 Hz is the lower bass “A” note found an octave up from the lowest note of a piano keyboard. The air-driven Tyfon whistle can be heard at least ten miles away.

W6RO

Queen Mary’s wireless radio room

The Queen Mary’s original, professionally manned wireless radio room was destroyed once the ship arrived in Long Beach. In its place an amateur radio room was created one deck above the original radio reception room with some of the discarded original radio equipment used for display purposes only. The amateur radio station with the call sign W6RO (“Whiskey Six Romeo Oscar”) relies on volunteers from a local amateur radio club. They are present most of the time the ship is open to the public, and the radios can also be used by other licensed amateur radio operators.

In honor of his over forty years of dedication to W6RO and the Queen Mary, in November 2007 the Queen Mary Wireless Room was renamed The Nate Brightman Radio Room. This was announced on 28 October 2007 at Mr. Brightman’s 90th birthday party by Joseph Prevratil, President and CEO of the Queen Mary.

Paranormal

The Queen Mary at night, with spotlight on the Soviet submarine B-427

Ghosts were reported on board only after permanently docked in California. Many areas are rumored to be haunted. Reports of hearing little children crying in the nursery room, actually used as the third-class playroom, and a mysterious splash noise in the drained first-class swimming pool are cited. In 1966, 18-year-old engineer John Pedder was crushed by a watertight door in the engine room during a fire drill, and his ghost is said to haunt the ship. There is also said to be the spirit of a young girl named Jackie who was murdered in the pool room haunts the first class pool onboard the ship. It is also said that men screaming and the sound of metal crushing against metal can be heard belowdecks at the extreme front end of the bow. Those who have heard this believe it to be the screams of the sailors aboard the HMS Curacoa at the moment the destroyer was split in half by the liner.
The Queen Mary operates daily paranormal themed tours, some of which have theatrics applied for dramatic effect. The ship maintains a haunted maze and expands to multiple mazes during the Halloween season.

The Queen Mary has been the subject of numerous professional paranormal investigations by printed publications like Beyond Investigation Magazine, nationally televised shows like Ghost Hunters, The Othersiders, and radio’s Coast to Coast AM. The UK paranormal television program, Most Haunted, investigated the ship in a special two-part episode.

On screen

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (February 2010)

In its permanent berth in Long Beach, the Queen Mary has been used as a filming location for numerous films, television episodes, and commercials. Some examples are:

Assault on a Queen (1966)

The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Some of the Poseidon ship scenes were filmed on board the Queen Mary. A 26-foot long miniature of the ship was used in special effects shots.

Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)

The Gumball Rally (1976). The pier in Long Beach where the ship is located was the finish line for the cross-country race.

S.O.S. Titanic (1979), in which the Queen Mary doubled for her ill-fated predecessor.

Goliath Awaits (1981), About an ocean liner named the Goliath being sunk during World War II and the survivors forming an underwater society.

Someone to Watch Over Me (1987), The murder at the beginning of the film was filmed in the First Class swimming pool area of the Queen Mary.

Toyota’s advertisement for Celica All-trac Turbo in the 1991 Long Beach Grand Prix featured the Queen Mary, with the tagline, “On 14 April, we’re going streaking in front of the Queen.”

Murder, She Wrote (1989), Episode entitled “The Grand Old Lady” takes place on the Queen Mary in 1947.

Bold and the Beautiful (1989)
Tidal Wave: No Escape (1997). Harve Presnell destroys the Queen Mary with an artificial tsunami.

“Triangle,” an episode of The X-Files, featured the Queen Mary as the fictional Queen Anne.

Pearl Harbor (2001).

Escape from L.A. (1996).

Being John Malkovich (1999), parts of the movie were shot on board.

Fiona Apple’s “O’ Sailor” video.

Most Haunted (2005).

The Amazing Race 7 (2005). The starting line for the 7th season.

Airwolf episode “Desperate Monday”.

“Development Arrested”, series finale of Arrested Development (2006).

The ship was used as the home for the finalists of reality TV show Last Comic Standing in the fourth season (2006).

National Lampoon’s Dorm Daze 2 (2006).

The 2007 Cold Case episode World’s End.

The Queen Mary was one location the TAPS crew investigated for hauntings during the second season of the TV series Ghost Hunters.

The Queen Mary was the site of Vincent Chase’s Birthday in the episode “Less Than 30″, of the 3rd Season of Entourage (TV Series).

The Queen Mary is featured on a 2007 Jonas Brothers music video, where they perform their single SOS on the ocean liner.

Portrayed the German liner SS Bremen in the 1983 mini-series The Winds of War based on the 1971 novel by Herman Wouk.

An episode of Quantum Leap took place on the Queen Mary.

The 1997 romantic comedy Out to Sea (with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau) used the Queen Mary as filming location.

The Queen Mary was the set of “The Search for the Next Elvira”, where many hopeful young women contended to be the next “Mistress of the Dark”.

Miss America: Countdown to the Crown (2009), a reality competition show; part of the precompetition for the Miss America 2009 pagent.

An episode of New York Goes to Work used the Queen Mary as a filming location (2009).

The Othersiders (2009), The team investigated here for paranormal activity.

Legally Blondes (2008).

In popular culture

This “In popular culture” section may contain minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject’s impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivia references. (February 2010)

The album title for Apologies to the Queen Mary by Wolf Parade references an incident on the ship in which the band was involved.

Most of the series finale of Arrested Development takes place on the ship.

The music video of the Jonas Brothers song SOS was filmed aboard the Queen Mary.

A season one episode of Moonlight features the Queen Mary as the location of a murder of a stalked Hollywood star.

The Queen Mary is referenced in episode 7 of the ABC Family series The Middleman, “The Cursed Tuba Contingency”. One of the episode’s villains has a ship which he boasts is “three feet longer than the Queen Mary, and eighty-six feet longer than the Titanic.” In reality, the Queen Mary (at 965 feet perpendiculars) really is eighty-three feet longer than the Titanic (at 882 feet).

In the book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, the Queen Mary plays a major part as the start of Edward’s Journey. Edward, a china rabbit, is on the Queen Mary with his owner, a little girl named Abileine. Two boys accidentily throw Edward overboard, and the rabbit starts out on his journey. The Queen Mary is referenced in the text and in a painting in the book.

In Tim Powers’s book Expiration Date, the Queen Mary plays a significant part, related to the supernatural legends above.

See also

“It’s Men that Count”; late 1930s promotional poster for the Cunard Line

RMS Mauretania (1938)

RMS Queen Elizabeth

RMS Queen Elizabeth 2

MS Queen Elizabeth

RMS Queen Mary 2

MS Queen Victoria

References

Notes

^ Royal Lady – The Queen Mary Reigns in Long Beach

^ The Bromsgrove Guild – an illustrated history, The Bromsgrove Society

^ a b c Maxtone-Graham, John. The Only Way to Cross. New York: Collier Books, 1972, p. 288

^ “Chains brake liner at launching”. Popular Science. 1934-12. http://books.google.com/books?id=uigDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA20&lpg=PA20#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 2009-11-02. 

^ Atlantic Liners: RMS Queen Mary

^ ocean-liners.com SS Normandie

^ Bruce, Jim, Faithful Servant: A Memoir of Brian Cleeve Lulu, 2007, ISBN 978-1-84753-064-6, (pp.50-55)

^ Modern art takes to the waves

^ The Historic Queen Mary – RMS Foundation, Inc.

^ Levi, Ran. “The Wave That Changed Science”. The Future of Things. http://thefutureofthings.com/column/1005/the-wave-that-changed-science.html. Retrieved 2009-11-02. 

^ Lavery, Brian. Churchill Goes to War: Winston’s Wartime Journeys. Naval Institute Press, 2007, p. 213.

^ OceanLiners.com. RMS Queen Mary

^ Harvey, Clive (2008). R.M.S. Queen Elizabeth-The Ultimate Ship. Carmania Press. ISBN 9780954366681. 

^ The Queen Mary. The Queen Mary’s History

^ Long Beach Report. A REPORT ON THE QUEENSWAY BAY DEVELOPMENT PLAN AND THE LONG BEACH TIDE AND SUBMERGED LANDS. State Lands Commission, April 2001

^ Tibbies Cabaret. History. Retrieved on August 8, 2009.

^ USATODAY.com – Queen Mary 2 to meet original Queen Mary in Long Beach harbor

^ ‘Queen Mary’s horn (MP3) – PortCities Southampton

^ The Funnels and Whistles

^ Welcome to kockum sonics: Tyfon IMO regulations

^ “The voice of the Queen Mary can be heard ten miles away” (JPG image)

^ W6RO – Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach

^ Human Touch Draws Ham Radio Buffs, Gazettes Newspaper

^ The wireless installation on RMS Queen Mary

^ Chisholm, Charlyn Keating. “Haunted Hotel – Queen Mary Hotel in Long Beach, California”. About.com. http://hotels.about.com/od/hauntedhotelsatoz/p/hau_queenmary.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-25. 

^ Winer, Richard, Ghost Ships

^ Queen Mary – Attractions at Night QueenMary.com

^ Queen Mary’s Shipwreck – Annual Halloween fest

^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VUZK-D5czs&feature=related

Bibliography

The Cunard White Star Quadruple-screw North Atlantic Liner, Queen Mary. – Bonanza Books, 289 p., 1979. – ISBN 0517279290. Largely a reprint of a special edition of “The Shipbuilder and Marine Engine-builder” from 1936.

Cunard Line, Ltd., John Brown and Company archives.

Clydebank Central Library Clydebank, Scotland.

Roberts, Andrew, Masters and Commanders: How four titans won the war in the West, 1941-1945, Harper Collins e-Books, London

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: RMS Queen Mary

Website of current commercial operator (Event listings as well as Facts & History section)

Queen Mary Alternative Visions (Describes the construction and conversion of the Queen Mary and advocates its partial restoration)

Time Magazine: The Queen; 11 August 1947

The Great Ocean Liners: RMS Queen Mary

Clydebank Restoration Trust

RMS Queen Mary at Chris’ Cunard Page (The Last Great Atlantic Fleet)

Coordinates: 334511 1181123 / 33.7531N 118.1898W / 33.7531; -118.1898

Records

Preceded by

Normandie

Holder of the Blue Riband (Westbound)

1936 1937

Succeeded by

Normandie

Atlantic Eastbound Record

1936 1937

Holder of the Blue Riband (Westbound)

1938 1952

Succeeded by

United States

Atlantic Eastbound Record

1938 1952

v  d  e

Cunard ships

Current Fleet

RMS Queen Mary 2 (2004)   MS Queen Victoria (2007)

Planned

MS Queen Elizabeth (2010)

Former Ships

RMS Britannia (1840)   RMS Persia (1856)   SS Abyssinia (1870)   SS Servia (1881)   RMS Etruria (1884)   RMS Umbria (1884)   RMS Campania (1892)   RMS Lucania (1893)   SS Ivernia (1899)   RMS Carpathia (1903)   RMS Carmania (1905)   RMS Caronia (1905)   RMS Lusitania (1907)   RMS Mauretania (1907)   RMS Franconia (1910)   RMS Ascania (1911)   RMS Albania (1911)   RMS Ausonia (1911)   RMS Laconia (1912)   RMS Alaunia (1913) (1913)   RMS Aquitania (1913)   SS Orduna (1914)   SS Empire Barracuda (1918)   RMS Albania (1920)   RMS Antonia (1921)   RMS Ausonia (1921)   RMS Scythia (1921)   RMS Andania (1922)   RMS Berengaria (1922)   RMS Laconia (1922)   RMS Lancastria (1922)   RMS Majestic (1922)   RMS Ascania (1923)   RMS Aurania (1924)   SS Letitia (1924)   RMS Alaunia (1925)   RMS Carinthia (1925)   SS Laurentic (1927)   RMS Britannic (1929)   RMS Georgic (1934)   RMS Olympic (1934)   RMS Queen Mary (1936)   RMS Mauretania (1939)   SS Pasteur (1939)  MV Empire Audacity (1939)   RMS Queen Elizabeth (1940)   SS Empire Battleaxe (1943)   SS Empire Broadsword (1943)   SS Valacia (1943)   RMS Media (1947)   RMS Caronia (1949)   RMS Saxonia (1954)   RMS Ivernia (1955)   RMS Carinthia (1956)   RMS Sylvania (1957)   RMS Alaunia (1960)   RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (1967)   MS Cunard Adventurer (1971)   MS Cunard Ambassador (1972)   MS Cunard Countess (1975)   MS Cunard Princess (1976)   MS Sagafjord (1983)   MS Caronia (1983)   MS Royal Viking Sun (1994)

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U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Keeper of the Register  History of the National Register of Historic Places  Property types  Historic district  Contributing property

List of entries

National Park Service  National Historic Landmarks  National Battlefields  National Historic Sites  National Historical Parks  National Memorials  National Monuments

Categories: Art Deco ships | Blue Riband holders | Clyde-built ships | Landmarks in Los Angeles, California | Ocean liners | Museum ships in California | Passenger ships of the United Kingdom | National Register of Historic Places in California | Rogue wave incidents | Ships of Scotland | Ships of the Cunard Line | Ships on the National Register of Historic Places | Steamships | Visitor attractions in Long Beach, California | Troop ships of the United Kingdom | 1934 ships | Museums in Long Beach, California | Haunted attractions | Paranormal placesHidden categories: Articles with trivia sections from February 2010 | All articles with trivia sections

Plot summary

Two migrant field workers in California during the Great Depressioneorge Milton, an intelligent and cynical man, and Lennie Small, an ironically-named man of large stature and immense strength but limited mental abilitiesome to a ranch near Soledad southeast of Salinas, California to “work up a stake.” They hope to one day attain their shared dream of settling down on their own piece of land. Lennie’s part of the dream, which he never tires of hearing George describe, is merely to tend to (and touch) soft rabbits on the farm. George protects Lennie at the beginning by telling him that if Lennie gets into trouble George won’t let him “tend them rabbits.” They are fleeing from their previous employment in Weed where they were run out of town after Lennie’s love of stroking soft things resulted in an accusation of attempted rape when he touched a young woman’s dress.

At the ranch, the dream appears to move closer to reality. Candy, the aged, one-handed ranch-hand, even offers to pitch in with Lennie and George so they can buy the farm by the end of the month. The dream crashes when Lennie accidentally kills the young and attractive wife of Curley, the ranch owner’s son, while trying to stroke her hair. A lynch mob led by Curley gathers. George, realizing he is doomed to a life of loneliness and despair like the rest of the migrant workers and wanting to spare Lennie a painful death at the hands of the vengeful and violent Curley, shoots Lennie in the back of the head before the mob can find him after George gives him one last retelling of their dream of owning their own land.

Characters

I was a bindlestiff myself for quite a spell. I worked in the same country that the story is laid in. The characters are composites to a certain extent. Lennie was a real person. He’s in an insane asylum in California right now. I worked alongside him for many weeks. He didn’t kill a girl. He killed a ranch foreman. Got sore because the boss had fired his pal and stuck a pitchfork right through his stomach. I hate to tell you how many times I saw him do it. We couldn’t stop him until it was too late.

ohn Steinbeck, interview by The New York Times, 1937

George Milton: A quick-witted man who is friends with Lennie. He looks after Lennie and dreams of a better life.

Lennie Small: A mentally disabled, but strong man who travels with George. He dreams of “living off the fatta’ the lan’” and being able to tend to rabbits.

Candy: A ranch worker (described as a “swamper”) who lost a hand in an accident and is near the end of his useful life on the ranch. He wishes to join Lennie and George in their “dream” of a homestead.

Candy’s dog: A blind dog who is described as “old” and “crippled”, and is killed by Carlson. The death of Candy’s dog foreshadows Lennie’s fate.

Curley: The boss’ son, a young, pugnacious character, once a semi-professional boxer. He is described by others, with some irony, as “handy”. He is very jealous and protective of his wife and immediately develops a dislike toward Lennie.

Curley’s wife: A young, pretty woman, who is mistrusted by her husband, Curley. The other characters refer to her only as “Curley’s wife,” which makes her the only significant character in the novel without a name. This lack of personal definition underscores this character’s purpose in the story: Steinbeck explained that she is “not a person, she’s a symbol. She has no function, except to be a foil and a danger to Lennie.”

Slim: A “jerkline skinner,” the main driver of a mule team. Slim is greatly respected by many of the characters and is the only character that Curley treats with respect.

Crooks: The only black ranch-hand. Like Candy, he is crippled. His nickname refers to a crooked back resulting from being kicked by a horse. He sleeps segregated from the other workers and is embittered from discrimination. He is frequently seen rubbing liniment into his spine.

Carlson: A “thick bodied” ranch-hand, he kills Candy’s dog with little sympathy.

Whit: A ranch-hand.

The Boss: Curley’s father, the superintendent of the ranch. The ranch is owned by “a big land company” according to Candy.

Aunt Clara: Lennie’s Aunt, only mentioned in references to the past.

Themes

In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.

John Steinbeck in his 1938 journal entry

Steinbeck emphasizes dreams throughout the book. George aspires for independence, to be his own boss, to have a homestead, and most importantly to be “somebody”. Lennie aspires to be with George on his independent homestead, and to quench his fixation on soft objects. Candy aspires to reassert his responsibility lost with the death of his dog, and for security for his old age on George’s homestead. Crooks aspires to a small homestead where he can express self-respect, acceptance, and security. Curley’s wife dreams to be an actress, to satisfy her desire for fame lost when she married Curley.

Loneliness is a significant factor in several characters’ lives. Candy is lonely after his dog is gone. Curley’s wife is lonely because her husband is not the friend she hoped for – she deals with her loneliness by flirting with the men on the ranch, which causes Curley to increase his abusiveness and jealousy. The companionship of George and Lennie is the result of loneliness. Crooks states the theme candidly as “A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you.” The author further reinforces this theme through subtle methods by situating the story near the town of Soledad, which means “solitude” in Spanish.

Despite the need for companionship, Steinbeck emphasizes how the nature of loneliness is sustained though the barriers established from acting inhuman to one another. The loneliness of Curley’s wife is upheld by Curley’s jealousy, which causes all the ranch hands to avoid her. Crooks’s barrier results from being barred from the bunkhouse by restraining him to the stable; his bitterness is partially broken, however, through Lennie’s ignorance.

Steinbeck’s characters are often powerless, due to intellectual, economic, and social circumstances. Lennie possesses the greatest physical strength of any character, which should therefore establish a sense of respect as he is employed as a ranch hand. However, his intellectual handicap undercuts this and results in his powerlessness. Economic powerlessness is established as many of the ranch hands are victims of society during the Great Depression. As George, Lennie, Candy, and Crooks wish to purchase a homestead, but they are unable to generate enough money.

Fate is felt most heavily as the characters’ aspirations are destroyed as George is unable to protect Lennie. Steinbeck presents this as “something that happened” or as his friend coined for him “non-teleological thinking” or “is thinking”, which postulates a non-judgmental point of view.

Development

Of Mice and Men was Steinbeck’s first attempt at writing in the form of novel-play termed a “play-novelette” by one critic. Structured in three acts of two chapters each, it is intended to be both a novella and a script for a play. He wanted to write a novel that could be played from its lines, or a play that could be read like a novel.

Steinbeck originally titled it Something That Happened, however, he changed the title after reading Robert Burns’s poem, To a Mouse. Burns’s poem tells of the regret the narrator feels for having destroyed the home of a mouse while plowing his field; it suggests that no plan is fool-proof and no one can be completely prepared for the future.[citation needed]

Steinbeck wrote this book, along with The Grapes of Wrath, in what is now Monte Sereno, California. An early draft of the novel was eaten by Steinbeck’s dog.

Reception

Attaining the greatest positive response of any of his works up to that time, Steinbeck’s novella was chosen as a Book of the Month Club selection before it was published. Praise for the work came from many notable critics, including Maxine Garrard (Enquirer-Sun), Christopher Morley, and Harry Thornton Moore (New Republic). New York Times critic Ralph Thompson described the novel as a “grand little book, for all its ultimate melodrama.”

The novella has been banned from various American public and school libraries or curricula for allegedly “promoting euthanasia”, being “anti-business”, containing profanity, racial slurs, and generally containing “vulgar” and “offensive language”. Many of the bans and restrictions have been lifted and it remains required reading in many other American, Australian, British, New Zealand and Canadian high schools. As a result of being a frequent target of censors, Of Mice and Men appears on the American Library Association’s list of the Most Challenged Books of 21st Century (number 4).

Adaptations

Cinema

Of Mice and Men was adapted to film several times, the first in 1939, only two years after the publication of the novel. This adaptation of Of Mice and Men stars Lon Chaney Jr. as Lennie, Burgess Meredith as George, and was directed by Lewis Milestone. It was nominated for four Oscars. In 1981 it was made into a TV movie. This version stars Randy Quaid as Lennie, Robert Blake as George, Ted Neeley as Curley, and was directed by Reza Badiyi.

The most recent film version of Of Mice and Men (1992) was directed by Gary Sinise (who also played the part of George), who was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. The role of George’s opposite, Lennie, was played by John Malkovich. For this adaptation, both men reprised their roles from a 1980 Steppenwolf Theatre Company production.

Theater

Stage adaptations have also been produced. The first production was produced by Sam H. Harris and directed by George S. Kaufman and opened on November 23, 1937, in the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. Running for 207 performances, it starred Wallace Ford as George and Broderick Crawford as Lennie. The role of Crooks was performed by Leigh Whipper, the first African-American member of the Actors’ Equity Association. Whipper repeated his role in the 1939 film version. It was chosen as Best Play in 1938 by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle. In 1939 the production was moved to Los Angeles, still with Wallace Ford in the role of George, but with Lon Chaney, Jr., taking on the role of Lennie. Chaney’s performance in the role resulted in his casting in the movie.

The play was revived in a 1974 Broadway production in the Brooks Atkinson Theatre starring Kevin Conway as George and James Earl Jones as Lennie. Noted stage actress Pamela Blair played Curley’s Wife in this production.

In 1970 Carlisle Floyd wrote an opera based on this novel. One departure between Steinbeck’s book and Floyd’s opera is that the opera features The Ballad Singer, a character not found in the book.

Other references

Main article: Of Mice and Men in popular culture

Numerous works have referred to or parodied aspects of the book, perhaps most notably the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, which often had one character asking another, la, Lennie, “which way did he go, George; which way did he go?”,, or the abominable snowman, referring to Bugs Bunny, saying, “I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him.” The line “Tell me about the rabbits” has also been frequently parodied.

See also

East of Eden

John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men in popular culture

The Grapes of Wrath

To a Mouse

References

Notes

^ Mice, Men, and Mr. Steinbeck, The New York Times, 1937-12-05, p. 7 

^ a b c Parini, Jay (1992-09-27), FILM; Of Bindlestiffs, Bad Times, Mice and Men, The New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE6DD1F3AF934A1575AC0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all, retrieved 2008-06-17 

^ a b Tracy Barr, Greg Tubach,, ed (2001) . Cliff Notes: On Steinbeck’s Of Mice and men. 909 Third Avenue, New York City, New York: Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-7645-8676-9. 

^ Of Mice and Men, p. 71

^ Kirk, Susan Van (2001) . Tracy Barr, Greg Tubach,. ed. Cliff Notes: On Steinbeck’s Of Mice and men. 909 Third Avenue, New York City, New York: Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-7645-8676-9. 

^ a b Dr. Susan Shillinglaw (2004-01-18). “John Steinbeck, American Writer”. The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies. http://www.steinbeck.sjsu.edu/biography/briefbiography.jsp. Retrieved 2006-12-28. 

^ Robert McCrum (2004-01-18). “First drafts”. Guardian Unlimited. http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1125534,00.html. Retrieved 2006-12-27. 

^ “John Steinbeck – The Contemporary Reviews”

^ “John Steinbeck and His Novels – an appreciation by Harry Thornton Moore”

^ McElrath, Joseph R.; Jesse S. Crisler, Susan Shillinglaw (1996). John Steinbeck: The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge University Press. pp. 7194. http://books.google.com/books?id=uFSfYMpUyokC&pg=PA85&lpg=PA85&dq=”mice+and+men”+”christopher+morley”&source=web&ots=BB4Zc4-J23&sig=BKm63HIQyb3DF9OTIXqET578ckw#PPA86,M1. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ CliffNotes: Of Mice and Men : About the Author. Wiley Publishing, Inc.. 2000-2007. pp. 7194. http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/Of-Mice-and-Men.id-101,pageNum-2.html. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ “Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century”. American Library Association. 2007. http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=bbwlinks&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=136590. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ “American Library Association list of the Most Challenged Books of 21st Century”. American Library Association. 2007. http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2006/september2006/harrypottermostchallenge.cfm. Retrieved 2009-08-25. 

^ a b c “Of Mice and Men (1939)”. Internet Movie Database Inc.. 1990-2007. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031742/. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ “Of Mice and Men (1981)”. Internet Movie Database Inc.. 1990-2007. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082838/. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ “Of Mice and Men (1992)”. Internet Movie Database Inc.. 1990-2007. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105046/. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ “Of Mice and Men (1992)”. Rotten Tomatoes / IGN Entertainment, Inc.. 1998-2007. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1040322-of_mice_and_men/. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ a b “Internet Broadway Database: Of Mice and Men”. The League of American Theatres and Producers. 2001-2007. http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=12320. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ “Internet Broadway Database: Leigh Whipper”. 2001-2007. http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?id=7209. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ “National Steinbeck Center: About John Steinbeck : Facts, Awards, & Honors”. National Steinbeck Center. http://www.steinbeck.org/. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ “Internet Broadway Database: Of Mice and Men (1974)”. The League of American Theatres and Producers. 2001-2007. http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=3709. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

^ “NY Times Review of 1983 City Opera production”. www.nytimes.com, October 14, 1983. http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/14/arts/opera-mice-and-men.html?&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2009-07-17. 

^ Interview with artist “Joe” on Pixar.com. Accessed June 17, 2008.

Bibliography

“Of Mice and Men Factsheet”. English Resources. 2002. http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/ks4/fiction/ofmicemen/llshort/factsheet.html. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

External links

Photos of the first edition of Of Mice and Men

Book Summary of Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men study guide

v  d  e

Works by John Steinbeck

Novels

Cup of Gold  The Red Pony  To a God Unknown  Tortilla Flat  In Dubious Battle  Of Mice and Men  The Grapes of Wrath  The Moon Is Down  Cannery Row  The Pearl  The Wayward Bus  Burning Bright  East of Eden  Sweet Thursday  The Short Reign of Pippin IV  The Winter of Our Discontent  The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights

Non-fiction

The Log from the Sea of Cortez  Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber Team  A Russian Journal  Once There Wa a War  Travels with Charley  Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters  America and Americans

Short story collections

The Pastures of Heaven  The Long Valley

Categories: 1937 novels | California in fiction | Great Depression fiction | Novels by John Steinbeck | Novellas | Novels adapted into filmsHidden categories: Wikipedia semi-protected pages | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from September 2007

History

The unnamed, prototype Warner Bros. rabbit

Main article: Evolution of Bugs Bunny

An unnamed rabbit bearing some of the personality, if not physical characteristics of Bugs, first appeared in the cartoon short Porky’s Hare Hunt, released on April 30, 1938. Co-directed by Ben Hardaway and an uncredited Cal Dalton (who was responsible for the initial design of the rabbit), this short had a theme almost identical to that of the 1937 cartoon, Porky’s Duck Hunt (directed by Tex Avery), which had introduced Daffy Duck. Porky Pig was again cast as a hunter tracking another silly prey who seemed less interested in escape than in driving his pursuer insane; this short replaced the black duck with a small white rabbit. The rabbit introduces himself with the odd expression “Jiggers, fellers”, and Mel Blanc gave the rabbit nearly the voice and laugh that he would later use for Woody Woodpecker. This cartoon also features the famous Groucho Marx line that Bugs would use many times: “Of course you know, this means war!” The rabbit developed a following from the audience viewing this cartoon which inspired the Schlesinger staff to further develop the character.

First incarnation of the rabbit debuts in Porky’s Hare Hunt (1938)

The rabbit’s second appearance came in 1939′s Prest-O Change-O, directed by Chuck Jones, where he is the pet rabbit of unseen character Sham-Fu the Magician. Two dogs, fleeing the local dogcatcher, enter his absent master’s house. The rabbit harasses them, but is ultimately bested by the bigger of the two dogs.

His third appearance was in another 1939 cartoon, Hare-um Scare-um, directed by Dalton and Hardaway. This short, the first where he was depicted as a gray bunny instead of a white one, is also notable both for the rabbit’s first singing role. Charlie Thorson, lead animator on the short, was the first to give the character a name. He had written “Bugs’ Bunny” on the model sheet that he drew for Hardaway, implying that he considered the rabbit model sheet to be Hardaway’s property. In promotional material for the short (such as a surviving 1939 presskit), the name on the model sheet was altered to become the rabbit’s own name: “Bugs” Bunny (quotation marks only used at the very beginning), evidently named in honor of “Bugs” Hardaway.

In Chuck Jones’ Elmer’s Candid Camera the rabbit first encounters Elmer Fudd. This rabbit has more of a physical resemblance to the present-day Bugs, being taller and having a more similar face. The voice for this rabbit, however, was not similar to the well-known Brooklyn-Bronx accent, but spoke in a rural drawl. In Robert Clampett’s 1940 Patient Porky, a similar rabbit appears to trick the audience into thinking that 750 rabbits have been born (however the design is of the earlier white rabbit).

In his later years, Mel Blanc stated that a proposed name was “Happy Rabbit”. Ironically, the only time the name “Happy” was used was in reference to Bugs Hardaway. In the cartoon Hare-um Scare-um, the newspaper headline reads, “Happy Hardaway”.

Bugs Bunny emerges

The official debut of Bugs Bunny in A Wild Hare (1940)

Bugs’ appearance in A Wild Hare, directed by Tex Avery and released on July 27, 1940, is considered the first appearance of both Elmer and Bugs in their fully developed forms. It was in this cartoon that he first emerged from his rabbit hole to ask Elmer Fudd, now a hunter rather than a photographer, “What’s up, Doc?” Animation historian Joe Adamson counts A Wild Hare as the first “official” Bugs Bunny short. It is also the first cartoon where Mel Blanc uses a recognizable version of the voice of Bugs that would eventually become the standard.

Bugs’ second appearance in Jones’ Elmer’s Pet Rabbit finally introduced the audience to the name Bugs Bunny, which up until then had only been used among the Termite Terrace employees. However, the rabbit here is absolutely identical to the one in Jones’ earlier Elmer’s Candid Camera, both visually and vocally. It was also the first short where he received billing under his now-famous name, but the card, “featuring Bugs Bunny”, was just slapped on the end of the completed short’s opening titles when A Wild Hare proved an unexpected success. He would soon become the most prominent of the Looney Tunes characters as his calm, flippant insouciance endeared him to American audiences during and after World War II.

Bugs would appear in five more shorts during 1941: Tortoise Beats Hare, directed by Tex Avery and featuring the first appearance of Cecil Turtle; Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt, the first Bugs Bunny short to be directed by Friz Freleng; All This and Rabbit Stew, directed by Avery and featuring a young African-American hunter (based heavily on racial stereotypes) as Bugs’ antagonist; The Heckling Hare, the final Bugs short Avery worked on before being fired and leaving for MGM; and Wabbit Twouble, the first Bugs short directed by Robert Clampett. Wabbit Twouble was also the first of five Bugs shorts to feature a chubbier remodel of Elmer Fudd, a short-lived attempt to have Fudd more closely resemble his voice actor, comedian Arthur Q. Bryan.

World War II

By 1942, Bugs had become the number one star of the Merrie Melodies series, which had originally been intended only for one-shot characters in shorts after several early attempts to introduce characters failed under Harman-Ising, but had started introducing newer characters in 1937 under Schlesinger. Bugs’ 1942 shorts included Friz Freleng’s The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, and the Robert Clampett shorts The Wacky Wabbit and Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (which introduced Beaky Buzzard). Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid also marks a slight redesign of Bugs, making his front teeth less prominent and his head rounder. The man responsible for this redesign was Robert McKimson, at the time working as an animator under Robert Clampett. The redesign at first was only used in the shorts created by Clampett’s production team but in time, it would be adopted by the other directors, with Freleng and Frank Tashlin the first to adopt this design. Upon his own promotion to director, McKimson created yet another version with more slanted eyes, longer teeth and a much larger mouth, which he (and, for the one Bugs Bunny cartoon he directed, Art Davis) used until 1949, when he started using the version he had designed for Clampett. Jones would come up with his own slight modification, and the voice as well would vary mildly between the units.

An alternate version of Bugs used by Robert McKimson and Art Davis between 1946 and 1949.

Other 1942 Bugs shorts included Chuck Jones’ Hold the Lion, Please, Freleng’s Fresh Hare and The Hare-Brained Hypnotist (which restored Elmer Fudd to his previous size), and Jones’ Case of the Missing Hare. He also made cameo appearances in Tex Avery’s final Warner Bros. short, Crazy Cruise, and starred in the two-minute United States war bonds commercial film Any Bonds Today.

Bugs was popular during World War II because of his free and easy attitude, and began receiving special star billing in his cartoons by 1943. By that time, Warner Bros. was the most profitable cartoon studio in the United States. Like other cartoon studios, such as Disney and Famous Studios had been doing, Warners put Bugs in opposition to the period’s biggest enemies: Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and the Japanese. The 1944 short Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips features Bugs at odds with a group of Japanese soldiers. This cartoon has since been pulled from distribution due to its racial stereotypes.

Since Bugs’ debut in A Wild Hare, he had appeared only in color Merrie Melodie cartoons (making him one of the few recurring characters created for that series in the Leon Schlesinger era prior to the full conversion to color, alongside Elmer’s prototype Egghead, Inki, Sniffles, and Elmer himself – who was heard but not seen in the 1942 Looney Tunes cartoon Nutty News, and made his first formal appearance in that series in 1943′s To Duck or Not To Duck). While he did make a cameo appearance in the 1943 Porky and Daffy cartoon Porky Pig’s Feat marking his only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tune cartoon, he did not star in a cartoon in the Looney Tunes series until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons beginning with 1944 releases. Buckaroo Bugs was Bugs’ first cartoon in the Looney Tunes series, and was also the last WB cartoon to credit Leon Schlesinger.

Among his most notable civilian shorts during this period are Bob Clampett’s Tortoise Wins by a Hare (the sequel to Tortoise Beats Hare from 1941), A Corny Concerto (a spoof of Disney’s Fantasia), Falling Hare, and What’s Cookin’ Doc?; and Chuck Jones’ Superman parody Super-Rabbit, and Freleng’s Little Red Riding Rabbit. The 1944 short Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears introduced Jones’ The Three Bears characters.

In the cartoon Super-Rabbit, Bugs was seen in the end wearing a USMC dress uniform. As a result, the United States Marine Corps made Bugs an honorary Marine Master Sergeant.

A scene from George Pal’s Jasper Goes Hunting (1944).

From 1943-1946, Bugs was the official “mascot” of Kingman Army Air Field, Kingman, Arizona, where thousands of aerial gunners were trained during World War II. Some notable trainees included Clark Gable and Charles Bronson. Bugs also served as the mascot for 530 Squadron of the 380th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force, USAF, which was attached to the Royal Australian Air Force and operated out of Australia’s Northern Territory from 1943 to 1945, flying B-24 Liberator bombers.

In 1944, Bugs Bunny actually made a cameo appearance in Jasper Goes Hunting, a short produced by rival studio Paramount Pictures. In this cameo (animated by Robert McKimson, with Mel Blanc providing the voice), Bugs pops out of a rabbit hole, saying his usual catchphrase; Bugs then says, “I must be in the wrong picture” and then goes back in the hole. He also appeared fleetingly in the 1947 Arthur Davis cartoon The Goofy Gophers.

The post-war era

A scene from Bewitched Bunny (1954)

A slight variation of how the character was drawn in the 1950s can be seen in the frame from Bewitched Bunny (1954). The inner pinkish parts of the ears have been reduced becoming more v-shaped at the top end and the ovalness of the eyes also replaced with a more top v shaped look. His cheeks protrude out more, and body is more compacted, when compared how he was drawn in the 1940s, arising to the distinct look of how he is drawn today.

Since then, Bugs has appeared in numerous cartoon shorts in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, making his last appearance in the theatrical cartoons in 1964 with False Hare. He was directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Arthur Davis and Chuck Jones and appeared in feature films, including Who Framed Roger Rabbit (which featured the first-ever meeting between Bugs and his box-office rival Mickey Mouse), Space Jam (which co-starred Michael Jordan), and the 2003 movie Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

The Bugs Bunny short Knighty Knight Bugs (1958), in which a medieval Bugs Bunny traded blows with Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon (which has a cold), won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons of 1958. Three of Chuck Jones’ Bugs Bunny shorts–Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck, Rabbit, Duck!— comprise what is often referred to as the “Duck Season/Rabbit Season” trilogy, and are considered among the director’s best works. Jones’ 1957 classic, What’s Opera, Doc?, features Bugs and Elmer parodying Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, and has been deemed “culturally significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. It was the first cartoon short to receive this honor.

Bugs appeared in the 1957 short Show Biz Bugs with Daffy Duck, which features a controversial finish in which Daffy Duck, in an attempt to wow the (partisan) audience, did a dangerous magical act in which he (in sequence) drank gasoline, swallowed nitroglycerine, gunpowder, and uranium-238 (in a greenish solution), jumped up and down to “shake well”, and finally swallowed a match that detonated the whole improbable mixture. That incident caused some TV stations, and in the 1990s the cable network TNT, to edit out the dangerous act, fearing that young kids might try to imitate it.

In the fall of 1960, The Bugs Bunny Show, a television program which packaged many of the post-1948 Warners shorts with newly animated wraparounds, debuted on ABC. The show was originally aired in prime-time. After two seasons, it was moved to reruns on Saturday mornings. The Bugs Bunny Show changed format and exact title frequently (the packaging was completely different, with each short simply presented on its own, title and all, though some clips from the new bridging material was used as filler), but it remained on network television for 40 years.

After the classic cartoon era

When Mel Blanc died in 1989, Jeff Bergman, Joe Alaskey and Billy West became the new voices to Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes, taking turns doing the voices at various times.

Bugs has also made appearances in animated specials for network television, mostly composed of classic cartoons with bridging material added, including How Bugs Bunny Won the West, and The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special. 1980′s Bugs Bunny’s Busting Out All Over, however, contained no vintage clips and featured the first new Bugs Bunny cartoons in 16 years. It opened with “Portrait Of The Artist As a Young Bunny”, which features a flashback of Bugs as a child thwarting a young Elmer Fudd, while its third and closing short was “Spaced Out Bunny”, with Bugs being kidnapped by Marvin the Martian to be a playmate for Hugo, an Abominable Snowman-like character (a new Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner short filled out the half hour). Also, there have been various compilation films, including the independently produced Bugs Bunny: Superstar (utilizing the vintage shorts then owned by United Artists), while Warner Bros. assembled The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Daffy Duck’s Fantastic Island, Bugs Bunny’s 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales and Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters. He also made guest appearances in episodes of the 1990s television program Tiny Toon Adventures as the principal of Acme Looniversity and the mentor of Babs and Buster Bunny, and would later make occasional guest cameos on spinoffs Taz-Mania, Animaniacs and Histeria!

He appears in the beginning of Gremlins 2: The New Batch, where he tries to ride the opening Warner Bros logo, but is interrupted by Daffy Duck.

Bugs has had several comic book series over the years. Western Publishing had the license for all the Warner Brothers cartoons, and produced Bugs Bunny comics first for Dell Comics, then later for their own Gold Key Comics. Dell published 58 issues and several specials from 1952 to 1962. Gold Key continued for another 133 issues. DC Comics, the sister/subsidiary company of Warner Bros., has published several comics titles since 1994 that Bugs has appeared in. Notable among these was the 2000 four-issue miniseries Superman & Bugs Bunny, written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Joe Staton. This depicted a crossover between DC’s superheroes and the Warner cartoon characters.

Bugs Bunny’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Like Mickey Mouse for The Walt Disney Company, Bugs has served as the mascot for Warner Bros. Studios and its various divisions. He and Mickey are the first cartoon characters to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In the 1988 animated/live action movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bugs is shown as one of the inhabitants of Toontown. However, since the film was being produced by Disney, Warner Bros. would only allow the use of their biggest star if he got an equal amount of screen time as Disney’s biggest star, Mickey Mouse. Because of this, both characters are always together in frame when onscreen. They appear in a scene where they are skydiving while Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) has no parachute, so Bugs offers him a “spare” which turns out to be a spare tire. They appear in the end as well, along with all the other toons. For the same reasons, Bugs never calls Mickey by his name, only referring to him as “Doc” (while Mickey calls him “Bugs”).

Bugs Bunny came back to the silver screen in Box Office Bunny in 1990. This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon short since 1964 to be released to theaters, and it was created for the Bugs Bunny 50th anniversary celebration. It was followed in 1991 by (Blooper) Bunny, a short that has gained a cult following among some animation fans for its edgy humor.

Bugs made an appearance in the 1990 drug prevention video Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. This special is notable for being the first time that somebody other than Mel Blanc voiced Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck (they were voiced by Jeff Bergman.)

In 1997, Bugs appeared on a U.S. postage stamp, the first cartoon to be so honored, beating the iconic Mickey Mouse. The stamp is number seven on the list of the ten most popular U.S. stamps, as calculated by the number of stamps purchased but not used. The introduction of Bugs onto a stamp was controversial at the time, as it was seen as a step toward the ‘commercialization’ of stamp art. The postal service rejected many designs, and went with a postal-themed drawing. Avery Dennison printed the Bugs Bunny stamp sheet, which featured “a special ten-stamp design and was the first self-adhesive souvenir sheet issued by the U.S. Postal Service.”

A younger version of Bugs is the main character of Baby Looney Tunes, which debuted on Cartoon Network (United States) in 2002. In the action comedy Loonatics Unleashed, his definite descendant Ace Bunny is the leader of the Loonatics team and seems to have inherited his ancestor’s Brooklyn accent and comic wit. Lexi Bunny who is Lola Bunny’s confirmed descendant seems to be his second in command and likely love interest. Danger Duck, a descendant of Daffy, has a similar relation with him to that between Bugs and Daffy – envy (jealousy in the extreme case) mixed with a grudging respect.

Bugs has appeared in numerous video games, including the Bugs Bunny’s Crazy Castle series, Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout, Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage and the similar Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble, Looney Tunes B-Ball, Space Jam, Looney Tunes Racing, Looney Tunes: Space Race, Bugs Bunny Lost in Time, and its sequel, Bugs Bunny and Taz Time Busters, and Looney Tunes: Back in Action and the new video game Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal.

Personality and catchphrases

Bugs has feuded with Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Marvin the Martian, Beaky Buzzard, Daffy Duck, Tasmanian Devil, Cecil Turtle, Witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, Wile E. Coyote, Count Blood Count, and a host of others. Bugs almost always wins these conflicts, a plot pattern which recurs in Looney Tunes films directed by Chuck Jones. Concerned that viewers would lose sympathy for a protagonist who always won, Jones had the antagonist characters repeatedly attempt to bully, cheat or threaten Bugs who has been minding his own business. He’s also been known to break the 4th wall by “communicating” with the audience, either by explaining the situation (ex. “Be with you in a minute folks!”), describing someone to the audience (ex. “Feisty, ain’t they?”), etc.

Bugs will usually try to placate the antagonist and avoid conflict, but when an antagonist pushes him too far, Bugs may address the audience and invoke his catchphrase “Of course you realize, this means war!” before he retaliates, and the retaliation will be devastating. This line was taken from Groucho Marx and others in the 1933 film Duck Soup and was also used in the 1935 Marx film A Night at the Opera. Bugs would pay homage to Groucho in other ways, such as occasionally adopting his stooped walk or leering eyebrow-raising (in Hair-Raising Hare, for example) or sometimes with a direct impersonation (as in Slick Hare).

Other directors, such as Friz Freleng, characterized Bugs as altruistic. When Bugs meets other successful characters (such as Cecil Turtle in Tortoise Beats Hare, or, in World War II, the Gremlin of Falling Hare), his overconfidence becomes a disadvantage.

During the 1940s, Bugs was immature and wild, but starting in the 1950s his personality matured and his attitude was less frenetic. It’s worth noting, however, that some feel this shift in Bugs’s personality marked a significant decline in the quality of his cartoons. Though often shown as highly mischievous and violent, Bugs is never actually malicious, and only acts as such in self-defense against his aggressors; the only cartoon where Bugs ever served as a true villain was Buckaroo Bugs.

Bugs Bunny’s nonchalant carrot-chewing standing position, as explained by Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett, originated in a scene in the film It Happened One Night, in which Clark Gable’s character leans against a fence, eating carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert’s character. This scene was well known while the film was popular, and viewers at the time likely recognized Bugs Bunny’s behavior as satire.

The carrot-chewing scenes are generally followed by Bugs Bunny’s most well-known catchphrase, “What’s up, Doc?”, which was written by director Tex Avery for his first Bugs Bunny short, 1940′s A Wild Hare. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in his native Texas and that he did not think much of the phrase. When the short was first screened in theaters, the “What’s up, Doc?” scene generated a tremendously positive audience reaction. As a result, the scene became a recurring element in subsequent films and cartoons. The phrase was sometimes modified for a situation. For example, Bugs says “What’s up, dogs?” to the antagonists in A Hare Grows in Manhattan, “What’s up, Duke?” to the knight in Knight-mare Hare and “What’s up, prune-face?” to the aged Elmer in The Old Grey Hare. He might also greet Daffy with “What’s up, Duck?” He used one variation, “What’s all the hub-bub, bub?” only once, in Falling Hare. Another variation is used in Looney Tunes: Back In Action when he greets a lightsaber-wielding Marvin the Martian- “What’s up, Darth?”

Several Chuck Jones shorts in the late 1940s and 1950s depict Bugs travelling via cross-country (and, in some cases, intercontinental) tunnel-digging, ending up in places as varied as Mexico (Bully For Bugs, 1953), the Himalayas (The Abominable Snow Rabbit, 1960) and Antarctica (Frigid Hare, 1949) all because he “shoulda taken that left toin at Albukoikee.” He first utters that phrase in Herr Meets Hare (1945), when he emerges in the Black Forest, a cartoon seldom seen today due to its blatantly topical subject matter. When Hermann Gring says to Bugs, “There is no Las Vegas in ‘Chermany’” and takes a potshot at Bugs, Bugs dives into his hole and says, “Joimany! Yipe!”, as Bugs realizes he’s behind enemy lines. The confused response to his “left toin” comment also followed a pattern. For example, when he tunnels into Scotland in 1948′s My Bunny Lies Over The Sea, while thinking he’s heading for the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, it provides another chance for an ethnic stereotype: “Therrre’s no La Brrrea Tarrr Pits in Scotland!” (to which Bugs responds, “Uh…what’s up, Mac-doc?”). A couple of late-1950s shorts of this ilk also featured Daffy Duck travelling with Bugs (“Since when is Pismo Beach inside a cave?!”).

Bugs Bunny has some similarities to figures from mythology and folklore, such as Br’er Rabbit, Nanabozho, or Anansi, and might be seen as a modern trickster (for example, he repeatedly uses cross-dressing mischievously). Unlike most cartoon characters, however, Bugs Bunny is rarely defeated in his own games of trickery. One exception to this is the short Hare Brush, in which Elmer Fudd ultimately carries the day at the end; however, critics note that in this short, Elmer and Bugs assume each other’s personalitieshrough mental illness and hypnosis, respectivelynd it is only by becoming Bugs that Elmer can win. However Bugs was beaten at his own game. In the short Duck Amuck he torments Daffy Duck as the unseen animator, ending with his line, “Ain’t I a stinker?” Bugs feels the same wrath of an unseen animator in the short Rabbit Rampage where he is in turn tormented by Elmer Fudd. At the end of the clip Elmer gleefully exclaims, ‘Well, I finally got even with that scwewy wabbit!”

Although it was usually Porky Pig who brought the WB cartoons to a close with his stuttering, “That’s all, folks!”, Bugs would occasionally appear, bursting through a drum just as Porky did, but munching a carrot and saying in his Bronx-Brooklyn accent, “And dat’s de end!”

The name “Bugs” or “Bugsy” as an old-fashioned nickname means “crazy” (or “loopy”). Several famous people from the first half of the twentieth century had that nickname. It is now out of fashion as a nickname, but survives in 1950s-1960s expressions like “you’re bugging me”, as in “you’re driving me crazy”.

Bugs wears white gloves which he is only known to remove in Long-Haired Hare. In this episode, Bugs pretends to be the famed conductor Leopold Stokowski and instructs opera star “Giovanni Jones” to sing and to hold a high note. As Giovanni Jones is turning red with the strain, Bugs slips his left hand out of its glove, leaving the glove hovering in the air in order to command Jones to continue to hold the high note. Bugs then nips down to the mail drop to order, and then to receive, a pair of ear muffs. Bugs puts on the ear defenders and then zips back into the amphitheater and reinserts his hand into his glove as singer Jones is writhing on the stage, still holding that same high note).

Bugs Bunny is also a master of disguise: he can wear any disguise that he wants to confuse his enemies: in Bowery Bugs he uses 5 disguises: fakir, gentleman, women, Baker and finally policeman. This ability of disguise makes bugs famous because we can recognize him while at the same time realizing that his enemies are trapped. Bugs has a certain preference for the female disguise: Taz, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam were fooled by this sexy bunny (woman) and in Hare Trimmed, Sam discovers the real face of “Granny”(Bugs disguise) in the church where they attempt to get married.

Rabbit or hare?

The animators throughout Bugs’ history have treated the terms rabbit and hare as synonymous. Taxonomically they are not synonymous, being somewhat similar but observably different types of lagomorphs. Hares have much longer ears than rabbits, so Bugs might seem to be of the hare family, and many more of the cartoon titles include the word “hare” rather than “rabbit.” Within the cartoons, although the term “hare” comes up sometimes (for example, Bugs drinking “hare tonic” to “stop falling hare” and being doused with “hare restorer” to bring him back from invisibility), Bugs as well as his antagonists most often refer to the character as a “rabbit”. The word “bunny” is of no help in answering this question, as it is a synonym for both young hares and young rabbits.

In Nike commercials with Michael Jordan, Bugs had been referred to as “Hare Jordan.”

The opening and closing

In the opening of many of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes rings contain Bugs Bunny’s head after the Warner Bros. shield (generally from 1944 and 1949 onward). Others have Bugs Bunny relaxing on top of the Warner Bros. shield: He chews on his carrot, looks angrily at the camera and pulls down the next logo (Merrie Melodies or Looney Tunes) like a window shade (generally on cartoons between 1945 until early 1949). Then he lifts it back up, to now be seen lying on his own name, which then fades into the title of the specific short. In some other cases, the title card sometimes fades to him, already on his name and chewing his carrot then fade to the name of the short. At the finish of some, Bugs breaks out of a drum (like Porky Pig) and says, “And that’s the end”.

Voice actors

The following are the many voice actors who have voiced the character Bugs Bunny over the last seventy years:

Mel Blanc voiced the character for 49 years, from Bugs’ debut in A Wild Hare (1940) until Blanc’s death in 1989. Blanc described the voice as a combination of Bronx and Brooklyn accents; however, Tex Avery claimed that he asked Blanc to give the character not a New York accent per se, but a voice like that of actor Frank McHugh, who frequently appeared in supporting roles in the 1930s and whose voice might be described as New York Irish. In Bugs’ second cartoon Elmer’s Pet Rabbit, Blanc created a completely new voice for Bugs, which sounded like a Jimmy Stewart impression, but the directors decided the previous voice was better. Though his best-known character was the carrot-chomping rabbit, munching on the carrots interrupted the dialogue. Various substitutes, such as celery, were tried, but none of them sounded like a carrot. So for the sake of expedience, he would munch and then spit the carrot bits into a spittoon rather than swallowing them, and continue with the dialogue. One oft-repeated story, possibly originating from Bugs Bunny: Superstar, is that he was allergic to carrots and had to spit them out to minimize any allergic reaction but his autobiography makes no such claim; in fact, in a 1984 interview with Tim Lawson, co-author of The Magic Behind The Voices: A Who’s Who of Cartoon Voice Actors (University Press of Mississippi, 2004), Blanc emphatically denied being allergic to carrots.

Jeff Bergman was the first to have the honor of voicing Bugs (and several other Looney Tunes characters) after Mel Blanc died in 1989. He got the job by impressing Warner Bros. higher-ups with a tape of himself re-creating the voices of several of Blanc’s characters, including Bugs Bunny. He had rigged the tape player so that he could use a switch to instantly toggle back and forth between the original recording of Blanc and Bergman’s recording of the same lines. Upon doing this, it was almost impossible for the producers to tell which voice was Blanc’s and which voice was Bergman; thus his vocal ability was established and his career launched.

Bergman first voiced Bugs during the 1990 Academy Awards and then in Box Office Bunny, a 4-minute Looney Tunes short released in 1990 to commemorate Bugs’ fiftieth anniversary. Bergman would next voice Bugs Bunny in the 1991 short (Blooper) Bunny, a Greg Ford-directed cartoon also produced to coincide with Bugs Bunny’s fiftieth anniversary. However, the short never received its intended theatrical release and was shelved for years, until Cartoon Network rediscovered it and broadcast it on their channel several years later. (Blooper) Bunny has since garnered a cult following among animation fans for its use of edgy humor. Other works for which Bergman provided Bugs’ voice include Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers (an obvious parody of the 1950s sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers), Tiny Toon Adventures (a popular television program of the early nineties that featured the classic Looney Tunes characters as mentors to their younger counterparts) in the first season, and Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (a television special exposing children to dangers of marijuana). Bergman would continue to do the voice of Bugs Bunny until 1993.

Greg Burson first voiced Bugs in later episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures. He was then given the responsibility of voicing Bugs in 1995′s Carrotblanca, a well-received 8-minute Looney Tunes cartoon originally shown in cinemas alongside The Amazing Panda Adventure (US) and The Pebble and the Penguin (non-US); it has since been released on video packaged with older Looney Tunes cartoons and was even included in the special edition DVD release of Casablanca, of which it is both a parody and an homage. Burson next voiced Bugs in the 1996 short From Hare to Eternity; the film is notable for being dedicated to the memory of the then-just deceased Friz Freleng, and for being the final Looney Tunes cartoon that Chuck Jones directed. Greg Burson also provided Bugs’ voice in The Bugs and Daffy Show, which ran on Cartoon Network from 1996 to 2003. He died in 2008.

Billy West has been in television since the late 1980s. His first role was for the 1988 revived version of Bob Clampett’s Beany and Cecil. West’s breakthrough role then came almost immediately, as the voice of Stimpy and later Ren in John Kricfalusi’s Ren & Stimpy. West has since been the voice talent for close to 120 different characters, including some of the most iconic animated figures in television history. Perhaps West’s most notable film work came in the 1996 movie Space Jam. Starring alongside Michael Jordan, West provided the voice of both Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. West would go on to reprise the roles of Bugs in subsequent Looney Tunes productions, including his cameos on Histeria!, the Kids’ WB! promotional spots, and the 2006 Christmas-themed special Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas and the DVD compilations “Reality Check” and “Stranger Than Fiction”, along with several Looney Tunes-centric CDs, cartoons, and video games. Billy West is, along with fellow voice artist Joe Alaskey, credited as one of the current successors of Mel Blanc in impersonating the voice of Bugs Bunny.

Joe Alaskey, like Jeff Bergman, is well-known for his ability to successfully impersonate many Looney Tunes characters. In fact, Alaskey voiced Yosemite Sam in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as original voice actor Mel Blanc had found it too hard on his vocal cords. (This makes Sam one of the few voices created by Blanc to be voiced by someone else during his lifetime.) Joe Alaskey’s first performance as Bugs Bunny came in the 2003 feature film Looney Tunes: Back in Action, although he had tested performing the role in a few earlier projects, such as Tweety’s High-Flying Adventure. While still best known for providing the voice of Daffy Duck, Alaskey has also gone on to do Bugs’ voice in several subsequent productions, including Daffy Duck for President (which was released on The Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 and dedicated to then-just deceased Chuck Jones) and several recent video games. Joe Alaskey is, along with fellow voice actor Billy West, credited as one of the current successors of Mel Blanc in impersonating the voice of Bugs Bunny.

Samuel Vincent served as the voice of Bugs in the Cartoon Network TV series Baby Looney Tunes.

Noel Blanc, Mel Blanc’s son, voiced Bugs for the Tiny Toons special It’s a Wonderful Tiny Toon Christmas Special. The elder Blanc claimed in his later years that Noel substituted for Mel in various cartoon studios, including doing Bugs at Warner Bros., while he was recovering from a near-fatal car wreck. Noel can also be seen doing Bugs’ voice with his father in the documentary on the making of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Noel voiced Elmer Fudd in a cut-away scene for the animated TV series Family Guy (in “Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story”).

Cameos

Bugs Bunny has had cameo appearances in several cartoons, including one Private SNAFU short. For his appearance in The Goofy Gophers his voice was sped up.

Crazy Cruise (1942)

Porky Pig’s Feat (1943) This marks Bugs’ only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tunes short.

Jasper Goes Hunting (1944, for Paramount)

Odor-able Kitty (1945)

The Goofy Gophers (1947)

The Lion’s Busy (1950)

Duck Amuck (1953)

Justice League: The New Frontier (2008, as one of the forms of The Martian Manhunter )

International

Bugs Bunny cartoons air in countries outside of the United States. In most cases, the original US cartoons are simply redubbed in the native language and the characters are usually given names more fitting for the country in which they are appearing. For example, in Finland, Bugs Bunny is called Viski Vemmelsri.

Current popularity

In 2002, TV Guide compiled a list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time as part of the magazine’s 50th anniversary. Bugs Bunny was given the honor of number 1. In a CNN broadcast on July 31, 2002, a TV Guide editor talked about the group that created the list. The editor also explained why Bugs pulled top billing: “His stock…has never gone down…Bugs is the best example…of the smart-aleck American comic. He not only is a great cartoon character, he’s a great comedian. He was written well. He was drawn beautifully. He has thrilled and made many generations laugh. He is tops.” Additionally, in Animal Planet’s 50 Greatest Movie Animals (2004), Bugs was named #3, behind Mickey Mouse and Toto.

Bugs Bunny’s enduring impact on comedic actors also cannot be overestimated. During an interview for Inside the Actors Studio, comedian Dave Chappelle cited Bugs Bunny as one of his earliest influences, praising voice actor Mel Blanc.

According to Time Warner, Bugs Bunny became the current official mascot for Six Flags theme parks beginning with their 45th anniversary.

Awards

Academy Awards

Knighty Knight Bugs (1958)

Academy Award nominations

A Wild Hare (1940)

Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt (1941)

See also

List of Bugs Bunny cartoons

Looney Tunes

References

^ a b “Bugs Bunny tops greatest cartoon characters list”. CNN.com. 2002-07-30. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/30/cartoon.characters/index.html. Retrieved 2008-02-27. 

^ Carragher, Sarah (2002-07-29). “Nearly One-Third of TV Guide’s ’50 Greatest Cartoon Characters Of All Time Come From Warner Bros.”. TimeWarner.com. http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,669402,00.html. Retrieved 2008-02-27. 

^ a b c Barrier, Michael (2003-11-06). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. United States: Oxford University Press. p. 672. ISBN 978-0195167290. 

^ “”Bugs Bunny’&#39″. Encyclopdia Britannica. Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9095426/Bugs-Bunny. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 

^ “Leading the Animation Conversation  Rare 1939 Looney Tunes Book found!”. Cartoon Brew. 2008-04-03. http://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/rare-1938-looney-tunes-book-found. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 

^ a b Blanc, Mel; Bashe, Philip (1989). That’s Not All, Folks!. Clayton South, VIC, Australia: Warner Books. 

^ “Looney Tunes Hidden Gags”. Gregbrian.tripod.com. http://gregbrian.tripod.com/hidden/hid04.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 

^ Adamson, Joe (1990). Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare. Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-1855-7. 

^ Lehman, Christopher P. (2008). The Colored Cartoon: Black Representation in American Animated Short Films, 1907-1954. Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press. p. 73. http://books.google.com/books?id=xMWhTUFFuqoC&pg=PA73&lpg=PA73&dq=”any+bonds+today”+”bugs+bunny”+theatrical+cartoon&source=bl&ots=gEClzGwbx4&sig=P8w8dPT-Wy3Y0hZIDzIOrtT4rg0&hl=en&ei=qf2kSaW7NJm1jAeWk-XQBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA73,M1. Retrieved 2009-02-25. 

^ Audio commentary by Paul Dini for Super-Rabbit on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 (2005).

^ “History of the 380th Bomb Group”. 380th.org. http://380th.org/380-History.html. Retrieved 2010-01-07. 

^ a b “”Jasper Goes Hunting” information”. Bcdb.com. http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/36556-Jasper_Goes_Hunting.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 

^ Looney Tunes: Bugs Bunny stamp. National Postal Museum Smithsonian.

^ “Transcript of ”Duck Soup””. Script-o-rama.com. http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/d/duck-soup-script-transcript-marx.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 

^ “”It Happened One Night” film review by Tim Dirks”. Filmsite.org. http://www.filmsite.org/itha.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 

^ Adamson, Joe (1975). Tex Avery: King of Cartoons. New York: De Capo Press. 

^ a b Knight, Richard. “Consider the Source”. Chicagoreader.com. http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/2001/0101/010126.html. Retrieved 2009-09-20. 

^ “Piirroselokuvien taitaja Chuck Jones kuollut”. Mtv3.fi. February 23, 2002. http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/arkisto.shtml/arkistot/kulttuuri/2002/02/101933. Retrieved 2009-12-06. 

^ “List of All-time Cartoon Characters”. CNN.com. CNN. July 30, 2002. http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/07/30/cartoon.characters.list/index.html. Retrieved April 11, 2007. 

^ “CNN LIVE TODAY: ‘TV Guide’ Tipping Hat to Cartoon Characters”. CNN.com. CNN. July 31, 2002. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0207/31/lt.20.html. Retrieved April 11, 2007. 

Bibliography

Adamson, Joe (1990). Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-1855-7. 

Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2. 

Blanc, Mel; Bashe, Philip (1989). That’s Not All, Folks!. Clayton South, VIC, Australia: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-39089-5. 

Jones, Chuck (1989). Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0-374-12348-9. 

Maltin, Leonard (1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons (Revised ed.). New York: Plume Book. ISBN 0-452-25993-2. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bugs Bunny

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny at the Internet Movie Database

Warner Bros. Studios

Bugs’ Toonopedia profile

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Warner Bros. animation and comics

Looney Tunes,

Merrie Melodies

and other characters

Primary

Bugs Bunny  Daffy Duck  Porky Pig   Yosemite Sam  Speedy Gonzales  Elmer Fudd  Sylvester  Tweety  Granny  Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner  Foghorn Leghorn  Marvin the Martian  Tasmanian Devil  Pep Le Pew

Secondary

Babbit and Catstello  Bosko  Clyde Rabbit  Buddy  Goopy Geer  Evolution of Bugs Bunny  Foxy  Piggy  Beans  The Barnyard Dawg  Rocky and Mugsy  Hector the Bulldog  Henery Hawk  Melissa Duck  Goofy Gophers  Cecil Turtle  Sylvester, Jr.  Gabby Goat  Spike and Chester  Gossamer  Hippety Hopper  Marc Antony and Pussyfoot  Witch Hazel  The Three Bears  Hatta Mari  Hubie and Bertie  Claude Cat  Sniffles  Ralph Phillips  Beaky Buzzard  Willoughby  Charlie Dog  Pete Puma  Crusher  Count Blood Count  Private Snafu  Wolf and Sheepdog  Egghead Jr.  Slowpoke Rodriguez  K-9  Blacque Jacque Shellacque  Nasty Canasta  Bunny and Claude  Merlin the Magic Mouse and Second Banana  Quick Brown Fox and Rapid Rabbit  Cool Cat  Penelope Pussycat  Conrad the Cat  Playboy Penguin  Inki  Colonel Shuffle  Petunia Pig  Michigan J. Frog

Comics and TV shows

Lola Bunny  Honey Bunny  Wendell T. Wolf  Digeri Dingo  Daniel and Timothy Platypus  I.Q. Hi  Star Johnson  Queen Tyr’ahnee  Johnny Test characters

Television

animation

Tiny Toon Adventures

Babs and Buster Bunny  Plucky Duck  Hamton J. Pig  Montana Max  Elmyra Duff  Dizzy Devil  Furrball  Calamity Coyote  Little Beeper  Gogo Dodo  Sweetie Pie  Fifi La Fume  Shirley the Loon  Lil’ Sneezer  Concord Condor  Byron Basset  Bookworm  Fowlmouth  Arnold the Pit Bull  Barky Marky  Mary Melody

Animaniacs

Yakko, Wakko, and Dot  Ralph the Guard  Thaddeus Plotz  Dr. Otto Scratchansniff  Pinky and the Brain  Slappy Squirrel  Buttons and Mindy  The Goodfeathers  Rita and Runt  Chicken Boo  Mr. Skullhead  Minor characters

Other cartoons

Police Academy  Taz-Mania  Batman: The Animated Series  The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries  The New Batman Adventures  Freakazoid!  Batman Beyond  The Dukes  Road Rovers  Ace Ventura: Pet Detective  Beetlejuice  The New Adventures of Zorro  Free Willy  The New Adventures of Batman  Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain  Histeria!  Baby Looney Tunes  Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (cameo appearance)  Duck Dodgers  Loonatics Unleashed (Characters)  The Batman  Ozzy and Drix  Mucha Lucha  Justice League  Justice League Unlimited  Legion of Super Heroes  Superman: The Animated Series  Teen Titans  Xiaolin Showdown  Tom and Jerry Tales  What’s New, Scooby-Doo?  Krypto the Superdog  Static Shock  Johnny Test  Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!  Batman: The Brave and the Bold  Scooby-Doo – Mystery, Inc.

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Chicago Bulls

Founded in 1966 Based in Chicago, Illinois

The Franchise

Franchise Expansion Draft All-Time Roster Seasons Head coaches Current season

Arenas

International Amphitheatre Chicago Stadium United Center

Head Coaches

Kerr Motta Badger Costello Robertson Sloan Johnson Thorn Westhead Loughery Albeck Collins Jackson Floyd Berry Myers Cartwright Skiles Boylan Del Negro

D-League Affiliate

Iowa Energy

NBA Finals Appearances (6)

1991 1992 1993 1996 1997 1998

NBA Championships (6)

1991 1992 1993 1996 1997 1998

Retired Jerseys

4 10 23 33

Hall of Famers

George Gervin Robert Parish Nate Thurmond Phil Jackson Michael Jordan Jerry Sloan

Important Figures

Dick Klein Johnny Kerr Dick Motta Bob Love Jerry Sloan Norm Van Lier Chet Walker Clifford Ray Tom Boerwinkle Artis Gilmore Reggie Theus Charles Oakley Michael Jordan Scottie Pippen Bill Cartwright Horace Grant John Paxson B. J. Armstrong Toni Kuko Ron Harper Luc Longley Steve Kerr Dennis Rodman Phil Jackson Jerry Krause Jerry Reinsdorf Kirk Hinrich Ben Gordon Luol Deng Derrick Rose Joakim Noah

Key Personnel

Owner: Jerry Reinsdorf Vice President of Basketball Operations: John Paxson General Manager: Gar Forman Coach: Vinny Del Negro

Rivals

Boston Celtics Detroit Pistons New York Knicks Miami Heat

Culture & Lore

Hare Jordan and Air Jordan Hue Hollins The Shot Tommy Edwards Benny the Bull “Sirius” Ray Clay 72-10 The Flu Game Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals The Shot (1998 NBA Finals) “The Madhouse on Madison” “The Madhouse on Madison II”/”The House That Jordan Built” Ashland Green Line Station Game 6 of the 2009 NBA Playoffs First Round

Media

TV: WGN-TV WGN America WCIU Comcast SportsNet Chicago Radio: WMVP-AM Announcers: Neil Funk Stacey King Chuck Swirsky Bill Wennington

Persondata

NAME

Bunny, Bugs

ALTERNATIVE NAMES

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Looney Tunes character

DATE OF BIRTH

1940

PLACE OF BIRTH

Brooklyn, New York

DATE OF DEATH

PLACE OF DEATH

Categories: Corporate mascots | DC Comics titles | Dell Comics titles | Fictional anthropomorphic characters | Fictional characters from New York City | Fictional hares and rabbits | Gold Key Comics titles | Honorary United States Marines | Looney Tunes characters | 1940 introductionsHidden categories: Articles needing additional references from December 2007 | All articles needing additional references